Highland Grace (38 page)

“It tortures me that a man I’ve never met
will soon have control over your life. I wish you hadn’t given
yourself over to the prince,” Bao chastened. “Daniel and I had sent
for our allies and we would have won the day. You would not have
had to go so far away from us then.”

Branwenn pulled back a bit and gazed up into
her brother’s worried countenance. “But how could I have had even a
small kernel of happiness for the rest of my life if you or Daniel
had been killed in the process? In the end, ‘twas much more
important to me that I leave with you well and happy than that I
stay with one of you cold in your grave because of me.”

“But
our
happiness will be tempered by
sadness at your parting, for I know not if we will ever see each
other again.”

“Mayhap my new husband will be kind and allow
us to visit in a few years,” Branwenn said.

Bao nodded, but his eyes held little
conviction. “Aye, mayhap he will.”

“What think you of your son?” Branwenn asked,
needing to change the subject. Her heart was overflowing with
sadness and she couldn’t bear another moment of the pain—‘twas time
to think on things more joyous.

Bao grinned. “He’s almost as handsome as his
father.”

“
Almost!
He’s at least twice your
looks, brother mine!” Branwenn teased, but her face crumpled and
her eyes filled with tears before she could stem their flow.

“Branwenn!” Bao said. He rocked her in his
arms, rubbing her quaking shoulders while she cried out her sorrow.
“He’s beautiful!” she wailed. “
All
your bairns will be
lovely!”

He cleared his throat and she heard him
swallow before saying, “And so, my comely sister, will be all of
yours.”

* * *

Bao had remained with Branwenn until it was
time for her to depart, reminiscing on their lives together. By the
time Branwenn left the solar just before dawn, Bao had felt
slightly more ready to give her over to her brother-germain’s
keeping. And now that he’d seen her off, said his final fairwell,
even lied to her that he’d seen his new bairn to ease her
heartache, ‘twas time to meet his son. At last.

As he came down the hall toward the stair, he
was intercepted by Maryn.

“Good morn to you Bao. I thought you would
surely be with Alleck and Giric hunting in the wood.”

Alarm shot through him.
“Giric?”
Without realizing it, he gripped her arm. “Mean you Giric
MacBean
?”

“Bao! You’re looking wild-eyed. Calm
yourself. And, aye, ‘tis Giric MacBean—our
ally
we summoned
during the siege—with whom the lad’s gone hunting.” She lifted her
hand to his brow. “Are you still fever—Where are you going?”

Bao didn’t answer, didn’t halt, didn’t turn,
he plowed forward and leapt down the stairs three at a time.

“
What is wrong?”
Maryn called down to
him. He heard the pad of her footsteps behind him. “Stay here!” he
shouted back.

* * *

“He was too fast for me to catch up to,
Jesslyn,” Maryn said between gulps of air. “Something is amiss.
Something dire. Oh, God. My heart won’t stop pounding.”

“I’m going after him. If there’s danger to my
son, I won’t stand here doing naught.”

“I’m coming with you. We must have someone
find Daniel and tell him to follow as well.”

“Aye—Did Bao have his sword?”

“Nay—only his dirk.”

“We must take him is sword, then.”

* * *

Bao followed the trail Giric and Alleck
left—‘twas easy enough, as Giric clearly believed there would be no
suspicion of his purpose from any quarter. Did he even know Bao was
here at the Maclean holding? Even if he did, he no doubt knew of
his injury and the fevered stupor he’d been battling, thought
himself safe to do as he would with the lad.

He’d torn open his groin injury when he’d
flown down the stairs earlier and the searing pain helped to keep
his thoughts focused and the dizziness that threatened a swoon at
bay.

* * *

“There he is!” Maryn pointed to the copse of
trees up ahead. “I can see movement just there, where the sun
lights the break in the trees.”

“Aye…
yes!
Yes, ‘tis him!” Jesslyn
kicked her mount into a gallop and her friend did the same.

* * *

Bao dismounted and tied his horse’s reins to
a tree outside the same cave where he’d tricked Jesslyn into
coupling with him long sennights past. His heartbeat’s rapid meter
increased as a near-dibilitating dread took hold of him. Weak-kneed
and lungs blowing, he moved with silent tread to the mouth of the
cave. A drop of salty sweat pierced his eye and he pressed his palm
to it, then swept an arm over his face to mop the moisture.

The acrid smell of a peatfire hung heavy in
the air as he took his first step through the mouth of the cave and
saw the reflection of the blaze’s licking flames bathing the cavern
wall in a sheen of rust and ochre. They were further into the
recesses than Jesslyn and he had gone, and that increased his dread
further. The cave held it’s cold and when it sliced through his
sweat-soaked shirt, it sent a shiver through Bao. Just then, an
arced form severed the wall’s glow with a dark eclipse and, as if
reliving his own nightmare, he heard Giric say, “See how much
better we can judge your strength now that you are bare?”

Bao bolted forward.

“Just look at how the sinews in Gowan’s arms
and chest flex as he hefts the sword. A warrior must—”

“Get your filthy hands off my son!”

“Papa!”

Bao wrenched Giric’s arms behind his back and
slammed him against the wall. The man’s cheek made a satisfying
thwak
as it met the stone.

“Ahhh!” Giric struggled to free himself,
nearly losing his footing on the slick moss that populated the
edges of the floor nearest the walls of the cave, but Bao yanked
him back up, nearly jerking the man’s arm from its socket. Giric
let out another cry of pain then said in a strangled tone, “I was
only showing the lad how to heft a sword!”

Bao slammed him into the wall again and
turned his head to look at the other lad—older than Alleck by a few
years, but also stripped down to his braes.

“You are Gowan?”

The lad’s eyes were wide with fear. His lip
trembled. “Aye.”

“How do you know this man?”

“Papa, why are you vexed? Did I do something
wrong?”

Bao turned his gaze on Alleck and did his
best to temper his tone when he said, “Nay, lad. Will you do me a
favor?” When Alleck nodded, he continued, “Take your clothes and go
out to where I’ve tethered my horse. I’m worried that the beast is
getting lonely out there all by itself.” He knew Alleck loved
horses and was relieved when the lad’s eyes sparked with joy and he
scurried to do Bao’s bidding.

Bao turned his gaze back on Gowan and the lad
finally answered his question. “I-I am his squire.”

Bao growled through gritted teeth. “Get thee
from here as well. Now.”

As the lad rushed to obey, Giric tried to
struggle free again and Bao leaned into him. The air went out of
the man’s lungs with a
whoosh
and only when his face turned
a deep purple-red did Bao lessen the hold again and allow him to
breathe. “You are vile.”

The man snorted just as Jesslyn skidded to a
halt three feet from where they stood. “Get out of here,” Bao told
her.

“I brought your sword.”

“Leave it and go.”

“Is this one of the men who—who touched you
when you were a lad?”

“Aye.”

“You can’t kill him. You’ll be tried and
hanged—or worse.”

“Aye, Bao. Listen to the lady, for she speaks
the truth.”

Bao rammed his knee into Giric’s ass, just
where he knew it would cause the most pain. Giric grunted. “Did you
touch my son?”

“Oh, God, Bao—did he? Did you?” In the next
instant, Jesslyn was there beside them.

“Nay. ‘Twas only a lesson in
sword—
ah!—
play.”

“Bao, his eyes are growing glassy. Let him
go.” Jesslyn’s hands dragged at Bao’s arms. It surprised him how
her touch sent a wave of calm through him, enough so that he was
able to release his quarry and step back.

Giric fell to his knees, then rolled onto his
side, struggling for air, and Bao let him.

“How did you know?” Bao asked her.
“Maryn?”

“Aye.”

“You shouldn’t have followed me. This is no
right business for a gentle lady.”

“My son—and you—are, and will always be, my
business.”

Giric raised up into a sitting position.
“This act you put on for your lady is sweet, actually, but we both
know how much pleasure you received with me. A hard cock and moans
of pleasure are not signs of disgust. Are they, Bao?”

* * *

Jesslyn’s eyes flew to her husband’s face.
His cheeks were ruddy and his eyes—his eyes held shame. Shame and
revulsion. For himself, or for Giric? No doubt, both. Hot anger
ripped through her chest and she turned her sights on Bao’s
molester. “He was a bairn. He had no choice but to submit to
you—you—you defiler of innocents!”

The man had the gall to smirk at her! “Aye,
but did he have to
enjoy
it so much?”

Would a gentle lady—a mother—be subjected
to as high a penalty for murder as a knight?
Her fists clenched
at her side and she took a step toward him, but Bao swung his arm
out in front of her, successfully halting her stride. “Nay,” he
said.

She spit on Giric instead. “His body
responded in spite of his will, but his mind is forever tormented
by it!” She swung her gaze to Bao. “I’ve changed my mind, he must
die.” She slid his dirk from the sheath before her husband could
stop her and lifted it in preparation for the kill.

A clamor came from the entry to the cave and
in the next instant Daniel was there with them, his arms akimbo as
he looked on with fevered eyes at the scene before him. “What goes
on here?”

Bao remained stonily silent.

Just like him, Jesslyn thought. She shot
around him and rushed over to Daniel, pointing back at Giric.
“This—this is—”

“NAY!” Bao bellowed. “Do not say it.”

“Bu—”

Giric struggled to his feet and dusted off
his tunic. “G’day, Daniel. Your brother seems to think I was up to
no good with the lad Alleck. I assure you, my squire and I were
only teaching the lad a bit of rudimentary swordplay. How to heft
it, being the first lesson.”

Jesslyn saw a light of understanding in
Daniel’s eyes as he narrowed them on Bao. “I see.”

It surprised all of them when Daniel tore
over to Giric and pummeled his fist into the man’s groin. Giric
screamed. Doubled over, he staggered out of Daniel’s reach. He
stumbled, and before anyone could catch him, he fell, hands-first,
into the fire. This time, Jesslyn’s screams echoed his. Daniel and
Bao sprung into action. Daniel reached him first and rolled with
the man in an attempt to put out the flames.

It wasn’t until long minutes later, after the
flames were extinguished, and after Daniel had tried unsuccessfully
to revive him, that Jesslyn got a good look at the man’s injuries.
His face, hands, and lower arms were burned. But it was his
countenance that captured her gaze. One side of his face was
charred and bloody and he no longer looked like the comely,
brown-haired man he’d been just moments earlier.

“The burns have put him in a stupor. He may
not live until morn,” Daniel said. “We must get him back to the
keep, though it makes my stomach churn to give him shelter.”

“Even if he lives, he’ll not be the man he
was,” Jesslyn said.

Bao shocked her by speaking for the first
time since he stymied her words earlier. “What am I to do with this
vermin? Allow him a decent burial? He may not have gotten to
Alleck, but he’s certainly done something to his squire”—he drilled
his gaze into hers—“where are they? Still outside?”

“Maryn took them back to the keep.”

“Good.”

* * *

Two hours after returning to the keep, and
after leaving Alleck and her babe in the care of the nurse, Jesslyn
returned to her bedchamber, intent on finding her husband. He’d
disappeared after helping Daniel get Giric into bed and getting his
own wounds reclosed and redressed. Thus far, she’d had little luck
finding him. But after she was told by Steward Ranald that he’d
seen Bao going upstairs not a quarter-hour past, she felt confident
she’d finally located him.

With care, she opened the door and looked
inside. Aye, there he was. Seated by the fire, brooding.

She placed the basket of berry tarts she’d
brought him on the floor, then walked over and settled in his lap
before he could give her protest. Happily, he allowed it, even
wrapped his arms around her as she rested her head on his shoulder.
“Does this hurt your wounds?”

He shook his head, but said naught. Just
continued looking into the hearthfire’s flames.

After another moment, she lifted her head,
turned his with her hand on his cheek and kissed him on the
mouth.

It crushed her a little when he didn’t return
it. She stroked her tongue over his bottom lip in a bid for him to
open, but instead, he stood up, dropped her into his place on the
chair and strode toward the washstand. “I’m not clean,” he said,
and she knew he meant more with those words than simply the
literal.

He splashed water on his face several times,
then grabbed a towel and buried his face in it.

“You’re beautiful. I love you.”

He wouldn’t face her. Instead, when he took
the towel away, he turned and leaned his palms on the washstand.
“How can you? After what Giric told you about me.”

She rose from the chair and took a step
toward him, then stopped. “Did you think my words to him were lies?
You were a bairn, Bao! Just as Gowan is—would you blame him for
what Giric did to him? Condemn him as vile if his body’s natural
responses betray his will to do otherwise?”