by Terry Spear
Taming the Wild Highlander
Terry Spear
PUBLISHED BY:
Terry Spear
Taming the Wild Highlander
Copyright © 2013 by Terry Spear
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Discover more about Terry Spear at:
http://www.terryspear.com/
Dedication
To my Highland readers who love Highlanders, their kilts, wind, and what is and isn't beneath the kilt! Keep those imaginations running wild and I will keep writing about those hunky Highlanders!
Prologue
Leaning against an ancient oak on a summer day, the warm breeze catching his plaid and lifting it playfully, Angus MacNeill, at six and ten, quietly watched the daughter of the chief of the Chattan clan. Dressed in a blue léine and plaid brat, Edana Chattan dangled her legs over the edge of a massive rock overhanging a loch near her clan's castle, her reflection caught in the rippling water. She looked…contemplative. Which struck him as odd.
Other girls her age were chasing butterflies amongst the heather in full bloom, or giggling in small groups of two or three, most trying to catch one of the lads' attention. Like his cousin's. Or his. Or his brothers', who were all older than him.
The girls ranged in age from two and ten to his age. Edana Chattan was four and ten. She didn't look lonely, exactly. Just dreamy-eyed as if she were happier to be in a world of her own. He couldn't help being curious about her. Not after he'd heard some of the others telling him tales about her curse.
Birds twittered in the heather while the clanking of steel against steel sounded in the background.
His older brother, Malcolm, left the sword practice to stand beside him. "Why dinna you talk to her?" Malcolm's dark brown eyes sparkled with a knowing gleam as he brushed his dark hair out of his eyes.
"She seems happy by herself." She was so bonny—the sun shining on her dark hair, a reddish cast to the strands making it appear even more fetching. Angus had seen her smiling at her brothers, her father, and her mother, but at no one else, and for some odd reason, he wished her to bestow a smile upon him.
Her smile, when she offered it to her close family, was like sunshine on a cloudy day, engaging, charming, enough so that when he saw her smile, he smiled, too. Yet when she'd caught him spying on her and smiling at her, she'd quickly lost her own and burrowed into herself again.
"You know about her, do you no'?" Malcolm asked, as if to warn him to take care around the lass.
Aye, he'd heard the rumors. The lass was touched by the fae. He shrugged as if it was of no consequence. But it was. He didn't know what she could do, in truth, but some had said she had caused deaths in the past. She would warn of it, and then the person would die.
He wasn't sure what to believe. Her five brothers were practicing swordsmanship with Angus's older brothers, and he himself had only stopped to take a break. It was hard work training against the older lads.
Malcolm folded his arms and studied Edana. "You have watched her for the three days we have been here whenever you have the chance."
Aye, he had. Waiting for her to do something—to show her fae abilities. To learn if the rumors were true.
"I havena." Angus couldn't help but sound irritated. He hadn't realized Malcolm had seen him observing the lass.
Ignoring Angus's professed claim of innocence, Malcolm said, "She has noticed you studying her as well. Go speak to her. Let her know you see her as a friend, not foe."
"Are you weary of sparring with the other lads?" Angus gave his brother a pointed look, trying to convince him to leave well enough alone.
"Mark my words, if you dinna speak to her before we leave, you will regret it." Malcolm stalked off to rejoin the practice battle nearby in the grassy glen.
Angus didn't think his brother was right. The only thing he would regret was if he couldn't learn if she truly was cursed by the fae. He looked back at the rock, but she'd disappeared. His heart beat irregularly, and he glanced quickly around the area for any sight of her, trying to quiet the fear he had that she'd truly just vanished into mist and drifted away.
Then he caught sight of her. She was vehemently arguing with a group of lads and a lass, her eyes narrowed, her lips pursed, her red-brown hair hanging loose about her shoulders. He thought to stroll over there and settle things between them because he had a cooler head and he was older. But she quickly reacted to their taunts. The next thing he knew, she had slapped the older girl's cheek and struck a lad in the stomach with her fist.
Before anyone could react, she ran off like a sure-footed red deer.
And then he learned she was truly one of the fae.
Chapter 1
Eight years later, Rondover Castle, Clan Chattan
Heart pounding, Edana Chattan woke to the sound of her brother Kayne's urgent plea. Manacled, dungeon, was all she heard, though she felt he'd said more, but she couldn't clearly recall the words he'd spoken. As if she'd been dreaming and upon waking, she couldn't capture the words as they slipped away.
It took her a moment to fully wake and realize she was at home on her feather mattress, covered with furs and the lovely quilt Kayne had brought back for her after fighting in the Crusades.
She sat up, trying to make sense of what she'd heard. Her brothers, all five of them, were on their way to see their cousin McEwan. They wouldn't be here at home. She must have heard Kayne's voice in her special way. A plea to rescue him.
Were all of her brothers in the same predicament?
Her skin chilled and not just from the coldness in the chamber. She climbed off the bed and shivered. Then she lit a candle. Her maid and companion, Una, was sleeping soundly on her pallet and Edana was careful not to disturb her, not wanting to explain the trouble to her right this very moment.
Edana quickly found her shoes in the rushes and slipped them on. She lifted her wool brat off the wooden bench sitting near the hearth. After fastening it with her brooch, she headed out of her chamber for her father's. Would he believe just her word without some kind of proof that her brothers were in trouble?
He just had to.
Her footfalls echoed softly off the stone walls in the corridor. Her candle cast eerie shadowed lights along the way. When she reached her father's chamber, she knocked.
There was no answer. He was a heavy sleeper, but she had hoped she could wake him from this side of the door—much less dangerous that way. She opened the heavy oak door and it creaked a bit.
She paused, waiting for a response. Nothing.
She peered in. "Da," she said, quietly.
If her father was disturbed in the middle of the night, he was known to jump out of his bed and grab his sword, fully prepared to attack an enemy—as many times as he'd fought in battles over the years.
She called out a little louder, "Da."
Still, he didn't awaken. Her skin pricked with trepidation, she walked toward the bed, her shoes crunching on the rushes.
She looked around for his sword, then spying it resting on the small table beside the bed, she tried to lift it with one hand, while she still held the candle in the other.
She'd hoped to move his weapon far from his grasp should he mistakenly think she was an intruder there to attack him before he fully woke. His claymore proved too heavy. She pushed it on the table as far away from the bed as she could without knocking it off on the floor. The hilt scraped the wood a little. She glanced back at the curtained bed,
but her father didn't stir. She considered the brown wool fabric cloaking her father from her view, praying he didn't have another sword hidden in his bedding. Worrying her bottom lip, she stiffened, then pulled the curtain aside.
And froze.
He wasn't alone.
Shocked and appalled, Edana couldn't stop her mouth from gaping.
His back to her, he was naked, his arms around one of the scullery maids, the covers down about their ankles. Zeneva opened her brown eyes. They widened at first, but then seeing it was only Edana, she smiled maliciously.
Her heart thundering in her ears, Edana dropped the curtain back in place before her father discovered what she'd seen. Thankfully—as much as she shook—she hadn't dropped the candle, or spilled hot wax on her father. She turned on her heel and hurried out of his bedchamber, upset and angry with him and with Zeneva, but worried about her brothers still.
After what she'd witnessed, she considered not bothering to tell her father when he woke this morn about what she'd heard. Instead, she could gather a small escort to accompany her to find her brothers and do this strictly on her own.
But she couldn't do it. She always—well, most always—had done the right thing when she'd grown old enough to know right from wrong.
She would see her father and tell him what she'd heard Kayne reveal to her. Then she'd decide what to do next. She feared her father would dismiss her concern and not do anything about it. Just as he had rejected her alarms on many other occasions. Did denying the truth make it go away? No, but he would rather ignore her than deal with her strange curse. Or gift.
She returned to her chamber, removed her brat, and slipped into her green léine, then fastened her brat over that. It was still too early for her to get up for the morn, though some servants were moving about below stairs, but she couldn't sleep any further.
Rubbing the sleep from her green eyes, Una raised her head from her palette and frowned at Edana. "What time is it? 'Tis no' time for us to rise. Is it?"
"My brothers have warned me they are in trouble." Edana slipped one of her chemises into a leather pouch.
"What?" Una asked sharply, jerking aside her covers and untwisting her chemise from around her legs before she jumped up from her pallet. She considered Edana's pouch. "You…you are packing."
Una's hair was a light brown with no hint of red like Edana's, and she stood taller. Which meant Una didn't have to reach up so high nor did a clansman have to lower his head so far to kiss her. Not that Edana had any experience with that. No lad had wanted to kiss the witch, and when she grew older—though Una had said she was bonny often enough—no man had come close to even attempting to kiss Edana. But she had seen Una kissing one of the guards once.
"What is wrong?" Una asked, quickly getting dressed.
"Kayne called out to me and said he was imprisoned in a dungeon. Or at least I fear his words meant that."
Una paused to look at her. "And Gildas?"
Edana knew Una liked her second eldest brother, though she'd denied it often enough. Una was two years younger than Gildas, and she was two years older than Edana. Both of them would be too old for any man to wed if they did not marry soon.
"I…I dinna know. They could all be in the same dungeon. If 'twas only Kayne, the others would have come home to let us know. Kayne wouldna have needed to send word to me."
"Sometimes you said it happens anyway. That even if someone else is there to aid the stricken person, his or her fright is…" Una waved her hands about in a familiar gesture of trying to describe the bizarre way Edana could hear someone's terror. "…forced into your thoughts."
"Aye," Edana said, dejectedly as she continued to pack.
"Have you told the chief? Are we going with his blessing?"
Edana's eyes filled with tears. Her mother had died only last winter. How could her father have taken Zeneva into his bed this spring? The woman didn't care for her father. Edana had overheard Zeneva complaining often enough about her father's faults—he was too harsh, too demanding, too old. Did she think she could worm her way into his bed and then become his wife? Even if he was too old? And thereby elevate her position from working in the kitchen?
Edana had heard from Cook often enough how lazy Zeneva was and how if she didn't move more quickly, she would beat her.
Her eyes blurry with unshed tears, Edana ground her teeth, trying to keep her emotions in check, and looked Una in the face. But she couldn't say the words.
"What is wrong?" Una asked, her anxious expression changing to alarm. She seized Edana's hand. "Your brothers…they are all right?"
"I dinna know." She looked away from Una. She couldn't keep the secret of her father and Zeneva sleeping together even though she was ashamed of her father and didn't want anyone to know the truth. Una would continue pestering her until she told her what had happened.
"What, then? Tell me."
Straightening her shoulders, Edana faced Una. "I went to speak to my father about what Kayne had revealed to me. My father was with Zeneva in his chamber."
Eyes wide, her lower lip dropped, Una stared at Edana. She finally found her tongue and whispered, "Nay."
"Aye." Edana hastily brushed away the tears she'd managed to keep at bay until now. It was as though spilling her secret had opened the way for the tears to spill as well.
Una pulled her into a warm embrace. She was supposed to be Edana's maid and companion, one of the guard's daughters, but once she had come to live with them, she had become more like a sister. She was the only one who had treated Edana's abilities with a mixture of awe and concern. Never with disbelief. Nor had she regarded Edana as if she was cursed like others had, though most attempted to hold their tongues when she, her brothers, and her father were within hearing. Her family would not have approved of such talk.
But that was one of the reasons Una was her maid—to ensure that Edana remained chaste. Even though an older woman normally served in that capacity as a younger woman might easily be convinced to look the other way if Edana had wanted to see a lad in secret. In truth, no man wished to touch Edana in that manner anyway, so her father must have decided she would be safe enough with a woman nearly her age.
"They were…," Una said, leaving the rest of her words unspoken.
"They were together."
Una pulled away to look at her, ripe speculation written all over her face. Eagerness. Morbid curiosity.
"We must prepare to leave if my da says he willna do anything about my brothers." Edana did not wish to speak another word about the matter concerning her father and that woman.
"He…didna see that you saw him with…Zeneva?" Una asked, sounding uncertain whether she should bring it up.
Edana took a deep breath and released it. "Nay…but Zeneva did."
Una's eyes grew wide again. "Och, she is the devil."
"She would say, and has said, that I am."
"Nay. You are…gifted." Una looked at the floor for a moment, then back at Edana. "You must tell no one."
"I hadna planned to. No' even you."
"Nay, telling me was the right thing to do. Zeneva would like naught better than to claim she has your da's heart. If you say anything about this to anyone else, word will spread that she has been in his bed."
"Do you no' think she will do the deed herself?" Edana asked, infuriated.
She wasn't happy her father would lay with any woman, but Edana had to be reasonable. If he found himself another wife, Edana wanted it to be someone she cared for. Trouble was that because of her abilities, no one cared for her.
"First we deal with the issue of your brothers. Then we take care of the other matter."
"What would your plan be?" Edana asked Una because she was older, even though Edana always had her own plan in mind. More than half the time they both had the same notion.
"You will tell your da about the message from Kayne as you had intended. And then if your da does naught about it, we find a couple of guardsmen who dinna have duty for a couple
of days and nights. Aye? Think you we can locate your brothers before then?"
"That was my thinking on the matter. Which is why I confided in you in the first place. Because your da is a guard, you know the men better than I do."
"Aye." Una licked her lips as if she was nervous about something. Then she said, "If Seumas wishes to go, you must say nay."
"Seumas?" Then the reason dawned on Edana. "Because he kissed you and you kissed him back?" And Una didn't want him knowing she wished to rescue Gildas.
"Nay. He would most likely attempt to stop us from leaving. As to Zeneva? Once we, well, you tell your brothers about that, they can deal with her."
"My…brothers?" Edana could do a lot of things, but tell them she'd found their father naked in bed with another woman? Her body grew hot with humiliation.
"I canna tell them," Una said, packing the rest of what they'd need on their journey, evidently suspecting the same as Edana—her father wouldn't do anything and they would be forced to leave with a small escort without his consent. "He is your da and you saw him with her, no' me."
"Do you think I could tell my brothers that I had spied my da and Zeneva in bed together naked?" Edana whispered.
Una's mouth dropped open. "God's wounds. In truth?"
Edana took a deep breath and nodded. She thought Una had realized…
"I thought they would have been covered up. Mayhap wearing something. Naught at all?"
"The covers were down around their ankles." Edana felt her face warm, but Una's face blushed in color, too.
"You shouldna have seen that."
"Aye," Edana said. "'Tis my fondest wish I hadna. Are you ready?"
"Aye. Should your talk with your da prove useless, I will have to ensure we ask two of the guards who wouldna tell my da of our mission, or we willna be going anywhere."
***
Later that morning, Edana joined her father at the high table to break their fast, having an awful time meeting his eye. Though he seemed to be suffering from the same condition. Had that horrible woman told him Edana had seen them naked together? Her whole body felt it was on fire, she was so mortified.