Highlander’s Trusted Traitor (Scottish Medieval Highlander Romance)

by Alisa Adams

  After failing to sleep Rose pulled a shawl from her closet and wrapped it around her shoulders. Then she slipped her shoes on and ventured towards Edward’s room, unable to resist the need to see him.

  8

  Rose knocked on the door lightly, but there was no answer. She pushed the door and found that it was unlocked. A candle had been left burning by Edward’s bed, and the flame danced as she opened the door. Her heart beat frantically against her ribs and her breath caught in her throat as she tiptoed into Edward’s chambers. The naughty feeling filled her heart and she wondered how Edward would react if he discovered her presence. She imagined him being excited and wondered how many moments together they could steal before he turned her away, because he was such an honorable man she knew he would never take her virtue before they were married. Stealing a kiss together was such a wicked thought it made her skin glow with warmth.

  She moved towards the bed and sat down on the edge. She spread out her hands and leaned over the pillow, breathing in the scent of him. It smelled warm, and she smiled, but she did wonder where he was this late at night, although when men got together they did seem to lose track of the time. She waited for a little while, but then the moon dissipated and she felt forlorn, sitting in an empty room by herself as a candle burned away. She left and ventured outside, for she was still not ready to sleep and wanted to spend some time in the gardens alone among God’s works of art.

  When she arrived at the gardens, however, she found that she was not alone. The gardens were illuminated with silver light and the fragrant smell of the flowers filled the air and enlivened her senses.

  In the middle of the path, touching the flowers, was Keith, the Highlander. She almost turned back when he noticed her presence and smiled.

  “I’ll leave ye be. I dinnae want tae disturb ye,” he said.

  “You don’t have to do that. I must admit I wasn’t expecting to find anyone else here at this time of night. Most people are asleep.”

  “Aye, but it is hard for me tae settle in a strange land. I prefer being out here. It reminds me of home.”

  Rose moved around to get closer to him. He stroked the petals and cooed at the flowers.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, turning her nose up at this strange custom.

  “I’m talking tae them. The flowers grow better if ye talk tae them.”

  “Why, that’s absurd!” Rose giggled and looked at him with complete incredulity. Keith just stared at her blankly.

  “Why?”

  “Because they can’t talk back!”

  “Hae ye never spoke tae an animal? Or tae a babe?” he challenged. When he put it like that it didn’t seem so silly at all, but she wanted to change the subject because she couldn’t help but feel she was being made a fool. In the moonlight it didn’t seem as though they were different at all. They had both been drawn to this place at the same time, and it had given them a common bond. Rose was happy for the company as well, even though he wasn’t Edward.

  “How do you find England so far?” she asked.

  Keith shrugged. “Smells different,” he said.

  “I have to admit that you’re not what I expected when I pictured a Highland Warrior.”

  “Aye?”

  “Indeed. I thought of someone…bigger.”

  Keith turned on her and certainly seemed big in that moment. His shoulders grew broader and his expansive chest took up all of her vision. A thrill of fear shot down her spine, and breath caught in her throat.

  “I am a warrior,” he said defiantly, but then his words faltered. “I just hae nae hae a chance tae prove it in battle.”

  “Is that what you want?”

  “It would be an honor.”

  “I’ve never understood why men are so eager to go to war. It all seems too loud for my tastes. I would much rather be around nature in peace and quiet.”

  “We hae tae prove our worth,” Keith said. Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head. It seemed that most men were the same whether they came from England or the Highlands.

  “But I dae like nature as well,” he added. “Ma knows the woods and plants. She taught me everything she knows; all the berries and mushrooms that are safe to eat, and all the ways tae make medicine.”

  “She sounds like a clever woman. I wouldn’t know about any of that.”

  “Then what dae ye dae when ye fall sick?”

  “We talk to someone who has expertise in the field, or to a medicine woman,” Rose said. The more she talked to Keith the more she could parse his accent and she found it quite alluring. The quality that she thought was rough and primal at first was actually quite melodic, and there was a nice rhythm to it that she found endearing.

  “What happens if ye are ever alone in the woods? How would ye know what tae dae?”

  “I suppose I wouldn’t,” Rose was forced to admit. “But I highly doubt I would ever find myself in such a situation. I will be spending my life in a house like this behind safe walls.”

  Keith seemed to shudder. “I could nae bare it. All I see here are walls.”

  “Do you not have walls at home?”

  “At home I see naething but the valleys and the hills and the sky. I can look out in any direction and see naething for an eternity. I know that at any point I can go in any direction and keep walking, and there’s naething stopping me.”

  “That sounds as though it might be scary.”

  “Naething is scary if ye believe in yeself.”

  “Then why did you decide to come to England? Why not go into the Highlands and embark on an adventure? It certainly sounds like there are plenty waiting for you.”

  “I dinnae want tae be alone,” Keith admitted. “I could nae live my life exploring an unknown world. I just wanted tae show that I could be of use for things other than foraging. Sarina thought I could learn some useful skills here, and she wants tae bring the Highlands and England taegether again, but she knows it will nae be easy. There hae been tae many wars between us, and we dinnae want that tae happen again.”

  “I have heard about some of these conflicts. It is a terrible business. News reached far and wide about armies amassing. I can’t say I paid too much attention to it myself, but I always assumed that Highlanders wanted to fight. I don’t mean to sound rude, but I have always been told you are quite a hot-blooded race.”

  Keith glared at her. The way the moonlight caught his face gave him an ethereal appearance, as though he wasn’t really there.

  “Some can be, but we dinnae want tae fight. We’ll just defend our homes, and our honor.”

  “Have you ever been in battle?” Rose asked, trying to hide the excitement from her voice. She liked the tales of heroism and honor and glory, although she hated the reality of brutal war.

  “Nae,” he replied, and she found herself disappointed. A few moments of silence passed between them and she began to feel a little awkward, suddenly aware that the two of them were from entirely different worlds and had little in common. She turned to face the flowers and drank in their beauty.

  “I didn’t think ye would want tae speak with me. It seems ye husband dinnae like me,” Keith said.

  Rose suppressed a smile. “He is not my husband yet. If his father has his way I’m not sure he ever will be. But I hope Edward will convince him.” She groaned in frustration.

  Keith felt a kick in his stomach. “Why is it up tae him?” he asked.

  “Do you not need your parents’ permission to get married and arrange the dowry?”

  “What’s a dowry?” Keith asked. Rose looked at him, her mouth agape.

  “Well, it’s a gift of sorts, from the bride’s family to the groom’s. It’s almost a thank you, like a trade between the two families, and it gets shared with the new family to help them begin. My parents saved all their lives so that they could offer me a large dowry.” She puffed out her chest with pride.

  “It sounds like a payment,” he said dryly. “Why dae ye need tae pay someone tae marry ye?”
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  Rose frowned. She had never thought of it like that before. “I mean, it’s not exactly like that,” she stammered, “it’s just simply the way things are done. How does marriage work in the Highlands?”

  “We marry who we love,” he said and looked her in the eyes, trying to study her.

  It was as if he was asking her if she loved Edward.

  For a moment, Rose felt lost in those blue eyes. He was looking at the depths of her soul and she had never felt such a deep connection before. She could not describe the feeling. Somehow it was like they were the only two people on Earth.

  She broke the eye contact and avoided answering the question about Edward that had formed in her head.

  We marry who we love.

  It sounded so simple, and there was something Rose found desirable about that, but things worked the way they did for a reason and she was certain there was a good reason why she needed such a sizable dowry. It didn’t matter anyway. She was sure that Edward loved her for more than the size of the package her father had provided. Otherwise why would he try to speed up the process?

  “I’m sure that works in a simpler place, but there are many facets to our society and we must abide by the rules that have been laid out for us,” she said. For the first time ever, the way things were done seemed questionable to her. She did not actually believe what she had just said.

  She never thought she would be envious of the way Highlanders lived, but it certainly seemed…more romantic to say the least.

  She tried to change the subject but continued the conversation with Keith. She wanted to know the Highlander a little bit better.

  9

  During the magic of the night there were no barriers keeping Keith and Rose from speaking to each other in the garden, and although he wasn’t completely attuned to the various rules of conduct governing English society he assumed it wasn’t appropriate for him to be alone with a betrothed young woman, but since she didn’t seem to mind he certainly wasn’t going to bring it up. He was just thankful that nobody discovered them. The last thing he wanted was to gain a reputation for scandal when he had only just arrived.

  Their conversation flowed pleasantly and he quite enjoyed her company when suddenly there was a rustling sound and a bird fell from the sky. Keith rushed past Rose and thrust his hands into the flowers, wincing as thorny spikes grazed his flesh. He grabbed the small bird out quickly and held the quivering body close to him. Cupping the bird in his hands, he cooed quietly to try and calm the bird down. Rose seemed fascinated and sidled closer to him so that she could see the bird as well.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “It must hae had a wee fright. Baby birds like this one sometimes flee from the nest when they get startled and because they hae nae practiced flying enough they cannae get far. Can ye feel its wee heartbeat?”

  He offered the bird to her. She tentatively placed the back of her hand against its small body and smiled in wonder as she felt its rapid heartbeat. Keith was filled with pity for the bird. He craned his neck up to see if he could find the likely place of its nest, for it wouldn’t survive for long if it was stuck on the ground, and it clearly didn’t have the wherewithal to get back to its home itself. He spotted a likely tree that hung in the gardens. Its branches were thick and he thought he could climb it, just about. Cradling the bird, he moved away from Rose and moved up the tree as quickly as possible, sliding from branch to branch, and using the impressive strength of his upper body to pull himself up. It was difficult to see clearly in the dim light of the moon, but Keith had spent a lifetime in the wilderness and his eyes had been trained to see even in the darkest of nights.

  Keith was wearing a kilt and even if it was dark Rose knew that if she looked up she might be able to see way more than a woman in her place was supposed to. She looked around and there was no one there.

  “I think I found it!” Keith said happily, making her turn around quickly and cross her arms nervously.

  “Great!” she said and realized she must have blushed as the blood went up her face and she felt the heat up to her ears.

  Keith had climbed about halfway up the tree when he saw the nest and heard the faint chirping of the other baby birds. There was no sign of the mother, who he presumed was out hunting for food. He heard the hoot of an owl and then saw a shadowy figure swoop down, hunting nearer to the ground for mice and other small rodents. It must have spooked the baby bird. Keith assumed it wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. He carefully placed the bird back into the nest and wished it well.

  “Take care of ye wee kin,” he said to the other birds. He didn’t care that the birds couldn’t understand him. He believed there was a universal language that all living things shared, and it never did any harm to be kind.

  Keith descended the tree and found a red-faced Rose waiting for him.

  “I can’t believe you climbed that tree just to get the bird back to its nest!” she exclaimed. Keith smiled bashfully.

  She felt this was going too far and reminded herself the situation she was in.

  Keith’s smile quickly faded when she added, “This will make such a wonderful story to tell Edward!”

  “Aye, I suppose it will lass,” he said.

  The moonlight caught her eyes in such a way that it would have been easy to fall in love with her. The silver light sparkled and in one single moment he was enraptured by the possibility of what it would be like to share a life with her. He only indulged the thought for one single moment because anything else was futile. She was betrothed to Edward Drake, and even if she wasn’t they were from completely different worlds. Those rules might well have been broken for impressive men like Seamus and Angus, but Keith was just a boy. He had not done anything worthy of such an epic tale. Saving a bird didn’t count.

  “I should be getting back inside sae that I can be ready for the morning. Thank ye for the company,” she said.

  Keith seemed a little taken aback by her hasty exit, but he didn’t try to make her stay. She pulled her shawl more tightly around her delicate shoulders and Keith gazed at her pale skin, her lovely hair, and her ephemeral form before she turned her back and walked away.

  He marched across the grounds of the estate, heading back to the servants’ quarters where he would soon start to perform his duties. He chastised himself for making such a fool of himself. Rose was the kind of woman he could never meet in the Highlands, but it was foolish of him to torment himself with ardent thoughts that could never become reality. It was just a shame that such a charming girl was destined to end up with a man who wouldn’t appreciate her. Edward didn’t seem deserving of a young woman like Rose, but their parents decided to marry them and unfortunately that seemed to be the way of the world. It seemed so easy for others, while he had to struggle to make sense of these situations.

  He wasn’t even sure that he would be able to adjust to the lifestyle of the English and learn everything that Sarina and Seamus wanted him too. Something told him that Highlanders and the English were just too different to blend together as an entire community, but he would still try his best.

  He returned to the servants’ quarters, but as he did so he got confused and took a wrong turn. He opened a door to what he thought were his own chambers, but came upon a very unsightly and wicked affair. The two bodies were caught in candlelight, their sins framed in the soft glow of the flames. They grunted and moaned, and Keith flushed with embarrassment as he muttered an apology and backed out of the room, but as he did so the two faces turned towards him and horror flashed through his mind as he realized he recognized them. Staring back at him were Edward Drake and Lydia, Rose’s chambermaid. They gazed at each other and then Edward’s face twisted in fury. He leaped off Lydia and for a moment Keith thought the Englishman was going to strike him. Lydia pulled the bed clothes over her and cursed as she pulled on her frock. Edward pulled on his clothes quickly, while Keith just stood there, frozen at the sight of them.

  Once Edward had got
ten dressed he marched up to Keith and jabbed a finger in his chest. “You are not to say anything about this, Highlander. You hear? If I even hear a whisper I will cut your heart out myself. You saw nothing here. Nothing!” he rasped, his words so passionate that spittle flew from Edward’s mouth. Edward turned and glared at Lydia. “You promised me this would not happen again. There are too many prying eyes around here.”

  Keith blinked as Edward stormed out of the room and marched back through the house. He turned, and Lydia stared daggers at him.

  “You are not going to say anything about this.” Her words were harsh and they dripped with wickedness, the threat implied.

  “How could you do this to Rose?” he asked in disbelief. Lydia rolled her eyes and shook her head.

  “You have a lot to learn if you’re going to make it here. You are not given anything in this world. You have to take it for yourself. You should know, you’re not one of them. What has Rose done to deserve a good life? She was just born to the right people, that’s all, so when I get an opportunity I’m not going to let it go. And there’s a code that you have to obey because you’re one of us now. Things happened here, and it stays between us. They don’t need to know.”

  “But you’re supposed to be loyal to her, and he…”

  Lydia rolled her eyes again. “Don’t be so naïve. I am loyal to her. Do you think it’s better for him to sleep with some drunken whore from a tavern or me? At least Rose can trust me. Edward is going to do it eventually. Do you expect him to wait until the wedding? You should know, you’re a man, and she should know the same. This is the way the world works, Highlander. We keep each other’s secrets, and you’d better keep mine, because if Edward doesn’t get to you first then I will.” She sneered at him, and Keith wasn’t sure he had ever seen pure ugliness and evil until that moment.

  Keith thought for a second. “I don’t care. I will tell her the truth,” he proclaimed and stared back at her showing her that he was not afraid of the consequences.