Highland Grace (19 page)

The other warrior struggled to break free,
first pounding his fists into Callum’s side and then shoving his
hand over Callum’s face to push his head back. “I did not rape her!
I swear it!” he said, his voice choked, compressed.

Callum looked into the reddened face and
arrogant gray eyes of his opponent and lowered his fist. He kept
his arm against the warrior’s neck, however. He forced breath into
his lungs as he settled his hand over the pommel of his sword.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t cut that thing off that dangles ‘tween
your thighs, Robert MacVie.”

“Because I didn’t do the like to you when you
took the same pleasure of my sister eight years past,” the man
croaked as he tried to pull free of Callum’s hold. “And, God knows,
I wanted to kill you then. But I dared not touch the prized
grandson of the chieftain of clan Maclean, else my neck be
noosed.”

Callum stepped back a pace and dropped his
arm. “Your sister shared her favors with others before me, and well
you know it. Besides, what man says nay to a gift freely
offered?”

MacVie rubbed his throat and coughed. “‘Tis
my defense as well, old friend,” he rasped. He gave Callum an angry
glare. “And ‘twas of further enticement that I had the chance to
avenge my sister’s disgrace.”

Callum growled low in his throat. “She was
not
disgraced
. At least not by me. And, is she not now wed
to the man she strove to make jealous with her antics? She is lady
of a great estate, just as your family wanted for her. I know of no
lasting disgrace on her for her youthful indiscretions.” Callum
curled his hands into fists at his sides. “But this...this I can’t
abide. You’ve lain with my
wife
. While she carries a
babe
in her belly.”

MacVie’s nostrils flared. “Mayhap you should
keep closer watch on that cold-as-stone whore of a wife of yours
then, because
she
came to the soldiers’ quarters looking for
a lover; I did not seek her out.” He flung his arm in the direction
of the keep. “I’ve nearly the whole of the lodge as witness to my
claim, should you only inquire there.”

Callum’s shoulders sagged. He hadn’t believed
his wife’s tale of innocence the night before, but with this new
evidence of her treachery, his hope that there was still some way
to make the marriage work for both of them was destroyed. “Nay, no
need. I believe you.” He turned away and closed his eyes tight
against the humiliation and anger that seethed within him. “Get you
out of here before I change my mind and cut you, as you deserve,”
Callum said hoarsely.

MacVie moved around Callum and walked
outside.

* * *

Bao strode over to the young warrior as he
approached his mount. “You are on night watch for the next two
moons. Starting now. Go soldier.”

Bao noted MacVie’s clenched jaw and knew he
was struggling to hold back a retort to his lieutenant. With a
sharp nod, the man mounted his horse and turned it in the direction
of the fortress, kicking it into a canter in his hurry to be
away.

* * *

When Callum was at last alone in the ruin, he
turned and gave the chamber a quick inspection. His eye snagged on
a crumpled scroll where his wife’s mantle had been. His brows
slammed together.
What is this then?
Some further proof of
betrayal on his wife’s part, no doubt.

He moved toward it and picked it up. After
unfurling it, he scanned the words and his heart dipped into his
belly before lodging like a clod of mud in his throat.
Branwenn?
A slave?

And he recognized both signers of the
document. He bit back a growl and flung himself out the door,
pounding in the direction of his wife and Bao.

“I believe this is the
deed
you
demanded from my wife last eve.” Callum thrust the scroll in Bao’s
hand.

Lara rushed him, making a grab for the
document. “Nay! ‘Tis mine!”

Callum turned a stony glare on her. “Stand
back. I’ll speak to you later in privy.” He took hold of Bao’s arm
and cocked his head in the direction of the loch, in a petition for
them to move a distance away from his wife’s prying ears.

His cousin nodded and once they were several
paces away, he opened the deed and looked at it. “My thanks. I am
in your debt for a lifetime for this.”

“Nay, you are not. My wife bribed you with
the promise of this document?”

“Aye.”

“I’ve met the stepbrother. He held this from
you?”

Bao nodded. “For years, he only held it
because I continued to pay his price, but last year he got a
glimpse of Branwenn, and now he will not rest until he has her. No
amount of coin will appease him.”

Callum ground his teeth and looked in his
wife’s direction. She stood with her hand resting on her palfrey’s
neck looking back at them. “I tried to get the truth from Lara last
night, but she refused to say more than the lie she told when I
came upon the two of you. I finally left our chamber, as I was too
angry to deal with her any longer. I’d hoped to speak to you this
morn, after tempers had cooled, but when I discovered her
missing…,” he sighed, “well, it turned out a boon for you in the
end.”

His cousin gripped his shoulder. “Mayhap all
will be well between you once she has her babe. It may soften
her.”

Callum shrugged. “I’m going to take her from
here, take her back to our holding, before she can cause more
mischief.”

“Aye, that is a wise course.”

“I shall confine her to a portion of our
keep, for at least the remainder of her childing. She is a danger
to our babe, a danger to others, and, ultimately, a danger to
herself.”

His cousin only nodded. Callum studied him a
moment. “Last eve Lara said that you were selling yourself at the
king’s palace. I didn’t believe her, but now…with this…. Is it
true?”

Bao didn’t look at him. He kept his gaze on
something in the distance. “Aye.”

Callum stared, wide-eyed at his profile. His
throat constricted. “Was Branwenn in the trade as well, then?”

Bao’s spine straightened and he did look at
him then. His eyes were ablaze. “Nay! She is an innocent and knows
naught of that other life I led.”

Callum’s lungs opened and he was able to take
a breath. “Were you that desperate for coin?”

“Not in the way you think.” Bao sighed and
ran his hand through his hair. “I made enough as a contracted
soldier to support us but I was determined to make my fortune so
that I could pay Giric’s price for not taking Branwenn, but also so
that no man could ever again call me slave. I desired a worthy
match for my sister as well, and that could not be if I had no
dowry for her.”

“Does anyone else in the family know of your
other profession?”

“Only Jesslyn.” Bao looked at the scroll in
his hand. “This means more to me than anything else I own.”

“Does Branwenn know about it?”

“Nay. And I don’t intend to tell her.” Bao’s
eyes drilled into Callum’s and Callum understood. “Aye, I’ll not
say a word.”

“Good.”

“Keep it safe—or better yet,
burn it.
”
Callum jogged over to his steed and took the flint and striker from
his satchel. When he was back at his cousin’s side, he handed them
to him. “Let us see an end to this now.” From the corner of his
eye, he saw his wife turn with her horse’s lead and walk away.
“Stay where you are!” he yelled at her. When she halted and turned
a virulent glare on him, he smiled. “I’m having much the same
thoughts about you,
dear.
”

His cousin made quick work of setting the
scroll aflame and as they watched its edges turn brown, then black
with cinder, smelled the smoky flesh-smell of burning vellum, Lara
screeched her discontent behind them.

After they’d stomped out the last remaining
ember and Callum had helped his wife to mount, the three turned
back toward the keep.

* * *

Bao’s insides churned, in spite of the
rekindled hope for his future with Jesslyn now that the deed was
destroyed. Should he tell her about it? About Lara’s bargain? About
the fact that he’d agreed to it, and would have gone through with
it? She’d made love to him last night, freely and passionately, and
he knew that had been a huge step for her to make, proof of her
restored trust in him. To tell her now that he’d nearly broken
their vows—destroyed their marriage again—might be the last death
knell for them. Especially with the other indiscretion that hung,
like so much dried offal, between them, tho’ they’d both managed to
ignore it and move forward without speaking of it.

He looked at Lara from the corner of his eye.
But Callum was determined to get his wife gone from here quickly.
And no doubt he’d keep her under lock and key until their departure
in the morn. Mayhap, ‘twas not
so
necessary to tell Jesslyn
just now. Later, mayhap even sometime after their babe was born, he
would tell her.

Aye. That seemed a good plan.

* * *

Lara fumed as she plodded along beside her
husband. The two men were utterly silent. They hadn’t said more
than a handful of words since they left the ruin. Her husband was
angry and she couldn’t help dreading what he planned for her, but
she refused to mewl and beg for his forgiveness. Let him do as he
would with her, she thought with false bravery, for ‘twould only
make her that much more cunning in her devices.

She turned her gaze to Bao. She hadn’t
finished with him—or Jesslyn—yet. But how to lay waste to them
before she departed this place? She’d seen how he’d treated the
young warrior and the reverence the man had given him. Mayhap, the
best way to ruin him would be to let his warriors learn of his
shameful past. They’d not be so eager to obey him then, she was
sure.

“We leave at first light on the morrow,
wife,” Callum told her curtly, finally breaking the silence.

Lara nodded once, but kept her gaze focused
straight ahead, not yet daring to meet his eyes.

“I shall see that provisions are prepared for
your journey, cousin,” she heard Bao tell her husband. “Do you
require anything else?”

“Aye. I wish for my mother to stay on here a
sennight more, as originally planned. I would rather my mother not
have any part in the preparations I intend upon our arrival
home.”

“’Twill be done. We’ll send her home with an
escort of Maclean warriors when her visit is done.”

“My thanks,” Callum replied.

* * *

Bao stepped into his bedchamber an hour later
to find his wife up and dressed.

“Where were you?” she asked as she walked
toward him.

He’d tell her. Later. For now, he just wanted
to be with her, knowing that he would not have to leave her,
knowing that he would not have to take his sister to a nunnery. “I
was with Callum. He needed me to help him with something.”

“Mmm.”

“Are you ready to break your fast?”

She smiled. “Aye.”

* * *

Jesslyn and Bao had barely finished their
meal when they heard Daniel shout, “
‘Tis time! Grandmother!
Jesslyn! Aunt Maggie! ‘Tis time!
” as he pounded down the stairs
from the upper floor.

Leaping to their feet, they rushed across the
great hall, through the arched doorway, and into the antechamber
leading to the stairs and the door of the keep.

Bao strode over to Daniel and took him by the
arm. “What are you raving about, brother? What mean you, ‘’Tis
time’?”

Daniel ran his hand through his hair. “Maryn.
The babe. Her water broke. ‘Tis time,” he answered.

“That’s wonderful! Oh! But, I need to prepare
the linens!” Jesslyn said. Turning to Bao, she said urgently, “Have
a servant bring up several buckets of water; we’ll need to heat it
on the hearth. And make sure they bring more peat and kindling as
well.” She darted up the stairs then with n’er a backward
glance.

Bao turned back to Daniel. “I must deal with
the water and peat; you need to find our grandmother. Try the
kitchen garden.”

Daniel nodded and headed through the door of
the great hall, evidently intending to take the back way to the
kitchen.

* * *

Jesslyn flew through the open doorway of the
laird’s bedchamber and came to a halt. Maryn was busily poking at
the embers in the hearth, humming a merry tune and acting as if
naught of import was about to take place. An image of her friend
standing at the window upstairs in the solar the day she discovered
her childing state, fussing and gnawing at her nails over the fact
that she had no idea how to be a mother, flashed through Jesslyn’s
mind just then. Was this an act or was she truly this calm? Jesslyn
decided she’d best tread lightly until she was sure of Maryn’s
state of mind. “Would you like some help with that?” she asked,
coming up beside her friend.

Maryn glanced up from her task, a look of
surprise on her countenance. “I didn’t hear you come in,” she said,
and then turned her gaze once again to the hearthfire. Shaking her
head, she answered, “Nay, ‘tis almost done.” She tipped her head to
the side and gave it a quick toss, indicating a stool nearby. “Have
a seat. Would you like a bit of wine? Daniel was so kind to bring
me a flagon-full earlier.”

“Nay, I’ve just had some in the great hall,”
Jesslyn replied, settling on the stool. Leaning forward, she placed
her elbows on her knees and twined her fingers together, saying
with care, “Daniel came down to tell us you were in your childbed
time. Are you, Maryn?”

She shrugged. “Aye,” she said in a barely
audible whisper.

Jesslyn’s heart tripped and then began
beating wildly. She was not prepared for this! She looked toward
the doorway and then back at Maryn. Where was Grandmother Maclean?
Or Aunt Maggie? Why weren’t they here yet? She had no idea what
came next or what she should do to help her friend. “Mayhap, you
should be abed?”