Highland Grace

by K. E. Saxon

  Tho’ the snow was a bit deep, she should be able to cross the landscape, if she was careful. The thought of staying in her chamber all day made her skin crawl. She simply could not be cooped up in this tiny room for hours on end without losing her mind. And, if she were cunning enough, she might just enjoy a tryst with a strong young warrior to help her while away the day.

  Her plan firmly set, she rushed to the chest that held her fur-lined gown and cloak and quickly changed into them. With any luck at all, she’d be riding a young buck within the hour.

  * * *

  A knock came on the door just as the first bell of matins rang out and Bao jerked awake. After a quick glance at Jesslyn to see that she still slumbered, he rose and opened it with care. “Callum,” he whispered, “What need you?”

  “Have you seen my wife? She’s not in our chamber, but no one knows where she went,” Callum replied in like tones.

  Bao shook his head. “Nay, I’ve not seen her. She wasn’t in the great hall?”

  “Nay. Nor the solar, nor the kitchens, nor any other corner of the keep.” He looked down the darkened passage toward the stairs. “Where could she have gone?”

  “Did you check the stables? Mayhap she went for a ride,” Bao said.

  Callum’s eyes widened. “I pray not. ‘Tis barely light out and there is much snow on the ground.” He whipped around, saying, “I must find her. She may be endangering our babe,” and rushed toward the stair.

  “Wait! I’ll go with you,” Bao said loud enough for Callum to hear.

  His cousin halted and gave him a nod.

  “We should first go to the stables. If her mare is missing, then we’ll know she’s gone for a ride,” Bao said.

  “Aye. But we must make haste.”

  “I’ll be dressed and ready before the taper burns half of a quarter down,” Bao replied.

  * * *

  Bao and Callum moved carefully between the deep snowdrifts that covered the uneven land. The gatekeeper had told them that Callum’s wife had left on horseback near an hour and a half past, alone, and that she’d headed toward the glen that bordered the loch. But when he and Callum had searched the glen, they’d found tracks made by two sets of horses’ hooves. Bao looked at his cousin’s tensed jaw and wondered with whom Callum would find his wife this time. ‘Twas likely a man, for she seemed more than determined to cuckold her husband.

  They were not far from the ruin where Maryn’s attacker had taken her the day he’d tried to murder her. A niggling suspicion entered his head and he turned his horse in the direction of the ruin.

  “Where go you?” his cousin called out, turning his horse to follow.

  “Remember you the old roman ruin?” Bao said over his shoulder. “She might be there.”

  “To the ruin, then.”

  * * *

  Lara lay on top of her fur-lined mantle, on her back in the remnants of an ancient stone building where her newfound lover had brought her earlier. The three walls that weren’t tumbled into rubble gave them enough privacy, but the floor was snow-covered earth and there was no roof to the place. Her eyes stared up at the cloudless sky as the young warrior pushed himself inside of her, rocking against her as he panted and moaned.

  Naught. She felt naught. Would he never finish? She was ready to ride back to the keep, thoroughly disgusted with the outcome of this tryst.

  She’d picked him because of his bulk. After the thrill she’d received with Bao’s manhood, she’d always striven to find others of comparable size. And she had found one today—but ‘twas not the same. Oh, she’d trembled at that first sensation of pain when he’d taken her the first time, but it hadn’t been enough to give her the intense pleasure she craved. So she’d made him take her twice more, but it wasn’t working. And now, the initial excitement had completely palled, leaving only a vague feeling of revulsion in its wake. How ugly men were when they rutted. But she had encouraged him this last time to be rough with her, and he was taking great pleasure in that, it seemed. And, with any luck, it might cause her to lose this whelp of her stepbrother’s making that she had no desire to carry any longer. That possibility was worth her current disappointment. “Are you almost done? I’ve grown weary of your fucking.”

  “Bitch! You know you like this,” he rasped, grinding even more deeply into her as punishment.

  Lara winced and then laughed bitterly. “Nay, I do not. Make haste, I need to get back to the keep.”

  “So you like it fast, do you?” he said, and then he slammed against her mons in rapid, harsh strokes, thrusting deep, until, finally, his movements became jerky and, on a long groan, he erupted inside of her again. His breath coming hard now, he rolled to his side, his arm flung over his eyes and said naught further.

  Lara rose and straightened her skirts. When a shadow fell over her, she looked toward the door. “He raped me, Callum! Kill him!” she cried, flinging herself into her husband’s embrace.

  “You lying cunt! You begged me for it!” the young warrior shouted as he shoved his manhood back into his braies and struggled to rise to his feet.

  Her husband thrust her behind him and Bao took hold of her upper arm, then dragged her away from the scene, forcing her to stand with him near the place their horses were tethered.

  * * *

  A battle cry erupted from Callum’s lips as he rushed the other man, pushing him against the back wall with a “whoof” and a sharp right hook to the jaw. He pummeled into the man’s abdomen with his fist and pressed his forearm into the man’s neck, nearly strangling him with it. “Whoreson! You’ll die this day by my bare hands!”

  The other warrior struggled to break free, first pounding his fists into Callum’s side and then shoving his hand over Callum’s face to push his head back. “I did not rape her! I swear it!” he said, his voice choked, compressed.

  Callum looked into the reddened face and arrogant gray eyes of his opponent and lowered his fist. He kept his arm against the warrior’s neck, however. He forced breath into his lungs as he settled his hand over the pommel of his sword. “Tell me why I shouldn’t cut that thing off that dangles ‘tween your thighs, Robert MacVie.”

  “Because I didn’t do the like to you when you took the same pleasure of my sister eight years past,” the man croaked as he tried to pull free of Callum’s hold. “And, God knows, I wanted to kill you then. But I dared not touch the prized grandson of the chieftain of clan Maclean, else my neck be noosed.”

  Callum stepped back a pace and dropped his arm. “Your sister shared her favors with others before me, and well you know it. Besides, what man says nay to a gift freely offered?”

  MacVie rubbed his throat and coughed. “‘Tis my defense as well, old friend,” he rasped. He gave Callum an angry glare. “And ‘twas of further enticement that I had the chance to avenge my sister’s disgrace.”

  Callum growled low in his throat. “She was not disgraced. At least not by me. And, is she not now wed to the man she strove to make jealous with her antics? She is lady of a great estate, just as your family wanted for her. I know of no lasting disgrace on her for her youthful indiscretions.” Callum curled his hands into fists at his sides. “But this...this I can’t abide. You’ve lain with my wife. While she carries a babe in her belly.”

  MacVie’s nostrils flared. “Mayhap you should keep closer watch on that cold-as-stone whore of a wife of yours then, because she came to the soldiers’ quarters looking for a lover; I did not seek her out.” He flung his arm in the direction of the keep. “I’ve nearly the whole of the lodge as witness to my claim, should you only inquire there.”

  Callum’s shoulders sagged. He hadn’t believed his wife’s tale of innocence the night before, but with this new evidence of her treachery, his hope that there was still some way to make the marriage work for both of them was destroyed. “Nay, no need. I believe you.” He turned away and closed his eyes tight against the humiliation and anger that seethed within him. “Get you out of here before I change my mind and cut you,
as you deserve,” Callum said hoarsely.

  MacVie moved around Callum and walked outside.

  * * *

  Bao strode over to the young warrior as he approached his mount. “You are on night watch for the next two moons. Starting now. Go soldier.”

  Bao noted MacVie’s clenched jaw and knew he was struggling to hold back a retort to his lieutenant. With a sharp nod, the man mounted his horse and turned it in the direction of the fortress, kicking it into a canter in his hurry to be away.

  * * *

  When Callum was at last alone in the ruin, he turned and gave the chamber a quick inspection. His eye snagged on a crumpled scroll where his wife’s mantle had been. His brows slammed together. What is this then? Some further proof of betrayal on his wife’s part, no doubt.

  He moved toward it and picked it up. After unfurling it, he scanned the words and his heart dipped into his belly before lodging like a clod of mud in his throat. Branwenn? A slave?

  And he recognized both signers of the document. He bit back a growl and flung himself out the door, pounding in the direction of his wife and Bao.

  “I believe this is the deed you demanded from my wife last eve.” Callum thrust the scroll in Bao’s hand.

  Lara rushed him, making a grab for the document. “Nay! ‘Tis mine!”

  Callum turned a stony glare on her. “Stand back. I’ll speak to you later in privy.” He took hold of Bao’s arm and cocked his head in the direction of the loch, in a petition for them to move a distance away from his wife’s prying ears.

  His cousin nodded and once they were several paces away, he opened the deed and looked at it. “My thanks. I am in your debt for a lifetime for this.”

  “Nay, you are not. My wife bribed you with the promise of this document?”

  “Aye.”

  “I’ve met the stepbrother. He held this from you?”

  Bao nodded. “For years, he only held it because I continued to pay his price, but last year he got a glimpse of Branwenn, and now he will not rest until he has her. No amount of coin will appease him.”

  Callum ground his teeth and looked in his wife’s direction. She stood with her hand resting on her palfrey’s neck looking back at them. “I tried to get the truth from Lara last night, but she refused to say more than the lie she told when I came upon the two of you. I finally left our chamber, as I was too angry to deal with her any longer. I’d hoped to speak to you this morn, after tempers had cooled, but when I discovered her missing…,” he sighed, “well, it turned out a boon for you in the end.”

  His cousin gripped his shoulder. “Mayhap all will be well between you once she has her babe. It may soften her.”

  Callum shrugged. “I’m going to take her from here, take her back to our holding, before she can cause more mischief.”

  “Aye, that is a wise course.”

  “I shall confine her to a portion of our keep, for at least the remainder of her childing. She is a danger to our babe, a danger to others, and, ultimately, a danger to herself.”

  His cousin only nodded. Callum studied him a moment. “Last eve Lara said that you were selling yourself at the king’s palace. I didn’t believe her, but now…with this…. Is it true?”

  Bao didn’t look at him. He kept his gaze on something in the distance. “Aye.”

  Callum stared, wide-eyed at his profile. His throat constricted. “Was Branwenn in the trade as well, then?”

  Bao’s spine straightened and he did look at him then. His eyes were ablaze. “Nay! She is an innocent and knows naught of that other life I led.”

  Callum’s lungs opened and he was able to take a breath. “Were you that desperate for coin?”

  “Not in the way you think.” Bao sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “I made enough as a contracted soldier to support us but I was determined to make my fortune so that I could pay Giric’s price for not taking Branwenn, but also so that no man could ever again call me slave. I desired a worthy match for my sister as well, and that could not be if I had no dowry for her.”

  “Does anyone else in the family know of your other profession?”

  “Only Jesslyn.” Bao looked at the scroll in his hand. “This means more to me than anything else I own.”

  “Does Branwenn know about it?”

  “Nay. And I don’t intend to tell her.” Bao’s eyes drilled into Callum’s and Callum understood. “Aye, I’ll not say a word.”

  “Good.”

  “Keep it safe—or better yet, burn it.” Callum jogged over to his steed and took the flint and striker from his satchel. When he was back at his cousin’s side, he handed them to him. “Let us see an end to this now.” From the corner of his eye, he saw his wife turn with her horse’s lead and walk away. “Stay where you are!” he yelled at her. When she halted and turned a virulent glare on him, he smiled. “I’m having much the same thoughts about you, dear.”

  His cousin made quick work of setting the scroll aflame and as they watched its edges turn brown, then black with cinder, smelled the smoky flesh-smell of burning vellum, Lara screeched her discontent behind them.

  After they’d stomped out the last remaining ember and Callum had helped his wife to mount, the three turned back toward the keep.

  * * *

  Bao’s insides churned, in spite of the rekindled hope for his future with Jesslyn now that the deed was destroyed. Should he tell her about it? About Lara’s bargain? About the fact that he’d agreed to it, and would have gone through with it? She’d made love to him last night, freely and passionately, and he knew that had been a huge step for her to make, proof of her restored trust in him. To tell her now that he’d nearly broken their vows—destroyed their marriage again—might be the last death knell for them. Especially with the other indiscretion that hung, like so much dried offal, between them, tho’ they’d both managed to ignore it and move forward without speaking of it.

  He looked at Lara from the corner of his eye. But Callum was determined to get his wife gone from here quickly. And no doubt he’d keep her under lock and key until their departure in the morn. Mayhap, ‘twas not so necessary to tell Jesslyn just now. Later, mayhap even sometime after their babe was born, he would tell her.

  Aye. That seemed a good plan.

  * * *

  Lara fumed as she plodded along beside her husband. The two men were utterly silent. They hadn’t said more than a handful of words since they left the ruin. Her husband was angry and she couldn’t help dreading what he planned for her, but she refused to mewl and beg for his forgiveness. Let him do as he would with her, she thought with false bravery, for ‘twould only make her that much more cunning in her devices.

  She turned her gaze to Bao. She hadn’t finished with him—or Jesslyn—yet. But how to lay waste to them before she departed this place? She’d seen how he’d treated the young warrior and the reverence the man had given him. Mayhap, the best way to ruin him would be to let his warriors learn of his shameful past. They’d not be so eager to obey him then, she was sure.

  “We leave at first light on the morrow, wife,” Callum told her curtly, finally breaking the silence.

  Lara nodded once, but kept her gaze focused straight ahead, not yet daring to meet his eyes.

  “I shall see that provisions are prepared for your journey, cousin,” she heard Bao tell her husband. “Do you require anything else?”

  “Aye. I wish for my mother to stay on here a sennight more, as originally planned. I would rather my mother not have any part in the preparations I intend upon our arrival home.”

  “’Twill be done. We’ll send her home with an escort of Maclean warriors when her visit is done.”

  “My thanks,” Callum replied.

  * * *

  Bao stepped into his bedchamber an hour later to find his wife up and dressed.

  “Where were you?” she asked as she walked toward him.

  He’d tell her. Later. For now, he just wanted to be with her, knowing that he would not have to leave he
r, knowing that he would not have to take his sister to a nunnery. “I was with Callum. He needed me to help him with something.”

  “Mmm.”

  “Are you ready to break your fast?”

  She smiled. “Aye.”

  * * *

  Jesslyn and Bao had barely finished their meal when they heard Daniel shout, “‘Tis time! Grandmother! Jesslyn! Aunt Maggie! ‘Tis time!” as he pounded down the stairs from the upper floor.

  Leaping to their feet, they rushed across the great hall, through the arched doorway, and into the antechamber leading to the stairs and the door of the keep.

  Bao strode over to Daniel and took him by the arm. “What are you raving about, brother? What mean you, ‘’Tis time’?”

  Daniel ran his hand through his hair. “Maryn. The babe. Her water broke. ‘Tis time,” he answered.

  “That’s wonderful! Oh! But, I need to prepare the linens!” Jesslyn said. Turning to Bao, she said urgently, “Have a servant bring up several buckets of water; we’ll need to heat it on the hearth. And make sure they bring more peat and kindling as well.” She darted up the stairs then with n’er a backward glance.

  Bao turned back to Daniel. “I must deal with the water and peat; you need to find our grandmother. Try the kitchen garden.”

  Daniel nodded and headed through the door of the great hall, evidently intending to take the back way to the kitchen.

  * * *

  Jesslyn flew through the open doorway of the laird’s bedchamber and came to a halt. Maryn was busily poking at the embers in the hearth, humming a merry tune and acting as if naught of import was about to take place. An image of her friend standing at the window upstairs in the solar the day she discovered her childing state, fussing and gnawing at her nails over the fact that she had no idea how to be a mother, flashed through Jesslyn’s mind just then. Was this an act or was she truly this calm? Jesslyn decided she’d best tread lightly until she was sure of Maryn’s state of mind. “Would you like some help with that?” she asked, coming up beside her friend.

  Maryn glanced up from her task, a look of surprise on her countenance. “I didn’t hear you come in,” she said, and then turned her gaze once again to the hearthfire. Shaking her head, she answered, “Nay, ‘tis almost done.” She tipped her head to the side and gave it a quick toss, indicating a stool nearby. “Have a seat. Would you like a bit of wine? Daniel was so kind to bring me a flagon-full earlier.”