"Yes, thank you," she answered. "I really fainted? I've never, ever fainted before. I can't imagine why…"

Lindsay decided to give her his explanation before she asked for it. "It was our manners that set you off, m'lady."

"It was?"

The soldier nodded. "She should stay in bed a week at least," Keith recommended.

"I can't go to bed," Johanna argued.

No one paid any attention to her protest. "I'm saying she should stay in bed two weeks," Calum announced. "It's the only way to be certain she'll regain her strength. She's puny if you'll remember," he advised.

The men nodded. Johanna was outraged. "I'm not puny," she announced in a near shout. "Father, do let me up. I can't go to bed. I have to take my turn sitting with Clare MacKay."

"I'll be happy to sit with her," Megan offered. "It doesn't seem fair letting only MacBain women tend to her. You don't want the Maclaurin women bickering over the slight, do you now, m'lady?"

"Megan, now isn't the time to bring up that concern," Keith muttered.

"The MacBain women were the only ones who offered to help with Clare," Johanna explained.

"But I'm offering now," Megan insisted.

"Then I thank you and will certainly appreciate your help."

Megan smiled. She was obviously satisfied with her mistress's gratitude.

Johanna put the matter aside and turned her attention to her husband. She'd been deliberately avoiding looking at him, for she knew he'd be frowning and surely getting ready to pounce on her with his I-told-you-you-were-weak reminder. She mentally braced herself and turned her gaze. Gabriel was easy to find in the crowd as he towered over his soldiers. He stood to the left of the table, behind Calum.

Her husband was smiling, which fairly stunned Johanna. She was certain he'd be furious or worried at the very least. She should have been relieved over his obviously cheerful mood, but she wasn't. She had fainted after all, and Gabriel had proven to be quite a worrier about her well-being in the past. Yet he looked… happy now. Did he find her faint amusing?

She gave Gabriel a disgruntled look, and he winked back, which confused her.

"When is your mother coming here?" Keith asked her then.

She didn't take her gaze off her husband when she gave the Maclaurin soldier her answer. "In two or three months," she guessed. She smiled up at Father MacKechnie then and gently removed his hand from her shoulder so she could sit up.

Calum tried to lift her into his arms. Keith tried to assist her from the other side of the table. Johanna was suddenly being pulled every which way.

Gabriel finally intervened. He pushed Calum out of his way and took his wife into his arms.

"Rest your head on my shoulder," he commanded.

She wasn't quick enough, so he shoved her head there.

He carried her out of the hall and up the stairs. She protested most of the way. "I'm feeling fine now," she argued. "I can walk, husband. Do put me down."

"I want to carry you," he explained. "It's the least I can do after all the trouble you went to convincing my men."

"The least you can do?"

"Aye," he answered.

She didn't have any idea what he was talking about. His smile was even more confusing to her. "You act as though my faint amused you," she blurted out.

Gabriel opened the door to their bedchamber and carried her inside. " 'Tis the truth you did amuse me," he admitted.

Her eyes widened. "But you're usually overly concerned about me, nagging me to rest all day long. Why this sudden change in your attitude, I'm wondering."

"I don't nag. Old women nag, not warriors."

"You used to nag," she countered. She couldn't help but become a little irritated. Her husband's callous attitude bothered her. A husband should be a little concerned when his wife fainted, shouldn't he?

"Your ploy worked," he said. "My men forgot their argument. That was the reason you pretended to faint, wasn't it?"

He all but tossed her on the bed. She bounced twice before settling.

She felt like laughing now. She was certainly filled with relief. Gabriel wasn't such an unfeeling clout after all. He really believed she'd pretended to swoon.

Johanna didn't want to lie to her husband, but she didn't particularly want to set him straight either. If he realized she hadn't been pretending, he'd probably force her to stay in bed until next spring.

She didn't agree or disagree with her husband. If he decided to take her silence as agreement over his own conclusion, so be it.

He'd turned her attention anyway. He was taking his boots off.

"Aren't you going to boast over your cleverness?" he asked.

He tossed his boots to the floor and began to untie the knot in his belt. He kept his gaze on her all the while.

"Old men boast, m'lord," she answered. Her gaze was on his waist. "Not warriors' wives."

Lord, how she pleased him. He liked the way she turned his own words back on him. Johanna was becoming downright sassy. Such behavior was proof enough she'd conquered her fear of him.

She still blushed quite easily. She was blushing now. She obviously guessed what he intended to do. He decided to tell her anyway just to further her embarrassment. She'd get all flustered then, and Lord, how he liked that feminine trait.

He stood by the side of the bed and told her in explicit detail exactly what he planned to do to her. The pictures he painted with his erotic words made her face burn, and the way he wanted to make love to her made her think she was going to faint again.

The dark and incredibly arousing look on his face made her think he wasn't jesting with her. Still, she needed to be sure.

"Do men and women really make love in such a way?"

She sounded breathless, but she couldn't help it. Her heart was slamming a wild beat, and she was fighting her own arousal while she tried to decide if such a thing was possible. The thoughts Gabriel had deliberately planted in her mind both appalled and excited her.

He pulled her to her feet and began to take her clothes off her.

"You're jesting with me, aren't you, husband?"

He laughed. "No."

"Then husbands and wives really…"

"We're going to," he answered, his voice a rough whisper.

She shivered. " 'Tis the truth I've never heard of such a…"

"I'll make you like it," he promised.

"Will you like…"

"Oh, yes."

"What will I…"

His wife was having difficulty finishing her sentences. She was obviously shaken. So was he, he realized. He was certainly aroused. His movements were damned awkward as he fought the tiny ribbons holding her undergarments together.

He let out a sigh of satisfaction when he finally got rid of the last of her clothes and then roughly pulled her up against him. He lifted her up so his hard arousal could press against the junction of her thighs.

She instinctively moved until she was cuddling him. He grunted with pleasure.

They fell into bed together. Gabriel rolled on top of her. He braced his weight with his elbows on either side of her and leaned down to capture her mouth for a long, drugging kiss. Their tongues dueled and stroked each other; and when he finally moved to kiss a path down the side of her silky neck, he could feel her trembling with pleasure.

She wasn't quite finished plying him with questions. She was a worrier, he supposed, and that was surely the reason she wanted a full explanation.

"Gabriel, you really think to use your mouth to kiss me…there?"

"Oh, yes," he whispered against her ear. His breath, so sweet and warm against her sensitive skin, made her tremble with desire.

"Then I'm going to… you know… kiss you… there."

He went completely still. She began to worry. A scant second later he slowly lifted his head to look at her.

"You don't have to do anything," he told her.