Highland Pull (Highland Destiny 2) (16 page)

Ian Worthington ushered the messenger into the great hall, and demanded an update, even though he was not the Laird. The messenger did not hesitate, he knew Ian was the trusted companion of MacLachlan, and the message was from Ian’s father, ‘twas important that the men be gathered at once.

“Please, sir, your father bids you and the Laird gather your men and ride. The Comyn is sending his guard to take your family’s holdings, they are only three days away. The king’s men are engaged near Stirling and he bids you hurry to your father’s lands. He will send men as soon as he is able, but he is counting on the men from both MacLachlan and the Worthington clans to hold the land. The king has sent his banner, under which you are to ride.”

“Aye, lad, you have done well to get here so quickly. Go to the guards let them know to prepare, I will speak with them shortly. And send one of the messengers you find there back to my father, we will arrive late on the morrow. Then I bid you rest.”

Ian began the preparations to leave immediately. Damn Gabhran for deciding to spend the day with his wife. He needed him so they could depart as quickly as possible. It would be a hard ride to arrive on the morrow, with only two short stops to rest and water the horses, but it couldna be helped. Ah well, let Gav have his last bit of tupping for the time, ‘twould be at least a fortnight before they could return. Mayhap the lass would be with child by the time they returned and the darkness that had been consuming his friend would rest for a bit.

Ian was shocked to find it was the
Comyn they would be facing. He had thought ‘twas not but a clan battle for which they were returning. Ian’s family had been loyal to Robert e’er since he claimed the crown and had been amply rewarded with additional lands and wealth. The lands were far in the south of lowland Scotland, and if the Comyn was successful in obtaining them, it would be a tactical advantage to the invading English. The Comyn believed himself to be a legitimate contender for the Scottish Crown, and ever since Robert had seized the throne, the Comyn had been undermining the king at every turn. The Comyn must be intending to join forces with the English against Robert.

Ian started to meet with the various members of the castle staff who would remain behind, making final preparations. He was thankful Alexander had managed the estate so well before his death, there was little to do in preparation to leave. The stable master was already saddling horses. Quincy, the leader of the guard, had already begun to review the battle plans with small groups of men and identified the contingent that would remain behind to guard the castle.

The housekeeper’s name was Agnes, and she had been with the MacLachlan’s since Alex and Gav were infants. She had helped the boys after their parents died, and Ian would wager there was naught in the castle of which she was unaware. Before he could offer her directions, she told him she had gathered the kitchen staff, and they were even now packing the dried foods that the men would carry with them on the journey. She bade him not to worry, the staff was well in hand and all was in ready in case the men needed to be gone for an extended period of time.

Ian thanked Agnes, then began to shuffle his feet and looked away as he tried to find the next words he wished to say.

“I will make certain the Laird sees you before we ride to…give instructions, for how to…care for the Lady, in his absence.” Ian knew she was confined to her chambers, and that did not make him happy. He thought his friend was wrong to treat the woman in such a fashion and it had been a sore subject between them the last week. He would endeavor to get him to relax his standards while they were gone.

“
Och, lad, be you wishing to tell me how to treat the Lady? After the night and today, she will have run of the estate, doona fash yourself.” She fanned herself as she turned away, continuing to comment as she walked away from him. “Aye, from the state of their chambers, the bath, and the plaid he took on their ride, I fair say, ‘twill be a wonder if either can walk.”

Ian laughed and felt relieved as Agnes walked away. If she said their relationship had changed, then it had.

He called for a horn to blow from the walkway on the outer wall, a sign to all the men within hearing that it was time to prepare for battle, to meet up at the castle. He wondered if Gabhran would hear the horn.

****

With Miranda securely in his arms, Gabhran thought about the change in direction his day had taken. When his wife had so solemnly requested that he don her bag of magick, he’d slipped the chain around his neck, swearing to always wear it. Then to seal the moment, he had made love to her while they waited for breakfast to be brought to his chamber.

After breakfast, they returned to Miranda’s chamber, in which the maids had restored order while they’d eaten. The large tub was once again filled with hot water. The fragrance filling the air was elemental and earthy, grass, cedar, and musk.

Feeling a bit wicked, Gabhran had climbed in the tub first, drawing a complaint from Miranda that he was going to use all the hot water.

“Come here, love,” he invited, beckoning her nearer. “Remove your robe and join me.”

He watched as Miranda let her robe drop to the floor, her long golden blonde curls spilling about her, teasing him with a glimpse of her breasts. His wife was a goddess he thought as he realized this was the first look he had gotten of her in good light.

She had long, lovely legs that fit around him perfectly, when he was buried deep inside. Her breasts were full and round, the nipples a dusky rose, that tightened into hard pearls. He knew she loved it when he pulled her nipple fully into his mouth and sucked hard. He would put babes at those nipples. But not too often he amended
quickly, he wanted to make sure there was time for him at her breast as well.

His gaze dropped to the hair at her juncture, ‘twas the same honey gold, and he knew the curls were silky against his cheek. He would taste her today, when he made love to her in the circle under the sunlight.

She stood before him and watched as he stroked his shaft in the lightly oiled bathwater. He raised his gaze to meet hers and they both smiled, remembering how the previous evening had started, and then Miranda blushed, but her gaze still lingered.

“Would you like to finish that yourself, husband, or would you like some help?” Miranda
asked saucily. His shaft jumped in his hand, and he made a low growling noise deep in his throat.

His smile was feral. “I want you to climb in this tub so I can bury myself inside you wife. Now.”

Miranda smilingly complied and positioned herself above him so he could slip the tip between her lower lips, inside her wet opening. She took him in one slick motion, lowering herself onto his shaft, they spilled water everywhere as they made love again.

He left her to soak a little longer, and when he returned he was dressed in riding clothes, a white linen shirt, black leather
trewes, and his leather boots. He looked at his wife, a vision of loveliness in the tub, her skin flushed from the heat of the water and the heat of their passion.

“Would you like me to wash your hair, love?”

Randi sighed as he gathered her hair and dipped it in the smaller hair basin next to the tub. He used the rose-scented rainwater to wash away the oils from their bath, leaning in frequently to capture her lips in a kiss or press his own lips gently against her head. He helped her out of the cooling water, dried her gently before helping her pull her short-sleeved chemise over her head.

“Shall I call
Lissa to help you finish, or can you be content with my fumbling aid.” He smiled.

“Don’t leave me; just help me slip this on.” She handed him the lavender overdress, and he laced the back for her. He gathered her damp hair and after kissing the length of her neck, he squeezed the water from it with a towel,
then brushed it carefully. When he was finished, Miranda gathered it into a long tail, and they walked from their chambers, hand-in-hand.

Gabhran pulled her up onto his horse and together they had explored the castle grounds for hours. He had taken her down to the sandy beach, then back up along the far ridges and hills that she’d been unable to see from her room. He told her of the lands, and of the people, of the history of the place. They were so in tune with each other that she’d asked him not to hide his heart when a wave of sadness had washed over him.

He hadna answered her at first, just pointed up ahead to a copse of trees, and said they would dismount there. Miranda leaned back into his chest, and lightly ran her fingers the length of his rock hard thigh.

When they rode through the trees, he felt her surprise when they emerged in the center of the grove.

“Standing stones,” she exclaimed.

“Aye, do you know of them, then?”

“No, only just that they exist. “

They dismounted and Gabhran spread the plaid on the ground along with a pack Cook had given him before they left the castle. He opened the pack to reveal a light meal and a skin of wine.

“Sit with me, wife, and I will tell you a story while we eat.” He told her then of his family and how his parents had died. Of how he had been the wild, younger brother, always making things difficult for Alexander. He told her tales of Druid training with the Gailtry.

Finally, he told her of how he and Ian, after drinking one night at an inn near Inverness, had met a man who claimed to be a powerful sorcerer. For a sizeable fee, he promised to sell
them a small book he claimed was full of ancient dark spells used by the gypsies for thousands of years. He held the book open but would not let either man touch it until gold was exchanged.

Ian and Gabhran had stepped away and talked it over. They had decided that if it were true, that this book contained dark spells of the gypsy, then they
couldna let this man keep it, they both sensed danger in the air around him. Gabhran removed the coins from his sporran and held them out to the stranger. The stranger grabbed his hand and held tightly while he thrust the book into Gabhran’s other hand. Gabhran fell to his knees, immediately filled with a sense of cold, of emptiness, of blackness. The exchange of gold for dark magick changed everything in an instant. He could no longer access his Druid senses.

He’d been filled with shame at his foolishness and spent his life since then looking for ways to lessen the feeling of blackness that threatened to overwhelm him. The blackness liked it when he fought, so he sought bloody battles and eased his conscience by fighting for the king and his loyal clans. The blackness liked it when he
tupped, so he sought the company of whores, never the same one twice, knowing he was never worthy of love. The blackness hated it when he was close to anyone, so he’d rarely come home, and had avoided his brother.

Gabhran told her how his brother had gone in his stead to serve the king, and been lost at sea before he could wed, before he’d had the heirs this family so desperately needed. He looked at her then, anguish in his eyes.

“’Tis how I found you, wife, and I ken I have no right to be happy, yet you fill me with joy. I have begun to hear the Druid voice again, and you pushed away my darkness. I owe you my life.” He put his hand to her lower abdomen, and continued, “If someday you bear my children, my life will be complete. I love you, Miranda, now lay back my charming wife, for I have a hunger and only one sweet taste will satisfy me.”

When she lay back, he pushed the hem of her skirt up and buried his face between her thighs. He kept up a relentless stroke of his velvet tongue, as he brought her to peak, again and again, until she begged for him to fill her. As if he’d been waiting, he hurriedly removed his own clothes before helping her with her gown and chemise.

On their knees facing each other, completely naked in the warm breeze that caressed their bodies, he kissed her, as his hands lightly grazed over every inch of her golden bare skin. She shivered with the overload of sensation on her skin and leaned into his kiss. When he pulled away, they were both breathing hard, his eyes were full of wonder.

“Lass, the Druid voice that commanded
yestere’en that I love you, has given me the words to bind our souls together for all eternity, it knows you are my destiny. I know not whether my Druid power will e’er return to me, yet this voice is strong and true.

“You are my wife for this life, I regret you did not have a choice, yet I rejoice that somehow we have found each other. Will you bind your heart to mine, our souls forever joined, so that should one of us die, the other will know the true heart ‘tis waiting just beyond the veil?”

****

Randi looked at him, her heart pounded in her chest, should she tell him about the future? Would he think she was crazy and walk away? Could she take what he offered and not tell him?

“Gabhran, I—”

He covered her mouth with a kiss. “
Shh, lass, I know there is something about you that fashes you, something you want to tell me. We have plenty of time for talk later. The Druid in me knows you, love, knows your verra soul. Will you speak the vows, repeat them after me?”

Miranda nodded, afraid to trust herself to speak.

He placed her hand over his heart and covered it with his own. Then he placed his other hand over her heart and she covered his hand, their gazes locked, looking deep into each other’s soul.