Highland Promise (2 page)

Her eyes met Moira’s blue ones.  Anne really was no better than Malcom had said.

“I’m so sorry for being a burden.”  She said in a broken whisper that brought Moira to her with her arms wide.

It felt so good to feel comfort from Moira, almost as good as Margret’s arms had always felt.

“You are welcome here Anne.  I admit that I do not know all of your situation, but if this is thought to be the safest place for you I dare say it would be foolish to let you leave.”

Moira pulled her to sit on the modest sofa.

“How can you do this?  I know you must hate me if only because of my blood.  I admit I am ignorant of much of it, but I do know enough.”

“Margret is my oldest and dearest friend.  There is little I would deny her, especially this.  I have few friends left in this world.”  Moira patted Anne’s cheek.  “I doubt you were among the men who came here to fight so you really cannot be blamed for their evil deeds, you are still but a child dear.”

“Wait a minute.”  Malcom put in.  “Margret MacTaggart sent her?  Is this some kind of joke?  She sent this chit here to live with us?  She’s testing me!  Why would they seek to dishonor me so?”

“Yes you arse and we will keep her safe until Margret sends word.  This is not forever, just until Margaret can make things right and I dare say you are reading far too much into it.  This has nothing to do with the alliance.”

Anne looked to the brute who still would not come fully into the room.  He looked caged.  His blue eyes were as wild as a cat she’d tried to catch in an alley when she was a child.  He looked as if he would rip her apart if she got too close.

The bulging muscles in his arms told her he would need very little effort to accomplish such a thing should he wish it.

She shivered at the thought of his hands on her flesh, but it was not fear that sent a flush to her cheeks and when she met his gaze she saw it mirrored in his eyes too.

“Why would she care what happened to one English rose?  Why go to all this trouble?”

“Margret nursed Miss Anne and practically raised her.  She is like her own child.  I would not expect you to understand such a thing, but there are those who actually care for others, even if it makes no sense.”

Malcom still looked unsure and Moira’s words had hit their mark.  He looked as if she’d stung him.

“You are right.  I don’t understand such tender feelings of foolishness nor do I understand why the lass was not sent to Margaret’s own people.”

Moira’s eyes were sad and her voice low when she spoke.  “It would not be safe for her there.  Perhaps even more dangerous than staying in London.  There is much I cannot share with even you.”

“That’s a bunch of shite!  Ye can’t be keepin’ secrets now!”

Anne could see that Malcom was furious.  “I don’t know how to live her, but I can learn.”  Anne said with a hopeful voice.

“Bahh you can’t work a farm dressed like the queen and I doubt anything you brought is less fine than that one.”  Malcom cursed, but less because her dress offended him and more because he was drawn to her.  He wanted her to shine less.  He wanted her to blend in with the others.

“I did bring a dress that will suffice.  Teach me and I will try.  I know how to sew and how to care for animals a little.  I had pets when I was small and we lived in the country for a time.  I even learned how to cook a few things when my mother was out of the house.  Margret taught me a few things.”  Anne vowed in a small voice.

“Oh honey.  You sweet lass.  You need to settle in first.  We will worry about all this nonsense later.  You have suffered far more than the rest of us and with more grace.  I’ll not have you working yourself to death.  We will figure it all out when we have fewer people looking over our shoulder.”

Anne was so confused.  She had never been treated so poorly in all her life.  Gentlemen usually went out of their way to please her.  Perhaps that was the problem… Malcom MacGregor was certainly no gentleman.

“This is ridiculous.  There’s no place for her to sleep!  She can’t stay here.  It just will not work.”

“Fine!  She can go back with you.  If you think she’s not able to stay here, then take her back with you, but she will be under your protection alone.”

“Nay.  Nay!”

Then he was gone.  Anne was instantly cold to the bone, as if he had taken all of the warmth from her blood with him when he stormed out of the cottage.

“I will try.”  She whispered, but she didn’t know if she was talking to herself or to the woman seated next to her.

“I know you will dear and it will be just fine.”

“What the hell are you doing?”  Malcom had ridden harder than was necessary to reach the village his family now inhabited.  He couldn’t get Anne out of his head.  Couldn’t stop imagining how her skin would feel under his hands.

He had forced himself to stay away far longer than usual to try to get her out of his head, but she haunted him like a specter.  Her voice floated to him on the breeze and her touch lingered on his skin even after the sun rose and his dreams faded.

He had rushed to the village in a moment of weakness.  He hadn’t even prepared or brought his usual guard, just a few men and what they could carry on their horses. 

None had questioned him, but he had seen the looks that passed between his men.

Now he stood panting and could barely remember the journey that had brought him.

She looked up from where she sat on a pile of straw.  She held a lamb in her lap and with her hair braided down her back she looked too much like she belonged.  The pull in his chest made him angry because he could do naught about how he felt for this woman.  It didn’t matter how much she fit, he was promised to another, a woman he had never met, a woman that secured his alliance with the MacTaggarts. 

An alliance that would save his clan from ruin.

It didn’t matter how much he longed for Anne, how much he hungered for her, she was forbidden fruit.  He had to put his clan first.  He had to resist her at all cost.

“I am earning my keep.”  Anne spoke with more fire than she had when they had last spoken.

“Bahh, it looks like you’re playin’ with that lamb if you ask me.  That is nay earning your keep.”

“I don’t recall anyone askin’ you what you thought.”

Malcom fought a grin.  He was sure Anne had no idea that she was beginning to have a nice Scottish brogue.  It sounded far too sweet in her lilting voice, but it made his heart sing.

He shifted.  His interests had to be stopped or they would grow more difficult to hide.  He propped his forearms on the paddock railing and watched Anne.  She was beautiful.  The stubborn set to her mouth told him she was intent on ignoring him completely and he wanted her to notice him.

“Malcom, we weren’t expectin’ you.”  His brother John said as he stepped out of the barn.

Anne looked up when John stepped out of the barn.

John and Alan, who was married to Malcom’s sister Aggie, were their guards.  Anne didn’t understand why guards were needed, but she didn’t question it.  There were too many questions she needed to answer, she couldn’t worry about the politics of the highlands, but she felt safer with them around.

“What is she doing out here?”  Malcom demanded in a voice that made her shiver inside.

“Ah Miss Anne is a natural with the little ones.  We lost the mam and Miss Anne had taken over.  She’s a wonder.  Will make a fine mam herself someday.  We would have lost the wee one if it hadn’t been for her care.”

“She shouldn’t be out in this night air John.  You are charged with keeping her safe, not letting her kill herself.  Are ye daft man?  Would ye let yer wife out in this?”

John shook his head and laughed as if Malcom’s anger was a great joke.  “Aye, I rarely argue with a female who knows her own mind.”

“I don’t understand what problem you have with me.  I am doing exactly what you wanted.”  Anne demanded as she set the little lamb on his feet.

Malcom’s temper simmered.  “Where is my mother?”

Anne plopped her fists on her hips and faced him.  She was tired of him treating her like she was nothing but a burden.  She had worked as hard as any of the others over the past few months and she was tired of him acting as if she were still sitting drinking tea.  “Inside.  She wasn’t feeling well so she went in to lie down.”

“Have you checked on her?”  Malcom rushed out.  “Or was playing with your pet more important to you than her wellbeing?”

“Of course I did.”  Anne had heard enough.  “I am not a monster.  Your sister is with her.  She is fine Malcom.  She was just tired!  We all are.  This life isn’t easy!”  Anne frowned.  Malcom looked as if she’d slapped him.

He rushed into the house to find his mother lying on the sofa.  Aggie was by her side, her belly round with child.  John’s wife, Skye sat and rocked a squalling babe in her arms.  How could a woman like Anne ever be happy here?

Malcom couldn’t stand it.  He couldn’t stand what his family had been reduced to and he hated the feeling of inadequacy that overtook him at the thought of Anne sharing his life.  It was impossible, but that didn’t stop his treacherous mind from throwing images around in his head.

“I know that look.”  Moira said as she pushed up until she sat.  “We aren’t suffering here.  It’s only for a while and then we can all come home. I just tried to do too much.”

“Aye, I know that.”  He backed up, intent on getting water so he felt like he had done something to help, but he bumped into Anne. 

Water sloshed from the buckets she carried and soaked her skirts.

Malcom grabbed the buckets, “What are you trying to do Anne?  First you sit out in the night air and now you half drown yourself.  Do you think we don’t have enough to do?  We can’t afford for you to take ill.”

She shoved against his chest.  “I’m trying to do my part.  I’m doing what you said I had to do.”

Malcom caught her hand before his chest again and she winced. He forced it open to find the skin angry and red.  Her hands were beginning to roughen, not the hands of a lady any longer, but those of a servant.

He had done this to her.

He pushed her out the door and closed it behind them.

“I didn’t mean you should do the work of a man.  I didn’t mean you should hurt yourself.”  His thumb stroked over her petal soft skin and caressed her reddened palm.

“What am I supposed to do then?”  She spat.

It was too much.  Her eyes sparked with anger and confusion.  Her lips pulled down in a frown.

He lost all control as he pulled her to him and kissed her.  She didn’t resist him.  Her body was pliant in his arms as he pulled her ever closer.  His lips parted hers and his tongue touched the sweetness of her.  He sighed as his body reacted to her in a way he’d never felt.  His chest burned with something he couldn’t explain as he learned the secrets of her sweet mouth.

When her arms circled his neck he was lost.  Nothing mattered but her.  Nothing mattered but tasting more.

“Malcom?”

He pulled away from Anne, panting, confused.  Fiona stood just behind her.  Fiona who had filled his bed more nights than he could count. Sweet Fiona, now with tears in her eyes, all because of this English curse that had come into their lives uninvited and unwanted.  This woman who had bewitched him.

He looked at Anne.  That was what she had done.  This was nothing but a spell she had cast over him and he had been too weak to resist it.

He stepped back in horror as he realized what he had done.  Fiona’s pale face held accusations that he couldn’t deny.  He turned and walked away.  Away from Fiona’s pain and away from Anne’s look of drunken desire.  He knew it was cowardly.  He should say something, to both of them, but he wanted peace.  All he wanted in his life was just a season of peace.  Anne had shattered all hope of that.

He made his way to the barn and saddled his horse.  He shouldn’t have come back.

“You shouldn’t take yours.  He needs the rest.  Take mine.”  Alan said as he stepped into the dimness of the barn. 

Malcom met his eyes.

“Does this have anything to do with why I saw Fiona cryin’ just now?”

“Aye.”  Fiona was Allen’s cousin, although Allen had never had issue with her sharing Malcom’s bed, he might have issue with this situation and as cowardly as it was, Malcom wanted to avoid that, at least until he understood what had happened himself.

“You know I’ve never made it my business, but she is my family and I’d rather she not be treated like a harlot.”

“I don’t plan on treatin’ her like a harlot.”  Malcom felt heat creep up his neck.  “I have thought of finding her a husband, when all this dies down.  I will make sure she is cared for.  Ye have my word on it.”

“I think you should see about getting it done sooner than later.  She doesn’t deserve this and if there is a child...”

Malcom turned on his sister’s husband.  “This what?  What do you think is goin’ on then?  And what do ye think I’d do about a bairn?  I said I would see to it, do you question me?”

Allen didn’t shrink from Malcom’s anger.  “I think you will be havin’ another woman in your bed while you’re here and Fiona will have to serve her.  How would that make her feel?  She knows there could never be a marriage, but she loves you Malcom and a child would only make it harder for her to let it all go when the time comes.”