Maggie Mine (14 page)

The second he stopped in front of the keep’s steps, he lowered her to the ground, holding her arm as she looked up at him. “You will meet me in the solar, Lady Urquhart. You
ha
ve a taste of the
tawse
coming.”

She paled but nodded. She knew she’d done wrong and though she would dread the thrashing, she appeared prepared to accept it. She didn’t say a word as she walked with a measure of dignity up the steps and into the keep. His stomach still churned with tension. He hadn’t felt such fear in a long time. She would not disobey him in this manner again.

Maggie had tried not to see the look of pleasure on Mary’s face when the two women had met in the great hall. Mary knew she would be punished. Why couldn’t the woman have been in the kitchens? Or anywhere but here? But Maggie refused to respond to the false concern Mary voiced while she strode grimly to the stairs.

She walked into the torch-lit solar and waited for Nicholas. He was very upset with her, maybe even more than he’d been when she’d disobeyed him by not staying in her room and then accidentally shooting his hawk with her arrow. This would be a most unpleasant time, she was sure.

F
ortunately she didn’t have to wait long. Nicholas’s weighty footsteps thudded on the stone floor and she felt the tension emanating from him when he strode into the room. Her heart raced at the sound of the heavy door closing behind him. She rubbed at her nervous stomach and faced him.

His handsome face was tight with determination. He motioned to the large wooden desk. “Lift your skirts and bend over the desk.” As she approached it, he walked around to pull her father’s worn
tawse
from a drawer.

Her hands shook as she lifted the skirt and then her chemise to her waist
by herself this time
. He moved behind her and she leaned awkwardly over the cold wooden desktop, tucking her clothes beneath her stomach. Her bare bottom thrust out and her face heated at the embarrassing sight she must make. He wasn’t her father and he wasn’t her husband. He was a man duty-bound to find her a husband. He was also a man she’d grown to have strong feelings for, certainly a strong attraction to.

She forced those thoughts from her mind and bent forward over her arms.
You can do this. You earned this
leather
ing.
Maybe she had, but it was still awful to accept it.

He shifted to her left side and she tensed. “I am sorry.”

“You should have thought about what would happen when you chose to disobey me.”

He drew his arm back and she heard the loud Thwap! as the
tawse
connected with her buttocks. She felt it even more and sucked in a sharp breath.

“You
wi
ll not be disobeying me again anytime soon.”
 
He lashed her soundly again and again across the middle of her buttocks. “Do you understand me?” He emphasized each word with another lash.

“Aye! I understand,” she hissed out, rising on her toes, her knees buckling toward the desk.

“You worried me. So much could have happened to you.”
His voice broke.
“You are lucky it was me and my men who found you alone.”

S
he didn’t feel all that lucky. Tears streamed down her face. She panted and struggled to remain in place.
Waited for more.

It didn’t come. He stepped away.
“Do not ever frighten me like that again, Maggie.” She heard the fear for her in his voice and guilt for putting it there made her feel worse.

“Nay, I will
no’
go off on m
y
own again,” she gritted out.
She waited for him to move close again, to begin once more.

He didn’t move closer. He didn’t start thrashing her again. Instead she heard him swear under his breath and then she heard the sound of the tawse being thrown across the room.

Even though the tawsing had been brief, h
er bottom blazed with the fires of Hell.
He stood there in silence at her side and she knew he was watching her, staring at her reddened bottom. She knew she should get up and cover herself, but she
didn’t move
.
More was going on here than just his disciplining her.

And then his cool hand settled on her bottom
. S
he automatically flinched
. W
ould
he
spank her
now?

She trembled, waited.

Instead he just smoothed his hand in gentle circles.
Over and over, so gently. “I was out of my mind with worry,” he said in a low, husky voice. “If anything had happened to you….”

W
armth
curled
inside her. Her bottom quivered
at his soothing touch
. Her
tears dried up; her heart raced. S
he longed for something else, something she didn’t fully understand. She pushed her tender bottom back toward hi
m
.
But she didn’t know what she was seeking. “Nicholas,” she purred.

Suddenly he drew in a tense breath
. He
jerked his hand away and strode toward the door. He stopped to glance back at her, his voice ragged with emotion as he said, “You will go to your chamber now. Stay there for the rest of the day and tomorrow.”

Confined to her room again
.
She hated that.
But as she saw the heat in his eyes, she also knew it was probably wise to keep her distance from him. She sensed he was battling down a need to do more than spank her. And she wasn’t sure she would stop his advances.

“Aye,
M
y
L
ord.” Her agreement seemed to break his moment of looking at her with lust and he hurried out.

As his footsteps resounded away, she straightened and flinched at the feel of her garments rubbing against her tender bottom. She saw the tawse tossed across the room.
Although she didn’t want to touch it, she couldn’t leave it lying there for anyone to find. She walked gingerly toward it, picked it up, and carried it back to the desk. One of these days he would no longer use it on her. Not because he no longer cared enough to discipline her, but because she wouldn’t be here.

The thought saddened her and fresh tears slid down her face. She quietly
made her way to her bedchamber, pray
ing
he
woul
d soon find her a suitable husband. She wasn’t at all sure she could control these strong urges she felt toward him much longer.

*
*
*

Nicholas hurried from the great hall, not even bothering with breaking his fast this morning.
 
He’d spotted Mary heading for him the second he stepped off the stairway leading from the upper chambers. Ever since the pond incident with Maggie,
what he’d done—not so much the leathering, more the caressing her—he’d
increased
his
avoidance of her this last week
. Now
Mary had set her sights on him. She was all smiles and good cheer. Still, he suspected that side of her was only for his benefit. Maggie continued to avoid the woman. The servants avoided her as well as much as
possible;
a fact which he’d heard second hand from Gerald after Fia had told him. Apparently everyone was avoiding everybody. He was uncomfortable in his new home and wanted things to change. And he was distressed that he hadn’t heard back from any of the men he’d contacted on behalf of both Maggie and Mary. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep his distance from Maggie.

He walked into the warm day, breathed in the fresh morning air, and felt somewhat better. But he was hungry. He’d have to get one of the squires to fetch him some mead and a bit of bread and cheese.
 
Looking across the bailey to where some of his men were already preparing for another day of training, he felt the stirrings of loneliness. With well over a hundred people living within the castle’s walls, it seemed odd to feel lonely. In truth, it wasn’t so much loneliness but more of a desire for a woman to share his bed, to share his life. After so many years of not being ready to settle down, this was a new feeling for him.

Immediately his thoughts turned, as always, to Maggie. Maggie, with her long, flaxen blond
e
hair worn free and flowing rather than wound up into a cap of braids like Mary’s hair. Maggie, with her sea green eyes that danced with spirit and a sweet face generally split with a smile for someone. Not him. Not anymore. Her smiles disappeared the instant she realized he was anywhere around her. He hated that. There were strong feelings between them, he sensed hers. Both of them were determined to fight those feelings. His duty was to find her a suitable husband approved by Edward. Her duty was to marry the man Edward chose.

It was time he started searching for his own bride. He’d put off doing so until he had both Maggie and Mary married off and away from Middleham. But Mary’s efforts to make him ask for her hand were becoming hard to deal with. And Maggie’s sad eyes when she looked at him…
.

“Riders come,
M
y
L
ord!” the guard on the parapet near the front gate called down. “They bear King Edward’s colors.”

Nicholas hurried down the steps, wondered what news Edward had sent by messenger now. His gut tightened.
Maggie
. It had to do with Maggie, of that he felt certain. Edward had found a husband for her in his impatience with Nicholas’s efforts.

Nicholas waited at the bottom of the keep’s steps as a dozen soldiers rode through the front gate. They bore Edward’s colors and carried his flag. With each pounding hoofbeat across the hard ground, his stomach clenched tighter and tighter with nerves. Everything was about to change. For the better? For the worse? He didn’t know. But he knew that Maggie was the reason they had ridden here. Edward had tired of his inability to find her a suitable husband and he wanted Urquhart under English control. As the only heir left, the stronghold would pass to her English husband’s hands. Unless Brodie did indeed return from the Crusade as Maggie continued to believe he would. The chances of that were slim to none after all this time.

Pulling him from his thoughts, Gerald and Richard strode down the steps to wait beside him. Tension tightened their expressions. Then, as the group rode directly in front of them, Mary walked out to join him as well. She edged her way between he and Gerald, an air of expectancy wafting from her. He had the uncomfortable feeling she would have slipped her hand through his bent right arm if he’d allowed it. Instead he fisted his hand and edged away a few inches. Even with that hint of rejection, she maintained her smile for the approaching men. It was as if she expected the news to be delivered to give her great joy. But then she was anxious to be rid of Maggie, so she could try to apply her womanly ways to persuade him to marry her. A
notion that
sent a shudder through him.

The riders drew closer. He and his two firsts straightened and waited grimly. Then Maggie stepped into the doorway behind him. He didn’t have to look back to see she’d done so, he sensed her presence. He also sensed her uneasiness and her curiosity. She’d been concerned about the next potential husband who would ride in one day. After the Earl of Dunston, he understood her trepidation. He prayed Edward had chosen wisely and with care. She deserved a man who would care for her, appreciate the many facets of her, and yet be strong enough to butt heads with her on occasion and apply a firm hand when necessary. But never in cruelty. After the experience with Dunston, he, too, worried about matching her with a stern husband or a man with depraved tastes.

“Lord Middleham.” The knight in chain mail and obviously in charge reined up in front of Nicholas.

“Yes.” Nicholas waited for the verbal news or the parchment to be delivered, but his patience had grown thin. “You have news from King Edward?”

The man’s glance took in the small gathering on the steps. He barely noted Gerald and Richard as his gaze shifted to the two women. He spared Mary only a bare appraisal before he focused on Maggie. A hint of a smile crept onto his rough face. “I’d heard that the Scottish lass was a beauty. And I was pleased to get the chance to deliver the king’s message, pleased to get a chance to see for myself.”

Nicholas followed the man’s gaze and ground his teeth at the easy smile that settled over Maggie’s face.

“I thank ye, sir, for yer compliment. But I’m no’ fairer than many of the women here.” She gave a light laugh. “‘Tis nay doubt rumors ye’ve heard, and rumors tend to get bolder as they spread.”

“In this case, the rumor proved true.” The knight stared at her in awe, clearly impressed by the beaming smile and the warmness in her demeanor.

Nicholas glowered at her, but she, of course, ignored him and kept right on smiling.