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Conall growled at her slightly but seeled against his side He rolled toward her, nuzzled the back of her neck, and wrapped a heavy ared hard at the coverlet, which would not budge, and settled for arranging the earl’s arm about her instead of the blanket As a supernatural creature, Conall was supposed to be cold most of the time, but Alexia never felt it Whenever she touched him, he was mortal, and hisakin to a high-end stea hie

And on that note, Lady Maccon drifted off

She awoke still warm But her husband’s affection, or possibly his hidden e of the bed that she was partly suspended in midair Without his arm about her waist, she would oas, of course, gone How did he alwaysat the back of her neck had turned into nibbles

She cracked an eyelid: it was just about dawn, or the gray and depressing Highland winter version of dawn Kingair heralded the day with a sad, reluctant spit of light, which in no way encouraged one to spring swiftly fro dew Not that Alexia was any kind of springer or tripper first thing on norhtly more insistent bites He was fond of a bite here or there Soiven to wonder if, had she not been a preternatural, he would not have actually eaten a chunk of her once in a while There was sory when he was in an a the fact that she loved Conall, but that did not stop her fro practical about his requirements Baser instincts were baser instincts, after all, and, her touch aside, he was still a olf On occasions like this, she had reason to be glad her oers kept his teeth nice and square Although, of course, the way things stood in Kingair, had she been in full possession of a soul, she still would not have had to worry

He turned his attention to her ear

"Stop that Angelique will be in presently to see oodness’ sake, Conall Think of her delicate sensibilities"

"Your rumbled reply He did not leave off his romantic attentions Instead he moved his ar activities Unfortunately, he neglected to realize his ar his wife in the bed

With an undignified squawk, Alexia tumbled to the floor

"Good Lord, woman, what’d you do that for?" her husband asked in profound confusion

Lady Maccon checked to see that everything was unbroken and then stood, angrier than a hornet She was just about to sting her husband into oblivion with the sharper side of her already-sharp tongue when she remembered that she was naked At that same moment, she came to the sudden realization of exactly how cold a stone castle could get during a Highland winter Cursing her husband a blue streak, she jerked the covers off of hi into his war how this put her naked body plastered on top of him, Lord Maccon had no objection Except that his as still annoyed and was noide awake and twitchy, and he was aching so to find out what is going on with this pack of yours today if it is the last thing I do," she said, swatting at his hands when they atte about in bed, the less ti lazy," carowl

Lady Maccon decided that, in the interest of economy, she would have to face the cold, or her husband would carry on about this for hours When he took it into his head to do a thing, he liked to see it done properly

"It will have to wait until this evening," she said, extracting herself from his embrace In a swiftthe coverlet around herself She part rolled, part hopped off the edge of the bed to her feet and shuffled across the floor toward her pelisse This left her poor husband naked on the bed behind her He was less disturbed by the cold, for he simply propped himself up on a pillow, folded his hands behind his head, and watched her out of heavy-lidded eyes

Which was the scene poor Angelique cae upended sausage roll, and her master sprawled naked for all the world to see Theolves, and in the presence of Lord and Lady Maccon, long enough not to have this bother her overmuch She squeaked, winced, averted her eyes, and carried the basin of washing water over to the little stand provided

Lady Maccon hid a selique To come from the world of hives into the chaos that was pack lifeAfter all, no one was more civilized than the vampires, and no one less civilized than olves Alexia wondered if va polite to one another At least the olves lived large: loud and e

She thanked theher off to find tea Then she quickly dropped the blanket to wash

Conall lumbered off the bed and came over to see if he could "help" with her ablutions His assistance caused soree of wetness that was not necessarily water related But she did e to be safely enshrouded in her pelisse and to see hi chamber and under the tender elique reappeared

She sipped tea while the maid picked out a perfectly serviceable tweed day dress and underthings She pulled these on in an apologetic silence, with not even a token co they had already put the poor wo

She huffed a little as the corset went on Angelique was h Alexia was seated, docile and dressed, while the Frenchwoelique asked, "So, ze ave her a suspicious look through the mirror "Yes, we believe so But I wouldn’t be too excited; Madaelique made no reply

Alexia was positively aquiver with the need to know the history between the toiness beat out British stubbornness, in this at least So she sat in silence while the h," came her husband’s roar

Lady Maccon stood and turned around

Conall ca Tunstell

Lady Maccon looked at her husband with a critical eye

"Your shirt is untucked, your cravat has no finish, and your collar is bent at one side" She stood and began fussing with his ru

"I dinna ken why I bother; you always side with hirace

"Did you know your accent has gotten stronger since we arrived in Scotland?"

That got her a dour look Lady Maccon rolled her eyes at Tunstell over Conall’s shoulder and gestured with her head that he could leave

"We didna arrive in Scotland I arrived; you followed" He ran a finger under his high collar

"Stop that--you’ll dirty the white"