by Mia Pride
Before she knew it, her entire body was shuddering as humiliation and dashed dreams mocked her. Stupid lass. How could she have ever thought he cared for her when it was well known that Brennain Mac Greine loved no lass?
“Morna?” She gasped and sniffled as a deep voice resounded behind her. Scrambling to her feet, she tried to wipe her tears away to hide the evidence of her pain but only succeeded in smearing more dirt across her skin. Turning around, she wiped her hands in her blue skirts and stiffened as she came face-to-face with the very man she had just been cursing in her mind.
“Brennain.” She tried her best to sound confident and unaffected, but she was certain her mud-streaked face and red-rimmed eyes would give her away. Knots in her stomach made her wish to lean forward and wrap her arms tightly around herself, but she forced her shoulders back, determined to look him in the eye. He was easily the most beautiful man she had ever known, but thoughts such as those needed to end. She was not the only lass who believed him to be a perfect man… but Brennain was anything but perfect. He may be so on the outside, but all he truly was, was a fickle man who sought to use women for his own needs.
“Are you all right?” he whispered, pain flickering in his eyes as he stepped forward and put a hand out to her. Instantly, she stepped back.
“I am fine. What do you want?” She sniffled and wished to wipe her eyes once more but knew she would only make a mess of herself. Why did he have to come upon her now and see her at her lowest? She never cried.
“I wished to speak to you before I leave for the Rómánach fort. I have missed you.”
A snort so loud it rattled her brain escaped her. “You have an interesting way of showing it. You had your chance to speak with me yesterday, but you walked away from me. I am busy now. You should be on your way.” Morna fisted her hands in her skirt to hide their trembling.
“I was upset, Morna. I did not handle it well. I am sorry.”
“Oh, I would say you handled it just as you always do. You found a willing lass… this time two… to comfort you and make you feel like a better man. If you came here to seek the same from me, you will be disappointed. I am not the same lass you left here two years ago. I will not fall for anything you say.” She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from him. It hurt to speak to him this way. They had connected on a level so deep before, had been inseparable as they spoke of life, love, future desires, and all the things he wished to one day offer her, such as a home and a family. Neither of them had ever truly expected to see one another again or for their secret longings to come to fruition. Still, it had meant something to her.
“Morna, I did not lie with either of those women last night. I—”
Putting out a hand, she stopped him from speaking. “’Tis none of my concern what you do, Brennain, but you need not lie. I saw you. It would have been quite clear to anyone what your intentions were, and those women are the two most promiscuous women in Miathi, so convincing them to bed down with you is not difficult. Caleb accomplished it many times.”
Brennain flinched at her words, but she just stared at him, wishing he would leave her be. There was nothing he could say to make things right and being so close to him only reminded her of his natural earthy scent, the strength of his arms around her, the softness of his kiss. He had seemed so genuine when he whispered in her ear, telling her how beautiful her blonde hair was or how lovely her grayish-blue eyes were. But she supposed a man like him was used to speaking sweetly to women. Anything to get his way.
“Is that why you were crying? Because Caleb has left you?” She looked up to his height and narrowed her eyes. He was so tall she could hardly see him through the rays of light shining overhead in the sky. She wanted to laugh at his words. Apparently, someone had been catching Brennain up on the village gossip. He now knew that her husband had left her and must think she was a pathetic creature. She wished to tell him she despised Caleb and was glad he was gone, but then again, it was a perfect way to hide the truth. She would rather die than admit she sobbed because Brennain was a foul bastard who broke her heart.
“Aye.” That’s as much of the lie she could bear to tell.
“Morna…” He stepped forward once more, but this time she refused to budge. “Your daughter is beautiful.”
“Aye. She is. Her name is Glennis.”
“I was disappointed to learn that you had married.”
Her heart rate kicked up a notch, but she willed her mind to stay calm. He had only been disappointed because he had to attempt to woo another woman into his good graces. “You were gone for two years and you made nay promises to return, Brennain. My life went on.” Nay, it had not. She had not changed a bit. Every part of her missed him and wished to embrace him. Aside from her beautiful lass and her awful husband, nothing had changed.
“Glennis is what? A year old?” Morna nodded and looked away again. She knew where he was going with this. “You did not wait long, lass.”
Anger flared in her. She almost blurted out that she had not conceived Glennis nor birthed her, but that was none of Brennain’s business. Let the man believe whatever he wished to about her if it made him feel like the injured party. As if he had not been with many women since the day he left her. Och, he had been with more women just the night before than she had been with men in her entire life. She refused to allow him to coax her into feeling guilty or offering up answers that were not his concern. Let him feel a slight twinge of jealousy… if the man was even capable of that emotion.
“What I do with my life is not your concern. What do you want with me, Brennain?” she threw her arms up in the air and growled in frustration.
“I want to know I meant something to you, that our time together, though short, was as special for you as it was for me.” Before she could see it coming, Brennain stepped forward again and grabbed her hands in his. The familiar rough feel of his calloused warrior hands made her heart palpitate and her legs go weak. He affected her physically and made it hard to even speak. Suddenly, she felt like a blithering fool.
“I… I…” Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she tried to continue. “Why does it matter, Brennain? That was a long time ago. You left because you had to. Even now, you are only here because your king commanded you to be and you are off once more after only a day. We both knew then that it would never be.”
“It did not stop me from wishing otherwise.” He tugged her closer and lifted her hand to his lips. His hot breath fanned over her knuckles and she fought the urge to fall to her knees. She was a weak woman.
“Leave my daughter alone!” Being pulled from the spell Brennain so easily cast over her, Morna gasped and tried to pull her hand away from his, but he held firmly. “Can ye not learn to leave a married woman alone?”
Looking over her shoulder, Morna saw her mother approaching with Glennis in her arms. She looked angry enough to spit fire and while Morna was irritated with her meddling mother, she was relieved to have an excuse to be out of Brennain’s all-consuming presence.
Glennis looked up at Brennain with her bright blue eyes and reached out for him. “Pa… pa?”
Brennain dropped Morna’s hand so suddenly that it flopped to her side unexpectedly. He stepped back and shook his head. “Nay, wee lass. Not your papa.”
The way he said those words so softly, had Morna not known better, she would have thought he was sad. But, Morna did know better. There was no way that Brennain wished to be Glennis’s papa, or the papa of any child. When his green eyes flashed at her quickly before looking at Glennis, she sensed a deep conflict inside him as if he fought some inner struggle.
“I will return.” He bowed his head to her, then to her mother and Glennis before turning on his heel and storming off toward the stables, leaving her standing like a fool with her dirt-streaked face and puffy eyes, wondering why he would ever wish to return, and convincing herself that she must not wait around for another two years for him to do so.
“What did I tell ye, love? Ye n
eed to stay away from him,” her mother chided softly.
“I was only picking mint leaves, Ma. He found me,” Morna defended herself.
“Yer eyes are red and ye have dirt all over yer face,” Elsbeth said, as she gently wiped some away.
“Aye. I was crying, and I made a mess of myself.”
“Certainly, ye were not shedding a tear for Caleb.”
“Nay. Not for him,” Morna sighed and put her arms out to her daughter, who gladly snuggled into her embrace. Her heart slowed to a steady rhythm once more and a sense of peace washed over her as she held her daughter in her arms and breathed her familiar scent. How could she love a child so much, one she had not even birthed? As far as Morna was concerned, Glennis was all hers.
Her mother stayed silent as she watched Morna with sadness in her eyes. “Come, Morna. We have an audience with the king. ‘Tis time to be rid of Caleb for good.”
For once, Morna could not agree more with her mother. Her mind was in a fog and she would need to wash her face before approaching the king, but she would not let Brennain or Caleb bring her down. Today, she sought her freedom.
* * * *
The horses’ hooves clopped loudly against the packed earthen trail beneath them. Based on the wide road and the rivets dug deep into the ground, this was a well-used path for carts, horses, and large groups of traveling men. According to King Ailbert, Barochan Hill was a four-day journey north if one traveled swiftly.
Reaghan and Brennain rode hard in silence for most of the three days before, covering much land. Brennain was determined to make good time reaching Barochan Hill, though he was not at all certain what they would do or find once they arrived. Mal Mac Rochride already knew their faces from a few moons prior when Brennain and Reaghan had both successfully infiltrated his camp, pretending to be new recruits. At the time, both had been deep undercover for King Tuathal, never even knowing that they were both informants to the same man. Now, Mal knew them for certain. This journey was a dangerous one and the safe plan of action would be to observe from a distance, see what Mal was up to, and report it back to Tuathal.
However, the safe plan was not an option. Brennain needed to find Caleb somehow and return him to his wife and child, even unwillingly if necessary. The man deserved to be strung up by his bollocks for deserting his people and his king, but Brennain was angrier about his desertion of Morna and Glennis.
It had been three days since he had left Morna, but it felt like an eternity with every step he took away from her. He could not stop thinking about the awful redness in her eyes or the evidence of tear tracks down her cheeks. And the adorable smudges of dirt streaked across her face. Even when muddy, she was the most beautiful lass, but knowing her tears were for another man made his stomach clench painfully. He wanted to be the man she loved, and he would never leave her if she was his. If it was up to him, he would never leave her again. But, it was not up to him. She was a married woman. Now, instead of bringing her home with him as he had planned, he would be bringing her husband home to her.
What he would truly like to do is pummel the man within an inch of his life, but that was not part of his mission. He needed to stay focused. Ominous clouds had hovered overhead for a day as they followed the only man-made path they had come across in days. They knew they had to be close. Now, it seemed the sky finally decided to open on them as raindrops pelted down on them in heavy sheets.
Finally, being forced to slow the pace, Brennain rode alongside Reaghan, allowing him to speak more with the man than he had in a few days. It had either been swift travel or swift sleep, but now they had no other choice but to seek shelter until the rain slowed.
“Did you enjoy your time with that serving lass?” Brennain pulled his cloak’s hood over his head and raised a brow at his companion.
“Och. She was more than enjoyable. Did you see her bosoms?” Reaghan whistled lowly and shook his head. “These women from Miathi know how to drive a man mad, do they not?”
Brennain scoffed. “That they do.”
“So, then you enjoyed your time with the two lassies?” Reaghan wriggled his brows salaciously but Brennain only shook his head. “Nay?” Reaghan sounded shocked that Brennain had not followed through with the task.
“Nay. I was tired.”
“You were pining for the healer. Do not deny it.”
“Fine, I will not deny it,” was all he replied. There was no sense in pretending that he was not distracted or disgruntled. “I intend to find her bastard of a husband and drag his piece of shite arse back to his wife and child.”
“Truly? Would it not be better for you to let the man stay away so you can take his place? You cannot mind her wee daughter.”
“I mind that her wee daughter is not my daughter.” He growled the words, but they felt good to say out loud. That had been a large part of why Brennain was in knots. He wanted all Morna’s children to be his. He had never wanted to admit it to himself, and certainly not to his companion, but the thought of having children with Morna had buried itself deep in his heart the moment he saw her holding Glennis. Until that moment, he had not been able to think beyond marriage, which was already a foreign thought for a man such as Brennain who had always lived the life of an independent man, going where he willed and bedding who he wished.
When Glennis had called him papa before he left, something inside him melted and he had never been more saddened to not be a child’s father. But he was not. They belonged to Caleb and he would at least make sure the man did right by them.
“Och, you are in deep, mate.” Reaghan scoffed. “I cannot understand why you are dragging the man back.”
“Because Morna was torn up over him, Reaghan. I approached her before we departed, and her eyes were swollen from crying. She claimed she missed her husband.” The conversation and the pain in her eyes haunted him, causing him to scowl. He did not like the way he felt, never having expected to feel such turmoil over a woman. “If I cannot be with her, the bloody man who stands in my way had better be with her.”
The rain was pounding down on them, soaking them through. Looking up at the sky, all Brennain could see was a wall of thick gray clouds. It was likely close to evening and though they were making substantial progress, they would not get much further as the weather worsened. “We need to seek shelter,” Brennain said, desperate to change the subject. It was not easy for him to discuss his emotions openly or share his pain.
Fortunately, Reaghan took the hint and began searching the terrain around them for any place to stop for the night. The land around them was rather flat with open rolling hills, but when Brennain squinted through the blur of rain, he could see clusters of trees silhouetted in the distance. “Over there,” he shouted to his companion over the pounding of the storm, and pointed toward the emerging forest. “Mayhap we can find a place to set up camp nestled in those trees.” It was not ideal, but he had suffered worse. After years of training, fighting battles, and traveling the land, there were few elements Brennain had not endured.
“Aye, let’s go.” Reaghan steered his borrowed black mare toward the west and Brennain gladly followed, anxious to be out of the wind and rain and sheltered, even if only slightly, beneath the trees. The beautiful chocolate-brown stallion that King Ailbert had lent him could likely use the respite, as well. Three hard days of travel had worn them all down.
Finally reaching the forest, they rode slowly through the closely clustered trees, looking for the perfect area to tie up the horses, make a fire, and mayhap find some game to hunt. He and Reaghan saw it at the same time and paused. It had been hard to see at first, but the smoke wafting up from the center of a cluster of trees ahead was not a figment of his imagination. By the curious lift of Reaghan’s blond brow, he saw it too.
Reaghan nodded his head in the direction, but he knew Brennain had already caught on. The smell of the smoke was being washed away by wind and rain, but the billowing gray wisps above the trees stood out in contrast to the falling rain. Someone was
camped out in this spot already. They could turn around and seek shelter elsewhere, but Brennain’s senses were on high alert. They were quite close to the Rómánach fort of Barochan Hill and had not seen any travelers while they rode north. They had passed some other hillforts or villages and even stayed the night in one where they had dared to hope to be welcomed. Fortunately, they had been. But aside from that, nobody else had been on the roads.
Now, they were only a few yards from another camp containing who knew how many men. Were they men from Alba? Rómánach? Mayhap Mal’s patrolmen? Brennain patted the sword that hung at his side, ready to fight if needed, but he hoped it would not come to that. Swinging down from his horse, Reaghan did the same.
“We need to find out who is here,” Reaghan whispered, and looked at Brennain, his square jaw set with determination. Brennain liked that about Reaghan. He did not seek trouble but was not afraid to walk into it if necessary. And it was necessary, for mayhap these men were their enemy, traveling away from Barochan Hill and toward Miathi or any other unsuspecting village. Any number of possibilities ran through Brennain’s mind.
“Aye. Let us tie up the horses here so we can silently approach.” The men loosely tied the horses, so they could still move and rest easily, then began their stealthy and careful trek toward the source of the smoke. The trees were thick and pine needles snagged on Brennain’s plaid cloak, but he kept pushing through as quietly as he could.
With the protection of the trees, the sound of the rain had become more of a trickle as only a few drops made it past the tent of leaves and needles overhead. Suddenly, Brennain could hear voices and he put a hand up to stop Reaghan in his tracks. “Do you hear that?”
