Iliana cringed even as she asked the question. The consequences of such an action were horrendous even to consider. She would be returned to Wildwood in shame and her mother would likely be well and truly trapped with Greenweld. That could not happen. Her gaze rose instinctively to the drapes above the bed where the key rested.

“Annulled?” Duncan turned on her, drawing her gaze back to his face. “Now that would be a trick, would it not? The bloody linens are probably already ahangin’ from the railin’. Ye recall them, do ye not? Yer mother’s linens with my blood on them?”

Iliana nodded her head slowly, relief rushing through her. He could not have the marriage annulled. Everyone thought it consummated. “What will you do then?” she asked now, but got no answer as he finished dressing and stormed out of the room.

Duncan pulled the door closed with an angry bang. Pausing, he lifted one arm to sniff at it and scowled. He smelled just as he should in June. That did not seem good enough for his wife, however. It seemed she would have him bathed and powdered like one of her English dandies. Well, he would not have it. Should he give in on this, next she would have him wearing braies and hose. An indecent outfit as far as he was concerned, what with the way they clung to the body, emphasizing the lumps and bumps of a man’s personal apparatus.

Nay. He bathed every July and January and had done so for a long time now…and he would continue to do so. If his wee wife thought to change him, she could think again. And should she continue to refuse him his rights…well, he would just have to see to it that she did not refuse, Duncan decided, recalling the brief image he had been given of her in naught but the small scraps of leather and the lock at her groin.

’Twas a damn exciting contraption no matter its name. And his wife had a luscious figure. He would not mind seeing her in that belt again. Hell, he would rather see her without it.

So much for the wedding night, he thought gloomily, leaving the door to stride down the hall. He should set her aside. Have the wedding annulled no matter the fact that everyone would then know that it had not been consummated. But damned if she did not now have the same attraction as a gift all wrapped up and left on his bed Christmas morn. Duncan dearly wanted to unwrap her.

Mayhap he could, he thought suddenly, as he reached the top of the stairs leading down to the great hall. Aye, mayhap he could. He would have a talk with the smithy.