In the Kingdom's Name (Guardian of Scotland Book 2) (23 page)

Her hands trembled. A sudden queasiness attacked her stomach. She couldn’t leave William. The only thing she could do was influence him to change his course of action. Could she do it subtly enough not to invoke the ire of the medallion? Removing it from around her neck, she placed the bronze disc on the table. “He is my husband now. I will stand beside him no matter what.” Her words made the anxiety melt from her shoulders. She rubbed another swipe of ointment across the wound. “Listen to me.
Your
future is what you should focus on now. You will become a renowned knight—one who bears a legacy through the ages. It is time you pledged your fealty to Robert Bruce.”

“Is that right?” Robbie said with an edge of sarcasm.

Picking up his shirt from his lap, she stuffed it into his chest. “Think! King John abdicated the throne, and now he’s retired to France. He’s
never
coming back. Who is strong enough to be king? Who among the gentry has the grit to take on England and throw the bastards out of Scotland?”

The pupils of Robbie’s eyes shrank into tight beads. “Bruce?” he whispered. “Is that why he met with Willy at Torwood?”

“I think you know the answer, Robert Dominus Boyd. Who do
you
think is man enough to take up the king’s mantle and finish the work William has spent his life trying to achieve?”

More than anything, during his stay at Eynhallow, William enjoyed his afternoon walks with Eva. Today she let her tresses fall loose. He loved how the breeze picked up her curls and made them dance.

Opening her arms, she twirled along the path as if they had not a care in the world. “I love it here.”

“What do ye like best?” William caught a lock of her hair in his palm and held it to his nose.

Giving a wry look, she giggled and fell in step beside him. “The remoteness, the quiet, the fresh smell of the sea.” A seal sounded on the shore ahead. “Look—where else have you watched seals sunbathing on the shore?”

“Ye like the seals, then?”

“I love the seals and the seabirds.” She pointed. “And look there, the daisies are in bloom since yesterday.” Taking his hand, she skipped for the flowers. “We must make a daisy chain.”

“I like seeing ye carefree like this.” William’s rigidity eased with her exuberance. He helped by picking a fistful of the flowers and held them up. “Is this enough?”

“Yes.” Laughing, she led him to the stony shore and sat with her legs crossed. She spread the daisies in her lap. “Have you made a chain before?”

“With flowers?” he asked. “Nay. Repairing my mail is about all I’ve done with chains.”

She broke the stem near the top, then made a hole with her fingernail. “See, you slide the next stem in like this, then pull until the base of the flower hits.”

William picked up a daisy and followed her instructions. “Like this?”

“Yep. Easy, huh?”

He chuckled. When they were away from others, she relaxed into her normal speech. Now he’d grown accustomed to it, he loved to hear her talk when she wasn’t trying so hard to be
her ladyship
. “What do we do with these once we’ve used up all the flowers?”

She held up her strand of three flowers. “Make a necklace.”

Stilling his hands, he gave her a flabbergasted smirk. “Ye expect me to trudge back to the monastery with a ring of daisies around my neck?”

“Why not?” Eva pushed another daisy through her chain, looking unfussed.

“I’d never be able to show my face to my men.”

“Oh? I think if anyone were bold enough to tease you, they might end up regretting it, and in short order.”

“Och, ye’re right there.” He pulled a stem a bit too hard and broke off the bloom.

Eva reached for it. “Oops.” Her movement graceful as a swan, she plucked it from his thigh and tucked it behind her ear as if she were born to be adorned by daisies.

William brushed her windblown tresses from her forehead. “It suits ye to have flowers in your hair.” Watching her bonny face, his heart squeezed. Jesu, he would never cease to adore her beauty. “Och, ye are so fine, wife.”

The green of her eyes gleamed when her gaze met his. She reached up and cupped his cheek. “You know I love you with all my heart—always have.”

“Aye.” A lump filled his throat while his fingers worked the flowers.

She rubbed her outer arms and looked toward the horizon. “Are you happy here?”

He shrugged. “I’d be a fair bit more content if Lord Bruce would send more men.” He completed his ring of daisies and slipped it over her head. “And news from the mainland has been sparse.”

“I rather enjoy having you to myself in the afternoons. There’s nothing more romantic than a quiet stroll along the secluded shore.” She held up her palms and grinned sheepishly. “No daily running for our lives.”

“’Tis romance ye want?” he teased, prodding her with the tip of his finger. He could be happy spending the rest of his days walking the shore holding Eva’s hand. He couldn’t deny her point either. Living without fear was what every man desired. William sighed. If only he could walk away from the cause, but he’d never forgive himself. He owed his life to Scotland and his kin. Images of his murdered countrymen haunted him nightly. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw his slain father lying face down in the mud, his sinews cut behind his knees. This respite in Orkney could not possibly last. Did he want to stay and pretend he and Eva were all that mattered in the world?
More than anything.

But his desires were selfish musings of a mortal man.

She draped her chain around William’s neck. Then her eyes grew dark with a waggle of her brows. God’s teeth, the woman could make him hard as a bedpost with one wanton look. “I wish we could remain here forever—let the world’s problems pass us by.”

“Problems have a way of catching up with a man.” He slid an arm over her shoulder and squeezed. “We canna hide from our destiny.” Mayhap they could steal an hour or two of respite. Inhaling, he closed his eyes and succumbed to her intoxicating allure.

“I don’t know.” Frowning, she drew away from his arm, then moved behind him and sunk her fingers into his shoulders. Good God, she could also pacify an angry mule with her hands. “You’ve been regaining your strength with rest and my massages. Perhaps a year on Eynhallow wouldn’t be too much to ask.”

“And ye have more fanciful dreams than I.” But William doubted his strength would ever be equal to his prime. He’d suffered too many injuries—and no matter how hard he tried, he didn’t improve.

Eva swirled her thumbs between his shoulder blades. “If the war was over, what would you do?”

He rolled his shoulder as the tension in his muscles responded to her magic. “That’s easy. I’d take ye to my lands in Ayrshire. We’d have bairns and till the paddocks. I’d build ye a fine cottage with an enormous hearth.”

She leaned close enough for her warm breath to caress William’s ear. “I’d like that very much.”

Gooseflesh rose across his arms.
Jesu, so would I.

Since the first time they’d made love, they hadn’t talked about taking
precautions
. It seemed of no consequence before, but now he wondered. “Are ye able to have them?” he asked in a whisper.

“Have what?”

He clutched her arm and pulled her onto his lap. “Bairns.”

Green eyes opened wide. Her mouth formed a perfect “O”. “Ah…I think so.”

“What is it that prevents ye from conceiving? We’ve been together often enough, I would think…”

A rosy blush spread across her cheeks—och aye, he adored how easily she could redden. “Um…I used to have an IUD in my uterus—ah—my womb. It’s a device that prevents pregnancy. But five or so years ago, I had it removed.”

“Why?”

She rubbed her palm over her belly. “It’s not healthy to leave them in forever.”

William’s tongue tied, but there should be no secrets between them. “Did ye plan to have children?” he managed hoarsely.

“No.” She fiddled with his daisy necklace. “After you I…”

“What?” He tilted up her face with the crook of his finger.

Gazing upon him with half cast lids, her pink tongue slipped to the corner of her mouth. “I didn’t want anyone else.”

His heart not only thundered in his chest, it swelled and made him want to roar. God, how he loved her. “Och, Eva, I love ye with all my heart.” He drew his arms around her and squeezed. Soft breasts molded into his chest, pebbled by two of the most alluring tips he’d ever felt in his life. “I only wish we’d have met in your time rather than mine.”

“Wouldn’t that have been a boon? You could have found your own seal.” Leaning forward, she nibbled his neck as she rocked her hips against his growing erection.

His chuckled came out deep, filled with desire. “Ye mean that lump of rust ye showed me in your shiny black box?”

“The very same. It’s on display at the National Museum of Scotland.”

He blew out a guffaw. “Unbelievable.” He captured her mouth with his lips, kissing her with long, languid swirls of his tongue. He tugged the neckline of her bodice down until he exposed her nipple. “I dunna want to think of things to come right now.” Cupping her luscious breast, he teased her until she arched her back and moaned with ecstasy, grinding her hips against him. He adored how his woman could show her ardor, how she could growl and moan with unabashed passion and take him to heights he’d never dreamed possible.

With a wee giggle, she lifted her skirts and straddled him. “Make love to me here while the cool breeze tickles our skin.”

William glanced back toward the monastery. Sitting against the embankment, they were well hidden. He chuckled and loosened his chausses and braies.

Lithe fingers surrounded him—knew exactly what he liked as Eva stroked.

Shuddering, William’s eyes rolled back as she took charge and she lowered herself over him. Cupping his hands around her buttocks, together they began a slow rhythm while the breeze tantalized their flesh and the surf sang a rolling song of love.

Together their bodies rocked as one while the gnawing problems of the Kingdom faded into oblivion. Her lips parted as her breathing sped. A spike of desire shot through the tip of his cock, but Eva controlled the pace, gradually increasing while she clung to him for dear life.

A cry caught in the back of her throat—a wee sound that sent him over the edge of no return. With three deep thrusts, together they peaked with a rush of shudders that wracked his body and soul.

A warm glow spread through his insides as Eva nuzzled into his neck and plied him with fluttering kisses.

But all too soon, she looked beyond his shoulder and frowned. Then she shifted her hips aside. “I think you’re needed.”

Retying his braies and chausses, he glanced back as well.

“William,” Robbie called, approaching at a run. “A galley of recruits has arrived—say they have a missive from the Earl of Carrick.”

He gave Eva a peck on the cheek. “Ye see? We canna hide from our accountabilities.”

“Well, go on, then.” She gave him a playful shove. “I’ll stay here for a while longer and keep the seals company.”

The tightness in her chest returned while Eva watched William’s retreating form as he walked beside the younger man. Her husband had a slight hitch to his step and he carried his lion-mangled shoulder a bit higher than the other. Doubtless he needed this time of respite. If only he wouldn’t be so anxious to return to the battlefield. Irrespective, she’d keep working on him—wearing him down. His numbers weren’t growing as fast as he liked, and that fact might make him stay put through the end of summer—as long as men continued to show up.

What does the missive from the earl contain?
She’d find out tonight. Hopefully it would be like the others, introducing the conscripts who’d sailed from Ayr—or wherever.

A seal barked from the shore. Eva diverted her attention to the pod. An infant nuzzled his mother, looking for milk, no doubt.

She slipped a hand to her flat belly and rubbed. Pregnancy? Honestly, with her gift of blocking things from her mind, she hadn’t thought about the possibility of conceiving. Her period was a little late, but that wasn’t usual.

Heat spread throughout her chest. What if she did end up pregnant? No one needed to tell her about the mortality rate of having a baby in medieval Scotland.

Shuddering, she rubbed her stomach again.
I need to start taking precautions
.

But what if she did conceive? What a blessing to have William’s child—and at thirty-five, her maternal clock was ticking.

No. Not now. After August, yes. Not until
.

***

Once he received dismal news from the Earl of Carrick who was unable to recruit anywhere near the numbers they needed, it was William’s idea for Eva to sail for Moray Firth and Ormonde Castle with John Blair.

“Ye’ve been wound tighter than a snare since we set sail,” Father Blair said stepping up to the side of the hull beside Eva.

She regarded his gaunt visage—even the friar looked worried. “I need your help.”

He let out a rueful chuckle. “What can
I
possibly do to help ye, m’lady?”

“We must ensure William stays on Eynhallow through the end of August at least.”

“That long?” He placed his hands on the rail. “I’d hoped the troops would be ready to march by then.”

“They won’t,” Eva said a little too quickly. “Um…I mean, I doubt you’ll have the numbers.”

Blair regarded her with pursed lips. “Why do I sense there is something ye’re not telling me?”

She grabbed his woolen sleeve in her hand and squeezed. “Because it is far too awful to discuss. Can you not go along with me on this one thing? William needs to stay on that bloody island though August, and it’s up to us to keep him there. Do you understand?”

The priest grumbled under his breath.

“Please.” Eva tried the emotional tact—perhaps the friar had a heart. “If you love William, you’ll do as I ask.”

Blair looked to the shore with a huff. “Verra well. I’ll go along with ye this once.” He pointed. “But first ’tis up to ye to solicit the lady’s assistance. If ye fail, William willna listen to either of us.”

A chill of dread spread across her shoulders as the galley approached the grey fortress looming over the north shore. Pushing her palms against her face, she feared what they might encounter. The castle had been attacked by the English in 1303 for the sole purpose of capturing Andrew Murray’s five-year-old son, named for his father. Lady Christina remained there, living under house arrest. Whatever that meant, Eva was sure to find out soon.