Broken Highlander's Blood Oath (7 page)

Donan stroked Analise’s silky golden tresses as she laid her cheek to his chest with a sigh and he rested his chin on top of her head. Then, he arrived at a purpose. “Did you know my stallion’s name is Xavier?” His chin moved with Analise’s response as he tightened his arms about her. “He bows to ladies—”

Before he could finish, Analise responded quickly making him smile, and astutely lift his chin out of the way as she raised her head in disbelief.

“No, truly?” Her voice held the breathless surprise of an inquisitive child as she studied his face as if by hard scrutiny she could judge the truth.

“Aye, lass, turn and watch.” Donan helped Analise turn a bit in his lap, then he voiced the command that he had taught Xavier to approach. “
S’advancer!
”

The black stallion stepped toward them, choosing that moment to snort, which sent Analise twisting and burrowing into his chest. “Oh!” she squeaked.

Donan needed no further evidence that she was afraid of his bold stallion and he couldn't blame her, in this instance, because this type of war horse was bred for their girth and size and fearsome aspect. Xavier had been trained as a warhorse and had served him well in many battles, especially the last battle where he was felled from Xavier’s back. Shancy had told the story many times of how Xavier had stood guard over his Master's broken and bleeding body, until Shancy could reach them.

Nevertheless, since then Xavier had been retrained in a much different method, until Donan had to admit that Xavier was no more than a beloved pet. His fierceness was gone, for the sake of the more practical need to serve his crippled Master, and now he was no more than an overgrown pup.

“
Révérence!
” Donan commanded.

His voice was clear and firm, and Xavier didn't hesitate, he went down in a one legged bow placing his sable nose in Analise’s lap. She fairly choked him about the neck, but dared to peek at Xavier’s docile head bent to her purple skirts, with his big brown eyes looking so hopeful.

“He likes you, little nightingale.” Donan unwound one of Analise’s arms, then taking her small hand in his, he drew it near to Xavier’s velvet nose. “Pet him and see. His nose is soft as silk.”

Analise didn't protest when Donan placed her hand on Xavier’s nose, and then drawing it further over his head, her fingers unconsciously curling into his rich coat. Moments later, she was giggling from the tickle of the stallion’s tongue as Donan showed her how to feed Xavier a lump of hard sugar.

“He really likes me,” she whispered in reverent surprise as she looked at Donan with clear blue eyes, no longer lost or confused.

“Aye, I knew he would,” Donan agreed with a smile as he gave the command for Xavier to rise, watching Analise closely for any sign of fear, when the black stallion lumbered to his feet.

“Now, lass, do you think you can take him to the stream for a drink?”

Analise nodded. “Do I just take his reins?”

“Aye, imp, he’ll follow you like a pup, while I watch you both from here.”

Analise stood and gingerly took Xavier’s reins. Xavier obliged by nuzzling the side of her head and moved forward making her laugh and raise her free hand to pet the side of his neck. “Oh, you’re just a big babe, aren’t you,” she cooed.

Donan rested back on his elbows, watching the huge black stallion and lovely wee maid walking together. He wondered if Analise’s supposed simple thinking had any link to fear. Fear of the unknown and fear of the real demons of her world. Although, he’d be damned if he thought of her as simple at all.

By the time Analise came back with Xavier she was nearly dancing with delight beside the huge black mammoth and Donan had conceived of another way to get back up on Xavier’s back. Aye, and he might not make a muck of it, or a fool of himself doing it.

Analise nervously bit at her thumb as she watched Donan use his powerful arms to pull himself over to Xavier, who was bowed down again. Grabbing the stallion’s glossy black mane, Donan rucked himself partway up Xavier’s massive front haunches.

“Now, Analise, pull my leg up and over.”

Analise moved quickly to Donan’s side to do his bidding. Grasping his thigh, she realized that she couldn't circle it with both her hands, and it seemed that his leg was stiffer when bound in the hide leggings as it was. Still, from his knee to heel bent when it wasn't supposed to, until she grabbed his heel to control it. Then it was a tug of war that took a few moments, before his leg slid over the hard leather saddle onto the other side.

Donan stoically watched Analise struggling with her face etched in determination. He couldn't help but feel a certain admiration for her tenacity.
Not the face of simplemindedness at all
, he thought. “You’ll be needing to tie one of those straps or I will fall clear off when Xavier rises.”

It was going to work; Donan could feel it in his bones. He should have thought of this before, but he’d only taught Xavier to bow as a trick and rarely used the feat. If not for Analise, he'd never have thought of it. Excitement rolled in his belly. It had been five years since he'd been able to mount his stallion without the help of two stout men.

“Do you have it tied, lass?”

“Aye,” Analise said, as she stood back to examine her crookedly tied bow. It was the only kind she knew how to tie.

“Easy now,” Donan murmured in Xavier’s ear as he tried to turn his head to see Analise but couldn't. “Ah well then, Analise, step back and we will have a go at it,” Donan said, and his deep voice couldn't hide his excitement. Would not Shancy have been surprised to have witnessed his big brother doing this with only a wee lass' help, he thought as he gave the command.

“
Hausser!
”

Analise remained nearby, and she stood with her hands stretched outward as if she could balance the feat taking place in front of her by her sheer will alone. She seemed frozen in time as she watched Xavier rising up onto his forelegs with a smooth jerk, lifting his heavy weight and Donan’s combined. Donan stretched up over Xavier’s neck with his arms outstretched to straighten his body, as he was jostled right, then left, then—

Analise squealed as she saw her hide bow tie tightening, then lose the battle and unravel. “Oh no, Donan! No!”

Donan couldn't feel that the strap wasn't holding, but suddenly the inevitability of a fall he couldn't stop sent his body tumbling to the left, and it kept going. Analise’s cry warned him and luckily the buckle rings on his side loosened when the pressure came from the inside and not the outside. It freed his leg or else he’d have been hanging off Xavier’s side with a broken leg.

As it was, he fell free and hit the compact dirt of the crofter hut’s floor with a muffled thud, landing on his left side and shoulder. He felt that, the bracing swift pain of contact, but he'd taken many falls in the past five years and he rolled onto his back.

Jesu, he'd nearly done it,
Donan thought, and then he began to laugh.

Analise’s eyes were squeezed tight in horror and shock as tears painfully forced their way out. Donan was dead or dying! She was certain and the thought of it broke her fragile heart as a deep rumbling sound started on the other side of Xavier. Was Donan in a fit? Was he dying in some horrible twitching fit, she wondered with terror. She was afraid to look, yet if he was alive and dying slowly, she needed to hold him.

Shaking, Analise peeked around Xavier’s tail. She couldn't see Donan’s face, but his broad shoulders were twitching. Oh no! Suddenly she felt strange, a freakishness that she'd felt many times before and abruptly her mind went starry. She began humming a tune she could barely hear in the distance. It was her papa, out in the sunflowers, and if she ran fast enough this time mayhap she would see him!

It dawned on Donan slowly through his mirth that Analise had not moved to his side. This thought sobered him as he pushed upright calling her name.

“The wee lass skipped out toward the stream, you great laughing goat.”

Donan turned his dark head to see Shancy standing straight with his hands perched on his lean hips. He should have known Shancy wouldn't leave, but— “Skipping?”

“Aye, brother, skipping in those pretty purple skirts. She’s a fey vision that one.”

Donan swallowed back the hot flash of jealousy that suddenly gripped him. It was just his brother making a fair assessment, he told himself, and wasn’t that what was needed in the end was for Shancy to wed Analise, because he was the stronger man. Donan grimaced.

“Fetch her back now!” Donan ordered a bit gruffly. “And be gentle. She is delicate.”

Donan’s scowl belayed his tender words as Shancy smirked with a jaunty tilt of his tawny head. “Aye, brother, I’ll fetch the colleen. It is foolish for all of us to linger with Lord Armand about.”

However a long time later, Shancy still hadn't found the golden-haired colleen. She'd vanished and he didn't look forward to telling Donan this. His brother might find enough good nature to laugh because he’d fell off his horse attempting to get up on him. It was to Donan’s credit that he'd learned to overcome adversity that way. But losing Lady Analise? Och now, that was a very different thing entirely.

“What do you mean you cannot find her?” Donan was roaring in a fair imitation of a cornered tiger they’d seen near Jerusalem as Shancy helped him up onto Xavier using the same trick Donan had tried earlier.

“Just what I said, you deaf goat!” Shancy shoved Donan’s leg in place none too gently and he began to work on the straps as Donan cursed a fair bloody streak into his ear.

Chapter Eight

It came to Analise after a time that she was lost and cold and it had started to rain. It was raining in a gentle way that soaked her purple skirts through to her under-shift. She wondered where Donan was. Surely he wouldn't leave her? Not her beloved lord.

It was then she remembered him falling from his stallion and she shivered anew when she recalled thinking that he was dead or at least dying.

“How silly can I be?” she admonished, as she picked her way down a barely discernible path in the forest of trees around her. The leafy rich ferns nearly covered the trodden ground, but she walked on, hoping it would lead somewhere.

“So silly as to believe Donan could have died over a mere fall,” Analise sang to the rain-heavy tree boughs that she passed.

She laughed and hummed a gay tune, knowing that Donan could not have died over a simple fall. Nay, her beloved was alive and well, she was sure of it. She didn't understand where her dim-witted notions came from, yet this one she was glad to pass off into the netherworld of foolishness. Only now, she must find him because he would be warm and hold her close in his arms. Then they could laugh together over how silly she was.

Donan held himself more motionless than all the living breathing things in the forest around him. He sat astride Xavier and let his senses expand, listening with his heart, his mind, and all his soul. It was a warrior's trick or discipline; the expanding of senses. He felt the light breeze pushing the hair on his collar. He smelled the pine and earthy moss around him. He felt Xavier’s heat, where his palms pressed into the stallion’s neck, and then he heard it. Faint, but still—

Alert, Donan’s senses picked the direction at once, and he clucked to Xavier. “Walk on, boy.”

His heart labored in hope, pain, and relief as he followed the faint sound of singing. If he'd not been able to tell how much he cared before, he knew it with certainty then.

Analise never heard the great stallion Xavier crashing through the green fronds to the right side of her. All that she could hear was the old Celtic song she sang. One of those her father had taught her. The special one. It was the song her father told her she was to sing to no one but her husband on their wedding morning, and then only if she had cried from joy the night before.

She only sang it from time to time to make certain she remembered it. It was the best song that she'd ever been taught and it made her feel special, because her father had said it was so important. Cheval knew the song too, for her husband only. Now each of them might never be wed and crying for joy, so the song might be lost forever along with its great secret.

“Two nightingales tears ... Twin hearts so ... One Brenin king’s song ... together belong. To er—to life, to love ... You shall be the judge—”

A movement caught the corner of Analise’s gaze and she turned, expecting to catch sight of a small forest animal. Instead blackness nearly took her eyesight, but then she recalled this had happened before, and she looked higher.

“Donan!” she cried with joy. She should have known he would find her, and he looked so tall and healthy. He was handsome.

Donan watched Analise, like a golden fairy, flying toward him and he knew there was no hope for what he would do. Not that he wanted it any other way. So, he leaned downward to take hold of her as she fairly leaped upward laughing into his outstretched arms. Then he lifted her up before him to settle her crossway on the cradle of his thighs. Analise had no compunction as she lavishly pressed all her rounded curves to his muscle and she kissed him soundly on the cheek, the ear, then his jaw.

He thought she was journeying those pink lips of hers to the most important area ... his lips. That was when he heard the amused chuckle behind him. Of course he'd known Shancy was there, however, he thought he had a few moments before Shancy arrived by his side. Nonetheless, Shancy’s presence didn't halt Analise, if she was even aware of his arrival, and she found his lips with blessed enthusiasm. Only he had no choice but to pull away with regret.