Memories of a Highlander

by Susan Bella Ikin

  The next few days passed quietly. Eleanor’s injuries were well on their way to healing, and I was monitoring her progress with great excitement. Her arm was more mobile and she could manage small tasks, although I would not let her carry anything heavy. Her knee was working very well, and she could hobble on flat ground quite well, although the stairs were still too much for her, I did not want her to set back her progress by doing too much. Mary was feeling quite ill, and so Eleanor spent a lot of time with her, to help with Robert’s care. Liam and I patrolled regularly, not wanting to leave anything to chance, and the four of us grew ever closer as we spent so much time in each other’s company. It was while we sat in Da’s solar one evening, that I became aware that there was a lot about Eleanor that I did not know.

  Liam was updating the books of the keep, with my assistance, while Mary quietly gave Eleanor a reading lesson, while Robert lay on Mary’s lap, idly playing with his hands. Eleanor must have made some comment to Mary about when the new bairn was due.

  “Well, as best as I can figure, it should be a week or so after Robert’s birthday. Eleanor, I just realised I do not know, when is your birthday?”

  Eleanor glanced at me, blushing, and I found myself listening for the answer. Was she blushing because she thought I did not care enough to ask? I couldn’t imagine why I had not, although for some reason I tended to think that whatever Eleanor and I had done in the past no longer mattered, it was only the time from when we met that mattered to me.

  “It is actually next Friday”.

  “Eleanor! Why did you not say anything? I hate to have thought that I might have missed it, that the day could have passed without anyone remarking on it. What bad timing that everyone will probably still be away. If they were back in time, maybe Patrice might have bought something lovely we could fashion into a gift for you, but it doesn’t matter. I have over a week, I am sure I can think of something to do for your first birthday with us. What did your family used to do?”

  Eleanor dipped her head, and my heart ached to think that she was saddened by memories of her family at this time. I held my breath while I listed, aware that Liam was listening as well.

  “We did not make a lot of fuss over birthdays, but my parents would always give me a small token of their affection on the day. It is of no matter, it is just a day like any other in truth”.

  I exchanged glances with Liam and with Mary. It would not be a day like any other, not if I had anything to say about it.

  Eleanor

  Donald was very quiet as we undressed for bed. I had long ago dispensed with wearing clothing to bed, Donald would no sooner slide in beside me than he would be undressing me, claiming to want to feel my skin against his. For modesty’s sake, I had persisted for a while, but then had realised how foolish that was. How could I pretend modesty when one of the most exciting things I had discovered was that we could both pleasure each other at the same time? As my knee healed and I could move a little without hurting myself, I had discovered that I could crawl down the bed and lock my lips over Donald’s shaft without pain. One night, I had been engrossed in seeing how many groans and gasps I could wring from Donald when he grasped my hips and gently lifted me up over his face. I had pulled my lips off his shaft to look backward to see what he was doing, only to gasp in ecstasy as his mouth found its target. He had bucked upwards with his hips, reminding me of what I had been doing, and I had returned to my task with renewed vigour.

  After enjoying activities like that with Donald, it seemed pointless to pretend any modesty at all with him, and my nightclothes now stayed packed in the trunk, where I didn’t expect to get much use from them ever again.

  This night, we slipped into bed, and I slowly wriggled over to my side to burrow into Donald’s warmth. The nights were starting to cool a little, but under the covers, snuggled against Donald, I was never cold. Donald put his arm around me, letting me get comfortable as I had to find a position where my knee was not cramped and my shoulder not pressed too hard into either the mattress or Donald. Finally, I heard his deep voice rumble quietly.

  “Eleanor, why did ye not tell me it was yer birthday so soon? I would have felt awful if I missed it. I would like to make a present of something to ye, but I am not sure what ye would like the most”.

  “Donald, ye have given me everything important already. Ye gave me yer support everytime I needed it, and ye have shown me nothing but kindness, even though I have caused ye a lot of trouble. I could just as easily say the same thing to ye, ye have not told me when ye will be celebrating the day of yer birth, so I would hope that I have not missed it yet”.

  “No, Ma and Da would not have let that escape yer notice. They always have the kitchens make a special dinner whenever any of their sons has a birthday, and they have started this for Mary too. I am surprised that Ma did not ask ye as well, perhaps it slipped her mind”.

  I looked at Donald, laughing a little. Mary had told me how crafty Patrice could be, and I didn’t know what she was planning this time.

  “Well, in truth she did. I didn’t realise she had kept that information to herself. What do ye think she is planning?”

  Donald turned to look at me, grimacing.

  “I never can tell with Ma. Maybe she will bring ye back something from her trip. I still want to give ye something though, but I don’t know what that will be yet”.

  As he spoke, Donald moved so that he hovered over me, and gently stroked my brow. How I loved this man. He had been the best gift I ever could have received, so I told him.

  “Donald, ye have already given me almost everything I could want. There are only two things ye haven’t given me yet, and I hope ye can give them both to me for my birthday”.

  “Anything, love. Whatever ye want, if I can give it to ye, I will”.

  “I want ye Donald, all of ye. I want ye to make love to me, and if we are lucky, we will make a babe together, and then ye will have given me everything I could want”.

  As Donald leaned down to kiss me, I was sure that I saw the glitter of unshed tears in his eyes, but then his lips were on mine and I forgot everything else.

  The next week was very slow, it was almost as if time had stood still. At my request, Mary examined my injuries early in the week, and decreed that I was almost back to my old self. I made plans to wash my hair on Thursday, so that on Friday it would be at its silky shiny best. I knew that Donald loved to run his fingers through my unbound hair, so I wanted it to be at its best that day. Donald and I flashed excited grins at each other all week, earning disbelieving looks from Liam and Mary, who had worked out that as my birthday approached, Donald and I became more and more wound up about something, so they had probably worked out what it was.

  All my plans came crashing to nothing on Thursday morning though, when I was sitting in my bath in a downstairs room – as I had not been able to carry the water upstairs and hadn’t wanted to bother one of the few servants who remained, I had taken over a room downstairs for this purpose - a cry went up from the wall, delivered in an urgent tone that made it clear that the news was not good.

  “Riders, there’s rider’s out there!”

  Donald

  Liam and I raced up to the top of the wall and looked in the direction that the guard was pointing. He was not mistaken.

  “How many do ye think there are?” Liam asked me quietly.

  I tried to count, but as they rode they were in constant motion. I could not be sure, but even from this distance, I could not see anything familiar about them, and knew that this meant trouble.

  “I don’t know, but at least fifty. How many men have we here?”

  “Not counting us, there’s probably only ten good sword arms in the bunch. The rest are too old or too young. If they are not here for a siege, we might be able to hold out until Da comes back, but if there are more of them that we can’t see, I don’t like Da’s chances if he encounters them on the open road”.

  We stood there waiting as the riders approached.
In order to make it look as though there were more people here than there actually were, we got some of the larger boys to don helmets and stand to the rear of the wall, holding pikes so that they could be seen from the ground. When the group approached, two riders separated from the rest of the host and moved to the base of the wall. We watched as they approached. One was older, the other was clearly his guard, looking up at us warily in case we decided to launch an attack on the two men.

  “State yer business!” yelled Liam without preamble, as soon as the men were close enough to hear. The older man looked up at us and yelled back.

  “I came here for the man who killed my son and didn’t give him a Christian burial. Send him out and I will leave peacefully. If ye don’t, I will not leave until everyone within yer walls is dead”.

  “Would yer son have been the evil coward who preyed on defenceless women by any chance?”

  I shouted, trying to goad the man into doing something careless. He looked at me.

  “So it was ye, was it? Very brave of ye to call another man a coward while standing behind those walls. Come out and face me like a man”.

  Liam placed a restraining hand on my arm, speaking in a low voice.

  “Don’t let him get to ye, Donald. Once the gates open to let ye out, we’re all vulnerable, think of the women and those who depend on us for protection”. He turned back to the man.

  “No-one here did anything but defend those who could not defend themselves. I don’t know whether ye would have done the same, but maybe not. We will not be told what to do by the likes of ye. Begone from our lands before I lose my temper at yer willingness to trespass where ye aren’t welcome”.

  The man sat back on his horse.

  “I thought it would come to this. Ye have until sundown to make up yer mind. I have more men on the road behind me. I will not go away until I have some satisfaction from ye”.

  He turned and rode away, followed by his guard, and the two of them rejoined the host.

  For the remainder of the day, Liam and I made plans, based on different ideas of what the man might do next. We didn’t expect Da to return until next week at the earliest, they would stay to observe the Sabbath at the Cathedral, before leaving for their return trip. We checked the food stores. As there were so few people in the keep, we would have plenty, or so we thought. That was until the people from outlying villages started streaming in. Word had spread that a vengeful force was upon us, and even though they might lay siege to the keep, plenty of people felt safer within the walls than without. When it appeared to be safe, the gates would be opened briefly to allow people to race in, and then closed when it appeared that the invaders were moving.

  By that evening, Mary, Eleanor and the remaining household servants had found places for people to sleep, and had passed out rations for the evening meal. Liam and I looked at each other grimly as we stepped through the sleeping bodies in the main hall. We went to Da’s solar to speak privately.

  “Liam, I don’t like this. We have enough food to last a few days, but we don’t know what they plan to do. It’s been a hot summer, and there’s a lot of dried grass close to the keep. If they set fire to it, it might reach the walls”.

  “So we make sure all the buckets are full. That’s all we can do”.

  I stared Liam in the eye, knowing that he would not agree to my proposal.

  “I think I should go out. I don’t think he will be reasonable, and I think it will go ill for me, but it is better if it is only me, rather than everyone here”.

  “No Donald!” Liam said quietly, but with emphasis. “We will wait. It should not come to that. Ye are my brother, and I won’t let ye sacrifice yerself needlessly”.

  I nodded, seeming to agree with Liam, but secretly resolving to watch, and to wait. In the meantime, we went over other strategies until early into the morning, then I crept up to bed, hoping not to wake Eleanor.

  I undressed and tried to slip into bed without making much of a disturbance, but Eleanor must have only been sleeping lightly, as she rolled over to face me, her eyes opening wide, and she seemed to be wide awake very quickly. I lifted my hand to brush her cheek.

  “Happy Birthday, love, sorry it is not a good day for ye”.

  Eleanor breathed in deeply, then breathed out on a smile.

  “It could be better. But ye owe me a birthday present still”.

  “Ye cannot be serious, woman? There’s a hostile force outside our walls, ye do know that, don’t ye?”

  Eleanor looked at me for a long time with her beautiful eyes fixed on mine.

  “Will it make any difference to what happens today if ye turn away from me? The only difference it will make is to me, Donald. We don’t know how today will end, if we will both be alive by the end of the day, so why would ye deny me this?”

  She looked down at my chest, rubbing her warm hands over my skin before rolling closer and moving one hand to my back, rubbing my back and moving her hand down to my buttock, massaging it and pulling me closer to her. I was lost when I felt her warm body press against mine. I slanted my head so that I could access her mouth, kissing her gently. I moved my hands over her body, running one down her back to pull her lower body close to mine, and rubbing my hard shaft against her belly, letting her know that despite my words, I wanted this as much as she did. My other hand worked its way in between us, and I fondled her breast, hearing her hiss on an indrawn breath.

  “Are ye hurting, or do ye like that?” I smiled into her mouth as I squeezed the soft flesh. I still had concerns about her shoulder and knee, but I hoped she would tell me that everything was good.

  “Ye know I do. Ye know I Iove it when ye touch me. I just worry sometimes that ye find me a little lacking there. I don’t have very big breasts, and yer hands are so big”.

  I laughed as I pushed her onto her back, and moved my head down over her breasts, suckling one as I massaged the other.

  “Ye are a silly woman, Eleanor McGarrow, if ye think ye are anything less than perfect. I could spend the rest of my life touching ye like this, or at least I could if I didn’t have other things in mind”.

  As Eleanor gasped, I worked my way down her body, trailing my tongue down her belly as I worked my way to my real target. Eleanor smiled as she correctly discerned where I was headed, and made my job easy by opening her legs wide. I settled in between them, and set to work tasting the part of her that I knew was already hot and wet in anticipation of what she wanted me to do. I nuzzled around that little bit of skin at the top of her slit, the one that was so easy to stimulate, rewarded with a low moan from her. I licked all the way down, poking my tongue inside her, having to restrain myself from burying my shaft there instead. We had all night, there was no need to rush this. I moved back up to the nub of skin as I inserted two fingers into Eleanor, twisting them around until I found that spot she liked. I looked up at her face as I worked my fingers in and out of her, enjoying seeing her bite her bottom lip as she writhed at my hands. Finally, I felt the muscle clench that I knew signalled her oncoming climax, and I watched in awe as she threw her head back and moaned my name on an exhale. Before she had the opportunity to recover from her climax, I worked my way back up her body, kissing every bit of flesh I encountered on the way. When I finally lay atop her, I put my hands either side of her face, urging her to open her eyes.

  “Eleanor, look at me. I want ye to look at me as I enter ye. We have waited so long for this moment, I don’t want either of us to miss it”.

  Eleanor opened her eyes, looking into mine as I probed her entrance with the tip of my shaft. I felt her muscles clench in response to the presence of something she had never experienced before, and I gentled her.

  “Eleanor, relax. It’s only me. Ye know I love ye, and I would never hurt ye, but I need ye to relax or I will never get inside ye”.

  Eleanor nodded, and as I felt her entire body relaxing, I realised that I hadn’t felt her tensing up, so intent had I been on the sensations coming from my groin. Just i
nserting the tip into Eleanor had felt better than I could have imagined, it took all my restraint to not push in straight away. As Eleanor relaxed, I rotated my hips, working myself in deeper and deeper. Eleanor’s eyes opened wider, but she kept looking into my eyes, even when I found myself fully seated, and knew by the tightness I could feel that she must be feeling overfull. I lowered my head to kiss her again, probing her mouth with my tongue until I felt her inner muscles soften a little. Eleanor gave a little push upwards with her hips, letting me know that she was ready to experience more, so I pulled back my head and watched her again as I withdrew. Her eyebrows drew together in a frown, and she seemed on the point of saying something, when I thrust inwards, still gently, but more forcefully than last time. On a sigh, Eleanor lifted her hands from where they had been grasping the bedding, to put them around me and hold me close. Smiling at this acceptance, I began thrusting in earnest, still holding Eleanor’s face so that we watched each other as the feelings built within us. After what seemed all too soon, I felt that tingle in my spine and the tightening in my balls that I knew meant I was close. I took a hand away from Eleanor’s face and inserted it between where our bodies were joined, massaging Eleanor to make sure that she climaxed before I did. I was rewarded for this small effort by the feeling of Eleanor’s inner muscles clenching around my shaft, squeezing it and milking it as Eleanor moaned – no – screamed my name. Shouting her name in pleasure at my release, I moved both hands to the mattress at the side of her hips so that I could get good leverage to arch my spine and push in as deeply as I could as I exploded into Eleanor. It seemed as if my release would go on forever, I felt every spasm as my seed shot into her, and finally I collapsed on her, unable to move, until the trembling in my body stopped and I felt like I could breathe again. Thinking about breathing made me remember Eleanor, underneath me, and I rolled off her, feeling the loss of her body straight away. I waited, holding my breath while I waited for her reaction. When it came, it was not what I expected, or had feared.