by Lydia Dare
“Do you remember being with Miss Macleod, Ellie?”
“Oh,” Elspeth gasped. She did remember. “Is she all right?”
“You healed her.” His fingertip touched her chin and forced her to raise her gaze. “At great risk to yourself.”
“That’s the way it is with healers, Ben.” She lifted the edge of the blanket again. “I need ta get up ta go check on Cait. But I canna figure out how ta do so.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” he said as he pulled her tighter against him. “Not until I’m sure you’re well.”
“Ye canna keep me against my will,” she breathed. But her traitorous nipples hardened in response to his closeness, and when she moved they brushed the fabric of her chemise. They may as well have been touching his skin.
“I don’t think keeping you would be against your will,” he growled. “Are you warm yet?”
“Quite,” she gasped as he flipped her onto her back and pressed her into the mattress. The knee that had been so firmly clasped between his was now pushed to the side and he settled firmly between her thighs.
He looked down at her, a curious smile tilting the corner of his mouth. “Against your will, you say?” His head dipped down to touch his lips to hers briefly. It was like the touch of a butterfly on her finger.
That’s all she would get? “And here I thought ye were goin’ ta devour me,” she taunted him.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he quietly regarded her. “Why, thank you for the offer.” He smirked. “I believe I’ll take you up on your hospitality.”
His lips touched hers, more firmly this time, his body pressing her into the mattress. His lower body was still cradled between her thighs. He rocked against her, the movement creating a sudden thumping in her center.
“That wasna an invite ta do that,” she gasped as he raised his hand to cup her breast. He lowered his head and touched the aching peak with his tongue through the fabric of her chemise. This time it was her hips that rose to press against his.
“Do I need an invitation?” he teased as he did the same to the other breast. “I know how wet you are. And that you want me. I don’t need a better invitation.”
“Ye seem mighty sure of yerself,” she said, unable to keep from arching her back to bring herself closer to his lips. Her hands tangled in his hair.
Suddenly he stilled. “Someone is coming,” he whispered. “And it’s not me,” he groaned as he rolled from atop her body, slid from beneath her counterpane, and pulled his shirt over his head. He had just finished righting his clothing when the bedroom door was flung open with a bang.
Elspeth groaned to herself when she saw Alec MacQuarrie standing in the threshold and pulled the counterpane up to her chin.
“Why do all the men feel like they need ta crowd my bedroom?” she groaned before she pulled the counterpane over her head.
“Because you don’t know how to take care of yourself, Elspeth. You have no one, save your friends,” MacQuarrie ground out.
“I can take care of myself just fine, thank ye very much,” she called from beneath the covers. Then she pulled the counterpane down and peeped over it. “It’s no’ like he’s in bed with me.”
“Aye, no’ now. But he was a moment ago.” Sorcha’s tiny voice chirped from her safe place behind Alec.
How could Sorcha possibly know that? Elspeth’s face warmed.
MacQuarrie turned to the smallest witch. “He was in bed with her?” His face purpled and his hands balled into fists.
“H-he said it was ta w-warm her up,” she stuttered, looking at her feet all the while.
“I can just imagine the kind of warming he was doing,” MacQuarrie sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. Then he crossed his arms and leveled a stare at his friend.
Ben sat casually in a chair by her bed, his elbows resting on his knees, as though he held court in women’s bedrooms all the time. Maybe he did. Why did that thought suddenly make her irrationally jealous? He arched one eyebrow at her, a playful smile hovering about his lips.
MacQuarrie glanced about the room. His face hardened and a muscle twitched by his left eye when he spotted her dress on the floor. “What are you wearing under that counterpane, Elspeth? Please, don’t tell me he was in bed with you naked.”
“I canna see why that would be any of yer business, Mr. MacQuarrie,” Elspeth snapped. If one more person tried to run her life, she would scream.
“Elspeth, you have no family. I’m trying to stand up for you. Please tell me he didn’t take advantage of you. Because then I would have to lay waste to my very best friend.”
“You could try,” Ben growled under his breath.
Alec MacQuarrie truly did have good intentions, Elspeth believed in her heart. They all did. But she was a grown woman, for heaven’s sake.
“Out!” she yelled. “All of ye!” She brought her arms from beneath the counterpane and brushed her hands toward the door when they all stood there like ninnies looking at her. “I plan ta get out of this bed in ten seconds, and unless ye do want ta see what I have on—” She raised the edge of the counterpane and looked down. “Or do no’.” She shrugged and shook her head in disbelief. “Ye’d better be out of my room by then.”
Elspeth sat up and swung her legs to the side of the bed. “Doona say I dinna warn ye.” She prepared to drop the counterpane.
The door slammed shut quickly. Elspeth rested her forehead in her hands for a moment before she looked up at Ben. “Why are ye still here?”
He shrugged as a wolfish grin crossed his face. “I wanted to see what you wore beneath the counterpane.”
“Ye already ken what I’m no’ wearin’. Ye undressed me, after all.” He’d always known her temper matched her hair. And all the rest of her.
“Oh, yes, I did,” he growled, with the sweet memory of her nearly bare body pressed against his taking over his senses.
“Would ye please leave so I can get dressed, Ben?” she sighed, as though the weight of the world rested on her shoulders.
Ben dropped to crouch before her as she sat on the edge of the bed. “I think I have just well and truly ruined you, Miss Campbell.”
“I’m sure ye have, Ben. But worse things have happened.”
“What could be worse, Ellie?” he asked. He truly wanted to know what lay in her heart.
“I could be ruined with a bairn on the way, Ben. It seems ta be the way of the Campbell women.” She fidgeted with a loose string on the counterpane, which she still clutched to her chest.
“Alec will insist that I marry you now,” Ben said quietly, watching her face as he said the words. “Since I have been in your bed.”
She waved her hand. “That doesna count. It wasna even a pleasure.” Her face colored when she realized what she’d said.
Ben chuckled. “It was a pleasure for me.”
“Ye ken what I meant ta say!” she cried.
“No. Tell me,” he whispered, his voice suddenly straining against his throat, the same way his shaft strained against his pants.
“When ye came ta me under the night sky, and we came together. That was pleasure. I canna imagine anythin’ more pleasurable.”
“I promise that the next time I share your bed, it will be more pleasurable.”
Elspeth’s eyes grew wide, then she looked down at the mark on her wrist. She lifted one hand to stroke across it.
“If you touch that now, lass, I’ll have to be inside you.”
She lowered her hands. Thank God! He didn’t think he could take more torment.
Elspeth leaned forward and touched her forehead to his, her green eyes flashing. “What if I want ye ta be inside me?” A pretty blush crept up her cheeks.
It was the hardest thing Ben had ever done, not to toss her onto her back and surge into her. But he stopped, counted to ten, and then met her eyes. “Then you’ll have to marry me first, won’t you?”
Elspeth sat back, studying him. “Marriage? That’s no’ very fair ta ye. I mea
n ye were only trying ta help me and—”
“I meant to ask you earlier today anyway, Ellie.”
She blinked at him. “Ta marry ye?” she asked doubtfully.
It wasn’t exactly the way he’d planned to ask her, but a lot had happened between this morning and now. “Yes, before Blaire threw her fireball at me.”
She shook her head as though not truly believing his words. “Why would ye want such a thing?”
Ben cupped her jaw. “Because I want you. I care about you, Elspeth, and I don’t intend to travel with you to London and have you meet my mother and brothers without my ring on your finger.” At that he pulled off his pinkie ring and placed it in his palm, offering it for her to examine. “I’m sure it’s too big. I’ll get you something more appropriate once we arrive in London. A nice, big emerald to match your eyes.”
Tentatively, Elspeth picked up the ring, turning it over in her hand. Her gaze flashed back to him. “I like this one. I never noticed the wolf before.” She ran her finger over the engraved image and then handed it back to him.
Ben’s heart swelled with pride at her words. “It’s the Blackmoor crest,” he informed her as he slid the ring back on his pinkie. “What do you say, Ellie? Will you marry me?”
“Are ye sure about this?”
She didn’t really have a choice. She was ruined, like her mother before her. But saying so wouldn’t be the right way to go about convincing her. Besides, he did want her. This situation simply solidified it. “I’ve never been more sure,” he replied with a wink.
Elspeth threw her arms around his neck. “I think ye’re mad ta want me for a wife, Ben Westfield. I’m certain most lords doona marry illegitimate—”
He pulled back from her. “I don’t think of you like that.”
“But it’s the truth.”
He hated to see the hurt in her eyes, the years of knowing that everyone else thought they were better than her. “It doesn’t matter to me,” he assured her. “And when you’re Lady Elspeth Westfield, no one else will dare say a thing.”
She bit her plump bottom lip. Ben could tell she wanted to believe him. “Lady Elspeth Westfield? I do like the sound of that.”
Ben grinned at her and pulled her back into his arms. She belonged there, and he wouldn’t ever let her go. “Get dressed, love, then we’ll go see Mr. Crawford.”
“Ye want ta marry me in the church?” she asked, a note of surprise in her voice.
Ben kissed her chin. “My mother will be furious enough that she wasn’t invited, Ellie. I can’t tell her I married you over an anvil or something like that. She’d have my head.”
Twenty-seven
BEN THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE NICE TO HELP HIS BRIDE-to-be dress, but she promptly tossed him from her room. As soon as he stepped over her threshold, Alec grabbed his coat with both hands and scowled at him. “I can’t believe you’ve done this, Westfield.”
Ben shrugged out of his friend’s grasp. “It’s not the way I planned it, but I can’t say I’m unhappy with the outcome.”
“She collapsed!” Alec hissed, as if the word meant something more significant. “Fainted.”
“You saw that for yourself, MacQuarrie.”
“Aye, I just didn’t understand what it meant until I found you in her bed.”
Ben shook his head, not grasping his friend’s meaning.
“Don’t play the innocent with me,” Alec grumbled. “She’s enceinte. It was the one thing I asked you not to do. You’re the worst sort of blackguard, you—”
A moment later Ben had Alec pressed against the wall of the cottage, his hands wrapped around his friend’s throat. “I’ve told you before, MacQuarrie, I won’t let you or anyone else disparage her.”
Alec pulled at Ben’s hands, grasping for breath. “I’m not the one—”
“I haven’t laid a hand on her,” Ben hissed. That wasn’t entirely true, but true in the way Alec meant.
“You forget, I know you,” his friend sputtered, tugging at Ben’s hands.
“She’s not with child,” he insisted, wishing he could divulge why she’d collapsed, but revealing the truth behind her healing powers would only hurt her more. So he pushed his friend out the door instead.
On the ground at his feet, Alec rubbed his neck, where Ben had held him.
Glaring down at him, Ben growled, “She’s ruined in name only, MacQuarrie. And I’m rectifying that as soon as possible.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Ben shook his head in disgust. “What do you think I mean by that? I’m going to marry her.”
Alec choked. “You?”
“Of course, me!”
It was quite infuriating that his friend stared at him as though he’d lost his mind. Then Alec’s mouth fell open, but no sound escaped.
“What is it?” Ben demanded.
“You don’t seem the sort, Westfield. As soon as you bed a lass, you lose all interest in her. I’ve seen it time and again. I can’t imagine you married.”
He had been that way. Perhaps he still was, though he didn’t want to believe that. Elspeth was different from the others. He shared a connection with her. He couldn’t imagine ever losing interest in her. On the contrary, every minute he spent away from her made him want her more. Of course, he hadn’t bedded her yet. What if he did lose interest?
Ben balled up his fist, wanting to pummel Alec into the ground for even making the suggestion. “Well, I’ll thank you to keep your opinions to yourself, MacQuarrie. And I’ll expect you to show her the respect due my wife.”
Alec pulled himself up from the ground and dusted his hands on his pants. “I’ve always held Miss Campbell in respect. Just because she marries you, it won’t change my opinion of her. And despite our differing opinions, Benjamin, you are my best friend.”
“You’ll stand up for me then?” Ben asked. Since his family couldn’t be present, he hoped Alec would be.
Alec smiled. “I’d be honored.”
Elspeth stepped from her room to find Sorcha sitting on the settee, holding her head in her hands. Ben was nowhere to be seen. “Sorcha?”
The young witch’s head shot up, and Elspeth could see the tears in her eyes.
“Are ye all right?”
“Oh, El,” she said, rising from her seat. “I failed ye. I’m so sorry. I came along ta keep ye out of this sort of trouble.”
Only it didn’t seem like trouble. It was a bit frightening, the prospect of marrying a man she barely knew, but not trouble. There was something comforting in the fact that she’d be exploring this new role with Ben. If it had been anyone else, she’d have been terrified.
Elspeth wrapped her arms around her friend. “Doona be upset, Sorcha. It’ll work out for the best.”
“Cait’ll be furious with me.” She sniffed back tears.
That was definitely true. Elspeth brushed Sorcha’s tears away. “Doona let her bully ye. Besides, I think Ben crossin’ my path was fated. No’ even Caitrin could stop it.”
Sorcha nodded sadly. “I was thinkin’ that very thing.”
“Where is Ben?”
Her friend pointed to the front door. “Fightin’ with Alec MacQuarrie in the yard.”
“Mo chreach!” Elspeth muttered, rushing to the door. She bolted outside, but what she found were the two men huddled together, Ben’s arm draped around MacQuarrie’s shoulder as if the two were the best of friends.
Both men’s eyes flashed to hers when she stepped on the front porch.
“Sorcha said ye were fightin’.”
Ben stepped toward her, a charming smile on his lips. “Ah, MacQuarrie and I were just having a lively discussion. Nothing to worry about. Are you ready to go see your vicar?”
Without thinking, she nodded eagerly. Then the world began to spin. She would have collapsed if Ben hadn’t caught her against him.
“Ellie!” His voice sounded strangled.
She clutched his waistcoat and smiled what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “I suppose
I’m still a little weak. Nothin’ ta worry about,” she echoed his earlier sentiment.
Ben tilted her chin upward until she met his eyes. His furrowed brow made it obvious he wasn’t reassured in the least. “I’ll decide what I worry about.”
Elspeth stepped away from him. “I’ll be fine.”
A few feet away she heard Alec MacQuarrie mutter something under his breath, and Ben’s eyes shot to his friend. “I warned you about that, Alec. It’s not what you think.” Then he looked back at Elspeth. “Do you feel up to seeing the vicar, love? I don’t think MacQuarrie will rest until I’m legally leg-shackled to you.”
Elspeth couldn’t hide her smile. “Aye, I’d like that.”
Behind her, Sorcha gasped. “Today? The vicar?”
Elspeth glanced over her shoulder. “Ye’re welcome ta join us.”
When her friend’s gaze fell to the ground and her shoulders slumped forward, Elspeth draped her arm around Sorcha. “I wish ye’d come with us.”
“Cait’ll kill me one way or the other. So I might as well.”
Elspeth patted her arm, then looked up to Alec MacQuarrie. “Did ye see Caitrin? How is she?”
He frowned, as though trying to sort out a puzzle. “You’d never know anything had ever happened to her. She looks perfect. Of course, Mr. Macleod won’t let her out of bed. That’s why I came to check on you. She’s worried about you.”
Elspeth moved from her spot to slide her arm around Ben’s waist. “Well, as ye can see, there’s no need ta worry.”
They found Mr. Crawford sitting at his desk at the back of the vicarage, flipping through his Bible. His balding pate was tilted down, and he hummed a hymn to himself. How the man failed to notice a hoard of people standing in his doorway, Ben would never know. To get the man’s attention, he rapped loudly on the door.
The vicar looked up and smiled at the four of them, but his eyes landed on Elspeth. “Ah, Miss Campbell, are ye here ta settle yer account?”
Before she could reply, Ben drew her close to his side with an arm around her waist. “I’ll be taking care of Miss Campbell’s accounts, Mr. Crawford.” The man’s eyes widened at the pronouncement, so Ben stepped forward. “We have another matter that needs your attention, sir.”