Highland Magic (40 page)

Bao nodded. “Aye, let us pray so.”

They were both silent a moment, lost in their
own musings. Finally, Bao shook his head, saying, “Nay. Nay, I
simply do not believe she did this thing—at least not after she wed
Callum—priest’s blessing or no. Nay, I think she must have had some
contact with the man while she was in Cambria. Mayhap while they
were betrothed and together at Pembroke. What say you?”

Daniel studied his brother
a moment as he worked this out in his mind. He nodded. “Aye, that
makes much more sense.” He leaned forward. “Is it possible that
naught more went on than,
ahem
, preamble? Would he have seen
this thing in that case? For, Callum has been quite sure these past
moons that he...well...that Branwenn had been an innocent,
prior....”

Bao chuckled in spite of the dire subject of
their conversation. “You truly cannot bear to think on our wee
sister as a woman grown, with desires, can you?”

Daniel couldn’t help it. He cringed. “Nay. So
let us keep to the general and not the specific, all right?”

With a nod, Bao said, “Aye.
And, aye to the other, as well. ‘Tis more than possible that the
Norman might have acquired this knowledge during the”—he choked
back a laugh but it came out as a snort—“
preamble
, did you call
it?”

Daniel drilled him with a
steady glare. “‘Tis glad I am that I can offer such amusement to
you, but would you mind concentrating a bit more on the subject at
hand? It
is
our
sister’s shattered hopes of which we are speaking, after
all.”

Bao immediately sobered. “Aye, you are
right.” He cocked his head to the side. “Have you noticed how quick
Callum is to compare our wee sister to that viper to whom he was
wed, Lara?”

Daniel took in a deep breath and slowly
released it. “Aye, I have. And I know not how to reason him out of
it, for he has a demon riding his back. ‘Tis something he alone has
the power to overcome within himself. Naught we say will make him
see with different eyes. Not this time; not without proof that the
Norman lied.”

Bao nodded. “Hmmm.” After a moment, his spine
straightened. “God’s Bones! I cannot believe you would think I’d
bedded my own sister!”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “I was jesting!” He
shrugged. “A wee bit.”

“Arse.”

“‘Tis better to be the arse than the
hole.”

Bao shot to his feet. “Mayhap ‘tis been too
long since we met on the field. What say you to a bit of a wrestle,
brother?”

“‘Tis black as pitch outside!”

“Naught that a few torches will not
amend.”

Daniel stood. “Let us to it, then. I admit,
giving you a good trouncing will be a pleasant way to end this
horrid day.”

Bao strode towards the
door. “Worry not, old man,” he called over his shoulder, “you’ll no
doubt be aided to your bed in only a few moments time, for it
shan’t take more than a move or two for me to knock you on
your
arse
.”

Chalmers, Maggie and Lady Maclean entered
just as Bao said the last.

“Oh, my, are you two at it again?” Maggie
said.

Chalmers chuckled. “Leave
them be, my dear. ‘Tis good practice and they’ll not do
too
much damage to
themselves, I trow.”

“Aye, and after the events of the day, I’m
sure they need a bit of exercise to calm them,” Lady Maclean said.
She touched her fingers to her daughter’s wrist. “Besides, you know
well how warriors do enjoy testing their skills.”

Maggie stepped away from her husband, making
a clear path to the door for Bao to go through. “Aye, I suppose you
are right, Mama.”

Bao dipped his head to her and strode out,
with Daniel not three paces behind him.

* * *

Later that night, near the chimes at
midnight, Branwenn silently stepped across the threshold of
Callum’s bedchamber. After quietly closing the door behind her, she
rested back against the hard, rough wood and gazed toward the
closed canopy of the bed.

She’d sworn to leave Callum be. To allow him
to recover before speaking to him again, but she found she just
couldn’t do it. Not knowing that he still had no knowledge of the
babe he’d put in her womb.

And, surely, once he knew, he’d stop this
talk of voiding the contracts; he’d realize how wrong he’d been in
his belief that she’d been with any other but him. And then they
could begin building their lives together as they’d planned.

She tiptoed over to the side of the bed and
spread the drape back with her hand enough to see the dark outline
of Callum’s large form.

“Get out, whore.”

Branwenn sucked in a breath, both in surprise
and anguish at the epithet he continued to use for her. She began
to tremble, but she resolutely held her ground. He’d change his
mind soon enough, when he knew.

“And on the morrow, hie
yourself to one of your brothers’ holdings, for I will not have you
sullying my home another moment. You disgust me. You
and
that vile patch you
sport.”

Branwenn’s heart twisted. Her eyes misted,
but she blinked the moisture away. Not this night. She’d not give
in to her weakness this night. “You said you liked it—that you
wanted all our bairns to have it, and now there just may be—”

“‘Twas a lie, my dear. Just as you lied to me
about your lack of experience. What a fool I was to believe you
innocent when you inveigled me to speak of the act of coupling in
detail that day. ‘Twas more likely some cunning ploy used to entice
me that you use on all your men.”

“Callum! How could you think such! ‘Tis not
true, I swear it.”

“You
swear
it? Truly? And what good are
vows from you when you so easily break them—only one day after you
gave them!”

Mayhap she
had
been in Bao’s trade
in Perth, Callum suddenly thought. Bao had vehemently denied it
when he’d asked him that very question last year, but now Callum
was no longer convinced. She was much too bold for a true innocent.
Why, she’d nearly devoured him that day in the cave.
Sucked
him
dry
. The Norman’s vile
words still haunted him, made him ill. Aye, that was no act of a
true novice.

And she’d seduced him as well. In this very
bed he lay upon now. How bold she had been, teasing his cock with
that hot mouth of hers and then straddling him and taking him
inside her. Like a veritable proficient. Had she truly been a
virgin? Mayhap that had been an act as well.

“I love you, Callum. And you said you loved
me, many times. Do not do this to us, I beg you.”

Callum closed his eyes against the enticement
of her standing so close to him that he could smell the sweet rose
scent of her, feel the seductive heat of her lovely body, ripe and
ready for the taking, if only he’d reach out his hands and accept
what she offered. But not again. He’d not be made the fool again by
another deceitful wife. Not now, not ever.

‘Twas a struggle, but he managed to say in a
bored tone, “As it turned out, ‘twas a rather fleeting desire I
bore for you, not love. Now, you only vex me with your simpering
and mewling. Leave me to my rest.”

Branwenn choked back the cry that rose from
deep inside her. She turned and fled, all thoughts of telling him
of their babe driven away by his cruel words and stubborn
disbelief.

* * *

“My dear, you’ve not had more than a few
bites of meat this whole eve! Are you not well?” Lady Maclean asked
Branwenn.

‘Twas a fortnight since the joust; a
fortnight since Callum’s horrid accusation and her subsequent
flight from his chamber. “Aye, I feel well, Grandmother. I’m just a
bit tired. This feast started so early this day and now ‘tis surely
nearing the chimes of compline.”

Lady Maclean patted her hand. “Well, the
players are about to perform; that will surely wake you a bit. I
know how you enjoy their antics.”

Branwenn gave her a tired smile. “Aye, I’m
sure you are right.” After that terrible night when Callum had
denied his love for her, Branwenn had followed Daniel’s advice and
allowed him to convalesce with no further contact from her.

“Ahh! Here they are,” Lady Maclean said.
“This should be quite entertaining, for it looks as though they’ve
got one of the younger players dressed as a lass. ‘Twill be a story
of two lovers no doubt. I do so enjoy that type of play.” She
leaned close to Branwenn and said, “‘Tis such a shame that the
others could not be here to see this. But Maryn and Jesslyn would
not be swayed. They wanted to return to their babes—and who could
blame them?” She chuckled and gave a bit of a shrug. “And ‘tis a
good thing, I trow, that Bao left as well, for even I was beginning
to worry over his and Daniel’s desire to compete with each other
over the slightest thing.”

Daniel had evidently heard
his grandmother’s last comment, because he laughed good-naturedly
and said, “Not the
slightest
thing, Grandmother, I assure you. I’m sure I’d
give him the last turnip, if he wanted it, for example.”

Lady Maclean chucked him on the chin. “Aye,
but only because you have no real liking for them! You cannot fool
me, my lad.”

He gave her a sheepish grin and shrugged.
“Mayhap.”

While Daniel and Lady Maclean continued their
lively banter, Branwenn squirmed on her stool. Some mad compulsion
that she had yet to overcome made her look in Callum’s direction
for the thousandth time that eve. Her heart shot into her throat
when her eyes were instantly swept up in the green fire of his own.
He smirked and dipped his head to her in snide greeting before
turning back to the other young clansmen—his friends—whom he sat
with at one of the soldiers’ trestle tables below the dais where
the family’s table was located. Branwenn quickly turned her eye
back to the performers.

The play started with a song. Two of the
players, one male and one dressed as a female, danced toward each
other. Then, as the two stood facing each other, the music stopped
and the man said:

“
Why if it isn’t the beautiful Mai. What’s
brought you to this cave, oh fey one?”

A feeling of foreboding
filled Branwenn.
Mai? Cave? Fey
one?
She shook her head. Nay, ‘twas a
strange stroke of chance. Surely. But she straightened on her stool
and watched closely the rest of the scene in any case.

By the end of it, she was atremble. She
remained stoic, however, her mein sedate and her eye never
wandering from the place where the players staged their
entertainment.

But inside, she was appalled—and growing more
so by the second. For this was some malicious re-enactment of her
and Callum’s wedding night. And only one other person could have
given the tale to the players: Callum. Was he that set against her
then? To humiliate her in front of everyone?

‘Mei’ spoke then:

“
I—I’ve a...patch, a mark on me.”

Branwenn’s heart stopped, then started again
in a mad, pounding race against her rib cage. She watched with near
panic as the player repeated her words, her actions of that night.
Then he covered his mouth with his hand and said:

“
Oh, God! I know you’ll find it as hideous
as I do when you see it!”

She began to quake in earnest. Her palms and
underarms grew moist with sweat. Without conscious thought, she
turned her eye on Callum.

He wasn’t watching the
performance either; he was looking directly at her. His countenance
no longer held the snide humor of a few moments past. In its place
was something else. Something indefinable, unsettling. No longer
did his eyes hold fire in their depths. Nay, now there was only
ice—as cold as the winter winds on the highest peak of
Sìdh Chailleann
. Brutal
in its lack of warmth. As the two green glacial shards pierced her
through, she suddenly knew. Knew what that look was. ‘Twas hatred
she saw there. Unmitigated and unyielding.

‘Mei’s’ lover spoke then:

“‘
Tis the mark of the devil!”

Branwenn’s head whipped around in horrified
anguish. In the next instant, she was on her feet and off the
dais.

“Branwenn! Are you ill?”

She heard her grandmother,
but was too distraught to stop her flight. She felt the hot flush
of her humiliation spreading up from her chest, to her neck, and
finally covering her entire visage. She must get out of here before
everyone realized that the play was about
her!

She hurried across the great hall with as
much dignity as she could muster. Her head held high, she kept her
eyes focused directly ahead of her. When she passed Callum’s table,
she fought the urge to allow her eyes to turn in his direction.

Finally, finally, she was outside the hall
and in the dimly lighted antechamber that held the stairs leading
up to the family’s quarters. She’d only gone a couple of steps when
someone grabbed hold of her arm. Before she knew what was
happening, she was crowded up against the stone wall and being
voraciously kissed.

At first, she thought ‘twas Callum. And even
though he’d hurt her deeply these past days—and just now with the
humiliating play he’d arranged—her heart still loved him, held
hope, forgave. So, she kissed him back, with all the feeling she’d
been holding inside her.

Realization was just
beginning to dawn when the man—‘twas one of Callum’s
friends!—lifted his head and said, “Callum was right, you
are
a sweet berry, ripe
for the ff—
plucking
.”