Chapter 16
With Magdalene under his arm, Angus whisked her out into the evening air and held her close to his side as they walked into a direction that he knew Magdalene had never been in before. It was an old garden with wildflowers that had gone uncropped and tall evergreen bushes were planted haphazardly.
The garden might be out of order but the flowers gave off a nightly perfume that was getting thicker as they wound deeper into the garden. Pressed tightly against his side, Angus loved how soft she was in his arms. He did not yet dare speak the words ‘perfect fit’ but she felt like it.
“Ailsa told me that you swim every day,” Magdalene said. “You smell like river water.”
“I did it this morning,” Angus said, temporarily brushing away what he was fearing to tell her. What if she reacts badly? Will she run? He came to a stone circle seat and sat them down there “But I haven’ae been back this evening. I suppose it stuck in me skin from this morning.”
His eyes were down on Magdalen’s lap where her hands rested. He reached over and grasped them. “Lass, I kent I told ye nae tonight but…I cannae hold it from ye. I’m going to tell ye something that I have only told my mother but…I dinnae tell her all of it.”
“Ailsa was right,” Magdalene said suddenly.
“Aye, she was,” Angus said. “Remind me to slap her over the head the next time I see her for being meddlesome but… she’s right. Ithel MacTavish is a sore spot for me.”
Magdalene said, while brushing a stray bug from her face, “What really happened to her?”
“We were engaged to marry and things were going fine,” Angus said, leaning back on the bench and tugging Magdalene close, tucking her head under his chin. His eyes were on the thin crescent moon as his hand rubbed down her arm.
“Well, I kent things were going fine. She came and the pledge to formalize the joining of our families by marriage was made but then she went away and stayed for two months. She came back and—” he snorted in derision as an old hurt flared up, “—the night before the engagement was inked into paper, she tried to seduce me. I thought it a good sign because I wanted her but I felt something was nae right.”
He took in a deep breath, fixed on the memory of Ithel. How she had looked at him with those large blue eyes and coy smiles. His stomach churned in disgust when he thought of how he had nearly fallen for it.
“I’m soldier-trained Magdalene, and I’ve learned to listen to me instincts. Something was off, so I stopped her and asked her what the devil was going on. She tried to brush it off as nothin’ but I kent better so I asked her again. She went silent at that time and the third time I asked, she began cryin’. Told me she was with child from another man and her old nurse, the only one who kent about it, told her to try and seduce me to play the child off as mine after we were married.”
Magdalene’s gasp of horror was tame to how he had reacted that night. “I went a hairbreadth away from mad but even then, I calmly took her back inside and told the whole clan the engagement was off. The MacTavish clan was outraged and my Mother tried to get some answers but I dinnae tell her then. I did look at Ithel’s father to see if he kent what was going on. He looked as clueless as the rest of ‘em. That night the MacTavish left and I went swimming the loch to dawn. Mother was at the bank the next morning and I told her why I had broken off the engagement by saying Ithel told me she was in love with someone else. It was the closest I could go to the truth. She still doesnae ken the real reason why.”
Magdalene’s hand went to his face and she turned him to her. There, he saw true sadness in her eyes but anger flashed once or twice, too.
“If it’s all right with you,” Magdalene said quietly. “I’d like to hate this woman.”
He snorted. “If yer fine with compromising yer Christian integrity, be me guest.”
“Thank you for trusting me with that secret but…but how could anyone do that to you?” Her tone was tight and her anger was bubbling into her words. “You’re the most caring person I have ever met. If anyone deserves loyalty it’s you. How can anyone stab you in the heart like that?”
He smiled, “Sweet-talk a man, won’t ye?”
The air was growing cooler around them and Angus was glad he had worn a thin shirt. He ran hotter than most and was glad his heat would keep Magdalene warm. The Highland weather could shift from cool to very cold at times and the lass fit into his arms so perfectly.
“I wish I could tell you how sorry I am that you went through that,” Magdalene said. “But I’m glad you didn’t fall for her tricks or I would have never gotten to meet you. I would have never known how caring you are. I would have never felt your arms around me or hear you speak. I love your voice.”
He quirked an eyebrow, “Is that so?”
She pressed her cheek closer into his neck and Angus could feel her cheek heating. “Yes, I could listen to you all night long. Your voice is deep and lyrical, sometimes I think I’m listening to a song instead of words.”
“That’s good for ye then ‘cause I cannae sing to save me life,” Angus chuckled. “And dinnae ye go asking me to dae so, ye’ll regret it.”
“Is it that bad?” She asked, her tone light and far removed from the gravity it had moments before.
“It’s that bad,” Angus confirmed, as he took her free hand and pressed in on his chest, coincidently, right over his heart. “Magdalene…”
“Hmm?” She asked.
“I want to kiss ye again,” he whispered.
To his surprise, the words she breathed out were like a prayer. “Please do.”
His mouth was on hers but moved with a slow, aching tenderness. Her lips were soft and warm and he skimmed across them with an unhurried, intimate dance. He tried to angle his face away so the scuff on his cheeks would not irritate her skin while kissing her. She pulled away to lick her lips and he groaned deeply.
“Yer tempting me, lass,” he said breathily.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been called a temptation before,” Magdalene said, only to have Angus growl under his breath.
“Yer testing me reserve like nothing—nay one—has ever done before.”
“No one?” She sounded disbelieving.
His cupped her face to make her look directly into his eyes. It was dark but he hoped she would see the truth resting there. “Nay. And it’s only God’s grace keepin’ me from touching ye how I want to.”
Deep emerald eyes darkened and she licked her lips, once, twice and by the third, Angus was actively holding himself back from throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her to his room. “How would you touch me?”
“Dinnae ye go askin’ for what ye cannae handle, lass,” Angus’ voice felt foreign to his own ears. Nae yet anyway.
She shivered and Angus took it to mean she was getting cold but she came closer and said. “Try me.”
“God’s blood,” he swore under his breath. “Ye will be the death of me someday.”
Keeping his ministrations light, Angus kissed her lips and then down her neck. He reached out and gently hauled her into his lap and slid a hand under her gown over the silken skin he ached to feel completely bare against his. Her hand was in his hair and he could feel her holding back the moans that threatened to slip from her lips.
He dropped kisses under her ear, loving how she instinctively canted her head to the side to give him greater access. His hand slid higher on her thigh and she was shivering. “Dinnae be nervous, I won’t hurt ye.”
“Pain is not what I’m worried about,” she said. “It’s how you make me feel that does.”
Fire ran through his blood in an instant and the mental pictures of Magdalene in his bed, her skin shimmering in the moonlight as he pleasured her, nearly overtook his mind. His hand slid further and curved over her bottom. Her hair fell over her face as he moved from her bottom, under her thigh, to her mound. Lightly he touched her—she was wet.
With his other hand, he worked the laces at her back and then tugged her bodice down to
bare her left breast. Her nipple was peaking and he bent to suck it into his mouth while he stroked her.
Her hands grabbed his head and she was gasping. Rolling his tongue over the peak of her nipples with his lips he parted her folds and found her nub with his thumb. Her cries were small and her breaths shallow as her body moved on his lap. With him pleasuring her from both ends, he felt deep satisfaction when her body locked up and her cry, muffled from her bitten lip, was in his ear. Her honey was over his fingers and he wrapped his free arm around her tighter as her shivers slowed.
Withdrawing his hand, he wiped it on his plaid and held it to his chest. “See what I mean, lass?”
Her head nodded in the crook of his neck, “D-Does it always feel like that?”
Wolfishly, he grinned, “No lass, it doesnae always feel that way….it gets better.”
“Better…” she whispered, while settling fully on him. “Angus…do you think…what if we end up in bed someday? What will happen then?’
Her question shocked him. “Yer afraid they will see ye as a whore?”
“I…” she nodded. “What if they do?”
What if they do?
Pulling her close he said, “I wish I had an answer for that, lass. I do know that I desire you in more ways than one. It’s not only yer body that fascinated me, it’s yer mind too. Ye dae trust me?”
“Yes.”
“Then trust me to defend ye at all costs,” Angus said.
He looked down and smiled, the faint rays of silver moonlight made Magdalene’s face ethereal and perfect to him. He did not want her away from him.
What about marriage?
He wanted to carry her to his room but doing that would have scandalized the whole castle. The Scots were less circumspect than the English when it came to propriety but they still had high levels of decorum and she had a right to think about what would happen if they did fall in bed.
Fixing her gown, he lifted and carried her back inside, taking one of the many backdoors to avoid running into servants or, God forbid, his family.
He made it to her room without interruption and toed the door open. The room was warm and toasty with the grate fire lit and he carried Magdalene over to the bed and gently rested her there.
What is the woman doing to me?
How was it that with one look at her he wanted to claim her as his and hide her away from the world? Glancing down to her hand, slightly curved on the bed, he wondered what his ring on Magdalene’s finger would look like.
The thought had him literally backing up. When had he jumped from seeing where this was going to thinking of paying the matrimonial piper? Rubbing a hand over his face he left the room knowing that his bare chest was going to draw some questions if he went to the lower story. He took long, winding corridors back to his room, thanking God that no one had come across him. In his room, he tugged off his shirt and went to his chest.
Shifting a few clothes away, he stared down at a pair of golden rings. He had gotten them made on his engagement to Ithel. No one had worn them yet. Dropping the lid down he sat with his back to it, closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. Why in God’s name hadn’t he melted those rings into liquid or made them into something else?
Because I always hoped someone better would come along.
If this relationship went where he wanted it to, he could easily go meet this aunt of hers and ask her permission to marry her niece. But he had more important tasks to finish first—he had to get rid of the witch.
He briefly thought of going to swim but shook it off. It was late and he didn’t want tiredness to be niggling at his mind when he had to be clear-headed. He wanted to take time with Magdalene but knew the more he put off attempts of getting rid of the witch, the less time he would have to be with her how he wanted—in the safe world he wanted.
If she decided to stay with me, that is.
Reluctantly, he went off to bed, deciding that the next day he had to go off and find the Druid. His sleep was deep but a twinge of unease was still lingering at the edges of his mind. He woke up with the pre-dawn to slip out of bed and head towards the loch. The water was clear and icy-blue but that did not deter him as he waded in and in a deep spot, dove down.
Swimming gave him more than exercise. It allowed a safe way to exorcise his demons enough to give him a serene calm in place of his anger. Every time life flung a roadblock in his way, he did it. He had done it when his father had died, done it before the ceremony that made him the Laird, and done it thrice when Ithel had betrayed him.
The cold water refreshed him and sharpened his mind, too. After an hour surrounded by water and morning birds, he trudged back to his home. The trip uphill dried him and the damp plaid around his waist. He took the stairs to his room three a time and dried off properly. Dressed in traveling gear, he strapped a small sheath on his thigh where he slid in a knife. He always carried a secret weapon when he was out.
Grasping his cloak and money pouch he left the room, determined to get this trip to Càrn Eige over and done as soon as possible.
“Oh Angus,” His mother asked, eyebrows lifted as her gaze ran down his clothes. “Going somewhere?”
“Aye,” he said. “I am off to Càrn Eige to meet the Druid there. I decided it is been delayed for far too long and I need to get this done.”
She nodded, “I understand, but yer taking this long trip this close to yer birthday?”
Angus blinked once and then twice more. His birthday. Damnation. He had completely forgotten about that. It was not only his family that would be celebrating, but the whole village. Visitors from nearby clans would be there, too. His birthday celebrations spanned three days rather than the one it should have.
“Ach,” he scrubbed his hand through his hair. “It is in… nine days, right?”
“Aye,” his Mother eyed him. “Can ye make it in time for it and what about the lass, Magdalene? Dae ye want me to make excuses for ye?”
Thinking of telling Magdalene goodbye made his throat go tight. He was sure that if he saw her, he’d probably postpone this trip. Last night he had opened up a part of his soul that he had not shown anyone but God.
Can I just leave after an intimate night like that one? God, I feel like the worst vagrant in doing so but I need to go.
“That would be good, Mother, thank ye. Be sure to make her understand how important this is and that it has to be done. I’ll be back before that day, I’m sure,” Angus said.
“See that ye dae,” Lady Isobel said.
“Oh, Mother,” Angus said as he suddenly remembered. “Get Ailsa and any other man ye can trust to train Magdalene. She wants to ken how to protect herself. Get them to teach her some tricks to disarm an attacker, please. I’d have done it myself but…” he shrugged. “Wouldnae look all that right, would it?”
“I’m sure she would have appreciated ye more,” his mother smirked. “But I’ll take control of it fer ye. Go before the sun gets too hot, and keep—”
“—me eyes before me and behind me,” he said for her. “I ken, Mother.” And forgive me, Magdalene.
Kissing her on her cheek, he went to the stables and saddled Titan. Seated, he turned the horse down the hill. Once again, just like the first trip to get information on this witch, he hoped he’d get much more, enough this time to send the witch to hell.
Chapter 17
It was the flickering of sunlight peeking around the pelt-covered windows that woke her. Magdalene lifted a hand to block the annoying glimmers from her eyes. The memory of last night was fresh in her mind and she blanched. What, in the name of God, had made her so bold to dare Angus into pleasuring her?
Her eyes clenched tightly at the almost visceral memory of Angus kissing her neck, taking her breast into his mouth, and how he touched her so secretly. An unbidden shiver ran through her. God, the man’s hands had to have held some kind of magic to make her react that way.
Rubbing her eyes with her knuckles to remove the last remnants of sleep, she swung her l
egs under and out of the sheets to rest on the floor. She yelped a little at the coldness but when it settled in, she stood and went to wash her face, feeling the deep need to go see Angus.
It still feels unbelievable that this family would accept me like this. I suppose those rumors I heard about Scots being inhospitable and downright aggressive with us English was a bit untrue. Lady Isobel did say that her clan is different from the rest but I am sure Angus’ position has a lot to do with it, too.
Lady Isobel had given her two more gowns the night before, after she and Angus had come from the garden. She took one up and smiled, it was a lovely deep blue shade with long sleeves. Folding the cloth over her arm to admire the shade, she saw it was lovely against her skin. Will Angus like this?
The Highlander's Fiery Bride: A Steamy Scottish Historical Romance Novel Page 14