At the Highlander's Mercy (20 page)

She shrugged. ‘They are not a wealthy clan. We are. It would seem a fair exchange. An honourable way out for both sides, especially since this was not Rob’s idea.’ As soon as the words left her mouth, she wished she’d not revealed that bit. It would reveal how Rob’s position here was precarious and give her cousin more power in the stalemate. If her mother realised the significance of it, she did not show it.

Her mother stood then and paced around the room a few times. Never a good sign, Lilidh waited as her mother gathered the nerve to say what she had to say.

‘I would think you would want him skinned alive for what he did to you, Lilidh. Why are you not screaming for his head? Demanding his death? Asking that your father destroy this keep and him?’

Lilidh pondered her mother’s words. For a long time after Rob had disavowed her, she had thought of nothing but one or two hundred different ways in which he could die—and all of them terrible. But now? After he’d protected her from harm, shared his own fears with her, and after they’d made enough memories to last
the rest of her life without him, she understood the duty they each had to carry out.

‘Because I have learned about duty, Mother. As has Rob.’ Lilidh stood then and faced her mother. ‘Whatever happened between us those years ago, it is over between us. Why bring death and destruction to people who had nothing to do with anything in the past?’

A flicker of something passed over her mother’s face just then. Something that resembled guilt. Which reminded Lilidh of a question of her own. ‘Why did you write to Rob when I was about to marry Iain?’

‘He told you? I would have thought he would keep it a secret since he had not the decency to respond.’

‘Mother, he never received your letter. His father did and kept it from him,’ she explained. ‘But why did you send it? Father made his feelings about Rob and the Mathesons quite clear.’

Her mother shook her head and shrugged. ‘‘Twas a mistaken notion, that is all.’

She would have asked more about that, but they were interrupted when Siusan arrived. They spent most of the afternoon there, speaking to Isla when she would rouse, helping her wash and eat, and chatting quietly when she slept. Siusan and her mother renewed their acquaintance,
for apparently Siusan’s cousin yet lived in Lairig Dubh and owed some debt to her mother that neither woman would identify, but both accepted.

A few hours passed before a guard came to escort Lilidh back to Rob’s chambers. If her mother had an opinion, which from the fire in her eyes, she did, she never spoke about it. After a farewell hug, her mother followed another guard out. They were walking towards the stairway when Symon approached with his sister. If Lilidh backed a step away, she could not help it—she expected the worst. Ranald motioned for her to come along and she did, but she had a bad feeling about this.

Symon greeted her mother with a respectful bow and then stood at her side as Tyra engaged her in a conversation over some matter. As Lilidh left, Rob, Duncan and the others entered the hall to return to their encampment outside the walls. Before they climbed up the three flights of steps, something happened and the sounds of a scuffle or fight, yelling and cursing echoed up through the stairway.

Though she wanted to go back, Ranald took her by the arms and guided her, with force but not harm, the rest of the way. If he hastened her
entrance into the bedchamber, it was without malice, and after warning the guard on duty to be alert, Ranald ran back down the stairs. She called out after she heard the bar drop, but the guard, someone she had not seen before, did not answer her.

Minutes passed like hours as she waited for some explanation and to learn if her mother was safe. Symon had done something, possibly something dangerous, most likely something stupid, which would cause more problems for Rob. She could not figure out if Symon wanted to destroy only Rob or the whole Matheson clan.

She stood by the window, staring out as the fires began to light up the forest outside the walls. Staying back in the shadows, she wondered if this was her last night with Rob. Walking to ease the tightness in her leg, she thought about how she felt about leaving him now. Maybe the talk about him with her mother had forced her to consider it more intensely than the scandalous, superficial reason she’d given her mother.

Regardless, she knew she would hurt deeply after she left him than she had when he left her. Though she’d like to think that this time for them had been only about pleasures of the
flesh, her heart knew it had been more. And knew it could be more between them.

Yet he would not admit it or explain the whole of how the chasm had opened between them and their fathers. Oh, Rob knew more than he was saying and he was leaving something unspoken, but she did not know how to pry it from him. She almost had the feeling he was protecting her somehow, or thought he was.

Well, she thought as she pushed away all the questions and thought about the coming night, she would take the hours she had left with him. And she would treasure every last moment.

D
ougal argued with him, just as he expected, but he gave in and accompanied Rob to his chambers where Lilidh waited. Did she have any idea of the complete catastrophe he’d barely managed to avoid in the hall? Now, his friend trudged up the stairs and along the corridor with him, silent except for an occasional curse aimed at him.

Daft, imbecile, stupid
and
bedamned
seemed to be among the ones he favoured for now. It would have been funny, except for the gravity of the whole situation.

Once more Symon had stepped in and caused trouble. This time, keeping Lady MacLerie from leaving nearly resulted in several deaths. Symon’s own was only prevented by
his unconscious condition—and the chains that bound him in a small room near the kitchens. Rob could take no more chances by leaving him free. Now Lilidh’s mother resided with her maid, under guard, until Rob could speak to Duncan in the morning and clear this up. Hopefully, he would find a way to solve the matter of Lilidh MacLerie.

Now he stood before his bedchamber door, not knowing what to expect inside. Had she seen the dagger in her mother’s side? Did she hear Symon’s threats? Or had Ranald already removed her from it? Dougal whispered something about changing his mind, so Rob lifted the latch and entered alone.

She stood by the window, barely visible in the shadows, staring out into the forest. He walked to her side and watched the flickering lights of the campfires glowing in the night’s darkness. He reached up and put his hands on her shoulders, pulling her against him and inhaling the scent of her … while he could.

‘What happened, Rob?’ she asked. He felt her inhale and hold a breath while waiting for him to answer. He let out the one he’d been holding.

‘Symon took your mother prisoner at knifepoint.’ There really was no way of saying it
gently. ‘She is well and I’ve sent word that she will be returned to your cousins on the morrow,’ he added.

‘May I see her?’ she asked.

‘Not now. Things have only just settled down. Fear not, she is comfortable and has not been hurt.’

She turned to him and searched his face. ‘But you have been hurt.’ Lilidh reached up and touched the edge of his jaw where Symon had managed to get a punch in before being subdued.

‘I need to speak to you about something important, Lilidh,’ he began. ‘This becomes more dangerous with each day and … I worry about what will happen to you if this ends badly for me.’

‘Rob, you will get us through this, you promised,’ she said, stroking his arm now. He smiled at her determination and her faith, especially when his was failing him.

‘Dougal is waiting outside. He will be our witness.’

The frown lay across her brow and forehead at his words. He was mucking this up. ‘We have had relations. There might be a consequence.’

She shook her head at his words. Then she
realised of what he spoke. ‘Why do we need a witness?’

‘I would handfast with you in the old ways so that you have the protection of my name if anything happens to me. Dougal has sworn to keep this a secret between us, unless you need to use it.’

‘You think you are going to die.’

There were many possibilities, but with the way that he was being undermined, opposed and ignored, most of them were not good outcomes. If she was with child, handfasting would give her some legal protections. If not, they could simply choose to ignore it. He would not hold her to the ‘year and a day’ tenet and keep her from moving on with her life.

‘Things have escalated. If whoever is trying to kill me within the clan does not succeed, there is every possibility that your father will once he hears about our violation in the truce and hospitality we offered.’ Rob could still not believe Symon’s actions. Once again, his cousin’s actions were indefensible.

‘But you did not—’ she began. He touched his finger to her lips.

‘It matters not, Lilidh. I am laird. I am responsible.’

The sound of shuffling feet and a man not
trying to be discreet interrupted them. Dougal would leave soon if he did not open the door.

‘Will you, Lilidh? Will you accept the protection I offer and handfast with me?’

He wanted nothing more than to tell her of the love in his heart for her, but that would make this something more serious, more permanent, and he could not offer her that.

Tears filled her beautiful green eyes then and they trickled down her cheeks when she nodded. He pulled a length of plaid from the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders and then opened the door to let Dougal in.

‘My lady,’ Dougal said, bowing to her. ‘A strange business in the middle of the night.’

Rob put his arm around Lilidh’s shoulders and took her left hand in his. Clearing his throat, he tried to say the right words so that they were bound but not so tightly that she could not escape this as soon as she was safe.

‘Lilidh MacLerie, I take you as my wife, before this witness, and pledge that you have the protection of my name and this vow for a year and a day,’ he said. Dougal handed him a strip of their clan’s plaid and he wrapped it around their joined hands. Then he waited for her to say the words.

Her voice came out as a whisper, soft and
gentle, as she spoke, her eyes staring into his as she uttered the words of joining.

‘Rob Matheson, I take you as my husband, before this witness, and pledge my faithfulness to you and to this vow for a year and a day.’ She wrapped the plaid strip once more around their hands and looked up at him. Rob leaned down and kissed her mouth to seal the vows.

‘You are both fools and I have witnessed it,’ Dougal said, cursing again before he walked away towards the door.

‘Thank you, Dougal,’ Rob offered, but Dougal left without stopping or looking back.

Rob poured himself some whisky and filled a cup with wine for Lilidh, handing it to her while trying to gauge her reaction to the last few minutes. She walked over and sat on the long bench where she’d sat with her mother earlier.

Dazed and confused. Lovely and exhausted. His wife and the love of his heart.

But that was only temporary and, once any danger was over for her, it would be over, as well.

‘What happened at your meeting with Duncan? Did something there cause Symon to act this way?’

‘Lilidh, I cannot understand him at all. At
times he is reasonable.’ At her expression—one of complete disbelief—he laughed and nodded. ‘No, truly, sometimes he is quite rational. Then he acts like this, as he did when he kidnapped you, and I am left wondering if he is insane.’ He let out a breath. ‘And I got the sense that Duncan is delaying. This is not something that should take days of negotiating, but he seems to treat it as such.’

‘What good would a delay do, Rob?’ she asked, as he sat down next to her and took her hand in his.

He finished his whisky and shook his head. ‘It is just a feeling. More than that, I have seen him do this before. He is waiting.’ Putting his cup down, he took in the dark circles under her eyes and her pale face and smiled. ‘Come. Let us get some rest so that we can face the morrow.’

She allowed him to lead her to the bed. He tugged the covers loose and held them back for her. His intentions to sleep, just sleep and allow her to, as well, were ruined when she lifted her shift off before climbing in. His body was ready before he reached the other side of the bed.

He tried to take no notice of the call of her passion to his as he placed his weapons on the
floor and in the mattress, but by the time he lay at her side, she was impossible to ignore.

She would always be impossible to ignore.

Hell, if he could have, it would have prevented most all of the problems they now faced.

In spite of the willingness of his flesh, he just wanted to hold her this night. To hold her close for this last night.

He fell asleep in minutes, wrapped around her, their bodies entwined. But he woke to find her touching him, skimming her fingers over his skin with her eyes closed as though trying to see him through her touch. Then she opened her eyes and her body and took him inside of her.

This time was unlike any of those before. This joining was slow and easy and left him feeling complete and empty at the same time.

When the first light of dawn streamed through his window and the sounds of hell arriving at his gate woke them, he knew it was over. The only question was whether or not he would live to see another day.

As he looked out from the battlements at the sea of newly arrived MacLeries and other warriors who were pledged to them, Rob wished
someone had summoned the MacKenzies to their side.

They dressed without a word and he took Lilidh down to the chamber where her mother and maid were before gathering with his men and facing the enemy.

Still stunned over the events of the night, Lilidh woke next to Rob with a profound sadness in her heart. Their last time together, something she never thought would ever happen at all, was over and now she would have to face living her life without him. She understood that nothing could or would come of the vows they’d spoken, but that he thought of her safety touched her deeply.

Now, as she walked at his side towards the chamber where her mother was being held, she could not help it if her hand lingered in his grasp, or if she stood too close to him. When the door opened, Rob informed them of his plans.

‘Lady MacLerie, if you would follow me now, I’ll take you back to your men.’

‘I am taking my daughter with me,’ she demanded. Standing up to Rob was most likely no problem for the woman who had tamed the
Beast
.

‘You will take the maid with you,’ he said. Calling out to a few men in the corridor, Rob gave orders that Isla was to be released along with her mother.

A flurry of activity followed as the men carried Isla out of the keep and Rob began to leave, escorting her mother away.

‘Remain here until I call for you,’ he said, the lover disappearing as the commander and chief were needed.

‘Rob,’ she said. There were so many things she needed to say to him.

‘I will send for you,’ he whispered as he pulled the door closed.

And then he was gone.