Tamed by a Laird (47 page)

Smiling in a way that sent a chill up Jenny’s spine, he added, “I’m sure I can trust him to punish them for me. Meantime,
we’ll keep them quietly below, and I hope you and your people will continue to entertain us throughout the tournament.”

“It will be our honor, my lord,” the Joculator said.

“But no more legerdemain involving my guests,” Archie said sternly.

The Joculator bowed, murmuring, “As ye wish, my lord.”

Tam Inglis approached the dais then. “Beg pardon, m’lord, but we’ve returned all the jewels save this gold bangle and these
pearl ear-bobs, which were in this wee pouch stuck in that villain Drogo’s right boot. D’ye think they’d be his?”

“I do not,” Archie said. “Likely someone will claim them, so I’ll keep them. I do want to continue our conversation, as you
suggested earlier,” he said to the Joculator. “But, prithee, for now tell your people we would enjoy more music.”

The Joculator looked thoughtfully from Jenny to Hugh, whereupon Hugh left the dais and approached him.

Jenny thought she knew what the Joculator wanted them to do, and having no idea how Hugh would react to a request that they
sing together, she was half relieved and half disappointed when the Joculator nodded to Cuddy, then turned and motioned to
Gawkus and Gilly.

Gilly, on stilts, immediately stepped into the open space, guiding a stiff-jointed Gawkus on strings as if he were a puppet.
Their audience burst into laughter, which increased as Gawkus pranced stiffly about in apparent response to his master.

As they performed, the musicians began to play in the gallery, and Hugh and the Joculator stepped onto the dais. Without a
word to Jenny, they went next to Archie and Hugh bent to talk to him.

When Archie nodded, Hugh returned to Jenny, saying, “I want you to go upstairs now, lass, whilst I talk briefly with the Joculator.
I have questions that still require answers. I know that you do, too,” he added swiftly as she was about to protest. “But
I ask you to trust me in this and go now if Peg and Lucas are still outside that archway. If they are not, I’ll summon an
escort for you.”

“I see Peg now,” she said. “So I’ll go, Hugo, but prithee, don’t be long.”

He gripped her upper arm and looked deeply into her eyes. “I won’t be long, sweetheart. We still have things to discuss between
us, after all.”

He turned away as her heart gave a flutter. His look had been most intent, and she knew she had displeased him. By rights,
she ought to be dreading the forthcoming discussion, but she felt no dread at all.

Hoping he would make her excuses to Joanna, she hurried to join Peg and Lucas, telling them as she did that Hugh had said
they were all to go upstairs. She said no more until they had reached the chamber she and Hugh shared.

“I mean to retire now,” she said to Lucas at the door.

“Aye, sure, m’lady. I’ll just set ’ere on the landing and wait for t’ laird.”

Aside from pale ambient moonlight through the un-shuttered window, the room was dark. As Peg moved to stir embers on the hearth
to life and light a taper, Jenny watched her shadowy figure silently. Not until she had set the lighted taper upright in its
dish did Jenny say quietly, “Did you see the items Tam Inglis showed us at the end, Peg—the gold bracelet and pearl earrings
that no one claimed?”

Deep color flooded Peg’s face, but she said, “Aye, I saw them. And what I’m to do about them now, mistress, I dinna ken.”

Knowing Peg had learned some legerdemain, Jenny had suspected something of the sort but felt nonetheless dismayed. “Whose
things are they?” she demanded.

“Cath’s.”

“You took jewelry from Cath?”

“Aye, sure,” Peg said. “I told ye how she and them had been teaching me their tricks. When I were wi’ her today, afore ye
came, I lifted them things. Then, as excited as I were to see ye when ye arrived, I forgot I still had them.”

“Surely, you could have given them back tonight.”

“Nay, then, how could I? We was hurrying to get ye ready. Then Sir Hugh told Lucas to keep his eyes open, and Lucas told me
to keep me eye on ye. I couldna go near Cath. It were just as well later that I
did
have that wee pouch, too.”

“So you did put it in Drogo’s boot!”

“Aye,” Peg said. “To do summat like taking his dirk, ye ha’ to put summat in its place, or he’d soon feel the lack o’ his
weapon in his boot. I still had the wee pouch up me sleeve, so it were easy enough to slip it in as I slipped the dirk out.”

“But how could you have forgotten something that was in your sleeve?”

“Sakes, mistress, them things was light, nobbut brass, beads, and string. Cath wears dunamany o’ them bracelets, and I just
slipped one off whilst I were helping her change her dress afore ye came. The ear-bobs, being on strings, was gey easy, too,
and I keep a pouch up me sleeve most times, so I won’t lose aught I take. We all practice so, to see if we can take from each
other without getting caught.”

“Well, if you’re going to serve me at Thornhill, you’d best not do it anymore,” Jenny said with a chuckle. “I doubt Sir Hugh
would approve.”

P
eg grimaced. “I do ken the difference between stealing and legerdemain, m’lady. What I dinna ken is how to get Cath’s things
back to her now that his lordship has them.”

“As they are only trifles, I think we’ll just tell her what you did,” Jenny said. “After everything else that has happened,
I doubt that Cath will weep for their loss. Now, fetch out a robe for me. I mean to wait until Sir Hugh returns to get in
bed.”

Peg gave her a sympathetic look, quickly found her most becoming robe, and helped her change. As the maid-servant put away
the things Jenny had worn to supper, Jenny listened intently for Hugh’s step on the stairs.

In the private chamber to which he had taken the Joculator, Hugh said, “I’m very sorry about your son, sir. But I want to
encourage you to be frank in answering Archie’s questions when you talk. He is
not
a man with whom it is safe to trifle.”

The Joculator said, “I am a wise fool, not a daft one, Hugo. And I care about my people as much as or more than you care about
yours or her ladyship about hers.”

“Sakes, have you known all along who we are?”

“Nay, not until tonight,” he replied with a slight, rather enigmatic smile. “I didna realize who our Jenny was until I recognized
ye, which I did when I saw ye on the dais here, having seen ye on one before, at Annan House. I didna ken at the time who
ye were, though. Had I known, as I do now, that ye were her betrothed’s elder brother, mayhap we’d not ha’ done what we did.
But believing ye were a fine troubadour who loved so bonnie a lass, and that she cared for ye, it would ha’ shamed us not
to do all we could to see ye safely wed. I’m right sorry, though, if we created a muddle for ye, as I fear we did.”

“I’ll not complain about that now,” Hugh said. “I would like you to answer a couple of lingering questions though, if you
will oblige me.”

“If I can, I will,” he agreed.

“First, as to exactly what happened tonight…” Hugh began.

After hearing the Joculator out and agreeing that Archie would be satisfied with his explanation, even amused by it, Hugh
lingered only long enough to bid him goodnight before hurrying upstairs to his own bedchamber.

Finding Lucas on the landing, he ordered him to bed. “I’ll see to myself tonight,” he added. “But wake us early, for I want
to be away as soon as may be.”

“Away, sir?”

“Aye, we’re for Thornhill, Lucas. I’m taking my lady home, so sleep fast.” Opening the door, he stepped into the chamber,
where he saw Peg sitting quietly by the fire and Jenny on the bed. “Goodnight, Peg,” he said pointedly.

“Goodnight, sir,” she said, bobbing a hasty curtsy and scurrying out.

He waited until she had shut the door and then went to Jenny.

She stood to face him as he neared the bed. “Did he explain it all?”

“Aye, most of it,” Hugh said. “Enough to satisfy Archie, at all events. Did you realize that the minstrels had set Bowyer
and his man up to look like thieves?”

“I was sure of it when they found those jewels on Drogo,” she said.

“I, too,” Hugh said. “I suspect hearing how they did it will amuse Archie.”

Jenny looked at his chest and said, “I doubt that anything I might say in my defense will amuse you, sir. But I expect you
want explanations from me, as well.”

“Look at me,” he said. When she did, he pulled her close, put his arms around her, and muttered hoarsely, “I’ve wanted to
hold you since you touched my cheek on the stairs, Jenny-love. If you ever give me such a fright again, I swear I’ll—”

“Kiss me, Hugo,” she said, her warm breath tickling his chin.

He obeyed without comment, holding her tightly and thus able to let go of all lingering remnants of the tension his earlier
fears for her safety had built in him.

Plunging his tongue into her mouth, he ravaged its interior, and when she responded eagerly, he relaxed his embrace and began
to let his hands enjoy the softness of her silken robe and her curvaceous body beneath it.

Before long, though, his own body began making demands of him that urged him to a faster pace. Stripping the robe from her
to discover that she wore no shift underneath it, he laid her on the bed and began to strip himself of his clothing.

But his disobedient wife did not stay where he had put her. Instead, she popped up again and slid from the bed to assist him.
Unlacing his nether hose, her fingers alone nearly undid him. Grabbing her hand, he held it while he unlaced himself. “Now
you may pull them off, sweetheart,” he said.

“Yes, my lord,” she replied, peeping up at him through her lashes.

Encouraged, he exerted patience while she tugged and finally managed to get them off him. Then, pulling her up again, he unlaced
his shirt and ducked so she could pull it off over his head. Catching her up in his arms again, he threw back the covers,
put her into bed, and followed her. When she turned to him, he pinned her beneath him, kissing her again, forcing himself
to move more slowly than instinct demanded, moving his lips over her body to her breasts and belly, then lower.

When he came to the fork of her legs and touched her there with his lips and then his tongue, she gasped.

“Do you like that?” he murmured.

“Aye, but—”

“Then enjoy it, sweetheart, as I mean to do.”

“Yes, my lord,” she said, relaxing.

He teased her and enticed her until she was moaning and then crying out for him, and then he took her strongly, letting instinct
take over, his passions soaring with his possession of her and his overwhelming awareness of the great good fortune he had
had in finding his bonnie Jenny.

Delighting in all the sensations Hugh stirred in her, Jenny soared with him, higher and higher, the sensations intensifying
until she was sure she could bear no more. But they continued to grow stronger until they finally peaked in one that pulsed
through her long after Hugh let himself collapse atop her.

“Ah, sweetheart,” he said when he could speak again, “I never knew what love could be before I found you.”

“I love you, too,” she murmured as she eased out from under him. “Does this mean you are no longer furious with me?”

He sighed and kissed her neck, sending new thrills through a body she had thought must be exhausted. “I warned you that I
have a temper,” he said. “I warrant you’ll see more of it in the years we have ahead of us, but I have also come to see that
although you can be impulsive, you are sensible and smart.”

“And I was right to suspect a plot against Archie,” she said.

“You were,” he said, as he pulled the covers up over them. Drawing her closer until she put her head on his shoulder, he added,
“You did do a few things you’d be wise not to do again, but I’ll not belabor that fact.”

Believing almost any reply she might make to that statement would be unwise, she said, “Did he chance to explain the jewels
taken from Annan House?”

“Aye, mostly. He blamed all the thefts on the two Englishmen, but he did not quite persuade me that they deserve all the blame.
For example, he was a bit glib about Cuddy’s actions. He admitted that Cuddy
retrieved
the jewels stolen from Annan House, but that would suggest he struck down the knacker Parland Dow.”