Highland Avenger (12 page)
“No need. We got a message from Ewan and he told us some of it. Brian can tell us the rest. Oh, and I am to tell you that Michel and Adelar are safely tucked up behind the very high, very strong walls of Scarglas.”
“Oh, thank God,” Arianna whispered, and then burst into tears. “I am sorry. I dinnae ken what ails me.”
Jolene handed her a linen cloth. “Relief and weariness. Have a good cry and then finish your food.”
Arianna laughed and wiped the tears from her face. “I have just been so afraid for them. This isnae over yet but at least I now ken that they have been taken somewhere safe, somewhere that has the men to protect them.”
“Oh, the men of Scarglas will keep them very safe indeed. You can put your mind at rest about that. Old Fingal might be a rutting old goat and the oddest fellow I have ever met, but he cares for children. No man will be allowed to harm them.”
Not sure what to say about that remark concerning Brian’s father, Arianna concentrated on finishing her meal. She could feel the hard pull of exhaustion and knew she would not be able to stay awake much longer. If she were not careful she would be falling asleep sitting in the chair in that strange way she did when she became too tired.
By the time she finished her meal she had become almost too tired to chew any longer. “I wish I could remain awake to greet Sir Brian when he returns, but I dinnae think I will be able to.”
“Nay, I can see that.” Lady Jolene took Arianna by the arm and led her over to the bed. “Rest. You still have a bit of a journey to complete and you need to sleep when you can. Sir Brian will understand. I suspect he will be doing just as you have done as soon as he returns.”
The moment Arianna was tucked up in the bed, she knew sleep was but a breath away. “Thank ye, m’lady,” she managed to say before she gave in to the overwhelming urge to rest.
“Weel, he doesnae have as many men as he once had, but I think ’tis time to end the chase,” said Sigimor as he reined in and glanced up at the sky.
“I was hoping to end it here,” said Brian as he halted by Sigimor’s side. “At least then we could travel to Scarglas without having to watch our backs every step of the way.”
“Mayhap that is where he flees to.”
“Aye, ’tis possible. ’Tis also possible that once he and his allies get a look at Scarglas they will decide it isnae worth the trouble just to gain a little revenge and that fool a title. I willnae put any wagers on that though. Chasing the lads here to Scotland when his parents already work to disinherit the boys was madness. I doubt this or a look at Scarglas will clear any heads.”
“Sigimor,” called Fergus, “what shall we do with the bodies scattered about?”
“Pick the three along the trail clean of anything that is worth something and leave them for the carrion,” Sigimor told his youngest brother. “The two left outside the keep are already dealt with.” He turned his mount back toward Dubheidland and left his brothers to deal with the gruesome chore as he headed back to his keep.
“There were a few more of them than there were the last time I saw them all together,” said Brian as he rode beside Sigimor.
“Hired a few men, aye?”
“I think so. Amiel may have kenned where we were headed but there were too many times when he was right on our trail yet I was nay following the one everyone kens about. He could only have done that with the help of some mon who kenned the land.”
Sigimor nodded. “And the others who are searching for the lads may do the same. Ye could find yourself in a true battle once ye get to Scarglas.”
“Aye, but we can deal with it. We have before.”
“We can talk on that after ye bathe and then join us for some food. I suspicion ye will be in dire need of some rest, too.”
“Oh, aye.” Brian cursed as he realized how he had left Arianna alone. “I should have seen to Arianna instead of leaping onto a fresh horse and joining ye in the chase.”
“My Jo will see to her. And, if the lass is as weary as ye look, I wouldnae be expecting her to greet ye when ye return.”
Sigimor proved right and Brian was not surprised to hear that Arianna was already asleep when he returned. He suffered a brief disappointment over the fact that she revealed no concern for his safety but easily shook it off. They had been chasing Amiel and his men, him and about twenty well-armed Camerons. Arianna had enough sense to know there was little danger for him.
After bathing and donning clean clothes, he made his way down to the great hall. He wanted to sleep but his belly told him he needed some food first. Once in the great hall, he kissed Jolene on the cheek, ignoring Sigimor’s scowl as he did so, and then sat down next to his cousin to fill his plate.
“Lady Arianna was so tired I feared she was about to fall asleep even as she ate her meal,” said Jolene as she sat down across the table from him.
“She may weel have if ye hadnae gotten her into bed quickly.” Brian told them of how she had fallen asleep on her horse and grinned when they laughed. “She hasnae had much time to recover from nearly drowning.” Between bites of food he told them everything that had happened before and since he had found her on the beach.
Jolene shook her head. “I cannot understand how men can do such things just for the sake of gain. One begins to think that no child who might inherit something of worth is ever safe.”
“There is that to consider. This is unnecessary though, for his family will surely get the boys disinherited simply because their mother was a common wench.”
“Amiel may ken something they dinnae,” said Sigimor as he sprawled in his chair and sipped at his wine. “Mayhap the lass wasnae as common as they thought. Some lord’s bastard daughter or the like. There may be someone who will fight the Lucettes on their plans to mark the boys as bastards.”
“Hadnae thought of that,” said Brian. “Yet, if she was better born, surely that fool Claud would have openly declared her his wife.”
“Nay. Blood-proud people dinnae like the fact that someone is a bastard, especially since many of them spring from common stock. ’Twas just a thought. When this is done, however, I would have a wee look at what is happening concerning those lads and their inheritance if I were you. Even if they are marked as bastards, a deal leaving them something of worth may be made to get that marriage annulled.”
“Aye, that will be done if only because Arianna also demanded something be given to the boys. Since the elder Lucettes must be pleased the boys are now out of France and Arianna has implied she willnae shame them with the truth of what their son did, she might just get what she asked for.”
“Clever lass. A little blackmail can be a good thing.” Sigimor caught his wife’s disgusted look and winked at her. “Your brother sent out word to the Murrays once the lads were safely at Scarglas.”
“I sent out word as weel.”
“Then help should be on its way. But, I think ye need to seek your bed, cousin. If I felt as weary as ye look, I would be snoring with my head on the table right now. We can talk on this in the morning.”
“I was thinking we should continue on our way in the morning.”
“Then ’tis even more important that ye get some rest.”
“Where was Arianna put then?”
“In Ilsa’s old bedchamber,” replied Jolene. “I have put ye in the one across from her.”
“Nay, I will stay with her,” Brian said, and could hear the force of demand in his voice despite how softly he spoke.
“Brian, she is not some simple wench. She is a lady, and a Murray.”
“I ken that. I also ken she is a widow, so ’tis nay as if I sully some cherished innocent.”
“I know what men think about widows, but that does not mean it is acceptable to treat them like you would some tavern wench. They still have a good name to protect.”
“I dinnae treat her like that but I willnae leave her alone, either.”
“Do you mean to marry her then?”
“Jo, m’love, leave the mon be,” said Sigimor.
“But ...” Jolene began.
“Nay. Go on with you, Brian. Ye will see that she is safe and cared for. Sleep weel and we will talk in the morning before ye leave.”
Brian quickly escaped the great hall before Jolene could say anything else. He knew it was wrong to be so open about the fact that he was Arianna’s lover, but the thought of not sleeping at her side forced him to be blunt. Jolene could not know that he did not have much time left with Arianna before he had to hand her over to her family. He was not going to waste one single minute of the time they had left in bowing to the proprieties.
He entered the room Sigimor’s only sister had once occupied and smiled as he closed the door. Arianna was little more than a lump beneath the blankets. Brian shed his clothes and crawled in beside her, pulling her into his arms. She murmured his name and pressed close to him.
“Brian?” she said, although he could see that she was not really awake.
“Aye, love.” He touched a kiss to her forehead.
“Ye are unhurt?”
“I am hale and so are all of Sigimor’s men. I fear Amiel managed to escape, though.”
“Bollocks.”
Brian looked down at her face, saw that her eyes were closed and the hand on his chest limp, and laughed softly. Arianna could not only ride a horse while asleep, she could carry on a conversation. He knew she would not recall a word of it, however.
He tucked her head under his chin, and rested his cheek against her hair. The herbs from her bath teased his senses and his body stirred with need, but he was so tired it was easy to quell the urge to make love to her. The need to sleep with her in his arms troubled him a little as it showed him he was not keeping the distance between them that he should. No matter how often he told himself that he had to stay close to keep her safe, he could not fully believe it. They were now inside a strong keep with a strong force of men to watch over them and fight an enemy that tried to get to them. Brian knew, in his heart, that he simply liked to hold her close as he slept.
The part of him that wanted to keep her rose up and he tried to banish it. Even if he could convince himself that she would be happy with him, that she felt more than passion for him, it would be selfish of him to try and hold on to her. He could not give her all the things she could find with another richer, better-born man. Arianna deserved a life of ease, surrounded by the finer things, and there would be little of that if she stayed with him. Even with the improvements made to Scarglas and the money he had saved, it would not equal what she had had as a child of the Murrays or the wife of a
comte.
comte.
Brian closed his eyes and held her a little closer. There was still some time left to them and he did not want to shadow it with thoughts of all they could not have together. For now, he would enjoy all they could share. He also swore that by the time he set her free, she would know her worth and be bled of the poison Claud had fed her for years.
Chapter 10
Fire flowed through her veins as Arianna crawled her way up through the fog of sleep. It took her only a moment to understand why she felt so hot and needy. Brian’s dark head was against her breast, his lips and tongue stirring that almost painful pleasure in her breasts. She groaned softly as she threaded her fingers through his thick hair, holding him close and silently inviting him to do as he pleased.
She shifted beneath his stroking hands and heated kisses. There was a small part of her that was still shocked by how wanton Brian could make her but her delight in the passion he blessed her with easily soothed that shock away. Until she felt the touch of his mouth upon that part of her where she ached for him the most.
“Brian,” she gasped as she tried to squirm away from him, but his hands on her hips held her firmly in place.
“Hush, loving. This will please you.”
Arianna remained tense as he kissed her there and teased her private flesh with his tongue. The women in her clan had occasionally mentioned such loving to her when her day to marry drew near, but she had been very certain that such an intimacy was not for her. As her desire, dimmed by her shock, roared back to life with a vengeance and she opened herself to his kiss, she decided that she had been hopelessly naive.
Each stroke of his tongue, each gentle nip and kiss, and even the way he caressed her thighs with his big hands, drove her wild. The need for his body to be joined with hers rapidly reached the point where she could wait no longer for him. Arianna heard her demand that he put himself inside her in a voice so thick with desire she barely recognized it as her own. She grabbed hold of his broad shoulders as he kissed his way back up her body with a slow greed that she had no patience for.
The moment he began to ease himself into her, she wrapped her legs around him and used them to push him deeper. She held him close as he filled her, fighting to hold back the need for release tightening inside her with every thrust of his body. Although she savored everything he did to her when they made love, Arianna enjoyed this part the most. This was when they were as close as two people could ever be. This was when they were one.
That realization was enough to cut the last tie she had on her control. Her release raced through her with such force, she cried out his name as her body shook from the strength of the pleasure he gave her. She was briefly aware of Brian thrusting fast and hard several times before he growled out her name and trembled in her arms as he found his own release. As she welcomed the warmth of his seed, she sank beneath the weight of the bliss pouring over her.
It was not until she felt the cool dampness of a cloth gently bathing her groin that Arianna began to return to her senses. Embarrassment threatened to swamp her and she struggled against it. It was not easy to defeat, however. Arianna had no trouble being touched there or having Brian enter her there, but kissing her there? Looking at her most private of parts? There was no denying that it had made her wild with desire, but now that desire had cooled, and she was left with the knowledge that she had shown none of a lady’s modesty or restraint. Shame over that was a worm trying to bore into her heart and mind and destroy the lingering pleasure she cherished over all they had just shared.
Brian tossed aside the cloth he had cleaned them both with and quickly rejoined Arianna in bed. He pulled her into his arms and kissed the hollow where her shoulder met her neck, enjoying the small shiver that went through her body. Despite that he was all too aware of the tension in her.
“Ye think too much, love,” he said, and was surprised at how her breasts moving against his skin as she took a deep breath and let it out slowly actually roused a spark of desire inside him. Obviously his body was a glutton when it came to the passion he found in her arms.
“Quite possibly,” she muttered. “Yet, weel, it was wonderful, but ...”
“But naught. We are nay more than two adults taking pleasure in each other.”
“I ken it.” She flopped onto her back, clutching the covers over her breasts and rubbing a hand over her forehead. “’Tis just that I dinnae ken who I am when the desire overcomes me.”
“’Tis a blessing when it is so strong, nay a sin or a worry.”
She grimaced. “I am nay surprised a mon would say that. It ne’er happened with my husband.”
Brian propped himself up on his elbow and looked at her. “He wasnae your husband. I think he wasnae much of a lover, either. Nay with you anyway.” He cursed his unruly tongue when she grew pale, distress darkening her amber eyes to a deep brown. “Arianna, I am a fumbling idiot. I ...”
“Nay.” She placed a finger against his lips. “Ye speak the pure truth. He was neither my husband nor my lover. I dinnae ken why I have such a difficult time remembering that. ’Tis only when we reached here that I ceased adding his name to mine, yet that shocked me when I did it. Ye would think that, since I can still hear things he said to me, that I would be able to recall that my marriage was a lie.”
“What do ye mean ye can still hear things that he said?”
Brian experienced a stab of emotion he easily recognized as jealousy and firmly told himself not to be an idiot. Claud had been no husband to her and, despite what attempts she had made to make her marriage a good one while still ignorant of the truth, Arianna had not loved the man. There was no ghost of some great love or lover for him to fight. What he had begun to see more clearly was that he just had to fight the poison the man had fed her for years. Claud Lucette had taken a bonnie, lively woman with confidence and strength, and turned her into a woman who questioned herself at every turn. Brian heartily wished he had been the one to kill the fool.
“The mon is in my head.” She blushed, certain that she must sound like a madwoman to him. “A part of me remains angry and defiant o’er all he did to me. Yet, the whispers of his insults and criticisms continue to haunt me. I then feel an utter fool that I ever listened to him only to ken that his words found some way to set down root in my heart and mind. Curse it, I am making no sense at all.”
He pulled her back into his arms and rested his chin on the top of her head. “Aye, ye make sense. I ken exactly what ye mean and have done so for a while. The mon poisoned ye.”
“Nay, he ...”
“Poisoned ye, slowly, for every day of the five long years ye had to suffer the lying fool. I told ye, words can be a sharp weapon and he used them against ye with a dangerous skill. Ye were barely a woman when ye wed him, and taken from a loving family to be sent to a place where no one cared for or respected ye. He used the uncertainty ye must have felt about your place there to make ye even more uncertain.”
And that still hurt, she realized as she nodded.
“Ye should have been supported by your mon, all who didnae treat ye right being severely punished. Instead, he stabbed at ye with cruel words day after day, and there was no one there to help ye shed the poison he fed ye all the time. The bastard hasnae been dead long. Ye just need more time to push out of your heart and mind all the venom he put in there. There are a few things ye need to remember at all times that will help ye do that.”
When he did not immediately tell her what those things were, she lifted her head to look at him. “What are they?”
“That he was a coward and he wasnae your husband. He kenned he was a coward, too, but couldnae accept that truth so he blamed ye for all that was wrong in his life. His every dealing with ye was a lie. I think he quickly kenned that ye were a clever lass with spirit enough to cause him some trouble so he did all he could to kill that spirit. He also kenned ye had wit and he needed to keep ye under his boot so that ye wouldnae turn that sharp wit to looking for why your marriage wasnae as it should have been.”
“Weel, I have finally cast off his name,” she murmured.
“’Tis a start. Now ye just have to cast off the rest of his lies.”
Arianna opened her mouth to speak and abruptly forgot what she was about to say. She looked around the strange bedchamber they were in. It was another moment before she recalled where they were.
“Brian,” she gasped, “ye had best slip back into your own room. The Camerons will rise soon and ye dinnae wish to be caught creeping about the place.”
“I am in my room,” he said, and had to bite back a smile when she looked at him with her eyes wide with shock.
“I walked here last night?”
“Nay, lass. We have the same bedchamber. I was offered my own but told them nay, that I stay with ye.”
A flush of embarrassment warmed her cheeks despite her pleasure over his statement. “The Camerons will think I am naught but some faithless creature, one with few morals. I mean, I am but newly widowed and even widows past their mourning time are more discreet than this.”
Brian kissed her and then rested his forehead against hers. “Love, they dinnae care.”
“How can ye ken that? I met Lady Jolene. I recall her now and she was verra much the lady born and bred.”
“That she is, and yet she is wed to Sigimor, who is nay a gentlemon of the court. And I can promise ye, she was nay even a widow and I doubt she remained chaste in his company for long. She wed him thinking it but a ploy to protect her.”
Distracted, she asked, “Was it?”
“Nay. Sigimor wanted her. He let her think what she wanted but had no intention of letting her ever leave Scotland or him again. He wanted her to stay and did all he could to make sure she did.”
Arianna had the sudden urge to ask Brian if he wanted her to stay with him, but hastily bit back the words. Not only would that leave her open to hearing him try to explain why he did not want to keep her, but he deserved better than her. He deserved a woman who was whole, who could give him children, and did not carry all the wounds she did from a marriage that was little more than five years in hell.
“A sneaky mon. My family would appreciate that,” she murmured, and then recalled what he had been doing when she had crawled into bed to sleep. “Oh! How could I forget what happened? I cannae believe I could be so thoughtless. Were ye hurt? Was any Cameron hurt?” She frowned when he laughed.
“I kenned that ye wouldnae recall it but we talked briefly on this when I got into this bed last night. None of us were injured. We trimmed the number of men Amiel had with him but we didnae catch him. The dark stopped the chase ere we could. So, there will be fewer men hunting us when we leave, if there are any at all. Sigimor and I think they may go to join with the others now.”
She sighed at the thought that she had to get back on a horse so soon but knew it was necessary. “Then we had best rise and eat so that we might leave and get to Scarglas ere we have a whole army to try and slip around.”
“We can wait one more night, lass.”
Brian could see the faint shadows beneath her eyes and knew she still needed to rest. If Amiel was headed to join the others at Scarglas, he was well ahead of them now. There would be no catching the man and no overtaking him so there was no real need to rush off to Scarglas. Arianna probably needed a few more days of rest before she fully recovered from all she had endured, but he could afford to give her the one more night. And, selfishly, he wanted one more night with her with no worries about who might slip up on them or how quickly they could get to their horses and flee. He pulled her close and began to kiss her neck.
“Um, should we not get up and break our fast?” she asked even as she tilted her head to the side to allow him better access.
“We will. After.”
“But we just did that.”
“Och, lass, ye must ken that a mon is ever hungry for a woman as sweet and hot as ye are. Morning, noon, and night.” He paused just before kissing her mouth. “Are ye sore from all the riding?”
Arianna briefly considered saying she was for it was scandalous to roll about beneath the covers with a man she was not wed to when she was a guest at someone’s home. Then she cast her unease and fear of censure aside. Time was short for her and Brian and she was not going to allow anything to steal away the first truly peaceful moment they had shared. There would be no one riding hard on their heels, no one forcing them to run out the back of the keep, and no one forcing them to do more riding than she ever wanted to do again. There was also the fact that, if the falsity of her marriage to Claud ever became common knowledge, she would be marked a whore anyway, unfair though that was, so why not at least commit some sin she could have fond memories of?
“Nay,” she said, and pulled his face down to hers so that she could kiss him with all the renewed desire she could feel growing inside her.
“I think ye should marry that lass,” said Sigimor as he handed Brian a big tankard of ale.
Brian scowled at his cousin. He had suspected something different when the man had pulled him into his small ledger room. A discussion about what he should or should not be doing with Arianna was an odd choice for Sigimor. It was not any of the man’s business, either, but he knew telling Sigimor that would not deter him.
“Sigimor, I have naught to offer such a lass,” he said.
Other books
Evermore by Rebecca Royce
Rough Diamonds: Wyoming Tough\Diamond in the Rough by Diana Palmer
Chasing Mayhem by Cynthia Sax
The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century by Harry Turtledove
Prophecy Girl by Melanie Matthews
Lara by Bertrice Small
Beginning by Michael Farris Smith
Rough Cut by Owen Carey Jones
Wild for the Girl by Ambrose, Starr
A God Who Hates by Sultan, Wafa