Highland Champion (23 page)

“Aye,” replied Liam as he also sheathed his sword. “Keira, ye may cease poking Sir Kinnaird in the back now.”

“Tell this woman to release me,” demanded Lady Maude as Keira stepped out from behind Kinnaird.

“Nay, not yet,” said Kinnaird as Liam opened his mouth to tell Joan to let go of Lady Maude. “Verra clever,” the man said as he studied the hold Joan had on his wife. “Hurts, I suspect, eh, Maudie.”

“Robbie, how can ye allow this woman to abuse me so?” asked Lady Maude in a tearful voice.

“It seems it makes ye tell the truth, something that has obviously been a stranger to ye for a while.”

Not wanting Joan dragged into the middle of this, Liam looked at Keira. “Perhaps ye could—” he stuttered to a halt when Keira held her arm out straight, her hand palm out toward his face.

“Nay. I am done with this. I was up half the night trying to figure out that woman’s twisted, wee mind. I am tired, and my head aches. All I want to do is lie down and mayhap, nibble on an oatcake or two and drink goat’s milk. I am sure Joan doesnae mind assisting ye in untying the knots this wretched woman had tied ye all up in.” When Joan murmured her agreement, Keira nodded. “Good. Have at it then.” She left them, praying every step of the way that she could make it to her bedchamber before she was ill.

Liam, along with everyone else in the bailey, watched Keira disappear into the keep, still clutching the sword, although the tip of it was dragging in the dirt. It would be nice if all Keira had brooded on was what plot Lady Maude had been hatching, but Liam doubted he would be so lucky. He looked at Kinnaird at the same time the man looked at
him.

“A Murray lass to the bone,” Kinnaird said. “Ye will have your hands full with that one.” He scowled at his wife. “And ye will have no more trouble from this one. Your sister is a lying whore, Maude, and ye are a great fool for believing her. Aye, and ye have made me a fool. I have been trying to kill a mon who hasnae done me any wrong.” He briefly glanced at Liam. “S’truth, I could have been killed. Was that your plan?”

“Nay, m’love, I—”

“Hush. Just hush.” He looked at Liam again. “I regret she pulled ye into this. I offer my apologies.”

“For trying to fight me honorably or for having me beaten near to death?” Liam asked, not surprised when Sir Kinnaird looked shocked and confused over that latter accusation, for Liam was now certain that Lady Maude had ordered the beating. He would not let her hide that truth from her husband. “So it wasnae ye who set those men on me?”

“The insult was to me, and my honor demanded I avenge it myself. Or rather, the insult I thought ye had inflicted.” Kinnaird scowled at his wife again. “Ye had him beaten? For what? Refusing to cuckold me?”

“He cuckolded Edmund,” Lady Maude said.

“Nay, I think not.” Kinnaird looked at the men who had come to Ardgleann with his wife. “Ye should have told me what she had done. I wasnae precise enough in my orders to ye, I can see. Ye will continue to accompany her wherever she goes, but now ye will tell me more than the where. Ye will tell me everything she does, everyone she meets, and everything she says. Take her to the cart.”

“But, m’love—” protested Lady Maude as the men took her from Joan.

“Best ye keep silent for now, woman. I will speak to ye later.” The moment she was taken away, Kinnaird turned back to face Liam. “Ye must allow me to make reparations for what she has done, for that beating and all the trouble she has caused ye.”

“Nay, there is no need. In a way, it served me weel.” Liam smiled faintly. “I met my wife because of it.” He glanced around at Ardgleann. “I gained a lot more than I lost.”

“I heard ye had to fight to claim it and ye rid Scotland of a scourge in the doing of it.”

“Luck was with us, and the battle cost us little.”

“From what I saw as I rode here, that bastard left a hard mark on the place. I will send ye a few things to help fill your larder for the winter.”

Knowing they could use such largesse and that Kinnaird felt a need to do something to make amends, Liam said, “I thank ye. It will be a most welcome gift.”

Kinnaird bowed and walked away. Within a few minutes, he, his wife, and all of his men were gone from Ardgleann. Liam sighed and shook his head. That man had a hard road ahead of him. Beneath the anger and disappointment in his wife, there had definitely been pain. The woman could have been trying to get her husband killed, and Kinnaird knew it.

“Weel, your wife obviously
was
thinking hard,” said Tait as he moved to stand next to Liam. “Lady Maude isnae quite sane in her jealousy of her sister. I wonder how Keira found that out.”

“I suspect she started to have suspicions the same as we did. The arm-twisting probably gained her the rest.”

Tait grinned. “A fine thing to teach a wee lass.”

“It wasnae me. I suspect it was her brothers. Or some of her many cousins.”

“I believe her allotted time for thinking is over now. Might be best if ye get to her before she turns that clever, wee mind on ye.”

Liam frowned. “Might be best, although she still seemed verra angry.”

“That might prove useful. Sigimor finds it so.”

Nodding slowly, Liam started toward the keep. By the time he reached the foot of the steps leading to the floor his bedchamber was on, he was feeling very ill-used. He had been insulted and held at sword point in his own bailey all because of a woman’s jealousy and lies. His wife should be standing at his side, supporting him and soothing him, not sulking in her bedchamber.

And, he thought as he reached the door, she was too quick to believe lies about him. From the moment he had met her, he had done nothing to abuse her trust, yet she refused to give it to him. She was with child, yet she did not see fit to inform him of the fact. The looks she gave him at times hinted at the deeper, richer feelings he wanted and needed from her, but she said nothing.

His temper barely leashed, Liam began to lecture himself on the many ills caused by losing one’s temper. He tried to open the door to the bedchamber. It was locked again. Liam felt every restraint he had just put on his temper snap, and he pounded on the door. “Open this door!”

“Open this door!”

Keira opened one eye and glared at the door, wincing at the sound of Liam’s fist pounding on it. She had barred it to keep anyone from interrupting the rest she so desperately needed. Her peace had not lasted very long, she thought crossly.

“Open it now, Keira, or I swear I will have it chopped down!”

Her eyes widened as she slowly got off the bed. Liam sounded furious. She unbarred the door and hastily stepped back in case he threw open the door as angry men often did. When the door was opened almost gently and her husband stepped into the room with his usual grace, she began to feel a little uneasy. When he quietly shut the door and latched it, Keira looked up at his face and had to fight down the urge to go hide under the bed. Liam was very furious indeed. Her even-tempered, pleasant-speaking husband obviously had a true redhead’s temper hidden beneath his calm.

“Are ye done sulking yet?” he asked.

“I wasnae sulking,” she protested. “I was thinking.”

“Aye, all about your rutting swine of a husband?”

Keira opened her mouth to refute that, but Liam gave her no chance to do so.

“Aye, I was somewhat of a lecherous fool for a few years,” he said as he paced the room in front of her. “I have admitted it. I have e’en admitted that it wasnae weel done of me. But do ye listen when I swear I never bedded that madwoman? Nay! Do ye listen when I tell ye that I never bedded any married or betrothed woman, never bedded an innocent maid, never seduced or lied my way into a woman’s bed, and never gave one single woman one tiny promise? Nay!”

“Liam, I—” she started to say, only to fall nervously silent when he halted in front of her, put his hands on his hips, and scowled at her.

“I am most definitely at my wit’s end with ye, Keira,” he said. “I took solemn vows with ye, but ye dinnae believe I meant them, do ye? I swore to ye that I would be faithful, and ye doubt my word on that, too, dinnae ye? I give ye pretty words, and ye just shrug them aside. I have done things with ye that I have ne’er done with another. All this, and ye still eye me as if I am about to grab the nearest lass and rut with her on the table!”

“Oh, nay, I most certainly do not,” she protested, but his scowl stopped her from saying anything else in her defense.

“I told myself to be patient, that I am the one who gained the most from this marriage of ours. Weel, I have been patient, and I am done with it. Ye will cease thinking that I am about to betray ye at every turn. E’en if I wanted to, I wouldnae, for I have made vows before God and mon. A solemn oath. But I dinnae want to betray ye with anyone, ever, yet I cannae think of how to make ye believe that.”

An almost plaintive note entered his voice, and he started to pace again. Keira opened her mouth to assure Liam that she had begun to believe him concerning the lady Maude, but some inner voice made her quickly shut her mouth. Liam was ranting, and she knew all too well how much one could expose one’s inner feelings and thoughts while caught up in a rant. It might be wise to just stand there silent and let the man ramble on.

“I try to tell ye all this when we make love, but ye cannae see it. ’Tis there though in my every touch, my every kiss. Yet still ye remain blind. Ye hold part of yourself away from me, guarding it like some great treasure I might loot and destroy. Since I have ne’er
much cared what lurked in a woman’s mind or heart, I find I have no skill at reading yours. If I cannae make ye see that my desire is for ye alone, how can I e’er make ye understand that my heart is yours as weel?” He shook his head. “I ne’er thought to fall in love. After being with so many women, I felt I must be immune. E’en worried from time to time o’er the lack. Yet now, I sometimes wish I truly were a mon who couldnae love. I—”

Liam grunted as Keira threw herself against him and hugged him tightly. He blinked and looked down at the top of her head as he tried to think of all he had just said. It was obvious he had said something right while he had been ranting, and it would serve him well if he could recall just what it had been.

His eyes widened slightly as he wrapped his arms around her slim body. At some point during his rant, his anger had begun to fade, and he had begun to feel sadly defeated. He had realized that he had no more ideas of how to make his wife at least trust him, let alone how to make her love him as he loved her. Liam had the distinct feeling that he had told Keira that he loved her somewhere within his litany of complaints. It appeared that Tait was right. He had needed to go first.

Keira did not think she could hold Liam close enough. She was trembling, and her heart was pounding, but it was sheer joy pounding in her veins. Liam loved her. The knowledge spread through her, warming every part of her from her head to her toes. She felt as if she had drunk a full jug of wine.

The declaration had not come during some sweet moment of passion or even in the sort of romantic moment she had always envisioned. Nor had he looked her right in the eye and declared his heart in clear, precise language. She knew he had said it, however. It had been there amongst all the complaints about how blind she was and how she never listened to him. Oddly enough, it was that that made her believe him.

“Oh, Liam, I love ye, too,” she said and tried to hug him even tighter.

Liam tilted her face up to his and kissed her. It was a ravenous kiss, hungry and demanding, and Keira met it and matched it. She was not sure who started removing their clothing first, but soon, they were both naked. They fell onto the bed in a tangle of limbs. Keira gave herself over completely to the wild passion she and Liam had stirred in each other with their words of love. Liam caressed and kissed every inch of her, and she lovingly returned that gift, giving all she knew how to give and holding nothing back from him. He brought her to the very edge of bliss time and time again until she began to curse him for denying her, instead of begging him to join with her. Then he was deep inside her, and Keira clung to him as he fiercely pushed them both off the precipice.

Trying not to move much for Liam seemed to be sound asleep on top of her, Keira looked around the room and grinned. There were clothes scattered everywhere. She tried to recall when they had knocked the table over, but her memories were still pleasantly clouded with thoughts of the pleasure and joy they had found in each other’s arms.

Keira frowned a little. Liam had not said the words clearly yet, although his reaction to her declaration was certainly all any woman could want or hope for. He had made her repeat the words again and again as they made love as if he could not hear enough of them. Keira had no doubt that her love was wanted, welcomed eagerly.

She felt as if her heart had been unchained. Liam’s past only caused her a twinge now and she was certain that too would soon fade. Despite the pretty words he had given them and how kindly she was sure he had treated them, Liam had used those women in
his past as much as they had used him. There had been no real depth of feeling, only lust. There really were no ghosts in his past that she had to compete with or banish from his memory.

And he did have a right to some of his complaints, she silently conceded. She had heard his words, but had not really listened or believed. She did wonder what he had done with her that he had never done with anyone else, however. In the hope of rousing him so that he could answer that question, she began to trail her fingers up and down his back.

Liam opened one eye, saw the curve of his wife’s lovely breast, and had to kiss it. His wife loved him. He had made her repeat the words several times during their frenzied lovemaking. Liam did not think he could ever hear it often enough. In a way he did not truly understand, it made him feel whole. It also made him feel strong and ready to face whatever the future held.

“Liam?”

He smiled. He liked the husky note that lingered in Keira’s voice after they had made love. “M-m-m?”

“When ye were ranting—”

“I wasnae ranting. I was merely discussing a few things with ye.”

“Of course. Weel, when ye were discussing these few things with me, ye said ye had done things with me that ye had ne’er done with another. Being that I am nay as worldly as ye are, I cannae think of what those things might be.”

Hearing no lingering anger in her voice when she spoke of his past, he lifted his head to look at her. “Curious, are ye?”

“Weel, aye. Ye ken all that I havenae done with another since I was a virgin. And since all I ken now I have learned from ye, how could I guess what is new for ye as weel?”

“Verra true.” He began to trail kisses over her still slightly flushed face. “I have ne’er slept the night with a woman. I have ne’er bathed with a woman.” He grinned at the blush that warmed her cheeks as she obviously recalled those times they had shared a bath. “And I have ne’er praised a woman’s body with kisses as I have yours.” Her blush deepened to such a brilliant shade that he knew she understood exactly what he was referring to and he laughed softly.

“So it was truly just a rutting,” she murmured.

Realizing that she was trying to finish putting his past firmly in the past, he agreed. “I followed my rules; I said pretty words to make them smile; and I took my ease with them.” He brushed a kiss over her mouth. “I do wish I could have come to you as pure as ye came to me.”

“Oh, that would have been nice, but ’tis probably for the best that one of us had had a little practice.”

Thinking of the embarrassment and fumbling that had constituted his first time with a woman, he silently agreed. “I am still learning,” he said.

Keira had to laugh. “Nonsense. A mon as weel, er, practiced as ye has naught left to learn.”

“Oh, aye, he does.” Liam studied her face, idly brushing strands of hair off it. “I have learned a lot since I married ye. I have learned the taste of a woman.” He winked when she blushed. “I have learned that some of those positions I caught a glimpse of in the less saintly books some of the monks have can really give one pleasure. I had but the
two before.” He bit back a grin for he could tell by the still look on her face that she was hastily counting up all the positions they had tried. “And I have learned how complete it makes me feel to be one with the woman I love,” he added in a soft voice. “How loving the woman I am with makes all other times meaningless, empty, for none could e’er equal the pleasure she gives me.”

Keira wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face against his throat. “Ye said it clear. I was wondering if ye would.”

“Ye said it clear. And verra loudly once or twice,” he murmured and laughed when she lightly pinched his side. “I dinnae want ye to e’er doubt it, lass, though I may lag a wee bit from time to time in saying it.”

“I ken ye would ne’er say such a thing unless ye truly meant it, Liam.”

“And do ye trust me now, love?”

She lifted her head to smile at him. “Oh, I think I have for a while. That woman just made me so angry, and I wasnae sure why or if some of it was aimed at ye. I would like ye to remember that, Liam. I trust ye to hold to your vows. I trust in your love for me and in our marriage. I just dinnae trust all those women out there who look at ye and want ye and think to walk right o’er me to get at ye. I will get angry. I cannae promise I willnae. But e’en if I snap and snarl at ye, ’tisnae because I think ye will be rushing off to the nearest bed with whate’er woman is ogling ye at that moment.”

“I think I understand what ye are trying to say. ’Tis the situation, nay me.”

“Aye. I cannae always just punch them in the mouth, but there is that anger sitting there in my belly and—”

“There I am. If we didnae live so sheltered here, ye would have to deal with the same from me, lass.” He kissed her when she frowned. “Trust me, ye would be heartily pursued if ye e’er went to the king’s court.”

Keira just smiled, not believing a word of it, but flattered that her husband found her so beautiful he feared other men would pursue her. “There is something I have been meaning to tell ye, Liam,” she murmured, her gaze fixed upon his chest as she idly ran her finger over the muscles there.

It was difficult not to reveal his knowledge, that he knew she was about to tell him of the child they had made. “Ah, a deep, dark secret?”

“I have no deep,
dark
, secrets, Liam. Where would I get them? I have spent my whole life living in a place much like this. My time at the monastery was a grand adventure.” She smiled when he laughed and then added very quietly, “But I think I may soon have another adventure. In, oh, mayhap seven months?”

Even though he had known what she was about to tell him, Liam still felt deeply moved. She looked a little uncertain, and he kissed her. “We shall have a wee lass with black curls and dark green eyes,” he said as he stroked her stomach.

“Nay, a lad with dark copper hair and eyes that can be blue and can be green.” She laughed and then stroked his cheek. “Ye are pleased? Ye ne’er said much about wanting a bairn or two.”

“Ah, love, how can ye ask? I have thought of ye as the mother of my children since before we were married. I could see it so clearly almost from the start. Wee black-haired lassies I could spoil and ye would have to discipline.”

“Thank ye.”

“My pleasure.”

“Oh, dear. I just had a thought.”

“Your brothers warned me about letting ye think too much,” he teased.

“Wretches. Nay, I just realized we shall have to name Sigimor as godfather.”

“Ye dinnae think that would be a good idea?” He knew she was not quite sure about Sigimor, but now that she had spoken of naming him godfather to their first child, he knew he wanted that very much.

“Oh, nay, it would be wonderful. I just thought of how utterly spoiled a lass would be with ye as a father, my brothers as her uncles, and Sigimor as godfather.”

He laughed and hugged her. “We shall have a verra good life, my love. A very good life indeed.”