Authors: Hannah Howell
He leaned back a little and looked at her. “Ye kenned that it would happen?”
“I also heard them speak of it, but Donnell refused to set a date. He seemed to imply that it would be a while before he did so, but he has obviously changed his mind. When I came bursting into your room last night, it was because I had just heard him and Egan discussing it.” She blushed. “I got distracted.”
“Ye could have told me when ye werenae distracted.” James was not sure if he felt angry that she had not confided in him or if he was just curious as to why she had not.
“There isnae anything ye can do about it, is there? Nay if ye wish to prove your innocence and regain Meggie and Dunncraig. They both need ye to rid this place of Donnell.”
“And ye think I can just ignore the fact that ye are being given to another mon?”
“I dinnae intend to be given to another mon. I just cannae leave right yet.”
“Ye can and ye will. I will take ye and Meggie to France. Egan willnae be able to follow ye there. If naught else, MacKay willnae allow it.”
“James, ye cannae leave.”
Annora sighed and watched as he paced the room. It touched her heart that he wanted to protect her so much that he would set aside all he had worked for. She could not allow him to do that, however. Dunncraig was dying beneath Donnell’s rule. A lot of people needed James to regain his home, his lands, and his good name. He could not do that if he was in France.
“Donnell is destroying Dunncraig,” she said, trying to imbue her words with all the urgency she could. “He raids your neighbors and is making a lot of enemies, ones who will cut down the people of Dunncraig because they see them as naught more than Donnell’s people, ones who may e’en have aided Donnell in his raids. In the last raid a laird’s eldest son was killed. And it gets worse every day. I willnae let ye trade all of their lives for my safety.”
He turned to look at her and almost smiled. MacKay was right. Annora was not the sweet, meek lass Egan thought she was. There was steel in that slender backbone. What touched him was the concern she showed for the people of Dunncraig. It had not taken him long to see that she did not keep herself apart from the people by choice. This show of concern only confirmed his opinion that Annora cared for his people even when she was not allowed to be any part of their lives. She was the sort of lady Dunncraig needed.
“I could send ye to my family,” he said.
Annora sat down on her bed. “Mayhap. I must think about it.”
James sat down beside her and draped his arm around her shoulders. “What is there to think about? Ye cannae wish to marry Egan.”
“Most of the time I cannae abide e’en being in the same room as Egan. He is as brutal and cruel as Donnell; he just doesnae have that cunning that Donnell has. They are
the sort of feelings that disturb me the most, sometimes e’en make me physically ill. But I cannae just disappear. Meggie needs me here. Somehow I must find a way to elude Egan yet continue to keep a watch o’er Meggie until ye can rid Dunncraig of Donnell and his men. Any woman Donnell uses to replace me as Meggie’s nurse willnae be so careful to keep her out of the reach of Donnell or away from the cruelty that is committed here nearly every day.”
He was so moved by her care and concern for his daughter that James had to kiss her. By the time he ended the kiss, they were sprawled on top of the bed and he was hard and aching for her. A little tentatively, recalling how horrified his wife had been when he had once tried to make love to her during the day, he waited for some sign of discomfort or rejection from Annora. His heart soared as he finished unlacing her gown and began to tug it off and she did nothing to stop him.
“We really must be careful,” Annora murmured, watching as James sat up to strip off his clothes. He truly was a beautiful man, scars and all.
“I ken it,” he said as he tossed aside the last of his clothing and then returned to undressing her. “I kept a close watch as I rushed here to save ye like the gallant knight I am.”
Despite being stripped naked by a naked man in the middle of the day, Annora found she could laugh. “Verra gallant, but I dinnae think this is exactly how a gallant knight saves the fair maiden.”
“Ye havenae heard the whole truth. This is why gallant knights risk all to save maidens. The rewards are too sweet to resist.” He sighed with pleasure once she was naked and he was sprawled on top of her, savoring the feel of their skin touching. “I dinnae wish ye to leave Dunncraig, but better that than to watch ye given to Egan or, worse, ken that he has caught ye alone somewhere and raped ye, and I couldnae stop it.”
Annora reached up and stroked his cheek. “I have kept out of his grasp for three years. I can do so for a little longer. My plan is to leave Dunncraig only when no other choices are left to me. Meggie needs me, and if I have to leave, she will be all alone no matter how many nursemaids Donnell surrounds her with.”
“Big Marta and I could help,” he began and felt surprised when she stopped his words with a short, hard kiss.
Annora knew she could not hold on to her secret about Donnell’s plans for Meggie any longer. James was not yet firm in his decision to stay at Dunncraig and fight for what was his. His fear for her was touching, but he needed to put it aside, to see that there was so much more that needed saving. She just hoped he did not see what she was about to tell him as even more reason to pack up and flee to France.
“Meggie needs to be watched verra carefully o’er the next seven or so years. Donnell is arranging a marriage for her to Sir Ian Chisholm’s youngest son.” She wrapped her arms around him and held on tightly when his whole body tensed as if he was about to leap from the bed and rush out to kill Donnell immediately.
“Nay,” was all James could say, his throat tight with fury. He ached to go hunt down Donnell and kill the man, but despite that fierce need he did not fight Annora’s grasp.
“Nay is quite right. It is but another reason why ye must stay and accomplish what ye had set out to do from the start. Donnell has a lot of people thinking Meggie is his child and he would come hunting for her if we took her away. I suspect the Chisholms
would also do so as they will undoubtedly gain a lot from tying their family to Donnell’s. Meggie’s safety and happiness depend on ye defeating Donnell and returning as laird of Dunncraig. S’truth, that is the only solution to all our problems and those of the good people of Dunncraig. Ye cannae let your anger lead ye for it will take ye down the wrong path in the end. Anger always does that.”
James rested his forehead against her as he struggled to clear his mind and heart of the fury inside them, a wild fury and a deep fear for the future of his child. It was the latter that finally helped him gain control of himself. Annora was right in all she said. The only way to save them all was to continue to try and get back all Donnell had stolen from him. That his plan left him unable to completely protect his women was a bitter potion to swallow, but he would do it. In the end, it was really the only way to save Annora and Meggie.
Until the threat to Annora grew too great, he silently promised himself. He would not allow Egan to have her, before or after their marriage. Meggie was safe until the day of her first bleeding, and that was years away, but Annora had only a month before she would be dragged before a priest and tied for life to a man who was long overdue for a hanging. For a while, he would allow matters to continue as they had, but if it appeared that Annora was in any real danger, he would get her away from Dunncraig even if he had to tie her up and carry her out in a sack. He had no doubt that Meggie would be his ally once she understood what would happen to Annora if she stayed.
He looked down into Annora’s beautiful eyes and saw both the fear and the resolution there. She would argue with his plan and try to talk him out of his vow, so he did not plan to tell her about it. Her concern for the safety of others over her own touched him, but he would not allow her to make any great sacrifices. Running to France with her and Meggie would end his plans for retaking Dunncraig, but not forever. Once the hunt for them eased, and he was sure it would, and he got his women settled somewhere safe, he would return and try again. This plan had worked so far and he was sure he could come up with another that would work as well.
So he would distract her from the whole matter of Egan and Donnell’s plans for her and Meggie, he thought and nearly grinned. She was naked and so was he and they were sprawled together on a bed behind a locked door. James would make his plans for her and Meggie’s safety later. Right now he intended to reclaim his woman.
Recognizing the gleam in his eye, Annora shivered. “Are we all done discussing the matter?” she asked as she ran her hands up and down his sides, loving the feel of him.
“Aye, talking is done. I mean to distract us both from our worries.”
“I believe I approve of that idea.”
“Do ye, now?”
“Och, aye, I do. Allow me to show ye just how thoroughly I approve,” she said in a voice even she thought sounded very much like a purr.
She did, much to James’ delight. As he lay sprawled beside her, his body still humming from the pleasure she had given him, he knew that he would walk away from Dunncraig in a heartbeat if it meant he could keep her by his side. The fact that he planned to try again later to redeem his blackened name and rid Dunncraig of Donnell MacKay made it easier to think that, but James knew he would flee with her and his daughter and never look back if that was what was needed to keep them safe. He could only pray that he did not have to, for Annora deserved to be the lady of Dunncraig and
Dunncraig deserved to have her.
As James hurried along the badly rutted road leading into the village, he wondered yet again why Edmund had sent for him. There were too many possibilities, everything from a message from his family to some important information Edmund or Ida had uncovered that could finally end this game and return him to the laird’s seat at Dunncraig, a free man again. It was just possible that it was a message from his family, for he had sent them word of his plans. He had still insisted that they stay away, but that did not mean they had heeded him.
Out of the corner of his eye, James caught sight of someone just inside a grouping of trees. For a moment he thought he was being followed. Ever since learning that MacKay meant to give Annora to Egan in a month’s time, he had felt as if Egan was watching him all the time. Good sense told James that, if Egan was watching him, it was because he had knocked the man down in front of Annora, but good sense fled him whenever he thought of her trapped in a marriage with Egan. And he had known about that appalling plan for only two days. James hated to think of how he would be feeling as the wedding date drew nearer.
The moment he stopped and stared into the trees, James saw that he had not been imagining things. There was someone in the trees, two someones in fact. Egan had a woman pressed up against a tree and was rutting with her. There really was no other word for it as Egan’s breeches were down around his ankles, the woman’s skirts were bunched up around her waist, and Egan was thrusting into her so hard and fast that her back was rubbing up against the tree with each move he made. The roughness of the act made James think that the woman could be unwilling, yet another victim of Egan’s lust, but just as he took another step toward them, the woman turned her head and looked at James. She saw him and smiled in a way that told James she would willingly allow him to do the same as soon as Egan was done. Shaking his head, James hurried away before Egan lifted his face from the woman’s voluptuous breasts and saw him. There would have to be some serious cleaning of the keep once it was his again, as it appeared that Donnell had filled it with whores.
James called out for Edmund even as he entered the man’s small shop. Edmund came rushing out from the workroom at the rear of the shop, looked around to be sure that no one else was with James or had followed him, and then dragged him into the back room he had just come out of. All without saying a word. The concern James had begun to feel over his friend’s highly secretive actions faded abruptly when he saw the two men seated at a small rough table set in the middle of the workroom. His family had ignored his command to just stand back and allow him to solve the mystery.
Tormand Murray might not be his blood kin, but James knew they were brothers in all the ways that mattered. Eric and Bethia Murray had taken James in when he had been orphaned at the tender age of one, soon after they had fought hard to defeat the man who wanted him dead so that he could claim Dunncraig. He not only owed them his life, but he owed them for the very good life he had had while living with them. Each and every child born to them after they had claimed him as their own had been presented as his sibling and he had been raised as one of them, never once being treated as anything other than one of their own children. If he had not been heir to Dunncraig, a Drummond stronghold, he would have changed his name to Murray, for the whole clan had treated him as one of theirs. And right now he felt as every sibling would when a younger
brother completely ignored his wishes. He wanted to pound Tormand Murray into the ground.
“I see that ye still have trouble obeying e’en the simplest of commands, “James said to Tormand.
A wide grin was Tormand’s first response to that provocation, but he quickly grew serious again. “This is Sir Simon Innes.” He nodded at the other man, who quickly rose to his feet and bowed. “He is a king’s mon. A weel-trusted one.”
“Ye brought a king’s mon here? Did ye just forget that I have been outlawed?”
“Simon has sworn to, weel, forget all about that. And if we cannae discover anything to help ye prove that ye are innocent, he has also sworn to forget that he e’er saw ye.”
James knew he was looking at his brother as if he was a complete idiot. “Just forget about all of this, aye?”
“Aye,” Simon replied in a voice that was surprisingly deep for such a lean, almost thin, man. “I will forget it all. In truth, I ne’er agreed with the decree. I ken Sir Donnell MacKay, nay weel thank God, but weel enough to doubt his word about anything. Unfortunately, the day the decree was signed, I wasnae at court. ’Tis my feeling that that, too, was weel planned.”
“It seems fate was against me at every turning.”
“Mayhap fate thought ye needed a wee bit of humbling, brother,” drawled Tormand.
James scowled at Tormand. “And mayhap fate sent ye here for a weel-earned pummeling.”
“Sit,” ordered Edmund as he set out a jug of dark ale and four of James’ elegantly carved goblets.
“Ye do fine work, James,” Tormand said as they all sat down and he studied the goblet placed in front of him. “Mother was delighted with the pair ye sent her last Michaelmas, although she would have preferred to see ye instead. This has been hard on her, ye ken.”
After taking a long drink of the strong ale to drown the sudden painful longing to see his family again, James replied, “I ken it, but death trails me. I couldnae bring it to her door.”
“She kens it and often says that she would rather ne’er see ye again if it meant that ye stayed alive.” Tormand grinned. “Of course, she often tells our father that she doesnae ken why he doesnae just ride o’er to Dunncraig and cut MacKay into tiny, bloody pieces.”
James laughed, easily able to see his tiny mother doing just that and his father calmly agreeing to do it on the morrow, both of his parents knowing full well that he would not do so no matter how much he might wish to.
“So, aside from donning that verra intriguing disguise, what else have ye done thus far?” asked Tormand. “By the way, have ye darkened
all
your hair?”
“Nay as much as I would like to have done by now,” replied James, ignoring the second question completely. “I keep telling myself that finding out the truth about a mon who is verra skilled at hiding it is slow work and there is no hurrying it along.”
Simon nodded. “The need to be cautious always makes a chore take longer.”
Murmuring in agreement, James studied Simon Innes as he had another drink of
ale. There was the look of keen intelligence in Simon Innes’ gray eyes, and James got the distinct impression that the man had used it well. He was young to be a trusted man of the king. Despite the fact that there was an almost predatory harshness to his features, James also felt he could trust the man just as the king so obviously did. His only question was why the man had chosen to help him, something that could anger the king, for it showed doubt in their liege’s decision. James was a little surprised when he heard himself ask that question out loud. He was even more surprised when Simon grinned, an expression that took years off the man’s face and softened his harsh looks considerably.
“The king already kens that I dinnae like the decision and why. My doubts stirred some in him as weel, but the deed was done. To suddenly revoke the decree would make the king and those who advise him look weak and easily persuaded. Nay a good thing.”
“Ah, nay, of course. “James tried to swallow the resentment he felt over being left to rot in order for the king to look strong and decisive.
“Your kinsmen ne’er let it be, however.”
“Nay, they wouldnae. Stubborn, the whole lot of them.”
Tormand snorted. “Nay like ye, aye? Sweet, biddable laddie that ye are.”
James ignored his brother. “So it was left as it was e’en though it nay longer seemed just. How is it, then, that ye now come to see if ye can find out the truth?”
“As for myself, I but needed an invitation,” replied Simon. “The king and his advisers, however, needed much more. The fact that MacKay is raiding the neighboring clans as if they are his own private larder actually helped ye, although I suspicion ye will be struggling to cool tempers and make reparations for quite a while. Howbeit, MacKay has turned a once peaceful corner of our land into a battlefield. That is what now troubles the king and his advisers. I am nay here and I didnae see ye and, of course, I ne’er helped ye, but all of that has been approved by a wee nod and a wink from the king and his advisers.”
“The men of the court ne’er do anything simply and directly, do they?”
“They cannae and, after a while, I think most of them actually enjoy playing the games. So, have ye uncovered any truth? Better yet, have ye found any proof that MacKay is guilty of your wife’s death?”
James hesitated for only a moment. MacKay’s plan to marry Annora to Egan meant he no longer had the luxury of time. Doing it all by himself salved his pride, but it could cost Annora very dearly. His family trusted Simon, and every instinct James had told him that they were right to do so. He briefly wished that he had Annora’s gift but decided to just trust in his family’s judgment and his own instincts.
“To begin with, there is a verra good chance that not only was my wife MacKay’s lover, but she was his ally. Actually, a maid saw Mary enter Donnell’s rooms during one of his visits to Dunncraig and says it was soon verra clear that it wasnae an innocent meeting between cousins. I dinnae ken who she is as she spoke to the cook and made that woman swear that she wouldnae tell anyone where she heard the tale. There is also a verra good chance that Mary didnae die that night. “James was rather pleased with the shock on the faces of Edmund and Tormand. Simon just looked intrigued.
“Ye buried her, didnae ye?” asked Simon.
“I buried a charred mess. All there was that was recognizable as Mary were the ring I had given her and a few scorched pieces of the gown she had been wearing when I had last seen her. I assumed it was Mary e’en though I couldnae understand what she had
been doing at that cottage. Now, weel, I suspect it is one of the places she met with her lover.”
Knowing he had the complete attention of the three men, James told them everything that had happened since he had come to Dunncraig. He also told them all he had discovered and how he had done that Edmund interrupted only once, cursing violently when James told them all about Donnell’s plan to wed Annora to Egan and little Meggie to Halbert Chisholm. When he was done, James crossed his arms over his chest and awaited the opinions upon his success, or, as he saw it, his lack thereof.
“I can tell that ye think ye have made a poor showing,” said Simon after only a few minutes of thought, “but ye have actually done verra weel. Having Big Marta and Annora MacKay as allies has aided ye a lot. Too many men ignore the women as sources of information, or heed only the ones they can seduce into telling them things. As to the latter, I am ne’er sure such women can be trusted. Too many good men have been brought low by heeding what a mistress or a lover has said only to discover that she was working for his enemies. The mon thought he was the one doing the seducing when, in truth, he was the one seduced.”
“Annora is not doing that, “James said firmly, hearing the warning mixed with the accusation in Simon’s voice yet trying not to get too angry about it.
“She
is
a MacKay and is living upon MacKay’s charity.”
“She loathes him and hates what he is doing to Dunncraig. She has always questioned his claim upon Meggie and on Dunncraig. Big Marta trusts her.”
“As do I and me Ida,” said Edmund. “Being an orphaned bastard, but born of good blood, the lass has had little choice in where she was sent. If naught else, she will do all she can to help Lady Margaret stay safe and happy.”
Simon nodded slowly. “That reason for her aid is one I can accept”
“But nay that she will help me because she believes I am innocent? She was a maiden, ye ken, no weel-trained harlot who could blind a mon with her skills in the bedchamber.” James hoped Annora never discovered how he had spoken so bluntly about her.
“Yet she stays at Dunncraig e’en though her cousin intends to marry her to a brutish swine of a mon?”
“As Edmund said, she stays for Meggie. It will be many years ere MacKay can marry Meggie to Halbert Chisholm, but Annora doesnae intend to allow that to happen. She lingers here because she needs to make a good plan, one that will keep her safe yet close enough to hand to help Meggie when help is needed.”
“Then we shall trust her.”
James was not sure he believed Simon’s assurance of that, but he said no more about Annora. “Are ye planning to stay in the village?”
“Aye,” replied Tormand. “None here ken who Simon is and I will do my best to keep out of sight as much as possible although Donnell has ne’er met me and I dinnae look too much like either of our parents.”
“Ye have Mother’s mismatched eyes.”
“Nay exactly. They are far closer in color than hers.”
James did not think Tormand’s light green eye and light blue eye were close in color at all, but, deciding it was not something he felt inclined to argue about right at the moment, he just nodded. For a little while longer they all discussed what Simon and
Tormand might do to help find a few truths to match all the suppositions they had. Simon did not say much, but what he did say made James feel confident that the man was well practiced in the ferreting out of secrets. It was probably a skill that had helped make him close to the king at such a young age.
By the time he began to leave Edmund’s, James was feeling hopeful that his trials would soon end. He was not surprised when Tormand followed him out of the shop and hastily pulled him back into the shadowed alley between Edmund’s place and the alewife’s. Tormand might be good at hiding his feelings from others, but his family could almost always sense what he was feeling. James had sensed that Tormand was troubled by the fact that Annora was kin to Donnell and he could not really blame him for that unease. He just hoped his brother did not cling to it too tightly.
“Ye have something ye need to say to me?” James asked his brother.