by Eliza Knight
With her brother there for support, and deciding that if Niall hated it and her for having it made, she could always go home, Bella backed toward the dais. She lifted the large sack with both hands and carefully carried it forward to present it to her husband in one awkward thrust.
“Here.”
Niall took the sack, held it out and curled wrist up to inspect the edge. He raised a brow. “Ye sewed it shut.”
Oh God. Holding it with one hand, he wouldn’t be able to cut the threads. But her brother saved her before she could say anything by tugging out his sgian dubh and cutting the threads with a jovial, “’Tis just like home with me unwrapping everyone’s gifts afore they get a chance”
Bella laughed. Her brother did have a penchant for sneaking into the great hall where their parents left a stash of gifts at the end of every year to celebrate their children. He would open each one, and then attempt to put the wrapping back together, but they all knew what had happened.
Bella tugged off one sack while her brother tugged off another, leaving the bow in Niall’s grasp.
The polished yew wood gleamed in the light of the candles. The room was silent, and Niall was staring hard at the bow, perhaps trying to figure out just what she thought he would do with it. Bella stood frozen for a moment, fearing what he was thinking with no outward expression to give her a clue.
“This—” she touched the looped leather strap, “—goes here.” Gently, she brushed his left shoulder. “And this—” she pointed to the corded knot of roping on the center of the bowstring, “—ye put between your teeth to pull the bowstring back. When ye’re ready to launch your arrow, ye let it fly.”
“Ye had this made for me?” His voice was quiet and still did not give away how he felt about it.
All smiles had left her now, and her fingers were cold, slowly losing sensation. She noted he took sight of what she’d had carved inside. Ye will always be my knight.
“Aye,” Bella answered, her voice stronger. “Ye’re the best archer I know. And people that are good at things should never quit. There’s no amount of hardship that should hold ye back, Niall.”
When Niall met her gaze, his eyes glittered with emotion, but he quickly blinked it away, handed the bow to Strath and tugged her up against him. Bella was shocked at first, not expecting that, and when he pressed his lips hard to hers for an all-too-brief kiss, her knees buckled. Luckily, he held her up, his smile enough to melt every bit of fear she might have had.
“I take it ye like it?” she whispered.
“Och, aye.” His voice was tight, as though he were trying to hold back his emotions.
“Will ye try it? I can show ye how ’tis done. Fletcher and I have been practicing.”
Niall seemed taken aback by that. “Ye truly are an extraordinary woman.”
Bella’s face heated, but she tried to act as though what he said didn’t affect her as much as it did and ran her fingers over the wood and string. Why had she fretted so much about whether he would like the gift? He clearly did.
“A demonstration by your lady,” Niall called out to those in attendance, holding the bow up in the air.
The lads who’d been waiting in the corner brought forth the targets and set them up, three in all, at different lengths from where they stood.
“First, adjust the strap to make certain it holds tight with your arm extended.” With her arm behind her back, Bella slipped the strap over her left shoulder and adjusted the chord with her teeth and right hand. Once it was secure, she held on to the curved grip of the bow and thrust her right arm out, taking note that the strap was snug. Niall watched her intently. “Then ye’ll tuck the bow between your legs, and clip your arrow at the notch here where the corded rope is. Then ye’ll reposition the strap and grab the rope with your teeth.” Biting the rope, she straightened her arm, jaw clenched securely to hold the string and arrow extended. “Aim,” she muttered around the rope between her teeth. “And fire.”
She let the arrow go to the shortest target, not wanting to show off that she could hit the farthest target in case it took him a while. After all, she’d been practicing for days.
“Incredible,” Niall said.
“That is amazing,” Strath said. “This could change the way we fight.”
Bella glanced at Fletcher, and they shared a triumphant smile. “Your turn, husband.”
Niall followed her instructions exactly, raised the bow, took aim and hit the edge of the target.
“Incredible! Especially for a first try. I knew ye still had it in ye.” Bella clapped. “Do it again.”
Niall frowned, nocked another arrow, aimed and fired. This time he was much closer to the center, but not quite perfect. Those in the great hall were cheering, stomping their feet and encouraging him to do it again. Each time he nocked the arrow, Niall’s speed increased, and with each shot, he was closer to the center. He beamed at her, at the target, at his people, and there was a confidence she saw in him that matched, if not exceeded, the way he’d looked on the battlefield brandishing his sword.
When he hit the shortest target and split her arrow, the crowd shouted so loudly the rafters literally shook with their pride.
Bella shrieked. “Ye’ve beaten me!”
Niall let the bow slide to his side, grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up to twirl her in a circle. “My God, lass… My God…”
He was bending to kiss her when the sharp, reproachful sound of his mother interrupted. “What is going on here?”
Niall set Bella down, and she stepped in what she hoped was an appropriate distance away from her husband.
“I am using my new gift, my lady mother. Come and see.”
Lady Oliphant frowned, lifted her skirts and marched toward her son, taking note of the targets and arrows.
“What is this?” Her long fingers thrust toward the targets. “Who would set this up in my great hall? What is that?” She jabbed toward the bow.
“A new bow,” Niall said. “Bella had it made for me, so I can shoot again.”
The normally bitter lady’s eyes widened and filled with unshed tears. “Show me.”
Niall nocked an arrow, reset the leather strap and shot it into the center of the first target.
“Do the second,” she whispered, her hands coming to cover her mouth. They were shaking, and tears were visibly rolling down her cheeks as Niall fired into the second and then the third, farthest target, hitting the center each time.
“A miracle,” she murmured, visibly shaken. “A bloody miracle.”
“Nay, Mama, not a miracle. ’Tis Bella.”
Lady Oliphant turned to face Bella, reached for her hands and squeezed them. “Ye…ye did a wonderful thing for my son. I…I must apologize for how I treated ye before. I was… Well, it doesna matter. Ye’ve given me my son back. Made him happy.”
And then she was tugging Bella into her arms, squeezing her as tightly as she could, until Bella coughed from the strain of trying to breathe but didn’t push her away all the same.
“Mama, ye’re supposed to thank her, not kill her,” Niall teased.
Belle watched him over his mother’s shoulder. There was such joy on his face. A mirthful glint shone in his eyes. He was almost an entirely new man. The clan could feel it. The tension in their shoulders relaxed, and they were laughing, smiling and chattering away.
“Can I try, sir?” One of the squires who’d obviously had to work up the courage to come forward and speak with Niall.
“Of course, lad.” Niall bent to give him instruction.
Never again would she question her decisions when it came to knowing her husband and what he needed. Her heart soared, and she realized watching him jest with her brother and pound Fletcher on the back that she was deeply in love with him. More so than when she’d been a lass, more than what she’d built him into over the years. This man, this true Niall right here in front of her, she loved him. Truly and deeply.
How am I so lucky? Niall met Bella’s gaze,
taking in the emotion in her eyes, the secret smile curving her lips. No one had ever done something like this for him. Aye, there had been pep talks, and there had been pushing. His brother and Philip had forced him to pick up a sword again. But to design something for him to use, to know how much he loved archery and want to make it a part of his life again…
Thanking Bella would not be enough. He could get down on his hands and knees and crawl over flames shouting his gratitude, and it would not be enough. A weight seemed to have been lifted off his chest, and immense pleasure radiated through his veins. There were no words he could use to describe what was happening inside him. He felt…alive. More than that, he felt invincible.
Once more, he glanced down at what was carved on the inside of the polished wood bow.
Ye will always be my knight.
Suddenly, an idea came to him. Though he would spend the rest of his life cherishing her for what she’d done today, he knew the perfect way to thank her sooner rather than later for this precious gift.
With that, Niall laughed, and challenged his wife to an archery contest.
Chapter 19
The following morning, Bella woke to a gentle nudge on her hip. She smiled, stretched out the kinks in her muscles from all the archery she’d done the day before and then blinked open her eyes to find a hideous ogre of a woman standing beside the bed. Face covered in soot or something else equally appalling, the woman was tall enough that she might be able to reach the rafters. She was as tall as Niall, as broad even, with breasts the size of Bella’s head. Her hair was wrapped up in a rag covered in the same dirt that was on her face.
“Good morn, my lady,” she said in high-pitched voice, yet oddly deep, if that was even possible given the sounds should negate each other. ’Twas disturbing.
Bella looked away, feeling entirely uncomfortable. She’d never seen this woman before.
“Can I help get ye into a bath?” the ogre woman asked, wiggling her fingers at Bella in a way that seemed almost…lecherous.
“Nay, I’m quite all right.” Bella scooted to the other side of the bed, suddenly worried the behemoth might just lift her up and toss her into a cold tub like her old nursemaids used to do when she’d refused long enough that the water had lost its warmth.
“Come on, dearie.” The older woman started to climb onto the bed, and Bella screeched when she grabbed hold of her ankle beneath the blankets giving her a tug.
What in the bloody hell? The woman had the strength of a warrior.
“Do ye not recognize me?” With a tug, Bella was pulled all the way across the bed, legs spread wide and her night rail riding up to her hips, with the woman looming over her.
For a split second, Bella was utterly horrified, and then she saw him—the beautiful emerald of his eyes, and the laughing smile beneath the muck.
“Ye rascal!” She swatted Niall, burst out laughing and grabbed hold of the large breasts he was bouncing near her face. Rolled up linens she was guessing. How had she not seen him before? “What are ye doing?”
“Isna it obvious, lass? I once asked if ye’d make me be your lady, and ye said aye. Now here I am playing the part. And from the look on your face, ye fell for it for a short time.”
Bella laughed so hard her belly hurt. Then she leaned up and pressed her lips to his. “I’ve never kissed a lady until now.”
“Och, lass. If I get a kiss from ye, I’ll be your lady any day.” Niall tumbled her back down to the bed, yanking the stuffing from his dress and pulling it over his head to reveal he wore nothing beneath.
Bella stilled. Never before had he come to bed with her fully nude. In fact, he’d always worn a shirt, and she’d respected his wishes to do so. But there he was now, kneeling between her legs, his hard body on display.
Rippling abdominal muscles led down to a shaft thick with desire that jutted from curls a shade darker than the flaxen hair atop his head. Bella leaned up on her elbow, flattened her palm to his middle and circled her thumb around his navel. She felt the hardness of his body, the corded muscles that bunched and flexed with his movements. Aye, she’d touched him in the dark when they’d lain together, and always he’d worn his shirt. Seeing him fully undressed was something altogether different. The blood whistling through her veins started to hum, and the places that tingled when he touched her burst to life. She pressed her other hand to his stomach and slid them both up to his chest, pausing over his nipples and feeling them harden beneath her palms. His breath hitched, and though she stared at his skin, she could feel the heat of his gaze on the top of her head. They were both silent, intense.
Had he meant to take off his shirt when he took off the gown? To fully show himself? Did he realize how much that would mean to her?
Bella met his gaze, licked her lips and said, “I love ye.” That wasn’t what she’d meant to say. Not at all, but the words had slipped out before she could say anything else. Scrambling to her knees and facing him so they both knelt in the middle of the mattress, she kept touching him.
Niall stared hard at her, as though her words were still percolating in his mind and he was trying to make sense of them.
“I love ye,” she said again, sliding her fingers over to his left collarbone and down the knotted scarring from where his arm had been taken just below the shoulder. The pain he must have endured made her heart ache.
Niall hissed a breath at her touch but didn’t move away. Didn’t ask her to stop.
“Does it hurt?” she whispered, yanking her fingers back, afraid she’d caused him pain.
“Nay.” His voice was tight, and he gently pressed her searching fingers back. “I’ve never had anyone…”
Bella leaned forward and kissed his shoulder, kissed his scars.
“Ye’re the first to see me. To touch me, beside the healer,” he said. “Ye’re not… It doesna scare ye?”
Bella met his gaze, shook her head and pressed her lips to his. “Nay, my love.”
“I have this ache in my chest.” He twirled a lock of her hair around his finger and tickled her cheek with it. “I didna know what it was until ye said the words. I love ye, too, Bella. Deeply. Ye’re all I think about. I worry over ye night and day. Not just about your safety, but about your happiness. Whether or not I deserve ye.”
“I wouldna, couldna have any other man, Niall. Ye’re all I’ve wanted since I was a lass.”
“So ye’d say I ruined ye for all other men.”
Bella giggled. “Aye, most definitely.”
“’Tis the same for me. Every woman I’ve ever known, I compared to ye. When Walter came back to Dupplin months ago telling me he’d asked for your hand and ye’d turned him down, claiming ye were in love with another, I was enraged with jealousy. Every woman I saw with hair like a golden halo was ye, and every man she was with was the man ye’d fallen for. Who was that man?”
Bella bit her lip and scooted a little closer. “’Twas ye, Niall. When I came into my da’s study and saw the back of Walter, I thought it was ye. Then he told me ye were engaged to another, and I thought my world would crumble. I declared then and there that I would never marry, and for a few months, my parents let me believe they were on my side.”
Niall chuckled. “Are ye not glad they changed their mind?”
“Extremely.”
Niall ran the backs of his fingers over her shoulder, sliding the fabric down to expose her flesh. He pressed his lips to her skin, sending shivers running through her.
“I love your skin.” He flicked his tongue over the line of her collarbone. “The way ye smell, the way ye taste. How soft ye are compared to me.”
Bella lifted the hem of her night rail, raised it over her head and tossed it to the floor so she, too, was naked.
“I want to feel my skin on yours.” Aye, she’d lifted his shirt to feel his stomach rub against hers when they’d made love before, but chest to chest—nothing in between—that would be different. Limbs entwined with nothing between them, that would be completely new.
She scooted closer on her knees, feeling the hardness of his shaft press hotly to her belly, her knees knocking his, her breasts rubbing against the crisp sprinkle of hair on his chest. A shiver rushed through her at the contact, and Niall, too, shivered.
“Every day since I spied ye in the bailey getting your ears chewed off by a princess, I’ve given thanks that ye agreed to be mine.” Bella twined her fingers with his and raised his hand to her lips, flicking her tongue over the tip of his pointer finger.
When Niall met her gaze, his eyes had darkened into twin pools of green. His jaw ticked mercilessly, and when she sucked his finger into her mouth, he let out a low growl, tackling her to the bed. He pinned her legs beneath his powerful ones, his hand holding both of hers above her head. He loomed over her, his raw, passionate masculinity sending another shiver coursing through her.
Bella’s entire body vibrated with anticipation.
“Ye dinna know what game ye play at, love.” Niall gently bit the side of her chin before sliding his tongue down her neck and finding a nipple, and mercilessly tormenting her.
“Oh,” she gasped, “but I know exactly.”
She raised her legs up around his middle, tilting her hips at an angle that allowed his throbbing shaft to slide along her folds and the head tease her center. One more twitch from her, and he’d be close to slipping inside.
Niall chuckled. “So I see.”
She shuddered, gasping as he took her invitation and surged forward all the way to the hilt. Would she ever get used to the feel of him filling her? Claiming her? Zounds, but he was massive, hard and powerful. Once inside her, he pulled back out, teasing her as he remained on the brink, capturing her mouth for a demanding kiss.
Bella writhed beneath him, trying to pull him back inside by pressing her feet to the backs of his thighs, but he held steady, taunting her with the nearness of him, the pleasure that built within her.
“Niall, please,” she begged. “I want ye. I want…all of ye.”
Niall’s forehead fell to hers, and he groaned, sinking back inside her. She squeezed her hands in his large one, moving her body with the force of his thrusts. She melted for him, begged for more as the pressure built within her, that delicious spine-tingling pleasure that layered one shudder on top of another, until her entire being broke apart.
