Highland Seer (33 page)

Gratified to see a tear roll down the old man’s cheek, Ellie pressed her lips together and swallowed around the lump forming in her throat. Ah, then, he wasn’t unredeemable. He did care what happened to his clan, his laird. She hoped that was true. She didn’t have the heart to condemn him to death for his misguided attempt to set things to rights—as he saw them. His next words might determine whether she’d be forced to or not.

“Nay, ’tis no’ what I wanted for MacKyrie.” He dropped to one knee and tried to pull his hand from hers, but she held it fast. “I beg the laird’s mercy. I’m sorry for what I did, and for what I put ye through, Ellie...Laird MacKyrie. I regret the harm I caused. I do.”

Ellie nodded, her mind already made up. She released his hand. “Verra well. Sawney MacKyrie, ye are relieved of yer duties as steward to Clan MacKyrie and banished to the village to live out yer life in peace. No one may accost ye. No one may harm ye or they’ll answer to me.” She looked out over the room and nodded. She saw tears on nearly every face. She supposed those were better than angry shouts. Even Jamie’s eyes glimmered. She dared not look at Donal. “Yer long and faithful service to the clan stands ye in good stead, Sawney. Be at peace. Now go.”

The old man took her hands in his. “Ye’re a good laird, lass. I’m sorry I doubted ye.” He bent over her hands and touched his forehead to them, then stood and turned away. The crowd parted and allowed him to leave. A niece followed him out. Aye, he’d have a home and be well cared for in his declining years.

Ellie turned to find a chair, her knees suddenly unable to bear her weight, when a clap startled her. Then another, then another, until the hall echoed with the sound of applause and cheers. Relief flooded her, letting her breathe for the first time since Sawney had walked from the hall. She’d made the right decision, then. She looked at Donal and he granted her one of his rare smiles. Aye, the right decision, indeed.

****

Donal stood at the front of the kirk, Jamie at his side. Afternoon sunlight streamed through the kirk’s high windows, sending shafts of brightness across the space, highlighting the benches on the east side. The MacClellan priest, Father Gregory, stood above them on the dais, watching as the kirk filled for the second time in two days with the people of Clan MacKyrie. Donal glanced around and spotted friar Tam standing by the door at the back of the kirk, smiling broadly. Micheil took a seat in the front row. Donal cocked an eyebrow. Micheil nodded and smiled. Ach, this union had his blessing then. Ellie would be relieved to know that, though likely she already did.

She’d told him of Micheil’s behavior during the last ceremony in this kirk. He shuddered to think it had nearly gotten the foolish lad killed. Ellie would never have gotten over that. Donal had no doubt she would have found a way to avenge him even before she avenged the wrongs MacDuff did to her person. The man had been playing with fire.

Finally the last clan member was seated. It was all Donal could do not to tap his foot, waiting for Ellie to appear. Instead, he drew in a deep breath. These nerves were a new experience for him, one he’d rather not repeat. She’d promised to be ready on time, even though her ladies were frantically stitching up a new dress for her. She refused ever again to wear the one she’d worn yesterday for the MacDuff. She told him she’d ordered it cut to pieces and placed in the rag bag out in the stables, ready to clean the shovels and pitchforks used to muck out the stalls. Donal surmised her disdain of anything that reminded her of Lachlan MacDuff would not abate any time soon.

He glanced aside at his companion. Jamie appeared relaxed and in good humor. But that was normal for him. He’d still be smiling and relaxed on reckoning day, trying to make a deal for better accommodations while being judged. Jamie caught Donal’s glance and grinned.

“Nervous?”

“Aye,” Donal grumbled. “I’d rather face the MacDuff again than stand here much longer.”

Jamie chuckled. “I see the fine hand of Providence at work here, my friend. Aileana would say that ye’re getting what ye deserve, though I think she’d mean it kindly.”

“We made our peace, she and I, so aye, she might. I just wish your Providence would hurry this along.”

“Another good reason, then, to hold this wedding today. Toran didna say why, but he wants me to return to the Aerie soon.”

“Probably to send ye out after another signature on his treaty.” Donal crossed his arms over his chest. “Mayhap ye’ll be the groom after the next journey. This once is enough for me.”

“Thank ye, nay. Though Toran and Aileana, and now ye and Ellie, are happy, I dinna believe I’m ready to take that step yet.”

Donal clapped him on the shoulder. “Trust me, it’ll happen, ready or no’ and when ye least expect it.”

“Cold feet, then?” Jamie chuckled.

“Nay. Done with standing here.”

The back door of the kirk opened and a shaft of sunlight streamed in.

“I think yer wait is over,” Jamie told him.

Ellie appeared, backlit for a moment until she moved out of the sun’s rays and into the kirk. Donal’s heart stopped beating. His breath froze in his throat. She walked toward him slowly, a hint of movement playing around the corners of her mouth as she locked her gaze with his. The rest of the people in the kirk might not have been there for all the notice he was capable of giving them at that moment. He had a vague impression of her dress, deep blue with white trim, her raven hair, twisted and coiled around her head, as she passed through sunlight and shadow on her way up the center aisle. Then she smiled and all the rest fell away.

Donal held out his hand to her. She took it and paused for his inspection. “Will I do?”

He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to gather his composure, then opened them and touched her face with his other hand. “Ye’re more beautiful than anyone or anything I’ve ever seen.”

“Then I guess that’s an ‘aye.’”

He chuckled. “Aye, that’s an ‘aye.’”

Father Gregory spoke then, stealing his attention from his bride. His bride. There was a phrase he’d never thought to have relate to him.

“Are ye both here willingly?”

“Aye,” Donal answered and Ellie echoed the word, loudly, with a wink at him. Donal only just contained his chuckle.

“Then we’ll begin.” They knelt. Donal barely heard a word the priest said. All his senses were focused on the woman kneeling beside him. He’d never wanted anyone or anything in his life the way he wanted her. He came out of his fog a little as Father Gregory wound a strip of the MacKyrie tartan around their wrists, joining them in the old way, as was properly done here in the Highlands, then the priest resumed talking. Donal answered the priest’s questions and soaked in the sound of Ellie’s voice as she did the same. Strong, she sounded. Confident. And joyful. Donal’s heart swelled with the wonder of it. And with the priest’s final words, she became his. And he hers. Forever.

Ellie turned to him. He stood, gathering her in his arms and kissing her gently as he helped her to her feet. “I’ll love ye forever,” he told her. “Of that, have nay doubt.”

Ellie smiled at him. “Ye came to me first in a dream. And now my dream has come true. We were meant to be together.”

“I regret that it took me so long to figure that out.”

Ellie’s laughter rang to the rafters, causing many in the kirk to chuckle with her, though he doubted they’d heard what caused her mirth.

“The important thing is ye did figure it out, my husband. The important thing is ye did.

****

Donal picked Ellie up and carried her to the threshold of her chamber. Their chamber. No longer just hers. Aye, the laird’s chamber, shared by the laird and her consort. He liked the sound of that. Why had he fought this so long? If they’d wed when Ellie first suggested it, much would have been different. The MacDuff would still be alive, frustrated in his ambitions, but alive. Ach, now was not the time to be thinking of him.

Donal filled his gaze with the woman in his arms. A raven-haired beauty, his wife. Not just handfasted the way Toran and Aileana had started out, though they’d married in the kirk as soon as the priest arrived. Nay, married for good and all, in the kirk. By the priest. A real one this time. Ellie was his, forever.

Exultation coursed through Donal’s veins and he kissed her at the door to keep from laughing his joy out loud. She tunneled her fingers into his hair, destroying the queue he’d tied it into for the ceremony. A lock brushed his cheek, distracting him and reminding him where they were. Out in the hall was no place for this, not with half the clan following them up the stairs, not to mention Jamie and the other Lathans. The cheers and laughter were more than he’d bargained for. After the long celebratory dinner, he wanted to be alone with his wife.

At her nod, he opened the door, carried her in, then slammed it shut behind them with his shoulder. He set Ellie on her feet with a quick kiss and barred it. There would be no bedding o’ the bride, not for his wife. The rest of the clan could stay out and mind their own business, or they’d answer to him for the disturbance. As it was, they were pounding on the door and laughing. Drunk off their arses, most of them. He was surprised they’d been able to stagger up the stairs. Well, a plague on them. He turned back to the door and yelled, “Shut it. I’ll no’ tell ye twice. Leave us be.”

Ellie giggled, but his shout had the desired effect. After a few more fists to the door and cackles, the mob moved away. Donal suspected he had Jamie to thank for herding them back down the stairs, but he wasn’t going to open the door to find out. That invited disaster.

Instead, he turned back to his wife. His wife. Ellie. Elspeth, Laird MacKyrie. Now also a MacNabb, though her station trumped his own. Not that he cared. He’d be a MacNabb or a MacKyrie or no one at all, as long as he could do it by her side.

“Ye ken ye’ve married a fool, aye?”

A puzzled frown drew her eyebrows together. “Nay, I dinna ken that at all.”

“Well, ye have. I shouldha agreed to this weeks ago. I was a stubborn fool. Ye ken I wanted ye. I ken ye wanted me.”

“Aye, and came to love ye, my handsome fool.”

“As I came to love ye. I willna go through this life without ye, Ellie. I regret the time we wasted.”

She came to him then, and took his face in both her hands, locked her gaze with his and gave him a tremulous smile. “Nay, husband. We didna waste it. We learned to love each other. There’s no’ a better use of time, I believe, than that. I love ye, husband. Donal. I do. With everything in me.”

“And that’s why ye are laird, my lovely wife. Ye’re wise beyond yer years, and wiser for sure than I will ever be.”

“Nay, love. We each have gained our own wisdom through life. Mine may be different than yers, but no more, or less, useful. I need ye, husband. No’ just for yer strong arm.” She lightly touched the bandage there, then glanced down. “Or yer sword, much as I want it right now.”

Donal growled and pulled her into his arms. “My arm is yers. And my sword, most definitely. Now?”

“Aye, husband, now.”

Donal wasted no time stripping her wedding finery from her. His followed even more quickly, while she watched, wide-eyed and smiling.

“My handsome husband.”

“Wants his wife, now.” He picked her up and carried her to the bed, laying her gently on its surface, then pausing, despite his throbbing erection, to run his hands from her face, where she left a kiss on his fingertips, to her toes. “Beautiful.”

“Take me, husband. I canna wait any longer.”

Donal joined her on the bed, covered her with his length and nudged her legs apart to allow him access. “Are ye sure, lass? Ye mean the world to me, but now that we’ve been kirked, until we do this...”

Ellie placed her fingertips over his lips. “Hush.”

Donal entered her, slowly at first, but as her welcoming moisture eased his way, he plunged in to the hilt. “Mine. Forever.”

“Aye, Donal. As I saw ye in my dream. Mine. Forever.”

Chapter 22

Ellie arched to meet her husband’s thrust. Her husband. Donal. The man she’d loved from the moment she first saw him, however hazily, in her dreams. Aye, they had much work to do, but he and his clan and their allies would keep her and her clan safe. And he would love her all his life. She had no doubt of that.

She reveled at Donal moving inside her, his mouth stealing her breath as his buttocks clenched beneath her hands. She’d never known loving a man could be like this. As the heat built in her, the fullness of her husband’s hard cock drove her closer and closer to her release.

Just at the edge, she cried out. Donal responded by plunging even harder into her, crashing her over. Her body tightened around him, rippling, squeezing, until he, too, exploded and filled her with his seed.

Within moments, she knew. Even without a dream. Aye, they’d make a son today. The first of many sons and daughters she would bear for her clan, for her husband. She’d give him back the family he’d lost so many years before. All would be well.

****

Ellie awoke early the morning following her wedding and wedding night. Donal sprawled beside her, large, warm and inviting. She studied him, relishing the fact that he was here, finally, in her bed. She reached for him, then drew her hand back. They’d loved each other long into the night, and having heard the tale of his return to her keep, and having seen the battle he waged to save her, she wanted to grant him his rest. As soon as she moved, though, he came awake, too.

“Is something amiss?”

“Nay, I just woke up. Sleep some more if ye wish. No one expects to see either of us today.”

Donal rose up on one elbow and brushed her hair back from her eyes. “That’s good, because yers is the only face I wish to see. If the MacDuffs arrive, the rest will have to fight them off without me.”

Ellie snorted at his jest. He’d be first on the ramparts at any sign of trouble. Of that she had no doubt. Then she frowned as another thought occurred to her. “That reminds me, I need to show ye the marriage contract the MacDuff made me sign.” She sat up, clutching the sheet to her chest to keep from distracting her groom, and retrieved it from the table on her side of the bed. She passed it to Donal. “He signed it, too. I started to throw it in the fire yesterday, but something stopped me and I read it again. Ye need to read it.”