Medieval Highlands 01 - Highland Vengeance (59 page)

*

Standing next to her with his hands clasped behind his back, Bao struggled for something innocuous to say. He could not bear to leave without saying something to her. For his thoughts kept returning to the previous night, when he’d left her his token, and the image of her lying on her bed in the glow of moonlight, her hair spread out on her pillow. The coin he’d given her was the only one that was made of pure gold. ‘Twas older than the others, and the only one he’d received from his mother as a gift. His father had never known of its existence, else he would have stolen it as well. Even now, he was unable to explain the primal impulse he had had to bestow the piece on Jesslyn, but he’d followed it and he did not regret doing the deed. For his thoughts—and dreams—were filled with her.

Aye, and last night they’d been a collage of erotic images involving her deliciously naked body and those delectable berry tarts she’d fed him this day past when he’d gone to her cottage to follow through on his promise to Alleck to show him some wrestling moves. Bao’s mouth watered. He swallowed hard and cleared his throat. “Alleck is a good student. He’s learned quickly what I’ve seen other lads—older than he—struggle to master. He’ll be a good warrior one day.”

Jesslyn nodded. “Aye—”

Lady Maclean, Maryn and Branwenn strolled up at that moment and enthusiastically clapped, cheering Alleck on as he grasped both of Daniel’s wrists in a clinching hold.

“That’s the way, Alleck. Do not let Daniel make you lose your balance,” Bao instructed.

They all stood watching for several more minutes until Jesslyn said, “‘Tis time to stop now, Alleck. Bao must leave soon if he wants to make good time before sunset.”

Daniel released the lad.

“Aye, Mama,” Alleck said as he trudged over to stand beside her once more. Dropping his chin to his chest, he said in a tiny voice, “G’bye Bao.”

Bao patted him on the shoulder. “Farewell, lad. It shall not be long ‘til you will be able to best me in a match, I trow. You’ve learned quickly.”

Turning, Bao walked over to his sister and surprised a squeak out of her when he threw his arms around her waist and picked her up, squeezing her tight. After he put her back down on her feet, he kept his arms around her, holding her close. Dropping his head, he whispered in her ear, “Your hair looks lovely, lass, have I mentioned that?”

She shook her head. He saw her throat work as she swallowed, but she remained silent.

“Be good and follow all of Lady Maclean’s instructions.”

She nodded. “Aye.” Her shoulders quaked with the silent tears she cried against his shirt.

“I love you, lass,” Bao said gruffly and backed away.

“I love you, too!” Branwenn wailed. She threw her arms around his waist and hugged him hard.

Bao stroked her silken, black hair and placed a kiss on her crown before pulling her arms free and stepping toward his grandmother. ‘Twas the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life. ‘Twas as if a vital part of himself were being ripped from his very being. But his resolve did not waver.

Lady Maclean wiped the tears from her cheeks and straightened her shoulders. Looking up into his face, she said, “Godspeed. Pray, forget not, you’ve always a home here, if you need or want it.”

Bao nodded once and bent to kiss her on her cheek.

Lady Maclean put her arms around his neck and gave him a hug.

Maryn took hold of his hand. Still in his grandmother’s embrace, Bao turned his head toward her. “You’ve been a blessing to me—and to Daniel,” she told him. “I pray this is not the last we shall see of you.”

Before he could answer, his brother clapped him on the back and said, “If you do not visit us, then we will surely visit you—our sister knows where you live, forget not.”

“Aye!” Branwenn piped with instant cheer. “Perth is such an interesting town.” She turned to Jesslyn. “You shall love it.”

“
Nay!
” And then more calmly: “Nay.” Appalled at the thought of Jesslyn in Perth, Bao stepped out of his grandmother’s arms. “No need to start planning a journey. For I shall visit you here, as Daniel suggested.” He looked at his brother and his eyes narrowed. He suspected he’d just been smoothly blackmailed. In the next second, he was sure of it. His brother smiled and shrugged a shoulder, shaking his head in a conspicuous pretense of innocence.

Bao departed not long after, his family standing arm-in-arm as they watched him travel the path down from the keep. At the edge of the forest, he turned his steed east, toward Perth, toward his past life that held very little appeal for him any longer.

*

Jesslyn walked with her son back down the path to the village, her thoughts miles away, with Bao. Darkness had fallen hours before, and she’d had to awaken her son from sleep in order to get him home. He lay limp in her arms, his limbs dangling at her sides and his dozing head on her shoulder, as she trudged the well-worn trail back to her cottage.

Her son’s weight pressed the coin into her breast. She had it attached to a leather thong and tied around her neck. ‘Twas madness, she knew, to find so much pleasure in Bao’s gift, but she could not seem to restrain the feelings. Remembering the warmth in his eyes and the delighted grin he’d bestowed on her when she’d given him the bagful of berry tarts that morn after he’d mounted his steed, she smiled, a blissful sigh parting her lips. She’d told him they were a gift, not a payment, and that had made them both chuckle. Then he’d asked her if she liked the gift he’d given
her
. When she’d told him ‘aye’, he’d explained the coin had been a gift to him from his mother, and it had taken everything inside her not to beg him to stay. With her.

Alleck yawned loudly in her ear, sending a strand of her hair flying. “Are we almost home, Mama?” he asked sleepily, scrubbing his cheek against her shoulder.

“Almost,” she said, softly patting his back.

*

“Well, at least we elicited a promise of a visit from him before he left,” Maryn said, snuggling against her husband’s side, yet too energized to sleep.

He chuckled, his eyes shut as he lazily trailed his fingers up and down her upper arm. “Aye. Tho’ he caught on quite quickly to the tricky way I extracted it from him.”

Maryn lifted her head and rested her chin on the back of her splayed hand, now settled over her husband’s chest. “I wondered at that look he gave you. Why do you suppose he is so averse to us visiting his home in Perth?”

He shrugged, accidently jabbing her vocal chords. She swallowed convulsively and coughed. “Ow!”

He opened one eye and looked at her. She was rubbing her throat with her fingers. “Pardon, love,” he said, taking over the ministration a moment. Sighing, he closed his eyes again. “I have no idea why he does not want us to visit him, but I have a suspicion ‘tis related to the reason he was so set on getting Branwenn away from there.”

All at once, Maryn recalled the rapturous look on Bao’s countenance when he received the bag of berry tarts. She giggled. Feeling an unaccountable communion with the fellow enjoyer of good food, she said, “He’ll no doubt come back sooner than we expect, just to get another taste of Jesslyn’s delectable treats.”

“I hope you’re ri…my…lo…,” Daniel mumbled.

Hearing the steady breathing of her slumbering husband, Maryn stilled, enjoying the peace and security being wrapped in his embrace afforded.

She felt the tickling flutter of their babe, repositioning himself for sleep as well and placed her hand over the mound of her belly. Somehow, her body’s nest had protected its precious cargo and she praised heaven once again for the blessing.

“Be steady, sweet babe,” Maryn said softly. “You will not be the only bairn, I trow. For your Papa and I know the loneliness of that and will see to it you have many brothers and sisters to keep company with you as you grow.”

Her husband heard her words. Lifting his head from the pillow, he gently kissed her brow. “Aye, we will, love, we surely will.”

And with that, he smiled tiredly and fell asleep once more.

Maryn sighed. This marriage had started out as a bargain to end a feud, but had become so much more. They had each found in the other the thing they had craved the most. They had found more than a convenient way to end a feud, more than mere companionship—tho’ they certainly shared that—more, even, than simply a partner to share their burdens with. They had found a family. Aye, and something infinitely more precious and pure. They had found love. Deep and abiding. And that love had been manifested in human form. In the babe she now carried beneath her heart.

At last able to sleep, Maryn closed her eyes and fell into a peaceful slumber, her dreams filled with laughing red-haired bairns.

The End

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K.E. Saxon is a third-generation Texan and has been a lover of romance fiction since her first (sneaked) read of her older sister’s copy of “The Flame and the Flower” by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. She is a member of the West Houston Chapter of Romance Writer’s of America and is a devoted subscriber to the Romance Divas online forum. She has two cats, a 24-year-old cockatiel, and a funny, supportive husband. When she isn’t in her writer’s cave writing, you can find her puttering in her organic vegetable garden or in her kitchen trying out a new recipe. An animal (and bug) lover since before she could speak, she made pets of all kinds of critters when she was a kid growing up. Her mother even swears that she made a pet of a cockroach one time (but K.E. doesn’t believe her). She likes to write humorous, sexy romances.