Highland Wolf (5 page)

“When are those cursed Chisholms going to leave?” demanded Egan.

“When our business is done,” replied Donnell.

“They are causing too many people to look our way, Donnell. They dinnae try to hide what they are doing. I wouldnae be surprised if they boast about all we have done in every alehouse they step into.”

“That doesnae matter. I dinnae think anyone will heed them if they speak out against us. They are kenned weel for being lying thieves. It willnae be hard for us to convince people that they are just trying to take someone down with them.”

“That may be, but are ye willing to take that risk? If ye are wrong we hang right beside them.”

Donnell snorted in derision so loudly it was clear to hear in the tiny dark room where Annora hid wrapped tightly in a pair of strong arms she found far too enticing. She was trying very hard to ignore the man holding her and only listen closely to Donnell and Egan, but ignoring so much man pressed up against her back was impossible. The best she could do was listen and hope she would recall enough of what was said to think about it later.

Rolf Lavengeance was a dangerous man, she decided as Donnell and Egan argued over the perils of continuing their alliance with the Chisholms. She had known she was attracted to him from the start but had seen so little of him it had not troubled her much. It was a safe attraction, one enjoyed from afar, and adding a nice romantic glow to a few dreams. It was no longer safe. Now she knew he desired her. Worse, now she knew how he tasted and how he could make her feel. She was going to have to keep as much distance between them as possible now.

Annora closed her eyes as a sudden sense of loss swept over her. She told herself that was foolish as she did not really know this man who held her safe against the darkness and she was not free to explore such things as desire. There was Meggie to consider, for Annora knew that any hint of impropriety on her part and Donnell would use that as an excuse to separate her and Meggie. There was also the danger she could put both Rolf and herself in if she allowed this attraction any freedom, for she doubted Egan would like it. And finally there was the fact that she did not want to find herself in the same situation that had destroyed her mother, left unwed and carrying a child who would suffer her whole life for the sins of her parents. No, it was necessary to step away from Rolf Lavengeance and stay away. Far, far away.

When a little voice in her head said she could wait to do that until they were out of the little dark space they were hiding in, she grimaced and then inwardly shrugged. There
was no place to retreat to at the moment anyway. And the way he was nuzzling the place where her shoulder curved into her neck and stealing slow caresses of her body wherever his hands rested made it a little difficult to ignore him.

“This last time a laird’s eldest son was killed, Donnell,” said Egan.

Those words yanked Annora free of her thoughts about Rolf and she tensed. She had known that Donnell was involved in raids on other clans although she had not known how deeply or how often, but it appeared that he had recently been involved in one and it had caused some blood to be shed. Going on a raid or two was obviously why the Chisholms were lingering at Dunncraig. Since such crimes were usually committed during the night she had never paid all that much attention, but it was evident that they were putting Dunncraig and its people in danger. They were putting Meggie in danger.

The way the man holding her tensed told her that he was probably thinking the same things. She was not sure why he would be concerned, but perhaps he had decided to make Dunncraig his new home and simply feared that Donnell and his men were threatening the peace of his chosen home. Peace was an elusive thing in Scotland under any circumstances, but it was madness to do things that invited retaliation and stirred up bloody feuds.

“Ease your mind, Egan,” said Donnell, his footsteps passing by the hiding place she shared with Rolf. “I will soon have that old bastard tied to me in a way that will make him shut his mouth, e’en if he is caught.”

“I hope ye are right about that,” Egan said, his footsteps following Donnell’s.

“E’en if I am wrong about Old Ian, I am nay wrong about his sons. They would turn on their own father to protect their own arses or gain the power he denies them. Once I have one of those fools tied to me, he will do his best to ensure that I am nay taken down, not e’en by his own kinsmen.”

The sound of the men leaving the ledger room, the door closing behind them, almost disappointed Annora. She was glad they were gone as she needed to get out of her place of captivity and out of Rolfs embrace. However, she would have liked to have the men talk long enough to let her know just what weapon Donnell thought he would soon have to hold over the heads of the Chisholms, one or all, to force them to protect him.

Several tense, silent moments passed and Annora was about to ask if they were getting out of there, when Rolf opened the door and nudged her back out into the ledger room. As she blinked against the sudden light, it was a minute or two before she could see Rolfs face clearly, and what she saw surprised her. The man was furious. Since she always sensed some rage inside him, she had not paid much attention to that underlying feeling of anger. It was clear that this anger was fresh and had been stirred to life by hearing of the crimes Donnell and Egan were involved in. She was just thinking that it was nice to meet a man who could be upset by crimes and injustices when she realized he was cursing, low and long and viciously. In the Scots tongue,

“So ye do speak our language,” she murmured and faintly smiled. “And verra colorfully.”

“My apologies,” he murmured in French, his attempt to sound calm and polite marred slightly by the underlying throb of fury in his deep voice. “I can curse fluently in your tongue, but speaking as a gentleman should to a lady is more difficult.”

She nodded but knew she was as detached from the conversation as he was. Now that she was no longer in his arms, the conversation she had overheard was filling her
mind and demanding that she think about it. It would also be a good idea to put some distance between him and herself as quickly as possible. Annora started inching toward the door.

“I think it would be a verra good idea if we got out of here as soon as possible,” she said.

“Yes, it would be.”

James strode past her and eased open the door. He looked out into the hallway, saw no one, and signaled her to follow him as he slipped out of the room. Once outside, he grabbed her by the hand as she started to move away from her and kissed her hard before letting her go again.

He almost smiled at the way she blushed and nearly ran from him. It was undoubtedly a mistake to remind her of what they had shared before Donnell and Egan had interrupted them, but he found he did not want her to go away and force it from her thoughts. That brief kiss had been a little reminder and a warning that this was not the end of it, simply the beginning. He needed to be cautious but he decided he could not completely ignore what had flared between them.

He could not ignore what he had just heard MacKay and Egan talk about, either. Hurrying back to his workshop, he fought against the urge to go straight to MacKay and demand to know whom he was raiding and who had died. The man was threatening to draw Dunncraig and its people into a long, bloody feud. It could be something it would be impossible to fix once James proved his innocence and regained control of Dunncraig. Unless he could serve MacKay’s head on a platter to the aggrieved party, he thought with a hint of anticipation.

Reaching his workshop, James looked at his tools and the mantel he was working on and knew it was going to be hard to find the calm he needed no matter how hard he worked. Dunncraig was in danger. The death of a laird’s heir was no small thing that could be talked or bought away. He would have to get rid of MacKay and regain his good name as fast as possible. It was time to stop moving quite so slowly and cautiously. If he did not put a halt to the man’s crimes soon, all he would have when he did regain his good name, his child, and his lands, was a smoking ruin.

A soft curse escaped Annora as she entered the great hall to break her fast. The Chisholms were still at Dunncraig. She had hoped that they had left with the dawn. From what she and Rolf had overheard yesterday, their bloody work had been accomplished, so there was no need for the men to linger. Yet, here they were, ruining her morning.

Sitting down in her usual seat at the head table, she found herself seated across from the Chisholms. That was not far enough away for her comfort, but she could not simply move, for it would be an obvious insult to Donnell’s guests and cause her a trouble she would rather avoid. Worse, she now had Egan seated to her right. Since it was a very small bench she sat on, it meant that Egan was constantly rubbing against her, touching her, and she knew he did most of the touching and rubbing on purpose. Her appetite was suddenly gone, but she knew she had to stay, had to pretend that sharing a table with five brutal men did not disturb her.

The moment her bowl was filled with oatmeal, Annora did her best to ignore the men. It was not as easy as it should have been. Egan kept rubbing up against her and pressing his thigh against hers. The Chisholms loudly revealed their utter lack of table manners and Donnell seemed oblivious of everything except the vast quantity of food he was shoving into his mouth. For a man who was expending so much coin and effort to make the keep equal to any royal palace, Annora wondered why he did nothing to improve himself. She had the sinking feeling that her cousin was so vain he thought he was already quite perfect.

Annora was just helping herself to some fruit when Meggie was brought into the great hall by Hazel, one of the many maids Donnell had working inside the keep. Most of the women were hardworking, but others, ones who willingly leapt into Donnell’s bed, did whatever they wished to. They obviously thought that sharing the laird’s bed gave them some special place in the keep and some privileges. The one leading Meggie over to Donnell’s seat was one who still held some kindness and conscience, and Annora was glad of that. Meggie always felt afraid when she was brought before Donnell, and one of the more cocky and callous maids would have made it even worse.

Poor little Meggie looked as confused as Annora felt when Donnell introduced her to the Chisholms. His voice was so gentle when he spoke to Meggie that it made Annora nervous. Whenever he deigned to speak to the child he claimed as his, kindness never softened his tone. The way Meggie’s eyes began to widen told Annora that the child also found such a change in Donnell’s manner toward her more alarming than welcoming. Meggie was right to be worried. Such a change in Donnell’s manner was a sure sign of trouble.

Abruptly a chill went through Annora’s body. There was only one reason a man dragged his mere child of a daughter to a meal with guests, or at least only one reason a man like Donnell would have. He knew nothing about Meggie’s accomplishments, likes, or dislikes, and so he could not be attempting to boast about any of those. Donnell was displaying a possible bride before his friends. The mere thought of one of the Chisholms getting his hands on sweet little Meggie made Annora feel ill.

As she carefully peeled and cored an apple, Annora surreptitiously watched the Chisholms. It had to be them that Donnell was trying to impress, perhaps even bribe, for Egan had known Meggie nearly all her life and had shown no more interest in her than Donnell did. The way the younger Chisholms studied Meggie, as if trying to decide how
she would look when she was fully grown, made Annora want to grab Meggie and run for the hills.

When Meggie was finally sent away, Annora calmly finished her apple and then politely excused herself. She did not go far, only far enough so that the men in the great hall would think she had retired to her bedchamber or joined Meggie in the nursery. Then, as silently as she could, she crept back to the great hall, pressing herself hard up against the wall just by the doorway. If Donnell did have a plan to marry Meggie to one of the Chisholms, there would be some talk of it now that the prize had been shown around.

“A bonnie wee lass,” said Ian Chisholm, his deep, scratchy voice easy to recognize. “What do ye think, Wee Ian?”

“Aye, she could weel grow up to be a bonnie lass,” replied Ian’s firstborn son.

Annora almost cursed aloud and clapped her hand over her mouth to prevent her anger from taking voice. Donnell was indeed attempting to arrange a betrothal between Meggie and one of Ian Chisholm’s ugly sons. There had to be something Donnell would gain from such an arrangement. Even though Ian and Donnell had become close allies in stealing from the neighboring clans, Annora felt they were on even footing as far as the crimes they had committed were concerned. Therefore she doubted it was because of blackmail that Donnell would offer the Chisholms what Donnell always claimed was his first and only child.

“Why does Wee Ian get to choose?” growled Halbert, the younger son. “He has already had two wives.”

“Because he is my heir, ye half-wit,” snapped Ian. “Those weak lassies he married didnae give him the son we need ere they died. Young as she is, wee Meggie looks a sturdy, healthy female.”

“Fiona is a cursed sturdy and healthy female, too. Why doesnae Wee Ian marry her?”

“What does Fiona have to do with this?”

“Wee Ian has been sharing her bed and showing her that he isnae so verra wee after all, aye? Word is that she is carrying his bairn.”

There was the sound of a fist hitting flesh and then someone crashing to the floor. Annora fought the urge to run from those sounds of violence, a caution she had learned early on in her life at Dunncraig. Thinking of the fate that might await Meggie, Annora found the strength to stay where she was and silently began praying that the Chisholms would keep their attention centered upon the fruitful Fiona. If that woman was carrying Wee Ian’s child, the whole matter of Meggie wedding one of Ian Chisholm’s unwholesome spawn might be forgotten for now.

“Why did ye knock me down?”

Annora thought that, for a full-grown man, Wee Ian could whine just like a small child.

“Why didnae ye tell me that ye got a bairn on Fiona?” demanded Ian.

“Because she is a whore, ye ken. I cannae e’en be sure tis my bairn she is carrying.”

“’Tis your bairn and ye ken it weel,” said Halbert, sneering triumph filling his voice. “The minute ye got your arse in her bed she ne’er e’en spoke to another mon. Everyone kens it.”

“Then ye will be wedding Fiona, Wee Ian,” said Ian.

“But she could bear a lass!” protested Wee Ian.

“So ye get her with bairn again and again until she gets it right. She looks a good breeder. Halbert will be the one betrothed to Margaret. If, by the time the lass grows, ye have no son and Fiona has joined your other wives, then we will talk on this matter again.”

“Then let us discuss the possibility of a betrothal, a joining of our houses,” said Donnell.

Annora had to force herself not to run into the great hall and scream nay. Another part of her still wanted to just grab Meggie and run away. She had to fight both urges so hard she was trembling. Realizing how long she had stood there, she finally found the strength to move and fled to her bedchamber. She knew Meggie would be waiting for her, wondering where she was, but Annora needed time to calm down, time to push away all thought of that sweet, innocent, and bright child being given to one of those hard, cruel men.

Once in her room, she threw herself down on the bed and took slow, deep breaths until her heartbeat slowed and she could finally think more clearly. Her first thought was that the threat to Meggie was not imminent. She was only a child of five years. At the very least, she would not be of an age to marry for another eight years and a lot could happen between now and then. She repeated that fact to herself over and over and felt her fears slowly fade away.

Sitting up, Annora stared at the door to her room and decided that she needed to make plans. Since she could not be certain she would be allowed to stay with Meggie for all of those years, several plans needed to be made to cover every possibility. The knowledge of what Donnell planned for Meggie gave Annora even more incentive to find out the truth about Donnell, his possession of Dunncraig, and his claim to Meggie. If Donnell was no longer a laird, might even be proven to be a thief and a liar, or worse, then Meggie would be freed of all promises Donnell had made.

Destroying Donnell would rob Meggie of her life at Dunncraig, but that realization caused Annora to hesitate for only a moment. Even the sort of life Annora had led, or one where food and shelter were of a poor quality, had to be far better than life as the wife of Halbert Chisholm or one of his brothers. Determined that no matter what she had to do, she would keep Meggie safe from the Chisholms, Annora finally went in search of her charge. When it came to the safety and happiness of Meggie, Donnell might soon discover that his cousin, the unwanted bastard child, was not the meek, obedient soul he thought she was.

The sound of a little girl’s laughter drew James to the door of his workroom. He had to step all the way outside to get a clear view of his child. As always, Meggie was with Annora. It seemed to him that there was something a little different in the way Annora treated Meggie today, but it was several moments before he realized what the difference was. Annora was acting far more watchful, more protective, of her little charge. James suddenly wanted to know why, what had changed, and he actually took a step toward them, only to feel someone grab the back of his shirt and stop him. He glanced behind him to find Big Marta slowly shaking her head.

“Nay, laddie, ye best nay be doing that,” she said.

“Oh? I cannae just wander o’er there to greet them, mayhap remark upon the fine weather we are having?” James had given up trying to hold fast to his disguise in front of the sharp-eyed Big Marta, but he spoke softly so that no one else heard the clear proof that he was no Frenchman.

“Dinnae ye see those two hulking fools watching o’er the lassies?”

“MacKay has Annora and Meggie watched closely e’en inside the walls of Dunncraig?”

“When those bastards the Chisholms are here, aye. And it isnae just MacKay who wants the lassies watched. Egan doesnae want them to catch Annora alone. In the keep itself she isnae followed about much, for a good scream could save her if anyone was fool enough to try to grab her and nay many of us talk much to her for fear MacKay will find out. One doesnae want that mon thinking ye ken something ye shouldnae. Aye, and every mon, woman, and child here kens that neither of the lassies is to be touched.”

“It surprises me that MacKay would be so protective of a child he kens weel isnae his.”

Big Marta crossed her arms over her chest. “Och, aye? Who better to watch than the daughter of the mon ye ken weel must want ye dead?”

James grimaced, realizing that his resentment over MacKay’s false claim of being Meggie’s father could obviously make him blind to a few simple facts. “And Annora? He couldnae think that I kenned her at all. She ne’er came here when I was wed to Mary.”

“As I just said—Egan doesnae want Annora touched.”

“He wants her.”

She nodded. “That he does and he has wanted her from the first day she walked through the gates of Dunncraig. It took a while for the lass to see that.”

“As MacKay’s first and a mon who doesnae seem to hesitate to take what he wants, why has Egan left Annora alone all this time?”

“She may be a bastard but she is higher born than he is and he wants her to accept him without being forced. ’Tis his vanity, I suspicion. He wants all to ken that she chose him, that she willingly went into his bed because he is such a big, important mon.”

At first James was furious, and the derision clear to hear in Big Marta’s voice as she spoke of Egan did nothing to diminish that anger. It took him a minute to realize that a lot of it was born of what tasted so much like jealousy he could not deny it. It was a bad time to be feeling possessive about a woman. It was particularly bad to feel so about Annora MacKay, a woman who was cousin to the man who had destroyed him and was dependent upon that same man for her livelihood.

“Do ye think that will happen?” The noise Big Marta made, one rife with scornful amusement, eased something inside him this time.

“Nay. I think she wouldst rather be in a gutter and begging ere she took him as her mon. The lass isnae allowed to have much to do with the rest of us, ye ken, but after three years one can still ken what sort of lass she is despite that. Aye, and wee Meggie loves her. The wee maid Annie who helps her with the child says Annora is a fine lady, sweet and kind and patient with Meggie. To me, weel, the first time she made Meggie giggle, I kenned she was a good sort.” Big Marta sighed. “Your bairn was a sad wee lass ere Annora came. And Annora does her best to be sure Meggie isnae under Donnell’s eye much, ye ken, turning his anger to her own self if needed.”

“He beats them,” James said quietly, a renewed anger tightening his voice.

He avoided people and tried to speak as little as possible, afraid to risk his disguise. Even so he had learned a lot. People seemed to like to talk to a man they did not think understood all they said or, at least, could never repeat it correctly. One man had quietly told James, after a long rant on all that had gone wrong since MacKay had taken Dunncraig, that there was something about him that made a person feel he could be trusted. James was not sure he fully believed that, but was glad that it was so, for it was proving very helpful.

One thing he had learned was that Donnell MacKay and his first were brutal men. They used their fists and worse to enforce their rules and strengthen their hold over the people of Dunncraig. James expected that the torture and death of so many of his guard had been enough to make people understand the danger of complaint or resistance. Hearing strong, brave men scream was something that made many pause for fear of sharing that fate. It was hearing that MacKay took his fists to Annora and Meggie that had enraged him and nearly made him do something foolish. It had taken hours to calm himself after that. The fact that he could not immediately do something about it, might even have to stand back as it was done again, caused a hard knot of bitter anger to lodge in his belly.