Claimed by a Laird

by Glenn, Laura

  Adam shook his head. “I do not know. But she was terrified.”

  “Of course she was,” Owen grumbled, his bushy brows shifting in anger. “She is a MacAirth now. The mere mention of the Gowrie name should frighten her.”

  “But why would she not confide in us?” Lachlan asked. “Are we not her family?”

  “She thinks she is protecting us and the laird.” John rubbed his chin. “She is a brave little thing if not a wee bit misguided.”

  Adam turned to Lachlan. “How long will it take you to ride to Orkney?”

  “Six days. Maybe five, if the weather holds,” Lachlan answered.

  Adam nodded. “Take Dan with you. Before you leave, give a description of the child who gave you the letter to your brother, Gabriel. Have him gather a search party to see if we can locate him.”

  Lachlan nodded and spun on his heel to leave the keep.

  Adam glanced up at the stairs. His mistress may not want their help, but he was damn sure they would protect her—with or without her cooperation.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Rage coursed through Galen like a mid-winter northern wind rushing through the valley. He climbed the steps to the keep two at a time, barely aware of Geoffrey’s, Cal’s and Lachlan’s footfalls behind him.

  Lachlan and Dan had been smart when they broke the news to him about the Gowrie’s missive to Anna—they both stood about a dozen feet away from him to either side. With neither warrior close enough to blindly take out his anger on in that first moment, he calmed down enough to not throttle either of them.

  Galen threw open the door to the keep, storming into the center of the hall. Adam arose from the table where he had been speaking in hushed tones with John and Owen and stepped directly into Galen’s path.

  “Where is she?” Galen demanded, his nostrils flaring as he attempted to skirt around his friend.

  Adam moved in front of him again, grabbing Galen by the arms. “She is resting.”

  Galen shook off Adam’s grasp and stepped back, audibly pushing his breath through his nostrils. “Resting? Did she attend another birth last night?”

  “No, she was simply tired.”

  Galen looked at him askance. Leave it to his woman to up and defy him by tiring herself out to the point of becoming sick again. “Lachlan mentioned she was ill when he left. She is not still, is she?”

  Adam shook his head, his lips curling into a goofy grin. “She is fine, I promise.”

  The bluster fell out of Galen at his friend’s easy-going manner. The fears that had passed through his mind on the way home were too terrible, too gut-wrenching for him to recall and he gratefully allowed them to slip away from his consciousness now that he knew Anna was safe and well.

  He nodded, his jaw clenching as his mind turned to the other piece of business that had dragged him home early. The only reason he stood in the hall rather than on some battlefield with the Gowrie dangling from his sword was because he thought Anna was ill. Now that he knew she was not, it was time to get to the bottom of this message the Gowrie had sent to his woman.

  “Where is this letter?” Galen sneered with contempt. “I need to see it.”

  Adam’s eyes widened and shifted to Lachlan. “You did not tell him?”

  Lachlan shrugged. “Would you have if yours was the closest neck within his reach?”

  Galen carefully eyed both men, his temper flaring again. “What is the matter?”

  “Anna threw it into the fire,” Adam admitted after a moment’s hesitation.

  He could have sworn a vein exploded in his neck. “She what?” Galen shouted, taking a menacing step toward Adam.

  “It happened too quickly for us to stop her,” Adam explained. “Something about it frightened her enough she did not want you to find out about the letter’s contents. She seems to be under the impression she is protecting us.”

  Galen looked at each man in turn as he regained control of his fury. He clasped his hands behind his back and paced back and forth like a caged animal. “And what have you learned since Lachlan and Dan left to fetch me?”

  “Not much, unfortunately,” Adam replied. “She will not speak of it, though I have tried several times.”

  “The last time, the lass even began to cry,” John commented with a nod. “Poor wee thing.”

  Galen stopped mid-pace and turned his glare to Adam. “You made her cry?”

  Adam sighed, rolling his eyes heavenward. “Not on purpose. You have a very stubborn woman, you know.”

  Galen snorted.

  “I am still not sure she did not start crying on purpose.” Owen crossed his arms in front of his barrel-like chest. “Women do that.”

  Adam shook his head. “No, she had a very good reason.”

  Something about the way Adam spoke awakened Galen suspicions. Did his friend know something about Anna that he did not? Hell, the more he thought about how Adam had spent more time with Anna than Galen had since being away for so many weeks, the more the thought pricked his temper. He approached Adam menacingly as a strange twinge of jealousy unleashed in his chest.

  “What is this reason?” he asked, his voice low.

  Adam’s face cracked into a crooked, boyish grin. “That is for your woman to tell you, not I.”

  “She has been very sensitive as of late,” Owen grumbled thoughtfully. “Why, just last week I asked her if Fergus and Lorna had a boy or a girl. The lass burst into tears, telling me it was a boy. And then—”

  “Owen,” John warned.

  “What?” Owen returned with impatience. “It may be normal for a lass throw up at your feet when you speak to her, but not me.”

  A spot between Galen’s brows throbbed and rage coursed through his blood again. He grabbed Adam by the collar. “You will tell me now what is wrong with Anna,” he commanded through gritted teeth. “Or, so help me, God, I’ll—”

  “Adam? What is…” An all too wonderfully familiar voice came from behind him.

  He released Adam and whipped around, finding his feet suddenly frozen to the floor. Anna stood at the top of the stairs, gazing down at him with wide eyes and parted lips.

  “Galen?”

  His name barely escaped her lips, but he heard it all the same in the silence of the great hall. His chest tightened and he exhaled a long sigh of gratefulness.

  “Woman, you had best get down here now or I am coming after you,” he stated, unable to stop his lips from breaking into a grin.

  Relief that Galen was alive and well washed over Anna like a tidal wave. She had spent most of the morning worrying herself sick over how the pendant still refused to take her back home and out of this mess, but now nothing but gratitude swelled within her. The glow of his smile and sparkle in his eyes caused her face to split into a wide smile of her own. How on earth she ever thought leaving this man, regardless of the perils, was a good idea was beyond her. She eagerly picked up her skirt and ran down the stairs toward him, stumbling as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

  “Careful, Annie.” He moved toward her as if anticipating she might fall.

  For once, she did not make a fool of herself. She gracefully leapt into Galen’s waiting arms. He stepped back at the force with which she landed against him, wrapping his arms around her.

  He chuckled into her ear. “Give me that pretty little mouth of yours.”

  Her belly tingled at the rough, sexy tone in his voice. She eased her hold around his neck and planted her palms on either side of his face, crushing her lips beneath his. A hungry urgency coursed through her and she thrilled at both the familiarity and foreignness of his kiss.

  Galen allowed her to slide down the length of him until her feet touched the floor, his mouth never leaving hers. He threaded his fingers through her hair to the back of her head and slipped his other hand around her waist to plaster her body against his, almost as if he expected her to run away.

  He dragged his lips from hers, drawing kisses along her cheek to her ear. “God, your body feels so good
,” he whispered into her ear.

  The sensual promises lacing his voice thrilled her to the core. She sighed contentedly and kissed his jaw. “I have missed you.”

  He pulled his head back and his warm smile faded into a frown of concern. He cupped her cheek, running the pad of his thumb just under her eye. “You look thin and entirely too pale.”

  Her lips puckered in annoyance as she stared back at him. Things had been going so well. Of course he had to go and ruin it. Like she wasn’t more than aware she looked like hell lately. “Well, you look like you need a good shave and a hot bath,” she retorted.

  Galen’s gray eyes traveled around her face almost as if he had not heard her speak. “Lachlan said you were ill when he left. Are you still feeling sickly?”

  Anna stepped back enough to throw Lachlan a scowl before turning back to Galen. “I am fine, really. Just tired is all.”

  He nodded, apparently satisfied with her answer. Then his features turned hard and his jaw twitched. “All right then. Tell me what the Gowrie wanted from you.”

  Anna’s heart jumped, her pulse increasing erratically at the chill in his voice. She opened her mouth to soothe him, but then remembered she had told Adam and Lachlan not to tell Galen about the letter.

  Irritated, she shoved against Galen. “Adam!” she scolded.

  “I am sorry, my lady,” Adam offered her a sympathetic smile. “But I had no other choice.”

  Fury throbbed through her and she pointed at him, throwing him an icy glare. “I will personally make sure there is not a drop of whisky in all of Scotland the next time you need to be stitched up!”

  Adam threw back his head and laughed. “You have a woman with a mean streak on your hands, Galen. She is perfect for you.”

  Galen rolled his eyes and grabbed her jaw, turning her face back to his. “Tell me what the Gowrie said.”

  Her stomach flipped and she shook her head as best as she could. “I can’t,” she whispered.

  He squeezed her jaw. “I cannot protect you if I do not know what we are up against.”

  “Galen, please don’t make me,” she pleaded, anxious over how rapidly the reins of control were slipping away from her. “I can’t bear the thought of you getting hurt or killed because of me.”

  “You do not have the right to keep this from me,” he stated with narrowed eyes. “You are my woman and the Gowrie is my enemy.”

  She rolled her eyes. “For the love of God, Galen, stop treating me like I’m some sort of unthinking child,” she whispered fiercely. “I am my own person with my own thoughts and will.”

  “I will get it out of you.” He peered into her eyes as though trying to pull the truth straight out of her. “You know that.”

  Anna paused, staring into his hardened, gray eyes. Hell, who did she think she was fooling anyway? She did know that. She was a terrible liar and guilt inundated her any time she kept something from him. But then, something strange flickered behind the anger in his eyes she could only describe as fear.

  Her bravado melted over the possibility this giant, powerful man standing before her would be frightened of anything. His trepidation made no sense unless it meant he felt something more for her than simple lust. She shook her head, her mind swimming with possibilities and hope.

  “Annie,” he warned, drawing her back to the present moment.

  Her shoulders slumped and she cast her eyes down to Galen’s chest. She was fighting a losing battle. “I don’t want to say it in front of them,” she whispered as tears stung her eyes. It was bad enough she’d had to tell Galen about her first marriage to a Gowrie. The last thing she wanted was for that information to become common knowledge to everyone else.

  Galen caressed the side of her face and shook his head. “No, they need to know. If it involves the Gowrie, it involves all of us.”

  “Please, I don’t want them to hate me.”

  “We could never hate you, my lady,” Adam assured her. “There is nothing you could say to us that would cause us to turn our backs on you.”

  “We are your family,” Lachlan stated with a sharp nod.

  “You are sort of stuck with us now,” Geoffrey quipped somewhere behind Galen. “Like it or not.”

  Anna almost smiled. She swallowed hard, fidgeting with Galen’s shirt. “It was him. The Gowrie man I was…you know.”

  She simply couldn’t say it out loud. His muscles tensed beneath her fingertips and he grabbed her fluttering fingers. When she could no longer stand his silence, she dared a glance up at him.

  His confusion was evident in his wrinkled brow. “The Gowrie man,” he repeated.

  She nodded, silently pleading for him to understand without her having to say the words.

  A wisp of comprehension passed between them and he squeezed her fingers. “But how? How is that possible unless you have not been—”

  Anna glared at him. He’d been about to utter the word “honest”. Her lower lip trembled as tears fell down her cheeks. “I don’t know,” she admitted with a shake of her head. Words bubbled within her and spilled out. “He mentioned the Gowrie warrior I treated and how he described me and the pendant I wore. Said it sounded like the pendant he used to find me years ago. He said he knew you were gone and I should tell him where to meet me so he could come get me.”

  “It was the Gowrie?” Galen questioned. “James Gowrie? You are telling me you and he…”

  Anna sharply drew in a breath as the sobbing finally overtook her. “Oh, Galen, I am so sorry! I don’t understand what happened. I really don’t.”

  Galen paused, the lines of his face etched in rage. Panic arose within her and her legs shook, threatening to give out. Galen was not going to be able to get past this. How could he? She had just admitted to having been married to his mortal enemy. Why would he ever forgive her?

  And then, he surprised her. He clasped her to his chest, smoothing her hair down her back. “Shhh, Annie. It will be all right.”

  “Galen?” Adam hesitantly said.

  Galen pressed a kiss to the top of her head and blood finally flowed through her veins once again. He wasn’t going to turn his back on her after all. “About ten years ago, Anna was married. Apparently, to the Gowrie.”

  The sudden stark silence in the room weighed upon her shoulders. Galen’s soothing caresses calmed her and she sank into him, reluctant to leave the safety of his warm embrace.

  Owen grunted behind her. “Well, the MacAirth has you now, lass. He will not be returning you to the Gowrie, if that is what he is expecting.”

  “That is right,” Geoffrey chimed in. “Once we take a woman, she is ours.”

  “You are not still married to him, are you, my lady?” Cal asked.

  “No,” she whispered.

  Galen rubbed his chin across the top of her head and tightened his arms around her. “The marriage was annulled. The Gowrie was dishonest about who he was and treated her cruelly.”

  “What are you going to do, Galen?” John asked.

  “I do not yet know,” Galen wearily replied.

  Anna closed her eyes, mesmerized by the steady rhythm of Galen’s heart beating. A warm glow of relief filled her—the truth was out and they didn’t hate her.

  Silence settled into the room until Adam spoke. “My lady, I do believe you have something else to tell the laird.”

  She paused before lifting her head from Galen’s chest to stare at Adam. “What are you talking about?”

  Adam grinned. “I think you know.”

  She shook her head, initially baffled by his knowing smirk. Understanding seeped into her brain the longer she stared into his eyes.

  “You know?” she asked, her voice cracking in disbelief.

  Adam nodded with a chuckle. “Yes, my lady.”

  Anna’s eyes shifted back and forth as she attempted to recall anything she might have said or done that would have given him a clue about her pregnancy. Then she remembered the vomiting and nausea. She thought she’d been so careful and clever, n
ever considered anyone would put the pieces of the puzzle together if she just kept her mouth shut.

  “Is it just you who knows?” she asked in a daze.

  “I do believe most of the clan has figured it out by now,” Adam answered.

  “Figured out what?” Lachlan asked in confusion.

  Galen pulled her chin back to him. “Yes, Annie. Figured out what?”

  Her stomach rippled. She had thought about this moment a thousand times over the past few weeks, but she never imagined she would have an audience for it. Especially since she didn’t even know how Galen might feel about it. Their only conversation about children consisted of her worrying about getting pregnant and him shrugging it off like it was silly to think about.

  Galen exhaled, his patience with her obviously running thin. “Woman, I have ridden for a week to get back to you. Now out with it.”

  She smiled at the familiar, exasperated tone that always crept into his voice whenever he thought she was being difficult. Who would have thought she’d have missed something like that?

  The Band-Aid-removal approach was probably best in this instance. “You’re going to be a father,” she whispered.

  He stared down at her, his lips parting in shock.

  His frozen expression initiated another torrent of nervousness in her belly. Anna bit her lower lip, silently willing him to say something. Anything.

  “That’s okay, right?” She searched his face for any emotion.

  Then the silver flecks in his eyes caught the light as the corners crinkled with his smile. “Of course it is,” he murmured, grabbing her face in his hands and pressing his lips against hers.

  She barely had a chance to kiss him back before he yanked his head away.

  “You are certain?” he asked.

  She nodded, laughing in a mixture of relief and joy as he recaptured her lips.

  As Galen pulled away, leaving her breathless and her lips swollen, they were surrounded by laughter. Galen was slapped on the back and offered congratulations while Anna’s face flushed with embarrassment over being the center of so much attention. Galen kissed the top of her head and tightly gripped her waist.