Page 27 of Bound to a Scot
“What happened tae change that?”
She shook her head. “I dinnae ken. He just started tae change. He grew harder. Cruel. It started when he developed aninsatiable thirst fer power. He’s grown an appetite fer control that daesnae seem like it can ever be sated. And then… I couldnae give him an heir…”
Heavy footsteps sounded in the hallway and Maddox saw Emmeline visibly tense as she held her breath. When they passed by, she relaxed, but only slightly. She turned to him, her lips a tight line across her face, her eyes filled with worry.
“I thank ye fer checkin’ up on me and fer the food, but ye should really go,” she said. “If he finds out ye were here, in me bedchamber…”
Her words trailed off, but Maddox didn’t need her to finish the statement. If he found out he was with his wife, Burchard would take it out on Cecilia, not on Emmeline. The cruel games the man played with his wife and daughter made Maddox sick. It infuriated him. It showed Maddox what sort of man Macfie was. If not for the needs and desperation of his people, Maddox would have walked away from any potential alliance with Macfie altogether. The way he treated Cecilia and Emmeline was certainly making him think about.
As the thought bounced around in his mind though, Maddox was once again forced to remind himself that this was not about him, it was bigger than him. His people were hungry. Restless. And if he did nothing to help them secure a future for themselves, he very well could lose everything. Ultimately, his feelings about Macfie and the way he treated Emmeline were irrelevant. If nothing else, he could find solace in the fact that bytaking Cecilia away from her father, he could provide her with a better, more peaceful life and take her away from his cruelty.
He just wished there was something more he could do for Emmeline.
“Maddox—”
“Aye, aye,” he said as he got to his feet. “I’ll go.”
She walked him to her bedchamber door and motioned for him to stop. She carefully opened the door then looked down both sides of the corridor. She turned back to him with a pensive expression on her face.
“’Tis clear,” she said.
Maddox stepped toward the door then turned back and reached back to take hold of it. As he did though, he accidentally grabbed her hand and felt a white-hot surge of energy course through his veins. Emmeline’s eyes grew wide, and her full lips parted with a soft sigh. She didn’t immediately pull her hand away though and instead, met his gaze. Maddox recognized a glimmer of longing in her eyes he knew was reflected in his.
After a long, almost agonizing moment, she pulled hand away and cleared her throat. Maddox’s skin burned where she’d touched him and as waves of yearning washed through him, he had to fight the urge to lean forward and kiss her. He knew it would not be received well.
“Good night, Emmeline,” he said.
She swallowed hard, seeming to be battling her own emotions. But she took a step back and gave him a polite nod, taking just a moment to gather herself.
“Good night, Maddox.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It was just after the sun crested the horizon in the east that Emmeline finally decided that anything nearing a meaningful sleep was not going to come. She threw back her covers with a frustrated growl and swung her legs over the side of the bed then stalked over to the wash basin and stared at herself in the looking glass. She looked like a woman who hadn’t had much sleep. Dark circles shadowed her eyes, and her skin looked paler than usual. Her hair was in disarray, a byproduct of spending the evening tossing and turning.
With a sigh, she slipped her hands into the wash basin and splashed some cool water on her face, trying to wash away the signs of her fatigue. One of her servants had been in a little while ago, stoking the fire and warming her chamber, and leaving a tray of warm, honeyed mead on a tray for her. Emmeline picked up the cup and took a long draw, letting it warm her from the inside. She hoped the mead would help wash away the thoughts of Maddox that continued to plague her.
After he’d left her bedchamber the night before, Emmeline had finished the meal he’d thoughtfully brought for her, all the while replaying their conversation over and over in her mind. She feared that maybe she’d shared too much with him. That maybe she shouldn’t have told him what she had. But then she thought perhaps it was best he knew that his every transgression affected Cecilia in a very real way. Perhaps that would temper his responses in the future.
But if she was being honest with herself, she’d admit her fear over what she’d told him wasn’t really what had kept her awake for most of the night. It was the memory of his touch and the look in his eyes as he gazed at her before slipping out of her chamber. His green eyes had bored straight into her, touching something deep in her soul. She looked down at her hand, imagining she could still feel the warmth of his hand on hers.
She knew by the look in his eyes that he wanted to kiss her and what scared Emmeline the most was she wasn’t sure she would have stopped him. That was what terrified her, her wanting him too. That desire bothered her more than anything. She was a married woman. Miserable, but married. More than that, Maddox was to wed her stepdaughter. Wanting him to kiss her sent a needle of guilt through her heart and ignited a thick, greasy churning in her belly. She knew her thoughts were wrong, but she couldn’t stop them.
“Bleedin’ hell,” she muttered to herself.
Carrying her cup of mead, Emmeline walked over to the window. The sky was cast in fiery hues of red and gold, the cloudsoverhead were long, white streaks cutting through the heavens. It was the start of a beautiful morning, one that didn’t match the dark clouds that gathered inside of her. Activity in the yard below her window drew Emmeline’s attention.
“What is this then?” she asked.
Burchard walked across the yard with a pair of men she didn’t know. The strangers were tall and rough, obviously fighting men. The way Burchard spoke with them, clapping them on the shoulders and laughing, it was obvious to Emmeline that her husband knew them well, which piqued her curiosity since she had never seen them before.
The door to her bedchamber opened and Kenna stepped in. “Breakfast is being laid,” she said. “Laird Burchard asked that ye join them in the dining hall.”
“Of course, he did,” she groaned.
“I’ll help ye dress.”
“Thank ye, Kenna.”
