Captivating A Highland Warrior (Steamy Scottish Historical Romance)

by Maddie MacKenna

  “I believe it would be a good idea to build another castle right at the border of our lands fer ye and me daughter, what dae ye say?” Laird Brun asked Fionnghall.

  “Aye, that sounds excellent,” Fionnghall responded automatically, barely hearing what the Laird had said.

  “Father, please remember the stable, I need me horses nearby,” Lady Beitris said.

  Fionnghall was barely able to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Deirdre looked as if she were trying to stop herself from smiling.

  “Of course, daughter,” he agreed and patted his daughter’s shoulder.

  Fionnghall saw Deirdre rolling her eyes to herself. He grinned and it didn’t go unnoticed by the Laird. However, he didn’t address it. He did, though, address another issue.

  “So, Laird Gille Chriost, have ye already sent the English lass away? I am sure she is quite a burden,” Laird Brun said.

  “Nae at all, she is welcome to stay as long as she pleases. After all, she is a good friend of me sister’s,” he said, keeping his tone cool, though anger was starting to bubble beneath the surface.

  “Surely ye understand that an English lass in a Scottish castle will nae be good in the long run,” he persisted.

  “We will cross that bridge when we get there,” he said with a tone that told the Laird that the conversation was over.

  Fortunately, Laird Brun didn’t press the issue any further.

  After the dinner was done, Laird Brun and Lady Beitris left the dining room, but his wife stayed a few steps behind them. She touched Fionnghall’s arm gently.

  “I apologize on behalf of me husband and daughter. I feel ashamed that they are behaving this way towards yer lovely guest,” Lady Brun said. Her apology was genuine and it looked as if she truly felt bad that Laird Brun was rude towards Marion.

  “It is quite all right, Lady Brun, ye have no reason to worry,” Fionnghall assured her.

  Fionnghall wasn’t quite ready to withdraw to his chambers yet. Instead, he decided he would go see how Marion’s headache was doing. He convinced himself that it was the right thing to do.

  He lifted his fist as to knock on Marion’s door, but changed his mind. Instead, he brushed his fingers through his dark, thick hair and kept on walking. What a mess.

  * * *

  After the castle was quiet and everyone was asleep, Marion decided to get out for a bit of fresh air. She couldn’t sleep anyway, with everything weighing down on her mind. She grabbed her cloak and listened at her door before opening it. No one seemed to be around, so she opened the door quietly and stepped into the cold and silent hallway.

  There were no lit candles in the hallway or anywhere else, so Marion was only relying on her memory and a little bit of moonlight that was filtering in through some windows.

  She stepped out of the front door and out in the yard. It had started drizzling outside and clouds were moving slowly. The wind was blowing from the north and it made Marion cold.

  Even the stables were quiet and everything was still. All Marion could hear was the raindrops hitting the ground and the roof.

  She breathed deeply and freely now that she knew that she was alone. There would be no one to run into in the dark and quiet barn. No Deirdre, no Laird Brun or Lady Beitris, no Fionnghall, no—

  “Marion! What are ye doin’ in here? Ye scared me to death.” Jack was suddenly standing in front of her, breathing rapidly.

  Upon Jack’s exclaim, Marion nearly tripped and fell. She had been completely immersed in her thoughts and Jack had scared her, too.

  “Jack! Lord, you scared me, too. I thought I was alone,” Marion said.

  “Aye, me as well. I could nae sleep. Figured I would come here and give a good brush to Buddy here,” he said and patted his big stallion on the neck. The horse shook his head. “What are ye doin’ here?” he asked curiously.

  “I could not sleep, either,” she admitted and grabbed a brush from a bucket. Bells was looking at Marion with her ears forward, clearly confused about this unexpected visit.

  “Somethin’ on yer mind?” Jack asked.

  Marion bit her lip and pondered. There was so much on her mind. So much it was keeping her from sleeping. But Jack probably didn’t need to know anything. He might tell Fionnghall and that would make more of a mess of things.

  “Er… Jack, are you married?” Marion asked, changing the subject. Jack didn’t object.

  “I was,” he replied.

  “What happened?” Marion asked and opened Bells’ stall door and slipped in.

  “She died of childbirth. The bairn did, too,” Jack replied with his eyes down. He looked very sad, and Marion felt sorry for him.

  “I am very sorry to hear that, Jack.”

  “It was a long time ago,” he replied and cleared his throat.

  “Did you… was it an arranged marriage?” Marion asked carefully. It was surprisingly easy to talk to Jack.

  “Nah,” he smiled. “We loved each other and married fer love, if that’s what ye mean.”

  Marion nodded. What she wouldn’t give to be able to marry for love, without the worries of arrangements, contracts, land, money, and titles. She sighed deeply and Bells looked at her, as if she understood her pain.

  13

  Ridgemoore

  Marion mounted Bells easily and agilely, while Deirdre hopped on her own yellow pony and Jack mounted his bay stallion.

  “Are you sure that you want to come with me to Ridgemoore?” Marion asked Deirdre and Jack. “I could just go on my own. I don’t want to keep you from your duties and responsibilities,” she continued.

  “Lady Marion, ye are nae the only one who does nae like the Brun family,” Jack said.

  “I never said I—” Marion started but Jack waved his hand to silence her.

  “I ken what I ken,” he said. Deirdre grinned.

  “We’d better go before the Laird sees us,” he continued. “He will ring me neck when we get back.”

  They headed towards the town gates and trotted along the road. Marion exhaled in relief. It was good to be away from the castle. Avoiding Fionnghall and the Brun family took a toll on her and after all, she didn’t want to cause any trouble. She had made her decision to stay away from him, and what better way to do so than to be away from the castle altogether.

  This way, she would have no trouble keeping the promise to herself. Though she was certain that this was the right choice to make, she knew that staying away from him would be extremely difficult if she was in the castle. Riding away to another town would get her mind away from him and back to the reason why she was in Gille Chriost in the first place, her parents.

  Marion patted Bells and she and Deirdre followed Jack out of the town. Deirdre and Jack were chattering together while Marion let her mind wander. She thought about her parents back home in England and her heart ached a little bit. Being on her own for the very first time was exciting, but she couldn’t help but feel home-sick.

  If this trip mounted no results, she would be able to return home, back to England. It would be wonderful and seeing her parents again would bring her much joy. On the other hand, leaving Deirdre and even Fionnghall would be painful.

  They rode for hours without taking a break. Marion still wasn’t used to long rides and from the looks of it, Deirdre wasn’t either. Jack was the only one who seemed to be comfortable in the saddle mile after mile.

  Though the trip to Ridgemoore was long, they couldn’t afford to take breaks. Their purpose was only to stay for one day and be back before nightfall, and breaks would only have slowed them down.

  Eventually, Deirdre fell quiet as well as she got tired of riding. They all rode in silence, Jack sometimes looking behind himself to make sure that they were still right behind him.

  The sun was showing its glimmering rays in the horizon and as they rode on, it climbed up the sky.

  To Marion’s surprise, the trip on horseback was a lot faster than in the coach. They reached the edge of Ridgemoore by breakfast time. Th
e sun was up now and the air was warmer.

  “Why daenae ye go and talk to the priest at the church, while I make some new friends at the public house?” Jack asked.

  The girls agreed. They would be able to cover much more ground by separating. And the church would be a safe place for two young women to be alone.

  Marion and Deirdre kept going on the pebble street towards the grey church at the end of the road, while Jack hopped off his horse and tied him onto the pole in front of the public house.

  “Thank you for coming with me today,” Marion said to Deirdre. The horses were walking next to each other on the half- empty street and all Marion could hear was the horses’ hooves against the hard pebble.

  “That’s what best friends are fer!” she said and smiled.

  Marion hadn’t thought about that before, but it was true that Deirdre had become her best friend over the past weeks. She was always there for her. She smiled at her

  “So, what are ye goin’ to dae about me brother?” she asked.

  Marion gulped. She had been trying to push Fionnghall out of her mind the whole morning, but it seemed that his image was burnt onto her mind and it wasn’t going to go away. No matter how had she was trying to focus on other things. More pressing things. Like finding her parents.

  “There is nothing I can do. And nothing he can do, either,” she said, defeated.

  This time, Deirdre didn’t say anything. She understood the difficulty of the situation, though she didn’t like it at all. In her mind, Fionnghall and Marion would have made the perfect match. And frankly, Marion had to admit that she had been very hasty judging Fionnghall when they first met. She blushed thinking about the misunderstanding she had when she first arrived at the castle.

  They reached the church and tied their horses onto a pole by the street.

  The church was big and the windows were made of colorful glass. Towards the bright morning sky, the church looked surprisingly calm and inviting. Kind of like a safe haven calling for Marion.

  Deirdre opened the heavy wooden door slowly. The church was quiet and cool, and the girls stepped in. There was a man at the other end by the altar, lighting candles and setting up the altar for a ceremony.

  Their steps on the bare stone floor echoed in the tall church and the man turned around slowly.

  “G’morning, dae ye wish to make confessions?” he asked with a cracking voice. He looked to be ancient, as he was hunched and fragile, and he moved carefully and slowly.

  “Nae this morning, I am afraid. But we dae wish to speak with the priest. Is he available?” Deirdre asked.

  “Sure,” the man said and turned around, mumbling something about young women not confessing to their sins.

  Marion looked at Deirdre, who shrugged her shoulders. It had been a while since Marion had even asked for forgiveness from the Lord, let alone been at a church. She felt guilty for that, too, and was sure how her mother would have reacted if she knew.

  Churches had never really pleased Marion. Maybe it was because ever since she was a child, she was forced to sit through ceremonies that took hours. She would always nod off and sometimes even fall asleep, just to receive a painful pinch from her mother. And of course, a displeased look.

  This church seemed more serene than any of the ones she had visited before. More calm. A sudden peace waved over Marion and she relaxed a little bit.

  Suddenly, a door banged shut on their right and they both turned to look around.

  A priest with white robes stepped in. He was younger than the old man who had been lighting the candles, and he moved with brisker steps.

  “Good morning, me dear children. How may I help ye this lovely day?” he asked with a faint smile on his face.

  Marion told him the reason for their visit and showed him the list of two circled names.

  “Do you remember either of these families?” she asked finally.

  The priest took the list and held it a good distance away from his face, squinting his eyes to see better. He mouthed the names to himself.

  “Let us go into me chamber. I will check me records fer ye. There is no trustin’ in me brain anymore, old age daesnae come alone, ye see,” he chuckled and the girls followed him through the door on the right side of the altar.

  They stepped into a small room that was filled with books. There was a narrow window in the back wall bringing in light, and a heavy wooden table in the middle.

  In the corner there was an unfinished illustration of Virgin Mary sitting on a tripod, with a brush and some blue paint in a bowl.

  The priest pulled out a book from one of the shelves. It was a thick book with large pages. He set it on his table and sat by it. Marion and Deirdre sat on the two chairs on the other side of his table.

  He was quiet for a long time.

  “I daenae see the other name anywhere in me records. I believe this family is nae a part of me parish,” he said slowly. “But the other one, MacDougal… they are in here.”

  Marion’s heart took a leap of hope and she looked at Deirdre with excitement lighting up her face. Deirdre squeezed Marion’s hand.

  “Mrs. Jane McDougal and Darcy McDougal had a daughter, Miss Emma McDougal.”

  Marion’s heart sank immediately. In her tartan, there were letters S.M. Though she did not know what the first M had originally stood for, “Emma” would not match.

  “Ah. Thank you for your trouble,” Marion said and they got up.

  “Anytime, child,” he responded as the girls stepped out of the door and closed it behind them.

  “Maybe Jack will have better luck,” Deirdre tried.

  Marion nodded.

  As they stepped out of the church, Jack was already waiting for them outside.

  “Any luck?” he asked them and Marion shook her head.

  “You?” she asked, but Jack’s face told her not to expect anything good. He shook his head as well.

  “What now?” Deirdre asked.

  What now, indeed. The only two leads Marion had, had turned out to be nothing. That was all there was to Ridgemoore. Marion had trusted for at least one of these leads to take her a step forward, but now she was at square one again.

  Gille Chriost didn’t pan out, nor did Ridgemoore. The only option was to travel to a new town and start over. Through her disappointment, Marion was wondering how long it would take for her to find her parents. If she ever would.

  “Shall we head back to Gille Chriost?” Jack asked.

  “Yes, I believe so. I am sorry you had to come all this way for nothing,” Marion apologized for Deirdre and Jack.

  “Daenae worry about it. This is a thousand times better than stayin’ in the castle with the witch family,” Jack said and Deirdre burst into a laugh.

  Even Marion couldn’t help but smile faintly.

  * * *

  The castle was fairly quiet this morning. The servants were moving quieter and there was no noise coming from outdoors. Fionnghall was in his chambers preparing for breakfast and hoping to see Marion. His feelings towards Marion kept growing stronger day by day and more often he found himself thinking about her.

  This morning he felt a touch of excitement in his chest. The kind he used to get when he was little, waiting for birthday presents. But this time the excitement was simply because of the presence of Marion.

  He took a quick look into the mirror that was hanging on his wall. His dark hair was combed neater than it had been in years and there was a glow in his face that hadn’t been there in a long time.

  Fionnghall ran his hand across his chin and cheek. It was time to shave. Normally, it would be his servant helping him shave his dark beard, but today he had no patience to wait for him. Instead, he grabbed a bowl of water and a small bottle of oil and a towel. He started shaving, paying close attention to details.

  Fionnghall hadn’t really cared whether his beard was longer or shorter before. As long as it was practical and clean. However, the presence of Marion and his affection towards her had grow
n a need inside him—a need to look and act his best.

  He chuckled at this thought a little. Only her being close to him made him want to be a better man. For her, for himself, and for his people.

  Shaving was done in minutes and he headed downstairs to the dining room. The Brun family was sitting at the table, but Deirdre and Marion were missing. His heart sank just a little bit. He had hoped to see Marion there with her heart-warming smile.