Desired by a Highlander (Macardle Sisters of Courage Trilogy Book 2)

by Donna Fletcher

  Your arms would keep me warm. She kept her lips tightly sealed afraid her thought would voice itself. Instead, she hugged herself, rubbing her arms and thinking on what an impact Slatter had made on her life in only a few days. It was sheer foolishness for her to be having such intimate thoughts about him.

  When he brought the other chair to place beside her and sat, she knew he would pursue an answer from her.

  She didn’t delay her response. “Like you, I believed there were things that needed to be settled between us before I could safely return home.”

  “Of course, it would be difficult to return home with the likes of me as your husband.”

  “It wouldn’t be practical to return without knowing what we faced first,” she corrected. “And with Rhodes on the hunt for you, I’d say you’d be facing a return to Tarass’s dungeon, and if there is no way out of our marriage, Tarass may find it more prudent to make me a widow, thus eliminating the problem. Now that that is settled, please answer my original question about the woman you were kissing.”

  “There is no easy explanation to that,” Slatter said, focusing on the flames as he stretched his long legs out to them.

  “We have nothing but time at the moment,” Willow said.

  A knock interrupted them and Slatter went to the door and opened it.

  The lad Willow had seen walking with the old woman stood there.

  “Sorry to disturb you, Slatter, but my seanmhair isn’t feeling well and I thought your wife, our healer, might be able to help her.”

  Willow was impressed by the lad. He had not only shown Slatter respect by referring to her as Slatter’s wife, but he had also expressed acceptance of her by referring to her as our healer. He was a wise lad for his young years.

  She joined her husband at the door. “I’d be only too glad to tend your grandmother.”

  “I’d be most grateful,” the lad said with a bob of his head.

  “Does Corliss know you’re fetching the healer for her, Crofton?” Slatter asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

  Crofton shifted his eyes to Willow. “My seanmhair can be stubborn, but I know when she doesn’t feel well.”

  “Of course you do,” Willow said and grabbed her cloak off the peg. She smiled sweetly and hurried her words out when Slatter went to speak. “We’ll continue our talk when I return.”

  Slatter grabbed his cloak from the peg as well, letting her know she wouldn’t be going without him.

  The snowflakes were big and falling fast, covering everything. Winter had a few weeks before it officially arrived and this early snow warned of a possible harsh winter. Willow couldn’t help but think that some of the structures here would not survive such unforgiving weather. But what could be done? Her mind started working on possibilities.

  “Seanmhair, I brought the healer,” Crofton announced when he stepped into the cottage.

  The old woman turned from the hearth where she’d been stirring something in a pot that hung over the flames and wagged a crooked finger at Crofton. “You should not have done that. I told you I am fine.”

  “Sit, Seanmhair,” Crofton said gently, going to his grandmother and helping her to a chair. “I will see to the cooking.”

  Willow smiled softly. “The cold brings the aches to your bones, doesn’t it?”

  The old woman grinned and nodded. “A wise healer. It has been too long since I have met one.” She looked to Slatter standing in front of the closed door. “You did well. She will make a good and kind wife.”

  Aye, she would, he thought, but not to me… some other man. Anger pierced him as sharply as the blade of a sword and he wanted to roar with fury. He got angrier over his reaction. What did it matter? She meant nothing to him. She had tended him gently and with kindness once and now he returned the favor, keeping her safe. It was nothing more than that.

  Willow turned to her husband. “Why don’t you and Crofton wait outside while I see to his grandmother.”

  Crofton was shaking his head, ready to object.

  “Come, lad, we leave the women to themselves,” Slatter said in a tone that was meant to be obeyed, and Crofton obeyed, although reluctantly.

  Corliss smiled as the door closed behind Crofton. “My grandson worries over me. I know he fears me dying and I pray I can last until he is a grown man and has found love. My passing would be less difficult if he had someone who loved him. We only have each other now. His mum, da, and sister lost to an illness that claimed all but five in the clan. I had been too weak to leave with the other three and though I urged Crofton to go with them, he wouldn’t leave me. Slatter came upon us and brought us here. It is a good man you wed.”

  Willow was beginning to believe that, but it was hard to reconcile this good man with the man who had been called a whoremonger, a thief, and a liar.

  “Have you tried a heather brew for your aching bones?” Willow asked.

  “No, I haven’t, though I do recall my mum rubbing ‘the ache’, as she called it, from her limbs with ash leaves.”

  “An ash bark poultice would work better,” Willow said. “I will teach Crofton how to prepare it.”

  Corliss shook her head, her wrinkled-framed eyes filled with sadness. “A young lad doesn’t need to be tending his granny.”

  Willow reached out and rested her hand over the old woman’s. “Let him do this for you. It will help him worry less about you.”

  Corliss smiled. “You are a wise healer. You were taught well.”

  “My mum,” Willow said with pride, realizing for the first time just how much her mum had taught her. She recalled her mum telling her that it wasn’t always the illness, the wound, or the injury that needed to be treated. And sometimes it wasn’t only the ill person in the family that needed tending. “I’ll fix you a heather brew and hopefully that will ease your aches some.”

  Willow got busy preparing the brew while she continued to talk with Corliss.

  Crofton stood quiet, staring at the cottage door.

  “Women get lost in talk,” Slatter said, seeing the concern on the lad’s face. He’d been impressed with Crofton since he had found him and his grandmother alone in a village that had been ravaged by illness. His grandmother had insisted Crofton go with him, but the lad refused to leave her and Slatter had no intentions of leaving the old woman behind. The lad looked after his grandmother without a word of complaint. Slatter actually thought it was the old woman who had more to complain about, not that she did, since her grandson was forever on her to be careful, not to do this or that. But she just smiled at him and nodded at his loving orders and did as she wished.

  “I don’t mean to be ungrateful, Slatter,” Crofton said a bit of a tremor to his voice, “but you did say you would be moving all of us to a safer and permanent home. Will that be soon? I fear our small cottage will not do well in a winter storm.”

  “I agree with the lad,” Devin said, joining the two. “It’s time for you to leave here, time for you to return home, where it is safe.”

  The door opened and Crofton hurried to Willow, concern drawing his brow together in deep lines for one so young.

  “Your grandmother does well and I’m going to show you how to prepare a poultice to help ease her aches.” After Crofton entered the cottage, a smile of relief chasing his worry lines, Willow looked to her husband. “You need not wait. I will be a while. I will see you at the cottage.”

  Slatter nodded and stood there a few moments after the door closed.

  “My wife tells me she saw me kissing a woman in the market before chaos broke loose,” Slatter said.

  “He slipped through your fingers again. He’s as good at vanishing as you are. This has gone on far too long. You’ve come close to losing your life because of him and almost losing your freedom. And damn Beck for getting hold of you before we reached you. This devil-in-disguise has to be found and made to pay for what he’s done. This has to end.”

  “I’ve noticed that this foe of mine vanishes for extended periods of t
ime only to surface and create havoc again. I wonder if he does this of his own accord or if he has no choice and must return somewhere? Then when he gets anxious to play his little games again, he surfaces.”

  “You need to make your wife aware of this,” Devin advised.

  “I have little choice after what she saw.”

  “It is better she knows what goes on, keeping her ignorant could harm her. Besides, once you return her home, this evil-doer could show up at her door and claim her as his wife.”

  Slatter sat staring at the flames in the fireplace after Devin left. He could not get his friend’s words out of his head. If this man, so intent on making it appear Slatter an evil scoundrel, discovered he had wed, what evil deed would he attempt with Willow? Anger surged in him at the possibilities and made him all the more determined to keep her safe and by his side until the culprit was caught.

  The door creaked open and he turned to see his wife enter the cottage. He did what seemed natural and stretched his hand out to her.

  She responded as if out of habit. She went to him and his hand closed possessively around hers. He gave a tug to land her on his thigh, his arm going around her waist to keep her steady.

  “All goes well?” he asked.

  “It does and Crofton has calmed, knowing there is something he can finally do to help his seanmhair,” she said, her thoughts not on their words but how easily she had responded to him. She rubbed at the deep wrinkles that worried his brow. “Something troubles you?”

  Her gentle touch was meant to soothe, but instead it aroused him, but then he had been finding, since their time together, that he aroused easily around her. He found her attractive, so why wouldn’t he grow aroused? Yet there was something different about her and he couldn’t quite reason what it was.

  He hadn’t realized his eyes held hers and silence had grown heavy between them, not to mention the passion that sparked around them. It was easy to sense, to see, though difficult to ignore. He’d be in trouble if he wasn’t careful. He was relieved, or was it regret he felt, when she hurried off his leg and went to stand at the end of the fireplace, the farthest distance from him.

  Willow struggled to temper her feelings for her husband. She worried that he had awakened her passion when they had been in the hole in the ground together and now she was having a difficult time controlling it when too close to him. She had to quash her feelings, since if she surrendered to him, consummated their vows, they would be stuck together forever. And Slatter was still a stranger to her.

  “You never explained about the woman you were kissing in the marketplace,” she said, a change of subject the best way to divert her rousing thoughts.

  “We should talk. There are things you need to know,” Slatter said, glad for the diversion. He’d been close to kissing her and with how fast he had gotten aroused, he feared it wouldn’t have ended with a kiss and he could see in her passion-filled eyes she felt the same.

  He pointed to the other chair, not trusting himself to step near her.

  Willow hurried to sit across from her husband as he turned his chair around to face the table and waited eagerly, though somewhat apprehensively, to hear what he had to say.

  “That wasn’t me you saw kissing that woman.”

  Willow shook her head, not expecting a denial. “My eyes did not deceive me. It was you I saw.”

  “I’m sure you believe that, but I’m telling you it wasn’t me.” Slatter raised his hand when she went to protest again. “Let me explain.” Her silence let him continue. “It started about two years ago, though I wasn’t aware of it then. It wasn’t until a man accosted me and accused me of fornicating with his wife. I had no idea what he was talking about, since I refuse to bed married women. I was also accused of stealing and lying in a particular situation I had no knowledge of. It took time, but I discovered that someone had claimed my name and was passing himself off as me.”

  “There is someone you believe resembles you?” she asked startled by the revelation.

  “Your encounter with him proves that, since as I said, it wasn’t me you saw kissing that woman.”

  Her brow scrunched.

  “You wonder if you should believe me.”

  “Of course I do since you’re known to lie easily.” She bit at her lip, wishing she could take back her remark.

  “I see it dawns on you that perhaps it isn’t me who lies.”

  Willow voiced her concern. “How do I know if this is truth or tale you tell? It could be nothing more than an excuse to vindicate you of your poor deeds.”

  That had been the problem all along. How did anyone believe him when the person claiming to be him lied with ease and apparently without guilt? Why when so many believed him a liar, should anyone believe his story?

  “And how is it that there is someone out there that resembles you with such exact detail that I had mistaken him for you?”

  “I don’t know who he is or how it is that he resembles me or why he does what he does,” Slatter admitted. “It is a puzzle and one that has many missing pieces.”

  She narrowed her eyes as she gave thought to his strange explanation. “Why didn’t you explain this when you were caught, accused, and imprisoned?”

  “I tried that once and it didn’t go well. It was then I realized that unless I caught this culprit and made my innocence known, I would continue to suffer from his misdeeds. And the only way to do that was to pretend to be him, when the occasion called for it, and find out what I could about him, in hopes it would lead me to him.”

  He could see that she wasn’t sure if she should believe him and that troubled him, though he couldn’t blame her. It sounded a poor excuse to his ears as well. He didn’t like that she doubted his word. He wanted her trust. He’d believed he had it when they had been snug in the hole together, but she had had little choice then.

  “You could have said something to me when I tended your wound.”

  “You would have believed me, after I had attempted an escape?”

  “I suppose if you speak the truth, that you are innocent, yet made to suffer punishment for another’s misdeeds, it would be a good reason to attempt an escape.”

  He wanted to wipe her doubt away, return that small bit of trust she had had for him, but mostly he wanted to kiss her. And that would help nothing. She would think he wanted to charm her into believing him when all he wanted was another taste of her lips. That, in itself, was a dangerous thought as was prolonging her time with him. But what choice had he?

  Devin had been right about the danger to her now. If he returned Willow home before this problem was solved, how could he be sure this culprit wouldn’t show up on her doorstep and claim her as his wife? How long would it take her to realize the difference? Or would she?

  “It is good you see reason,” Slatter said, “since it isn’t only solving the problem of our unexpected marriage that needs to be settled that keeps us together. We also need to remain together until I capture this culprit and lay this problem to rest.”

  “Why would that be?” she asked, wondering how it could possibly matter.

  “What if for some reason you arrived home before our marriage was disavowed and I claimed you were my wife and that you would stay my wife? And what if it wasn’t me, but the man you saw at the market? Would you be able to tell the difference?”

  “You make a good point, a worrisome point,” she admitted. “Still, how do I trust that you speak the truth to me?”

  The old woman’s voice sounded in her head. It is a good man you married.

  She had begun to believe that, had seen it for herself with the people that Slatter had gathered here, by the way he had helped her when he could have walked away and left her to Beck’s greed. Then there was the way she felt in his arms, that she belonged there. Or how his lips had brought hers alive, or the way her body had responded to his gentle, intimate touch. She felt something for this man whether she wanted to admit it or not.

  And she wasn’t ready to adm
it anything, not with her recent, unexpected thoughts. A new voice had chimed in, a devilish one, tempting her to do things she would have never considered even giving thought to. So how then did she see reason in this situation?

  “How long do you think this will take?” she asked, worried that too much time spent with him could prove far too challenging. If she responded so easily to his offered hand, how would she respond if he kissed her again?

  “It is difficult to tell.”

  “My family will be worried, more so when news of the market incident reaches them. And a message will not suffice, since they will think it comes from you. And what of Tarass? He will continue to search for you. We will be hunted as we hunt your culprit.”

  “Regret not going with Tarass’s warriors when you had the chance?” Slatter asked, it sounding that way to him.

  “No, I don’t regret it.”

  That she didn’t hesitate in her response brought a slight smile to his face.

  “I would suggest you make sure that I don’t regret it or regret joining you on your quest to find this culprit and clear you of the harm he has done you. And also to make sure our marriage is absolved so that we both may go our separate ways.”

  Her last few words wiped the smile from his face. It was inevitable they part, and yet, the thought disturbed him, which troubled him even more. Why should it matter? She would never fit into his life, and she would never want to.

  Chapter 9

  Willow stretched herself awake and wasn’t surprised to find herself alone in bed. A sniff of the spot beside her, a bold woodsy scent, told her that her husband had joined her some time during the night. It was better that way, the narrow bed forcing them to sleep wrapped around each other, leaving them open to temptation.

  So she would be less likely to fall sway to temptation, she had slept fully dressed last night, the cold making it an easy excuse to do so. But there was no excuse to lie abed any longer. She wanted to check on Erna and Corliss and see how both were doing, though she imagined if there were any problems she would have been summoned by now. She hoped it would remain that way.