Page 30 of His Runaway Bride
"'Tis my pleasure, wife."
As they stood in the dusty cottage that would become her workshop, surrounded by the potential for everything they could build together, the future stretched ahead of them, bright with possibility.
***
Chapter 13: Flourishing
It took some convincing, but eventually Ewan agreed to let Lileas test a small patch of the troublesome field with her proposed crop rotation.What happened next astonished everyone, including Lileas herself.
The yield was not just improved, it was a hundred-fold better than anything they had achieved before.The rocky soil that had frustrated their farmers for years responded beautifully to the barley and root vegetables she suggested, plants that could thrive in the conditions rather than fighting against them.
Soon Lileas was out in the fields with old Shamus, the clan's weathered farmer who had initially been skeptical of taking advice from "some young lass."But when he saw the results with his own eyes, his attitude changed completely.Now he hung on her every word as she explained soil enrichment and drainage methods learned from the nuns.
Ewan watched these exchanges from a distance, his chest swelling with pride every time he saw his wife patiently explaining some new method or solving a problem that had plagued the clan for years.She had found her purpose here, and more importantly, she was happy.
But Lileas's enthusiasm wasn't confined to the fields.Within weeks, their bedchamber had become a chaotic workspace of its own, with parchments scattered across every surface.She would wake in the middle of the night with an idea and immediately reach for a quill, sometimes sketching by candlelight while Ewan slept beside her.
The final straw came when he rolled over one morning and found himself face-to-face with detailed drawings of some strange new design spread across his pillow.
"Lileas," Ewan said firmly, gathering up the papers with the patience of a saint."We need to discuss boundaries."
"What do ye mean?"she asked innocently, though the ink stains on her fingers betrayed her midnight drawing sessions.
"I mean," he said, pulling her close and speaking against her ear in a way that made her shiver, "that this bed is for lovemaking and sleeping, nothing else.Yer sharp mind can work anywhere else in the keep, but here..."His hands began to roam in ways that made her thoughts scatter like leaves in the wind."Here, ye're my wife and I'm yer husband, and I want no distractions."
"And if I refuse?"she asked breathlessly, already melting under his touch.
"Then I'll have to convince ye," he growled, demonstrating his persuasive abilities in ways that left them both thoroughly convinced and utterly sated.
From that day forward, Lileas kept her work strictly to the workshop and her solar.And Ewan made sure their bed was used for its intended purposes, frequently.Their passion for each other seemed to grow stronger with each passing day.
But it wasn't just their personal relationship that flourished.Lileas's inventions began to transform life at MacNeil Keep in ways both large and small.
"Yer wife has a good head on her shoulders," Connor grudgingly admitted one evening, which from him was practically a declaration of undying devotion.
Fiona benefited even more directly from Lileas's inventiveness.The new lady of the keep designed a pulley system that made drawing water from the well and hauling laundry from the lower to upper floors effortless.
