Captured by a Laird (22 page)

“Ach, I'm sorry, lass.” He brushed her hair back and kissed her forehead.

“My mother took a walk by the river that morning instead of joining the household at breakfast,” Alison said. “She found a large black quartz beside the river. When she picked it up, an old woman appeared through the mist and told her the stone held magical powers.”

David raised an eyebrow. This sounded like fanciful imaginings to him. No one ever seemed to meet these mysterious folk on a clear day.

“The old woman told my mother that she would bear four daughters and instructed her to give each daughter a piece of the stone,” Alison continued. “She said that there would be a time when each of us would be in dire need of whatever luck and protection the stone could bring us.”

“I suppose the old woman disappeared into the mist?”

“Aye,” she said in a hushed voice. “When my mother looked again, the woman was gone.”

“Hmmph.”

“She feared the old woman could be a fairy in disguise bent on causing mischief, as they so often do,” Alison said. “But when she saw the fate that befell her poor sisters, she knew that she had narrowly escaped the same death and that the stone held good magic.”

Alison's piece of the “magical” stone had not brought her much luck—first Blackadder, and now him.

“I lost it the day I wed Blackadder,” Alison said, absently rubbing her finger over the opaque black stone. “I only found it again after I had the bed taken out.”

David lay back and stared at the ceiling, thinking of that burned bed again and what a damned shame it was that Blackadder died before he had a chance to kill him.

“Why did your father choose Blackadder for your husband?” he asked, though he should not blame her father for showing such poor judgment, when his own father and uncle had not seen that Blackadder was a snake.

“My grandfather was chieftain of the Douglases for fifty years, and he was the one who deemed a marriage alliance with Blackadder would be of value,” she said. “My father agreed to it because he and my mother preferred Blackadder to the alternative my grandfather proposed.”

“There was someone else he wished ye to marry?”

“Not marry,” she said, giving him a sidelong glance. “My sisters and I bear some resemblance to our aunt, the king's great love. Our grandfather hoped that would lead the king to make one of us his mistress.”

“He was willing to put you in that kind of danger after your aunts had been murdered?” The thought infuriated David.

“The king was wed to Margaret Tudor by then, so there was no danger—or hope—that the king would want to marry one of us,” she said. “It was the fervent wish of both my Douglas and Drummond grandfathers, however, that the king would take one of us into his bed long enough to bear a royal bastard.”

Did they care nothing for the lasses? Making their granddaughter the king's whore was not even the worst of it. While a royal bastard did bring a great many advantages to both the child and his family, the royal blood that ran in the child's veins could also endanger them due to the threat the child posed to the king's legitimate heirs.

“My grandfathers decided their best hope was my sister Maggie,” Alison said. “And I was married off to Blackadder.”

David pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. What a miserable family she had, on both the Drummond and Douglas sides. He wished he could have protected her from all of it.

“Ye see why my mother wanted to give us a bit of magical protection?” She held the pendant up and smiled.

Ach, it did something to his heart to see her hold the pendant as if all she had against the evils of this world was a wee bit of stone.

“Ye have my sword, and my life if need be, to protect you,” he said, holding her chin and looking into her eyes. “I'll allow no harm to come to you or your daughters.”

He ran his gaze over her ivory skin, red lips, and violet-blue eyes framed by sooty black lashes. After barely leaving their bed for a week, he still could not get enough of her. He longed to taste her skin again, to hear her sighs, to feel her legs locked around him as they moved together.

He should have gone with Brian to Hume Castle to see how their clansmen in that area were faring. Brian was more than happy to go, as he was courting a lass in one of the villages there, and David had plenty to keep him busy here. But the real reason he did not go was that he did not want to miss a night with Alison.

For the first time, he had a glimmer of understanding of how his father could be so foolish over his second wife. He recognized the danger and saw how easily it could happen. But he had learned from his father’s mistake that vulnerability in a laird endangered the entire clan.

He could enjoy his bride, but he must never allow Alison to become his weakness.

***

“I can’t remember the last time I was on a picnic.” Alison leaned against David and smiled up at him. “’Twas kind of ye to remember your promise to Beatrix.”

“As if the wee devil would let me forget it,” he said, squeezing her shoulders.

Alison snuggled closer as she watched the girls and Will, who were throwing rocks in the burn and arguing over who had thrown their stone the farthest or made it skip the most times. After years of suffering Blackadder’s constant criticism and mistreatment, her spirit felt light.

A bond was surely growing between her and David, and hope blossomed in her heart that he was coming to truly care for her.

“I’d like to make love to ye in this bonny spot,” he said in her ear, “with the birds singing and the sunlight on your bare skin.”

“Can we can return without the children and the guards?” she asked.

“Those rain clouds are headed this way,” he said, frowning at the horizon. Then he turned back to her and winked. “We’ll have to make do with our bed. But if we leave soon, we’ll have time before supper.”

“I’ll fetch the children,” she said, and grinned at him.

As she got to her feet, Margaret emerged from the brush that grew along the burn.

“Where are Beatrix and Will?” Alison asked.

“That way,” Margaret said, pointing upstream.

Alison lifted her skirts and made her way through the scrub brush. She heard the two children before she saw them.

“I don’t like being told what to do,” Beatrix said.

Alison chuckled to herself. That was certainly true. Curious, she took a few steps closer until she could see them through the branches.

“I’d let ye do whatever ye want. I wouldn’t care,” Will said, and tossed a stick into the burn. “But I expect you and Robbie will have rows that shake the roof.”

“I don’t want to marry him,” Beatrix said. “I don’t want to marry at all.”

Unease tightened Alison’s stomach. What had the children overheard that inspired this talk of marriage?

“I like Margaret nearly as much as I like Jasper,” Will said, and patted the pup’s head, “but I don’t want to marry her either.”

“Then we won’t do it,” Beatrix said, crossing her arms.

“David told Robbie that we must do it for the good of the clan,” Will said. “And when David says something must be done for the clan, ’tis a waste of breath to argue.”

Alison was so upset she was shaking. She told herself not to panic, that she must give David a chance to explain. Surely he would not plan her daughters’ marriages without consulting her. Whatever the children had heard, they must have misunderstood.

***

David felt a rare contentment as he lay back and watched the passing clouds while wee Margaret sat beside him playing with the wooden pig he’d carved for her. He could not recall ever whiling away the afternoon like this. His mother would have beat him for it.
A laird’s heir has too much to learn to waste time on frivolity.
His stepmother often took his brothers on outings like this, but he was too old by then to be included.

His breath caught as Alison appeared through the trees, looking as beguiling as a wood nymph. Would he ever become accustomed to the effect she had on him? While he had enjoyed spending time with Will and the girls, all he wanted now was to have his wife alone and naked in their bedchamber.

With his mind on that, he did not notice at first that Alison was unusually quiet on the short ride back. He took a closer look. Her back was stiff, and she was clutching the reins.

“What’s wrong?”

“It can keep until we’re alone,” she said, then she spurred her horse and trotted ahead.

He let her go and fell back to ride beside Will. “Do ye know what this is about?”

“I think she overheard me and Bea talking about the betrothals.”

“By the saints, Will, why could ye not keep it a secret?”

“Bea is my friend.” Will shrugged. “It felt wrong not to tell her.”

David cursed under his breath. Alison was right about Will having a mind of his own. How could David rule his clan with authority when his wife and young brothers challenged his commands?

“Why didn’t ye tell Alison?” Will asked.

David felt a twinge of guilt. He had intended to inform her, but the time was not right yet.

“It was my decision to make,” he said. “My wife ought to be grateful I’ve done well by her daughters by arranging for their future.”

Will gave him a long sideways glance. “Ye don’t understand lasses much, do ye?”

CHAPTER 28

David told himself that Alison was a reasonable lass who would accept his decision, as she ought, and even see the wisdom of it in time. All the same, he drew in a deep breath before he opened their bedchamber door. Alison stood waiting for him with her arms folded and a strained expression.

“Ye haven’t taken it upon yourself to arrange my daughters’ marriages, have ye?” she asked with a brittle smile.

He thought women were supposed to confuse a man with subtlety. Her direct question caught him off guard, and he hesitated too long.

“Then it’s true,” she said, her voice rising.

“As their stepfather, ’tis my responsibility to secure their future,” he said, attempting to sidestep the question.

“What precisely have ye done?” she said, looking at him as if he were the devil’s serpent.

“I’ve betrothed them to my brothers.”

“Ye did this without a word to me?” she said with fire in her eyes. “Ye know my daughters are
everything
to me.
Everything!
”

“Their welfare is my responsibility,” he said.

She propped a hand on her hip and glared at him. “When did ye plan to tell me?”

“I would have shared my plans with ye, but I knew ye would react poorly—as ye have.”

“My daughters are little more than babes,” she said. “Ye had no need to act so quickly and when everything is uncertain.”

“Uncertain?” he said, his own temper rising. If she still harbored some notion of being able to leave him, he meant to set her straight. “There’s no uncertainty about this. You, your daughters, and these lands are mine to do with as I see fit.”

“Don’t ye dare speak of my daughters as if they’re your property to dispose of as ye please,” she snapped. “They are
my
daughters.
My
responsibility. Ye have no right.”

“I have every right, and ye damn well know it,” he said. “What I do is for their benefit.”

“Their benefit? Ye use them as pawns and tell me it’s for their benefit?”

“I’ll do far better by them than either the Blackadders or your family would,” he said. “I’d never see them harmed, but I
shall
bind them and these lands to my brothers and my clan.”

“This is unforgivable.”

“You’re a Douglas, for God’s sake. Ye knew from the time they were conceived that their marriages would be arranged to bring lands and great families together.”

“If you’d left me a widow, it would be
my
decision,” she said, thumping her hand against her chest. “
I
would put their happiness first.”

“Ye speak as if I’m giving them to foul men who’ll mistreat them,” he said. “What is your complaint? I’ve betrothed them to my only brothers. You’re fond of Will and Robbie, and they’ll make your daughters fine husbands one day.”

“Ye haven’t known Beatrix and Margaret a fortnight. How could ye have any notion of who would be appropriate husbands for them?” she said. “And we both know it would make no difference what sort of men your brothers become. Ye did this for the Blackadder lands.”

“Of course I didn’t take the castle just to give it up,” he said. “But I could find no better husbands for the lasses in all of Scotland.”

“It wasn’t enough to control my daughters’ property until they were of an age to marry,” she continued as if he had not spoken. “All ye care about is giving their lands to your own blood and making them Hume lands forever.”

“That is not all I care—”

“Ye had me fooled. I hoped my feelings mattered to ye, yet in my heart I didn’t truly believe it.” Her voice wobbled and she looked dangerously close to tears. “But I did believe ye cared for my daughters.”

Before he could say another word, she turned and ran out the door.

“I do care for them,” he shouted after her. “I’d protect them with my last breath!”

***

As if the heavens reflected David’s dismal mood, ominous clouds rolled in before supper, bringing driving rain and a wind that howled outside the windows.

The discord between him and Alison left David unsettled.

“’Tis quiet without them,” Will said.

Alison and the girls had taken their supper in the Tower Room, and the meal was indeed a morose affair without their light voices and sweet smiles. Ach, he was behaving like a sentimental old woman.

Tonight, he would set matters aright with Alison. He had no notion how to soothe her with words, but once he got her clothes off, he knew how to soften her defenses.

Would she be so angry that she would avoid sharing their bed tonight? God, he hoped not.

He had just left the table and started for the stairs when Brian charged into the hall with rain dripping off his cloak and mud splattered on his boats. He made a straight line for David.

Brian had news. And it looked like bad news.

“I was on my way to Hume Castle to see how our clansmen fare, as ye told me to,” Brian said, still breathing hard. “Before I reached it, I met one of our men riding hard this way.”