Highland Dragon

by Kimberly Killion

  “Ha!” This reaction was unanimously delivered by all three of Jaime’s accusers.

  “Ye are nay gentleman, Jaime MacLeod,” Isobel said. “Ye are a rakish swine.”

  A lock of blond hair fell over his brow when Jaime’s chin fell to his chest. The crushed look on Jaime’s face reminded Calin of the young lad who’d been pushed back to Aunt Wanda’s skirts when Calin had been old enough to train with the MacLeod warriors. He brushed aside the familiar pang of sympathy and watched Jaime descend one step. Calin had never seen such a look of defeat on the man’s face as he did right now.

  Akira took advantage, and pushed forward. But Isobel halted her. “Wait.”

  Jaime turned, his eyes wide and hopeful.

  “I’ll need an escort today,” Isobel said. “If ye promise to behave, I’ll allow ye to accompany me to the games.”

  Jaime dipped into a regal bow. “With m’lady’s permission, I’d be honored.”

  Akira just stood there staring at Jaime, the look of shock still clinging to her face. “I need to speak with my sister in private.” Her voice faltered.

  Calin followed the sisters up the stairs and into the solar adjoining his. He held Jaime at bay beneath the archway, giving Akira the privacy she’d requested. Akira sat Isobel atop a three-legged cuttie stool in the corner of the chamber then smoothed her red plaid kirtle around her. Try as he did, Calin couldn’t hear the women’s conversation, but he watched intently.

  Akira had difficulty swallowing. She thought her eyes must be playing tricks on her. Did she really see Isobel’s leg move?

  Kneeling in front of Isobel, Akira held her hand then noticed the blush in her cheeks and the dimple at the corner of her eye. Never had she seen her sister look so happy.

  Isobel’s face exploded into a flurry of exhilaration. “Is Jaime not the most delicious rogue ye’ve e’er laid eyes on?”

  “Nay. My husband is. Never mind that. Isobel, your leg. I saw your leg…” She couldn’t find words to finish her sentence. Akira had catered to Isobel for more than half her life. Bearing Isobel’s weight somehow lessened Akira’s guilt about the accident. Isobel never asked for anything. Simply existed from day to day in silent frustration. But now, Akira was filled with such hope she could barely breathe.

  Isobel leaned close to Akira and kissed her forehead. “Do ye remember the tingling I got just after the accident?”

  “Aye.” Akira’s stomach jumped, but too often she’d prayed for her sister’s recovery and too many times she’d been disappointed. She waited patiently for Isobel’s continuance.

  “Jaime took me to—”

  “Enough about Jaime. I want to know if I imagined the movement in your leg.”

  Isobel soothed her with a smile. “My toes started burning about a month ago. It wasnae like the tingle. ’Twas different.”

  “Why did ye not tell me?”

  “I dinnae want to get your hopes up, again.” Isobel massaged Akira’s earlobe as she continued. “Ye will think me brazen. And I swear if ye tell Mam, I’ll pull out your eyelashes.”

  “Crivons, Isobel. Tell me.” Akira couldn’t stand the unknowing on a subject so close to her heart.

  “Yestereve when Jaime took me to my quarters he wouldnae leave. I wouldnae admit it to him, but I dinnae want him to leave.”

  Akira followed Isobel’s line of sight over her shoulder and saw the two men standing in the entranceway—a frightful expression now engraved on both their faces. She turned back to Isobel. “Please, do go on.”

  “He touched me,” Isobel said softly. “Weel, he…I dinnae give myself to the mon, but no one had e’er paid me any heed and…”“Tell me, Isobel. I swear on Papa’s grave, I’ll not judge ye.” Akira’s hands visibly shook in anticipation.

  “When he touched me, my entire body came alive. I felt my legs burning. Not a tingle in my toes, but an ache. ’Twas so powerful. And after…” Isobel blushed. “This morn when I awoke to his teasing—”

  “He stayed in your chamber?” Akira interrupted.

  “Ye promised ye wouldnae judge. I told ye I dinnae give myself to him.”

  “Forgive me. Do continue.” Akira pressed her lips to Isobel’s palm, and held her tongue. Isobel’s words were so hushed Akira could barely make them out.

  “He kissed my legs, and I felt his lips. I looked down and saw my toes moving. Look.” Isobel raised her kirtle and wiggled her big toe.

  Akira burst into joyful tears, and collapsed onto Isobel’s lap. Her whole body shook as she hugged her sister around the waist. Never had she known a greater happiness than she felt at this moment.

  At this sight, Calin turned to Jaime. “If ye’ve hurt her, I’ll kill ye.”

  Calin crossed the chamber and raised Akira to her feet. Brushing her hair from her face, he wiped the tears from her eyes.

  “What has he done? Tell me, and I’ll punish him to the fullest extent of his crime.”

  Her face smoothed into what appeared to be happiness, but her big blue eyes overflowed with tears. He wanted to console her, to listen to her, but instead of explaining, she ran into Jaime’s arms. She embraced him so ferociously he gasped for air. Grabbing both sides of Jaime’s face, she kissed his cheeks, his chin. Then, damn the saints, if she didn’t kiss him on his mouth.

  “I fear I love ye, Jaime MacLeod.”

  Jaime turned a bright shade of pink, which infuriated Calin to a state of insanity. “Ye what?”

  “Jaime, mayhap we should give my sister and her new husband some privacy.” Isobel waved him in her direction.

  “Nay. I want ye to stay,” Akira insisted.

  “Nay! I want them to leave,” Calin insisted stronger and actually felt his nostrils flare as he pointed at the door. Anger heated his skin, and his patience ceased to exist.

  Blowing a relieved breath, Jaime crossed the chamber and lifted Isobel into his arms. “There is an herb garden just outside the walls. Would ye like to see it?”

  “Nay. Isobel ye—” Akira started to protest, but Calin interrupted.

  “Wife, let them leave.”

  Isobel wrapped her arms around Jaime’s neck as he carried her with ease toward the open door. She gave Calin a “be-nice”

  look over Jaime’s shoulder that only irritated him further and waved to Akira with one finger as they left. Akira’s cheeks streaked with tears, but she donned a huge smile. Calin was furious when he crossed the chamber and slammed the door. “Damn the saints! Ye will tell me what that was about? Ye kiss another mon and tell him ye love him, and I am the one who has promised not to take a mistress?”

  “Ye are overreacting.” Akira’s smirk enraged him all the more.

  “Overreacting? We have been married a day, and already ye are throwing yourself at another mon and right in front of me!”

  “Calin MacLeod, I think I found your temper,” Akira teased then closed the space between them. When she reached up to caress his cheek, he roughly seized her wrist.

  “Ye tell me what Isobel said. I’d like to know what makes my wife fall instantly in love with another mon and cover him with kisses. Kisses that belong to me.” Calin’s tone bordered on cruel, and the hold he retained on her wrist was unbreakable. Ignoring his obvious rage, Akira’s smile became even broader. “He found her legs. Jaime found her legs. Isobel has been crippled for a decade, and that lusty bastard found her legs.”

  Calin’s frown lessened, but he wasn’t satisfied. He waited for her to elaborate.

  “I love Isobel, and I am the reason she’s crippled. There is nay greater gift I could’ve ever been given.”

  He released her wrist, but the image of his wife kissing Jaime blinded him from fully comprehending her words. “How did he find her legs?”

  A glint sparkled in her eyes. “He touched her the way ye did me.”

  “I’ll kill him.” Calin pivoted to leave.

  “Nay! Ye must not say anything. Isobel threatened to pull out my eyelashes if I told anyone.” Akira locked her arms around his
neck. “I dinnae love Jaime. I spoke out of haste. I promise not to attack him again.” She stood on her toes and gave Calin a quick kiss on the cheek. “Dinnae be jealous.”

  But he was jealous. Damned jealous.

  Love. She used the word so freely. He selfishly wished he’d been the one to give Isobel back her legs. He wanted to be the one she said those words to. They’d come so easily for her. But she was passionate about Isobel. He wanted her to be that passionate about him.

  Damn the saints! She was rubbing his ear again. But, that too, she shared with Isobel. He’d seen them do it. That, too, he wanted to be his and his alone. “I am jealous,” he admitted in a gruff tone. “I’m jealous of Jaime, of Isobel. I’m even jealous of Andrew. Sit down, I want to talk.” Calin hauled her beneath the ivory-lace dome of the canopy bed then forcefully sat beside her.

  She twisted into him and slid an aggressive hand beneath his plaid. Skimming over the bristly hair of his bare thigh, she lewdly cupped his heavy sac, which caused his manhood to leap. The insatiable woman then had the audacity to actually purr.

  “But we have talked all morning. I am feeling rather…healed.”

  “I am not.” Calin pushed her away from him then crossed his arms over his chest like a spurned boy. “Tell me why ye feel responsible for Isobel’s injury.”

  She scowled at his rebuttal. “There was a boy, Gowan, son of one o’ The Beast’s favored warriors. He tormented me. Called me a witch and played tricks on me. He told the other children I’d been sent to Beauly Priory because I was evil. The day before the accident, he cut my hair. He said he needed the lock to cast a spell on me. Isobel and I snuck into his cottage that night and took his younger brother from his crib.”

  “Ye stole the boy’s brother?”

  “I am not proud of this. Now do ye want to know or not?”

  His silence encouraged her to continue. “We borrowed the brother and put another piece of my hair along with a muddy toad in his place. That morning Gowan came running into Dalkirth screaming like a girl and accusing me of turning his brother into a toad. He was crying when Isobel and I skipped in with his brother, returning him with angelic smiles. We lied, and told his mother the lad came out that morning to play. The children laughed at Gowan’s insinuations and ridiculed him.”

  “Like they always did ye?”

  Akira nodded, her fingers working at a loose thread on her kirtle. “Of course, he dinnae have to put up with such mockery Gowan and Darach Kinnon were as thick as cherry sap. That afternoon, Isobel and I were walking down the path at the base of the keep. When we looked up the slope, Darach and Gowan released a cart full of boulders down the hillside at us. Isobel pushed me out of the way, and the cart rolled over her back. She just laid there flat on her belly with her face pressed into the ground. The wheels never even touched her legs. But she never walked again.”

  Akira’s voice was laced with sorrow, and Calin regretted making her dredge up the past. But at least now he understood her hatred for Laird’s Kinnon’s named son. “’Tis when ye quit sending the missives.”

  Akira nodded. “I dinnae feel I was of worth to anyone.” Caught up in the memory, she squeezed in closer and reached for his ear.Still irritated, Calin grabbed her hand. “Why do ye rub my ear?”

  Akira’s thin dark brows wrinkled as if appalled by this accusation. “I dinnae rub your ear.”

  Calin actually felt his eyes bulge. Was she jesting? How could the woman not know she did this? “Ye have been teasing my right lobe since I met ye. Every morn, every night, and every time your mind is preoccupied by something else. As it was just now. I want to know why, and I want to know why Isobel does the same to ye.”

  Akira looked genuinely perplexed. He didn’t know why this would be such a revelation to her, but it was just the same, and he intended to know why.

  “I dinnae remember ever doing this to ye. ’Tis not possible that I believe we are…Nay. ’Tis foolish thoughts of children.

  ’Twas just a habit I acquired in infancy—naught more. Isobel and I have always done this. ’Tis our…connection. Since we are twins, Mam said—”

  “Twins?” Calin interrupted. Isobel had been two months old when he took Akira to Kendrick.

  “Aye.” Akira defended sternly. “Just because we are not identical like the Ionas makes us nay less connected. We were born on the same day. Mam says we rub each other’s ears because we share a soul. The twins tickle each other’s palms. Isobel and I rub each other’s ears. I couldnae possibly do this to ye. How could ye possess something given to my sister upon our birth?”

  “Ye mean to tell me ye rub Isobel’s ear, because ye believe she shares your soul.” Calin snorted at her.

  “Dinnae laugh at me, or I’ll turn ye into a toad,” Akira taunted playfully.

  “Dinnae tease, Akira. Do ye believe this? And if ye do, why would ye do this to me?”

  “I know not. Mam filled our heads with such stories when we were but wee ones.” She crawled onto his lap then smoothed the lines of tension from the corners of his eyes. “I think I rub your ear, because I want ye to make love to me,” Akira cooed and slipped her hand into his léine shirt to toy with his chest.

  Lusty wench. Calin squeezed her bottom, forcing her legs wider around his hips. When she rubbed herself against him, his brain nearly shut down. Still, he was unable to rid himself of the mystery. “Tell me what your mother told ye. She has a theory behind this ear rubbing.”

  “’Tis foolish,” Akira said while she kissed his neck.

  “I’ll determine if ’tis foolish. Tell me.”

  Akira blew a breath. “Mam says when a child is born, their soul awaits them outside their mother’s womb. In the case where there is only one child, the soul easily finds its way into that child’s body. But in the instance of twins, the soul must split to allow both babes to have life.” Akira giggled. “Mam says sometimes a soul gets confused and will split even when there is only one child. Giving half to the babe and half to the person who would love them throughout eternity. Of course, they have to be present at the time of birth to receive the soul. Mam used a term she claimed to have coined.” Akira tapped her chin, trying to recollect. “I remember. Mam said that person was the child’s soul mate.”

  Calin jerked back, his mind a blur of confusion. He was there when Akira was born. The story her mother wove was preposterous. He didn’t believe in soul mates. His heart started to pound. His head exploded with old memories. The lifeless body of his father still branded on his brain. A tiny babe nestled at her mother’s breast. He’d thought about her every day his entire life. He was possessive of her. And protective of her. And jealous of anyone who received her affection. By the saints, I am in love with her! Warriors didn’t fall in love. He had a duty unto his people to protect the clan. This duty didn’t require him to fall in love with his wife. In fact, his responsibilities demanded that he not become distracted by her. This emotion would only weaken him. He’d watched his father die because of his love for a woman. He’d be damned if he’d allow Akira to coerce him into such a folly.

  “Hell and damnation!” He pushed her off him and instantly condemned himself for believing such a fairy tale.

  “Dinnae be angry with me,” she hollered at his fleeing back. He stormed out of the solar in a fury, leaving her to dwell on his mood.

  “Crivons.”

  She started to follow, then decided if he wanted to be addlebrained about the whole ordeal with Jaime, she would let him stew. The afternoon games would soon begin, and she needed to make herself more presentable. Especially if she intended to meet with the elders. Stepping into the corridor, she found two young maids. In white smocks, they were dressed alike with copper hair tucked beneath linen coifs. They matched Akira in height, but were both slender in frame. Both bowed their heads and splayed their skirts in perfect curtsies.

  “Forgive me for speaking without permission, m’lady. We are your maids. I am Evie, and this is me older sister, Tara.”

 
“I am Akira,” she offered mechanically, as she’d introduced herself at least a hundred times the previous day. She hoped she was near to meeting everyone. Remembering the names of every clan member was going to be near impossible.

  “Aye, m’lady, we know.”

  Akira laughed at herself this time. Everyone knew her. She was the one who had to acquaint herself with the servants, the mesnie, the stewards. “Please forgive me. Have ye any idea what I am to wear to the games?”

  The maids circled around her into the chamber. Evie stepped into an anteroom and presented Akira with an array of finery. Granted, half the garments were plaid arisaids, but the others were gowns of silk embellished with lace—garments more fashionable of England than those of the Highlands. Evie swung her hand wide over the assortment. “Ye may choose, m’lady.”

  Akira’s interest strayed as she studied the chamber for the first time in a different light. The luxurious décor reflected a feminine style. Whitewashed stones brightened the chamber filled with ornately engraved furniture. In addition to the stool next to the hearth sat a settee upholstered in mauve damask. Pink floral paintings decorated a washbasin next to a privately placed chamber pot. The solar was as big as her family’s cot-house. Walking to the dressing table, she picked up a gilded brush then noted a dozen different perfume bottles lining the top. Unable to resist, she pulled the stopper from a cool lavender crystal and held the fragrance beneath her nose. Akira’s eyes fell shut as she inhaled the exotic aroma. A smile lifted the corners of her lips.