Winning the Highlander's Heart (23 page)

He smiled at her, and as soon as he did, the heat rose from her toes to the top of her head.  Forgetting he’d lain with her naked wasn’t going to be easy.

“You have probably been with many a woman, but I have never been with a man before.”  She furrowed her brow.

He donned his most serious face, which wasn’t genuine in the least.  “You are troubled by our having been together in the raw, but you have naught to worry about, lass.”

She wanted to know how she compared to other women, but he wasn’t cooperating.  She ran her fingers over her horse’s mane.  “You are used to seeing a woman without...without...”  She pursed her lips.  “‘Tis nay big deal to ye.  One is much the same as another and...well, you know what I mean.”

 He rubbed his whiskered chin.  “I think I know your meaning.  You wonder how you compare with the others, do ye?”

*  *  *

Anice was dying to know how Malcolm compared her to other women he’d lain with, but when he came to the point, it sounded so coarse.  “Nay, you are not getting my meaning.”

He chuckled softly under his breath, then drew close and took her hands.  His touch was warm and gentle, and she wished she remembered feeling his body resting with hers.  “I worried you were going to die on me, Anice.  So I tried to keep my mind on warming you before you left me for good.  But I cannot deny I saw the most beautiful woman in the firelight’s soft glow, nor that I did not desire that same woman who lay so cold beneath me.  But as a gentleman, I put aside such notions and concentrated on keeping you alive.”

She smiled, glad he had been so heroic, but desired her.  “I would thank you for saving me, but it would be queer if two brothers of the cloth kissed outside of a tavern.”

He smiled broadly.  “Aye, let us see if we can find my brothers and the wee lad.”

He opened the door to the tavern, and they were greeted by stares from eight men at two tables.  In a corner of the room, two monks and a boy sat supping porridge.

Elated to see them, she said, “Oh, Malcolm—”

“Brother John, keep your voice low.”

She clamped her mouth shut.  They moved to the table where his brothers sat, giving the other tables a wide berth.

Kemp saw them first and dashed to greet them.  He grabbed Anice’s hand and pulled her with him, warming her heart.  Dougald tugged another two chairs to their table.

“Thank God, you are all right,” Dougald said as Angus nodded in greeting, his face filled with relief.

“Did you stay here the night during the storm?” Malcolm asked.

Dougald motioned for a wench to serve them.  “Aye.  Half dead and half frozen, but we thawed out during the night.  And ye?”

A blush heated Anice’s cheeks again.

“We found a farmhouse,” Malcolm said.

His brothers looked from her to him as if they thought something more had gone on.

A buxom wench leaned over the table to show off ample cleavage.  “What will it be?”

“Porridge, same as the others are having and mead,” Malcolm ordered.

“We must have missed the farmhouse.  I lost the whole lot of ye, then finally found the village.  An hour later, Angus and the boy dragged in.”  Dougald tussled Kemp’s hair.  “He has wanted to search for you since he woke to save his lady, who is going to make him a Highland warrior.  I’m thinking he’s forgotten about the tending to your horses part of the bargain.”

She smiled at Kemp, tickled at his enthusiasm and good heartedness.  “You will make a fine groom and a great warrior, lad.”

“So,” Angus said, his dark brows pinched together, “tell us about this farmhouse.”

Her stomach tightened.

Malcolm cleared his throat and looked at them with a stern eye.  “We ran into trouble.”

Angus motioned with his head to the occupied tables.  “Fontenot’s men searching for Lady Anice and their laird.”

“’Tis no’ good.  We ran into the baron himself.”

Dougald’s neck muscle tightened.  Angus shook his head.

“I was tempted to run him and his knights through with my claymore.”

“He saw her?  With ye?” Angus asked, worry etched in the wrinkle of his forehead.

“She was buried under a couple of blankets.  They never got a peek at her.”

The brothers both looked at Anice, and she knew they realized what had to have happened.  She’d been with Malcolm, naked.

She looked down at the table, her face burning as if it were on fire.

“What happened?” Dougald asked, his voice darkly concerned.

“Soaked to the skin, the lady was near death.  Incoherent and shaking, she could not last.”

Dougald ran his hand over his stubbled chin and again cast a glance in Anice’s direction, then faced Malcolm.  “And the farmer and his wife?  Could not they confirm—”

“The house had been abandoned.”

Both Angus’s and Dougald’s jaws tightened while Kemp’s eyes grew round.

The serving wench returned with steaming bowls of porridge and mugs of mead.  When she left, Anice tried to spoon out her porridge, but her hand shook.  She dropped the spoon, then rubbed her hands together in her lap.  Did his brothers have to know?  Best if nobody did.

Malcolm reached under the table and squeezed her hand.  “The baron asked about her, and I had to tell him she was my wife.”

Dougald cursed under his breath.  Angus’s eyes widened.

Kemp grinned.  “And I thought I made up a lot o’ tales.”

“When he arrives at Brecken, he will find you have nay wife,” Dougald said.

“I will be his wife.”  Anice tilted her chin up, daring anyone to contradict her.  Then she grabbed her mead and drank a goodly sum of it.

The brothers stared at her.  “You have not even received word from the king that you may seek the lady’s hand in marriage,” Dougald said.

“Aye, we will only pretend she is my wife.”

Dougald shook his head.  “You cannot be with her as husband and wife.  This baron already wants us dead.”

“I will not
really
be his wife,” Anice said, frowning.  “For heaven’s sakes.  I will only pretend so the baron will tire of waiting for Lady Anice and leave.  I will not need to marry then.  Just bide my time until some other Highland gentleman seeks my hand for real.”

The brothers looked at Malcolm to see his response.

He ignored Anice’s jab.  “If we can get to Brecken before the baron and his men, she intends to let her courtiers know the plan, then we will all be bound by it.  In the meantime, we will uncover the plot that the baron killed her uncle.”

Dougald finished his mead.  “I do not like any of this.”

“It could not be helped, Dougald.  Nay one could have been more shocked than I when they arrived at the farmhouse, half-drowned like a crew on a sinking ship.”

Anice quickly downed the rest of her drink.

Both Malcolm’s brothers watched her.  They knew.  She’d slept naked with a man not her husband. 
Scandalous.

Chairs scraped the wooden floor on the other side of the room. 

Dougald warned, “One of his men is coming.  They have already questioned us about whether we had seen the lady and her companions.”

Boots clomped in their direction and Malcolm and his brothers sat taller.

“How now.”  The burly, dark-haired man maneuvered between Malcolm and Anice.  Her blood grew cold when the man stood so close to her.  “Your brothers said they did not see two woman and four men on their journey.  What about ye?”

 Malcolm shook his head.  “Nay, we did not see any sign of them.”

“Did you come across our lord, mayhap?  Baron Harold de Fontenot?  We became separated from him during the storm also.”

Malcolm glanced at the man’s sword.  “You have lost quite a considerable number of people, Sir Knight.”

The knight’s response was harsh.  “Ye have not answered my question.”

Anice wrung her hands in her lap.  If Malcolm said no they hadn’t met up with the baron, and the knight met them later and the baron said yes...but then again, Malcolm wasn’t dressed as a monk.  Heaven’s have mercy, he wasn’t dressed at all.

Her stomach grew queasy.

Angus gruffly grabbed her arm as a man would another.  “Are you ill, brother?”

“Mayhap we should get you a room, Brother John.  The storm has taken a wee bit out of ye,” Malcolm quickly said.

She shook her head, but kept her face averted from the knight.

“You did not answer my question.”  The knight’s voice rose with impatience.  “Did ye, or did ye not see His Lordship?”

“We saw nay one during our travels.  Like I said, ‘twas a devil of a storm.”

The knight waited and Anice feared he looked her over.  “You seem young to be a monk.”

She wanted to shrink in her seat to disappear from the man’s interrogation, but sat taller and straightened her shoulders.  The telltale sound of a sword sliding out of its sheath startled her.  She opened her mouth to speak.

“Brother John was beaten when he was little, and he cannot talk,” Kemp said.

Angus and Dougald reached under their robes for their swords.

“Come on, James,” one of the men shouted.  “They know nothing.  Their damned Scots.”

“And so is the lady we are searching for.”  The man slid his sword back into its sheath and stormed off.

“Are you all right?”  Malcolm reached under the table and took Anice’s hand.  His fingers were warm and reassuring, and she wished he’d pull her close and squeeze her tightly against his chest.

“Aye,” she whispered.  “Let us finish our porridge and be on our way.”

“Are you sure you do not want to rest a bit longer?  You look awfully pale.”

“Nay, our horses are well rested.  We should tarry no more.  I fear the longer we delay the better chance we have at getting caught.”  She couldn’t help but feel they were quickly sinking deeper into a quagmire of quicksand.  Physically and emotionally she was drained.  But she couldn’t show the strain.  The best thing for all concerned was to push on.

After they finished their meal, they headed outside and found the knights examining their horses.  Dismayed, she’d hoped they’d left the area already.  They were sure to wonder why monks, if that’s who owned the horses, had such fine mounts.

“Walk on past to the chapel down there,” Malcolm said under his breath.

She tugged at her cowl.  “They will think the horses ours, will they not?”

“There may be some others sleeping—”

“They would have stabled their horses for the night, like we had done,” Dougald warned.

 “Shhh, keep moving,” Malcolm said.  He knew as well as she did, the men would suspect the monks, and already they were some suspicious of her.

Kemp ran back toward the men.  Anice jerked her head around.

“Anice, do not look back.  Just keep moving.  The boy will be fine.  He is a canny lad.” He glanced back at Kemp.  “He is asking about their swords, distracting them.”

“But what if they question him about us?”