Hannah Howell (24 page)

“Is something wrong?” she asked. “Must ye leave on the morrow or something?”

“Nay. Tessa? When ye were told that ye were granted Thurkettle’s lands and money, were ye told anything else?”

“Well, Uncle Silvio did say that there were a few curious conditions, but he said discussing them could wait.”

“The rogue,” Revan muttered, then laughed and shook his head.

“What is it?”

“Your uncle has been aware of your decision to set me free for quite a while, I think.”

“Well, there is the chance that he was told ere we left Isabella’s. Why?”

“Because we have been playing his game. ’Tis the only reason he didna tell ye, or me, what those curious conditions were. Aye, Thurkettle’s fortune is yours. However, ’tis now half mine. It seems the king gifted it to you
if
ye didna become my wife by
my
choice. In other words, if I ended the betrothal, ye got all of this. But if we did wed as planned, then it was to be yours and mine equally.”

She snatched the letter from Revan as she sat up straighter, then read it—twice. “Can he do that?”

“He is the king.” Revan kissed her cheek. “He can do whatever he pleases. Are ye angry?”

“Nay,” she said, then shook her head. “Uncle Silvio has been toying with us. If he had told ye about this—”

“I might have stayed? He probably thought it would be a poor reason for me to do so, and he was right. He wanted me to come back to you because I had discovered that it was what I wanted, not because the king graciously made us more equal. Your uncle wanted me to win over my own choking pride
before
I wed you.”

“Is that what ye did, Revan?” she asked in a soft voice.

He held her close, resting his cheek against her hair. “Aye. Mayhaps I just needed to be faced with losing you.” He shrugged. “I also discovered that, when I eyed my pride squarely and honestly, it carried the taint of envy.”

“Envy? Why? I did naught to earn all of this. Ye have earned everything ye have, even when it was but a few riders in your purse. I got what I have through other people dying.”

Revan chuckled, then pulled back a little to meet her gaze. “Ye earned this place, lass.”

“Aye.” She smiled, feeling a small tingle of pride. “I suppose I did in a way.”

He gently brushed a few strands of hair from her face. “I rode away thinking that ye were right. And, aye, ye were, but only because I had not taken the time to look at myself closely. Everyone had told me that I was the only one who viewed marrying an heiress in the way I did. They told me that it didna matter what ye had if I kenned in my heart and mind that I wasna marrying for gain. Aye, and that ye kenned it, too.”

“I never thought ye were after my fortune, Revan. Not even when we were in that cave and I lied about how much I had. I canna explain why I did that, but I swear it wasna because I thought ye would want it.”

“Maybe ye already sensed what a thickheaded fool I could be.” He smiled when she shook her head. “Aye, I was. I was willing to toss away our happiness, hurt both of us, simply because I didna want a few people to speak ill of me. When I rode away, I was reluctant, confused, and miserable. When I made the decision to return, all of that faded. That was even more proof of how great a mistake I had nearly made. For the sake of my overwhelming pride, I was walking away from what I really wanted, deserting and hurting a wee brown lass who loved me more than I deserved.”

His words made her feel wonderful, but she tensed slightly over the last few. “I never said that,” she was compelled to say, and she lowered her gaze so that he could not look into her eyes.

“Aye. Ye did.” He grinned as he cupped her chin in his hand and forced her to meet his gaze. “Ye fairly screamed it not long ago. I was—” He laughed when she quickly put her hand over his mouth.

“ ’Twas but the heat of the moment,” she muttered as she recalled the particular moment he referred to.

Revan studied her for a little while, then asked in a soft voice, “Have I made ye afraid to love me, Tessa?”

“Nay! I just—” She bit her lip, not sure what she could say without confirming what she had just tried to deny.

“Ah, ’tis pride, then.” He pushed her down onto her back and lightly pinned her there with his body.

“Everyone has a little,” she mumbled.

“Aye, and we should see more clearly than most just how dangerous it can be if we let it rule us.”

“I am not letting it rule me,” she protested. It was pure cowardice, a fear of opening her heart to him and not getting all that she hungered for in return, but she was not going to confess that to him.

“Then look me in the eye and tell me that ye dinna love me.”

Tess glared at him. He was playing the game unfairly. She had to be the poorest liar in all of Scotland, and they both knew it. The words might come from her lips smoothly enough, but her eyes would reveal the truth.

“Oh, why dinna ye go and do something besides tormenting me? Thrashing Uncle Silvio would be nice.”

Revan laughed and kissed her neck before looking into her eyes again. “Say it. Ye canna spit out the lie, can ye?”

“Oh, all right then, curse your hide. I love you. Happy now?” She started with surprise when he gave her a hearty kiss.

“So sweetly spoken,” he murmured, laughter in his voice. “Ye do ken how to woo a man, lass.” He laughed when she lightly punched him on the chest. “Come, Tessa, where is the harm in our loving each other? Why do ye fear it?”

“Loving each other?” she repeated his words in a nervous whisper. “Ye love me?”

“What do ye think brought me back here?”

“Duty. Honor. Your horse.”

He ignored that last muttered nonsense. “Neither duty nor honor was strong enough to cure me of my destructive pride. I love you.” He wrapped his arms around her when she suddenly clung to him, pressing her face against his chest. “ ’Twas what made me realize that returning was the only thing to do, the right thing.”

“When did ye ken that ye loved me?”

“Well, ’tis rather hard to say. I didna want to, did I? My pride ruled me, and I kenned that loving you was the surest way to make me act against that pride. ’Twas there but I tried to ignore it. Even when ye fell into Thurkettle’s hands and I was half-mad with fear for you, I tried very hard not to admit why that should be. When did ye ken that ye loved me?” He rubbed his cheek against her soft hair as he waited for her reply.

“In the cave. That night that ye went out to lead Thurkettle’s men astray. When ye returned unhurt, I kenned it then. Well, I admitted it to myself then.”

“Aye. I am sure, now, that that is when I began to love you, if I hadna begun already.”

For a long time she held him close, silent as she savored the knowledge that he loved her. She needed a while to control herself, suffering from an absurd urge to weep. Revan would never understand that the tears would be ones of joy, of release from all her fears. Men saw tears as a sign of something wrong, and she knew that now was not a good time to try and teach Revan otherwise.

“Will everything be all right now, Revan?” she finally asked, needing assurance that he had truly conquered his pride, that it and the bitter anger it could stir would not return to haunt them.

“Aye, my wee brown love. Everything will be all right. I will save my pride for more worthy things, such as my pretty brown-eyed wife and all the bonnie bairns we shall have together. That trouble is behind us. ’Twas left to rot in the forest where I sat for so long and wrestled with my own heart and mind.”

She closed her eyes and sighed with relief. Love could have merely overshadowed his pride, leaving it to stir to life later. His words convinced her that she did not need to fear that. That threat to her happiness was truly gone.

“Are ye at ease then, Tessa?”

“Aye.”

“No more fears?”

“Well . . . I wouldna say that.” She smiled against his skin when he laughed. “Marriage is a very grave matter. I wish to do it right, to have such a good one.”

“Ye will, lass.” He tipped her face up toward his and touched a kiss to her mouth. “Just love me as I love you, and our marriage can only be good.”

“I believe I can do that. ’Twill be very easy.” She ran her foot up and down his calf. “Did ye decide on which name ye wished for your horse?”

“Aye—Amigo. I dinna suppose ye gave any thought to what ye might call this place?” He began to nibble her ear.

“Aye. Casa de Halyard. And—Revan?” She smoothed her hands over his broad back.

“What?” Moving his gentle kisses to her throat, he began to lose interest in the conversation.

“I
will name all of our children.” She grinned when he briefly glanced her way, then laughed. “I shudder to think of our wee bairns spending their early years as ‘Boy’ or ‘Girl.’ ”

He cupped her face in his hands. “And we shall have the bonniest bairns in all of Scotland.”

“Aye, with fine blue-gray eyes and fair hair.”

“I was thinking of deep brown eyes and coal-black hair.”

“Is this the first disagreement of our marriage?” she asked with a faint smile.

Revan smiled back at her. “ ’Twould be nice if they were all so small. Just never forget that, no matter how angry I might become or how foolish I might act at times, I do love you, Contessa Comyn Delgado Halyard.”

“Ah, aye, and I love you,” she whispered. “So very much. And I shall love you—until the last day of forever.”

“ ’Twill do for a start,” he murmured and kissed her.

Please turn the page for an exciting sneak peek of
Hannah Howell’s HIGHLAND BRIDE.

 

 

 

“Oof!”

Oof!?
Dazed and struggling to catch her breath, Alana decided she must have made that noise herself. Hard dirt floors did not say
oof
. It was odd, however, how the rough stone walls of the oubliette made her voice sound so deep, almost manly. Just as she began to be able to breathe again, the hard dirt floor shifted beneath her.

It took Alana a moment to fully grasp the fact that she had not landed on the floor. She had landed on a person. That person had a deep, manly voice. It was not dirt or stone beneath her cheek, but cloth. There was also the steady throb of a heartbeat in the ear she had pressed against that cloth. Her fingers were hanging down a little and touching cool, slightly damp earth. She was sprawled on top of a man like a wanton.

Alana scrambled off the man, apologizing for some awkward placement of her knees and elbows as she did so. The man certainly knew how to curse. She stood and stared up at the three men looking down at her, the light from the lantern they held doing little more than illuminating their grinning, hairy faces.

“Ye cannae put me in here with a mon,” she said.

“Got no place else to put ye,” said the tallest of the three, a man called Clyde, whom she was fairly sure was the laird.

“I am a lady,” she began.

“Ye are a wee, impudent child. Now, are ye going to tell us who ye are?”

“So ye can rob my people? Nay, I dinnae think so.”

“Then ye stay where ye are.”

She did not even have time to stutter out a protest. The grate was shut, and that faint source of light quickly disappeared as the Gowans walked away. Alana stared into the dark and wondered how everything had gone so wrong. All she had wanted to do was to help find her sister Keira, but none of her family had heeded her pleas or her insistence that she could truly help to find her twin. It had seemed such a clever idea to disguise herself as a young girl and follow her brothers, waiting for just the right moment to reveal herself. How she had enjoyed those little dreams of walking up to her poor, confused brothers and leading them straight to their sister. That had kept a smile upon her face and a jaunty spring in her step right up until the moment she had realized she not only had lost her brothers’ trail, but also had absolutely no idea of where she was.

Feeling very sorry for herself and wondering why her gifts had so abruptly failed her just when she needed them the most, she had been cooking a rabbit and sulking when the Gowans had found her. Alana grimaced as she remembered how she had acted. Perhaps if she had been sweet and had acted helpless, she would not be stuck in a hole in the ground with a man who was apparently relieving himself in a bucket. Maybe it would be wise to tell the Gowans who she was so that they could get some ransom for her and she could get out of here. Appalled by that moment of weakness, Alana proceeded to lecture herself in the hope of stiffening her resolve.

 

 

Gregor inwardly cursed as he finished relieving himself. It was not the best way to introduce himself to his fellow prisoner, but he really had had little choice. Having a body dropped on top of him and then being jabbed by elbows and knees had made ignoring his body’s needs impossible. At least the dark provided a semblance of privacy.

He was just trying to figure out where she was when he realized she was muttering to herself. Clyde Gowan had called her an impudent child, but there was something in that low, husky voice that made him think of a woman. After she had landed on him and he had caught his breath, there had also been something about that soft, warm body that had also made him think of a woman despite the lack of fulsome curves. He shook his head as he cautiously stepped toward that voice.

Despite his caution, he took one step too many and came up hard against her back. She screeched softly and jumped, banging the top of her head against his chin. Gregor cursed softly as his teeth slammed together, sending a sharp, stinging pain through his head. He was a little surprised to hear her softly curse as well.

“Jesu, lass,” he muttered, “ye have inflicted more bruises on me than those fools did when they grabbed me.”

“Who are you?” Alana asked, wincing and rubbing at the painful spot on the top of her head, certain she could feel a lump rising.

“Gregor. And ye are?”

“Alana.”

“Just Alana?”

“Just Gregor?”

“I will tell ye my full name if ye tell me yours.”

“Nay, I dinnae think so. Someone could be listening, hoping we will do just that.”

“And ye dinnae trust me as far as ye can spit, do ye?”

“Why should I? I dinnae ken who ye are. I cannae e’en see you.” She looked around and then wondered why she bothered since it was so dark she could not even see her own hand if she held it right in front of her face. “What did they put ye in here for?”

Alana suddenly feared she had been confined with a true criminal, perhaps even a rapist or murderer. She smothered that brief surge of panic by telling herself sharply not to be such an idiot. The Gowans wanted to ransom her. Even they were not stupid enough to risk losing that purse by setting her too close to a truly dangerous man.

“Ransom,” he replied.

“Ah, me too. Are they roaming about the country plucking up people like daisies?”

Gregor chuckled and shook his head. “Only those who look as if they or their kinsmen might have a few coins weighting their purse. A mon was being ransomed e’en as they dragged me in. He was dressed fine, although his bonnie clothes were somewhat filthy from spending time in this hole. I was wearing my finest. I suspect your gown told them your kinsmen might have some coin. Did they kill your guards?”

Alana felt a blush heat her cheeks. “Nay, I was alone. I got a little lost.”

She was lying, Gregor thought. Either she was a very poor liar, or the dark had made his senses keener, allowing him to hear the lie in her voice. “I hope your kinsmen punish the men weel for such carelessness.”

Oh someone would most certainly be punished, Alana thought. There was no doubt in her mind about that. This was one of those times when she wished her parents believed in beating a child. A few painful strokes of a rod would be far easier to endure than the lecture she would be given and, even worse, the confused disappointment her parents would reveal concerning her idiocy and disobedience.

“How long have ye been down here?” she asked, hoping to divert his attention from how and why she had been caught.

“Two days, I think. ’Tis difficult to know for certain. They gave me quite a few blankets; a privy bucket, which they pull up and empty each day; and food and water twice a day. What troubles me is who will win this game of ye stay there until ye tell me what I want to know. My clan isnae really poor, but they dinnae have coin to spare for a big ransom. Nay when they dinnae e’en ken what the money will be used for.”

“Oh, didnae they tell ye?”

“I was unconscious for most of the time it took to get to this keep and be tossed in here. All I have heard since then is the thrice daily question about who I am. And I am assuming all these things happen daily, not just whene’er they feel inclined. There does seem to be a, weel, rhythm to it all. ’Tis how I decided I have been here for two days.” He thought back over the past few days, too much of it spent in the dark with his own thoughts. “If I judge it aright, this may actually be the end of the third day, for I fell unconscious again when they threw me in here. I woke up to someone bellowing that it was time to sup, got my food and water, was told about the privy bucket and that blankets had been thrown down here.”

“And ’tis night now. The moon was rising as we rode through the gates. So, three days in the dark. In a hole in the ground,” she murmured, shivering at the thought of having to endure the same. “What did ye do?”

“Thought.”

“Oh dear. I think
that
would soon drive me quite mad.”

“It wasnae a pleasant interlude.”

“It certainly isnae. I am nay too fond of the dark,” she added softly and jumped slightly when a long arm was somewhat awkwardly wrapped around her shoulders.

“No one is, especially not the unrelenting dark of a place like this. So, ye were all alone when they caught ye. They didnae harm ye, did they?”

The soft, gentle tone of his question made Alana realize what he meant by
harm.
It struck her as odd that not once had she feared rape, yet her disguise as a child was certainly not enough to save her from that. “Nay, they just grabbed me, cursed me a lot for being impudent, and tossed me over a saddle.”

Gregor smiled. “Impudent were ye?”

“That is as good a word for it as any other. There I was sitting quietly by a fire, cooking a rabbit I had been lucky enough to catch, and up ride five men who inform me that I am now their prisoner and that I had best tell them who I am so that they can send the ransom demand to my kinsmen. I told them that I had had a very upsetting day and the last thing I wished to deal with was smelly, hairy men telling me what to do, so they could just ride back to the rock they had crawled out from under. Or words to that effect,” she added quietly.

In truth, she thought as she listened to Gregor chuckle, she had completely lost her temper. It was not something she often did, and she suspected some of her family would have been astonished. The Gowans had been. All five men had stared at her as if a dormouse had suddenly leapt at their throats. It had been rather invigorating until the Gowans had realized they were being held in place by insults from someone they could snap in half.

It was a little puzzling that she had not eluded capture. She was very fast, something often mar veled at by her family; she could run for a very long way without tiring; and she could hide in the faintest of shadows. Yet mishap after mishap had plagued her as she had fled from the men, and they had barely raised a sweat in pursuing and capturing her. If she were a superstitious person, she would think some unseen hand of fate had been doing its best to make sure she was caught.

“Did they tell ye why they are grabbing so many for ransom?” Gregor asked.

“Oh, aye, they did.” Of course, one reason they had told her was because of all the things she had accused them of wanting the money for, such as useless debauchery and not something they badly needed like soap. “Defenses.”

“What?”

“They have decided that this hovel requires stronger defenses. That requires coin or some fine goods to barter with, neither of which they possess. I gather they have heard of some troubles not so far away, and it has made them decide that they are too vulnerable. From what little I could see whilst hanging over Clyde’s saddle, this is a very old tower house, one that was either neglected or damaged once, or both. It appears to have been repaired enough to be livable, but I did glimpse many things either missing or in need of repair. From what Clyde’s wife said, this small holding was her dowry.”

“Ye spoke to his wife?”

“Weel, nay. She was lecturing him from the moment he stepped inside all the way to the door leading down here. She doesnae approve of this. Told him that since he has begun this folly, he had best do a verra good job of it and gather a veritable fortune, for they will need some formidable defenses to protect them from all the enemies he is making.”

Alana knew she ought to move away from him. When he had first draped his arm around her, she had welcomed what she saw as a gesture intended to comfort her, perhaps even an attempt to ease the fear of the dark she had confessed to. He still had his arm around her, and she had slowly edged closer to his warmth until she was now pressed hard up against his side.

He was a very tall man. Probably a bit taller than her overgrown brothers, she mused. Judging from where her cheek rested so nicely, she barely reached his breastbone. Since she was five feet tall, that made him several inches over six feet. Huddled up against him as she was, she could feel the strength in his body despite what felt like a lean build. Considering the fact that he had been held in this pit for almost three days, he smelled remarkably clean as well.

And the fact that she was noticing how good he smelled told her she really should move away from him, Alana thought. The problem was, he felt good, very good. He felt warm, strong, and calming, all things she was sorely in need of at the moment. She started to console herself with the thought that she was not actually embracing him, only to realize that she had curled her arm around what felt like a very trim waist.

She inwardly sighed, ruefully admitting that she liked where she was and had no inclination to leave his side. He thought she was a young girl, so she did not have to fear him thinking she was inviting him to take advantage of her. Alone with him in the dark, there was a comforting anonymity about it as well. Alana decided there was no harm in it all. In truth, she would not be surprised to discover that he found comfort in it, too, after days of being all alone in the dark.

“Where were ye headed, lass? Is there someone aside from the men ye were with who will start searching for ye?” Gregor asked, a little concerned about how good it felt to hold her, even though every instinct he had told him that Alana was not the child she pretended to be.

“Quite possibly.” She doubted that the note she had left behind would do much to comfort her parents. “I was going to my sister.”

“Ah, weel, then, I fear the Gowans may soon ken who ye are e’en if ye dinnae tell them.”

“Oh, of course. What about you? Will anyone wonder where ye have gone?”

“Nay for a while yet.”

They all thought he was still wooing his well-dowered bride. Gregor had had far too much time to think about that, about all of his reasons for searching for a well-dowered bride and about the one he had chosen. Mavis was a good woman, passably pretty, and had both land and some coin to offer a husband. He had left her feeling almost victorious, the betrothal as good as settled, yet each hour he had sat here in the dark, alone with his thoughts, he had felt less and less pleased with himself. It did not feel
right.
He hated to think that his cousin Sigimor made sense about anything, yet it was that man’s opinion that kept creeping through his mind. Mavis did not really feel
right.
She did not really
fit.