My Tempting Highlander (Highland Hearts #3)

by Maeve Greyson

  “Lore, if yer no’ just like yer sisters.” Coira pushed past Mairi and stormed into the hall. “Follow me to the solar, mistress.”

  Mairi swept into the hall, pulling the door firmly closed behind her. She hurried to catch up with Coira. She patted the fuming maid’s arm as they walked down the narrow hall. “Thank you.”

  Coira shot her a sideways glance, then rolled her eyes and smiled. “And just like I am wi’ yer sisters, I’ll no’ be able to stay angry wi’ ye overly long.” Coira giggled. “I shall truly be sad to see ye leave with Chieftain Sutherland. MacKenna Keep could do wi’ a bit more laughter these days.”

  Mairi swished her heavy skirts from side to side as they made their way down the winding corridor. What a strange new sensation. Layers of linen and wool and not a stitch of underwear. She found it mildly disconcerting. Going commando in a thick pair of leggings or skinny jeans was one thing. Panty free in a knee-length tunic and a floor-length overdress in the thirteenth century was a different deal entirely. Thigh-high stockings kept her legs warm but that’s where the undergarments stopped. No panties equals easier access for Ronan. Her cheeks heated with the risqué thought, other parts of her body tingling with awareness.

  “Ahh…yer thoughts are with yer chieftain.” Coira’s singsong voice bubbled with a teasing giggle.

  Mairi couldn’t resist a satisfied grin, her cheeks warming even more. “Maybe.”

  “Maybe, my sweet arse.” Coira giggled again as she led Mairi down a short flight of winding steps and into another hallway.

  Soft laughter and the high-pitched voice of a small child echoed from the open doorway up ahead.

  Mairi’s mood lightened even further when she stepped into the room situated on the east side of the keep. Morning sunlight streamed in from a series of tall narrow windows covered with some sort of thin film. Mairi walked over to the windows and lightly trailed a finger down the glowing membrane stretched across the openings.

  “Oiled parchment.” Trulie hefted her ungainly body up from a pillowed chair and waddled toward her sister. “We can’t talk about glass just yet,” she whispered as she looped her arm through Mairi’s. “It’s a bit too early in the century.”

  Mairi nodded as she patted Trulie’s hand. “I understand.”

  Little Chloe skipped across the woven carpet and bounced to a stop in front of Mairi. “How ye be dis fine mornin’, Auntie Maywee?”

  “I’m very well, thank you.” Mairi squatted down to Chloe’s level. She slid one hand into the small pocket embroidered on the front bib of her kirtle and teasingly patted the outside of the pocket with her other hand. “I didn’t get to give you the present I brought you. May I give it to you now?”

  Chloe clapped her dimpled hands and bounced back and forth from side to side. “Ye got me a pwezzie?”

  “Of course I brought you a prezzie.” Mairi pulled a necklace free of her pocket and slid it over Chloe’s head. “I made this just for you.”

  “Oh, lookie.” Chloe cooed and danced in place as she lifted the string of multicolored wooden beads up for closer inspection. “Lookie! A doggie.” The tip of her tongue peeped out one corner of her mouth as she fingered one of the larger wooden beads. Mairi had carved a droopy-eared dog with a happy face and his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. The dog sat with his short tail curled upright as though he were waiting for permission to wag it.

  “And look.” Mairi selected another bead farther down the strand and held it for Chloe to see. “Here’s a kitty.”

  “Ho ho,” Chloe chortled. “Dat looks like Gwanny’s kitty, Ki’met.” Her tiny face grew suddenly serious and her bright blue eyes rounded even more as she leaned forward and whispered, “Ki’met gets willy mad when ye pull her tail.”

  “I don’t doubt it.” Mairi laughed as she rose and patted the top of Chloe’s silky head. “So do you like it?”

  “What do you say, Chloe?” Trulie settled her fingertips on Chloe’s shoulder.

  “And lookie, Mama, dis one looks just like Oren!” Chloe held up the largest bead of them all, fashioned into an exact replica of her owl.

  Trulie smiled and nodded toward Mairi. “I see. Very nice. Now, what do you say?”

  Chloe held both hands up to Mairi and puckered her lips. “Bend down. I gib ye a big moochie t’say tank ye bewwy much.”

  Mairi laughed as she bent and received a loud smacking kiss. Chloe lightly patted her cheeks and repeated, “Tank ye, Auntie Maywee.”

  “You’re most welcome.” Mairi smiled as Chloe spun and bounced back across the room to Granny, holding up the carved wooden beads of her necklace for Granny to admire.

  “Come and sit.” Trulie pulled her toward the ring of heavily pillowed furniture hemming in the warmest part of the room. “It feels like I haven’t seen you in forever. It’s time we had a good visit. Chatting through the fire portal just isn’t the same as having you right here.”

  “Has Ronan said if he’s sending a runner to fetch his people or are the two of you just going to wait until spring?” Kenna used one foot to keep the cradle beside her chair rocking as she held her other fussing son in her arms. “Winter is no time to travel across the Highlands. Take it from someone who knows.”

  “I’m not sure. We haven’t really discussed the logistical aspect of healing his family.” Wait until spring? Spend all winter in the thirteenth century? Um…no. Mairi shook away the uncomfortable misgivings gnawing inside her and held her hands out to Kenna. “Here. Hand him over. Maybe I can help.”

  Kenna blew out a weary sigh as she settled fretting Caedan in Mairi’s arms. “Good luck. Neither Granny nor Trulie has been able to get rid of the colic. I think the Fates are punishing me for sins in a past life.”

  “You were a crabby baby in this life,” Granny observed without lifting her gaze from the low wooden frame holding taut a bit of loosely woven linen. With her glasses slid down to the end of her nose, she carefully pulled colored threads up through the cream-colored weave. “Your poor mother wore out her finest slippers walking the floor with you. Perhaps the Fates are giving you a taste of your own medicine.”

  Some things never changed. Sinclair women always bantered whenever they gathered. Mairi smiled down into the wriggling baby’s red face. She’d missed this precious part of being a Sinclair.

  Cuddling fussy Caedan closer in the curl of her arm, she peeled back the layers of cloth swaddled about his body. He kicked and squirmed even more, drawing his little knees up to his belly then grunted and stiffened his body. A series of muffled popping farts sounded, then for a brief moment the baby relaxed.

  “Poor little guy.” Mairi smoothed a hand over his distended little belly. “He’s got a terrible case of gas.”

  “He is his father’s son,” Kenna drolly noted.

  “So you’re saying the honeymoon doesn’t last forever?” Mairi couldn’t resist an evil grin as she settled on the bench beside Kenna, turned the baby to his belly, and settled him across her knees. Ever so gently, she bounced the child while rubbing his little back. A subtle warming surged through Mairi’s fingers as she released the tiniest bit of healing energy into her nephew.

  “You’ll find out.” Kenna stilled the cradle at her side and settled back into the cushions. “It might last a bit longer for you, though. I adore Colum, but Ronan is definitely more refined than my cinnamon bear.”

  The baby across her knees growled out an enraged cry and flayed his tiny fists. “So much for healing the colic.” Mairi lifted the grumbling babe to her shoulder and rose from the bench. Walking with a rhythmic bounce, she gently thumped the baby’s rump as she paced about the room.

  “I told you it wouldn’t work.” Kenna yawned, rubbing the back of her neck as she rolled her shoulders. “By the way, are you and Ronan going to tie the knot immediately or wait until his people get here?”

  Mairi stopped walking and stared at her sister. Had lack of sleep twisted Kenna’s ability to reason? “Tie the knot? Are you crazy? We just met.” />
  The baby at her shoulder bobbed his unsteady head and growled.

  “Sorry, Caedan.” Mairi resumed patting the baby’s butt in time with her bouncing walk. She angled closer to Kenna as she paced. “We just met,” she repeated, emphasizing the just. Why would Kenna ask such a thing?

  “You did tingle. Right?” Trulie asked. She shot Kenna a silencing look then pushed Chloe’s fisted hands down to her tiny lap. She shook a warning finger at her daughter. “If you put those beads in your mouth again, I’m going to take them away.”

  Chloe pooched out her bottom lip and clutched the beads to her chest. “No, Mama.”

  “Well?” Trulie patted Chloe’s arm and turned back to Mairi. “Tingle. Was it there or not?”

  Mairi glared first at Trulie then turned her attention back to Kenna. There appeared to be more than one conversation going on in this room and she was only privy to one of them. “So, you’re telling me you both tingled the first time you touched your husbands?”

  “Oh absolutely.” Kenna nodded. “And I never tingled once when I was Ronan’s wife, so he’s definitely meant for you.”

  “Kenna!” Trulie stomped her foot and lobbed a pillow at her sister.

  Little Chloe’s mouth rounded into a shocked O as she stared up at her mother as though Trulie had just turned into a raging banshee.

  Wait…what? Kenna had been married to Ronan? Mairi shook her head. Surely, she hadn’t heard that right. “Um. Could you repeat that…and embellish it with a few more details?” Mairi stopped walking again, completely ignoring the unhappy wail coming from the babe at her shoulder. Ronan hadn’t said a word about being married to Kenna. When the hell was someone going to let her in on that little tidbit of information?

  Kenna suddenly sat much straighter and glanced nervously across the room at Granny.

  “You dug yourself into this hole, gal. Best get to diggin’ yourself out.” Granny adjusted her spectacles with a wrinkling of her nose as she pulled a russet-colored thread up through the tapestry.

  Kenna rose from the bench and scooped her squalling son out of Mairi’s arms. “It was nothing,” she said as she tucked the babe up under the light shawl spread over her shoulder and put him to her breast. “Really. It was a marriage-in-name-only kind of arrangement. Absolutely nothing happened.” She nervously shrugged one shoulder and settled back into her seat. “It was really nothing at all.”

  “If it was really nothing at all then why are you having so much trouble explaining it other than repeating, ‘It was nothing’?” Mairi struggled to keep from shouting that Kenna sounded as though she were trying to convince herself instead of Mairi.

  “It was never consummated. Ronan was searching for the Sinclair woman to marry and break the curse. He just messed up when he thought it was me.” Kenna smiled a hopeful smile as though she were a student who’d just finished reciting her verses in front of the class and was waiting for the teacher’s approval.

  Without Caedan’s wails ricocheting off the walls, the sunlit room grew uncomfortably quiet. Mairi stared at her sister, still not believing what she’d just heard and struggling to decide which statement bothered her most. Searching for the Sinclair woman to marry to break the curse? Kenna and Ronan. Married. Supposedly unconsummated. Marry to break the curse. So, did that mean…?

  Ronan hadn’t said a damn word about his marriage to Kenna or the fact that breaking the curse entailed Mairi saying “I do.” Mairi sucked in a deep breath and slowly blew it out. She’d force herself to remain calm and attack one lie of omission at a time. And then I’m going to kill him. “How long were you two married?”

  “Only a few weeks.” Kenna kept her voice low as she gently rocked to and fro and continued feeding her son. “I have always loved my Colum. He’s the only one who ever made me tingle.”

  “Then how did you end up married to Ronan?”

  “It’s kind of complicated. I married Ronan as sort of a deal to save Colum.”

  Mairi clenched her fists until her nails dug into her palms. This might be no big deal to Kenna, but it was a big-ass deal to her. “I don’t give a damn how complicated it was. Explain it. Now.”

  Trulie snorted out a disgruntled huff and struggled to heave her ungainly body out of the deep pillows on the bench. “You know how Kenna always plays with fire. She tried to make Colum jealous so he’d swallow his stupid pride and marry her. Her game nearly killed them both and the only way she could save Colum was by agreeing to marry Ronan. Long story short, it was all a sorry misunderstanding. Now she’s married to the man she really loves and Ronan Sutherland is meant to marry you.”

  “Like hell he is.” Mairi stomped across the room, away from the hearth. She didn’t need a fire right now. Her temper had her so damn worked up she was about to burst into flames. “Why the devil would I want to marry a man who’s just looking for a way to break some curse? And apparently, he’s so damn stupid that he married the wrong Sinclair sister the first time!” She stomped back and forth in front of the sunny windows, her fists trembling at her sides.

  She’d heard enough to make her ready to jump back to the future this very minute. Both the curse and the Fates could go straight to hell and have a freakin’ tea party. “And by the way, I haven’t even seen proof of this curse. His mother and friend were apparently healthy enough to travel back to their homes and all of you seem to be doing just fine.” A firm knowing settled deep in Mairi’s gut. Granny was up to her old tricks. She’d picked Ronan out of the blue as the man she wanted Mairi to marry and decided now was the time to do it. When Mairi had rebelled and refused to jump back, Granny had upped the ante. Well, she had news for Granny. Curse-breaking nuptials weren’t about to happen.

  “This is just another one of your games, isn’t it?” Mairi whirled about and pointed at Granny. “Fess up, Granny. This is just another one of your manipulative games.”

  The heavy oak door to the solar suddenly slammed shut with a room-shaking bang. The wall of windows behind Mairi rattled and moaned as a bone-chilling howl raced through the room. The taut membranes of the oiled parchments covering the windows swelled and shifted between the narrow strips of wood, writhing into distorted shapes as though hordes of angry spirits were trying to burst their way into the room.

  Mairi backed away from the windows, one hand pressed to her pounding chest. “What the hell is going on?” She stumbled back a few steps and shouted to Granny without turning around. “What the hell are you doing?” She stole a glance at Granny. Her heart fell at the uncharacteristic pallor of her grandmother’s face.

  Granny rose from her chair and motioned Mairi closer. “This is not of my doing. Come away from the windows, gal. Slowly.” She held an open hand toward Mairi as she eased around the tapestry stand in front of her chair. “Come to me, child. Now.”

  Before Mairi could move, Trulie gathered Chloe into her arms and hurried to the corner of the room farthest from the windows. Oren vaulted from his perch, circling the room with wings outspread, constantly staying between Chloe and the rattling windows. Karma and Kismet eased forward toward the howling energy. Both the massive dog and lithe black cat moved in unison as though stalking the same prey.

  Kenna clutched squalling Caedan close as she scooped his brother up from the cradle and curled him against her body. Both women held their children shielded toward the wall, keeping their bodies between their babies and the unearthly howling windows.

  Despite Granny’s warning to move slowly, Mairi rushed to her side and pulled her close. “What the hell is it?” The unholy moan deepened and the strips of wood lining the windows rattled harder against the stones.

  “The darkness,” Granny intoned. Her voice disappeared in the din of the howling wind racing through the room.

  The grief-filled wail immediately stopped. The windows banged back into place and the room went silent as though nothing unusual had just happened.

  Shouting sounded from the other side of the door. It exploded open with such force, it bounc
ed against the wall. Gray burst into the room first, sword drawn. Colum followed, rushing forward with the odd hopping gait caused by his twisted knee. Ronan stormed in last, a pair of long-bladed daggers held ready in each hand. He crossed the room in three great strides until he towered in front of Mairi, keeping her snug to his back as he scanned the room.

  “What the hell happened here?” Ronan’s murderous scowl startled Mairi. She’d never seen such raw fury. His almost beastly growl lowered to a soft ragged hiss. “Tell me, lass. Are ye whole? Are ye well?”

  Mairi opened her mouth but couldn’t make a sound. How could she explain the feeling of being trapped by an unknown force? She tried to swallow the knot of terror closing off her throat. All she could manage was to weakly nod her head and point toward the once again sunny windows.

  Ronan looked to the windows then turned to Colum and Gray. “The evil ye spoke of?”

  “Aye.” Gray slowly sheathed his sword, strode across the room, and gathered Chloe and Trulie into his arms.

  “It was scawwy,” Chloe squeaked as she wrapped her tiny arms around her father’s neck. “Make it go way and no’ come back.”

  Gray nodded as he rubbed little Chloe’s back. “I will m’wee one. I swear it.”

  Colum limped across the room to Kenna and curled her and both the babes into his arms. “The roaring swept through the bailey first. ’Twas a great black, roiling cloud that rose from the sea.”

  Mairi tightened an arm around Granny’s trembling shoulders. Granny never trembled. She didn’t fear anything. “What was it, Granny? Do you have any idea?”

  Granny gently slid free of Mairi’s embrace and moved to the fire. She held her gnarled hands out to the flames and stared silently down at the glowing coals.

  Mairi turned back to Ronan. She needed answers. She needed the truth. She needed all the details. “When it first started, I heard her say it was the darkness—something related to the curse. It’s time you told me everything.”