Eveline nodded.
“Very well, then. This might be the most fun I have all day.”
The two women went through the hall and Eveline ignored the suspicious looks cast her way. She didn’t make eye contact so she wouldn’t know of whatever they said to her, and she made certain she took a wide berth around any of the women who stood in her path.
Once outside, Eveline breathed deeply of the fresh air and turned her face upward into the sun so it could warm her skin. Rorie moved ahead of her and led the way to the gate with the watchmen’s towers.
Eveline hadn’t considered that others would have to know of their whereabouts and was mortified over what Rorie would tell them.
She was even further appalled when two men on horseback appeared with the obvious intent of escorting them beyond the gate to the river. She stared in horror at Rorie when the lass returned from her conversation with the guard.
Rorie held her hands up in apology. “ ’Tis nothing to be done for it, Eveline. Graeme has strict instructions regarding such matters. He would never allow two women to leave our gates unescorted. I’ve told the men they must remain at a respectable distance. They won’t see you. But ’tis not possible for us to go down to the river alone.”
Eveline glanced warily up at the two warriors, but they didn’t scowl at her. There was no judgment in their eyes. Nor did they seem to begrudge their duty to escort the wife and sister of the chieftain to the river.
“They want to know if we’d like to ride with them instead of walking,” Rorie said.
Eveline hastily shook her head and took a quick step backward. Panic knotted her throat as she stared up at the gigantic beasts the men sat astride.
Rorie held her hand up. “ ’Tis all right. I’ll tell them to follow behind. Come, let’s go. They’re opening the gate for us.”
*
“This whole thing is driving me daft,” Graeme muttered.
Bowen rubbed his horse’s neck and then patted it affectionately as they slowed to a steady plod.
Graeme had gone out riding with Bowen an hour before. He’d needed to take himself from the keep and clear his head for a while. The situation with Eveline was keeping him awake at night. She was keeping him awake at night.
She acted as though it was the most natural thing in the world to sleep in his bed, to curl into his side, to touch him as a wife would touch her husband.
Not that she’d become too intimate, but it was clear she was curious and moreover, she didn’t appear to be frightened of him at all. He had no idea if she had any idea of the reaction she was inciting in him. He couldn’t think she was cognizant of the normal course of happenings between a wife and a husband. Was she?
At any rate, being so near to her at night, smelling her, touching her … It was more than a man should be asked to bear. If he were another man, he’d have already gone to another woman to find ease. He would have taken a leman. But even before his marriage to Eveline, he’d been mostly celibate, because casually flipping up a woman’s skirts for a quick tumble always left him feeling … cheated.
His brothers jested and called him Father Montgomery. They teased and said that most monks likely had more experience with women than he did, and maybe it was so.
While Graeme wasn’t ignorant of female flesh, he could hardly be considered the expert his brothers apparently were. He knew well what to do with a woman. The problem was, he was having the most perverse fantasies involving a woman he had no business fantasizing about.
“Why are you letting the lass addle you so?” Bowen asked. “If you don’t want her in your chamber, ’tis simple enough to banish her to her own.”
Graeme sighed. “ ’Tis not what I want to do. She seems content to be in my—our—chamber. I think it would hurt her feelings were I to make her go. She has an expectation that we should be … together.”
“Then perhaps you should consummate your marriage,” Bowen said bluntly.
Graeme blew out his breath. He didn’t want to have this conversation with his brother. He didn’t want to have it with anyone. But he needed something. Some advice. Words of wisdom, something to tell him what he was supposed to do without feeling like a complete bastard.
“You’ve seen her, Bowen. Could you bed her if you were the one wed to her?”
Bowen frowned. “ ’Tis a hard question to answer since I’m not married to her. You are.”
“You aren’t a debaucher of innocents. This much I know of you. You’ve a fair face, a man women like to look at, and aye, you have your share only too willing to bed with you, but I cannot see you taking to your bed a woman whom you weren’t completely sure knew precisely what it was that was taking place.”
“Many men would not think twice, Graeme. She is your wife. Your property. ’Tis entirely possible she’d bear you heirs with no problem. She seems a healthy enough lass and she seems sturdy. Whatever is wrong with her was not the result of birth but of an accident much later, so you wouldn’t have to concern yourself with a defect that would be passed on to your children. I think perhaps you worry overmuch.”
“Don’t think I haven’t been tempted,” Graeme said in a grim voice. “And I think ’tis what bothers me the most. I should not be having such thoughts. I should not even be discussing or weighing my options or my guilt with you because I shouldn’t even be entertaining what occupies my mind of late.”
Bowen pulled his horse to a complete stop and let out a chuckle. “Well, now, I cannot say I blame you for the thoughts you’re having. Indeed, I can well see why you are.”