“Engaged!” My suspicions grew further, as did my growing rage at my father, at Gordan and, in spite of myself, at Ewan for being so foolish in his youth.
“Engaged,” he repeated. “And finally in with Lord Douglas and Gordan – I was the happiest man in all Scotland! Never a doubt of that. I suppose that is why I allowed your father to wheedle some information out of me as to where my love and I were planning to meet that evening. I let it slip that we liked her father’s barn for private conversation, but I did insist that was all we had ever done there. We were saving everything else for after the wedding; they just wanted a private place to talk. As God is my witness, Brianna, that is the truth! I never touched your…I mean my…”
“You mean my mother.”
He nodded. “Indeed. We were to be married, and I was committed to keeping her virtue intact until that wonderful day a few months hence. You can imagine how Gordan and your father reacted to that bit, by the way, but for all that, I think they believed me. In any event, once they knew where we were planning to meet, I later learned your father wanted to go there that night and play some silly prank on us, but Gordan said no, let’s wait a while on all that. Your father, to his credit, agreed. But then Gordan did go to the barn that night, alone, to wait for us. But your mother got there first.”
“Oh dear God, he raped her, didn’t he?”
“He tried. I arrived at the barn to hear what I thought was a couple of cats screeching at one another, only to find your mother screaming like a banshee and kicking at Gordan, writhing out of his grip and leading him around in circles, though he did manage to get her dress up and see she was a natural redhead all right! Which was a revelation to me, as well, since we’d been chaste. I was too late to preserve her modesty, but I had little trouble beating the snot out of Gordan, though he later convinced all your father’s men it was the other way around.”
“Why would they believe him?”
“Good question,” he said. “Perhaps they only let him believe they believed him. When a man brags about being a barely-frustrated rapist, who knows what else he might be capable of? Now, while we were fighting, apparently your father noticed Gordan’s absence among his men and put two and two together, and he also came to the barn while the struggle was ongoing. I don’t know just when your father arrived because I was too busy thrashing Gordan, but…well, there was a lantern that got kicked over in the fight, and it set some hay ablaze. I first noticed your father’s presence while the other three of us – your mother, Gordan and myself – were struggling to put the fire out, and he joined in as well, hollering some nonsense at Gordan about what he could have been thinking, as if your father didn’t know!”
“I take it you were not able to put the fire out,” I said.
“Naturally we were not. The four of us finally had to give up on our efforts, and we stumbled out of the barn just in time for half the village to see us all in a place where your father, Gordan and I had no business being. Your mother had yet to tell her family about me, so you can imagine what their friends thought of me in that moment. ‘Bloody court martial, naturally,’ was the last thing I heard Gordan say before we three were all rounded up.”
“I should hope so.”
“Yes, well, the story isn’t quite done, I’m afraid. Your mother told the constable everything, of course, and it looked like Gordan was going to gaol for a very long time, even he said that. Then he started yelling at anyone who would listen that your father and I were in it, too, and you know how poorly your father handles a scandal where his reputation is at stake. Gordan not only would have ruined your mother’s reputation, he’d have fouled the house of Douglas’ name for a generation or more. Brianna, he blackmailed your father into helping him. ‘Ain’t no one able to prove you weren’t there the whole time, you know!’, that’s what he said, and he made sure I heard it too. He said he’d tell everyone the truth – that your father wasn’t there until after the fire started – if your father would put up some money and a title to bribe me with.”
“So you took the blame and that’s how you became Lord Galbraith,” I said.
“After three years in gaol and a dishonourable discharge, yes,” Ewan said. “I might well have ended up in the gallows with Gordan otherwise.”
“But why didn’t my mother tell the constable what had really happened?”
“It would have been her word against your father’s, Brianna.”
“Of course,” I acknowledged. “Father’s word was law.”
“Well, your grandfather’s word at that time; but otherwise correct. She was a poor farmer’s daughter. Her word would have meant nothing against that of Lord Douglas. Gordan said that too, in no uncertain terms, to anyone who would listen. Of course, he didn’t quite get everything he wanted. Your father only agreed to do his part if he got to marry the girl instead. I’m sorry, Brianna.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said. “And after all, I wouldn’t even be here if…But tell me one thing: why on earth did she agree to marry Father?”
“She had no more choice than you have about Gordan. But the worst of all, Brianna? They let me believe I would still be able to marry her when I got out of gaol!”
“I’m not at all surprised.”
“Naturally your mother said of course she would wait for me, and scarcely a day after I’m off to the clink and can’t do anything about it, your father told her, actually, my dear, you’ll be marrying me or else I’ll see to it that your reputation is destroyed! Forget about Ewan becoming Lord Anything, too!’ So she married him to save my fate as well as hers.”
I was silent, trying in vain to recall if I had ever been aware of any longing glances between them when Mother was alive. It was too long ago and I wouldn’t have known to look for it – just how had he kept his feelings hidden so well for all those years?
“Brianna?”
“I’m...I’m sorry.” I gripped at his hand with both of mine. “I just…I don’t blame you at all, Ewan –”
“I’m glad one of us doesn’t.”
“Now, that’s not fair to yourself!” I insisted. “You had no choice, you said so yourself!”
“Thank you, Brianna. But I’ve had twenty-five years to go over every moment of that horrible day, and all I can ever conclude is that if only I had kept my mouth shut about our engagement…”
“No doubt Gordan feels he’s having the last laugh now that he’ll have her daughter for his bride,” I mused bitterly. “I’m the spoils of war. Wonderful.”
Ewan set his hands on my shoulders and leaned over the side of the barrel to look into my eyes. “My darling, I know you are up to the task of avenging your mother. I know not how you shall do it, but having known you all your life and observed you these past two days, I cannot but know Gordan will soon rue the day I delivered you to him.”
I was misty-eyed gazing back at him. Finally I spoke. “For heaven’s sake, Ewan, take me to bed!” I stood up and opened my arms.
He still had doubt in his eyes; that I could see. But he did sweep me up in his arms and lift me out of the water, and the kiss he planted on my lips was just as refreshing as the bath had been, a lovely reprieve I vowed to treasure during my imprisonment with Gordan. After a brisk and enthusiastic patting dry all over my body, during which I said nothing for fear of changing his mind, he once again picked me up and carried me to the bed, where he lay me down gently. “You know, of course, that nothing can ever be quite the same if we do this,” he said as he stood over me and undressed.
“I certainly hope not!” I replied, eyeing him hungrily. He was tired and strung out from the two days’ travel and it showed, yet he was perfectly delightful all the same in the very vulnerability that conferred. Father’s men had long since disabused both Penny and myself of any girlhood fantasies of lightning and thunder in any man’s arms, and the prospect of lying with Gordan was an additional strike against my hunger. But nothing could have destroyed the tenderness I felt between us as Ewan lay down nake
d beside me and cupped my breast in his hand, his nearness a wonderful bulwark against the chilly evening air. Free at last to respond in kind, I teased his hairy chest gently at first, then rubbed harder and let my hand wander downward across his torso. Farther still, he was rock hard, standing outward and nearly brushing my thighs. I felt a tickle between them just anticipating such a touch, and I let a mild laugh escape in spite of myself. “It appears you are wide awake for this hour,” I said.
“My dear, I am so very sorry about your mother...”
“None of that!” I admonished him, reaching back up to place a finger to his lips. “I’m yours, Ewan, should you only find your backbone and show a bit of patience, and there is no use in apologizing for what you could never have hoped to change.”
To my delight, he said nothing more at first, but pushed me over gently onto my back and parted my thighs. With a gentle stroke on my womanhood, he whispered, “Then I shall be yours as well, Brianna. Shall we consummate the deal?”
“We had better!” I spread my legs farther to welcome his touch, and craned my neck up to kiss him. This kiss was longer than the last, the sweet taste of our new love mingling with the night for some moments, during which his fingers found his way inside me. I broke the silence with a joyful yelp as I ground my hips up against his palm, thrilling to his gentle strokes on my tender inner flesh. It was like nothing I had ever experienced in Father’s barn! The horrors on the horizon receded from my conscience at last as I allowed myself to be thoroughly enveloped in the joy of the moment, just as I was enveloping Ewan’s fingers.
I was deliciously aware of myself, naked and vulnerable in the most joyous way, and writhing about in pleasure under Ewan’s gentle touch. Perched above me, his face had a look of absolute determination blended with as much tenderness as a man of his tragic history could ever hope to muster. I attempted to voice my pleasure in words, but his touch was too intense to allow for that.
“No need to speak, my darling,” he reassured me, picking up the pace of his strokes and also flicking his thumb across my clitoris. “Tonight is for you.”
“For us!” I managed to grunt, just before he brought me to my first orgasm, when I nearly leapt up from the bed as I wriggled about with the wave of joy. “Oh, Ewan,” I sighed when it had finally subsided. As the room came back into focus in the dim light of the fire, his still-rigid cock hung down enticingly, and I grabbed at it gently with both hands. Kneading it gently to his clear delight, I repeated, “For us.”
I braced for yet another last-minute warning from him about how very wrong all this was. But that never happened. Instead he lowered his body gently onto me and let me guide him inside. Thanks to his earlier play, there was no resistance like I had experienced with certain of Father’s overeager young men, and I welcomed him with a tight embrace. “Welcome home, Ewan,” I cooed.
“We shall have a home someday.”
“I told you, none of that tonight! Make love to me as if it is your last chance, Ewan; we don’t know that it isn’t!” I cupped his buttocks in my hands and pulled him as far inside as he could reach, wanting for all the world for us to slip away into our own little world where we would never need to break this bond.
Now, I had known Ewan all my life, for as long as I could remember by that night and then some, and I had always known him to be a dependable stalwart of Father’s – now, I knew, perhaps too dependable. Overly serious at times, a bit dour on occasion, but always as rock-solid of a man as one could ever hope to find. And so I was not surprised that his approach to my body was slow and deliberative, not flashy or adventurous like some others I had known; but also not fleeting as they had so often been. Where others had left me disappointed and even humiliated with their own business done with so quickly, Ewan was slow and gentle and perfectly beautiful in his low-key approach. As each thrust built me up towards another climax, his hands were busy rubbing my shoulders and my sides tenderly. The ample hair on his chest tickled my nipples in a most delightful way as he bobbed up and down just above me. Most of all, our eyes were locked in a gaze of wonderful intensity as we both voiced our most primal pleasure. Gordan, Father, Penny, the hopeless challenges facing me in the coming weeks…all that and so much more was ever so pleasantly absent from my mind in those precious moments.
I could see in his eyes that he was close to his own climax, and I could only hope the growing volume and intensity of my moans would let him know I would not be much longer in coming again. Evidently I was right, for he was still in perfect rhythm when I gave in to another wave of uninhibited screams and threw my arms around him to pull him down atop me. Only then did he begin pushing harder, and I egged him on by slapping him gently on his bottom as he pushed harder than ever into me. At long last I felt that lovely telltale splash inside me, followed immediately by a long sigh as he kissed me gently on the cheek. Then all the room was still, and we were wrapped together in a cocoon of pure joy as the fire crackled softly behind us.
“I love you, Brianna.”
“You mustn’t say that yet, Ewan!”
“But I do.”
“I love you too. But –”
“Wasn’t it you who said we mustn’t talk of that tonight!”
“Quite right, Ewan. I love you too.”
The morning brought the same filthy streets of Inverness back to life. But it all seemed much brighter and more hopeful to me now as we embarked on the final day of our journey. That was a paradox to beat them all, I knew, for nightfall would most likely find me in Gordan’s filthy embrace. But I found all that just a little bit easier to face now that I knew Ewan loved me. As we made our way through the crowd of horses and people shuffling off to their work, I almost welcomed the challenge. Somehow I was sure all the tired-looking city folks among us could see we were destined to make our own life together before long.
Ewan, despite my optimism, showed no sign of sharing my enthusiasm. Without a word, he guided us through the crowded streets to the far end of the city, and onto the well-beaten road out of town. The sun was finally out of our eyes and nearly directly over us as we approached our first sight of Moray Firth off to our left, and at last I could not help commenting on the chance of another night in one another’s arms. “I wonder shall we find an inn between here and Gordan’s village?” I said.
“Little matter if we do,” he said. “Yesterday while you were trying to outrun me, I sent word ahead that they should expect us sometime shortly before midnight tonight.”
“Rather overconfident of you when you couldn’t know for certain you would find me!” I loved Ewan with all my heart, but the man could certainly be arrogant!
“If I had not found you, I’d have been forced to run off and hide myself,” he explained. “So it only made sense to appease Gordan for the moment whether I found you or not. But I did find you, didn’t I?”
I slumped in defeat and said nothing further.
Traveling all day on those rocky paths was no small task, particularly after two prior days’ travel, and the prospect of just what we were up against now loomed larger than ever. And so we spoke little throughout the day. There were times when I had only the lapping of the water to my left and Ewan’s horse to my right to keep me awake on the picturesque but dull ride. But Ewan seemed to know the path perfectly, and after several uncomfortably silent hours, the first clues of the village were betrayed in the early evening. Lights, noises from a pub, the occasional clop of another horse – initially all so quiet I could convince myself they weren’t real and that my nightmare was not at long last coming true. But within minutes they were all much too real for me to fool myself any longer.
The sun was down but twenty minutes or so when we had made our way through the village and found ourselves on the edge of my nightmare. I had been to Gordan’s castle on the coast a time or two in my youth, but all that was so long ago I couldn’t be sure I would recognize it when it inevitably came into view. Indeed, I did not at first: we passed two ornate stone monstrosities be
fore Ewan guided his horse up the path to an oaken gate and rapped upon it.
“Lord Galbraith and Lady Douglas?” came a voice from behind the gate.
“At your service,” Ewan said with feigned respect. At least I had the satisfaction of knowing by then that it was indeed feigned.
The gate swung open, and a sallow looking footman bade us enter. “His lordship will be very happy to see you,” he told us without so much as a hello. “Over a month now the word has been any day now, you’d arrive.”
“Over a month!” I somehow grew even more disgusted than I had been throughout the journey.
“Surely your father told you,” the footman said. “It’s a debt your father has owed his lordship for some time now.”
“Debt!” I exclaimed.
“Could you please dispense with ‘his lordship’ in my presence!” Ewan demanded. “Gordan is no such thing, and you know it.”
“His property, his rules,” the footman said with a cocky shrug. “Unless you’re here on the queen’s behalf.”
“Debt,” I repeated. “What is he...”
“I have no idea,” Ewan interrupted. “And if you know what’s good for both of us, you shan’t ask!”
I could not deny the great hall was impressive. Larger even than Father’s, with scarlet trimming everywhere and wonderfully bombastic paintings looking down at us from every wall. All through the journey I had been trying to recall every detail I could from my visits as a girl, and I saw now that most of them were correct. The only thing I had got wrong, that I could discern, was that it was rather smaller than I had envisioned it.
Gordan, alas, was not smaller than I had envisioned him. As Ewan and I stood uncertainly just inside the entrance, strung out from the long trip, he bumbled in through a doorway at the far end. “Well, now!” he declared with a leering grin at me, taking no notice of Ewan. “Bout time my spoils arrived, innit! Brianna, you’re nearly as beautiful as your father claims!”
To Catch a Highlander: A Highland Erotic Romance Page 6
