The Laird's Lady

by Patti Schenberger

  He really was serious, Devin noted. His words were so solemn, his countenance severe as he pledged his eternal servitude to her.

  “Lord MacLay,” she began again.

  He raised his hand to stop her protests. “Allow me this small favor, milady. Please do not argue.”

  “I…” Devin looked up at him, knowing any further argument was futile. “All right, Lord MacLay, for now I will agree to your request.”

  “Thank you, Lady Noone. You will not regret it.” His engaging smile overwhelmed her, as he leaned and brushed a tender kiss to the back of her hand. His breath was warm against her skin, his lips barely caressing her.

  Her heart lurched against her chest at his touch. Her skin sizzled where he had seconds before brushed his lips.

  She shouldn’t be feeling this way. It wasn’t possible, yet Devin could swear her every nerve ending surged to life whenever Kyle came near. But it couldn’t be. A ghost couldn’t make you feel things the way this one did. Or could they? Was it her imagination or every time they were in a room together did he seem less shimmery and more solid?

  This one request was going to be really hard to handle. Devin was already a goner. All thanks to one devastatingly delightful specter.

  Chapter Six

  March 30, 1602

  Diary, the order was given to ride out and so we did. The journey was arduous though made pleasant by Lord Kyle’s men. They are very companionable and quite well versed. I ask for nothing, save it would impede our travels. Lord MacLay’s land stretches as far as the eye can see. The last two inns we have availed ourselves at for food and shelter are also under his protection. So quaint are these villages, I long to come back and explore them more thoroughly with the Laird by my side.

  I am told we will reach Castle Loch Haven by nightfall. Lord MacLay is but a day or two ride behind us, as he stayed with Aunt Cecelia to give further instruction to the staff and men that will remain in our absence.

  Oh, Diary, I am sad but know that time will dry my tears. I miss my parents, Aunt Cecelia, and yes I miss the Laird. His quick wit and knack for conversation are sorely missed as I bide my time awaiting his safe return. Soon my head and heart will be filled with plans for my upcoming marriage. That will overshadow all for the time being. Till the morrow, dear friend. Elsbeth

  Devin slid the diary into her sweater pocket and sighed. Pressing her forehead to the cool window glass, she stared out at the panoramic view before her. The sunlight shone brightly through the clouds, chasing away all remnants of the dark and dreary days past. The icy, black waters of Isle Lake crashed against the craggy shoreline. The waves chased across the sand, sending a light, frothy mist into the air. As beautiful as the view was, all Devin could do was focus on Elsbeth.

  Restless, she swung herself off the window seat, and wandered to the dining hall.

  Breakfast was long over, but knowing her penchant to snack, Cook had left a tray of muffins and carafe of hot tea on the buffet. Devin picked up the carafe, intent on pouring herself a cup of tea, then set it back down with a gentle thump.

  Poor Elsbeth. So young to be going through such an ordeal. Her neatly ordered world had suddenly turned into a terrible turmoil. She was very lucky Kyle had taken her under his protection.

  Under his protection.

  The same protection he now offered to Devin centuries later. A vow he carried to the grave back then. But now? The thought caused shivers to race up and down her spine and goose-bumps dotted her skin. What she wouldn’t have given to find a modern day man who would offer her protection with his very own life, instead of a long dead ghost. With a sigh, Devin moved away from the buffet.

  Protection wasn’t what Devin needed. She needed a stroke of genius to find whatever was holding Kyle to this time and place. And the sooner, the better.

  Her search felt akin to locating a needle in a haystack. So far the diary had turned up no clues. Sitting down at the massive table, Devin gazed about the dining room. Everything looked as though it belonged, nothing out of the ordinary. A normal dining room, as formal dining rooms went. Lots of furniture. Lots of chairs, a huge table, sideboard and a chandelier. Pretty standard, she surmised with a sigh, compared to her own sparse dining nook. Back in Maryland, she had two chairs and a small round glass top table, a definite contrast to the ornate furniture here.

  Standing back up, Devin moved to the sideboard and stared at the oil painting that hung above it.

  “A clue, I need a clue. Something, anything. And now would be a good time to get one.”

  Carefully, Devin lifted the edge of the frame, lifting it away from the wall and peered behind it.

  “What are you looking for?”

  Devin dropped the picture with a small shriek and whirled around, coming face to face with Lord MacLay.

  “Don’t do that. It could have fallen from the wall. Mrs. Goode will kill me.” Devin put her hand to her racing heart and strived for calm. “Lord MacLay, I have no idea what I’m looking for. I don’t know where to start, or what we’ll even find at the finish, if we manage to come up with anything at all.”

  Kyle leaned past her, lifted the picture and looked beneath it. “But there is nothing there, milady.”

  “I know. It was just a silly thought. They do this all the time in movies and usually there is something there.” Her words were marred with frustration.

  “If you are referring to the safe, that would be in Lord Rollie’s study, behind the portrait of Castle Loch Haven.”

  “You mean there really is a safe hidden behind a picture? Shows what I know. I thought they only made that stuff up.” Devin thought back to all the old black and white movies she’d watched where burglars broke into homes and immediately started lifting paintings from the wall to find the valuables.

  Kyle turned away from her and stood by the dining table. “Milady?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is there anything I can do to assist you?”

  “Do whatever you want, Lord MacLay. But please stop calling me Your Ladyship, or milady. Just plain Devin will do just fine, okay? And at the moment, I am fresh out of ideas. But I am going to check out the safe.” With a quick smile in his direction, Devin practically sprinted from the room.

  Kyle grinned. Several quite engaging thoughts immediately entered his mind, though he seriously doubted she would take kindly to any one of them. And it was very possible, she might even slap his face heartily should he voice them aloud. He chuckled at the thought.

  He paused. For whatever strange reason, he needed a reprieve from her nearness. She enflamed his senses, caused his gut to clench every time she was in his general vicinity. It seemed odd he would feel thusly. He felt whole, his mind clear and his body no longer ached with pain. This had never happened before, so why now? He wondered. Did it have something to do with the red-haired vixen he was hard put to get out of his mind?

  Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Kyle entered the study.

  Devin moved about the room, touching the various items on display. He watched as she ran her hands across the back of the dark-burgundy leather chair, her fingertips slowly outlining each ornamental brass stud of the chair’s trim. Abruptly, she stopped before the desk and stared, then reached out and picked up a picture frame off the credenza. Her eyes closed as the tears spilled out, the picture frame held tightly to her chest.

  Kyle quietly approached her. “Devin?”

  Devin turned about abruptly, and bumped into his shirtfront.

  As she shifted off balance, and tried not to drop the photo, he caught a hold of her arms for balance. The warmth of her flesh through the bulky sweater felt as though he were touching a burning coal.

  His hands trembled. Against his own better judgment, Kyle pulled her closer, and then lowered his head.

  She stared at him as though memorizing his features, the closer Kyle came.

  Her mouth was scant inches from his. It would be so easy to kiss her, Kyle thought. She lifted her chin a notch, putting the
ir lips in closer proximity, and nervously licked her lower lip. The simple motion tugged at his gut, making him feel as though he had just been kicked square in the stomach by one of his fine war stallions.

  Closer, closer, until he could feel the warmth of her breath upon his face.

  Kyle captured her mouth with his own. He heard her sigh, felt her lean into him. His arms tightened about her, drawing her near.

  He tasted her, the scent of strawberries filling his senses as he drank of her. Throwing caution to the wind, he deepened the kiss, devouring her mouth with his tongue.

  Delving, eager to touch every inch of her, Kyle pulled her closer and deepened the kiss. He heard her soft moan and felt himself grow hard immediately.

  Waves of shock raced through him, searing him in his spot. How long had it been since he held a woman in his arms and tasted the fragrance that was uniquely hers?

  Part of Kyle wanted to sweep her up in his arms, and carry her upstairs to the bedroom, to lie with her and be with her, exploring every inch of her perfect body. To see those big green eyes of hers fill with passion. Hear her call out his name in the throes of lovemaking. To bury himself within her soft womanly depths time and again.

  Good heavens, the memories made him ache anew, his arousal growing harder by the moment. But now they didn’t seem like memories, they seemed real and here in the present. With her in his arms, he would have sworn the feelings existed. But…

  Her soft whimper tore into his brain. The feel of her palms clutching at his shirtfront. The odd photo frame pressed tightly to his chest. Devin dragged her hands through his hair, tugging him close as she met his kiss, eager for more, silently begging him not to stop.

  He ravished her mouth, as though a man long deprived of the very essential elements of life. The touch of her hands upon his scalp brought back memories, visions of another time and place. A place where under the cloak of darkness, two bodies came together as one.

  Kyle wanted that now. To take her and make her his. Never to allow another man’s hands to touch her flesh, to taste her lips, or bury himself within her softness.

  “Milady.” His voice was ragged as he released her lips and trailed a fiery path of kisses down the soft column of her neck. Pushing the neckline of the sweater aside, Kyle continued his tortuous assault on her skin, his teeth nipping at her flesh, tasting, teasing and torturing all in one motion. Her breathing quickened as he felt the rapid beat of her pulse beneath his lips.

  She wanted him as much as he did her. There was no mistaking the passion in her kisses, the eagerness in her touch, nor his. She felt the same stirrings he did.

  “No, we can’t,” Devin whispered, shaking her head vigorously and taking a step back. “Can we?” Her hands shook as she moved out of his embrace.

  Kyle didn’t want to stop. He wanted to pull her back into his arms and continue kissing her until all reason left their minds. Kiss her until there were no thoughts of what had happened and what would happen. When he was done kissing her, he wanted to start all over again.

  “Yes, milady, we can.” His warm breath caressed her cheek, causing a tremor of desire to course down her spine.

  “Bad idea,” she mumbled, as though she could read his mind, her gaze still caught on his mouth.

  “If it is so very bad, why does it feel so right, milady?” He caressed the corner of her mouth with his thumb.

  “I don’t know, but it can’t and it shouldn’t. You’re a ghost and I’m a human. It isn’t normal,” her voice was shaky as she pushed herself away from him.

  Kyle instantly felt bereft from the lack of her touch and how wonderful it had felt to be touched by her. Despite the warmth of the furnace and the blazing fire, the room suddenly felt very cold against his skin.

  Positioning herself behind the safety of the desk, away from the pull of his sensual gaze, Devin stared down at the credenza and drew in a shaky breath.

  “I had no idea Rollie kept this photo.” She paused, the memories flooding back. “That was the last time I saw him. We had gone fishing out on the Chesapeake Bay. It was a gorgeous day, perfect weather, no rain in the forecast. Rollie had a tough time getting his sea legs though. For most of the morning, he was pretty queasy.” She smiled at the memory before continuing.

  “We had so much fun. I caught a bass, but Rollie never caught a thing. The great, white hunter coming up empty-handed, it was quite a sight to see. He didn’t want to come in until he caught something. I think we were out there half the night until he finally conceded.” She paused.

  “He told me he had started renovating Castle Loch Haven, but he never mentioned you.” She sat the photo back on the desk and reached for another. “Then he asked when I was going to fly over and visit, to see what he had accomplished. And that was the last time I saw him.” Her eyes closed as the tears threatened to spill out, the picture frame held tightly to her chest.

  “Devin?” His words were so soft she barely heard him, yet somehow Devin knew he had spoken.

  Look at the photos, not at Kyle, she chided herself. Dropping her gaze to the picture frame in her hands, she smiled. It was a photo of Rollie, his arm draped across an invisible companion. Realization dawning, her gaze rose to Kyle.

  “Would this happen to be you, Lord MacLay?” Devin asked, hoping to get the tone of the room into a more neutral feel. Her breathing was still quite erratic; her pulse beat wildly from their close encounter.

  Kyle’s look was so sad, so forlorn, as he stared at it. “Aye lass, that was Rollie and me. He had a great penchant for taking foolish photos. He loved showing this one off to people, just to gauge their reaction. This was taken shortly before his untimely demise.”

  Kyle took the frame and ran his hand across the glass, remembering his dear friend fondly. A muscle twitched in his jaw and he lowered the fame with a sigh. “Maybe Mrs. Goode is right. It is quite possible my presence here is wreaking havoc on everyone, yourself included.”

  “You didn’t ask for what happened to you, Lord MacLay. It just did. And so far, no one, not Rollie and certainly not I can explain why things are as they are.”

  “I appreciate your attempt to console me, Lady Noone.” His voice took on a hard edge as he continued. “But sympathy is not what I need. I need answers. Answers that no one to date has been able to provide for me.” Kyle set the picture frame down on the desk with a loud thud and promptly vanished from sight.

  “Lord MacLay?” Devin pivoted in a slow circle, seeing no one. With a frustrated groan, she sank down into the desk chair and picked up the photo. “Well, when the going gets tough, Lord MacLay certainly has a tendency to disappear.”

  Devin stared at the photo for a long moment, and then set it back in its rightful place on the credenza. Laying her head against the back of the chair, she stared out the window, over the land and across the Loch.

  What was she going to do?

  If one kiss could affect her so deeply, how was she going to help Kyle move from one world to the next? How would she be able to let him go?

  Lost in thought, she idly drummed her fingertips on the inlaid leather desktop.

  “If only I knew then what I know now, I never would have made a wish for a castle, Rollie. Things would be different, normal, like before. You would still be here in charge and I’d be back in Maryland. Darn you, Rollie, for making me a Lady.

  “Come on, Rollie, give me some help here. Remember me, the little kid who drove you nuts?” Devin stared up at the ceiling as though Rollie would suddenly appear.

  She paused, as though expecting an answer.

  “Okay, fine. Be that way. Don’t help me. That’s your business.” With a sense of bravado she didn’t feel, Devin gathered her courage.

  “But,” pushing herself upright and out of the desk chair, she continued, “everything’s changed and I need to get on with business as usual.”

  Walking from the room, she gave a final look back before shutting off the light switch.

  “No matter what, Rollie
, I’ll never be sorry I came.”

  ****

  Kyle headed for the battlement, and the sanctity it provided. Agitated, he took the steps two at a time, feeling his heels dig into the stone beneath him, eager for solitude. Here he could think in peace, away from the distractions inside the castle. Away from Devin.

  Devin.

  Little did she know that single shared kiss had ignited a flame in him he thought long dead. The feeling so very foreign after all these years that Kyle thought at first he quite possibly could have imagined the sensations that rolled through him. They continued washing over him, wave upon wave, until he was consumed by the mere touch of her mouth on his.

  She insisted it would never happen again as though kissing him were akin to kissing a frog. Why, he wondered? Unless he was sadly mistaken, that kiss had left Lady Devin Noone as flustered as he was. What amazed Kyle the most was that he really was flustered. He, a battle scarred warrior, up in arms over a kiss. One small, simple shared kiss. A kiss that threatened to set his soul on fire and burn down the very castle around them.

  He regretted not having his bagpipes at the ready. Playing the music and hearing the familiar strains never failed to soothe his tormented spirit. Right now, he desperately needed soothing.

  Damn it all.

  What was happening to him? This was absolutely ridiculous. In all his years, nothing like this had ever happened to him. Why now? Why with the feisty red-haired American? A woman whose nearness both excited and unsettled him…

  He wanted her. Oh, sweet heavens above, how he wanted her. Kyle closed his eyes and tamped down the instant surge of arousal that threatened. Now was not the time or place for such thoughts.

  He was more of what the Americans called “a love them and leave them” type of man. No one woman held his attention or affections for longer than a week, unless you counted Elsbeth.

  Lady Elsbeth Morehead. His betrothed.