Eyes filling with tears, she thought about her brother’s words and the fate that awaited her. What would Alexander de Moray, the devil incarnate, do to her? What had Gregor meant when he said those awful words? There was little privacy within the castle walls and she knew quite well what happened when a man and a woman lay together. She had never heard of anyone being torn apart during the act, though.
Gripped by fear of the violence Alexander de Moray might inflict on her, Ailis fell to the floor and drew her knees up to her chest. Her whole body shook, and she couldn’t hold back the great, convulsive sobs that heaved almost painfully through her. Somewhere deep inside, she acknowledged a little voice telling her she was going to have to be braver than this but, for now, she was going to allow herself a moment of weakness. Laying her head on her knees, she wept for the dark days ahead.
Chapter Two
Castle Donnell, March 1309
Smoke drifted in on the wind. Ailis knew that it wasn’t from the burning homes of her people but from the fires in the enemy camp meant to keep the men warm as the evening air chilled and for them to cook their food upon. As she thought about them sitting around the fire, roasting a pig on a spit, her stomach rumbled. They might even have venison or a boar. Just the thought of it made her salivate. It was so unfair. Her enemies were probably out there enjoying a great feast while she was trapped within these walls wondering if her own belly would ever be full again.
In the distance, shouts could be heard but it didn’t sound to her as though there was any actual danger. Not yet, at any rate. It had taken the man to whom she’d been promised by the king seven months to come for her. Although he was now within striking distance of the castle, it seemed he was still in no hurry to claim his bride. In fact, he appeared to be making himself at home out there in the glen.
Ailis wasn’t sure whether she should feel grateful for the continuing reprieve or insulted that Alexander de Moray had not immediately stormed the castle’s poorly defended walls to carry her off.
Ten days ago, when de Moray and his impressive army were first spotted on MacDonnell land, Ailis had ordered that all the women, children, and old men be brought within the walls of the castle for their protection. She’d assumed that their homes would be burned, that innocents would be slaughtered, and everything laid to waste as de Moray sought to assert his authority. None of that had happened and, in truth, Ailis found it disconcerting that he hadn’t behaved as she imagined an invader would.
Although there had been no signs of aggression from the enemy, Ailis was still not sure that her people would be left unharmed, so they remained camped within the castle enclosure. Most had to sleep in the open air, but the most vulnerable had been given beds of straw indoors in the Great Hall. Conditions in the overcrowded bailey were deteriorating fast and, after a harsh winter, they didn’t have the necessary food stores to sustain them. Sickness was taking hold and people were dying. Hell had come to Castle Donnell and Ailis had to accept it was one of her own making.
Something had to be done about their situation. As Ailis passed the now empty stables, she thought about her brother. When Gregor rode out all those months ago, he’d taken all the horses and almost all of the weaponry. He’d also taken most of their stores of grain and much of the gold their father had accumulated during his time as laird. More than three dozen fighting men had gone with him, not out of personal loyalty to Gregor, but because they’d sworn an oath to protect their clan chief, no matter who held the title. The women, Gregor’s wife Edane included, had been abandoned to their fate along with the children.
Shrugging off bitter thoughts about her brother’s actions, Ailis pushed open the heavy wooden door of the tower. She began to climb the steep, winding staircase that would take her to the battlements. Running out of options to save her people, she knew that the time had come to be bold. As she came out into the open air, which seemed so much fresher up here than it was in the crowded courtyard, she looked around for Niall.
Spotting him over by the far wall, she began to move along the walkway toward him. At the sound of voices, she stopped and stepped back into the shadows. She pressed herself against the wall, where she knew she wouldn’t be seen. The warrior was not alone. There was a woman with him, whose face Ailis couldn’t make out clearly from this angle. Even in this fading light, however, she could see that the woman was naked. As she sank to her knees in front of Niall, Ailis felt a sense of unease that told her she should make her presence known. Even though she opened her mouth to call out a greeting, no words came from it.
Instead, she stood and watched in fascination as Niall tore his tunic off over his head to reveal a broad chest and the flat planes of his stomach. He quickly unlaced his braies to free his manhood. Ailis had seen a man’s body before, but never one like this. He was muscular, she’d known that, but seeing him in the flesh was a revelation. Every part of him was toned to perfection, the result of the rigorous battle training he underwent to ensure that he was always fighting fit.
As her eyes traveled downward, Ailis saw that the thing men referred to as a cock was jutting out proudly. It was hard, erect, and impossibly large. Ailis marveled that such an impressive rod could fit inside a woman’s body. Her breath hitched as the lass kneeling at Niall’s feet leaned forward and took his massive shaft into her mouth. She heard him groan and then he started to slowly move his hips, thrusting his cock between the woman’s lips.
Ailis raised a hand to her chest and felt her heart pounding. Although she’d witnessed the act of copulation before, she’d never seen people do anything like this. It was both horrifying and fascinating at the same time. She wasn’t sure how a man as honorable as Niall could do something so base, how the woman at his feet could bear to be used in such a manner. As Ailis listened intently, however, it seemed to her that the sounds coming from across the battlements were not anguished. In fact, the groans the woman emitted as she took Niall’s cock into her mouth seemed to signal that she was enjoying what was being done to her.
“That’s it, Maggie, lass,” Niall said in an encouraging tone. Ailis gasped in surprise as she realized that the woman at the warrior’s feet was her sister-in-law’s companion, Lady Margaret Baillie. “Take all of me.”
Ailis licked her lips as Niall cupped his hand behind Margaret’s head and pushed his steely shaft further into her mouth. As she continued to watch this strangely erotic act, utterly transfixed, Ailis felt that same stirring in her loins that she experienced whenever she thought about lying with a man. It was a tingle that started in her most feminine places and became a deep ache that she somehow understood would only be assuaged by the touch of a man’s hand.
She knew she should turn and walk away, that it was wrong to become aroused by the scene before her, but her feet would not obey her mind’s instructions. So, she just stood there staring, her cheeks growing flushed, her pulse racing. She bit down on her bottom lip as she imagined kneeling at a man’s feet and wrapping her mouth around his cock. Her heart fluttered at the thought of it and, for a moment, she wondered if there was something wrong with her that made her want to do such things.
Suddenly Niall drew his enormous shaft from Margaret’s mouth and hauled her to her feet.
“I need to be inside you when I spend,” he said, his voice urgent as he spun Margaret around and bent her over the lowest part of the wall. Wrapping his arms around her and taking her breasts in his hands, he thrust inside her. His movements looked rough, animalistic, and Ailis felt moisture pool at the apex of her thighs as she pictured herself in Margaret’s place.
“So wet,” he bit out, sounding as though he was having trouble forming words now.
“Only for you,” the young woman said.
Ailis looked on, mesmerized by what she was seeing as Niall drew his arm back and then brought the palm of his hand down on Margaret’s outthrust bottom. She shifted from one foot to the other, trying to dampen down the wild pulsing at her core as the other woman squealed and wriggled
. Rather than trying to get away as Ailis thought she might, Margaret pushed herself back against Niall, seeming to want closer contact.
“Only for you, sir,” Margaret said, correcting herself.
“Good girl.”
As Niall praised the young woman and continued to thrust into her at an even faster pace, Ailis had a strong urge to lift her dress and slip her fingers between her own legs. Knowing it would be wrong to pleasure herself as she spied on such an intimate moment, she resisted the desire to touch herself. But, she couldn’t stop imagining what it would be like to be in Margaret’s position with a strong, muscular warrior pounding his cock into her welcoming body. Ailis felt a prickling sensation weaving its way to her core and then a clenching deep in her belly as she pictured herself being bent over like that and spanked on her bare bottom as she was thoroughly used. Would Alexander de Moray take her like that? Would he make her suck his cock and then fuck her as though both their lives depended on it? Ailis shook her head, barely able to believe that a part of her would welcome such rough treatment.
She blinked away those lusty thoughts as both Niall and Margaret yelled out sounds of ecstasy. There was a moment of stillness as Niall collapsed over his lover’s back. He wrapped his arms around her in what looked like a loving embrace before straightening himself up and stepping away from her. He helped Margaret, who seemed a little unsteady, to put on her gown and surcote and then stooped to pick his own tunic up from the floor where he’d dropped it. He threw it on over his head, laced up his leggings, and ran his fingers through his unruly red hair.
“You’d best be off, lass,” he told Margaret, “before you’re missed.”
Without a word, Margaret nodded, turned, and obediently hurried off inside. Thankfully, she chose to use the stairs behind her rather than coming back along the walkway, past the place where Ailis remained hidden. To be caught, flushed and breathless as she was after what she’d witnessed would be mortifying.
After a minute or so had passed, Ailis stepped out of the shadows, hoping that Niall was not aware she’d been spying on him. It had been wrong of her, she knew, to watch such a private moment between a man and a woman. Her curiosity about such things had always got the better of her.
“Niall.” Ailis raised a hand in greeting as she hurried toward him.
“My lady.” Niall acknowledged her presence with a courteous bow. “I didn’t see you there.”
“Oh, I just this moment arrived,” she said, a little too breezily. The narrowing of the warrior’s eyes told her that he didn’t quite believe her, but he offered no challenge to what she’d said.
“So, how might I be of assistance, my lady?”
Ailis cleared her throat, glad to get straight to the point. “We need to face facts.”
“Oh? What facts might those be, lass?”
Ailis smiled at how quickly Niall slipped back into more familiar terms with her. She had never taken on the airs of a great lady, as she might have done as the laird’s only daughter and she hoped she never would. There was something about the formality her sister-in-law seemed to thrive upon that she found stifling.
“Our food is running out and the people grow sick with hunger. There is death within these walls. You know Mairi MacLean’s babe died just this morning.”
“The child would have died anyway.”
Niall’s matter-of-fact words had not been meant unkindly. They both knew it was simply the way of things. The child had been sickly from the moment of his birth and there was little that could be done for him.
“Perhaps,” Ailis agreed, “but if we do not replenish our food supplies soon and allow the children to run outside and breathe fresh air once more, others will surely follow him to the grave. We have been enclosed within these walls for ten long days and yet de Moray makes no attempt to take the castle. I believe it is time for us to make a move.”
Niall scrubbed at his face and for the first time Ailis saw how weary the man was. He seemed to have aged greatly these past few months and she realized that she had asked a lot of him already. With Angus Munro away from the castle, accompanying Gregor on his quest to find allies to help him seize back his birthright, she didn’t have anyone else to lean on.
“So, what is it you would have me do, lass?”
“Go to Alexander de Moray and bid him welcome,” she replied with as much conviction as she could muster for a plan she suspected was akin to inviting her own destruction. “Throw open our gates and let him come.”
“You would have us surrender before a single blow is struck?” Niall shifted from one foot to the other as though suddenly uncomfortable. “You would surrender yourself?”
“There is no shame in it, Niall.” Ailis fidgeted with the sleeve of her tattered woolen gown, her fingers picking at the threads in the only outward sign of her uncertainty. “Not if we can save the lives of our people.”
“Are you sure it will save them, lass? He is not known as the devil for naught.”
“I realize he has a certain reputation,” Ailis said quietly, “but I do not think he will harm us. If he meant to hurt us, he would have done so by now, would he not?”
“I don’t know, lass,” Niall said. “I know the man only through the tales I have heard, and they are not pleasant.”
“What have you heard?”
“That he is utterly ruthless in battle,” Niall replied. “He puts down any insurrection with brutal force.”
“Those things are to be expected from a warrior, are they not?”
“Aye, perhaps, but he displays a fearlessness that few men possess and an ability with the sword that most envy. He is a hard man, Ailis, and from what I have heard, he shows no tenderness to the lasses either.”
Ailis gave a shrug of resignation, having never really expected to marry a man who would be soft and sweet with her. It was simply not the way of things that women like her married for love.
“Still, I want you to invite him in.”
“Very well, lass,” Niall agreed. “If you’re sure that’s how you wish to proceed.”
“I am. Thank you, Niall.”
The tall, red-haired warrior nodded and surprised her by reaching out to cup her cheek in his callused hand, more used to wielding a sword than showing compassion to a frightened young woman.
“You’re a brave lass, Ailis MacDonnell,” he said. “I’m proud of you.”
Not a man to procrastinate, Niall took his leave of her and Ailis knew that he would set out immediately to de Moray’s camp. She leaned over the crenellated wall and looked down into the sea churning violently below. She could only hope that Niall’s pride in her was justified, otherwise they might all be dashed to pieces like driftwood splintering on the jagged rocks below. Of that, she had no doubt.
Chapter Three
As the light began to fade, it became more and more difficult to see where the lines of stitching were supposed to go. Ailis threw down the tunic she was making a horrible job of mending and got up from her chair. It had been raining all day, forcing her to stay indoors and she was growing increasingly frustrated with being cooped up. There was something in the air, a strange prickling that seemed to signal an approaching storm. She walked to the narrow window and looked out but there was little to see through the grey haze.
It was now three days since Niall had left to speak to Alexander de Moray and there was still no sign of him returning. Two days ago, a messenger had arrived to assure her of de Moray’s good intentions. Her future husband had sent word that the people would be safe to return to their homes, where food would be distributed to them. While she welcomed that, she was growing increasingly anxious for news of Niall.
Every time she heard a shout outside, she half-expected it to be someone delivering the severed head of her clan’s fiercest protector to the castle as a warning that they were about to be overrun by the enemy. The thought of having de Moray’s soldiers flooding into her home was terrifying. It was not herself she was frightened for. She was to wed t
heir leader and that would surely give her some protection from his men. No, it was the other women at the castle she worried about. What would become of them when they fell into the hands of unruly warriors, overcome with lust after being so long without female companionship? It didn’t bear thinking about.
“Should I send another man to speak to de Moray?” she mused aloud.
“What a good idea.” Her sister-in-law, Edane, fixed Ailis with a cold, disapproving glare. “And then, perhaps, you could send another man when he does not return, and another after that. Perhaps you would like to leave us entirely undefended.”
“I believe it was your husband who did that.” Ailis felt a pang of regret as soon as she spoke. Edane had never been the easiest of women but she knew that her increasingly prickly demeanor was due in some part to her having been abandoned by the man she loved so desperately. Ailis knew she should try to be more considerate of the other woman’s feelings.
“My husband is master here and he acted in the best interests of the clan.”
Ailis snorted in disgust, all thoughts of being kinder to Edane already flying out of the window. “Your husband was master here for a single day and he acted like a coward.” She saw the look of appeal for her to soften her tone on Margaret’s face and smiled gently. “But, of course, we must all accustom ourselves to the idea of a new master at Castle Donnell.”
“And you as its lady?” Edane said mockingly. She rose to her feet, the anger flashing in her dark eyes. “That will never happen. Soon Gregor will return at the head of a great army to send that upstart Alexander de Moray back to his king with his tail between his legs.”
His Conquered Bride Page 2
