Highland Magic (28 page)

Branwenn giggled behind her hand. “Aye.”
After another moment, she sobered and said, “Callum, you hurt me so
deeply with those horrible accusations you made. Why did you think
I would do anything like that—ever?”

He studied her for a long
moment, his gaze tracing the shape of her face and form before
returning once more to look into her eyes. “‘Tis a thing I didn’t
expect to ever feel again. Not with you, for this is a love match
we have. But when you spurned me so coldly this morn, and in a
manner much like my wife, Lara, had done when she was displeased
with me—as often she was—and then you gave your whole attention to
Robert instead—also a thing that Lara had done—I became angry and
sure that I was setting myself up to be a cuckold once more. A
thing I never want to be again.” He paused. “You do know what
happened between Lara and Robert last
Hogmanay
, do you not?”

“Nay, though I know what she tried to do with
Bao. He almost lost Jesslyn over it.”

Branwenn’s hand was resting just below her
breast and Callum picked it up and softly stroked the top of her
fingers with his thumb. “Bao and I found the two of them
together.”

“But Robert’s your friend!” She whipped over
onto her side and lifted up on her elbow. “Why ever would he have
done such a thing to you! I shall never speak to the man again!”
She dropped her gaze, shaking her head.

“When I came upon them, ‘twas clear they’d
done the deed, so Lara accused him of raping her.”

Branwenn’s gaze flashed back to his. “What!
Did he?”

Callum shook his head. “Nay. And he’d only
bedded her because...” Now here was the tricky part.

“Because...?” Branwenn prompted.

He cleared his throat. “Because I’d bedded
his sister,”—Branwenn sat up, her eyes glued to his countenance—“a
thing he thought of as traitorous.”

“You...” Her voice was
small but grew louder as she continued, “bedded
Isobail!
You
are
a traitor! To me! You said there
was naught between you. You...you...aargh!” She crossed her arms
over her chest and turned her back on him.

“Branwenn,” Callum began soothingly. Rising
up himself into a sitting position and placing his hand on her
shoulder, he slowly caressed her. “I was thirteen summers at the
time—that was over eight years ago now—and she was a lass of
fifteen. She was my first, but I was not hers. She’d had quite a
few lovers by the time she set her sights on me—and then, I found
out later, ‘twas only in order to make the lad she’d decided she
must wed—Laird Grant’s nephew—jealous enough to give her his
troth.”

Branwenn relaxed back against him with her
head bowed as she spoke. “So the two of you never...after
that?”

“Nay. Never.”

She lifted her head and shook it. “The
Isobail I knew did not seem at all like the lass you just
described.”

Callum sighed and rested his forehead on her
shoulder a second before lifting his head and saying, “Aye, the
lady you knew was the true Isobail. At the time of our youthful
affair, however, she’d had a bit of a heartbreak and was punishing,
I believe, her father for his role in her pain. Tho’, again, I
learned of this much later.”

Branwenn raised up and twisted around so that
she was facing him once more. “I only wanted to be kind when I
spoke with Robert this morn, since he just lost his dear sister. I
wasn’t dallying with his affections, I swear this to you.”

Callum nodded gravely. “Aye, I know that
now.” He scrubbed his fingers roughly over his brow. “Isobail’s
death is a sad loss to both him and David.” He lifted Branwenn’s
hand to his mouth and kissed each finger, one by one. “My thanks
for spending the eve with the lad. When I spoke to him before
breaking our fast, he seemed much better settled than he had been
after I spoke to him before his mother’s passing this day
past.”

“Grandmother Maclean and your mother aided in
that as well. They always seem to know just the right thing to
say.” She took her hand from his and placed it on his cheek as she
gazed directly into his eyes. “I understand much better now what
happened this morn. I was wrong to treat you so coldly; I should
have spoken to you about my misgivings instead. And, knowing what I
now know about Lara and how you were treated by her, I can see why
you reacted as you did when I spent my time with Robert. But, I beg
you, do not ever think that I will cuckold you, for you are my
body’s and my heart’s one desire.”

Callum took her hand in his
once more and, bringing it down to rest on the ground between them,
he leaned forward and kissed her. After several rather heated
moments of this, he at last lifted his head and said, “Robert told
me what you spoke of this morn.
Me!
”

Branwenn slowly opened her eyes and looked at
him. He had the most grotesquely happy, self-satisfied grin on his
face she’d ever encountered.

She watched him lean back with his arms out
behind him to rest on his palms before saying, “Aye, he told me
you’d bedded every young maid, daughter, and widow in the shire by
the time you were fifteen summers.”

Callum sat bolt upright. “He did?! That cur
dog spawn of the devil! He said he’d told you I’d only slept with
Lara!”

Branwenn howled. “Ohmygod! ‘Tis true! I only
said such to tease you, for I knew Robert’s answer to be false.”
Her eyes wide with shocked mirth, she waited for his reply.

Callum’s cheeks burned, so
he knew he was blushing. “Well, ‘twasn’t
every
daughter.”

Laughing, Branwenn threw her arms around his
neck. “Oh, Callum, I love you!”

He chuckled and shook his head. “I love you,
too.”

* * *

The next morn, Robert left with a small wagon
containing his sister’s body inside, wrapped in burial shrouds and
covered over with several layers of furs. The pall that hung about
the place that morn was heavy and grim. No one seemed inclined to
speak, so they quietly trudged back inside the keep after saying
their farewells to the man, and one final farewell to the lady
whose body lay so quiet and still beneath the covering of
blankets.

“Aye, she was a dear, lovely lass, that one
was,” Chalmers broke the silence once they were all settled around
the hearthfire and drinking a bit of mulled ale. “And the poor lad,
how it breaks my heart that he’s lost both his parents in the same
twelvemonth!”

Branwenn’s eyes misted. Callum, seeing her
distress, reached over and took hold of her hand and rested both of
them on his knee, stroking the top of hers with his thumb. He
cleared the sudden thickness in his own throat before saying, “He
seems a bit less fretful since the ladies—and Bao and Daniel—spent
time with him the day of his mother’s death.”

Branwenn looked over at her brothers. Bao and
Daniel stood a bit away, both silent, both in the same wide stance
with their hands behind their backs, both keeping their eyes from
meeting anyone’s as they listened to the conversation going on
around them. The half-brothers had each lost a mother they loved
dearly when they were young. Bao, when he was a bit younger than
David, and Daniel when he was a bit older. She could only imagine
how hard it must be on them right now, as they were reminded once
more of the tragedy of their youths.

And, even though she’d never known her own
mother, she’d certainly felt the loss of that gentle lady her whole
life. But how much deeper the pain must go when you actually know
your mother and lose her!

She thought of Reys then. He’d been a lad of
only five summers when their mother, hers and his, had been yanked
from her life in Cambria and forced into servitude to Bao and
Daniel’s evil father. How sad Reys must have been—how lost. ‘Twas
strange but, in all these moons since learning of her history and
meeting him, she’d never once thought of how those long-ago events
must have affected his life as well. She’d, rather selfishly, she
now admitted, only thought of how it had affected her—and how it
might affect her foster family. Never Reys. Never once. Until now.
An urge to see him overcame her. Where was he? Oh, yes, he was with
Alyson bow hunting again. But later. Later, she would speak with
him and learn a bit about his life, as she’d grown to care for him,
almost as much as she did her other brothers.

* * *

A sennight later, the wives arrived. First
Maryn, Daniel’s wife, and then a bit later in the morn, Jesslyn,
Bao’s wife. Neither one of them had brought their babes, as the
weather was becoming harsh, and they worried they’d catch a chill.
Since Jesslyn’s young son, Alleck, had begun his page training a
couple of moons past at Maryn’s father’s holding, he was not in
attendance either. Jesslyn and Bao had decided to keep the lad
close while he paged and then allow him to do his squire’s
training, as Alleck’s father had desired, with Daniel at the
MacLaurin keep.

There was a time, not many sennights prior,
when Branwenn would have wondered why ‘twas taking the two couples
so long to come down to the great hall for the nooning meal. Now,
it only made her envious.

Only two days more!

And this eve would be the
bonfire and feast, for ‘twas the eve of
Samhainn
.

Callum came into the hall, with David at his
heels. “Will you allow me to lead your warhorse onto the lists?”
The joust was set for a fortnight after his wedding day, and Callum
had yet to officially appoint the young lad to that position.

“Aye, I said I would, did I not?” Callum
replied. The lad had been sullen since his mother’s body had been
taken away, and this was the first show of spirit he’d had. They’d
just come from the training field, and it had clearly reminded
David of his avid desire to participate in some way at the
joust.

David sighed in frustration. “Aye, but you
haven’t told Daniel or Bao, so they will not let me practice.” He
cocked his head to the side, a question in his look. “Who will be
your Kipper?

“Why not ask Bao to do it?” Branwenn chimed
in, thrilled to see David’s spirited interest. “For, ‘tis truth, he
is the biggest warrior I’ve ever seen—he should have little trouble
at all getting your prize from the other man’s frame.” She said the
last, a bit tongue in cheek, for ‘twas truth—she found the whole
process frightening and not just a bit, well, barbaric. Lads!
Warriors!

Callum chuckled. “Aye, I believe I will ask
your brother that very favor.” He turned his head slightly, looking
down at his page. “What say you, David? Should Bao be my
Kipper?

David threw both hands over his mouth and
laughed.

Branwenn and Callum looked at each other and
shared a smile of relief before turning their eyes back to their
young ward.

Lifting one fist in the air, David jumped and
shouted, “Aye!” He looked at Branwenn. “Will that not be ever so
merry to watch? Surely, every warrior will give him his armor
freely, else their brains will be rung out from the clamor of Bao’s
club against their helms!”

Evil glee. Those were the exact words that
flitted through Branwenn’s mind as she watched, amused, the lad’s
evident thrill at the prospect. She only prayed he could continue
to find a bit of joy each day in the next moons as he daily grieved
the loss of his young mother.

Callum ruffled the lad’s hair. Then, sidling
up to Branwenn, he said, “David, will you go to the solar and ask
my mother what she has planned to feed us for the feast this
eve?”

There was a definite glint
of...something...in Callum’s eyes as he watched her, and Branwenn
had an idea what that ‘something’ just might be. She turned to
David and said, a bit too loudly, “Nay! No need. For I can give
Callum the list, as I’ve been working on it these past
minutes.”

David, who’d already turned toward the door,
began turning back toward the two adults and then sighed heavily
when Callum said, “Nay, David, I’d like you to go in any case, as
my mother has told me she has a special errand she needs done, and
she will only trust you to see it through.” Callum’s smile was smug
when he turned it on his, now clearly flustered, betrothed.

Branwenn bit her lip to keep from grinning
like a loon. He’d won the mental joust, but, truth be told, she
wasn’t the best opponent in these moments. For, ever since their
horrid fight and that wonderful time in the garden when they’d
shared their thoughts, their feelings, to a degree they’d never
done before, she had been craving another bit of time with
him—alone.

But, there was also that stubborn, romantic
part of her that craved for their wedding night—only one more day
and one more night and one more day away!—to be special. And that
night, she would, she had determined, no matter how embarrassed she
was, allow him to see her without a stitch of clothing on.

Her heart did a little flip in her chest and
her palms began to sweat. What if he thought her ugly? That
disgusting patch of red on her inner thigh…. Her heart tripped,
then hammered inside her chest. What if he was angry with her for
not allowing him to see it before they wed? What if he.... Nay, she
would not think such thoughts. He loved her. He daily told her how
lovely he found her. Surely, that one, vile and disgusting spot
wouldn’t turn him against her for evermore, as the old drunken
nurse always told her—would it? Nay, it wouldn’t. After all—he’d
not turned from her after seeing the mar on her breast, had he?

David rushed out and the two were left alone
in the hall. The meal would be served in only a quarter-hour’s
time, so Branwenn hoped they’d not be long alone in the chamber.
She glanced nervously at the entrance. Where on earth were her
grandmother and Aunt Maggie?