Chloris stared up at him, her eyes searching his.
“Don’t fret.”
“I cannot help it.”
How he wanted to wash all those worries away. “Are you afraid I will not marry you?”
She stayed silent for the longest moment before she spoke. “I am married to another. We can never be the way that Jessie and Gregor are.”
There was such sadness in her pretty hazel eyes and he did not like that. “We can, and we are.”
She shook her head. “I will never be free of it, and you might...you might come to hate that and turn away from me and find love elsewhere.”
He started. She thought he would wed another? “Chloris, we are bound together, ceremony or no ceremony. We both know that.”
She looked at him and nodded. But she was sad still.
“Come now, things are very different in the Highlands. Clan life is closer to the heart and hearth. But things are fair and we will be treated as man and wife. Sometimes Highlands couples live together for a year before they wed, to be sure they are meant to be that way.”
“Is that so?” She was fascinated, and now seemed eager for his opinion.
Lennox knew she had left her past life, but she was afraid he would think differently. All he wanted to do was reassure her. None of it mattered. They were meant to be together. “When you married it was in the Kirk?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I have nothing against the Kirk and the people who believe in that way of life, but our way is different. If we were to handfast, it’s a simple pledge to each other and it’s made in nature’s bower. It is an honest agreement between two people who wish to share their lives, and the life of their issue.” He stroked his hand over her belly.
“You think we can handfast?” Her lower lip trembled.
He nodded. “The past is behind us.”
“Oh, Lennox.” She kissed him madly, his lips, his forehead, his cheeks. “The fact that you want me, it overwhelms me.”
“Hush now. You should know how much I want you. I nigh on burned Edinburgh to the ground for you.”
Chloris chuckled.
Lennox was much relieved that he had alleviated her concerns somewhat. There were things he still worried on, but he did not want Chloris fretting. He settled alongside her, with his fingertips trailing over her belly while they talked, reminding her that he was thinking of their precious union, too.
“There is a matter about which I am greatly curious,” she said later.
“There is?”
“Our child, will it be magical?”
The question touched Lennox in a way he didn’t think possible. The thought of a child with her had startled him and pleased him immensely. Now her question led him into a world to be explored—explored with her hand in his.
“The child will have the bloodline, and if the young one is brought up amongst those who understand and practice the craft there are great possibilities, even if both parents do not come from the line. My cousin Deirdra married a crofter who is not a witch and they had three mischievous bairns who are every bit as gifted as the other young ones in the clan.”
Her eyes sparkled as she listened to him and he could see how the possibilities of their life together invigorated her, as they did him.
“Will you still love the child if it does not have the powers that you have?”
Lennox was amused by her questions. “You have thought on this at great length.”
“I had plenty of time to think on it during the carriage ride today, while I was nursing your sister. And when it was you that was sitting opposite me it helped to keep my mind upon the subject.”
“You