Siùsan finished her breakfast as she and Callum chatted about what he would show her. When they were ready to leave, Callum agreed to pick up the picnic basket and Siùsan was going to fetch her arisaid from her chamber. She pushed back her chair and looked at the floor. She was going to clean up the mess she had made, but the sight that greeted her made her gasp. She took a step back and knocked over her chair. Callum turned to see what was wrong and saw that Siùsan looked a tinge green. She was staring at something on the ground. He stepped next to her and looked down. The sight that met him drove a spike of fear through him that matched how terrified he had been the night before when he had seen Sean’s hands on her. In front of them, in the middle of the puddle of porridge, was a dead rat. There was foam around its mouth.
“Poison. Someone tried to poison me.” She croaked out. She grasped her throat and wrapped an arm around her middle. Callum’s strong hands pulled her back from the dead animal. He turned her towards him and wrapped his arms around her. He looked out above her head at his clan. His eyes searched for the one person he knew was responsible. Elizabeth was nowhere to be seen. How vera convenient. She thinks she canna be blamed if she was nae present.
“Hagatha! Elspeth!” Callum bellowed as he wrapped Siùsan tighter in his arms. “Dinna fash, lass. The person responsible for this will be taken care of.”
This only made Siùsan pull away from him. She glared at him. The look of fear or upset that he expected was not there. Rather the anger radiated from her. She glared at him but did not say anything for a moment. Just when he thought she would not say anything, she bit out her response between clenched teeth.
“We both ken exactly who did this and why. The only real problem is that she is yer mistress and plans to remain such. Better yet, she intends to be yer wife. She need only get me out of the way.” She stormed off the dais and out of the doors of the keep. She bolted across the bailey to the stables. She ran down the stalls to Trofast and threw his stall door open. She grabbed the halter that was over his head and pulled him from the stall. She took him to a nearby bale of hay and mounted bareback. Leaning far over his neck, she left the barn at a trot. She saw a clear path to the gates and nudged Trofast to a canter. From the corner of her eye, she saw Callum run out of the keep. He called out to her several times and then ran to the stables. She knew she had little time to make her escape. She did not know where she was going, but she needed to ride and have a moment to herself. The guardsmen at the gate tried to wave her down but leapt out of the way as she kicked Trofast into a gallop. She followed the path out of the gates but veered off when she saw the loch.
~~~
Callum had leapt from the dais and run into the kitchens to find Elspeth and Hagatha. He told them about the rat and then ran back into the Great Hall as his family came down the stairs. He yelled to them that someone had tried to poison Siùsan and that she had run off. He charged through the crowd that was growing around the dais and pushed through the doors of the keep. He came outside and was blinded by the sun for a moment. He caught sight of motion as a horse came out of the stables. He saw Siùsan atop Trofast riding bareback. He called to her over and over. She turned to look at him once and then spurred her horse on. He dashed to the stables and grabbed his own horse, Deamhan, or Devil. He took the horse out of the stables and mounted without assistance. He galloped through the bailey and out of the gates. He saw her ride towards the loch at a breakneck pace. She crossed over the ground that divided the path away from the keep to the road. She joined the path to the loch and rode along the shoreline. Callum was unprepared for how fast her stallion was. He had been able to tell he was good horseflesh when she had been checking his hooves the previous day, but he did not imagine the speed and power he could produce. He continued to nudge Deamhan faster as he followed Siùsan. He watched as Siùsan and Trofast scrambled up a hill on the far side of the loch. His heart began to pound against his ribs as he watched her riding up the hill. Unbeknownst to Siùsan, there was a steep drop off from the cliffs above the lochs. They dropped straight into the North Sea. There would be no way for her to survive such a fall. He reached the bottom of the hill and bellowed to her.
“Siùsan! Nay! Stop! The cliffs drop off!” He yelled over and over, but he was too far away, and the wind was blowing his voice away. He watched as she reined in at the top of the hill. She looked around and then looked back over her shoulder at him. He worried that she would take off again, but instead she slid from Trofast’s back and waited for him. He nudged Deamhan up the last part of the hill and joined her at the crest.
Callum jumped from his horse and breathed heavily. He wanted to yell at Siùsan for scaring him, but he knew that she was shaken from the near poisoning and the sheer drop that greeted her only moments ago. He could understand how she just wanted to escape. Instead he walked slowly towards her as though he was approaching an injured wild animal.
“Are ye well?” he asked tentatively. He stood patiently and decided to let her make the next move.
“As well as can be expected considering yer leman wants me raped and dead.” She had no intention of hiding her anger. It was ready to boil over, and she needed to direct it somewhere.
“Siùsan, I dinna even ken what to say. Ye are right about it all except she isnae ma leman.”
“Oh, really? What do ye call a woman that ye brought back from court with ye for the express reason of bedding her at any time ye like? I think most would call her yer leman. Not only that, but ye kenned I was to arrive and ye have let her stay. Ye only ended things with her the night before I arrived. Ye didna seem to think that it might bother yer bride to have yer mistress living in the same keep. Just how daft are ye?” By the end of her rant, she was screaming. She walked up to Callum and stood toe to toe with him. She looked up at him and pointed her finger at his chest. She poked him as she drew breath to continue. “Ye have quite the set of bollacks to think any woman would want her soon to be husband parading his mistress around right under her nose. Ye have humiliated me over and over again in just the space of one day. Yer bonnie blonde has arranged for one of yer guardsman to attack me and try to rape me. That should tell ye something of her wiles that she was able to seduce a mon supposedly loyal to ye and yer family, which I am to be a member of. When that failed, she managed to find a way to taint ma food and have it served to me. Just how am I supposed to feel about this warm reception that ye have put on for me?” It was only when she paused to catch her breath that she realized just how loudly she had been screaming. She suddenly had a very real and very strong fear of how Callum would react to her outburst. She stepped back but bumped into Trofast. She had nowhere to go if he lashed out at her. She tensed and waited for his response. She expected him to beat her or to at least yell at her, so when he hung his head and shook it, she was not prepared for his response. He finally looked up, shamefaced.
“Ye’re right. Ye’re right about it all. I suppose I canna reason ma way out of acknowledging that she was ma mistress. I admit that I should have ended it as soon as I found out about the betrothal rather than indulging in ma selfishness. I didna give her the privileges that a mistress would expect, but she served that purpose, I admit. I am so vera sorry for that. Regardless of whether we suited when we met, I should have respected the role of ma future wife more. I should have thought of someone other than maself. I should have done many things differently. I am trying now, lass. I really am.”
“I ken that, but it doesnae change the fact that she is still here. She is getting more and more brazen. At what point are ye going to choose me over her? Ye pledged yerself to me only last eve. Fogotten already? Will ye send her away to keep me safe and give us a real chance?”
“I will begin making the arrangement for her departure as soon as we get back to the keep.”
Siùsan sighed deeply. She looked around at the breathtaking views from the top of the cliffs. She turned back towards the loch and looked down at the sparkling water that shimmered under the morning
sun. She looked in yet another direction and saw a slope that led down to the seashore. She could hear the waves breaking against the rocks below. She heaved another sigh before looking at Callum.
“I hope ye dinna rush off too soon. Ye promised me a tour after all.”
“Ye still want to spend time with me? Ye dinna want me to send her away right this moment?”
“I do. I wish she would disappear before we even return. I also would like to nae see her again any time soon. I would rather avoid her, and ye have already promised me time together. I think it would serve us well to get to ken one another if ye really want the marriage ye described to me yester morn.”
She offered Callum a smile. It felt more like a grimace, but she tried to put some cheer into it. He watched her and tilted his head to the side as he tried to decide what had made her change so quickly from being livid to conciliatory. Whatever her reason, he was willing to go along with it. He wanted to try to salvage their day. He really did want to spend time with her and without the distraction of Elizabeth and her vindictiveness.
“What would ye care to see first? The sea or the loch?”
“I have never seen the sea before. Could I put ma toes in?”
Callum could not help but laugh at the eagerness in her voice and face. “Ye can, but they might freeze and snap off. It’ll be a might chilly.”
“I dinna mind. I have always wanted to see the sea but never thought I would.”
They tethered their horses to a small bush and walked down the slope side by side.
Chapter Nine
They made their way down to the pebbly beach, and Siùsan took in the scenery that greeted her. The windswept beach stretched for at least a mile to the north and less than quarter of a mile to the south. Callum pointed to a cliff to the south and explained that there was a cave there that he and his brothers and sister used to explore. He told her how when the tide was at its lowest, someone could walk straight into the mouth of the cave but as the tide rose, anyone who wanted to enter would have to swim. He warned her that at the highest tide, the cave flooded and was not safe for anyone. He promised her that they would explore the cave another day when the weather was warmer since it was inevitable that they would get wet.
They turned and walked to the north. Siùsan collected shells as they wandered, and Callum held them in his sporran. They paused to look out at the crashing waves. The distant waters of the North Sea were a churning gray as the morning sun sent beams across its shimmering surface. Closer to shore, the white caps crashed along the cliffs that had no beach as a buffer.
“I havenae ever seen the sea before.”
“How is that possible, lass? Yers is one of the largest clans in Scotland. Yer lands touch the sea on both sides.”
“True. But I havenae travelled beyond ma journey here. We didna go anywhere near the coast on the way here.”
“Ye never travelled with yer da to clan gatherings or to meet up with any of the other chieftains?”
“Ma father did not seek ma company for such trips.” Siùsan quickly turned and began to hunt for more shells. She had no desire to discuss her childhood or her relationship with her father and stepmother. She handed a few more shells to Callum but a barking noise caught her attention.
They continued to walk north as Siùsan was curious about the sound. The smell struck her before she could see the seals on the rocky island just off of the coast. The odor was almost overpowering for Siùsan, but Callum did not seem to notice at all. Siùsan realized that growing up along this coast, he was probably used to it. As she became accustomed to the stench, she could not help but laugh at their antics. She pointed to the pups that followed their mothers as they learned to fish. She marveled at the size of the fully grown males.
“Selkies,” she whispered with a grin. “Do ye think that there is one amongst them?” She playfully elbowed him.
“When ma brothers and sister, and I were weans, we came down here with Mama and Da one summer day. Mama loved to swim and was a strong swimmer. She was a Sutherland before she married Da and often visited the coast with her family. She also grew up with a large loch much like ours. Magnus saw her swim out towards that rock and a few seals surrounded her. They barked and dove but never threatened her. He became convinced that she was a selkie and that she had shed her sealskin when she met our da. He was only about five at the time. He followed Da around for weeks asking if he had stolen Mama’s sealskin to keep her. When Da gave Mama a sealskin lined cloak during Christmastide, Magnus was convinced that she was going to go back to the sea. He cried that entire time and begged that she never leave us.” Callum stopped there as he looked out to the rock again. A small smile tugged at his lips as he reminisced about his family. It was only four short years later that their mother passed away from a fever.
“Yer mother must have been a hearty woman to swim in the North Sea. Does it ever truly warm up?”
“Nay. Not really but ye do get used to it after a time. Ye would be better off swimming in the loch. Do ye swim?”
“Aye. I learned as a wean and then taught ma brothers. It is one of ma favorite things to do.”
“Then I will have to take ye to the loch sometime soon.”
“I canna swim in front of ye! It wouldnae be proper or decent. Nay. If I may swim, then I will take a maid with me.” She laughed softly, and Callum was mesmerized with the throatiness of the sound. “Hagatha was appalled when I suggested that I bathe there to avoid anyone having to carry and fill the tub.”
“When was that?”
“When I went into the kitchens after visiting the blacksmith yesterday.”
“Ye’ve already been to the kitchens?”
“Aye. I helped Hagatha with some buckets of water and met her sister. I met all the women who work in the kitchens.”
“I hadna realized ye’d been so busy yesterday.”
“I filled ma time nicely. Hagatha would not even consider allowing me to go to the loch, so I had a wonderful soak in ma chambers.”
“Good for Hagatha. The men may use the loch for bathing before coming in from the lists, but there is nay reason for any of the women to need to bath there. If ye choose to swim for pleasure so be it but not because ye couldnae have a bath brought to ye.”
“Ye shall spoil me rotten. I am used to bathing in a loch year round.” She shrugged and bent to unlace her boots. Callum was seeing a pattern. Any time talk turned to her past with her family, Siùsan turned the conversation away from that topic. She did it casually, but he was certain it was on purpose. He watched as she shucked first her boots and then her stockings. The latter she tucked into the belt of her arisaid. She lifted her skirts to almost her knees and gingerly picked her way across the pebbles until she reached the water’s edge. She slowly placed one foot into the water to test just how cold it was. When she seemed to decide it was not as frigid as she imagined, she waded in to calf deep. Callum watched as she daintily lifted on foot and pointed her toes. Siùsan drew circles with her toes in the low surf. She kicked water out and giggled as it sprayed back at her in the light breeze. She lifted her face to the sun and let her auburn curls cascade down her back. Callum was in awe. He had never seen such a breathtaking sight as Siùsan standing in the surf with her skirts held up and her head leaned back. He could see the graceful arc of her throat and the roundness of her firm breasts even through the thicker material of her arisaid. She lowered her head and turned towards the rocky promontory where the beach ended. The wind swept the hair from her face and lifted it, blowing back and forth across her face. She used one hand to brush it away.
“It’s beautiful here. I havenae ever seen anything so breathtaking.”
“Me neither,” Callum whispered but the wind carried it away.
Siùsan turned to look for Callum since she had not heard his response. She was surprised to see that he was not looking at the scenery but at her. He walked purposefully towards her. He reached her in only a few short strides, wading in with his boots o
n.
“Me neither,” he repeated for her. He reached out and brushed hair from her cheeks and then wrapped his large hand around her head. He cradled it gently for such a large man.
“Lass, ye are the bonniest sight I have ever seen. I canna help it, but I want to kiss ye now more than I have ever wanted anything else. May I?”
Siùsan could only nod her head. She had been stunned by his kiss last night after he rescued her from Sean, but she had enjoyed it. She had thought about it many more times than once since it had happened. She had wondered if it would happen again.
Callum slowly lowered his head and brushed his lips against hers. This time, she parted them slightly. As he pressed more firmly, he felt the tip of her tongue brush his. He wrapped his other arm around her waist and pulled her into him. He groaned when his sporran created a barrier between them. He pushed it out of the way and pulled her back to him. His cock was hard and throbbing as it brushed against her mound and the bottom of her belly. She could feel it, and her hips had a mind of their own as they pressed forwards. She wrapped one arm around his waist and one around his upper back. She was too short to reach his neck without him bending over or her going up on her tiptoes. She pressed her breasts into his chest enjoying the feel of his hard muscles against her much softer form.
Their tongues dueled as they took turns exploring each other’s mouth. At times, they licked and at others they sucked each other’s tongue. The feeling of pressure on his tongue only made Callum imagine what it would be like to have her lips wrapped around his cock. Siùsan could not quite describe the feeling in her belly and lower when Callum’s mouth pulled her tongue in. She felt her breasts grow heavy and even fuller. She ached with need and rubbed her mound against his iron rod. She moaned as she tried to relieve the growing pressure.
His Bonnie Highland Temptation (The Clan Sinclair Book 2) Page 6
