Amanda Scott - [Border Trilogy 2] by Border Moonlight Read Free Book Online Page B

should her ladyship apply this treatment?”
    “Until the pain be gone, o’ course.” She seemed about to protest her dismissal, but after a second look at his stern face, she patted her sack and said, “I’ve other things, too, me laird. A good eyewash, and dried betony leaves from the monks at Dryburgh Abbey for a tisane, aye, oils o’ rosemary and marjoram, and clover for—”
    “Thank you, mistress, but the headache potion will be enough,” Simon said.
    “Wait, sir,” Sibylla said, smiling now at the herb woman. “We’ll take the clover, the rosemary, and the marjoram, if you please.” She looked at Simon, who shrugged and nodded, surprising her.
    Gratefully the herb woman accepted the coins he gave her and handed him the potion bottle and the other requested items from her bag.
    When he had summoned a servant to show her out, he shut the door and turned back to Sibylla. Then, with a glance at Kit, he said, “I want to speak to the lady Sibylla privately, lassie. Go downstairs to the first door you will come to and open it. I believe Dand is awake now, so you may visit him until I finish here.”
    Soberly, Kit nodded. Then she looked at Sibylla.
    “Go along, Kit,” Sibylla said. “The laird cannot eat me.”
    “Aye, but he may try,” the little one said fearlessly. Then, with a quick, wary look at Simon, she hurried past him and out the door, leaving it open behind her.
    Simon shut it and turned back to face Sibylla.
    A tremor shot up her spine. So much, she thought, for her foolish assumption that he would observe the proprieties.
    Cocking her head, she said, “Surely you know you ought not to be alone with me in here, my lord. Think what people would say.”
    “I don’t care what they say.” “I do.”
    “Do you?” He regarded her thoughtfully before he said, “I should think a lass with such concerns would not have marched out of that wee kirk as you did.”
    “I was not then a member of Isabel’s household,” she reminded him. “I could lose my place with her if she should learn I’d been alone with you in a bedchamber.”
    “Doubtless, my mother’s presence here at Elishaw will protect you.”
    She dared to shrug much as Kit had and saw with unexpected satisfaction that his eyes opened wide. Their fathomless green color fascinated her anew. How unfair, she thought, that a man should have such beautiful eyes. And, too, his lashes were dark, absurdly long, and lushly thick. Most unfair, indeed!
    Giving herself a mental shake, and realizing she had instinctively braced herself to step back, she said, “Surely, you’ve outgrown your fury with me by now.”
    “I warned you I would not.”
    “An overproud, angry lad’s warning,” she countered, undaunted. “That wee kirk was well nigh empty. They read no banns, the priest had not yet said your name, and none who saw us that day will have spoken of it except perhaps my father. And I am very nearly certain that he did not.”
    “I believe you. But I also know that was not the only time you did such a thing. You did it the year before in front of a crowd at St. Giles in Edinburgh.”
    “So I did,” she agreed. “I also did it the following year just before Otterburn when I refused to marry Thomas Colville of Cocklaw. It pains me to admit that I did not even present myself at the altar to face him,” she added with a sigh.
    “I knew about Colville but not that particular detail,” he said with a disapproving grimace. “You prove my case for me.”
    “I must agree that I do not care much for
some
proprieties,” she admitted. “In troth, I am burning now to ask why no one in your family seems to know that you and I nearly married each other. However, inasmuch as I may owe my life to you today, I expect that
would
be unmannerly.”
    “It would, aye,” he said. “But what makes you think no one knows?”
    Dryly, she said, “Your mother is not one to keep such knowledge to herself. Nor, if she did know, would she have greeted