“Or what?” she asked, tossing her head.
“Or I shall carry ye down.”
CHAPTER 10
David stomped down the stairs. Why did every conversation he had with Lady Alison leave him feeling like a brute?
Taking the castle was a simple matter compared to taking his bride. While he could not afford to become attached to her, he did not wish to make her miserable either. He wanted her content—and in his bed, where he’d make her more content.
Leave it to Will to think of bringing a gift. At ten, his brother had the wisdom to win females over with honey, rather than threats. Of course, Will had not brought the pup for that purpose, but because he had lost his father and thought the lassies must be grieving too. Will was probably right about that. Though Blackadder was a foul man who deserved a worse death than he got, he had been their father.
Damn it, David should have brought a wedding gift for his bride. He’d had more important matters on his mind. Besides, what in the hell would he give her?
He had informed the servants about the wedding, and they were scurrying about the hall when he entered, cleaning and such. He collared one of the men and pulled him aside.
“I want my bedchamber prepared for the wedding night,” he told him. When the servant gaped at him as if he did not understand, David waved his hand. “Flowers, whatever a bride expects.”
“The laird’s bedchamber?” the servant asked, unease pinching his face.
“Aye,mybedchamber,” David said, glaring at him. “And move Lady Alison’s things into it at once.”
Best she know from the start how it would be. Her former husband may have been content to let her sleep in a chamber with her daughters, but he would not.
A useless wave of fury seized him at the thought of Blackadder bedding Alison first and for all those years. He added that injury to the list of the dead man’s crimes.
Had their marriage been a close one? Had she slept with her daughters while Blackadder was alive, or did she move there after his death because she could not bear to sleep in their marriage bed without him?
God help him, he was insanely jealous of a dead man. This was not like him, but then, he had never had a wife before.
“Perhaps you’ll want to see the laird’s chamber first?” the servant asked, interrupting his black thoughts.
“Aye,” he said. “I’ll have a bath and dress there for the ceremony.”
He followed the servant back up the stairs to the floor just above the hall.
“Here it is,” the servant said in a cracked voice. He pushed open the door and stepped back quickly.
David’s boots echoed as he entered the room. Rich tapestries covered the walls, and the furniture included a chest, a small round table with two chairs, a bench, and a narrow table with a pitcher and bowl on it. David stood in the middle of the room and turned in a slow circle where the bed should have been.
“Where is it?”
The servant had gone pale and sweat glistened on his forehead. “The lady burned it.”
“She did what?”
The man sidestepped to the arrow-slit window, keeping his eyes on David, and pointed. “There.”
David joined him at the window and looked down into the courtyard. The fellow appeared to be pointing at the charred rectangle David had wondered about earlier. When he realized what it was, he burst out laughing. Apparently, Alison shared his low opinion of her former husband.
“The lass has spirit, aye?” he said, slapping the man on the back. “Shame Blackadder wasn’t in it at the time.”
He was still chuckling to himself after he shooed away the servants who prepared his bath.
But as he soaked in the steaming tub in his bed-less bedchamber, his amusement faded. What had Blackadder done to make Alison so angry that she would burn his bed? Such strong emotion suggested a fiery passion gone bad.
***
Pride made Alison put on her best gown, a midnight-blue velvet that matched her eyes and showed off her fair skin. Beatrix knelt on the bed behind her to fasten the hooks in the back, a task that had become too difficult for Flora due to her failing eyesight and painfully swollen knuckles. Despite Flora’s shortcomings, Alison had not allowed any other servant to help her dress since the first year of her marriage.