Angus cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I thought to have a word with ye ere ye sought yer bath, lass. About yer mother—”

“There is no need, my lord,” Iliana assured him gently, reaching to clasp one of his nervously fidgeting hands. “My mother and I have spoken and she is…well, I am happy so long as she is happy.”

He relaxed slightly at that, but still looked wary. “Then ’twould not bother ye to have me fer stepfather as well as father-in-law?”

Iliana blinked, her mind slowly absorbing his words; then she glanced sharply back toward the door.

“I haven’t asked her yet,” he announced, drawing her gaze back to him. “In truth, I will not ask her fer a while yet most like, and I would be glad if ye could keep this talk to yersel’. But I just wanted to be sure ye would not be troubled by our marryin’ when it happens.”

“Nay, my lord. It would not bother me,” she assured him gently. “But what if she does not wish—” Iliana began, only to be waved to silence.

“She’ll marry me. She doesn’t love me yet, but she will, and once she does, we’ll be married,” he announced confidently, then patted her shoulder and walked on down the hall, leaving her alone.

Iliana stared after him for a moment, then smiled wryly and shook her head as she continued down the hallway, to the new room Duncan had had built. Truthfully, she hadn’t even seen the new chamber he had worked so hard to build for them, and she was curious to do so. The men had made quite a racket building it. She hoped the results were worth it.

The shock that met her when she opened the door to the new room was almost as great as the shock of coming across her mother in the arms of her father-in-law. It was a near replica of her room at Wildwood.

Closing the door slowly, she moved farther into the chamber, her gaze moving to the bed. It was the bed from Duncan’s room, the only item that was not an exact replica of her room at home. His bed was much larger than hers had been. It had been cleaned since the fire. The wood frame shone in the sunlight pouring through the window. The faded and smoke-stained material that had previously draped it had been removed, replaced with fabric that was very similar to the one that had draped her bed in her childhood home.

Marveling, she turned to peer around the rest of the furnishings, taking in the tables at either side of the bed and the two large chairs set before the fireplace. That was another difference. In her room at home there had only been one chair before the fire.