“Just as every philandering husband in the Highlands has done before ye,” she said, “including her first husband and your father.”
“I will no change my household to suit ye, M—”
“Ye will do it, da,” Alex said, cutting his father off. Then he left them to find his wife.
* * *
Alex found Glynis walking alone on the beach. She was barefoot, his island lass. Seeing her like this, he felt a deep longing for her that had nothing to do with salvaging his pride or needing a mother for his daughter. Alex wanted this woman at his side, and to have her look up at him with a smile in her eyes.
When Glynis saw him, she stood still and waited for him, with the wind blowing her hair and skirts. She looked so pretty, but her eyes were sad.
“Sit with me?” he asked.
She gave him a tight nod and let him take her hand. He led her up the beach to sit in the tall grass where it was dry. Still holding her hand, he told her about his conversation with his mother and father.
“I’m going to try to explain this to ye and be truthful,” he said, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand, “though ye won’t like part of what I have to tell ye.”
“I want the truth,” she said.
“All right,” he said. “From the time I was a young lad, my father told me that men like us needed women like we need the sea—and that one woman would never do for us. So there were always women about my father’s house. Willing women, if ye catch my meaning.”
He glanced at Glynis. She was staring out to sea, but she was listening.
“That was just how it was,” he said. “I thought nothing I did before we wed should matter. But I didn’t realize how it might seem to ye, being here.”
Glynis was thoughtful for a long moment. Finally, she turned to him and said, “Would ye want to share a house with men I had bedded?”
“I had the impression there was only one man before me.” And if Alex had his way, that man would be weighed down with chains at the bottom of the sea. Speaking very carefully, he asked, “Have there been many?”
This, of all things, brought a smile to her face. She touched his arm, and it amazed him how the slight gesture could soften him. She had him in the palm of her hand. God help him if she ever knew it.
“There was only the one,” she said. “And he was worthless.”
Alex had the sense not to tell Glynis how much this pleased him, but he lifted her hand and pressed it to his lips. “We’ll leave for North Uist tomorrow, and we’ll make ourselves a different kind of home there.”
“For certain,” Glynis said, and gave a short laugh.
“I told my father he must change his household if he wants us to ever come here again.”
“He’ll do that?” she asked.
“I suspect my mother will do it for him.” Alex could almost hear her: I’ll stay just until Fergus’s whores can be replaced with decent clanswomen—preferably toothless, elderly ones. “She’s been wanting to do it for years.”
“I don’t want the women to be turned out with nowhere to go,” Glynis said.
Alex cupped her cheek with his hand. She was such a good woman—as Ilysa said, better than he deserved.
“I’ll ask my mother to send them home to their families or find husbands for them.” If Alex had to figure out how to deal with a wife, every man should.
“What about that woman, Mary?” Glynis asked in a quiet voice.
“I did bed her a few times, but I ended it before I went to the gathering at Shaggy Maclean’s,” he said. “I’m no proud of what I did, for she was married at the time, but I broke no vow.”
“I heard ye with her outside,” Glynis said, her voice still very low.
“I was asking her to leave.” He took her hand and kissed it again. “Glynis, ye are the only one I want. Are ye determined to make me suffer longer, or will ye come to bed with me now?”
Glynis looked at him with her clear gray eyes. “I will.”