That was her vision of happiness in marriage. The kind of love her grandfather and grandmother had shared, and the kind of love her parents still had for each other.
Would Derric build her a bathing chamber in their castle?
She snorted, quite unladylike, at the thought.
Claray entered the chamber a few moments later. “Dyna, will you go find the stalker? He was watching me when we were in the back last eve. He must have climbed a tree behind the curtain wall—I could feel him watching me. Mama sent the guards to check, but he was gone. I know he was there! No one else believes me, but I knew you would, Dyna. You must help. He frightens me.”
“I promise to go looking for him.”
Claray’s eyes brightened. “Here’s your porridge. I’ll get you more if you need it.”
“Nay, this is plenty. I’m going to bathe, and then I’ll go look for your stalker.”
Dyna didn’t expect to find anything, but she’d promised. And she couldn’t leave to look for Grandsire until she talked to someone. Learned what was known.
Could she?
Chapter Sixteen
Alexander Grant stood in the middle of the forest, talking to the person whose assistance he’d sought.
“Are you sure about this?” the other asked.
“Aye. I aim to put an end to this. They stole my grandson, my daughter, and they’ve put my family through hell trying to get to me. DeFry and Busby came to MacLintock land and said Edward’s son will not stop until he has my head.”
“You think giving him what he wants is the answer?”
“I’ve lived a full life. I’ll not have a young life lost over my old one. This must end now. I had to choose carefully, but I’ve known you for many years. I believe you will assist me in this endeavor. I only have one caveat.”
“And what is that?”
“You must tell no one. Will you agree?”
The man who stood in front of him thought carefully, something he should do. He knew what this action would bring down upon him. All the Grants would come for him if they learned the truth.
But Alex trusted this man, trusted him with his life. He would do the right thing.
The man turned to him and clasped his shoulder.
“Aye, I’ll assist you. Whatever it takes. I owe you much.”
Alex Grant smiled and let out the breath he’d been holding.
This would end now.
Chapter Seventeen
Dyna snuck out through the side of the curtain wall, climbing a tree and dropping down to the ground. If she’d gone out the main entrance, she’d have been forced to bring guards along, and they moved as quietly as ten wolfhounds on the great hall. The only chance she had of catching the culprit was to sneak out on her own and catch the bastard unaware.
She’d have no trouble finding a horse since the overflow Grant horses were kept outside the gates. The stable lads watched them, but she was quick enough to get past without being seen.
She did as she promised and searched the area Claray had referred to, and to her surprise, she did find footprints, evidence of one man in the area. Still, the footprint could have been left by anyone, and Claray’s fears were known by everyone in the clan. It likely meant nothing.
Ready to give up, she found a log and mounted her horse—she’d followed a hunch and taken her stallion rather than Misty—which was when a waking premonition stole over her.
Her grandfather stood talking to a man with no face. She tried to lock on to details from their surroundings but she couldn’t. The two men stood in a forest, a castle in the distance, but there were no distinguishing characteristics at all. Who was that man?
They carried on a conversation that she couldn’t comprehend until her grandsire smiled and said his last sentence as clearly as any she’d ever heard. “I’m handing myself over to the English so they’ll stop bothering my clan.”
A chill shot down her back, her body shivering in reaction to his comment. Could it be true? Would he be so foolish? She tried yelling at him, but the vision disappeared as soon as she spoke.
Dyna had meant to return to talk to the guards about the footprints. To see what was being done about Grandsire this morn. To elicit help from others in her clan. But the urgency of the vision caught hold of her and she rode off, away from Grant land, hoping that her guardian angel, or anyone, would lead her to her grandsire.
Flying across the landscape, her plait bouncing on her back, she smiled at the breeze in her face, the scent of the pines pleasing her as always. Was there a better scent in the world? Confident this was a sign of which direction she should go, she allowed herself the small luxury of basking in the beauty of the landscape.
But the feeling didn’t last long. The heaviness of her grandfather’s disappearance weighed on her. It didn’t make sense. Aedan Cameron himself had been with Grandsire. How could he have left soon? He’d been looking forward to spending time with his sister. Their relationship was so close, more like father and daughter than brother and sister, and she knew walking away from Jennie must have been difficult for him. Where had he gone?
Was the vision trying to tell her something else? Was Grandsire already with the English? But if so, wouldn’t they be flaunting their good fortune for all to hear? Hell, they’d be spreading the word that his beheading would be coming soon.
The thought made her quite ill, but it also convinced her that he wasn’t with the English yet. If he were, they would all know it.
So where was the crafty old man?
He’d had a group of Grant guards with him. Had it been five or eight? She couldn’t recall, but if he’d been kidnapped, they’d be lying dead somewhere.
Her father had ridden to Cameron land to get the details, so she needn’t do that. Instead, she rode down the most traveled road between the two places, searching for any signs of the Grant guards, a skirmish, or anything else that could help her find her grandfather. Even at his advanced age, he was still a hell of a swordsman, so if someone had kidnapped or tried to hurt him, they wouldn’t have found it easy.
Hour after hour she traveled, stopping to study the brush or searching for evidence of traveling horses. Most of her time was spent cursing because she was so unsuccessful.
She couldn’t find Claray’s stalker, and she couldn’t find her grandfather. Part of her had hoped she might run into her sire, that he would have good news to share or an idea of where his father had gone, but it hadn’t happened. She’d be sleeping alone this night, something she wished she’d given more thought to when she’d galloped across Grant land with no destination in mind. Although she prided herself on her keen mind, sometimes her impulsivity put her in danger, or so her sire had always said.
She didn’t feel safe at the moment.
Dusk was nearly upon her when she decided to find a cave for shelter. She knew of one not far ahead, so she made her plan to stop there. On the morrow she’d return to Grant land using the unpopular trails, hoping to unearth some clue to the location of her grandsire. And if she and her sire crossed paths along the way, she’d be pleased.
She hadn’t gone far when her horse’s ears perked up, so she slowed to see if anyone was within sight. Up until now, she’d been fortunate enough not to run into any reivers, but the danger was undeniable.
The distant sound of a single horse’s hooves finally caught her ears, so she found a spot off the path and hid her horse to the side to allow the rider to pass. This was exactly the kind of situation her sire would rail at her for, being alone with no guards to protect her.
She’d pay the price later, but she had to find her grandfather. Then they could all yell at her as much as they wished.
What if it was too late? What if Grandsire was lying dead somewhere? What if he’d been robbed and beaten by reivers, and they’d left him to find his way back without a horse? He wasn’t as strong as when he was younger. She fought the desire to panic. Her horse snorted as if to remind her they had more important issues at hand.
They could be facing a brutal attacker.
Holding her breath, she waited for the horse to pass. Quite certain it was only one horse, she readied her bow just in case she needed to attack.
To her complete surprise, the rider was someone she knew. Derric Corbett flew past, but then he stopped, almost as if he’d caught her scent. She brought her horse out into his view and
Derric dismounted immediately, tossing the reins over a bush and running toward her. “What the bloody hell are you doing out here alone, Diamond? I traveled to Grant land to find you, only to discover you’d run off brazenly on your own. Your clan is searching for you everywhere.”
She reacted the only way she could. Jumping from her horse, she ran straight into his arms, and his lips found hers before she could answer. His heat warmed her and she tugged him back into the woods, away from the view of anyone who came along. His lips descended on hers and she moaned, not caring if he heard her. How she needed him right now. She needed him to make everything better.
He angled his mouth over hers, and their tongues dueled in a savage dance she wanted everywhere. Before she knew it, she was tugging at his tunic, yanking it up over his arms and his head, her hands landing on his bare chest as soon as she tossed it aside.
“Just say aye, Diamond. Tell me you want this as much as I do,” he whispered, pulling her tunic over her head, grasping at the binding around her chest and tearing at the rough cloth. When the mounds fell into his hands, she moaned again, his thumbs teasing her nipples to a hardness that she liked even more.
“Aye, please. I need you, Derric. I need us, please.” What had possessed her to say such things? She didn’t need him.
Did she? Before she knew it, she was lying on top of her own leggings, and he was doing things to her that would drive her to madness, she was sure of it. “Derric, please finish this. I need…” His hands caressed her bare bottom and she arched against him until his mouth descended on her nipple, suckling her until she tugged his hair. “More, I need more.”
“You must promise me.”
“Aye, aye, I promise.”
“Diamond,” he said, his hands stopping his caresses and coming up to cup her face. “Dyna, I mean it. Promise me you’ll marry me if you become with child. Promise me. I’ll not have my bairn growing up without a father.”
“Aye. I’ll marry you. Mayhap I’ll even try to fall for you, but not unless you finish this.”
He grinned at that declaration, and she nipped his shoulder. “Diamond, if I’m ever going to fall in love, it’ll be with you and only you.”
He kissed her again, this time tenderly, working her into a feverish pitch that she couldn’t control. She begged him again. “Finish.”
He spread her legs and settled himself between her thighs, his hand reaching for her sex, touching and caressing her until she wanted to scream. She moved against him and spread her legs even wider. It felt so good, so damn good. “Derric…”
She felt like she was on the precipice of the release she wanted, needed, and then he whispered, “I’m sorry.”
He thrust inside of her and searing pain grabbed hold of her. “Derric, stop!”
“Diamond, it will only hurt for a minute or two,” he said, pulling out. “I promise you’ll like it again. I’ll make you beg me again. Trust me.”
A bolt of lightning and a crack of thunder interrupted them. It felt like a sign, and she shoved against him, rolling away, and reached for her leggings, stopping when she saw the blood on her thighs. Derric came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
“Dyna, I’m sorry, but didn’t anyone tell you it would hurt the first time? That you would bleed? It won’t last long.”
“I know it won’t last long because you’re done. Get away from me. You set me up. It hurt terribly.”
“It’s not supposed to hurt that badly. It will go away. Give us a chance. Please.”
Hellfire, but she wouldn’t.
She was never having intimate relations with a man again. Emmalin and Joya were both daft. She hated lovemaking.
***
Alex Grant rode to his destination with the man he’d chosen to assist him. They were about two hours away when the skies opened up. A thick grove of pines was nearby, and they raced under the trees as fast as they could. His partner pointed to a large overhang where they could hide from the storm, an outcropping large enough for three men and their mounts.
The sky turned black, thunder clouds rolling in every direction.
The other man asked, “Have you ever seen clouds like that before? They’re going in opposite directions, something I’ve not witnessed.”
Alex got his horse under the stone protection and dismounted, patting Midnight down to console him. Although he was stalwart and footsure in battle, the beast had always reacted badly to thunderstorms, the quaking of the ground too much for him. He whispered sweet words to the animal and pulled out an apple from his saddlebag. The horse took it quickly and munched away, the treat calming him for a wee bit.
Alex set his hands on his hips, staring up at the thunderstorm raging around them. “I have seen one storm like this, and it was not from anything good. It meant evil was trying to steal a sapphire sword belonging to the fae.”
“When did it happen?” the other man asked.
“Avelina Ramsay had control of the sword. She fought with a daft man over it. Her brother told me the storm started because she held the sword overhead. She was driving a man with ill intent away from her. I’ve never seen another sight like it. Howbeit…” He couldn’t help but think of his granddaughter, Dyna. Blessed with the talents of a seer and the odd ability to pull power into her cousins’ swords by holding her bow over her head, he began to see a similarity between her talents and those of Avelina Ramsay. Was there more to the spectral swords than he realized? And what part was Dyna playing in this unnatural storm?
He wondered where she was and who was with her. Then another thought thrust itself into his mind. The sapphire sword. His sister Brenna had said something about a challenge arising every fifty years. Their mother had told Brenna and Jennie about it, about how a fae queen would choose a mortal being when necessary to help save the Scots, but only when all else had failed.
He pushed his memory back to it, trying to remember all he’d learned, how Brenna had told him that Gregor had been near death, but that Avelina had held him and breathed life back into him.
The fae had given her special powers along with the sword. Avelina had fought against evil and won, and the fae queen had told her to hide the sword, that she would return when it was needed again. That was it. The fae queen had said there would be peace for a time, but eventually they would need to fight evil in Scotland again.
Was the time nigh?
“I wonder. Has it been fifty years?” He said it loud enough to be heard, though he hadn’t meant to because anyone who heard him was bound to think him daft.
Then he shook his head, chastising himself for seeing things that weren’t there. Besides, it couldn’t have been more than forty years.
“What is it?” his companion asked.
“Naught,” Alex replied. “Musings of an old man, one who wishes to believe his wife comes to him in his dreams and his grandchildren have special talents.”
“Like an orphan dreams of being adopted someday?”
Alex glanced at him and grinned. “Something like that.”
The two men watched the wild gusting of the wind, the sheeting rain drenching the landscape, the thunder coming so quickly it was impossible to anticipate the claps.
Alex whispered to himself, “Never seen another like it until now.”
The other man stared at him.
“And I don’t like it.”
Chapter Eighteen
Derric cupped his hands together to catch enough rain to give Dyna water to wash the blood from her thighs. “Diamond, I’m sorry. I thought ’twas what you wanted. I’ll marry you as soon as we find a priest.
We’ll suit each other. You’ll see. You’re a passionate woman, you just had to get past the first time. It’ll be enjoyable the next time.”
Dyna cleaned the blood with the water and leaves and cursed under her breath. “There won’t be a next time.”
Thunder was roaring over their heads now, so he helped her dress and then tugged her to their horses, glad to see her horse had stayed near his stallion. He tossed her up onto hers and mounted his own, intending to lead her back to a spot he’d passed. It had looked like a cave.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she shouted over the thunder. “I’m going to that cave ahead and you need not join me.”
“Aye, I saw that cave and ’tis large enough for both of us. We’re going together. I’ll not have you sitting around getting drenched. The fever was bad enough last time.”
She didn’t argue, something he didn’t like, but he cared more about seeing her to safety at the moment. So he led her horse back to the cave, left the animals under the shelter of some hardy trees, and lifted her down and carried her inside. He didn’t wish to let her go so he sat on a rock and settled her on his lap.
Neither said anything for a few minutes, just leaning against each other. Then Dyna mumbled, “That wasn’t so great. I thought it was supposed to be wonderful.” She settled her head against his shoulder.
“It will be next time, Diamond.” He rubbed her back lightly. Hellfire but he’d done everything wrong. He should have known to handle things differently.
Because Dyna was so gloriously different from most lasses.
“There’ll be no next time.” The set in her jawline told him she wasn’t making a jest. She meant what she said, even though he felt certain she’d change her mind.
“Hmmm. You’re too passionate to stay celibate forever. You’ll want to finish.”
The Scot's Quest (Highland Swords Book 4) Page 12
