The Eternal Highlander

by Lynsay Sands

  “I can see why you like it in here,” she said now, as the candle at the bedside sputtered, and a glance showed that it had burned down to a stub and was threatening to gutter out. That would leave them in total darkness again. “It was so quiet and dark, I slept like the dead.”

  Connall’s lips quirked at her comment, but he merely pointed out, “Ye havenae told me hoo ye came to be here. Did someone tell ye aboot this room?”

  “Nay,” Eva bit her lip briefly before admitting, “I awoke as you left the room. I could not understand why you would leave me to sleep elsewhere after…Well, now that we are properly married. I got up and hurried to the door and saw you come through the entrance at the end of the hall.”

  “And ye figured oot hoo to open it by watching me?” he said.

  “Aye. Well, partly. I saw the two stones you pressed with your right hand, but the one in the middle was just luck. When I pressed the first two and it didn’t work, I got frustrated and thumped the wall, it was pure luck that I hit the right stone there. I was startled as could be when it suddenly opened.” She lowered her head, and ran one finger nervously back and forth on his chest, then glanced up from under her eyebrows and asked a touch anxiously, “Are you angry with me?”

  Connall shook his head. “Nay. I’d ha’e been tellin’ ye aboot this room eventually, but ’tis obvious I’ll ha’e to be mair careful in future. I didnae e’en think to look around as I went. Anyone might ha’e seen me.”

  His words reminded her of the man in the cape, and Eva said solemnly, “Someone did.”

  Connall’s eyes narrowed and a frown knit his brow as Eva told him about the caped figure who had followed him up the hall and tried—but failed—to open the secret entrance. They were both silent for a moment when she finished, then Eva asked curiously, “Why do you sleep in here? Is it to avoid the sun?”

  “Aye,” he said gruffly, then eased her off his chest and swung his feet off the bed as he sat up. “The candle’ll be goin’ out soon, we’d best shift ourselves ere we’re left in the dark.”

  “I brought a candle with me as well,” Eva said as she tugged the sheets up to cover herself and sat up in bed.

  Connall glanced at the candle, but didn’t light it, instead he set to work on his plaid. Eva watched him silently, one hand absently pushing her hair away from her face. It felt like a rat’s nest to her and she wondered what time it was and if she might have a bath.

  “Up now,” he ordered. “Yer best to eat, ’tis night and ye havena eaten since this hour yester eve.”

  Eva blinked in surprise at this news, finding it hard to believe that she had been abed for nearly twenty-four hours. Well, her bed and this bed. Though they hadn’t done much sleeping in her bed as she recalled. Forcing herself to let go of the linen sheet, she leaned forward from the bed to snatch up her robe where she’d left it lying on the hard stone floor. Eva frowned over the fact that there were no rushes on this floor. It must be cold on his bare feet, she thought with concern. Then her gaze shifted around the room.

  With the one sputtering candle, it was no easier to see than it had been the night before, but then it didn’t look as if there was much to see anyway. The room was as barren and cold as her chamber at Caxton had been.

  “I understand you sleeping here to avoid sunlight coming in,” she murmured as her gaze slid along the wall. She didn’t see any sign of a covered window, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t one, it was hard to tell in this light. “But why is the room kept secret?”

  When Connall didn’t answer right away, she asked, “It is secret, is it not? I should not tell anyone of it?”

  That made him pause and glance at her. “Aye. Tis secret. Tell no one.”

  Eva nodded. “Why do you sleep in a secret room?”

  Connall sighed, hands on his hips, and considered his wife. What to tell her? How much to say? Was she ready to hear the full truth? Or should he leave that for a little longer and stick to partial truths? It was early yet to tell her the full truth, he decided. Half truths would have to do for now. “Me mother had these rooms built when I was but a child. Twas to keep me safe from the sun, but ’twas also as a precaution.”

  “A precaution?” she queried as she tugged her robe on.

  “Ye’ve heard the rumors about our clan,” he said slowly. When she nodded, he continued, “Well, people tend to fear what they doonae understand, and usually they try to destroy what they fear. These rooms are a safeguard against sech a thing.”

  Eva nodded her understanding. “Do you think that man last night is someone who fears you?”

  Connall hesitated, then simply said, “There have been three attempts on me life in the last little while.”

  He saw her eyes widen with dismay and quickly changed the subject. “Come. Ye should eat…and…er…have a bath,” he added, a small smile curving his lips. Her hair was a riotous mass on her head and he was sure no amount of brushing would remove the tangles caused by their love making. She would have to wash her hair to get them out, Connall thought as he blew the bedside candle out, and took her hand in the darkness to lead the way to the door. The tangles came from her tendency to roll and rub her head from side to side on the bed as he pleasured her, he knew. In future, he might have to hold her head in place as he pleasured her to save her lovely hair.

  “Connall?”

  He paused at the door at that whisper. “Aye?”

  “I cannot see a thing.”

  “I’ll lead the way. Trust me,” he said with a squeeze of her hand.

  “I do,” she murmured and fell silent, following obediently behind him as he led her up the long dark hall to the entrance to the secret section of castle, and he believed it to be true. She did trust him, with a purity and innocence that touched him. She trusted him to keep her safe and happy, and he would, he decided.

  Recalling the incident with the arrow the other night, he found his hand tightening around his wife’s wee hand. The very fact that he had married her, might place Eva in danger. He didn’t like to think what might have happened had the caped figure spotted her watching him last night.

  He pondered the situation as he showed her the secret to opening the door from the inside, having to show her by touch since it was black as pitch in there. She would need to know how to open it from both sides as he had decided she would be sleeping in there with him from now on. The incident with the intruder was troublesome. It meant that either someone had gained the castle, managing to slip past everyone here, or the person was one of his own people. He didn’t want to believe it, but the second option seemed most likely. A member of his own clan might wish him dead. But either way, he intended on seeing his wife safe.

  Connall tossed his reins to the stable boy, and headed for the castle, his heart sinking at the sight of Ewan waiting for him. The man looked sleepy and disheveled, as if he’d fallen asleep while waiting for him and been awoken with the news that he had returned. The fact that he was waiting was what worried Connall, his first only waited when there was something to report. The last two times it had been an accident his wife had suffered, Connall suspected this would be number three.

  “Well?” he asked as he reached the other man. “What’s she done now? Tripped, stumbled, scalded hersel’? What?”

  “Nothing like that, Eva’s fine,” his brother-in-law assured him quickly and Connall felt himself relax, only to stiffen again when the man added, “I think. Tis what she’s doin’ I’m worryin’ aboot. She slipped away from Keddy and Domhall and they couldnae find her, then I spied her, but she was too quick fer me. I wasnae sure she should be in there, but I couldnae get in to question her and I’m not sure what she’s doin’, but she was cartin’ all that stuff about and Glynis says that half the things from her bedchamber are missing and I suspect she’s taken them all in there with her. Then I worried that the men would see, so I relieved them and took to waiting fer her to come out meself, but I think she’d made anoother trip while I was talkin’ to the men and she has
nae come out since, and I can’t find yer mother to fetch her oot to ask her what she’s aboot, so I thought I’d best stick around till ye returned and—”

  “Ewan,” Connall interrupted with amazement. “Yer babbling.”

  The older man looked alarmed at this pronouncement, then complained, “It’s yer wife, Connall! She’ll be the death o’ me, I’m sure. Between the scares with her accidents and—sweet Jesus! Me heart stopped when she tripped up on the stairs in the keep, then again when she tumbled down the chapel steps, and then there’s her shenanigans tonight. I’m sure I’ve aged ten years since she arrived and I’m an old man to begin with.”

  “All right, old friend,” Connall put a soothing hand on the irate man’s shoulder. “Breathe. Jest breathe and calm down, then tell me what the devil yer talking aboot.”

  Ewan sighed and closed his eyes briefly, when he opened them again he said simply, “Eva.”

  “Aye.” Connall nodded encouragingly. “She slipped away from the men ye had watchin’ her?”

  “Aye.”

  “And they came to ye and so ye started to help them look fer her?”

  “Aye.” Ewan grimaced. “We looked everywhere. I was starting to think she’d either fallen down the well or been kidnapped, and wonderin’ how the devil I was to tell ye that, when I decided to check her bedchamber one more time.”

  “And ye found her there, but she got away,” Connall guessed, recalling the man babbling about her being too quick for him.

  “Nay. I spied her walking past the top of the stairs as I went up them. She was bustling along with a great armful of stuff, and I jest knew she’d trip o’er her gown or something and there’d be hell to pay, so I hurried up the stairs, but by the time I got there the hall was empty, wasnae it? I checked the rooms, but they were empty too and the only thing I could think is that she’d gone into the passage to the night rooms.”

  “Ah.” Connall nodded with understanding. The rest of what the man had said made sense now. Ewan suspected Eva was in the passage, but wasn’t sure she should be, and while he was one of the few people who knew about it, even he didn’t know how to open it, there had never been a need. Which is what he had meant by not being able to “get in to question her.” Connall considered the rest of what he’d said. His wife had been carting great loads of stuff and—according to Glynis—half the things from the bedchamber were missing.

  A sigh from his first, made Connall glance his way to note his weary expression. It was well past the time the man would usually be in bed. It was only a couple of hours till dawn when he normally would be rising. Putting the matter of what his wife was up to to the side for a moment, Connall thumped one hand on his brother-in-law’s shoulder. “Yer weary.”

  “I’m old,” Ewan sighed.

  “Nay, yer no an old man yet, friend,” he assured him. “Yer just tired right now. Doonae fret aboot Eva, I’ll tend to her. As fer Mother, she rode with us tonight, that’s why ye couldnae find her,” he explained. “But come and I’ll show ye how to open the passage. Had I shown ye ere this, ye’d ha’e gone to bed long ago. Come.”

  Connall led the other man through the great hall and up the stairs to the end of the hall. He showed him twice how to open the passage, then had him practice it twice to be sure he had it before wishing him good night and watching him move off down the hall to the room he shared with Aileen. His sister’s reaction to the sun was a lesser version of his own and she could sleep in a normal chamber so long as she kept furs up on the windows. He, however, like Magaidh, needed the secured dark of a windowless stone room. Not that he couldn’t bear sunlight altogether, his reaction wasn’t as bad as some of their people’s, but it burned him and made him sick. It had made the trip to court almost unbearable.

  A soft click from the other end of the dark hallway drew his attention from his thoughts and Connall peered up the dark expanse, but there was no one in the hall. Deciding it must have been Ewan going into his and Aileen’s room, Connall turned back to the passage door and stepped through, then closed it behind him.

  Ten

  Connall found Eva in his night room, muttering to herself as she attempted to start a fire in the fireplace. Distracted as she was, she didn’t hear him enter, and he took a moment to peer around the room before making his presence known. His gaze swept over the changes she’d made with amazement; two walls now sported huge tapestries he recognized from the other chamber, the bed was littered with cushions and furs, and there were also several more candles in here now, all of them lit at the moment. Eva had also brought the two chairs from the other room and set them before the fireplace with the chest from the other room between them—he couldn’t imagine how she had dragged that here on her own without being discovered.

  Shaking his head, he started forward, then glanced down with surprise as he stepped on rushes. These too must have come from the other chamber and he had to wonder what the other room must look like now with half its rushes and furnishings missing. About as strange as this room now appeared to him, he supposed and glanced around again.

  It seemed his wife had moved in. Connall had never considered that she might when he’d arranged to marry her. His own parents had slept in separate rooms with his mother in her room here in the passage and his father in the chamber Eva had been occupying. Obviously they had spent some time together in either room or Aileen and himself would not have been born, but for as long as he could recall, the two had actually done the sleeping part separately. But then they had slept at different times as well. His father, being human, had slept at night as was the custom, while his mother—to avoid the sun—had slept in here during the day as he did himself.

  Connall supposed he had expected things to go much the same for him. He would spend some time with his wife in the early evening after arising, then perhaps visit her room in the dark hours before dawn, then sleep in here during the day while she was up and about. It seemed that his wife had other plans.

  He peered around the changes again and shook his head. Connall felt rather invaded. The room was cozy and inviting, nothing at all like the sterile room he had slept in for the last almost sixty years. He was suddenly feeling…well…married.

  “Oh, God’s toes, you are a stubborn, stupid blasted…”

  Connall found himself smiling as Eva growled and slapped at the bit of wood she was trying to light, as if punishing it for being difficult and he thought with amusement that perhaps being married wouldn’t be so bad. The woman had a tendency to make him smile, something he wasn’t used to, but found he rather liked. He had found himself smiling often while playing chess with her at night, Eva was witty and amusing and…well…really rather adorable at the moment, disheveled from her work as she was.

  Pushing the door closed, he crossed the room and dropped to his haunches beside her. “Givin’ ye trouble is it, me lady wife?”

  “Oh!” she exclaimed, dropping back onto her heels with surprise at what to her must seem a sudden appearance. “You are back.”

  “Aye,” he agreed, smiling at her.

  She smiled back, then her eyes widened in alarm and she began fussing with her clothes and pushing at her hair in an apparent effort to make herself more presentable. She gave up the attempt almost at once and sighed as she forlornly admitted, “I wanted to clean myself up some and make myself more presentable ere you returned.”

  “Ye look fine to me,” he assured her as he took over the task of lighting the fire.

  “And the room?” Eva asked hopefully as she watched him do in minutes what she had spent nearly an hour now trying to accomplish. He made it look so easy, she thought with vague irritation.

  “The room.” He sat back on his heels beside her and peered around. “Tis…well, it looks more comfortable,” he said at last.

  Eva pursed her lips, trying to decide if that meant he liked it or not, then gasped with surprise when he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed.

  “Tis time fer bed,” he announced f
irmly.

  “But I am not tired, my lord,” Eva protested. “I napped this evening.”

  “Did you now?” He peered at her with surprise.

  “Aye.” She grimaced, embarrassed to admit it. “It took a long time for me to drop off to sleep when I came in here last night. In fact, I would not be surprised if I had lain awake most of the day and dropped off just shortly before you woke me again.”

  He arched an eyebrow as he paused at the side of the bed. “If ye were takin’ a nap tonight, when did ye do all this?”

  “Right after eating supper,” she explained. “When you headed out with the men. It did not take long, the rooms aren’t far apart and I really haven’t done much, but it wearied me a bit and I fell asleep for a while.” She grimaced, then admitted, “A long while. I only woke up just ere you arrived. The candle I had left lit was guttering, so I lit more and then tried to light the fire.”

  “Hmm. Then ye willnae be tired.”

  Eva gave a squeal of surprise as he dropped her on the bed.

  “And ’tis good I came back early enough to take the time to tire ye oot,” he announced, reaching for the buckle of his belt.

  “Husband?” Eva ran her hand over the arm across her chest and tilted her head in an effort to see his face. He had made love to her with as much passion and vigor as she could have wished, then they had talked softly for a while, but he had grown silent these last few moments and Eva suspected he was asleep. She wished she could join him in that state, but despite the energetic session he had just treated her to, she wasn’t tired. If anything, she felt rather invigorated.