“No, Bonnie,” Arthur said, making her stop as she strode up the path. “There is no duty which should stand in the way of love. Nothing. There is nothing greater, or more important, than that.”
Bonnie stopped dead. Her eyes blurred with tears.
“Oh, Arthur,” she whispered. She turned to face him. She didn’t know what to say. She felt exactly the same way. When he left, her life had become meaningless – an array of tasks to no real purpose, and with no joy in them. “I want to believe that.”
He walked towards her. He rested one hand on her arm, while the other tenderly gripped her icy fingers.
“Believe it,” he said softly. “It is true. I had to come back. I wanted to see you again. I can’t live without you, Bonnie. I tried. But nothing…well, nothing meant anything. Not really. Not anymore.”
Bonnie felt the lump in her throat close her words off again. She blinked and tried to think, but what he had said was so enormous, so all-encompassing, that she didn’t think she’d heard it correctly.
“Arthur…” she swallowed hard. She wanted to believe what he said, but she couldn’t. It didn’t seem possible. He spoke as if he missed her as much as she had missed him! Was that possible? She didn’t know. “You can’t mean that,” she whispered a little desperately.
“I mean it! I thought every second about you, Bonnie,” he said. He held out his hands to her. She took them, wincing at how cold his fingers were. “I mean it when I say that every night, when I lay down to rest, and every morning, when I woke, all I thought of was you. Why would I go off to fight, and leave you? If I want to protect you, I want to be beside you. Every second of every day. Forever.” He looked into her eyes.
Bonnie felt a tear slide down her face. She sniffed and cleared her throat. Her voice wobbled as she tried to speak. “Arthur, every day I thought of you, too. I couldn’t keep you from my thoughts. I wondered where you had gone. Even though I had learned to trust you, you had walked away. I do trust you, Arthur. You are the only person who has ever treated me with kindness. And…more than that…I like you. You’re daft sometimes, and kind. And brave. I would follow you to the ends of the earth, if you let me.” She felt herself start to laugh, and cry, tears pouring down her cheeks.
“If you followed me, I would be happy to go anywhere,” Arthur said, taking her in his arms. She felt herself crushed to his chest by his firm embrace. “But if you won’t, then I will stay here forever. Marry me, Bonnie.”
She felt emotion block her throat and then his lips descended, warm and firm, on her mouth. She held him to her, crushing her body against his firm hardness. “Yes, Arthur,” she whispered, not quite able to believe she was saying it. “Yes, I will.”
He leaned back, breathlessly. “Bonnie!” he said, face suffused with a grin. “I can’t believe it.”
“You’re telling me?” she grinned. “I thought I was seeing things, when you walked out of that wood.”
He looked at her with respect. “I will never stop thinking about that,” he said, low voiced. “You’re fearless, my lass.”
“I’m glad I looked it,” she chuckled, feeling her heart glow with warmth. “I was actually terrified.” Her heart warmed with the words he’d said. He’d called her his lass. His lass.
“Och, lass.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her close against him. “I was quite afraid, truly I was. If I’d been intent on no good, I reckon you’d have put me off.”
She giggled, and wrapped her arm around him. The two of them walked together to the barn. “I am quite glad I didn’t scare you off,” she said, leaning in and pressing her lips to his arm. He chuckled and squeezed her gently, bending to press his lips to hers.
“I’ll never go again,” he said firmly. “You have my promise.”
“Oh, Arthur,” she murmured.
He slipped his arm through hers, and they walked together, side, by side, to the barn.
Barra burst out, a big grin on her face. “Bonnie! Have a look…oh.” She gave Arthur a look frostier than the ice that formed on the surface of the water buckets. She glanced at Bonnie. “Is he…”
“It’s alright, Barra,” she told her friend gently. “I said he was welcome.”
“Oh.” Barra sniffed. Her frosty gaze moved across Arthur, searing and angry. “Well, if he has decided he’s done enough betraying and hurting, and he wants to come back and stop it..?”
“Barra! He’s not that bad,” Bonnie laughed, wanting to hug her, even while she wished she would stop. “He said sorry. I accepted, and it’s all alright, now. Isn’t it, Arthur?”
Arthur looked at her dubiously. He looked quite nervous. “It is,” he hazarded.
“There!” Bonnie chuckled. “Well. Is it alright if he stays here, then, Barra? For a few days?”
“A few days..?” Barra began.
“I have three men with me,” Arthur said. Bonnie glanced at him, planning to broach that topic more slowly. She tried to warn him not to say anything.
“Three men?” A voice interrupted them. “Can they clean cattle sheds?”
Arthur, getting into the spirit of things instantly, cleared his throat. “They can clean like nothing you ever saw, sir,” he assured.
“Well then,” Mr. Hume said, appearing at the door with a grin splitting his features, faster than Bonnie would have thought possible. “In that case, they’re welcome. Sweetling, will you go and get some blankets?” he grinned at Barra winningly. “It looks like we have people to stay in the barn.”
Bonnie looked at Arthur. He grinned. It was a hesitant grin, as if unsure of welcome, but it was so bright and handsome that it touched her heart, making her grin too.
“Well, then,” Mr. Hume said, turning back to them. “Want to come inside? We have some soup left over. And you can tell us all about it.”
When he’d gone into the farmhouse, Bonnie faced Arthur alone for a few moments. She looked into his eyes and she saw his gentle gaze holding her own. She cleared her throat and felt a hesitant smile tug at her lips.
“Welcome home,” she said.
They kissed. Her lips pressed to his and she felt her soul soar, as if she had been dreaming all these days since his departure and had only now awoken. She sighed and felt her body melt against his as his arms went around her. His lips traced the parting of her own, and she opened her mouth to let him explore it with his tongue. She felt her body ache as he leaned against her and she felt his lean strength against her softness. She crushed him to her and, when he stepped back from her, they were both gasping for breath. She felt a little shaky and she looked up at him with longing.
He smiled and stroked her hair.
“Yes,” he murmured. “I am at home now. And I never want to leave again.”
Bonnie thought her heart might burst with love and longing. She felt like she couldn’t stop smiling. She schooled her features to sternness and marched to the door, then turned around to smile at him.
“I’ll go and cook a proper meal…you must all be half-starving.”
With that, she opened the door, shut it and leaned against it. Her heart was racing and she couldn’t stop grinning. She shut her eyes. She felt like something truly wonderful had happened.
It had. Arthur had come home.
Making Sense
Arthur rolled over on the pallet, feeling sleepy and warm. That, in itself, was something different. He hadn’t felt warm for as long as he could remember. He opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling.
Rafters, blackened with varnish and smoke, met his stare. They looked dark against the hazy light in the room, a cobweb or two clinging to the wavering outlines. Arthur sat up, feeling the warm straw-filled pallet shift under his body.
He smiled, as he remembered where he was.
He was in the barn at the farmhouse again.
It feels strange to be here now, he thought, stretching as he sat up. On the one hand, it was familiar, the same barn, the same rooster crowing outside to wake them. Yet, on the other
hand, everything had changed.
He recalled the kiss he had been given by Bonnie on the doorstep that morning when he arrived. He shivered with the sweet recollection of how her lips felt on his. He remembered what he had said, and how she had answered, and he realized that he had never been as happy as he was in this moment.
“The lass really seems to like me.” He whispered it, needing to hear the words aloud.
He had not realized how her fear and mistrust had weighed on him, how he would have done anything to change that. When she put her hands on his shoulders and pressed her lips to his, he had felt his heart melt. That kiss had changed everything.
He heard a bucket clank outside the barn and rolled swiftly off the pallet. It was time for breakfast.
He grinned to himself, thinking of seeing Bonnie over the breakfast table. He stumbled over a sack of something as he went to the far corner where a basin of water stood, ready for them to wash their faces. He winced at the ice fringing the edges of the water, then plunged his hands in and let the water sluice down his face, gasping at the cold.
“What’re you doing?” Bert grumbled sleepily from the pallet closest to him. “It’s no’ time to wake up, is it?”
“It’s after cock crow,” Arthur informed him, toweling his hair down vigorously with a square of linen. He felt so energized, since they had returned here.
He heard Bert groan. “Och, blast you and everyone else who can be so cheerful in the morning.”
Bert rolled over, grunted and stood up. Arthur grinned and finished washing and went to find his tunic and trousers. At the corner where he’d left his clothes, he paused, ears straining.
Somebody was singing.
He listened, enchanted, to the high, sweet voice from outside as it poured through the wood of the walls and reached his ears. It was clear, a little flat on some notes, but it was beautiful. The words reached him here, too, and he listened to the song.
“And the lass…found her lad…he was everything she longed for…”
He recognized the tune – it was an old reel that he’d heard played at gatherings since he was a small child. However, he didn’t know the words.
She has a grand singing voice, Arthur thought. It was only as he dressed that he realized he hadn’t heard it before.
She must feel happy.
The thought made his heart feel full.
“Hey, Arthur!” Bert’s voice broke through his happy musings. “Why’re you standing there with your breeches half on?”
Arthur felt his cheeks flood with color. He realized he had, indeed, been standing with his breeches unbuckled, his tunic only barely covering that which nobody else was supposed to see. He heated up with a blush and tied his belt shut.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I’m half asleep.”
“Aye,” Bert said, a laugh warming his voice. “That’s what I said, too. It’s no time to be getting out of a warm bed.”
“I’m glad I have a warm bed,” Brodgar said sensibly, coming in from outside, where he’d clearly washed his hair in a bucket of water.
“There’s a sensible lad,” Alec grunted appreciatively. He was still sitting on his pallet. Arthur went to help him up. The brothers at the monastery had done a grand job, but the pain whenever Alec tried to sit up or stand up was excessive. Grunting with the strain, Arthur helped him to get upright again.
“Thanks, lad,” Alec said, leaning against the wall for a moment.
“Not at all.” Arthur clasped his shoulder gently. “I’m going outside a moment.”
“Och, lads! Have you seen my trousers?” Bert grumbled from the back of the room.
“Aye! Here they are! Come and get them, you scalawag,” Brodgar shouted derisively.
Arthur left them, teasing each other, tossing handfuls of cold water and humor between them, and headed to the kitchen.
“Bonnie?” he whispered.
She was standing at the table, making bread. Her long black hair was loose around her shoulders. He sneaked up behind her, wrapping his arms around her and breathing in her scent. She gasped. Her body tensed, then relaxed into his arms.
“Arthur, no,” she whispered, turning around to look into his eyes. Her own sparkled mischievously. “What if somebody sees us?” She tried to break free of his embrace.
“So what if they do?” he asked, as she turned around to face him. “We’re going to marry, lass.”
Her face softened in a happy smile. She reached up and rested a hand on his shoulder. “That’s true,” she murmured. He felt his heart fill with wonder and bent to press his lips to hers.
She parted her lips tenderly beneath his and they shared a warm kiss. He was finding it difficult to breathe. He wanted her so badly he could barely find words.
“When should we do it?” he whispered to her. “Wed, I mean.”
Bonnie’s eyes widened. She grinned at him. “You’re impatient, aren’t you, lad?” she teased. “I don’t know when we should do it.”
“As soon as we can! Would you do it today?” he asked. He knew he was talking nonsense, but it was a joyful thing to do, to talk nonsense to her.
“Today! Get on with you!” she laughed. Her smile was warm and tender and Arthur realized that he’d never seen her so at ease before. He reached for her and took her in his arms, kissing her full on the lips.
“Och, my bonnie lass,” he whispered into the warmth of her shoulder. “I want you so much.”
He looked up at her, tensing as he felt her tense. He thought that perhaps he had gone too far in that assertion, but when he looked into her eyes, he saw no fear there. He felt relieved.
“Well,” she said, giving him a playful smile. “I reckon you can wait until we’ve finished breakfast, and then we’ll have a talk.”
Arthur nodded, relief and joy filling him. “Aye, lass,” he murmured. “I’ll wait for that.” He felt a delicious warmth fill him at the mere thought of seeing her alone.
“Good,” she teased. “Now, you can get out from underfoot and go and fetch some water for boiling. The pail’s over there by the door. Mind you shut it, on your way out,” she added.
He grinned at her. “Yes, madam.”
They were both laughing as he shut the door and went down to the well to fetch the water.
It was a revelation, to see how Bonnie had blossomed. He wondered, as he hauled a bucket of ice cold water up from the well, how this miraculous change had come about.
“I don’t know, but I’m ever so glad it did,” he mused to himself. He walked up the path, careful not to spill the water onto the stones. They were already covered with a thin layer of ice, and the thought of slipping was far from pleasant.
As he came back up again, he heard the sound of laughter from the kitchen. The men must have finally got dressed and were in the kitchen, sitting down for breakfast. He looked around and was surprised to see Alec talking to Bonnie.
“…and I reckon the air is quite warm here, in the summer?” Alec said, gesturing at the hills. “It blows down the valley and gets warmed by the mountains there, aye?”
“You’d do better to ask Barra, there,” Bonnie said, gesturing to where the farmer’s daughter stood at the hearth.
“You’re not from these parts,” Alec nodded, as if he understood.
Arthur, watching them, was surprised that he didn’t feel jealous. Seeing Bonnie feeling safe enough to talk to a soldier on her own made his heart fill with warmth. He had never thought he’d see her conversing so freely with anybody. He felt only joy at her increasing freedom.
“There’s the water…good!” Bonnie thanked him and gestured to the fireplace. “Would you put it there, please?”
“Of course,” Arthur nodded, inclining his head. He felt as if her glance touched his skin, every nerve feeling her presence as she smiled at him. He looked around the room, thinking that somebody – the farmer, the other men, Barra – would have noticed the new connection between them.
Nobody was watching.
Bert
and Mr. Hume were engaging in a discussion about harvesting, ably assisted by Brodgar, whose family grew pears and who knew all about it. Barra was sitting with them, clinging on every word Brodgar said. The two of them looked at each other sometimes and shared a special smile. Arthur bit his lip, wondering if anybody else had noticed.
He put the water in the kettle and set it to boil. When he’d finished, he turned to find Bonnie standing next to him.
“The bread’s out of the oven,” she said softly. “Come and sit, and have some breakfast?”
He nodded. “Will I see you after it?” he asked.
She smiled, and he shivered with excitement, seeing the coy look on her face. “I suppose so,” she said.
He went and sat down and ate breakfast faster than he had ever eaten anything in his life. He was hungry – hungrier than he had realized. Even after the day of good meals at the farm yesterday, he was still half-starving. He bolted down the porridge, bread and salted cheese and still looked around for apples.
Bonnie, seeing him, grinned. “You have quite an appetite, eh?”
He blushed and looked at the table. “I’m always hungry,” he murmured.
When he looked up, Bonnie was looking away again, but a little smile tugged at her lips.
Arthur hurried out of the kitchen with some impatience as Bert and Brodgar helped to clean away the mess. He went to the well to fetch water, hoping that Bonnie would come after him to talk. When he reached the well, he heard somebody walking up the path behind him.
“You reckon we could go for a walk?” she asked.
Arthur grinned, turning around and setting the bucket aside. Tenderly, he wrapped her in his arms. He loved her soft body pressed to his, the way her arms enfolded him. He smiled down into her smiling face.
“I would love to go for a walk with you,” he murmured.
Her face was close to his, and she smiled happily. He couldn’t resist any longer, and bent down, pressing his lips to hers. He held her tight to him, gasping as she pressed her body against him. His loins were bursting and the nearness of her body made him almost cry out with longing as her lips sweetly parted to allow his tongue entry.
The Highlander's Honorable Savior (Iron Of The Highlands Series) Page 16
