“I can’t wait for this feud to end.”
“All I ask is that you give me some time.” He tipped her onto her back, prepared to do all he must to ensure she understood. “Ardnamurchan is the enemy’s territory. I’ll never allow you to pass into their land alone. The danger is too great.”
She shoved against his shoulders, rolled him onto his back and straddled his legs. “For starters, I can see I’ll need to be more forceful with you.”
His cock throbbed at her words. Aye, though he would be forceful first. From his tartan, he tore a strip off, clasped his right hand with her right, and wrapped his plaid around their hands. Bound together, he would ensure she was a Cunningham no more. This was right.
“What are you doing?” She wriggled her fingers. “You can’t be this worried I’m going to get away?”
“’Tis a handfast. The vows we speak now will bind us together as man and wife for a year and a day, and as soon as Brother John returns from Tobermory, we’ll be wed proper. I need to know you’re mine, in every single way.”
“You want to get hitched? Like right now? While we’re in the middle of an argument? Did you see us doing this in your vision?”
“Nay, I never saw this, only your mole. Now, let’s begin.” He cleared his throat. “I, Calum William MacLean, of Mull, pledge my troth to Lila Cunningham. With this handfast, I take her as my wife for the next year and a day.” He tightened his grip on her hand. “Speak your vow, love.”
“I can’t believe—”
“I’ll accept naught less.” He spread her folds below then slid his cock deep into the heart of her welcoming channel.
“Oooh, we’re going to have to talk about your need to take control.” Panting, she moved up and down.
“If you wish, you may take some control now, but when it comes to your safety, my decision stands firm.” Grinning, he rocked his hips. “I look forward to the consummation.”
“You’re already covering that quite nicely, and regardless of your clear attempt at coercion, I can handle you, no matter you’re a sixteenth century man.” She moved faster. “I, Lila, of Australia, pledge my troth to Calum William MacLean. With this handfast, I take him as my husband for the next year and a day.” Her eyes smoldered, making his blood pound all the harder. “What do you wish for next?”
“We seal the vows with a kiss.”
“Oh, you are wicked.” She leaned over and kissed him, so possessively his cock throbbed on the verge of release.
Wicked? She was the wicked one.
He rolled her onto her back, reclaimed her lips and plundered. Filling her in every way, he made her his wife.
“I love you, Lila, my charm.” He moved, thrusting as deep as she could take him. “You’ve returned to me, and I willnae have you leave again.”
“I see images.” She gripped his butt and pushed her hips upward. “Oh, you’re about to make me fly.”
The same vision surged to the forefront of his mind. Lila, her legs wrapped around him, their right hands joined by his MacLean plaid and the two of them lost in their love. Buried deep within her, and his heartbeat thumping against hers, he didn’t hold back. With one decisive flick of his finger over her clit, he made her come, so staggeringly fast.
She cried his name. “I love you, Calum. I always will. Time can never keep us apart.”
“Aye, we remain together, forever.” He looked deep into her eyes then bellowed as he sank balls-deep inside her. He coated her womb with his seed, pulse after pulse until she’d milked him dry.
“Forceful. It seems I really like forceful.” Her eyelids fluttered shut and she sighed with a wide smile.
Aye, his charm possessed him, heart, body and soul.
With not an ounce of strength left, he collapsed and allowed sleep to claim him.
Chapter 6
Waking to Calum’s warm breath tickling her ear was the sweetest, as was the heavy weight of his arm across her waist. Sunshine streamed through the opening of their cave and heated Lila’s skin. She stretched. “Ouch.”
“Where do you hurt?” He tipped her toward him.
“I’m all right. I don’t usually sleep on the hard ground, nor do I usually work every muscle in my body until I pass out.” Oh, but it had all been totally worth it.
“I’ll look you over.” His golden eyes heated and said far more.
“I know exactly where your kind of looking will likely lead.” She cupped his stubbly jaw and kissed him, one very delicious and rewarding morning kiss. “That’s all you’re getting for now.”
“Aye, we must return afore Colin or my men track me down.” He lifted her onto his lap then with his arms around her, worked at loosening the strip of plaid still binding them. Once freed, he rose to his feet and set her on hers. “Dress quickly.”
From the sack Calum had brought her, she unfolded a sky blue gown and eased it over her head. The velvet skimmed her hips and fell in a swish to her ankles. She laced the stays to the top of the low ruffled neckline then tied a bow and slid on a pair of thick-soled slippers. Next to her, Calum dressed in a clean shirt and leather pants before strapping his sword belt over his hips.
She had to continue on to Ardnamurchan, whether he liked it or not. “Calum, we need to talk.”
“Speak as you will.” He traced along the top swell of her breasts then leaned in and kissed her, so sweetly.
“We want to head in opposite directions.” Oh, she wanted him to trail his finger lower, but instead of allowing it, she stepped away to the cave’s opening. Twenty feet below, the waves washed in and pounded the sheer cliff side.
“I know, love, but for now you must remain with me.” He draped his spare plaid over her shoulders then pinned it in place. From his supplies, he passed her a skin of water and an oatcake. “This will have to suffice until we make the village.”
Across the choppy waters of the sound, Ardnamurchan’s green hills rose into the distance. She nibbled on her oatcake. Nanna was so close, and she couldn’t turn back now.
“What are you thinking?” He scraped dirt across the charred remains of their fire.
“I’m considering how I’m going to make you hear me out.” She removed her charm from her wetsuit and gripped it. Honesty was all she had left, and they’d spoken their vows. He was her husband.
“If you wish to talk, then do so.” He swung their bags over his shoulder. “Though while we ride.”
“I’m not returning to Duart, not when I have to find Nanna first.”
“She can wait, as this war will no’.” He strode to opening. “We ride. Now.”
“Calum, I’m not who you think I am. I mean, I am, but I’m not a Cunningham.”
“Nay, you’re a MacLean now. I ensured it last eve.”
“Yes, and I would claim your name with pride, but my grandmother’s name is actually Jean MacIan, as was my father’s.” She’d done it now. Put it all out there. No more secrets.
“You’re a—nay.” He fisted his hands and shook his head. “Dinnae speak a mistruth to me. You’re my wife. I willnae abide lies between us.”
“I would never lie about something so important. In the future, the Campbell Earls of Argyll take possession of Mingary Castle and my MacIan clan scatter. Many sailed for the other side of the world after hearing there would be free land. They wished for a fresh start and took it. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth in the beginning, but I couldn’t. You hate all things MacIan.”
“I detest lies more.” He paced the cave’s opening as he stared toward Mingary. A tic beat rapidly in his jaw.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t have a choice.”
“We all have choices and you’ve deceived me. I would never wed one of the enemy.” A haunted looked clouded his eyes. “You should never have withheld this from me afore we spoke our vows.”
“At the time I was a little distracted. I didn’t know you were going to do that.”
“Damn it.” He thumped his chest. “What game does John MacIan play to se
nd one of his own women into the enemy’s camp? Can he no’ fight with honor on the battlefield?”
“My being here has nothing to do with John MacIan. I wished to find Nanna, not get embroiled in a feud.” She needed to touch him, to soothe the hurt she’d inflicted, but instead she kept her place. “If you wish to renounce your vow, then do it. I’d never hold you to any of the promises you made to me.”
“Unlike MacIan, I hold honor, and my word remains firm.” His gaze hardened. “’Tis a shame though your trust didnae come sooner.” He stormed along the ledge, jumped onto the beach and snagged his black stallion’s reins.
The brisk Highland wind rushed at her, flicking her hair across her face. Below, the turbulent waters surged and she pulled Calum’s plaid tighter. In his eyes, she was a MacIan, and now the woman who’d deceived him.
“Calum,” she yelled across the distance separating them. “I love you, but honor goes both ways. Don’t let yours stand in the way of what you truly desire.”
“You know what I truly desire, to ensure Duart does no’ fall to a MacIan.” He cinched the saddle.
Yes, she did and not for him not to have wed a MacIan. Clutching her charm to her chest, she wished with all her heart as she had that first time at Mingary. “I wish to find Nanna, safe and well. I wish to find—” The ground shook.
“Lila!” Calum shot her a look.
A massive wave rolled in and drenched her. She slipped, made a grab for the cliff but only managed air. She plummeted toward the sea. “Calum!”
Contact with the frigid water stole her breath. She kicked but her skirts dragged her down. The crashing waves tossed her about. So deep.
The plaid tore at her neck. She wrenched the pin free and the tartan jerked away in the murky waters.
What had she been thinking to stand so close to the edge? Her back slammed into the cliff and knocked the breath from her. Black hazed her vision. No. She shoved away and clawed toward the surface. She wouldn’t let the sea take her, not when she was this close to Mingary. All she had to do was cross the damn sound. A mile, maybe two.
The twisting current made her lose her direction. She had to get—
A slick-skinned dolphin butted her arm, and relief burst through her. Yes. She grabbed its fin and held on tight. With one flap of its tail, it shot off, whizzing her toward the blue skies above.
Clean air washed over her face. Calum. She twisted around but the cliffs and bay were gone. Nothing appeared as it should.
The dolphin let out a squeal and she clung to it as her heavy skirts streamed behind her. The beautiful creature rounded the tip then circled one very familiar looking boulder. Her charm heated in her fist. Goodness, her wish had brought her back to Mingary. Or was it the dolphin?
The dolphin dived and she let go. She shoved her coin into her pocket then kicked for the rocky beach a hundred feet away. The cresting waves rolled her into shore.
At knee depth, she heaved her hem to her knees and traipsed out.
Mingary stood tall and strong, the castle’s gray stones now a stunning pinkish-white, as it had been centuries before. Wooden outbuildings were scattered around the outer courtyard, and a horse and rider galloped along the moors toward the stables. A lad ran out of the corral to take the reins as the warrior leaped to the ground. The home of her clan, the most wondrous sight.
A call rang out from a guardsman atop the battlements. An answering shout boomed from two warriors standing on the sea-gate’s stone landing. Her heartbeat pounded as one of the men withdrew his claymore from the sheath across his back.
Her arrival was unexpected, but hopefully not unwanted. She pushed her bedraggled hair over her shoulders and straightened as the armed warrior stormed toward her.
Wearing thickly furred boots and a shaggy vest over his tunic, he slapped the flat of his blade against his palm. “Who are you, and how did you sneak past the sentry guard?”
“I—I didn’t see a guard. I lost my footing on the rocks around the tip and slipped into the loch. My name’s Lila. I’m looking for my grandmother, Jean MacIan. She has the same silver eyes as me and I was told she’d come to Mingary.”
He gripped her chin, tipped her head back. “Aye, you’ve the same eyes as our laird’s mother, and speak as strangely too, like a Lowlander. Mistress MacIan arrived a few weeks past.”
“Please, can you take me to her?” Nanna wasn’t the laird’s mother.
“Aye, come and warm yourself inside. I’m Ian, the laird’s captain.” He holstered his weapon, clasped her elbow and marched her across the beach and up the grassy incline.
Puffing, she barely kept up with her wet skirts slapping her legs.
A rock-cut ditch, close to twenty-five feet wide, curved around the castle and butted into the forty foot sheer rock wall Mingary was built on. A thick wooden drawbridge spanned the divide on the landward side. They passed under a raised portcullis, and ahead, Mingary’s impregnable castle walls rose.
Through the darkened doorway, Ian steered her. “Where exactly do you hail from, lass?”
“Sydney. I lived with my grandmother there until recently.” Best to keep as close to the truth as possible. Hopefully Nanna hadn’t gone too far off base, even though she’d apparently claimed she was the laird’s mother.
“Mistress Jean spoke of a village named Sydney when she first arrived.”
“Really?” She stumbled on a jutting floor stone but quickly righted herself. A stream of light from the inner courtyard flared into the gloomy passageway and struck the corner stones. An image flittered through her mind, one of a woman standing near an ivy-covered well. The same vision from when she’d first arrived here with Zayn and wandered through the ruins. Only now the woman’s face was clear. Nanna.
Clutching her soggy skirts, she raced into the courtyard. The muddy rubble littering the ground was gone and moss no longer grew in clumps along the crumbling sections of wall. Nanna stood there, her black hair wisped with gray, pinned high atop her head. Gone were the casual slacks and floral blouses she’d always adored, and instead she wore an elegant olive gown with long sleeves hemmed in layers of lace. “Is it truly you?”
“Yes, my dear. We’re finally together again.” Nanna opened her arms.
She bounded into them, held her tight. “I’ve missed you, so much.”
“And I’ve been waiting forever for you to arrive.”
“You’re here. You’re really here.” She squeezed her and tears streamed down and mingled on their mashed cheeks.
“Look at you. You’re a wet mess.”
“I took an unexpected dip.”
“I’m not surprised, and that sounds like a story I need to hear.” Nanna glanced at Ian as he watched them from the entrance. She lowered her voice, whispering in her ear, “I haven’t spoken of what’s happened to us, not with John still away.”
“Ian just told me you’re the laird’s mother?”
“Yes, I have far too much to explain, but not with an audience. Once we’re alone. I promise you’ll hear it all.” Nanna steered her toward the winding stairs, then slowed as a maid walked toward them. “Meg, please prepare a bath for my granddaughter, and be as quick as you can. She’s to have the chamber next to mine.”
“Yes, my lady.” The girl dashed upstairs.
Scrubbing his thickly bearded jaw, Ian stepped in front of them and barred their way. “With the laird away, I’m responsible for this clan.”
“Of course you are.” Nanna wrapped an arm around Lila’s waist. “Thank you for bringing my granddaughter to me.”
“You’ve never spoken of her. Isnae John your only son?”
“Yes, though he’s unaware Lila lives and I wasn’t certain she’d find her way here. As I told you when I arrived, I shall speak to John when he returns from the king’s business in Edinburgh. It’s only right he be the first to hear my news.”
Gosh, Nanna was talking as if she really was John MacIan’s mother. That surely wasn’t possible.
Nanna tighte
ned her hold on her. “It’ll be all right. Not long now.” To Ian, she said, “Let us pass.”
“Aye, you may go.” He stepped aside. “We shall speak on the morrow.”
Nanna guided her upstairs and along the dimly lit passageway. Ahead, two lanky lads with their shirttails fluttering loose over their breeches heaved a tub through a doorway. Nanna pressed one finger against her lips in a quiet plea to wait.
She could be patient.
They entered the chamber and the lads shuffled out. Across the room, Meg knelt at the hearth, coaxing the sparks of a welcoming fire into life. She added a log and it crackled and caught alight.
Rising, she dusted her hands against her aproned sides. “Is there aught more you need, my lady?”
Nanna smiled at her. “Yes. Could you fetch some gowns from my ambry? My granddaughter arrived without her trunks.”
Meg bobbed her head and quietly closed the door behind her.
Nanna hauled her into her arms. “Finally we can talk. Tell me everything that’s happened.”
“I think you have some serious explaining to do first. The Laird of Mingary surely can’t be your son.”
“Yes, he is. I’m sorry, Lila, but I had my reasons for never speaking of who your true parents were. Time travel is in a realm all unto itself, and you were just a baby when we were first pulled through a portal into the future. I feared speaking of what had occurred because a woman would be called a witch and burnt at the stake for such talk. I had to protect us both, at all costs.”
Holy moly, Nanna really was the laird’s mother. A hundred questions tumbled through her mind. Swaying, she gripped the wall. “Tell me everything.”
“Honey, you were born in this time, to John’s first wife who passed away in childbirth. Marybelle had a difficult pregnancy and I’ve always told you the truth about that. Just not what year that actually happened.”
“Or exactly where.” Her legs wobbled and Nanna hauled out a chair from the side table and eased her into it. She grasped Nanna’s hand, needing to keep her close as conflicting emotions tumbled inside her. Had she been in Nanna’s position, she’d want to protect any child in her care too, but would she have made the same decision and withheld that information for twenty-one years? Nanna certainly must have been scared. She’d traveled through time, and with a premature baby. That couldn’t have been easy. Sydney too was a bustling city, and nothing like Nanna would’ve ever experienced here. She must have been terrified, so lost and unsure. “I’m so sorry you had to go through all of that alone. If only you’d told me.”
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