Never Seduce a Scot (The Montgomerys and Armstrongs #1)(39)

His brothers jested and called him Father Montgomery. They teased and said that most monks likely had more experience with women than he did, and maybe it was so.

While Graeme wasn’t ignorant of female flesh, he could hardly be considered the expert his brothers apparently were. He knew well what to do with a woman. The problem was, he was having the most perverse fantasies involving a woman he had no business fantasizing about.

“Why are you letting the lass addle you so?” Bowen asked. “If you don’t want her in your chamber, ’tis simple enough to banish her to her own.”

Graeme sighed. “ ’Tis not what I want to do. She seems content to be in my—our—chamber. I think it would hurt her feelings were I to make her go. She has an expectation that we should be … together.”

“Then perhaps you should consummate your marriage,” Bowen said bluntly.

Graeme blew out his breath. He didn’t want to have this conversation with his brother. He didn’t want to have it with anyone. But he needed something. Some advice. Words of wisdom, something to tell him what he was supposed to do without feeling like a complete bastard.

“You’ve seen her, Bowen. Could you bed her if you were the one wed to her?”

Bowen frowned. “ ’Tis a hard question to answer since I’m not married to her. You are.”

“You aren’t a debaucher of innocents. This much I know of you. You’ve a fair face, a man women like to look at, and aye, you have your share only too willing to bed with you, but I cannot see you taking to your bed a woman whom you weren’t completely sure knew precisely what it was that was taking place.”

“Many men would not think twice, Graeme. She is your wife. Your property. ’Tis entirely possible she’d bear you heirs with no problem. She seems a healthy enough lass and she seems sturdy. Whatever is wrong with her was not the result of birth but of an accident much later, so you wouldn’t have to concern yourself with a defect that would be passed on to your children. I think perhaps you worry overmuch.”

“Don’t think I haven’t been tempted,” Graeme said in a grim voice. “And I think ’tis what bothers me the most. I should not be having such thoughts. I should not even be discussing or weighing my options or my guilt with you because I shouldn’t even be entertaining what occupies my mind of late.”

Bowen pulled his horse to a complete stop and let out a chuckle. “Well, now, I cannot say I blame you for the thoughts you’re having. Indeed, I can well see why you are.”

Graeme frowned and looked in the direction of Bowen’s gaze only to nearly swallow his tongue. His mouth flopped open and he shook his head, unable to believe what he was seeing.

Across the river, on the side of the keep, Eveline stood waist deep in the water, and she was putting soap to her hair.

“She looks completely normal to me, brother. And very appealing as well. She has the look of a woman grown, and God’s teeth, I’ve not seen such a finely formed woman in many a year. I think your guilt is misplaced and that you weigh heavy over something you should not.”

The amusement in Bowen’s voice yanked Graeme from his reverie.

“Be gone!” Graeme demanded. “Look not upon her again.”

Bowen laughed, but turned his horse and began to ride in the opposite direction. “Think on what I said, Graeme. The lass is certainly not a child, nor even a girl too young. She’s a woman full grown and the proof’s right in front of you.”

His chuckles carried back to Graeme as he rode farther away. Graeme’s attention snapped back to Eveline just in time to see her rinse her hands in the water. He sat forward on his saddle and bellowed her name across the river, full intending to tell her to leave the water and put her damn clothes on. Whatever was she thinking to take a bath in the middle of the day where anyone could happen upon her?

But she either didn’t hear him or she ignored him. She never even looked up but continued to wade into the water.

Unease gripped Graeme. The river was deep here and the current moved swiftly. Just downstream the water shallowed, but was still deep enough to carry a body swiftly and rocks jutted upward from the bed creating a harder rapid. If she lost her footing or went too deep, she could easily be carried away and dashed upon the rocks.

For a moment she closed her eyes and cocked her head back as if seeking the warmth of the sun. The movement jutted her br**sts forward and Graeme groaned. She was, indeed, very beautiful. And perhaps her unawareness or lack of pretension over her looks added to her beauty. He wasn’t sure what made her so appealing to him. Which was why he felt so damn guilty over lusting over her. He knew without a doubt that if she were any other woman who’d suffered what she’d suffered and her mental capacity was in question, he’d only feel pity for her. He certainly wouldn’t be thinking about bedding her.

Compassion was what she deserved. It was what she needed, but she found it in neither the members of his clan nor him.

Just as suddenly as she tilted her head back, she suddenly leaned forward and dove beneath the surface of the water. He urged his horse forward, his gaze rapidly scanning the surface as he waited for her to come back up.

He was at full gallop, his heart thumping when she remained under. He slid from his saddle while the horse was still moving and stumbled forward as he hurried toward the bank.

She still hadn’t surfaced.