Capturing A Highland Knight (19 page)

Chapter 22

             
The journey back to Dunkirk was uneventful.  Although she slept next to Derek at night, Annabelle spent the day with Brighid.  They left Bondlach after the wedding breakfast.  Kyla and Sorcha gave her a hug and said they hoped they would see her again.  Sine came up to her just before she mounted her horse.

             
“I wish to apologize to ye,” she said quietly.

             
Annabelle turned from the horse to look at the girl.  She was quite beautiful, and Annabelle could see why Derek would be interested in her.

             
“I was jealous of ye.  I still am,” Sine continued.  “I always imagined Derek would be mine, even when I was a girl following him and Tobias around the keep.”

             
Annabelle remained silent, waiting for Sine to finish.  Sine dropped her eyes and then looked over to where Derek was mounting his horse.

             
“He still hasnae spoken to me.  He is so angry.  I doona think he has ever been angry with me before, and it isnae a good experience.  Kyla and Sorcha say that I should apologize to ye and not only Derek,” she finished.  She looked expectantly at Annabelle.

             
Annabelle turned her eyes to her husband, who was looking in their direction.  She could not decipher the look on his face.  It was very intense.  She turned back to Sine and smiled wanly.

             
“’Tis all right, Sine.  All is forgiven,” she said and turned to mount her horse.  She nudged the horse forward next to Brighid’s, not giving Sine a chance to respond.

             
Brighid told her that the men were to going to leave the day after they arrived back at Dunkirk for court.  Annabelle looked back at Derek where he was riding next to Aster. It was probably good that Derek would be away from the keep for a while.  She needed space to decide what she wanted to do.  Maybe her father could petition the king for a separation. 

             
They arrived at Dunkirk without incident at about the time of the evening meal.  They had eaten and she had gone to their chamber.  Derek and his brothers had gone with Laird Breac to his study.   When she had awakened the next morning, they were already gone.  Ainsley told her that they left before first light.  Annabelle was not sure if Derek had come to bed or not.  If he had, he did not awaken her.  So she decided to fill her time with work.  She helped Ainsley with the rushes ever morning and she helped out in the kitchen whenever they needed it and around the keep.  She also helped Brighid in her garden.  They were planting some bluebells and thistles.

             
Annabelle dug a hole to put the plant in when she began remembering her conversation with Brighid before they left Bondlach.  She had gone to the heather field behind the keep.  She refused to let the tears flow from her eyes, although she felt them brimming her lashes.  The confrontation with Sine had been too much for her to endure.  It had opened her eyes to the fact that she would always have to defend her position as Derek’s wife to other women.  Women he had bedded, or would.  She wished that she could go back in time and never have fallen off of her horse.  Then she would never had met Derek and would be married to Laird Harold.  Although she did not want to be married to him either, it had to be better than the pain and anguish she felt every time she was reminded that the man she was married to was a man who had many women.  Women she just could not compete with.

             
Annabelle had always believed herself to be a very strong woman.  She had been able to endure many things that other women would not have been able to deal with.  She could fight with a dirk, sew up a wound as good as any healer, and even ride better than most men.  But this was an area she was finding that she was very weak.  She turned when she heard someone come up behind her.

             
“’Tis very calming out here.  I always thought so,” Brighid said as she came to stand beside her.

             
“Aye,” Annabelle responded in a whisper.

             
“When I met Breac, he was attacking my Da’s keep.”

             
Annabelle gasped.

             
“My Da would send out parties to raid the MacDougal villages.  They would steal sheep and destroy some of their crops.  Breac would retaliate in kind, but one such raid, one of my Da’s men went too far and raped one the villager’s daughter.  As ye can imagine, Breac had been verra angry.  So they attacked us one night.  My Da had underestimated him and was ill prepared for the attack.  Breac and his men stormed the keep with little resistance.  They burned some of the cottages and took most of our cattle.  My Da and his men were no match for Breac,” she smiled.

             
“What happened?” Annabelle asked.

             
“Breac was, and still is, a verra imposing mon.  He towered over my Da and explained exactly why they were there.  My Da laughed and said that the lass probably asked for what she got.  Breac roared and raised his sword to strike my Da, but I ran up to him and grabbed his arm.”

             
Brighid chuckled.

             
“I dinnae ken what I was doing.  Imagine me stopping someone as powerful as Breac, but I couldnae allow him to harm my Da,” she smiled as she remembered.

             
“I moved to stand in front of him as he hesitated.  He had a puzzled and amused look on his face.  I stood up to my full height, which only came to his chest, and I pointed my finger in his chest and demanded that he leave immediately,” she continued.

             
Annabelle smiled.  She probably would have done the exact same thing.

             
“What did he say?” she asked Brighid.

             
“His face lost its amused expression and clouded over with anger again.  He said he wouldnae leave until he felt that the villager’s daughter had been avenged.  Then a strange smile came over his face.  He sheathed his claymore and grabbed me.  He carried me out of the keep over his shoulder like a sack of grain.  I was kicking and screaming for him to put me down.  My Da and brother came storming out after him, but his men held them back,” she said.  Her eyes looked far in the distance as she reminisced.

             
“My Da yelled that he would come to rescue me and this wasnae over.  I beat against Breac’s back, but he only shifted a little and threw me over his horse.  Then we left without him replying to my Da’s threat,” she smirked turning to Annabelle.

             
“I tell ye this because my life with Breac was verra rough in the beginning.  He had women at Dunkirk who he was bedding, and they expected him to continue.  And he did.”

             
Annabelle frowned at Brighid.

             
“Does he still?” she asked concerned.

             
“Och, nay!  I wouldnae be his wife if he did,” she grinned.

             
“I doona ken what ye are saying.  How did he stop and why?”

             
“Annabelle, as I was trying to tell ye before.  Love stopped him.  I made him love me, just as I told ye to make Derek fall in love with ye.  After I had been at Dunkirk for a while, because my Da never came for me, I dinna expect he would, I realized that I had fallen for the brute.  He acted like I was just another one of his conquests until one day I got wise and made him jealous.  I became friends with one of his closest retainers and spent a lot of time with him.  Breac dinna like it, but what could he do?   He had treated me like nothing up until then.  But soon his feelings for me began to change.”

             
“But I doona see that happening with Derek.  I canna compete with the women he beds and I am already married to him.”

             
“Ye can compete, Annabelle.  Ye have what they doona.  Ye doona fall all over Derek or take whatever he dishes to ye.  Ye stand up to him, and doona think he doesnae notice.  He does.  Sine is a verra young girl with an infatuation.  Doona let that interfere with yer feelings.  Ye love Derek,” Brighid replied.

             
“How did ye ken it?” Annabelle asked in surprise.

             
“Because ye have the same look in yer eyes as I did.”

             
“Derek doesnae love me.  He never will.  Why would he when he can have any woman he wants?”

             
“Because he doesnae want them anymore.  He just doesnae ken it yet.  Breac told me that he sees a lot of himself in Derek.  So that means that Derek will change just as Breac did,” Brighid said and put an arm around Annabelle.

             
“Come.  Let us go to the keep and ye can help me finish packing.”

             
Annabelle allowed Brighid to lead her back to the keep.  She wondered if Brighid was right about Derek.  Did she dare hope?

             
“’Tis the last one,” Brighid said, bringing Annabelle back to the present.

             
They both stood up and walked back to the keep.

             
“’Tis almost time for the evening meal.  Why doona ye go and get a bath and rest.  I will put away our tools,” Brighid said taking the tools to a little hut not far from the keep.

             
Annabelle nodded and went inside a side door that led to the kitchen.  She grabbed an apple from the pile on a table and headed up the back stairs to the chamber she would share with Derek.  She passed Megan on the way up and asked her to send someone with hot water for her bath.  When she reached the chamber, she crossed over to the window.  She looked out over the heather in a field.  If she leaned out, she could look to the right and see a sheep pasture.  Derek’s chamber was completely different than her chamber back at Kinloch.  She remembered waking up here not so long ago.  It seemed like a lifetime had passed since then, when it had only been several weeks.  She could vaguely remember thinking she had been dreaming when Derek had made love to her that first time.  The time he compromised her, and, subsequently, forced her into marriage.  She took a bite of her apple and sighed.  She noticed that her appetite had increased since returning to Dunkirk.  And in the mornings, she felt nauseous when she rose from bed too fast.

             
She turned when Megan entered the room with the other servants who carried the water for her bath.

             
“Do ye need help with yer bath?” Megan asked as the last bucket was poured into the tub.

             
“Nay,” Annabelle smiled.  Megan nodded and left the room.

             
Annabelle finished her apple and set it aside to take to the compost heap later.  She stripped out of her clothes and sank into the warm water.  She sighed as the water surrounded her like a warm blanket.  She let her head fall back against the tub and closed her eyes.  It had been two weeks since the men had left for court.  She found that although she and Derek were not on the best of terms, she missed him considerably.  She wondered if he missed her as well, or if he was glad of some time away.

             
Annabelle reached for the soap that Megan left near the tub.  She lathered her arms and legs.  Then she washed her torso.  After she rinsed the soap from her body, she lathered her hair.  She grabbed the pitcher of water left next to the tub on the floor and poured it over her head to rinse the soap away.  She stood and wrapped the drying cloth around her and stepped out of the tub.  She went to a chest and pulled out one the arisaids Megan found for her.  It was a pale yellow.  Although she was very grateful, she would be glad when she could put on her own clothes.  When they returned from Bondlach, there still had been no response to Derek’s message to her parents.  She was beginning to worry.  She hoped the messenger made it to Kinloch without incident.  Maybe she would send another message herself.

             
She pulled the arisaid over her head and smoothed it into place.  She walked back to the window.  She reached up and covered her mouth to stifle a yawn.  She was tired all of a sudden.  She thought she had time for a short nap before the evening meal was served.  She turned toward the bed and lay down on her side facing the window.  As her eyes drifted close, her thoughts again shifted toward her husband.  She wished things could be different between them.

§

              Annabelle woke with a start.  The chamber was dark with only the glow from the dying fire to illuminate it.  She had overslept.  She turned when the chamber door opened.

             
“Ye are awake,” Megan said as she pushed the door completely open.