“No need, my lady. This is the very…last…stitch. There. ’Tis done.” Breaking the thread, she set it aside and stood, holding up the apron for inspection. “What think you?”

“Perfect.”

“He shall love it.”

“Cook will be so happy.”

Iliana smiled at the excited murmurings of the others and nodded her agreement.

“Oh!”

They all turned toward the kitchen at that excited exclamation. Elgin had finished his bath—surely the fastest in history—and now stood in the doorway of the kitchen in his new plaid, his gaze fixed on the apron Ebba was still holding up.

“’Tis magnificent!” Charging across the great hall, he ripped the apron from Ebba’s hands and held it up as if it was a priceless golden necklace.

“Put it on,” Janna suggested when he merely stood staring at it.

“Oh.” His smile faded under uncertainty. “But it might get dirty.”

Iliana laughed at that. “’Tis what ’tis for, Elgin. To keep your lovely plaid lovely.”

“Oh. Aye.” Smiling crookedly, he donned the apron, quickly tying the straps around his waist. Once he was done, Iliana stepped forward and set his hat on his head, fussing with it until it lay in a way she thought suitable. Then the women crowded close, inspecting and complimenting him until he was red in the face.

“What the devil is going on here!”

Everyone in the room turned to stare at Duncan when he bellowed that question. Except Iliana. She took a moment to compose herself first, then started to turn toward him, her expression calm. That calm fled when she found her arm caught up in her husband’s hand and herself being dragged toward the stairs. Again.

Chapter Ten

“What do you mean, you bought them?”

Iliana shook her head helplessly. She had explained twice now about the coins in her trunk, and how she had used some to purchase the plaids. Twice now Duncan had demanded she repeat herself. She doubted whether explaining again would help.

“Ye bought those spices!” he accused suddenly. “When the food got better, I jest thought that ye had come across a few in the garden. But ’tis not what happened. Ye expressly went against me orders and bought some spices, too, didn’t ye?”

“Aye,” she admitted on a sigh. “But I did not go against your orders.”

“I told ye—”

“Not to purchase them with your money,” she said triumphantly. “I used the money my mother and father put in my trunks.”

Rather than become angrier at her words, Duncan seemed to grow suddenly calm, and that made Iliana extremely wary.

“Being an uneducated woman, ye could be forgiven yer lack when it comes to the law, wife—”

“I am not uneducated,” Iliana snapped indignantly.

“Ye must be,” he snapped back. “Else ye would ken that from the minute we were married, everything ye own became mine. Everything.”