Read Cait and the Devil for Free Online

fool.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Caitlyn was absent from the dinner table, and while Duncan wasn’t surprised, he wasn’t exactly relieved either. He had hoped to see her at dinner if only to reassure himself that her tears were gone, that she was all right. That she was coming to accept the way things needed to be between them.
    Henna was only too happy to inform him of Cait’s demeanor as soon as she caught him alone, and her report wasn’t good.
    “She cried for two hours, lad. I hope you’re happy with yourself. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a loving display of husbandly care and concern.”
    “Henna, please, I’ve just eaten. Be so kind as to not ruin my digestion.”
    “You ruined hers! She’s so upset and hurt I couldn’t get her to eat one bite. What is this game you’re playing with her?”
    “No game. I won’t coddle the girl. She can’t be expecting me to hold her hand all day and sing love poems to her and play pat-a-cake.”
    “Oh, please, you don’t fool me for a second. This has nothing to do with her, and everything to do with Lenore.”
    “Don’t.” His face grew hard. “Don’t, Henna.”
    “Well, it’s not fair to her. It’s not. I can tell already this girl is nothing like Lenore. Nothing, and yet you treat her as if—”
    “I treat her as if she’s an unwanted infringement on my time and patience, which she is.”
    “How cold you are. The lass is lonely and confused. All she wants from you is a smile, a kiss on the cheek, some indication that you don’t despise her. Did you really tell her guard to keep her away from ya ? How rude, how perfectly horrid for a husband to behave!”
    “You don’t understand.”
    “How much effort does it take to give your wife’s hand a squeeze? To smile at her once, just one time a day to greet her and say hello? And how do you expect her to perform her wifely duties when you’re so cold to her?”
    “I don’t,” he snapped. “I don’t expect her to. I don’t want her to.”
    Henna drew back in surprise. “You—you won’t—”
    “I’ll not take a child like her to my bed. She’s a girl, an innocent. Another virgin who’ll cry and complain at the first taste of marital play.”
    “She’s not a girl.” Henna huffed indignantly. “She’s a woman and she pines for you. She’s been made wife to a husband who pushes her away, and she’s rightfully confused about it. She looks for you and asks all day where you are, when you’ll see her again.”
    “That will all change if I take her to my bed. Anyway, I have no desire to bury another wife.”
    Henna paused, understanding dawning over her face. Her expression turned sympathetic.
    “Oh, lad. Is that what this is all about then?”
    “No, it’s not. Henna, believe me, it’s much more complicated than you can comprehend. But I don’t have to explain my behavior to you, or to anyone, as far as it regards my wife. I’ll thank you to remember that.”
    “You know it’s only because I love you, lad. I do. I love you like my own son.”
    “I know. I love you too, but I’ll not support this meddling. If it continues, I’ll find Caitlyn another attendant and forbid you to see her. She’ll learn soon enough her proper place here. She’ll learn to live with things as they are if you don’t complicate matters.”
    Henna bowed her head, wisely deciding to bite her tongue, but as she walked away she muttered under her breath, “It’s not me that’s complicating things, Duncan dear.”
     
    * * * * *
     
    Cait lay awake in bed long past sunset, her eyes too sore from crying to sleep. She didn’t know why his rejection smarted so much. It’s not as if she wasn’t coming to expect it in recent days. She didn’t understand what it was about her that so offended him. Was she so repellent, that he couldn’t even stand her in his bed, in his room? He acted as if she profaned it with her mere presence. She wanted to beg him to tell her what was wrong with her, to tell her