The Faithful Heart (36 page)

 

 

“Oh, Ruairc, I’m so sorry,” Morgana whispered tearfully. “I had no
idea.”

 

 

“It doesn’t matter, my love. The past is over. Tonight is the first
night of our new life together.”

 

 

Ruairc cupped her chin in his hand, and teased her mouth open until
his tongue entwined with hers. Ruairc’s other hand moved between her
thighs, and soon her legs parted fully, as she gave herself up
completely to the incredible sensations his feathery touches could
bring.

 

 

Soon Morgana was writhing on the bed panting in a frenzy of ecstasy,
and Ruairc feasted on the creamy peaks of her breasts as she arched
against him and breathed his name.

 

 

“Ruairc, please,” she begged, as her nails bit into his shoulders.

 

 

“Not yet, my love,” Ruairc rasped, revelling in her need for him.

 

 

Ruairc smiled as he looked down at her parted lips and flushed
features, and felt a triumphant surge of joy. Never could he have
believed how much she wanted him, or how much he could satisfy her.
Boldly, he moved his kisses down to the soft auburn curls, and
renewed the assault his fingers had started.

 

 

Morgana made a token resistance, but lay back on the pillows against
as his hand swept upwards over her body and fastened on one rosy
nipple. Morgana’s shimmering auburn hair spread out over the pillow
in a lustrous cascade as she rolled her head from side to side in
utter abandon.

 

 

Soon Ruairc knew he could not hold out any longer. He waited until
her ragged breathing grew calmer, and moved upwards again to take
her mouth in a stirring kiss.

 

 

“Now please, Ruairc,” Morgana beseeched urgently.

 

 

With one sure thrust he was inside her. His iron control nearly
slipped as he pressed deeper into her tightness. She arched her hips
to meet his with an instinct which caused him to lunge even deeper.

 

 

“God, Morgana!” he shouted, as he cupped her buttocks and pounded
into her, his climax ripping through him.

 

 

He trembled from head to toe, and began to grow almost frightened as
his pangs seemed to go on forever. He felt her tighten around him,
and if anything his pleasure increased as she cried out his name and
her fingernails dug into his buttocks.

 

 

Finally they quietened, though Ruairc felt so drained he lay on top
of her for several moments.

 

 

“Lord, I’m sorry, I must be crushing you,” he murmured.

 

 

Morgana pleaded, “No, ‘tis nothing. Please stay.”

 

 

“Did I hurt you?” he whispered, as he brushed her tumbled tresses
back from her face, and saw the tears glittering on her cheeks.

 

 

“No, my love, never.”

 

 

“But you’re crying,” Ruairc insisted, kissing the tears away gently.

 

 

“Oh, Ruairc, it was so wonderful, it was like coming home. I’ve
missed you so much. Only now it’s going to make it worse. How can I
ever bear for you to leave me, after knowing such joy?”

 

 

“I’ll never leave you,
a stor
, you must know that,” Ruairc
declared fiercely.

 

 

As he felt himself stir within her once more, he made love to her
all over again, slowly and thoroughly, so that much later, when she
cried out his name for the hundredth time, and he could hold back no
longer, Ruairc knew Morgana was right. Their joining and blending
into one was like coming home, and they could never be complete
without one another again.

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

 

 

At the time he had made his promise to never leave Morgana, Ruairc
had been completely sincere. But many hours later, just as he
himself was finally drifting off to sleep after their incredible
evening of lovemaking, there was a hesitant tap at the door.

 

 

Then he heard Mary call, “Ruairc MacMahon, I know you’re in there.
There's an urgent message for you.”

 

 

Ruairc grabbed his clothes, and hastily donned them. He picked up
his sword, just in case it was a trap, but when he went out into the
draughty hallway, all he saw were Mary, and Anna from the tavern.

 

 

“What is going on here?Anna, why have you come at this hour of the
night?” Ruairc demanded.

 

 

“You did tell me, sir, to let you know of anything suspicious that
might be happening in my village or through the pass,” she answered
breathlessly.

 

 

“Yes, of course, but you needn’t have come on your own in the middle
of the night,” he scolded, sheathing his sword in its scabbard.

 

 

“I would have come sooner, only I couldn’t sneak away. Your brothers
are assembling their forces all along the borders of Morgana’s
territory, sir. I fear even the convent at Kilgarven may be in
danger,” Anna revealed.

 

 

Mary crossed herself.“Surely they wouldn’t harm the nuns!”

 

 

“Probably not, though they might be going there to get their hands
on Morgana if they believed she were there,” Ruairc speculated.

 

 

“But they won’t move immediately, for they have a convoy of weapons
coming down from Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle in the next few days,
and they plan to hide it,” Anna recalled the conversation she had
overheard in the tavern from memory.

 

 

“Hide it where? Why not just put the weapons in the castles at
Carrickdoo and Ardnagreine?” Ruairc demanded.

 

 

“I don’t know, sir.I came to warn you, and to ask if you might come,
to see if you might be able to discover more.”

 

 

“Have you come all this away on foot?” Ruairc asked.

 

 

“Aye, I had no choice.The men are going up for the arms now, and
there wasn’t a cart or horse to be had anywhere in the village,”
Anna replied.

 

 

“You know the land up there better than I after my being so many
years away. Where could they hide it all?” Ruairc asked anxiously.

 

 

“If not in any of the castles, then one of the glens would be my
guess.”

 

 

“We will have to try to warn all the villages then. Mary, get us
some food and horses, and tell Morgana, well, just tell her.”

 

 

Mary eyed him disapprovingly, and with a toss of her head, descended
the ladder to the lower floor.

 

 

“Go with her, Anna. I’ll be down in a minute,” Ruairc said
hurriedly.

 

 

Ruairc went back inside and donned the rest of his clothes. He
wanted to wake Morgana to explain, but he knew full well that she
would only insist on going with him.

 

 

He bent over the bed in the dim half-light of dawn, and kissed her
on the lips. She stirred and smiled softly in her sleep, and Ruairc
felt his desire for her well up inside. But no, he had to go, and
with a last whispered, “I love you,” he crept away silently.

 

 

When Morgana awoke the next morning, she reached out for Ruairc, and
was devastated to find the bed empty. She sat up, and gazed about.
For a moment she thought she had dreamt the whole thing, but as she
gazed down at her own nakedness and the dishevelled sheets, Morgana
knew Ruairc had spent the night with her.

 

 

She lay musing dreamily for a few minutes more, wondering if Ruairc
had gone to the privy or down for some food. But eventually she
swung her legs out of the bed, and with an inner fury began to scrub
herself clean with the freezing water in the basin. Self-disgust
began to take over from happiness, and Morgana tore the stained
sheets off the bed and threw them on the embers of the glowing fire.

 

 

Gazing around for something to put on, she defiantly took up her
habit. Damn her for being a fool. Ruairc had lied, charmed his way
into her bed. He’d said he’d never leave her, and now look. The
morning after, only a few hour later, and there she was, cold and
alone.

 

 

Morgana consoled herself with the knowledge that she wouldn’t be the
first nun who had retreated from a failed love affair, though deep
inside she could not quite believe the extent of Ruairc’s betrayal.
Perhaps there was some explanation for his disappearance?

 

 

But when she asked Mary, all she got was a freezing stare, and some
advice. “Forget about him. He is a MacMahon. He’s the enemy, for all
his fine talk. I’m glad to see you’ve decided to go back to being a
nun. All this talk about getting the clan back on its feet is
nonsense. You are only a child, and a woman. Leave the problems to
Finn and Patrick, and go back to where it is safe.”

 

 

Morgana was hurt by the older woman’s criticism, but she could not
detect the overwhelming envy that welled up in Mary’s heart.
Why
should Morgana have it all, when it could have been she and
Conor....

 

 

But no, it was pointless to think of that now, and in any case she
would get her revenge upon Ruairc, who had murdered her beloved, in
her own good time.

 

 

“Do you really think it's a waste of time?”’ Morgana asked, stung to
the quick.
She thought they had been doing so well.
“The
clan will never be the same without Conor, as well you know. You
would do better to make peace with the MacMahons, before they are
given time to move against you.”

 

 

Morgana backed away from the venom she saw in Mary’s eyes, and was
greatly relieved to see Patrick and Finn arriving on the morning
tide.

 

 

“I don’t understand how, but I think she knows something,” Morgana
confided in her tall red-haired cousin.

 

 

“What, you mean about the castles, the men?But how?” Patrick asked.

 

 

“All the food has to be going somewhere.She’s bound to guess, being
the housekeeper. But that doesn’t make her a spy.” Morgana shrugged.

 

 

“What exactly did she say?”

 

 

“That I should go back to the convent, not risk any hostilities with
the MacMahons, or Ruairc, or else we wouldn’t be able to fall back,
to protect the little we have left.”

 

 

“And you,
a thaisce
, what do you think?” Finn demanded,
calling her by his pet name, ‘treasure.’

 

 

“In all honesty, perhaps she's right. Perhaps it is better to make
peace now. Our men aren’t up to fight yet, despite all our efforts,
and the MacMahon have an army of trained mercenaries on their side.
No fight would be best. But if it is too late, then I think it would
be best to turn the fight over to you and return to the convent.”

 

 

“Nonsense, all the planning and organisation has been yours from the
start. We've been incredibly successful rebuilding all the castles
and you've bided your time patiently, waiting to get Dermot and
Brendan MacMahon to show their hand. And remember, it isn’t just our
men on your side. You’ve also got all the dispossessed MacMahons to
help,” Finn observed.

 

 

“Perhaps it's a trick? Maybe they will betray us when the time
comes,” Morgana sighed.

 

 

Patrick disagreed heartily. “I doubt it! Many of them have died
already as a result of what their own chiefs have done, and
remember, the O’Donnells have even supported you, along with the
O’Connors. You're not friendless, and they don't want Dermot and
Brendan more powerful any more than you do.”

 

 

“Aye, but the O’Reillys still side with the MacMahons, and they
could make our access to Dublin and Armagh through the south and
east difficult.”

 

 

“The O’Donnells will help with that," Patrick argued. "They helped
us time and time again, and with the rescue of our marooned men.
Look how many troops we'e managed to get back already, how much
trade we have done, once all the misunderstandings were cleared up
between us, the O’Donnells, and the port authorities.”

 

 

Morgana blinked and in her mind’s eye, saw herself in bed with
Ruairc. She shook her head.

 

 

“No, I think I should go.It’s all finished now. You don’t need
me.Father is gone, I’ve done what I can for the family, and the rest
is up to you.”

 

 

“Stay because Ruairc needs you, then!” Patrick argued. Where is he,
by the way?”

 

 

“I was hoping you could tell me,” Morgana said quietly.

 

 

“None of us have seen him,” Finn replied.

 

 

An extensive search of the castle and grounds revealed that two
horses were missing, but no message had been left for Morgana.

 

 

Morgana sat through the rest of the day in a well of misery. He had
left her. It was over.

 

 

She went through the motions around the estate, supervising,
cooking, cleaning, hunting, but it was as though everything were
blanketed by a dull fog.

 

 

Ruairc had left her without a word. She doubted he was in danger. He
had crept out of her bed like a thief in the night of his own free
will. She had the terrible feeling that he had finally got what he
wanted, and had no intention of ever coming back.

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

 

 

Day after day passed, until finally at the end of the week Morgana
could stand it no longer. She refused to sit by waiting for Ruairc
to come back to her. If what they had shared had meant so little,
well, she had been a fool, and prayed that one night of lovemaking
had not left her with child.

 

 

Her pain and sense of betrayal churned and boiled within her. There
was no future with a man she could never trust. She was determined
to go back to the convent, so on Friday morning she rose at dawn,
and packed away all her belongings and her ordinary clothes in the
old oaken trunk she had had since she was a child.