My Highland Warrior (Warriors of the Highlands Book 1)

by Miriam Minger

  At least that many men remained behind to guard the castle, Finlay saluting them with his sword as they had ridden out from the bailey. Gabriel had whispered in her ear that he had chosen his cousin to command the rest of his men in his absence, though Magdalene had sensed the russet-haired giant would rather have accompanied them.

  When she had passed by him in the bailey, Gabriel leading her by the hand to mount his magnificent steed, Finlay had stepped back as if thinking she might try to kick him.

  Och, she felt terrible for the pain she had cost him! She had wanted to tell him as much, too, but Gabriel had made a startling request earlier that morning when he had gently shaken her out of a deep slumber.

  She noticed at once that he was already fully dressed and wearing armor, which made her realize he must have been up for some time and had come at the last moment to wake her.

  Fortunately she had packed for the journey the afternoon before and had only to don a gown, Gabriel murmuring close to her ear after nuzzling her so tenderly that Euna waited out in the hall to help her.

  “Play the lunatic for a while longer, Maggie. Not the wild one, but the docile one—will you? I want tae see when we arrive at your brother’s if I have friends at all among his people. That will tell me much…”

  He hadn’t said anything more, but kissed her so passionately that any cobwebs from sleeping so soundly had vanished in an instant. Magdalene had felt breathless when he left her side and called Euna into the room.

  If the maidservant had gleaned that anything was different, Euna had said nothing, though her pale eyes had grown round when Magdalene had climbed out of bed.

  Hers had widened, too, at the scarlet blood stains on the sheet, a blush blazing her cheeks as she had rushed to the basin to wash herself and then dress as quickly as she could.

  Magdalene closed her eyes, her face burning now just to think of it again…the miracle of what had happened between her and Gabriel last night never far from her mind.

  Those blood stains meant she was no virgin bride any longer, but fully a wife to him.

  A loved wife, aye, she had felt it as surely as she breathed, his last glance telling her as much as he had picked up the bag with her belongings and strode from their bedchamber.

  Their bedchamber. Not just hers any longer, Magdalene shivering at the joy rippling through her even as Gabriel’s arms tightened around her.

  Love and trust and forgiveness had washed over them like a balm from heaven, everything changed between them though they’d had little chance to speak to each other.

  She wanted so desperately to tell him all…to explain herself and ask him how he had discovered that she wasn’t mad—aye, and to ask him at last about the MacLachlan family curse. Donella and Euna had never spoken of it again and she hadn’t dared to press them for fear of compromising her ruse, but now he could tell her about it, surely.

  She wasn’t frightened. Gabriel would protect her from danger and guard her with his life, Magdalene was certain of it. Yet if there was anything to temper her happiness—

  “The fortress is just ahead, Maggie. Dinna forget what I asked you this morn, if only tae protect you. Will you promise me?”

  “Aye, Gabriel, I promise,” she whispered, the huskiness of his voice against her ear sending fresh shivers to her toes.

  The road had widened and Cameron and Conall rode alongside them now, Magdalene catching a glance between the brothers that told her they sensed everything had changed between her and Gabriel.

  Had he told them that she was no lunatic? If anyone knew at all, it would be his trusted captains. Yet what had Gabriel meant by suggesting that Magdalene continuing with her ruse might protect her?

  A sudden sense of intuition gripped her that mayhap he didn’t trust her brother, which only made her long for time alone with Gabriel so they could talk at last! Surely once they reached the fortress—

  “Och, Magdalene, dinna look.”

  She felt Gabriel stiffen with tension as they passed by a thick stand of trees, but she had no chance to turn her head before she saw the bodies hanging from the lowest limbs.

  Dear God, executions? Why, then, hadn’t Seoras ordered the rotting corpses cut down and buried rather than leave them there for all to see?

  With a sickening feeling, Magdalene realized she had answered her own query—that her brother wanted it that way.

  A warning. A promise. Death would come to any that opposed him. Had those poor wretches been Robert the Bruce’s men?

  “Oh, Gabriel, what madness are we soon tae face?” she murmured before catching herself, Gabriel’s arm tightening around her.

  “Take care what you say, wife—take care from this moment! Seoras’s spies are everywhere. I dinna fault your words, but I can see things are much worse than when I was here a month past tae ask him for gold tae help my kinsmen. That’s how we came tae be wed by proxy. Seoras wouldna give me a single coin unless I agreed tae take you for my bride—aye, tae try and control me, I’m certain of it. Och, enough! We’ll speak more of your brother’s treachery later.”

  Your brother’s treachery! Stunned by his words, Magdalene glanced up at Gabriel, but he was looking ahead to the looming fortress three times the size of MacLachlan Castle.

  She followed his gaze, her breath stilled to think that he might not be loyal to Seoras at all, Gabriel’s fealty mayhap shifted to another man. King Robert?

  Magdalene clutched his arm and laced her fingers tightly with Gabriel’s, that he had uttered such a thing showing his trust in her.

  He knew nothing of her feelings for Seoras and if she shared Gabriel’s disgust—och, when would they have some time alone so she could voice them? Mayhap that her brother had married her off against her will was enough for Gabriel to know that there was no love lost between them—

  “So it’s not just enemy fighters, but villagers, too,” Gabriel’s grim voice broke into Magdalene’s thoughts as loud weeping made her look to the opposite side of the road.

  A host of women and children kneeling beside fresh corpses made the blood drain from her face, she felt it. Lamenting and wailing unlike anything she’d heard before gave her chills, one little girl tugging at the bloodied hand of what must have been her father.

  A pretty young woman heavy with child knelt beside another dead man, and rocked back and forth holding her swollen stomach while an older woman tried to comfort her—but to no avail. Her grief-stricken keening rent the air, making tears rush to Magdalene’s eyes.

  “Gabriel, is there aught we can do?”

  “Not here. Not now,” was all he said in a tone so harsh that she almost didn’t recognize it. “Seoras will show no mercy tae anyone he deems treasonous—anyone. He wants tae be king and he’ll allow no one tae stand in his way.”

  King? Her brother? Magdalene clutched Gabriel’s hand all the tighter, her fingers turning white.

  Yet why wouldn’t Seoras aspire to the throne? It made perfect sense. The Red Comyn had been slain last year by his main rival, Robert the Bruce. Who could say how many other powerful earls refused to acknowledge him as king of Scotland? Clearly her brother was wasting no time in asserting his claim by crushing those who might oppose him—including some of his own people…

  Suddenly Magdalene felt icy cold, her heartbeat pounding in her ears.

  “I fear for you, Gabriel,” she murmured, but her words were lost to the snorting of his horse as they drew closer to the massive fortress.

  A village that had grown twice over since last she’d been there lay to the right of the road, but the place was eerily silent as they passed by.

  No laughter. No children playing in front of the houses. Windows were shuttered, the market stalls empty.

  Yet it was a time of war after all, everyone no doubt aware of that night raid upon another village not far from the fortress—aye, she’d heard Seoras’s messenger. Only armed warriors posted on both sides of the road acknowledged their passing, some of the men bowing their heads slightly
at Gabriel when they appeared to recognize him.

  MacDougall clansmen. Her brother’s minions. Were their swords dripping red from the villagers that had recently been slain? Villagers suspected to have been consorting somehow with King Robert’s forces hiding in the nearby mountains?

  Magdalene glanced up at Gabriel to see if he was inclining his head to them as well, but his gaze was focused straight ahead upon the massive drawbridge being lowered for them.

  Her former home had been built upon a rocky promontory, the fortress surrounded on three sides by the waters of an immense lough. She had never felt a prisoner there until after Debora died—och, so many unhappy memories crashing in upon her as they drew closer!

  As if sensing her dismay, Gabriel pressed his hand just below her breast, but he didn’t utter a word. She had seen him grim-faced before, though nothing like the hard set of his jaw now and the tic working along one cheekbone.

  Archers stared down at them from the high parapets and she smelled the stench of heated pitch. Were they preparing for an imminent attack?

  Magdalene saw something else, too, set upon pikes lining the last stretch of road leading to the drawbridge…and she feared she might retch, gall rising in her throat.

  Severed heads with sightless eyes—ah, God, more executions? If so many thus far had opposed her brother, would he not think to reconsider his quest for the throne?

  “Seoras has been busy,” was all that Gabriel muttered, though he seemed to have spoken more to himself than her. He clutched the reins with both hands now, Magdalene missing at once the reassurance of his touch that had bolstered her during the journey.

  With an ominous clopping of hooves, his steed crossed the drawbridge, followed closely by Cameron, Conall, and Alun, who had dropped back behind them.

  Magdalene held her breath as they passed beneath a massive iron gate and then rode into the expansive bailey where she had once skipped and played as a child—but it only seemed threatening to her now. The place teemed with people who rushed forward to surround them, warriors, stable hands, and finely dressed courtiers, while a familiar voice roared above the din.

  “Welcome, MacLachlan! Just before midday, I commend you!”

  Like the parting of the Red Sea, the crowd stepped aside so Seoras could stride toward them, his ermine-trimmed cloak swirling. Gabriel dismounted to greet him, which made a self-satisfied grin split her brother’s bearded face.

  He was a big man, his reddish-blond hair glinting in the sunlight, but not as tall as Gabriel by half a head. Yet Seoras’s green eyes, so much like the color of her own, weren’t on his baron but settled upon her…his smile grown tight as he appraised her.

  “Och, she’s comelier than I remember. At least you dinna have tae close your eyes when you bed her, aye, Gabriel?”

  A great burst of laughter erupted from those gathered around them, and Magdalene saw at once that Gabriel’s broad shoulders stiffened. Yet not all were laughing…some MacDougall clansmen watching silently as Seoras waved his arm with a grand flourish.

  “My sister, Mad Maggie, has returned! Dinna stand too close, though, lest she drool upon you. I recall our mother drooling after she lost her wits, poor woman. Fetch her down from the horse, Gabriel, so we can have a better look at her.”

  Sickened that he would share such a heart-wrenching detail about their mother, Magdalene did, indeed, gather spittle into her mouth as Gabriel obliged him, his strong hands around her waist as tense as his shoulders. As soon as her feet touched the ground, instead of drooling, she coughed straight at her brother, a sticky glob landing right at the center of his tunic.

  Seoras looked down, and then up again, very slowly, his face darkened with anger as no one made a peep around them. Gabriel, too, looked on silently, though she could swear that she saw the barest glint of approval in his eyes.

  That fueled her even more and she began to whirl around in place with her arms out flung, Seoras stepping back while everyone else around them scattered.

  “Home again! Home again!”

  Her voice as wildly shrill as she could make it, she laughed, too, just as she’d done before with Gabriel, a crazed sound that made the onlookers move even further away. She would have kept twirling if he hadn’t grabbed her, and clasped her arms to her sides.

  “You must forgive my wife,” he said loud enough for everyone to hear. “She’s a lunatic after all. Do you have quarters where I might take her?”

  “Aye, the same room in the tower where they kept our mother,” Seoras answered gruffly, wrenching one of his courtiers toward him and using the man’s sleeve to wipe the spittle from his tunic. “Go on with you, show him the way—but see that you meet me in the great hall, MacLachlan, within the half hour. The rest of you, attend tae his men and horses!”

  With that, Seoras turned on his heel and stormed away, while the hapless courtier tried to shake the mess from his sleeve even as he bowed his head to Gabriel.

  “If you please, Laird, follow me.”

  Grateful that Gabriel had released his tight hold upon her, Magdalene hurried beside him, almost tripping over the hem of her gown. She gasped when he swept her up to carry her, his voice barely above a whisper in her ear.

  “I thought I said docile—”

  “Oh, aye, forgive me, husband. Next time I’ll spit more gently.”

  He gave no answer to her returned whisper, but squeezed her as if he wanted to shake her.

  Yet still his gaze held admiration, which made her dare to throw the most fleeting of smiles at him…just in case anyone watched them as he carried her inside.

  Chapter 20

  “Och, Maggie, anyone else would have forfeited his head tae spit upon your brother. Shh, keep your voice down tae a whisper. Always remember while we’re here, the walls have ears.”

  Gabriel had placed his forefinger on Magdalene’s soft lips, sensing she wanted to blurt out something the moment the courtier had left them alone in the tower room—yet were they alone? Just as he’d expected, a maidservant appeared in the doorway, but he shut the door on the young woman and drew Magdalene further into the room.

  “I must leave you. I’ve no idea for how long—”

  “Oh, Gabriel, I fear for you. Dinna you hear me say as much when we were passing by the village?”

  “Aye, I heard you.” He held her close, marveling at the raw concern in her beautiful eyes.

  Marveling still at the night they had spent together and that she was finally, fully, his wife.

  Marveling that everything had changed though so little had been said between them. There had been no time…Gabriel growing tense at the thought of Seoras awaiting him in the great hall.

  If Magdalene feared for him, then she sensed more than he could have imagined about his shifting allegiance, though he hadn’t uttered a word to her. Such things were best left unsaid, and the less she knew right now, the better. With great reluctance, he eased his hold upon her though she moved closer against him, her lovely face upturned, her emerald gaze locked with his and her voice the barest whisper.

  “Whatever happens, husband, your path is my path. My loyalty is tae you, not Seoras. Never Seoras. I wish you didna have tae leave so we could talk—so I could tell you—”

  “What lay at the heart of your ruse? I remember Debora and know what cruel fate befell her. It makes perfect sense that you would fear the same might happen tae you”—Gabriel tightened his arms around her, his own voice sank to a husky whisper—“and that you would do aught tae protect yourself. When I saw you naked in that fountain, och, woman, you had me convinced you were mad as a loon until Clovis—”

  “Clovis?”

  “Aye, he gleaned the truth from treating you—though I had my own suspicions. Your eyes gave you away a time or two…” Gabriel lowered his head to press his mouth to her lips, the warmth of her sweet body making him wish fiercely that Seoras wasn’t waiting for him. That thought alone made their kiss all too brief, Magdalene sighing in soft protest when he once ag
ain eased her away from him.

  “I’ll return as soon as I can. Dinna forget your promise, Maggie. At least I’ll know you’ve a means tae defend yourself if I’m not by your side. You’ve a wicked kick, wife.”

  He’d meant the smallest attempt at humor, but the tears welling in her eyes were almost too much for him to bear.

  Aye, she knew well enough that there was no levity in anything concerning her brother—the corpses hanging from trees and lying bloodied upon the ground were all the reminder needed as to the fate of any that opposed him.

  Gabriel cast a look around the room with its modest furnishings and canopied bed barely big enough for two, the heavy shutters cracked at the one window to emit the midday light. At least there was a small fireplace to warm them at night. Bitterness rose like bile in his throat that Seoras would lodge them where Magdalene’s mother had so grievously suffered. The bastard had a stone instead of a heart.

  His private resolve only deepening, Gabriel wanted nothing more than to crush Magdalene in his arms and never let her go. To breathe in the fragrance of her skin, her silky hair, and kiss the softness of her lips. Damn Seoras! Steeling himself, he wheeled around and went to pull open the door, the red-faced maidservant jumping back as if she’d had her ear pressed to the wood.

  “Tend her well or you will answer tae me,” he ordered gruffly, glad at least that he and Magdalene had spoken in whispers. Was the wench merely curious—or had she been sent there to spy upon them?

  Sensing the latter, Gabriel knew that there was little at that moment he could do. Seoras awaited him.

  Hopefully Magdalene would wonder the same thing and take care—please God, take care! Gabriel didn’t glance behind him as he strode down the hall, though his heart wanted nothing more than to return to her side.

  “Lady MacLachlan, my mistress sent me tae fetch you.”