Thirty Nights With a Highland Husband

by Melissa Mayhue

  “Not a thing, my dear. Why don’t you explore a bit? Get to know yer new home. The gardens are out just through that door, if yer interested.”

  “Oh. Gardens. As in vegetables?”

  Margaret nodded. “Aye. And Lady Rosalyn’s herbs as well.”

  “Cool. I mean, that would be just lovely. Thank you.”

  Cate jumped off her stool and hurried through the door. This was great. She’d explore on her own and discover what they grew that made Connor smell the way he did.

  * * *

  Lemon balm.

  It grew in one corner of the herb garden. That explained the scent in the soap. And on Connor. Mint was growing there as well, along with rosemary, chamomile and parsley, just to name a few.

  She stopped to pick a few leaves, crushing them in her palm to release their aroma. If she were only staying here instead of at Dun Ard, she might not get her morning caffeine, but she would certainly be able to have a lovely cup of herb tea, and that would be almost as good.

  The garden area had been carved out of the hillside and surrounded by a rock wall. A little stream bubbled in at the very back and flowed along the edge of the wall and out again. Near the water, someone had placed a small rock bench under the shade of a tree, and it was here that Cate spent the next hour. The morning sun, coupled with the smells of the growing herbs, relaxed her completely.

  She leaned back against the trunk of the tree and sniffed the lemon balm and mint she held crushed in her hand. The aroma brought sharp memories of Connor. Of how he’d looked with the firelight glinting off his bare chest last night. It had taken all her willpower to cover those magnificent muscles with a blanket rather than her hands. The man had a body that inspired her to daydreams as well as night dreams.

  Eventually her curiosity got the better of her and she went back into the kitchen. Margaret sent her off to explore again, and after looking through the main hall and the rooms on that level, she headed out the main entrance to the great wooden staircase that would lead her down to the courtyard.

  From the landing at the top of the stairs, she spotted him immediately.

  * * *

  “Yer lady’s looking for you, Connor.” Ewan grinned and gestured his head up toward the main entrance of the castle.

  Connor straightened and wiped perspiration from his face with the back of his hand. They’d been repairing the fencing for the horses since early in the morning. He had hoped the hard work would help him get his mind off Cate.

  It hadn’t.

  At least out here, he’d thought, he could avoid the coming confrontation about his decision to stay at Sithean Fardach. He had already made up his mind, and why he would even give thought to her reaction to his decision was beyond him at this point. Her safety was the only consideration. She’d been angry with him for the last week. Another few days shouldn’t matter. But for some reason it did. So he had avoided her.

  And now, there she was. She stood at the top of the landing, pulling her hair back from her face where the gentle wind blew it all around. That same gentle breeze also billowed her skirts, exposing just the slightest bit of lower leg.

  The memory of watching her in his room last night slammed into him, filling him once again with need.

  She’d seen him now, looking in her direction. She waved a greeting and was immediately running down the stairs, headed toward him. Nothing to be done for it. He’d have to face her soon enough with the news that he was keeping her here until the wedding. If her sense of propriety was offended, so be it. He might as well get it over with.

  Wiping his hands on his plaid, he walked toward her. She looked happy this morning. He supposed that would be changing soon.

  “Good morning, Connor. You have a lovely home. I’ve just been enjoying the gardens.”

  “Cate.” He nodded. “I’m pleased you like it.” He paused and looked down at his feet. “I was planning to come look for you as soon as I cleaned up a bit.”

  “Are we going to be leaving soon?”

  He couldn’t quite meet her eyes. “Weel, that’s along the lines of what I was planning to come talk to you about, you see.” He took her arm and began walking her to the other side of the courtyard. Cate rarely took things quietly. No point in exposing Ewan to the disagreement that was to come. “I’ve had another thought about that.”

  She stopped, forcing him to stop or drag her along.

  “And just what thought might that be?”

  Connor sighed deeply. “Someone’s attempted to hurt you at least twice that we know of. At my uncle’s home, I canna be sure of who is around or what is happening. It’s too large and there are too many people. Here I can close the gates and I know exactly who is in and who is out.” He looked up hopefully and waited.

  “Okay. And . . . what?” Her brow was furrowed, the smile gone.

  “I dinna hae any proof of who is trying to harm you, Cate. I dinna want to risk being around so many strangers when any of them could be the one, you ken?”

  “No. I don’t. What exactly are you trying to tell me?”

  Hands on her hips now. Bad sign. She’d have that poking finger out soon.

  “I sent Duncan out at first light to Dun Ard. He’s gone to collect yer things and Mairi to keep you company.” He clasped his hands behind his back, taking the pose he would strike when giving orders to his men. “Yer staying here until the wedding, and that’s final. I’ll hae no argument from you about it.” He looked over her head. He was ready.

  Or so he thought.

  Her body hit him full force, her arms around his neck. He almost fell over from the shock of it, throwing his arms around her only at the last minute to gain his balance. She kissed him on the cheek, grinning wildly.

  “Oh, Connor, that’s the best news.” She hugged him again. “Thank you so much.” She jumped down, lifted her skirts and started to run back toward the stairs.

  “Wait. Where are you off to?”

  “Tea.” She yelled at him, laughing over her shoulder. “I’m off to make some tea.”

  He shook his head in astonishment. The woman never ceased to surprise him.

  CHAPTER 19

  Tomorrow she would be Caitlyn MacKiernan. It gave her goose bumps thinking about it, and not just because her bathwater was cooling quickly. Cate MacKiernan. It sounded pretty good. Too bad it wouldn’t last long.

  Sighing, she reached for the razor and soap from the table next to the tub. At her request, Mairi had swiped the razor for her from Connor’s things. Cate smiled. Poor Mairi. As if she hadn’t been able to get into enough trouble all on her own, now Cate had introduced her to petty thievery. Technically it would only be petty borrowing. She would sneak it back to him in the morning. After all, she couldn’t have the groom showing up unshaven.

  She frowned at the razor in her hand. It really was nothing more than a thin knife blade. In fact, she might have been better off borrowing that knife Connor always had sticking out of his boot. It would probably have been just as safe as this thing. Janet’s eyes had gone huge when she saw it lying on the table as she’d helped with the bath, and she hadn’t even known what Cate was planning. No wonder Mairi had thought the whole idea crazy. Mairi may have been right this time, but she was going through with it anyway.

  She wrapped up in her drying sheet and propped her leg on the side of the tub. There just didn’t seem to be any easy way to do this. Her underarms were finished with only one tiny little cut, even though it had taken forever. She had soaped the lovely lemon-scented bar all over her leg and started the first swipe up when she heard the noises in the stairway outside her door. Footsteps and Beast’s bark.

  “Cate.” Followed by pounding on her door. “Open this door immediately.”

  “Go away, Connor, I’m bathing.” What was he thinking, pounding on her door and yelling like that?

  “Open this door or I’ll break it down.” He sounded furious. Or frightened.

  “Go away, Connor. I’m finishing my bath, for crying o
ut loud,” she yelled back.

  How was she supposed to concentrate on finishing this if he kept carrying on out there? Break down the door. The stupid door wasn’t even locked. She’d just started another swipe up her leg when the door burst open, spilling him into the room, Beast right on top of him. She would have laughed if she hadn’t slipped with the razor at that point. Instead she hissed in pain. Razor cuts always stung.

  “What do you think yer doing?” He looked as frantic as he sounded, sprinting over to grab her wrist.

  “I’m shaving my legs, thank you very much. What does it look like I’m doing?” She jerked her wrist away from him.

  “What? Yer doing what?” He couldn’t seem to stop staring at her leg. “Yer bleeding.”

  He reached toward her leg and she slapped his hand.

  “Damn right I am. You try working with one of these things when people are bursting into your room and see if you don’t cut yourself, too.”

  Now he just looked angry. “What do you think yer doing to yerself?”

  “I told you, I’m shaving my legs.” She tried to sound patient, which she wasn’t feeling. “It’s a process using a sharp thing”—she waved the razor at him—“to take the hair off your legs.” She pointed at her leg and then stood up, putting her hands on her hips. “Preferably accomplished in private.”

  “Good Christ, yer wearing nothing but a drying sheet.” A dull red covered his face and neck. He started toward her, but stopped quickly and turned his back to her.

  “Well of course. I told you I was bathing. What did you expect I’d be wearing?”

  He paused for a moment, breathing deeply. “I dinna think about what you might be wearing. When I heard Janet talking to her mother, I only thought . . . ” His voice trailed off. “Why are you doing that?”

  “Shaving? Because I don’t want hairy legs for my wedding.” She frowned at him.

  Men were so clueless.

  He snorted, and shaking his head, he walked as far as the doorway.

  “That’s my razor, is it no?” He kept his back turned.

  “It is. But I’ll return it in plenty of time for you to try this same process on your face tomorrow. Minus people bursting into your room, of course.” She hoped the sarcasm wasn’t lost on him.

  “Aye. Weel, see that you do.” He pushed Beast through the door and then calmly walked out, closing the door behind him.

  “Now what do you suppose that was all about?” Cate muttered as she finished her leg. It briefly crossed her mind that there was always the option to return the razor tonight and ask.

  * * *

  Connor stood on the landing outside Cate’s door feeling foolish.

  “This is what happens when you spend too much time around women,” he said sagely to Beast as they made their way back down the stairs. “Yer mind warps until you can’t think straight. That’s what they do to a man.”

  When he’d walked past the bakery and heard Janet hysterically telling her mother about the razor Cate had hidden by her bath and how she feared her new lady would do herself harm, he hadn’t even taken the time to consider the implications. Hadn’t taken into account the dramatic nature of a wee lassie such as Janet.

  No, he had simply raced upstairs without a sane thought in his head, determined to protect his lady from herself.

  Instead he’d very nearly ended up having to protect her from him.

  When he’d realized she wore nothing but a cloth, her legs glistening with the moisture of her bath, his mouth had dried, and with every fiber of his being he had wanted nothing more than to sweep the damn cloth away and take her to the floor.

  He’d managed to turn and walk away with his dignity intact, but just barely. Now his body coursed with an unfulfilled need and anger at his own actions.

  He needed to work this off.

  “Duncan!” he yelled, crossing the great hall and throwing open the door. A few hours in the lists with a worthy opponent and he’d be good as new.

  * * *

  Everything was ready. Cate’s wedding dress, still draped over the back of a chair, was almost completely wrinkle-free. Mairi and Rosalyn were working on the floral garland she would wear in her hair. They had retired to Rosalyn’s tower, telling her she couldn’t see it tonight. That she should go to sleep early and get plenty of rest because tomorrow would be a long, busy day.

  The only problem with that whole scenario was that she was wide awake. And really, really nervous. A girl didn’t get married every day.

  “See, this is why they invented bachelorette parties,” she mumbled to herself, flopping back on the bed for the hundredth time. She sighed deeply.

  “This is never going to work, so I might as well just give it up.”

  She climbed out of bed and began preparing another pot of chamomile tea to relax herself. Not that the first one had helped.

  Four days ago, when she learned she was going to stay at Sithean Fardach, she had found a small kettle to keep in her room and gathered the herbs she liked best. Evening tea had become one of her favorite parts of the day since then.

  Sitting on the floor in front of the fire, waiting for her water to boil, she briefly wondered if they had bachelor parties now. More specifically, she wondered if Connor was having one. It would actually be pretty simple to tell. She could just slip downstairs and listen at his door.

  He’d continued to stay in the room below, but after she’d threatened to boycott his room and sleep on the stair landing with Beast, he had moved some bedding into the salon. He might be sleeping on the floor, but at least it looked pretty comfortable. She’d checked when he was out practicing his swordsmanship. It was hard enough knowing she slept in his bed without thinking of him on those uncomfortable chairs. He had obviously been miserable that first night, with all the groaning and tossing and flinging his arms about.

  Cate put the herbs into the water she’d just removed from the fire, crushing them a bit and stirring in honey before she put a cover on top. The smell of chamomile and mint floated around her. She sat back down and stretched her now shaven legs toward the fire. Not a bad job for her first time with that ancient razor thing, but she’d certainly never speak ill of a plastic safety razor again.

  She had continued to wear Connor’s shirt to bed each night, even though Mairi had brought all her things from Dun Ard, including her nightgown. But the shirt still smelled of him and there was something comforting about that.

  Comforting and yet very scary.

  Being around Connor felt almost too comfortable now. In the last few days, they had seen each other constantly. He would show up behind her when she least expected it and seemed to derive great joy from catching her unawares, although he always pretended to be oblivious. His eyes twinkled when he smiled. And he had smiled a lot the last few days.

  It was scary as well. Just watching him walk across the courtyard caused her heart to perform outrageous flip-flops. When he put a hand on her shoulder, instead of the flip-flops, her heart felt as if it completely stopped for an instant. She’d decide to avoid him for a day only to find herself hunting all over the castle just to catch a glimpse of him or hear his voice.

  This was a completely new experience for her. He was a completely new experience for her. And in a day or two, the experience would be over.

  She’d never see him again.

  In the final analysis, that was the scariest part of all. Those were the thoughts that haunted her when she was alone. Could she handle never seeing Connor again? How did she really feel about him; was it just attraction or was it something more?

  The only thing she was sure of was that she wouldn’t find the answers to those questions sitting in this room by herself.

  Tossing on her cloak, she grabbed her pot of tea and Connor’s razor. On the landing, she stepped over Beast’s snoring body and headed down the stairs.

  Cate made her way slowly down the narrow stairway. The torches were far enough apart that the lighting was very dim here. She stood in
front of Connor’s door trying to make up her mind. There was no sound from inside.

  She very nearly turned and went back to her room. But if she did that, she’d spend the rest of her life wondering, questioning.

  Taking a deep cleansing breath, she tapped lightly on the door. When there was no answer, she tapped again, a little harder. She was just turning to leave when the door opened.

  “Cate? Is something wrong?” He was standing there in only his plaid. He leaned out to look both directions into the stairway.

  “No. I’m sorry. Did I wake you?” He didn’t appear to have been sleeping. He looked . . . rumpled, handsome, with only the drape of his plaid covering one shoulder.

  “No. I canna seem to sleep this night. But yer knock was so light, I wasnae sure I really heard it.” He leaned against the frame of the door.

  They stood for a moment, just looking at one another. Cate broke the silence.

  “Well, I can’t sleep either. So I came to return your razor.” She handed it to him.

  He chuckled. “Good. I’ll hae need of that on the morrow.” He rubbed his hand across his cheek and chin.

  She’d never seen a five o’clock shadow look so sexy.

  “And what’s that in yer pot? More shaving items?” He grinned at her.

  She grinned in return. “No. It’s my special herb tea. I was hoping you’d invite me in so we could share it. Do you know what a bachelor party is?”

  “I canna say I’ve heard of such a party.” He looked at her speculatively, not moving out of the doorway. “You’d no want to be ruining yer reputation, now would you, Caty, by coming into my room in the middle of the night?” The grin he wore was sexy and inviting in spite of his words.

  “Well, I figured that since I’ll be an old married woman in a few hours, maybe my reputation could take it. What do you think?”

  He searched her eyes and then stepped back, sweeping his arm out in invitation.

  “Do you have a cup? My hands were full so I couldn’t carry mine down.” Cate walked in and headed toward the fireplace. His bedding was laid out there and she seated herself on it.