Maggie Mine (20 page)

*
*
*

Nicholas awoke two days later and knew he needed to get away for a few days. There was a strained air in the keep now between the women, but, thankfully, they were being civil to one another. Mary had eyed him warily since he’d taken the paddle to her backside. But he still caught her looking lustily at him from time to time and it worried him. Maggie had gotten over the embarrassment of knowing
al
most of everyone at the castle knew both she and Mary had been punished by him. No one spoke of it. He knew the men considered what he’d done in
disciplining
his wife necessary and the women understood it had been his place to do so. They hadn’t spoken anymore of it either. Although he’d had more than one fantasy about driving into her from behind and feeling her warm bottom against him.

Even now his cock stirred with excitement. She was as
a
passionate woman
, a demanding one in bed
. She was wearing him out and he would never admit that to anyone. But time away to recover some of his stamina would be good.

He fingered a lock of her pale blonde hair and felt its silkiness. Irresistibly drawn further, he bent over and whispered a kiss on her pouty lips. He drew in the scent of lavender that she used in her bath.

“Ye’re awake early, husband,” she purred and reached to pull his head down for another kiss.

Although his body ached to join with hers, he resisted. “I’m riding to Spennithorne this day.”

In the sliver of light seeping in through the narrow window, he saw the way her forehead creased in a frown. She didn’t like the idea of him leaving. Odd how good that felt.
Was he growing to love her?
His feelings for her had been strong for a long time. But love? Possibly.

“I’m no’ going with ye, am I?” Her question echoed with sadness.

He almost gave in, but then held to his resolve. He needed time and distance away from both Maggie and Mary.

“Nay. I’ll take a dozen men with me. I need to check on things at my other holding. You have duties here.” Before he could change his mind and stretch over her, drive into her and make them both crazy with need, he slipped from the bed.

She was silent a few seconds and then she brought up the subject still lying heavy between them. “Ye ride to check on Spennithorne yet ye will
no’
ride to check on Urquhart.”

“I said in another month or so we might.” He wasn’t sure why he was so set against returning there, but he feared taking her back to her home yet. Why he could not say.

He felt her anger sparking in the air. “I need to go there. Something calls me to it.”

Nicholas stopped to light a candle on the bedside table. He stood naked and tense as he looked down at his scowling wife. “You keep thinking Brodie will go back there. You have to let the idea go. He is dead, I am sure of it.”

She shoved the linen and fur off her to sit up on the bed. Her body was perfectly curved in all the right places; her breasts
were handfuls
that called to him. Even when she was facing him in anger, he wanted her.

“I willna let it go! He isna dead!” Tears streamed down her face and she swiped furiously at them. “If he is, it is because ye left him to die.”

The guilt of leaving the man he’d come to like as a friend had weighed heavily on him a long time.
Could he have done more? How many times had he asked himself that question?
Too many. He couldn’t keep dealing with the only choice he could have made at the time. And he was tired of being made to feel like he’d taken a blade to her brother himself and killed him.

“You know the truth in your heart. I would never leave a friend behind to suffer if I could do something about it.” He strode to his trunk and reached for his braies.

He heard her quiet sob and wished he hadn’t spoke so harshly. But then she said in anguish, “I see the way ye treat yer men and the people of this castle. Ye are good and honorable to them all. But in my heart I ken Brodie is alive. He has been suffering. He needs me.”

“God, Maggie, I wish it were true. But it’s been too long. He was wounded too badly when I saw him last.” He tugged the braies on and reached for his tunic. “Ye have to let this go.”

“Never. I canna give up on him as ye’ve done. I canna.”

Nicholas pulled the tunic on and grabbed his boots, then his chainmail hauberk. Unable to continue this argument any longer, he strode toward the door. He stopped to look back at her. “I will be back in a week, mayhap less.”

She sat stiffly in the middle of the bed in which they’d made fierce love the night before. Tears tracked down her face and he knew he should have gone over to comfort her, to kiss the tears away. But arguing over this matter always left him vulnerable. He couldn’t stand the th
ought that maybe he should have…
No!
He’d done all he could
have
at the time. And he could not touch her now. He was far too frustrated that she refused to let go of her foolish hopes. She couldn’t forget her brother and she couldn’t forgive him.

He strode from the chamber without even kissing her good-bye. When he returned, he would find a way to get past this matter.

*
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*

Maggie stole through the secret passage within the outer wall. Nicholas had ridden away with his men at dawn. He’d not even kissed her. She’d sat on the bed sobbing for a long time. She wanted to forgive him for leaving Brodie to his horrible fate, but forgiving him would feel like she was betraying the memory of her brother. And no matter what, she still believed Brodie lived.

“Are ye verra sure we should do this?” Fia asked from behind her.

“Aye. I must. But ye dinna have to come with me.”

Maggie felt the heaviness of the chainmail shirt she wore. She’d borrowed it from Nicholas’ trunk. It fell nearly to her knees. She carried a small bag, too, filled with bread and cheese snatched from the kitchens. And on her shoulder she carried her quiver of arrows. Fia was dressed much the same but she carried a small dirk and Maggie’s bow.

“I go with ye.” It was clear in her tone that Fia was against this plan, but she was a loyal friend.

Nicholas had ridden quietly at the lead during the ride from Middleham to Spennithorne. Gerald rode beside him, but he’d left Nicholas to his thoughts. He’d had much to think over: his argument with Maggie, the continuing trouble with Mary, a missive from King Edward wanting him to bring Maggie with him to Court, and a growing uneasiness he’d felt that he couldn’t quite figure out. It was his walking away upset from Maggie and not kissing her good-bye that bothered him most.

They crested a small hill and the stone buildings making up the village of Spennithorne came into view. It hadn’t been a long ride, but he and his men would be glad to reach their destination. He’d ridden them hard for the first miles, as if the devil himself chased them. The devil had actually been Nicholas’s conscience and the guilt he felt for not wanting to discuss Brodie. He’d finally realized what he’d been doing and slowed the pace, offering a muttered apology to his soldiers. None had questioned him. None would dare. Still, he shouldn’t have treated them so badly. He would make sure they were fed well this night and that ale would flow freely as well.

“There appears to be a truce between your lady and Lady Stanhope,” Gerald commented, gaining Nicholas’s attention. “Granted, ‘tis an uneasy one.”

All in the keep and most of his men knew the truce had come at a cost. Lady Stanhope had screamed out her distress at being soundly paddled and anyone in the great hall had been sure to hear it. Maggie, too, had cried out from her paddling, although not as loudly. Two days had passed since their punishment. Two days of awkward peace.

“My arm got a workout to gain that peace. I only hope it lasts for a while.” He didn’t like disciplining his wife, but she could sorely test his patience at times. He did like driving into her hot bottom, though. A very interesting experience that.

Gerald chuckled. “I had to warm my Fia’s bottom, too. She went on and on about how unfair it was of you to punish your lady. I grew weary of defending you and upended her.” He grinned knowingly at Nicholas. “There’s nothing quite like sex after a spanking.”

Nicholas agreed, but let the subject drop. Just thinking about sex had him envisioning his pretty wife, her legs spread wide for him. He shifted awkwardly in the saddle.

“We should only be here a day or two.” He focused on the village ahead. People were bustling about in the main area taking care of everyday matters. Just as his people back in Middleham would be doing. Now that he was away from there and the strain between he and Maggie, he felt calmer. Yet he missed Maggie already.

“You’ve fallen in love with her, haven’t you?” Gerald questioned quietly.

He wasn’t a man who normally discussed matters of the heart, but then neither was Gerald. He said simply, “I believe I have.”

Gerald nudged his horse into a faster trot and Nicholas did as well. “I’m missing Fia, too. Let’s get your business here done so we can go back to Middleham as soon as possible.”

A shiver of unease crept up Nicholas’s spine. Something was wrong at Middleham. But he shook off the thought as he noted the people milling about in the village ahead stopping what they were doing and looking in his direction. These were good people, familiar ones. He’d lived here for over a year before going off to the Crusade. As he and his men drew closer, he noted the smiles of greeting, the pride in their eyes. He’d treated them well and continued to support them from afar. One day he would bring Maggie here. They would like his Scottish bride, almost as much as he did.

*
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*

“Me feet are hurting something awful,” Fia complained.

Maggie’s feet were hurting as well. The two of them had been walking for what seemed like forever, but was probably only four or five hours. Long enough that the chainmail hauberk she wore weighed heavily on her small shoulders. Sweat coated her back and ran in rivulets between her breasts beneath the hauberk and shirt. Her long braid hung limply. She glanced at her friend and knew she was as miserable as she.

“If only I’d been able to borrow a pair of horses.” She’d been thinking about that almost from the moment they’d stepped out of the secret passage in the outer wall and hurried toward the trees.

She spotted a fallen tree in the forest they were passing through and headed for it. “Let’s take a bit of rest here.” She’d truly like to shed the hauberk, too, but didn’t dare. She couldn’t just abandon her husband’s garment here and she didn’t want to carry it, either. No, she must keep it on.

Fia sat heavily beside her. Sweat trickled down the sides of her weary-looking face. She set Maggie’s bow and quiver down at her feet.

“Do ye think anyone saw us racing across that patch of ground from the castle?” Fia reached for the leather pouch holding their only water.

Maggie had worried about it as well, but no one had come after them. Still, she’d taken to glancing back over her shoulder every now and then. She forced a smile and shook her head. “Nay. The guard on that wall only walks there twice a day now. He wasna there when I looked up.”

Fia didn’t appear convinced. She took a quick sip and handed the water to Maggie. “I can only imagine how angry Gerald will be when he learns I’m gone.” She shifted uneasily on the log. “Me bottom will feel that nasty str
o
p of his fer sure when he catches up.”

“I’d rather no’ discuss the subject.” Maggie had a feeling her bottom, too, would greatly suffer once Nicholas found her. But then maybe he wouldn’t come after her. Maybe he’d be so relieved to find her gone when he returned to Middleham that he’d forget all about her. Maybe he’d turn to Mary now.

She grumbled under her breath at that idea. Nicholas, as impossible and unreasonable as he could be sometimes
—
especially about Brodie and returning to Urquhart
—
was
her
husband! “She’d best keep her hands off him.”

“Are ye talking aboot Lady Stanhope? Aboot yer husband?” Fia studied her with a twinkle in her eye. “Ye love the mon, dinna ye? Even when he gives ye a devil of a skelping?”

“Canna we no’ talk aboot him wearin’ oot me p
oo
r bottom?” Maggie stood and blew out a breath of frustration. Then she slumped and admitted, “I might love him. At least I’m verra fond of his kisses and the way…
.
”

Fia giggled and Maggie slammed her mouth shut, mortified that she’d almost said “and the way he drives his rod inside me.”

Frustrated, Maggie glanced around trying to get her bearings in the tall trees. She worried her lower lip and turned slowly around. Her stomach tightened with unease. “Do ye get the feeling we’ve been here
be
fore?”

Fia stood and surveyed the area as well. “When we first came to Middleham? Aye, we might have passed through this way.”