A Newfound Land by Anna Belfrage Page B

tell her, but it would probably have better effect if he told her that – instead of kissing her in the woods.”
    “Kissing her? Nej, ni ljuger !”
    “Lie? Why would I lie? Well, seeing as she isn’t here, I’ll just go and look somewhere else, shall I?” Alex inclined her head in a quick greeting at Henry, who appeared from the stables, smiled down at little Johan and set off down the track.
    “If I see her I’ll send her home,” Kristin called after her.
    “Do that!” Alex replied without turning her head. “And if she isn’t home before me, I might actually be tempted to belt her,” she muttered.
    On the way back, Alex slipped off the path to relieve herself behind a bush. As she sat crouched, she heard the unmistakable sounds of a man and woman making love, and a quick peek revealed Fiona and Lars in a compromising situation further in under the trees. Alex ducked back down and made her way back to the trail as quietly as possible. So Lars was betrothed elsewhere, hey? Alex snickered and increased her pace.
    She heard Matthew before she saw him and came to a halt. Why was he standing in the forest telling someone off like that? Then she recognised Ian’s voice, and when she rounded the sycamore that indicated she was now entering Graham land, she found them face to face on the trail, both of them with knotted fists and lowered heads, staring off like rutting bucks.
    “Where have you been?” Matthew barked at the sight of her. “Have I not told you not to venture out on your own in the forest? And—”
    “Later, okay?” Alex held up her hand. “What’s the matter?”
    “What?” Matthew’s voice creaked. “Ask him.”
    “Fine,” Alex said. “I will. What is it, Ian?”
    “What is it?” Matthew interrupted before Ian got a word out. “I’ll tell you what it is. I did as you said and went to speak to my son about Jenny, on account of you not being certain the lad wished to marry the lass, comely though she may be.”
    “And I don’t!” Ian replied. “I told you so.”
    “Aye, you did, blathering on about how you didn’t love her, and how you wanted it to be like it is with us, with Alex and myself.”
    “Is that wrong?” Ian asked. “Don’t you want that for me?”
    “Of course it isn’t wrong, Ian. That’s why your father went to talk to you in the first place, to ensure that you were comfortable with marrying Jenny before he signed anything with Mr Leslie. And now we know: you don’t want to marry Jenny.”
    “Hah!” Matthew snorted. “But that isn’t all. You see, the lad has found the lass he wishes to wed.”
    “He has?” Alex sorted through the very short list of girls Ian’s age in the district and came up with a blank. Unless... She narrowed her eyes at him, recalling several recent incidents when Ian had showed up in some disarray.
    “Aye, I have.” Ian’s chin came up in a defiant expression. “And she loves me.”
    “Well, that’s good.” Alex placed a restraining hand on Matthew’s sleeve. “So, who is it?”
    “Fiona,” Ian mumbled, dropping his eyes to the sun-dappled ground.
    “Fiona?” Alex succeeded in sounding more surprised than she was. She was going to flay that young woman. How dare she seduce a boy of seventeen!
    “And have you known you love her for long?” she asked, maintaining a level tone.
    “Some months.” Ian eyed her warily.
    “Ah,” Alex said. “Have you bedded her?”
    “Alex!” Matthew hissed. “Of course he hasn’t!”
    “He hasn’t?” Alex sank her eyes into Ian. “Have you?”
    Ian squirmed under their combined eyes. “Aye.”
    “When?” Alex tightened her grip on Matthew’s arm to the point that he actually uttered a muted ‘ow’. But at least he understood and held his tongue.
    “When what?” Ian hedged.
    “When was the first time you slept with her?” Alex said.
    Ian was a mortified red, the blush mottling his neck, his face, his ears. “Sometime in April.”
    “And have there been many times