Under a Highlander's Spell: A Steamy Scottish Historical Romance Novel

by Maddie MacKenna

  Yours sincerely,

  Colt Ayers

  Emily knew who the letter had come from by the light in Theodore’s eyes.

  “Is he coming?” Emily asked her.

  “I don’t know,” Theodore said, as she locked the letter away in her drawer.

  “Then, why are you smiling?” Emily was confused. She had never seen Theodora so happy.

  Theodora took one longer look at herself in the mirror. “I don’t know but I am just happy. I am ready to go down to meet our guests,” Theodora said, pleased.

  At the ball, Theodora made the most beautiful celebrant in her gown and the perfect hostess. She danced with a few young men and chatted with some ladies, some acquaintances, and friends while keeping an eye out for the handsome Colt.

  The evening slowly aged into night and Colt was still nowhere in sight. Penelope could see her daughter’s earlier glow begin to dwindle. She went to Emily to ask her what was wrong with Theodora.

  “A handsome young man by the name of Colt Ayers,” Emily answered her.

  “Is he here?” she asked her. Emily shook her head. Mrs. Kent searched the ball for her husband and spotted him easily amongst his male friends, joking. It was the foretelling of business talks. They would share jokes, have some drinks, and then head out to the garden to talk business. Mrs. Kent was not going to have that, not on their daughter’s birthday.

  She walked over to their little gathering and greeted them all, asking them if they were having a great time. Mr. Kent knew enough to tell that his attention was needed elsewhere. Mrs. Kent told him what had happened and he promised her to take care of it. He went up the stairs, the place where all could see him. He held up his silver chalice to make a toast.

  “A toast, please everyone, to the celebrant, my daughter Theodora Kent, the most beautiful woman I have ever set my eyes on. I hope my wife is not jealous,” he said, and there was a laugh. Theodora smiled also.

  “So please everyone, a toast to good life, love well, and a new start at life.” He rose his cup higher and everyone joined him.

  “Cheers,” they chorused and drank from their cups.

  “Theodora, may I have this dance?” He climbed down the stairs and Theodora held out her hand to him as would a proper lady. Mrs. Kent was proud as she watched.

  All eyes fell on father and daughter as they began their dance. They started their minuet. They danced side by side, performing the same steps.

  “Try to move at my pace, please don’t lose me,” he begged her and she laughed at her father’s sense of humor. Mr. Kent was fifty years in age but still an agile man. She mimicked his steps as they danced until they had to come closer. He took her hands. They drew closer and then pulled apart again.

  “There are rumors going around that the celebrant is sad. Could there be any truth to those words?” Bruce asked her. Theodora looked around for her loose-mouthed friend, Emily, but couldn’t find her.

  “I am better now,” she said. Bruce looked at her but could see she was still bothered.

  “Have some fun, Theodora. There are a number of nice gentlemen who have come from far just to behold your beauty,” he said, and she smiled again.

  “I know, Father. I will try to—” Her words were caught in her throat when she saw him walk in. He was every bit as she had remembered.

  Colt Ayers was as smart, cultured, and handsome as Theodora had remembered. On her day however, he did approach her, and gave her a present—a necklace and an unfamiliar purple gem. At close contact, Colt was different. He wasn’t as chatty as the other men, who never seemed to stop talking around her and making her laugh. But that wasn’t a problem to Theodora. She didn’t care for much and was content that he was with her.

  “Please forgive my lateness but is there a place we can sit? I am weary from riding,” he asked her and she offered to take him out to the garden behind the house. There he sat on the bench amongst the beautiful flowers.

  “Do you take care of the garden?” he asked her, obviously fascinated by it. For a moment there, Theodore realized that she had wanted to lie and say she was the one so that she could be worthy of the smile on his face. But that was not her.

  “No, my mother does this in her spare time. I learn the piano,” she said, frightened that he would have no love for music, like most Englishmen.

  “Can you play well?” He turned on his bench to face her. “I don’t play but I sing. It is embarrassing. I would rather not talk about it.” He turned his face away from her.

  “You should—” she froze when she realized that she had put a hand on his shoulder. It was abrupt and spontaneous but she couldn’t move, not until he turned back to her. His eyes teased her in a way that was unfamiliar to her. She pulled her hand immediately and apologized.

  “There is no need to apologize,” he told her. He could tell by the way she bowed her head that she didn’t believe him. He took her hand in his. Her eyes shot up to meet his. There it was again, she thought, his abrupt displays of boldness. It prompted her to want to know more about him. What was he like when he wasn’t trying to be the bold, charming, handsome son of a Duke? She straightened up in her seat next to him and tried to be calmer, regain her composure. She had to be unfazed so she could tell.

  “I have always wanted to sing but my father frowned upon it. He always said, ‘No son of mine will be a pipe player or a cheap musician.’ He saw music people like acts of the circus. I stopped singing but sometimes, I ride far away from the estate and sing in the woods where there is no one to hear me,” he told her his tale.

  “That is sad. You should never stop what you love,” she sympathized. He seemed to read more meaning into her words. Suddenly, her words hung in the air between them, the word ‘love’.

  “Perhaps I would not stop after all, not until I get what I want.” His voice was low and raspy as he seemed to close the distance between them.

  “And what do you want, to sing?” she asked him, trying to keep still. She had never been with a man but she knew of the attraction between a man and a woman. His eyes never left her, as hers never did his.

  “I want to sing to you some day while you play your piano—” Closer still, he inched towards her. “And I want to do a lot of things, say a lot of things that I am afraid to. Sometimes, one has to take a big leap of faith.”

  Emily was in the shrubs watching the both of them. She knew Theodora might finally be taking a liking to the handsome Colt Ayers.

  Colt and Theodora headed back into the house to join the ball. He bowed and offered her his hand in request of a dance and she gladly accepted. Everyone watched the enviable pair as they moved across the dance floor. Both were beautiful and appeared the perfect couple to even those who had earlier tried to catch the attention of either. Most of the suitors moved to make a dip in the wine reserve. It was impossible to be mad at either of them.

  Theodora was so beautiful that it distracted a man from anger and Colt was respected amongst the young men so much so that they accepted their loss with dignity. Men looked upon her with anew admiration as she danced with Colt Ayers before she had to be pulled away by her mother lest the crowd believed them engaged. Through the night however, she was almost always in his company. He would talk to other men but would not let go of her arm, which she had no complaint about. He wasn’t like her father, and certainly not a poet, but she was willing to know more.

  “I saw the both of you in the garden,” Emily told Theodora later that night, as she helped her out of her clothes.

  “What did you see?” Theodora asked her rather sharply. Emily laughed at her friend’s guilt-ridden face.

  “I saw the both of you bonding, what else did the two of you do in the garden?” Emily asked with an insinuating look. “Oh, if only your mother had seen the both of you, oh—” Theodora turned back and grabbed her friend by the shoulders abruptly.

  “Please, you cannot tell my mother I was in her garden. She would be angry and I don’t want her to be. Father would say nothing
. He would be oddly quiet and that drives me mad at times. You can never tell them, swear to me, Emily,” she begged her friend.

  “I will never tell. I am loyal only to you. We are sisters and we keep each other’s secrets,” Emily promised her. Theodora’s arms fell from her shoulders as she allowed herself to breathe easy. Her cheeks burned a low red when they had been there, Colt and her in the garden. They had more similarities now than they had the first time they met; music. She sank onto her bed and stared up at her ceiling. Emily lay next to her.

  “How did it feel?” she asked Theodora.

  “I don’t know,” Theodora answered. “Should I know?”

  “I don’t know,” Emily replied. Silence echoed between the two of them before Emily spoke again.

  “Do you think it is love?”

  Theodora sighed deeply and pulled her pillow, squeezing it against her breasts. “I don’t know, but I know I want to see him tomorrow, and the day after, and the one after that. Perhaps that is what love is. I can’t wait till the next time I see him and put my hands in his,” she said dreamy.

  “We don’t know,” Emily said, before closing her eyes to sleep. She was tired out from the rigors of the ball.

  “Someday, I will know for certain what it is I feel for Colt,” Theodore said to a snoring Emily.

  7

  “My parents believe it is high time I took a bride but—” His words seemed to trail off and he seemed lost in the clouds above before he turned back to her. “Would you like to come over to my father’s estate tomorrow? I would like to show you around. We could get horses from the stables, ride till we both tire, have some cheese and wine. What do you say?”

  His smile was so charming that Theodora could not bring herself to say no, even though the decision lay heavily with her parents and not her. She sulked around the house the rest of the day until her parents allowed her to head out to Colt’s estate the next day, where she spent a few days with Emily as her trusted chaperone, who knew when to stay out of sight.

  Theodora enjoyed her time with Colt. She enjoyed the horse rides and the chance to play the piano for Colt while they sang together. His voice was beautiful and they just both seemed to lose themselves in their songs. He promised that he would become the ‘Duke that sings’ when he succeeded his father.

  But there were times when he seemed distant, when all he did was smile at her, or wave.

  “Should I be worried?” Theodora would ask Emily.

  “I think not. He pecked you on your cheek yesterday and fell asleep on your lap. That is big. He trusts you with his life. I don’t think you should worry yourself so much,” Emily told her.

  Colt was a funny man. Around Theodora, he was carefree. She always wanted to know more about him. She asked him about his childhood and he had interesting tales to tell. Though he never asked much about her past, he cared enough about her and adored her every moment they were together. She would catch him staring at her and those moments made her smile, the feeling of being wanted by someone.

  “What about your friends?” she had asked him once. Of all the men he mentioned, one name was hardly ever repeated but held more weight than the rest. The name was Naomhan McDonald.

  Colt and Naomhan had been friends for the past year and a few months. They had met on a sunny day in autumn when the priest had been summoned by the Duke for a meeting. Naomhan had ridden with Father Damian to Morleen and had watched keenly as Colt had sparred with a guard. A man had walked up to Colt then and had whispered words in his ears before he had turned to take notice of the large man by the horse.

  Colt told the man to stay behind him while he trotted off confidently to meet the stranger.

  “My man tells me you beat a few of his friends,” Colt said to Naomhan, who paid him no heed. Naomhan’s eyes rested on the man, the man who had stabbed him. After months of living with the Father, he had lost all vengeance for himself and sought only to protect the old man and the church. Seeing the man who had threatened the priest, he got angry.

  “I am speaking to you. Are you deaf?” Colt pointed his sword at Naomhan, who only looked at him then.

  “Your man tried to rob a priest. Is that something you condone?” Naomhan asked him in return.

  “Well, one of you lies. How do we settle this?” Colt let his hand fall as he rubbed his chin in thought.

  “The priest would be out soon and he would tell the truth. But he wants no revenge,” Naomhan said.

  “And you do?” Colt asked. Naomhan’s silence was word enough. “Get this man a sword.” Colt wanted test the skill of the deacon who had bested his men, who were his sparring partners. The idea that he could be a better swordsman than himself displeased him, and he had to know for certain.

  The ensuing fight was quick and slightly more brutal than Colt had expected. Colt was left on the ground with a broken nose. Naomhan found himself quickly surrounded by guards who had their weapons turned on him. It was then that he realized that he had just beaten down the Duke’s son.

  “Take him to the dungeons,” the angry Duke of Morleen ordered but Colt stopped his father.

  “This man wronged me, Father, and I would like the privilege to judge him myself,” Colt asked of his father and he was granted despite Father Damian’s pleas. “You would come here every day for a month to spar with me.”

  While everyone was caught by surprise, Naomhan wasn’t. During their fight both men had come to respect one another. Naomhan respected Colt for his quick feet and resilience while Colt respected him for his matching footwork and strength.

  Over the month, Naomhan rode up to the estate to spar with Colt under the watchful eyes of the Duke. Some days, Colt was left angry but soon, Naomhan started to show weak spots. He gave openings for Colt to strike him and Colt knew this. One day, Colt decided to give Naomhan his freedom.

  “I will never best you, I know this. I will take solace in the knowledge that you stay with a priest and would raise no hand against any other person.” Colt thought himself to have sounded noble that day as the friendship between the two men began.

  They talked about a lot of things and soon found that they enjoyed each other’s company. They were both wild hearts and men who sought to become legends like those immortalized in their different folklores. However calm Naomhan had become under the priest, he could always be his true self with Colt Ayers, the son of the Duke.

  When he had seen Theodora for the first time, he had told Naomhan about it.

  “I don’t know the words to tell her. Every man at that ball had their eyes on her. It might be a lost cause. There are many other women in England. I’d rather not fight a losing battle,” he had said, before Naomhan had burst into laughter. Colt was angered by his laughter as he recognized mockery when he saw it.

  “I never took you to be a coward, Colt Ayers. My father always told me that cowards never die on the battle ground as real men do. They die in their beds dreaming about their regrets, the things they never got to do. So make your choice, Colt. Do you want to live the rest of your life in regret, thinking that some other man is luckier than you are, that he holds the heart of the most beautiful woman in all of England?”

  “Damn you, Naomhan,” Colt roared back, pumped with encouragement. He found his courage then. He knew what he was going to do and how he was going to win the heart of Theodora Kent.

  “Someday you will meet her, Naomhan, and gaze upon her beauty just as I have, and you will crave her also despite being a man of cloth. You will not have her because she is already mine,” Colt promised Naomhan. However, Naomhan did not take the words of his friend seriously.

  “I have no interests in women,” he replied with bile in his throat, a bitter taste from his beloved Rose’s betrayal. Many times, he wondered who her lover was, the man she had had betrayed him for.

  After two months of visits, Theodora was expecting Colt to propose and he did. It was as much of a fairytale as could have been expected of a man such as himself, who always sought to imp
ress.

  He had her ride with him up a hill. The ride had been tedious even for the horses.

  “Colt, I am weary. Can’t we stop for a moment?” Theodora asked him halfway up the hill.

  “Just a few moments more, Theodora, I would not want us to miss the sun,” he told her, riding ahead of her. The sun? It made little sense to her then, but she trusted him enough, so she followed still.

  When they reached the top of the hill, they got off their horses and he pulled her away to face the sun and… it was beautiful. Colt smiled, satisfied when he saw the awe in her eyes. Circling around her, he came to face her and got down on one knee.

  “Let me speak first,” he said, to stop her from interrupting him. “I have never seen any woman as beautiful as you. The first day I laid eyes on you, I thought to myself, this is my own sun, and I knew from that day that you were the woman I was going to wed. It seems like overreaching or tempting the gods themselves but I knew. I am here on one knee, Theodora Kent, asking you to marry me.”