Rescued by a Highlander

by Susan Payne

  “There is no knight or lord who could take your place in my heart, Robert. You must believe that.”

  “Then I will sleep better tonight knowing.” He kissed her hands, which he still held between his. “That is a lie. I will not sleep well tonight for thinking of you and thinking myself one lucky…never mind, not for your ears, my love. I may call you that, might I not?”

  “Anything, Robert, anything for you. But where does this leave us?”

  “Not in a good place. I must leave to finish the semester before being able to return to you. I will speak to your cousin as the highest-ranking male in your family to seek his approval of my courting you. I would ask for your hand immediately, but I fear he would turn me away. I do not wish to be denied access to you when I return in the spring.”

  “Gawain will not be a problem. You have already won Jillian over and he will not go against what she wishes. She has been your champion and I finally listened to her and my heart.”

  “Then in the morning, before I must leave, I will speak with him about this. I will tell him it was unexpected but I find I am in love with you. Will he think me crazy? Mayhaps kick me out?”

  “Gawain will be more sympathetic than you may think. He and Jillian became handfasted within twenty-four hours of their meeting, and that was after she attacked him with a broadsword.” Agatha explained laughing at her love’s amazed expression.

  “You will have to tell me that story at another time. When we have not already stayed up past the time everyone else went to bed. I hate to leave you, but I will not escort you above stairs tonight if that is all right with you. I need to stay a few moments here, mayhaps take a walk in the bailey, to relax and settle myself before trying to sleep for the night.”

  “Certainly, Robert. I am pleased, so pleased you have similar feelings to mine. I will see you in the morning at table, then. Good night.”

  “Good night, Agatha. Sleep well,” he said as he went towards the large arched doors to the bailey.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Jillian prepared for bed and thought about Robert’s return in the spring. She could see herself at the site as he and the other archeologists uncovered artifacts and possibly even treasure like gold or gems from the earth - her earth. She realized she had become territorial and protective of her husband’s lands and his heritage, and wondered when the change came about.

  When she found the first Pict items? When she was first handfasted? When she was married? Or became with child? So many momentous occasions could have tied her to the clan and to Gawain. Or was it the man himself?

  He had been sensitive to her individualism from the beginning. Instead of being repelled and indignant of her wearing men’s clothing and wielding a broadsword, he seemed to embrace that about her even as he tried to protect her. She realized she had never taken his acceptance as anything but her due.

  Now thinking about it, she wondered why he was so worried about her from the first meeting. Bringing her father and herself to safety and helping them regain their health, then handfasting himself to her… He chanced causing a breech between himself and his clansmen by selecting an outsider for his lady wife.

  Then the conversation with Agatha in which everything she had brought up with that lady in mind was turned back against herself. Forcing Jillian to question her decision to return to her father’s castle when in fact she had no need to protect him any longer or to keep him company since he was returning home with Lady Edith.

  She needed to think why she felt returning with her father and his new wife should be an option let alone a motive. She felt as at home here in the keep, surrounded by this clan than she ever had at her father’s castle where the people always thought of her father and herself as an extension of the king they hated. Their clansmen had supported the Jacobites and James and lost the rights to their lands long ago. Her father had married a woman he loved and was given the holding and the title. It would be right that it would pass back to a Scott when Jillian’s child inherited it from her father.

  And it was time to admit she loved her husband, probably had for months as she grew to know his honor, his chivalry, his strength, and power. All a knight should be and all she admired since she was a young girl reading the story of Camelot. Her Sir Gawain was much like that Sir Gawain and she was so very lucky he found her in that large forest on that over-cast day.

  Gawain came in to find his wife still fully dressed and in contemplation. He hoped it had to do with her plans to work at the excavation site rather than plans to leave him. He knew she had been disconcerted, something momentous on her mind as she tried to come to a decision.

  He watched as she let her dress slide to the floor so she could step out of it and his heart swelled with pride and love, yes, love since he had admitted he was a sorry sort of man who loved his own wife beyond reason. That any compromise of her safety had him sweating with a fear so intense he had difficulty breathing until she was within his eyesight or better, yet, within his arms.

  His friends commented on his often lack of concentration when he was with them as they teased, in earnest, that he was going to lose his head worrying about a little piece of tail. His acknowledgment that he knew he wasn’t fully invested in what the trio was doing only made them worry about his safety more.

  “I didn’t over-speak myself tonight, did I? You do wish to be a part of these explorations, don’t you? Be one of the first to see the artifacts as they are unearthed?” he asked raising one eyebrow in question.

  “No, you did not over-speak. I am very interested in Robert’s studies. I think Agatha will be the happiest among us though when he returns.” She slid into the bed in her nightwear. Gawain watched her with desire. Feeling the need for her tighten his groin.

  Watching his wife closely, he continued, “Robert has asked if he could court Agatha and she was watching from the edge of the stairway so nervously I took sympathy upon them. I told them both they were old enough to do as they wished with my blessing. Robert about fainted with his own thoughts and Agatha bloomed, she made me think of a spring blossom bursting through the half-frozen ground.”

  “I think they will find themselves bound together in the near future. She has been mooning over him and he has been edging around her whenever they were in the same room. I am glad I told her to grab for her happiness, to leave us if she needed to and not feel guilty for choosing love over all else.”

  Gawain was about to blow out the candles, but stopped and glanced over at his wife. “Is that what you plan on doing? Grabbing for what you want?”

  “I promised to have your child here in the keep and I promised you will never be denied access to him. I won’t renege on my promises.”

  “But that isn’t telling me if you plan on staying here, with me, after the bairn comes. And I do not mean for just the first few months but forever, as my lady wife, as the mother of all my children?” he asked openly for the first time. He had always accepted her vow of staying to give birth to their child in the keep under Lady Edith’s care.

  “Do you wish me to stay?” she asked bluntly trying to force him into acknowledging something, anything that could allay her fears about his feelings for her.

  “I worry every day that you may leave me and I would deserve it. I gave you no choice when we handfasted. That was selfish of me even though I still believe it was the best thing to do to protect you and your father. I did not want to make you a prisoner yet I feared your leaving me. It is not rational, I know, but I don’t know how I would go on without you. I think I would follow wherever you went. I am that sick in love with you.”

  Jillian’s heart beat stronger and the baby inside her rolled and kicked with her emotional upheaval. She watched him approach the bed, naked and strong and, oh so, desirable. “Are you telling me that I have power over you?”

  “You have always had me in your power, my love, and I’m tired of fighting it, tired of hoping you would come to care for me, tired of fearing that you will leave me. I ac
cept that you rule over my life and my heart and I pray you are merciful.”

  Jillian raised the covering to invite him in next to her warm body and he didn’t hesitate to accept her welcome snuggling her close to his body. “I have spent much time thinking I was needed at Castle Crawford, that my father needed me. But in reality, I thought I would always be there. I never thought there was going to be more for me.”

  She felt Gawain kiss her forehead and sigh with contentment.

  “I have my wicked cousin to thank for driving me from my home and for my finding love here with you. I never plan to leave here, at least not without you by my side. And then only to hurry home to our family and clan. I love you and although I do not know when it happened, it cannot be denied.”

  Their child kicked wildly as it felt his father’s pressure against his protective home.

  Gawain appeared awed and amazed as he felt the life, he created show his displeasure of being confined. He said quietly, “I will remember this night for the rest of my life. The night I could lay my fears down and accept my good blessing of having you for a wife and mother to my children.”

  “I will remember this night for the rest of my life. The night I realized I had everything I ever wanted, but was too naive to realize my luck of wandering into a particular Laird’s lands.”

  “And his heart, my love, and his heart.” Gawain said as he pulled her close to kiss her once again.

  A word about the author...

  A voracious reader her whole life, author Susan Payne loved the written word. When reading more than fifty books per month wasn’t enough, she decided to allow her mind to take flight and write all the many stories that kept intruding into her life. She blended her love of history and her love of words to create over eighty stories. All historical and centering on a couple finding love and a happy ever after together.

  You may contact Susan at:

  http://www.authorsusanpayne.com or

  authorspayne@gmail.com

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  this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

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  contact us at

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