Conall: The 93rd Highlanders, Book Two (18 page)

When Conall reached the
safety of the other side of the hill and the cover of the brush
there, he dropped the Zouave from his shoulder unceremoniously.
Dead, then. But the other he lowered gently and immediately began
to try to wrap his leg. Graeme rolled back down the hill and then
jumped to a crouch and hurried toward him, ignoring everything else
around him. Before he could reach Conall there was a great shout
among the French, and the Russian gunfire stopped. As he looked
around at the wounded and the dead Graeme saw very little to cheer
about, but the Zouave seemed to feel they had made a statement with
their little foray into enemy territory. The rumors about the mad
regiment were obviously true.

“
Conall!”
Graeme ran harder, no longer worried about staying low. Conall’s
head came up and he looked around, shock on his face.

“
Graeme,” he
shouted, waving his arm. “I’m here!”

When Graeme reached his
side he fell to his knees beside Conall. He wanted to take him in
his arms and hold him tight and kiss him desperately as much as he
wanted to shake him until his brains rattled. He settled for
grasping his forearm as Conall grasped his, so much unsaid in the
acceptable greeting. “We feared for you,” he said
simply.

“
Who?” Conall
asked, frowning in worry as he peered over Graeme’s
shoulder.

“
Douglas and
Iain Roberts,” Graeme told him. Conall shook his head and went back
to wrapping the Zouave’s leg. He’d been hit in the thigh and looked
to be in a great deal of pain.

“
You
shouldn’t have come,” Conall said gruffly. “You’d leave Avril
alone? Don’t do it again.”

“
Don’t you do
this again,” Graeme said angrily. “You’re a stupid boy to run off
and nearly get yourself killed because you’ve had your feelings
hurt.”

“
You’re
right,” Conall surprised him by saying. “You can’t help your
feelings and I can’t help mine.” He shrugged. “It’s not the first
time someone loved and wasn’t loved back. Civilization survived. So
shall I.”

“
This is not
the time or place to get into feelings,” Graeme choked out. “But if
you believe such nonsense, then you’re an even bigger idiot than I
took you for.”

Conall glanced his way,
surprise on his face. “But you said—”

“
I know what
I said,” Graeme told him. “But I don’t think you heard my words
through your stubbornness.”

Putting the Frenchman’s
arm around his shoulders, Conall picked up both their rifles in one
hand and helped him stand. Graeme jumped up and moved to the
Frenchman’s other side as a sudden stream of French medics came
running toward the Zouave wounded littering the ground. In their
midst he could see Douglas frowning at them as Iain argued with
Marine, who had appeared with the medics. With the stumbling man
between them, Graeme shot Conall a heated look.

“
When we get
back, Avril’s going to have some choice words for you,” he warned,
“and so will I. And then we’ll talk more about all this love
nonsense.”

Conall grinned, looking
straight ahead. “Yes, sir,” he said. “Whatever you say,
Captain.”

Avril was pacing in front
of her little hut, ignoring Hamish and Brodie, who were sitting
outside waiting with her for word of Conall and the others. Hamish
was smoking his pipe calmly, and Brodie was rhythmically cracking
his knuckles over and over. Alec sat beside Brodie, his pipes
silent for once. They were all about to drive her mad. She’d
started for the French camp, but Hamish had intercepted her and
brought her back. He’d told her—quite logically which only
infuriated her—that the woman she sought was most likely gone with
Douglas and Iain, or off to tend the wounded. And so she’d sat
here. And paced. And worried. For hours. It was morning already,
and still no sign of any of them.

Suddenly Hamish sat up,
pulling his pipe out of his mouth as he peered over the steppe.
Brodie stood up, tension radiating off him in waves. Avril turned
and stared in the same direction they were looking. She could just
make out some figures walking toward them, three leading horses and
one without. Only the one without wore the kilt and the scarlet
jacket. But it wasn’t the clothing that let her know it was Conall.
It was the way he walked, that swagger that only Conall had. Avril
picked up her skirts and began running, ignoring Hamish and Brodie
as they called out to her.

It was farther to reach
them than she thought, but Conall met her halfway, running as hard
and fast as she was. When they met he grabbed her and lifted her
off her feet and spun her around while she clung to him, her arms
wrapped around his neck. She was crying and she didn’t care who
knew it.

“
You big
looby ass,” she cried. “I could kill you.”

“
I love you
too,” he said, nuzzling her cheek as he slowly set her down,
holding her tight to him. She just cried harder.

“
Ah, Avril,”
he said, not sounding upset at all. “You really do love
me.”

“
Course I do,
you idiot,” she said, hitting his shoulder even as she breathed in
the scent of him from the curve of his neck as he bent over her.
“Don’t ever do something so stupid again.”

“
Like attack
the enemy when we’re at war?” he asked with a hint of humor in his
voice. She couldn’t find anything humorous in it.

“
Yes,” she
said illogically. “Like that.” He laughed, that big booming laugh
she’d thought she’d never hear again, and she kept right on
crying.

“
Then don’t
you be threatening to leave me and telling me you’re not good
enough.”

“
I won’t,”
she whispered. Conall went still for a moment and then he picked
her up and carried her in his arms as they crossed the camp. She
vaguely heard people calling out to him in greeting, questions
being asked, but she ignored it all. She looked over his shoulder
at Graeme, who had caught up to them and was silently watching. She
mouthed “Thank you” to him, and he smiled at her. His smile meant
as much to her as Conall’s scent and his laughter.

When they reached her
home Conall put her down but kept his arm firmly wrapped around her
as he shook first Hamish’s and then Brodie’s hands.

“
Well met,
then,” Hamish said. He saluted Douglas and Iain and Graeme. “Glad
to see you all made it back alive. That’s a good day.” Then he
turned and walked off, puffing on his pipe.

Douglas frowned after
him. “Good day indeed,” he huffed. He pointed at Conall. “Don’t
think I’m letting you off without a thorough dressing down,” he
told him. “I’ve got to get back and pay Marine, but later today
I’ll be here.” He pointed to the ground at his feet. “And you’ll
stand up like a man and take my words.”

“
Yes, sir,”
Conall said blithely, a smile on his face. “I expect you’ll be
hearing from the French. I saved a couple of those Zouave officers.
I think they want to give me a medal.”

“
The French
give medals for shitting in the woods,” Douglas told him with a
derisive snort. “Don’t be getting too big for your britches.” He
signaled at Iain and the two men walked off the way they’d just
come.

Brodie still looked pale
and shaken. “If I’d known what a fool thing it was to let you go,”
he told Conall, “I’d have beaten you black and blue to stop you.”
He shook his head. “What am I supposed to do if you up and die?” he
complained. “Like losing my right arm. Come see me later. I need a
drink.” He walked off and Alec fell in beside him with a wave
goodbye.

Conall wasted no time
dragging Avril to the door. As they passed Graeme he briskly told
him, “Inside.”

When they were all three
inside Conall slammed the door and faced her and Graeme. “Here’s
what’s going to happen,” he said to them. “Avril is going to marry
one of us today. No arguments,” he said, placing a finger against
her lips as she started to speak. “There’ll be no more talk of
leaving out of either of you. Or of not being good enough. This is
how it is and how it’s going to be. I don’t give a damn what anyone
else says or thinks about us. If you do, you just send the bastard
to me and I’ll take care of it. Understood?”

“
You must
marry Avril,” Graeme said. “You just carried her across the entire
camp, causing another scene. I expect the colonel will be here
before long, making ultimatums and threatening to send her
away.”

Avril watched Graeme as
he spoke. He didn’t seem upset about her and Conall marrying. She
wasn’t sure if she was hurt by that or not. “You don’t want to
marry me?” she asked, trying to sound just curious.

“
I’d love
to,” Graeme said. “But the fact is you and Conall were together
first. It was always the two of you. I won’t come between
that.”

“
Don’t be an
idiot,” Conall said. “You know damn well Avril and I love
you.”

“
You throw
out love as though it isn’t an inconceivable notion, this idea that
you love me.” Graeme looked confused and wary. “How can you love us
both?”

“
You don’t?”
Conall asked, putting his hands on his hips. “Tell me true. You
don’t love me? Or you don’t love Avril? Which one of
us?”

Avril held her breath.
Just as Graeme thought she and Conall had loved first, so she felt
the same about the two men. Hadn’t they found each other before the
three came together?

“
I…” Graeme
shook his head. “I haven’t let myself say the words, not even to
myself,” he said quietly. “All my life I’ve been alone. I’ve hidden
my feelings and my desires and I accepted that I’d always be alone
because of them. You two weren’t supposed to come along. You
weren’t supposed to make me want something that can’t
be.”

Conall walked over to him
and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Well, it can be. It is. I said
it and I meant it. This is the way it is and the way it’s going to
be. Us.” He motioned among the three of them. “I’ll marry Avril,
because what you say is true and makes sense. But you hold as
strong a place in my heart as she does. I love you both, equally,
in the same way. I want you both in my bed. Do you
understand?”

“
And when the
war is over?” Avril asked. She had to know. She had to know if her
heart would be broken by one or both of them. “When the Ninety
Third is sent someplace else? India? Canada? What then?”

Conall looked at her and
held out his hand. She came to him, no arguments. “Then we go
together. Or both Graeme and I sell our commissions and we go
home.”

“
And at
home?” she persisted. “What then? Where shall we go? What shall we
do?”

“
Whatever we
want,” Conall said. “I may be a fourth or fifth son, but I’ve my
own money and I’m my own man. I’ve always wanted a farm of my own,
raising sheep and a fine pack of hounds, on the hills in
Glenfinnan, near my family.”

“
And where
will I be?” Graeme asked stoically.

“
By my side,”
Conall said without hesitation. He put a hand on Avril’s shoulder,
mirroring the one on Graeme’s, uniting the three of them. “Where
you both belong.”

And at long last, Avril
believed him. She believed every word he said, and her heart
soared.

The wedding was a simple,
rushed affair. Brodie barely made it in time, having to wait for
young Miss McMillan to put on a pretty dress to attend. Graeme was
surprised to see her there, but then again Conall was making an
honest woman out of Avril, which must please the colonel. Perhaps
Miss McMillan’s presence was his stamp of approval.

To Avril’s shock, Miss
McMillan had brought her a bride gift, a beautiful silk scarf from
India that the pretty girl had draped around Avril’s shoulders,
hiding her plain black dress behind its vibrant colors that brought
out the rose in Avril’s cheeks and the blue in her eyes. She’d
never looked more beautiful.

Graeme supposed he ought
to feel some jealousy or hurt over Conall and Avril marrying, but
he didn’t. It was the logical thing to do, after all. In some
strange way, Graeme felt responsible for the two lovers at last
finding a happy ending. With a jolt, he realized it was his happy
ending as well. While he might not be the one getting married,
their bond tied Graeme to them as firmly as their vows to each
other. He simply couldn’t imagine his life without the two of them.
It was that simple and yet so complicated.

When he arrived here he’d
been set in his ways, resigned to a hard life in the 93rd and most
likely an untimely death at war. Then he’d met Conall and he’d
begun to come alive, had found in him a reason to rise and greet
each day, even if his feelings remained hidden and unrequited. He’d
never expected to love Avril. Had seen to her comfort and safety
when Conall was injured because he knew Conall loved her. But it
hadn’t taken long for her practical nature and fresh beauty and
kind heart to snare his affection as surely as she’d won Conall’s.
Again, Graeme had thought his feelings would remain hidden and
unrequited. He hadn’t counted on the change in Conall when he
returned from Scutari.