Captured by a Laird (37 page)

Seeing Walter seemed to give David another burst of strength, and Alison had to run up the stairs to keep up with him. When they opened the laird’s chamber door, several Hume warriors were already in the room, and they drew their dirks before they realized who it was.

“Verra glad to see you’re alive, Laird, though I’ve seen ye looking better,” Brian said with a wide grin. He handed David his whisky flask. “Better have some of this to give ye strength.”

“Ach, you’re a good man.” David tilted his head back and took a long drink, then wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “That’s what I needed.”

Alison stayed close to David as the room rapidly filled with Hume warriors who were still coming through the tunnel. Finding their laird there to greet them seemed to put them in high spirits.

David took another drink of whisky. As he handed it back to Brian, he said, “Walter is here.”

Brian’s expression turned to granite, and he started for the door.

“We go together,” David said, stopping him.

“But Walter is mine,” Brian said.

David nodded. Then he gave the signal, and the Hume warriors headed out. When David started to go with them, Alison clung to his arm. Had he lost his senses?

“Ye can’t go,” she said. “You’re too badly injured.”

“Ach, I’ve fought in worse shape, lass,” he said. “Wait here. This won’t take long.”

He strode down the stairs with his men, leaving Alison to stare at the drops of his blood on the stone steps.

CHAPTER 50

“Ye rode alone into the castle knowing ye could be killed and almost certainly raped,” David said between his teeth. The more he thought about it, the more furious he became.

“Aye, it was a bold plan.” Alison smiled at him as she dabbed a healing ointment on his injured hand. “But we Humes are known for that.”

Calling herself a Hume softened his anger for a moment, as his clever wife had known it would.

“Ach, this hand is bad,” she said. “Does it pain ye something terrible?”

“Hell no,” he said, though it throbbed like the very devil.

“My plan did succeed,” she said. “We both survived, and we have Blackadder Castle back.”

The Blackadders were already in disarray due to the fire when David and the men who had come through the tunnel caught them by surprise inside the hall. In a matter of moments, the Humes had taken control of the keep. The rest of the castle did not take much longer. More Hume warriors, who had been hiding in the trees by the stream, poured in through the gate, which the Blackadder guards had opened to let their people escape the fire.

Walter fought to the death, knowing there would be no mercy for him, and he died by Brian’s sword. Most of the Blackadders, however, saw how it would end and laid down their weapons.

“I’m glad ye released most of the Blackadders,” Alison said, as she wrapped a long linen strip around his hand. “With the deaths of their wicked lairds, they’re no longer a threat.”

She had persuaded him to release them, of course. But he had ferreted out the men who attacked the village, and they were no longer walking this earth but burning in everlasting hell. He could not remember much after that until he woke up starving a couple of hours ago.

“Must I wear this?” he asked, as Alison tied a goddamn sling around his arm.

“You’re trying my patience, love,” she said. “You’ll sit there and do as I tell ye after worrying me so. Ye fell like a stone when it was all over. Three days I waited for ye to wake, ye wretched man.”

Worrying her? Alison was not going to divert him from what she’d done. The image of Patrick choking her while he hiked up her skirts filled his mind’s eye again, and he pulled her onto his lap with his good arm.

“How could ye endanger yourself like that?” he asked, his voice rough with emotion.

“How could I not?” she said. “What would your brothers, the girls, Isabella, and I do without ye? You’re the center of our family, the one who binds us together. Beatrix and Margaret knew that. Why do ye think they ventured out on their own to bring ye home?”

David had never expected to find himself encircled by love and family. And it was all because of Alison. She had given him everything he had longed for and never believed he deserved.

“Without you, I’d be like Patrick Blackadder, a man with nothing to live for but hate and vengeance.” He tucked a stray strand of her midnight hair behind her ear. “Ye saved me, Allie.”

“Ach, you were never like that vicious and self-serving man,” she said. “Everything ye did was to protect others. Love was always the reason, even if you didn’t know it.”

She always saw the best in him. He would strive every day to become the man she believed he was.

“There is something I did that I would like to change,” he said.

She tilted her head. “What’s that?”

David had struggled with what was best to do. He needed to consider the future of his brothers as well as his stepdaughters.

“I’ll destroy Beatrix and Margaret’s marriage contracts with my brothers, if that’s what the lasses wish,” he said. “When they’re of an age to marry, I’ll let each lass decide.”

His gift to his brothers would be to have wives who came willingly to their marriage.

“Thank you,” Alison said, touching her fingertips to his cheek. “When the time comes, I hope that they chose wisely, for I would like nothing better than to know my daughters had fierce Hume men to love and protect them all of their days.”

“Ye know I love ye dearly, lass,” David said. “But now you’re going to have to pay for scaring the Beast of Wedderburn witless.”

Alison smiled against his lips as he gave her a fierce Hume kiss.

***

With a sigh of regret, Alison broke the kiss and pressed her hand against David’s chest. “You’re in no shape to do what you’re suggesting.”

“Ye can see for yourself,” he said, “I’m up for the task.”

She rolled her eyes and laughed. He laughed with her, but then his expression grew serious again.

“After nearly losing ye,” he said, cupping her cheek with his big hand, “I need this, lass.”

Alison understood because she needed him desperately too. As they made love slowly, murmuring endearments to each other, she ran her hands gently over his battered body, every inch precious to her. It made her want to weep to see his cuts and bruises, but her husband was strong and would heal.

Afterward she drifted off to sleep to the comforting sound of his steady heartbeat against her ear. She awoke from a dream to the sun shining through the window. Spring had come at last to Blackadder Castle.

“I have good news to tell ye.” She took David’s hand and placed it on her stomach. “We’re having a babe.”

“Beatrix and Margaret are like my own daughters, and I would have been content if we’d had no more,” he said, his eyes soft and warm. “But a babe. Ach, this is a great blessing. Ye couldn’t make me happier.”

“You’ll be a wonderful father,” she said, “which is fortunate since we’ll be having so many.”

“And ye know this?” The corners of his mouth quirked up in a smile.

“Aye. The old woman who my mother saw when she found the magical stone appeared in a dream just now before I woke,” she said. “She told me we’ll have six children together.”

“Six!” He looked stunned for a moment, then he laughed and kissed her forehead. “I suppose every one of them will be as strong-willed and troublesome as my wife.”

“Aye,” she said, smiling up at David. “We’re going to have a joyous life.”

Alison rubbed her thumb over the black stone that was safely back in her pendant and reflected on how very lucky she had been since she found it.

EPILOGUE

Three years later…

“This babe needs to come soon.” Alison put her hand on the small of her aching back. “It was kind of ye to come for the birth, Sybil. I hope ye don’t have to wait long, for both our sakes.”

“I’m happy to get away from Court,” Sybil said. “The tension between our clan and the Hamiltons is simmering to a boil. And the queen has sided with the Hamiltons.”

“Is it true she wants to divorce Archie?” Alison asked.

“Archie’s spies informed him that she wrote to her brother King Henry hinting she wants a divorce,” Sybil said. “Henry replied with a lecture on morality, if ye can believe it, and he’s thrown his support behind Archie. Of course, that makes the entire pro-French faction adamantly against us.”

“Ye should stay here where David can protect ye until this trouble is resolved,” Alison said.

“I’m in no danger,” Sybil said, waving her hand. “I have friends on both sides. Besides, I expect Archie will prevail in the end.”

Alison was not so sure.

“Beatrix is turning twelve,” Sybil said as Alison’s daughters and Will entered the hall from the tower stairs with Jasper on their heels. “That lad is going to be one handsome man. Has she decided whether she’ll have him for her husband?”

“David won’t let her marry for years, so there’s no hurry,” Alison said. “But that’s Will you’re looking at, not Robbie.”

Will was nearly as tall as Robbie and David now. Alison had heard the men remark on his strength and skill with a sword, but Will was still a kind-hearted lad who seemed to be lost in his own world at times.

Alison watched as Isabella and Rob emerged from the stairwell and cast surreptitious glances her way. David had been disappearing for hours at a time and being very mysterious about it. The entire family was party to his secret and did their best to divert her attention. While she trusted her husband absolutely, her curiosity was getting the better of her.

“Have they told ye what the surprise is?” she asked Sybil.

“What surprise?” Sybil gave her a blank look, but her sister was exceptionally good at keeping secrets.

David came down the stairs carrying their son, who was both the joy of the household and as troublesome as predicted, and handed him to Leana. Taking on the role of nursemaid had helped Leana heal, and she and Brian were to be wed soon. Flora and Garret were happily settled in a small cottage that David had given them.

“May I take my wife from ye?” David asked, smiling at Sybil.

He helped Alison to her feet with his good hand. Though he never admitted it, she knew the hand Walter had damaged still pained him at times.

“I’ve something I want to show ye upstairs,” he said as he led her across the hall.

“To relieve my backache,” Alison said, “you’ll need to do more than show it to me.”

A softness came into his eyes. “Ye know I’d like nothing better than to make love to ye, if it’s not too close to the baby coming, but that’s not what I meant.”

As they climbed the stairs Alison’s thoughts returned to her conversation with her sister.

“Do ye think this dispute with the Hamiltons will break out in fighting?” she asked.

“I do,” David said. “Tensions are high. Any spark will set it off.”

“I’m worried about my sisters getting caught in it—especially Sybil,” she said. “And she says that Archie is counting on you to bring a large force to Edinburgh when the time comes.”

“’Tis worth considering,” David said. “If he prevails, your sisters will all be safe, and Archie will be in a position to restore the title to the Hume lands to me, which will save our children trouble down the road.”

“I agree, but I don’t like it.”

“There are troubled times ahead, to be sure.” David stopped on the stairs and turned to face her. “But we’ll find our way through them together.”

Her shoulders relaxed, and she smiled up at him. “Aye, we will.”

Instead of continuing up the stairs, he turned and opened the door to the old Laird’s chamber.

“’Tis three years late,” he said, “but this is my wedding gift to you.”

An enormous new bed dominated the room.

“Oh, David!” she said. “’Tis beautiful.”

He must have paid a fortune for it. The bed was made of a rich dark wood that held a hint of red, like the color of a roan horse, and there were intricate carvings along the head and footboards. Alison stepped closer and ran her hand over the pattern on the foot of the bed.

“These look a bit like the pigs and horses ye carved for Beatrix and Margaret…” She turned to look at David. “You made this?”

“Aye. I cut the boards from the table at Hume Castle when I was staying there before ye came for me.” He gave a dry laugh. “Surprising I didn’t cut my leg off as drunk as I was. ”

She was touched that even when David believed she wanted her freedom instead of him he had enough hope in his heart to undertake making this exquisite gift for her.

“Isabella made the bed curtains,” he said, pointing at the dark blue velvet.

Alison walked around the bed, tracing the carvings with her fingertips. She could feel the love he had put into every one of them.

“No lass has ever had such a wonderful wedding gift,” she said.

“Ye like it then?”

“Oh, aye,” she said, tears burning the back of her eyes.

“Ye should get off your feet, love,” David said, giving her a worried look. Then he lifted her up onto the bed and sat beside her.

When she turned and saw the first letters of their names linked together in the center of the headboard, her throat felt tight. She thought of the countless times they would make love in this bed and the children she’d give birth to in it.

She loved him so much. His eyes drew dark as she ran her hands slowly up his chest.

“Shall we find out if this bed is comfortable?” she asked, waggling her eyebrows.

“Are ye sure it’s safe?” David asked, looking down at her swollen belly.

Alison caught him off guard and pushed him back on the bed.

“I’m a bold and dangerous Hume lass,” she said, leaning over him. “But I promise I’ll try to be gentle with ye,
if
that’s how ye like it.”

David’s eyes twinkled as he recognized the words he had once said to her. “Are ye having a bit of fun with me, lass?

“Not yet, but I intend to.” She poked his chest. “And ye will enjoy it.”

“I will, for certain,” he said, a slow smile spreading across his handsome face.

Her heart squeezed as she looked down at the man she loved.