Highlander’s Sinister Bet: Scottish Medieval Highlander Romance

by Fiona Faris

  What words would he have said to her? she wondered even though it was painful to think of it.

  After applying the herbs and mixing its feed, she took the horse out for a walk and its response was encouraging. She knew the horse would not need special care from her again to attain full recovery. Her work there was done. She walked the horse back to the stables before she headed back home.

  Lorraine was glad that her mother was not home when she returned. Neither was Maxwell anywhere to be found. She hurried into her bedroom and locked the door behind herself. She ran to her bed and crumbled onto it. Behind her, she heard a cough.

  Shocked, she looked back to see Maxwell. He had been waiting in her room knowing that she would return and attempt to lock herself in again. Both siblings stared at one another for a moment before Maxwell broke the silence. Lorraine looked at him because she hoped the malicious look on her face would scare him away, while Maxwell looked at her because he wanted to tell if she had been crying. She had been.

  “Who made ye cry?” he asked her as he came to the bed and sat next to her. Lorraine was hesitant to talk but she knew her heart could only take so much. She sat up in her bed and rested her head on her brother’s shoulder.

  “I did what ye said. I went to the castle,” she told him.

  “I did nae ken. Why did ye nae come lookin’ for me?”

  “I saw Daividh,” she continued, as though he had not asked her a question.

  “What happened? Did he apologize to ye?” Maxwell turned so he could face her.

  His eyes wore curiosity. He knew that Daividh had wanted to leave the castle to see his sister for a long time and had always played with the different ideas of what would have transpired between the two of them when they did meet again.

  “I ken he would have apologized. He has been talkin’ about ye all-”

  “I saw him with another woman,” Lorraine cut in. She did not want to hear her brother defend Daividh again as though he was a decent and loving man. He was not to her.

  “Ye saw him with another woman,” Maxwell repeated with a look of confusion on his face. He did not understand what the big deal was about seeing him with another woman.

  “They were kissin’.”

  “What?” Maxwell shot up to his feet in shock. It did not make sense to him why Daividh would have wanted to kiss or even touch any other woman.

  “Are ye certain of what ye saw?” he asked her again, and Lorraine hissed at her brother.

  She buried her face in her bed and swore malice against him also.

  Maxwell settled back into the bed next to her. “Did ye see him kiss her? Was he the one that tried to kiss the other woman or was it the woman who had caused it?”

  Lorraine did not answer any of her brother’s questions.

  “What does it matter?” None of it mattered.

  “It matters because ye need to be certain who kissed the other first. He might nae have kissed her even. It might nae have taken long and he could have pushed her away before more could have happened. Did he smile after the kiss? Did he hold onto the woman after the kiss? Are ye certain it was nae his mother or his sister?”

  Maxwell kept asking the questions and Lorraine only buried her head deeper in her bed. She knew her brother trusted Daividh and might have even been infected by his charms and a misplaced sense of loyalty to him, but she knew what she had seen. More talk and questions from her brother would only have made her doubt what she had seen.

  There is nay way else to interpret what I had seen, she reassured herself.

  “Just leave me to me worries,” she said to him.

  Seeing that there was no other way to convince his sister, Maxwell took his leave from her room. Lorraine got off her bed and locked the door behind him. This time, she had no plan of coming back out of her room and she cared little if the neighbours and town folks started to think she was pregnant. It was a punishment that she thought herself worthy of given the fact that she had given her body to Daividh.

  She forced herself to find sleep as it was her only source of comfort. To stay awake was evil as was sleep, but sleep was the safer of the two options. That night, she did not have dinner before slumber found her.

  Maxwell rode out to the castle the next morning. He did not wish to interfere in whatever was going on between the Laird MacDougall’s son and his sister for he and Daividh were not as close. They had mutual respect for one another but they were not confidants. The one person who he knew would have known the heart of the heir was Glenn.

  Having left his horse at the stables, he went to find Glenn.

  “Max, ye are as early as ye have always been. Ye need a woman,” Glenn remarked, before both men shook hands with one another.

  “The laird is still in the castle?” Maxwell asked him.

  “Aye. Oh-” He realized that Maxwell had meant Daividh. “-aye, he is in the castle. His stepmother would nae allow him leave still. But I believe he would be allowed to leave in time for the Laird’s Feast,” Glenn answered as they made their way to the arena.

  Glenn was on his way to spar while Maxwell was to make a few rides along the castle walls before he was allowed time on his hands.

  “How is yer sister?” Glenn asked Maxwell.

  Maxwell smiled as he always did when men asked him about his sister. Lorraine was, of course, oblivious to the number of suitors she had and seemed to have only chosen to have eyes for Daividh, before they had become at odds with one another.

  “She is down with a fever,” Maxwell had answered.

  “I pray she recovers quickly.”

  “Did ye see her at the castle yesterday?” Maxwell asked Glenn.

  Glenn shook his head.

  “I saw a woman with the laird and thought it was me sister,” Maxwell continued.

  Glenn shrugged.

  “Maxwell!” They both heard a shout from the balcony of the castle, just above them. Daividh stood there and waved for him to come up to join him. The two popular friends, Daividh and Glenn, only exchanged nods before Maxwell ran into the castle.

  Maxwell never came into the castle so often and was surprised that Daividh had wanted to see him therein.

  “I need ye to select a team of men to guard the castle. I fell off me horse some days ago and though everyone thought it an accident, it wasn’t,” Daividh started.

  Though Maxwell wasn’t in the best moods with the man standing before him, he knew to put emotions aside from his duty to his Laird.

  “What do ye mean?”

  “Someone cut me saddle. I have never fallen off a horse in a decade. I ken that someone cut me saddle and that was the same person who shot a pebble into me room and tried to kill me while I hunted. I need to ken that I am protected and especially me family. I do nae wish for me sister and me mother to worry,” he told Maxwell.

  Maxwell nodded his understanding. Daividh was a caring and good man, so he still doubted his sister’s words about seeing him kissing another woman.

  “What do ye think?” he asked Maxwell, “Do ye have men that ye can trust?”

  “Aye, me laird,” Maxwell answered but there was more.

  “What is it?” Daividh asked, for he could also see the thoughts in the man’s eyes.

  “Whoever it is that tries to harm ye kens ye very well. Whoever it is, I fear they are within the castle walls, as we are, and I strongly believe they would act again during the feast. It is then that we must be most careful.”

  “I’ll have me sword handy and ye would be there to protect me,” Daividh told him.

  “Nay,” Maxwell argued, “Ye always go for yer sword first. Every man in the castle who has ever fought ye ken how fast ye reach for yer sword. Ye must have a plan that nay one kens about lest ye be caught off guard.”

  Daividh became impressed by the man and listened to him even more.

  “Do ye carry a dagger?” he asked Daividh, who shook his head, “Then ye must have one in yer boot in the event that things do nae go as we plan them. I
shall make preparations.”

  “I shall entrust ye with me life,” Daividh told Maxwell.

  Maxwell was honoured by Daividh’s words.

  “I must go now,” Daividh said before heading away.

  Maxwell stood there, unsure whether he could dare to ask Daividh about his sister without consequence, but by the time he had his head raised up again, Daividh was gone.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Mairi was saddened deeply by her daughter’s melancholic turn.

  “I shall beat him with me bare hands,” she shouted, when Maxwell told her what had happened to make Lorraine so sour, “I do nae care if he is the son of the Laird MacDougall. I do nae care if he is tall and strong, I birthed him from his late mother and I can still whip him now.”

  Lorraine could not help but smile at her mother’s words. She knew her mother would not have gone through with any of her threats, but she was certain that her mother shared her grief. Though her mother had not known the tale of her attraction to Daividh, she understood. She did not know of the walks, the laughter, and the beautiful sex they had had together.

  Lorraine could not believe that all of it was simply gone. As much as she tried to stay angry with him or forget him, he was a recurring image in her head. He would not leave her be. Her family tried to console her every chance they had. Her brother always brought her meals and made her open her door to receive them lest he threatened to chop down her door with his axe.

  “Ye need to step outside, me daughter,” her mother pleaded with her every day, but she could not find the strength to simply go outside with no reason. The world outside for all its bliss and its blue skies, and its green earth had lost her love.

  “Nay,” she had replied to her mother.

  “Someone is here to see ye, Lorraine,” Maxwell had tried to get her to leave.

  “Nay.”

  “Would ye have some steak?”

  “Nay.”

  One day, she heard a horse neighing restlessly outside the house.

  Daividh? she wondered. She came to her window but could not see who the mysterious visitor was. She listened in when her mother headed to the door to see who the visitor was. Though she strained her hearing, she could not tell who it was.

  Her mother came back to her door. “Lorraine, there is someone here to see ye. Would ye come out?” She waited a few moments to see if Lorraine would respond. “Lorraine!” her mother called out again when she didn’t.

  “I shall come out in a bit,” Lorraine replied and pulled on some presentable clothes. Her eyes were wild with fatigue and lack of sleep and her hair was rough. She combed back her hair and washed her face before she stepped out of her room. Her mother had a judgemental look on her face as she watched her walk to the door.

  Conscious that her mother might be eavesdropping on her conversation, she closed the door behind her and came to face Glenn. He looked as pompous and as arrogant as she remembered him to be.

  “How are ye feelin’?” he asked her with his best smile.

  For all his good looks, his charm was never enough for her.

  “I feel better now, thank ye,” she replied courteously.

  “Thank goodness. I was worried about ye. I asked yer brother even. Did he tell ye that I asked about ye?” he asked her.

  “Nay,” she replied. Maxwell was loyal to Daividh and would not have told her if the brother to the Queen of Scotland had asked about her. “But he must have been busy,” she quickly added, as Glenn was above her brother in rank and she did not wish to cause a rift between them.

  “I understand. He and Daividh have been quite the pair these past few days,” Glenn agreed.

  “Did Daividh send ye?” she asked him, unable to halt the rampant train of thought in her head.

  “Nay, I come for me own selfish gain once more-” Glenn fell to one knee before her and opened his arms to her “-I wish that ye might be me date to the Laird’s Feast,” he said. “I would want nothin’ greater than to have ye, the most beautiful woman in all of Scotland, by me side at the feast. I ken that ye and Daividh are friends but-”

  “Aye, I would go with ye,” Lorraine replied.

  Glenn remained on his knee as stunned by her answer as she was even.

  Lorraine almost swallowed her answer right back but she had thrown it to the wind. She did not trust Glenn for many reasons. He was a known Casanova amongst the women in the clan and outside. A major reason that made her wary of him was the way he looked at her. She had known Daividh’s lust before and had welcomed it even but with Glenn, it was ravenous, and she feared he would rape her if they were alone together.

  He was stronger than she was and he had a weapon with him to boot. Rumour had it that he was almost as skilled with it as Daividh was. Then why did ye say aye to him? she asked herself.

  She wanted to make Daividh jealous. She had felt the pettiness in her grow for days as she had thought more and more about the woman who had been with him. Perhaps if he saw her with another man and one who was as close to him as Glenn was, he would feel as much pain as she had been feeling from his betrayal. The goal was to make Daividh jealous, and Glenn, for all his many warning signs, would do the trick.

  “I shall come to escort ye to the Laird’s estate then,” he told her as he rose to his feet.

  “I hope ye would nae change yer mind before the morrow,” he asked, wary of her.

  It was still a shock to him that she had agreed to go to the feast with him. He knew that she would meet Daividh there and still, she agreed to go with him. Daividh would get jealous and angry when he saw the two of them together but it was wrath that Glenn was willing to incur.

  Lorraine watched as Glenn left on his horse and it wasn’t until then that she noticed that Maxwell had been standing close by and had heard their conversation.

  “Why would ye agree to go with him to the feast?” Maxwell asked her.

  “I am a grown woman and I can do whatever it is I wish,” she replied, and headed back into the house.

  “Ye ken that he would nae wed ye. He only wants-”

  “I ken what he wants but as ye said, I need to get out of the house and live again. I will go to the feast with him and ye will be there so yer elder sister would nae do anythin’ uncivil, aye?” she asked him.

  Maxwell bowed his head in apology for speaking to her as he did.

  “I did nae mean to speak with ye that way. I only wish that ye be careful with a man like him,” Maxwell said.

  “I will be.”

  Lorraine nodded and was about to leave her to herself when she called him back.

  “Might I get some Valerian powder from ye?” she asked him.

  Maxwell nodded and went to get some for her. She could not tell him that she wished to use Valerian powder as a contingency plan in the event that Glenn tried to rape her or do worse to her. It would dull his reflexes and would put him to sleep in no time. Her brother would have thought she had needed it to treat an ailing animal with.

  Maxwell returned with the powder and handed it to her. She thanked him and moved on to prepare for the Laird’s Feast.

  On the night of the feast, a reluctant Lorraine dressed up for the feast. While her mother had been ecstatic about her going out with someone as reputable as Glenn, Lorraine was not so enthusiastic. She wished she could change her mind and was even worried if her plan was going a little too far. Daividh would get angry and would think she had left him.

  He should think that! She snapped her mind out of its spiral and focused on her plan. She had set it in motion and was going to see it through. The thought that Daividh would have been with another woman at the feast did cross her mind as well but she shook it off. It was her turn to make him sour and jealous and it was not to be the other way around.

  Dressed in her gown and boots, she put a hat over her head and walked out the door. Glenn was waiting for her with a coach and a rider. That night, he was not going to ride himself.

  “A beautiful coach for a beautif
ul lady,” he remarked, as she came out to meet him. She let him take her hand and lead her into the coach. In her gown, she felt for the little pouch of Valerian powder and rested easy.

  She was going to see Daividh soon.

  Chapter Thirty

  Daividh wasn’t an irritable man. Growing up as he had had taught him about putting up with people’s excess and before Lorraine, he would have doubted that he could be so easily incensed. However, the days had passed and still, she was adamant about not seeing him. Like a nightmare, the days had trickled past and the feast had arrived. It was ironic that the previous feast he had attended had been the best one of his life and the one he would be attending today would be the worst. He wasn’t looking forward to it at all.