Nora winced inwardly when Lennox spoke up. “I couldn’t agree more. I detested him, almost on sight, when our paths crossed at Stirling Castle.”
“By my troth,” protested Cicely. “The poor man is dead! Will you not allow him to rest in peace?”
“Cicely is quite right,” Micheline interjected in her soft French accent. “You men should save this conversation for another time. Shall we leave the table now? I know three young girls who must prepare for bed.”
As the others rose, still talking, Nora hoped she could slip away. Sandhurst, however, appeared at her side before she had taken a dozen steps.
“I want you to know you are more than welcome to stay here for as long as you’d like,” he said without preamble. “I’ve already spoken to Throgmorton and Mistress Goodwyn. They are here at all times, even when we are not, and they will be happy to serve you.”
Nora’s face felt warm. “You’re very kind, sir.”
“Nonsense. Micheline and I both want you to stay.”
Pride stirred in her breast. “I do have plans to meet with the keeper of the Great Wardrobe,” she professed, stretching the truth, “but until my situation is settled, I am grateful for your kindness.”
“They will be very fortunate to have you,” Sandhurst said, as his wife appeared, smiling by his side.
Micheline took his arm but leaned closer to Nora. “Ma chère,” she said, smiling, “we must talk tomorrow. May I visit you in the morning?”
No sooner had Nora nodded agreement than little Alison was spotted in the corridor, pulling Percy’s feathered tail. Sandhurst called out to his youngest daughter, and Nora took that opportunity to bid her hosts goodnight.
Alone at last in her chamber, she went to the carved chest against the wall and took out her satchel. She had unpacked it and stored her clothing herself, not wanting the serving maid to know everything she had brought.
Now Nora opened the satchel, her mind racing with new possibilities. Inside, carefully rolled into cylinders, were her precious tapestries: the childhood weaving of the rabbit, the nearly finished creation made from Lennox’s pattern, and another smaller tapestry, wedged between the other two. She closed her eyes for a moment and attempted to conjure up the magical power tapestry had always held over her very spirit. All Nora’s life, when she had been weaving, she could leave the world behind and almost inhabit her creation.
Could she do it again, now that Lennox had planted himself inside her heart? One by one, she spread the tapestries out on her bed, gazing at each one in turn.
A soft tap came at the door. “Nora? Let me in.”
Lennox’s tone was firm, and she obeyed without question, seized by a need to be alone with him. It may be the last time. When she opened the door, he seemed to fill the space. It seemed he had bathed, for his wet hair was scraped back from his face and his linen shirt clung to damp patches of his torso. Nora stood back so that he might enter.
No sooner was the door closed than he took her in his arms. She felt helpless to resist the power and emotion of his embrace. Melting against him, inhaling his familiar scent, listening to his heartbeat, Nora wanted to say, I love you, but she knew that would only complicate matters tonight.
“I have some wine,” she told him instead, stepping back. “Will you have a cup?”
“If ye will join me.” He seemed to see inside her. As Nora poured the wine, he walked over to look at the tapestries she had spread on the deep-rose coverlet.
She brought the wine and came to stand beside him. After one drink, Lennox set the silver cup on a small table.
“I see ye have brought our tapestry from Duart Castle,” he said, staring at the woven picture of the birlinn on the blue waves. “How gifted ye are, Nora.”
If only she could tell him how much it meant that he’d made the drawing for her, and how close she had felt to him when she was weaving during the time he’d been away, helping with the shipwreck.
But instead, Nora avoided his gaze. “Why have you come here tonight? I know you must have a great deal to do, preparing to go with your…father.”
“Ye know full well why I am here. I want ye to come with me.”
“I am sorry, but it cannot be.” Her heart ached with each word. “I think we both know that the time has come for us to part ways. We have grown close through all we’ve shared, but now your quest is ended, and you must go on to discover what your new life will hold.”
“Aye, but ye must be at my side.” Every muscle in his body was taut with emotion.
“No—” she began.
When Nora shook her head, Lennox grasped both her arms and lifted her easily off the floor. “Do ye imagine I can be fobbed off like someone ye barely know? God save me, lass, I have shown ye my very heart, yet ye will not even summon the courage to look me in the eye!”
“You are right, of course.” She managed then to meet his anguished gaze. “Let us sit together and talk.”
Nora brought their cups of wine to the two chairs near the window and sat down. Lennox, clearly unhappy with the space separating them, drew his chair around so that it was facing close to hers.
“Now, then,” he said, “tell me, what has happened to change your feelings toward me? Have ye forgotten the vows we exchanged?”
Suddenly the room felt very warm. Pushing back her long mass of curls, Nora licked her dry lips. “Of course not, but perhaps you have forgotten what you told me moments after we rode away from Stirling Castle?” She watched his brows flick upward as if he suspected she was trying to trick him. “You said handfasting vows could be undone with just a few words, by either party, within a year. It seemed that our supposed vows were only spoken to placate my father.”
One of the candle flames by the bed guttered out, deepening the shadows. “Do ye seek to confuse this matter by dredging up the nonsense I said so long ago? All of that was before we lay together in the woods, before we came to share our deepest feelings and secrets, before I made love to ye with not only my body but my very heart.”
“Oh, Lennox, why must you make this so difficult?” Nora’s voice broke on a sob.
“Because something is not right.” He went down on one knee beside her chair. As if sensing her desire to hide her face, he captured both her hands in his. “I know ye are not the sort of lass who changes her mind with the wind. I bid ye, tell me the simple truth.”
Her voice was barely audible. “The…truth?”
“Aye!” His eyes flashed. “Why have ye kept our wedded state a secret here in London, and why won’t ye come with me to Surrey, as my wife?”
Never had Nora known anyone who had the courage to speak so directly, even though he risked being hurt by her answer. Her heart swelled anew with love for him.
“All right.” Her voice shook, but she drew a deep breath. “I will tell you.”
Chapter 23
Nora’s lovely face was just inches away. He wanted to lift her off the chair, into his arms, but instead he waited, watching her, seeing the suffering in her eyes.
“I cannot go with you to Greythorne Manor because I am with child.”
Lennox drew back slightly, stunned, but then her words sank in, and he wanted to shout with joy. “A babe! But that’s wonderful!”
No answering smile came from Nora. Instead, she shook her head. “Do you remember the night I came to your bed and asked you to take me away from Stirling Castle? You knew I had a more desperate reason than I could share, and yet you were good enough not to press me.” She paused, but he merely continued to watch her, waiting this time for a terrible blow. “The fact is I had to get away from Stirling because I already knew that I carried a child.”
Silence filled the air, heavy as smoke, as the truth became real. “Slater’s babe.”
“Yes.” Nora leaned forward and framed his face with both her hands. “I am so sorry. I wanted to tell you the truth the first time we lay together, but I suppose I was afraid and confused. At Duart Castle, when I revealed that I was not
a virgin, I intended to tell you the rest, but—”
“Ye were too great a coward,” he said flatly, feeling misled, betrayed, confused, angry.
Tears filled her eyes, as if he had strategically used his dirk to inflict a flesh wound. “Yes. I was. You were so good to me after hearing that I had lain with another man that I simply couldn’t bear to shock you with one more hard thing. I knew how much uncertainty lay ahead, and I wanted to share that night with you.” She turned her face away. “It was such a beautiful night. I’ll keep the memory with me always.”
Did she mean to bid him farewell, forever? Ignoring her last words, Lennox replied, “I see no sign that ye are with child. What if it’s a mistake?”
“Women know,” Nora said, flushing slightly.
“What the devil does that mean? This is too important for ye to speak in riddles. I have known my share of lasses, including my own sister, and I know more than ye might think.”
She swallowed. “I have not had my monthly flow since that night with…him. The very sight of food makes me feel ill.”
Her reference to Slater made him see red. “If that villain were not already dead, I would kill him with my bare hands. Slowly.”
“Even that could not change the past.” She shook her head again. “Besides, there is no point in this conversation. You must see that any thoughts you might have had about a future for us must end. You are going with your father to Surrey, and I will remain in London, weaving.”
The anger he had felt just moments ago was gone now, replaced by a determination to change this outcome. “Nay, I do not see anything like that.” Reaching up, he dared to pull her into his arms. “Ye may be with child, but the babe will need a father. Come with me, Nora. We’ll tell the duke that we wed in Scotland, and no one need ever know the rest.”
She made a token effort at struggling to free herself, then softened against him, clinging to his wide shoulders. “Lennox, can you not see? You have a new life ahead of you. I watched you today with the duke. I saw a bond that began to form the moment you first saw each other. If this is the life you are meant to have, the part of you that has been missing, you must go with him and explore it without anything to hinder you.”
“Stop that. Ye could never hinder me.” He heard the throb in his own voice before he did the next, very natural thing and kissed her. His mouth slanted over hers, and she made a little sobbing sound as she opened to him, meeting his tongue. Arousal surged through him. His heart began to pound and his cock stiffened, aching for her in a way he’d never known was possible. There were no words for his feelings. He would simply have to show her.
* * *
Nora found herself kneeling with Lennox on the rush-strewn floor, her resistance burned away completely in the fire of their passion. His mouth was intoxicating. How she had missed him! His hands, so beautifully masculine, seemed to burn away her clothing, no longer gentle but confident, even commanding. When, for a moment, her mind engaged, and she started to draw back, Lennox clasped the back of her head and warned, “Nay. Ye are mine.”
Oh, yes. She gazed into his gold-flecked green eyes. Perhaps they were meant to have this interlude to hold onto later, when they were separated. When he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed, she made no protest. Instead, as he undressed her by the flickering light of one remaining candle, her fingers moved to unfasten the front of his tunic and then his belt. He was so gloriously made, sculpted yet warm and utterly human, and Nora wanted to touch him—every inch of him.
Only tonight, she reminded herself. Soon enough, they would have to deal with the real world, but surely they deserved to savor these moments of bliss.
Lennox straddled her hips, deftly unlacing her bodice then her kirtle, drawing them off, his expression frankly carnal as he rendered her naked. When her breasts were bared, he drew in his breath, and Nora wanted to cover herself. Her nipples had been tender in recent days, one more sign of her condition.
He cupped her right breast, squeezing gently, and she felt a lightning burst of sensation.
“Ah, how beautiful ye are,” he said, his voice hoarse. He framed her slender torso with his splayed fingers and drew her up off the bed until his cheek lightly scraped her breast.
She smothered a gasp, wanting to beg him to touch her nipple. After an endless moment, his tongue, hot and wet, did just that, and an erotic response surged deep in her belly. She throbbed there, wet and warm, longing for just one thing. As he began to suck her nipple, slowly, like an artist wielding a paintbrush, she dropped her head back, her hair spilling over the coverlet. Lennox lowered himself slightly, leaning forward so that his erection brushed her nether lips, teasing, tantalizing, as he continued to suckle first one nipple and then the other. She opened her thighs wider. The storm was building inside her, cresting and retreating, driving her mad.
Suddenly impatient for control, Nora reached up for his shoulders and tried unsuccessfully to move him. “Let me, please, let me,” she whispered urgently. Their eyes locked for an instant in the flickering light before he allowed her to push him back on the bed. She rolled on top of his powerful body, feeling exultant.
“What do ye mean to do with me, lass?” he rasped, arching a golden brow.
She replied by straddling him as he had done her, leaning forward over his hard-muscled chest to kiss him. Her hair fell around them like a curtain, and Lennox’s hands roamed over her hips, her bottom, the small of her back, then back up to her sensitive breasts.
“Tell me what ye want, love,” he invited, his gaze smoldering.
She thrust her breasts out toward him, cupping one herself so that the nipple brushed his lips. “I want more. Please, more.”
He obeyed, sucking, licking, moving from one breast to the other until the waves of arousal broke higher and higher. She was nearly there. As if sensing this, Lennox reached around with both hands and cupped her bottom, his fingers straying between her legs, groaning when he felt how slick and ready she was. Nora sat down on the pulsing length of him, rubbing back and forth, finding her own rhythm.
“That’s it, lass,” he urged softly, just before the clouds opened, lightning struck, and pleasure cascaded out from her core like a hot summer storm.
For an instant, her vision dimmed. Damp with perspiration, she lay down over his body, her heart thundering. “Oh. Oh!” she panted.
“Now will ye let me have a turn?”
She heard the smile in his voice. “Not yet. Lie still.”
“This is torture, lass.”
Nora smiled into his eyes, loving the sense of play and trust between them. “Now you know how I feel, when you are on top and I am trapped, like a butterfly, as you have your way with me.”
His voice held an undercurrent of sensual amusement. “Go on, then. I’ll wait, and then ye will pay for this.”
Love welled up in her. She kissed him lustily, and when she held his arms down, he pretended to be helpless. Moving lower, Nora caressed and kissed his shoulders, lightly running her fingertips over the muscled planes of his torso then leaning down to lick one of his flat nipples. He twitched in surprise and made a sound low in his throat.
“Ah, so you like that!” Delighted, she sucked at it, making it pucker.
“Ye should stop that,” he warned.
Nora laughed. She turned her cheek against the crisp hair that lightly covered his chest, then kissed her way down the ridges of his belly, following the arrow of gilded hair that pointed the way to his sex. Reaching lower, she felt him, even hotter and harder than before, and wrapped her hand around him.
“That’s enough, Nora.” He sounded oddly breathless.
She smiled then dared to touch the tip of him with her tongue. For an instant, she feared he might come off the bed, but then he went utterly still, and even the rasp of his breathing ceased. He smelled of her, and that just made her feel more wanton, more connected to him. Using her tongue and her hands, she did her best to give him the same kind of wicked pleasure he
had given her that night at Duart Castle. Lennox alternated between holding his breath and groaning, and once he reached down to hold her head, pushing himself into her mouth, which only increased the thrill of her arousal.
Then, suddenly, he caught her arms with both hands and brought her away from him, as if she weighed nothing at all. “Enough,” he groaned. “One more second, and it would be over for me.”
Effortlessly, he flipped her over into the pillows and stared down at her, his expression filled with wonder. “Ye are the most glorious woman in the world.” He took her mouth in a deep kiss, fitting himself between her legs. It was as if they had been created to be together this way.
Nora desperately wanted to tell him how much she loved him, but knowing how this night would end, she held back.
“Later,” he whispered in her ear, “ye shall be the butterfly again. But first…”
And then he was pushing into her, an inch at a time, and the feeling took her breath away. When he had fully sheathed himself inside her, they lay joined for several moments, their hearts beating in unison.
“I have dreamed of being with ye like this,” he breathed.
Slowly, he began to move, the hard length of him withdrawing then filling her again, gradually finding a rhythm as Nora lifted her hips to meet him. It was like flying, soaring in his arms, higher and higher with each thrust. Her face was warm and damp, her heart pounding. Lennox held her tighter, muttering words of love just before he pushed all the way inside her one more time and released a primal groan.
Nora wrapped her arms around his back, dizzy with the sheer bliss of the moment. Eventually, he raised his head and met her eyes.
“Tell me ye love me.”
“I do.”
“Say it, lass.”
“I love you.”
“Ah. I knew it.”
Nora felt his smile as he claimed her mouth in a sleepy kiss. He turned on his side then, cradling her near, and dozed off. She knew that Lennox assumed the future was resolved now. Bittersweet emotions tangled inside her as she rested her head in the crook of his shoulder. He smelled so good, and she felt safe from the world in his embrace.
Quest of the Highlander (Crowns & Kilts Book 5) Page 20