What manner of threat could Macnaghten fear to feel the need to reinforce the door to his study in such a way?
The clansman knocked heavily on the door and they waited for a moment with no response. Liam could hear rushed shuffling behind the door before a harried voice finally barked out, “Yes?”
“There are men here to see ye, Laird Macnaghten. They say it's urgent.”
“Who is it?” Macnaghten shouted.
The clansman blanched, realizing that he had not gotten their names.
Liam was growing tired of the delay. He reached out and tested the handle of the door to the chamber. When he gave it a push, he was surprised to find the door unbarred. If the man was to have a reinforced door, how could it be possible that he did not even possess the sense to lock it? Of course, who among his men would be foolish enough to enter the room unbidden, especially when he resided on the other side? But Liam was not one of his men, and after all of the trouble Macnaghten had caused, he most certainly did dare to enter the man's study without being given leave to do so.
“Ye cannot—” the clansman tried to stop him, but Liam cut him off, shoving him aside and barging into Macnaghten's study with Laird Drummond directly on his heels.
Laird Macnaghten jumped to his feet behind his desk at the unwelcome intrusion. “Just what in God's name do ye think ye're doing, barging in here like this?”
“Sit yerself down, Macnaghten,” Liam growled. “Laird Drummond and I would have a word with ye.”
“Laird Macnaghten, sir—” the clansman began apologetically, but Macnaghten held up his hand to silence him.
“Get out,” said Macnaghten.
“But, sir...”
“I said, get out.” Macnaghten hissed. “Do not make me have to tell ye again.”
“Aye, sir,” said the clansman. With a final suspicious glance at the visitors, he hurried out of the room and shut the door behind him.
“So,” said Macnaghten, “what brings the two of ye to Dunderaven? Laird MacDonell, I do believe I heard a rumor that congratulations are in order. Should ye not be at home with yer lovely bride?” Macnaghten’s eyes beady eyes crinkled at the corners as the corner of his thin mouth turned up in a sneering smile, and his eyes twinkled with mischief.
“And just how would ye have come to hear about my marriage, then, Macnaghten?” Liam asked him, keeping his voice as level as possible, even as his fingers twitched to wrap themselves around the short, portly man’s fat neck.
“Well, ye know how news travels in the highlands. And I pride myself on being well informed.”
“Aye well, ye may not be so well informed as ye think.”
“Oh aye, and why is that?”
“Enough of this,” said Laird Drummond. His face was thunderous as he stared down the man across the table from him. A man he had once counted among his friends. “Ye sit there making quips, when not one week ago, ye held my youngest daughter hostage. I ought to run ye through where ye sit, ye coward.”
“Ye dare call me a coward?” Macnaghten roared.
“Aye, I do! Using my sweet daughter for yer own twisted deeds. What are ye about man, pitting me and MacDonell against one another? What do ye have to gain by causing discord between us?”
“The only thing I've wanted these past ten years.” He turned to Liam with fury and disgust in his eyes. “Your suffering.”
“Have ye gone completely mad?” Liam demanded.
“Madness? Is it madness to want to see justice done? Is it madness for a father to want to avenge the life of his only daughter? I had one daughter. ONE. And she was more precious to me than life itself. But I could not be with her as a father should. I could not raise her and guide her, no, that gift was bestowed upon another. And what did that man do with my precious child? He allowed her to be married to you! Ye wed my sweet Alana and ye destroyed the light within her! Ye crushed everything in her that was good and kind until she could bear the heavy blows of yer fists no longer. Do not think to deny it! God knows the truth of her deeds! Yer violent ways drove my sweet lass to take her own life. She knew it was the only way for her to be free of ye forever. And when I discovered what you had driven her to, I vowed that I would make the rest of yer life a miserable one, and I would destroy everything that ye held dear.”
“Ye spread nothing but lies,” spat Liam. “Falsehoods drip from yer lips like venom from a snake’s fangs. Not once did I ever raise a hand to Alana. Ye speak to me of a father’s love? For most of her life she did not know ye were her true father. She did not know the truth of who ye were until she was long grown. And she ken that she had to keep the secret of her parentage, oh aye, she ken. But she admitted it to me one night in a fit of rage when she was well into her cups. Screamed at me how I would never be as great a leader as her true father Laird Macnaghten. And though I could hardly believe it, I recognized it for the truth it was. She had had so much to drink that evening I highly doubt she remembered revealing it to me the next morning, and we never mentioned it again. But I find it laughable that you expect me to believe you have ever harbored even a kernel of fatherly affection towards her after you lied to her for her entire life.”
“The lass was mine, my own! And ye as good as killed her.”
“No, I did not!” Enraged, Liam grabbed a ledger from atop the desk and hurled it at the wall. The force of the impact knocked pages from the book and they went scattering to the floor.
“Alana did not kill herself, she was thrown from her horse and broke her selfish, vicious neck. The lass was no sweet girl, as ye’re wont to believe. She had a heart as cold as stone and a cruel calculating mind. She fooled me. Aye, I'll admit it, much to my shame. She fooled me into thinking that she was in love with me and so, foolishly, I fell in love with her. But she was only using me for my wealth and position. As soon as our vows were made, she revealed herself for the calculating harpy she truly was. Do ye want to know the truth of where she was riding to the night she died? To see her lover. Aye, she cuckolded me and made me a fool.”
“Lies,” hissed Macnaghten.
“The truth!” shouted Liam. “All yer pain and rage, yer need for vengeance that ye’ve focused on me. It is based on nothing. I loved Alana, though she did not deserve it. I even mourned her after she was gone. And I may not have been the man she truly wanted, but I will not have the blame of her death laid at my door.”
“This… this cannot be.” Laird Macnaghten shook his head slowly and sank back down into he's chair.
Liam almost pitied the sunken, defeated man. Almost.
“It is over, Macnaghten,” said Laird Drummond.
“Aye,” agreed Liam. “Let Alana’s spirit rest at last. Put an end to your schemes and leave my people in peace. Her men took the homes and lives of some of my clansmen, and for that they must be brought to justice. I can see how Alana’s death has been torturing ye for all these years, and maybe the pain ye feel is justice enough if ye promise that this will be the end of it. But if I go home to discover that my brother Alex is not on his way to recovery, it will be war between us. I promise ye that.”
Chapter 23
“So, it is over then?” asked Catriona. She sat at her dressing table and carelessly ran a comb through her hair as she listened to Liam’s story of confronting Laird Macnaghten with her father, more interested in their encounter with the scheming Laird than prepping her hair for sleep.
“Aye, it's over. At least for now. I still have to see how Alex fares when I get home. He's a strong man, my brother, but I fear that I've been away from him for too long.”
“After everything that he has done, all the pain that he has caused, there is a small piece of me that must admit, I almost feel sorry for Laird Macnaghten. I cannot imagine the pain he must have felt to have lost his daughter like that. He could not claim her as his own. He could not confront you man to man. And to believe for all of these years that you were the cause of her death? It's no wonder that it drove him a little bit insane.”
“I hear what you are saying, but I will not make excuses for the man. Beyond the thefts, his actions cost innocent people their lives. He will need to be held accountable for that.”
“But we do not have any proof of his actions.”
“I know. and it is highly unlikely that we will be able to force him to confess his deeds to anyone other than your father and me. But at least his men will see the inside of a jail cell for what they have done. There will be a little justice at least.”
Catriona turned to look at him. The shadows beneath his eyes were deep and he looked weary, as though he had just come home from a battle long fought. And in a way, she supposed he had. The reavers had been plaguing his land for months now, and finally there was an end in sight. But what victory could there be if he lost his brother in the process? How would he ever be able to find any peace? Alana's selfishness and death had sent ripples through their lives like the waves in a pool after a stone had been dropped in it. The choices she had made had shaped not only her own fate, but the fate of so many people around her. And now, years later, Liam's brother could possibly pay the ultimate price for the decisions that she had made.
“Let's go home tomorrow,” she said to Liam.
Liam look startled at her words. “Home?”
Catriona nodded and stood up, moving towards him. She took both his hands in hers and looked up into his weary eyes. “Aye, home, to Invargarry. You should not be away from your brother for much longer. You have already spent too much time away.”
“Home?” he asked again, stretching the word out as though it were foreign on his tongue.
Catriona could not blame him. Invergarry had felt like more of a prison than a home the last time she was there, but this time it would be different. They would make it different.
“Yes,” she told him. “Home. Your home is now mine. I'm looking forward to putting all of this behind us and starting afresh. Of having a life with you. Being your wife. Bearing your children.” She blushed a little at that but did not waver from his gaze. “You said that you had begun to see me for who I really am through my family’s eyes. Well, I believe that I have begun to see who you truly are as well.”
“Oh, and who is that?”
Her heart warmed at the hint of hope in his voice and she squeezed his hands. She ran her thumbs over the backs of them, strong and weather-worn. Against her palms she could feel his calluses. They were the result of years of hard work, wielding a blade and leading his people.
“You came for me. You did not fully trust me, ye did not really know me, and yet, when I needed ye, when I was taken, ye came for me. My sister's told me of how ye searched for me through the storm. Ye came to Dunderaven to find me. And I have no doubt that if I had not already been freed ye would have done everything in yer power to get me back.” She stared into the depths of Liam's grey eyes and could feel tears forming in her own. “I do not know if ye even realized it, but when you saw me with Malcolm and drew your sword on him, you called me ‘wife.’ It was the first and only time that you called me your wife instead of by my name. And hearing that word on your lips made my heart swell. I had not realized before just how badly I had been wanting to hear it. That I had been longing to feel like a true wife to you. But I do. I want to be a wife to you. To stand by your side, to hold your trust and your love. For us to be a family. I want to love you, Liam MacDonell. Will you let me do that?”
Catriona gasped when Liam pulled his hands from hers, only to find herself enveloped in his strong arms, crushed against his chest. His hands were in her hair, tilting her head back as he lowered his own, pressing his lips against hers.
This kiss was nothing like the sweet kiss they had shared on the banks of Loch Oich. His mouth was hungry and his tongue forceful, prying her lips apart and demanding entry to her inexperienced mouth. Catriona moaned and tentatively sought his tongue with her own, urging him on. Her head spun, and she felt the earth tilt beneath her feet and she held tightly to him to keep herself upright as he plundered her mouth. A curious urge overtook her and she pulled back slightly and nibbled on his lower lip ever so lightly.
Liam groaned and slid a hand down her back to cup her bottom, squeezing it and pressing her closer to him. She could feel the hardness of him through the front of her gown and her entire body flushed with heat. She had never desired a man before the way she did him. She wanted to feel him. To feel all of him. To know what it would be like to finally become a woman. His woman.
* * *
She ran her hands up his arms and down the broad expanse of his chest, feeling the hard muscles beneath her fingertips through the coarse material of his shirt. She could feel the warmth radiating off of him, and she longed to touch his bare skin. Feeling emboldened, she reached lower and took a large bunch of material in her hand and began pulling his shirt out from where it was tucked into his plaid. Once the front of his shirt was free, she hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether she should continue, whether she was taking things too far, but she wanted to know. She had to feel him. Holding her breath, she slipped her hands beneath his shirt and pressed them to the flat of his stomach. She felt his muscles contract at her touch, and he pulled his lips away from hers slightly.
“God, Catriona, ye drive me wild,” he groaned.
“You do the same to me,” she told him.
Liam lifted her off the floor with his arms wrapped around her hips and carried her to the bed where he stood her on top of it in front of him. Catriona stared at him, her eyes wide. as he ran his hands up the slope of her hips, along her waist, and up her sides until they rested alongside her breasts.
Her breathing became shallow and ragged. She could feel her nipples hardening in anticipation of his touch, but he did not move his hands to cup her breasts. She watched, wide-eyed, as instead, he leaned forward and placed his lips gentle against her collar bone. Catriona's eyes fluttered closed, and she focused on the sensation of his warm lips moving up her throat and over her skin until he reached her shoulder where he placed a gentle kiss.
Her heart pounded as his lips continued their path of discovery back to up to her jaw where he place gentle kisses from one side of her face, to her chin, to the other side of her jaw and back down her throat. Never in her life had Catriona been handled so sweetly, treated so gently. She could hardly believe that the tenderness she was experiencing was coming from Liam.
His hands moved to the laces of her gown, and he began undoing them, leisurely taking his time as he undressed her until finally, the gown gave way and she was standing in nothing but her shift, with her gown pooled on the bed around her ankles.
Liam stepped back and took in the sight of her, devoured her with his eyes. She had never seen such longing in them before.
“Ye are so beautiful. I've never seen eyes the color of yers before. On our wedding day, even as I cursed ye for having trapped me against my wishes, I looked into yer eyes and said to myself that I had never seen eyes so incredible before in all my life. I could drown in your eyes, Cat. I could lose myself in them, in you, never come up for air and die a happy man.”
A tear rolled down Catriona's cheeks at his words, and he brushed it away, then kissed her on the lips again, more gently than he had before. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, never wanting to let him go.
His hands stroked her calf and slid up the back of her leg, lifting her shift as he went, exposing more and more of her skin to him. She gasped as the cool air hit her flesh, but it was soon warmed by the firm touch of his hands.
“I want ye, Cat,” he groaned into her mouth. “God help me, I want ye so bad.”
His hands became more insistent as he tugged at the fabric, lifting it up above her waist. She released him and raised her arms above her head, allowing him to undress her. Liam pulled the shift off of her in one smooth stroke and dropped it on the floor, forgotten at his feet.
Catriona suddenly felt vulnerable, standing before her husband in nothing but her skin and instinctively m
oved to cover her breasts with her arms.
“No,” he said, stopping her with a hand on her arm. “Do not hide yourself from me. Ye are a vision.” He drank in the sight of her, his eyes roaming g over every inch of her exposed flesh. Catriona’s breathing increased as he reached out to her, and then ever so gently took one of her breasts in the palm of his hand. He stroked the underside of her breast with his palm and then ran his thumb over her hardened nipple. It was so sensitive that she had to close her eyes. She could feel him moving toward her, closing the distance between them when suddenly, she felt his mouth replace his thumb and close around the nipple. He took it into his mouth, his tongue flicking at it, as he held it between his teeth. Never before had she felt something so wonderful. How could love making get better than this?
Her question was soon answered as Liam lifted his hand and placed it on her thigh, holding it there unmoving for a moment, before inching his way closer to the centre of her and slipping his fingers between her legs.
“Oh!” she cried out, as he pressed his fingers against her heat.
He bit down gently on her nipple as he rubbed his fingers rhythmically against her most sensitive area causing a thunderous turmoil to build inside of her like she had never experienced before. Her legs began to shake, and she grabbed onto his shoulders for balance, fearful that she would fall, unable to hold herself up under her own strength for much longer.
Suddenly, his fingers and mouth were gone from her skin and Catriona whimpered in protest, but Liam merely scooped her up and lay her down on the bed before he began kissing the soft skin of her stomach. He covered every inch of it in kisses as his fingers began to slowly stroke in between her legs once more. He kissed lower on her stomach, and down over her mound until the heat of his eager mouth joined his clever fingers between her thighs.
“Spread yer legs wider for me, love,” he encouraged, his voice was deep, rough and insisting, there was nothing she could do but obey him. Opening her legs wider, she gasped and arched her back as Liam pressed his tongue to her wet flesh, swirling it around the hard little nub and sent her senses spiraling out of control.
Highland Promise: The Daughters of Clan Drummond Page 15