“You’ll find no answer in your swirling thoughts and perhaps you won’t find one when you speak with your sister, but this revelation cannot be ignored. Your parents will want to meet you and one day the Beast will come here.”
She bristled at the thought. “I don’t want to meet any of them.”
“Ignoring them isn’t going to make them go away,” Royden said and sat on the bed, his desire having abated enough for him to trust himself. Besides, it was more important for them to talk. “Tell me why you don’t want to acknowledge your true family, Oria.”
She hesitated at first, not wanting to openly admit what she’d been thinking.
“Tell me, Oria,” he coaxed. “I’m here to listen, not to judge.”
He’d been patient with her since their return home. They had agreed that it would be best if no acknowledgment was made of her true heritage. The wounds of the attack had begun to heal and this might open them again. They had spoken with his da and Wren since they had witnessed and heard what had been said and both had agreed that the secret wouldn’t remain a secret for long, since servants in MacGlennen keep surely must have heard Oria and Demelza. Tongues would start wagging soon enough.
Wren had told them all would be revealed when the time was right. And Oria hoped her remark had been because of a vision and not just to ease her concern. They had spoken little of it since then and her husband was right. She couldn’t continue to ignore it. It wasn’t going to go away. It was there to stay.
She reached for his hand, hooking his fingers with hers, to hold on to them, needing that small connection with him and said aloud what had haunted her. “Once I acknowledge, accept, my true birth, I won’t be the daughter of William and Claire of the Clan MacGlennen anymore. I won’t be born of the Highlands, of its beauty and strength. I won’t be me anymore.”
Royden laced his fingers with hers and held tight. “I know who you are and who you will always be—my wife. But I also understand what you’re saying. So tell me who you think you will be if not you.”
“That’s just it, I don’t know,” Oria confessed, her heart heavy with sadness.
“Then it’s time to find out—together.”
He reminded her time and time again she wasn’t alone and she did the same for him. They both needed that reminder after having been torn apart for five long, empty years. They no longer needed to do things alone, they had each other once again.
“I guess I have been avoiding it,” she admitted.
“Trevor has sent me endless messages that started out demanding you return and speak to his wife to his last one yesterday, pleading for you to return and talk with a heartbroken Demelza.”
“She’s all right, isn’t she?” Oria asked, worried for the petite woman. “I should have never yelled at her, especially with her not feeling well and being so close to delivering her bairn.”
“You had every right to feel as you did and I doubt Demelza is as fragile as her husband believes. She couldn’t possibly be, being wed to Trevor.”
Oria smiled and unlocked her fingers from his, then hurried out of bed. “I’ll get dressed and we can be on our way.”
Royden admired his wife’s nicely curved backside, the gentle sway of her hips, though her sway was anything but gentle when his shaft was buried deep inside her.
He stood, his shaft feeling as if it stood before he did, he had grown hard so fast. “We have time for a quick roll in the bed.”
“No, we best get going,” she said, not looking his way.
He took hurried steps to her, grabbing her shift from her hand. “You say no to me?”
“This is important. We must see to it right away,” Oria argued.
“Aye, you’re right, we must.” He scooped her up in his arms and had her down on the bed and slipped inside her before another protest could slip from her lips. It was when she grinned at him that he realized she had tricked him into getting what she wanted.
“Damn, wife, you did that on purpose,” he said, annoyed but much too snug inside her to deny either of them.
“Aye, I got you right where I want you,” she said and began to move against him.
Royden had no willpower to deny her or himself. “It will be a quick one.”
“Aye, a quick one,” she agreed with a wider smile.
It was an hour later that Royden picked his garments up off the floor and got dressed yet again and with Oria’s stomach grumbling, it was another hour before they took their leave.
Parlan and Wren once again joined them and as they neared MacGlennen village, Oria drew her horse near Wren.