Medieval Highlands 01 - Highland Vengeance

by K. E. Saxon

  “Will you look at me? You’ve barely given me a glance since arriving at our campsite earlier.”

  Her gaze lifted to his, but there was no emotion in her eyes.

  “How is the babe?”

  “Fine.”

  “You know ‘twas not my wish to imprison you, only to keep you safe.”

  “Aye.”

  “It’s not truly a prison for you is it?”

  There was a long pause. “Nay.”

  “I’d like to kiss you, taste you—I missed you in our bed last night. Let us retire, shall we?”

  “I have a headache.”

  “Oh. All right. We’ll simply retire then.”

  When they were at last settled in bed, with Maryn on her side with her back to him, Daniel curled around her and enclosed her in his embrace. She stiffened. “I’m a little warm. Will you move over?”

  Daniel bit back a sigh, but rolled onto his back, giving her the space she required. Tucking his arm under his head he stared up at the canopy. Surely by the morn the hoarfrost ‘round her heart will have melted. She was angry, this much was plain. But couldn’t she see that ‘twas for her own good—and their babe’s—that he keep close reins on her? Just look what happened when he’d allowed them to slip—she’d nearly died, and so had their babe.

  He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. Aye, surely by morn she’d be her old self again.

  *

  A whisper of gentle fingers touched Daniel on the cheek a quarter hour later and he jerked awake, his heart pounding. “Maryn?”

  “Nay, Daniel. She slumbers still”

  Daniel blinked several times and scrubbed his hands over his face trying to wake his mind up. When he could finally focus, he saw a shadowy figure several feet from the bed. The room was dim, with only the hearthfire serving as both light and warmth. “Who goes there? Speak!”

  “‘Tis I. Your mother.”

  “’Tis a dream….”

  “Aye, a dream and yet, ‘tis real as well.”

  “You are not real…” Daniel shot to his feet and took a step toward the figure. “…this is not real.”

  “There was naught you could have done, my son. Naught. ‘Tis time and past for you to know this, in your mind, but mostly in your heart.”

  “I want to see you—step closer—let me see you.”

  The apparition—the shade—floated toward him and then… ‘twas as if the years crumbled away…he was a lad of thirteen again and she was there, in the jade gown she’d worn the night before the massacre, her lovely yellow locks braided and twisted around her head like a golden crown, her eyes bright and full of life and laughter. “A love kept under lock and key is not much of a love, especially when that love must be free to thrive.”

  “I must keep her safe.”

  “Then you are no better than your father, for he too kept me prisoner and killed my love for him because of it.”

  “He beat you.”

  “He was jealous; believed me unfaithful.”

  “I’d never do to her what he did to you.”

  “Ah, but don’t you see? You are. You have. Your guilt, your fears will ruin you if you do not overcome them. Just as your father’s fears ruined his. ‘Tis time to forgive yourself and live.” She touched her fingers to Maryn’s cheek. “Goodbye, my son.”

  “Mother!” His eyes flew open and he sat up, snorting as he sucked in air, feeling as if his heart had stopped, as if he were coming up from the depths of the ocean.

  “Daniel! Was it the dream?” Maryn asked him, but her voice sounded miles away, as if traveling down a long tunnel to reach him.

  His heart pounded in his chest as his mind raced. He grabbed Maryn to him and held tight.

  “Daniel, you’re quaking! What’s wrong? Tell me.”

  “She told me I was no better than my father.”

  “Who? Your mother? Daniel, you are nothing like your father. Nothing. How dare she say that—even if ‘twas a dream!”

  “Will I lose your love if I don’t give you your freedom? Tell me—do not lie—tell me!”

  He felt her slump. “Aye, mayhap.”

  “Then you shall have the freedom you require. I’ll not stand in your way. ‘Tis not worth the loss. But if you die because of it, I’ll never forgive you.”

  She leaned back and placed her hands on his cheeks and then settled a soft, warm kiss on his lips. “’Twill not be as before, this vow I give to you. For I learned my lesson as well. I was too reckless, too sure I knew the best way to take care of myself and my babe. I will be much more circumspect in my actions from now on.”

  “I will not lie, that does ease my mind.”

  She smiled. “Did you not take note that I already had, in fact? I did not travel to my father’s holding alone this last time. I made sure to have an escort.”

  “Aye, I did notice. My thanks for that.”

  *

  “So much has happened since I freed those horses, Daniel,” Maryn said the next night as she lay with her head on her husband’s chest. “Can you believe it has only been a few moons?”

  “Aye, you are right. It seems as if it has been much longer. Let’s see,” he said, beginning to count off on his fingers. “We wed and stopped a clan war. We came close to getting the marriage annulled. We fell in love. We made a babe. We gained a brother and sister.” Continuing the count on his other hand, he said, “My lost memories returned. We stopped another clan war with a marriage—Callum’s. We foiled a villain’s murderous plot. You fled and I followed again, nearly going to battle with your father.” He looked down at her. “Anything else?”

  Maryn placed her hand on the back of his head and brought it down to meet her halfway. She stroked her tongue over his bottom lip and murmured, “Aye. We made love many, many, times.” And then she kissed him, letting him know exactly where her thoughts were headed.

  He moaned against her mouth and pulled away. “How are the bruises? I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “It’s been o’er a sennight since we…I want you.” Maryn straddled her husband then and undulated her hips, showing him the way they might proceed with the least amount of pain. Leaning forward, she trailed kisses down the column of his neck.

  He kissed her temple and stroked his fingers through her hair. “Did you know, that first day, outside the MacLaurin stable, when the wind blew the hood of your cape away from your hair, I imagined running my fingers through it, just as I’m doing now?”

  Maryn looked into his eyes, her brows lifted in surprise. “Nay, I had no idea you were having such thoughts. I was more concerned by your size, as I recall.”

  “And, later, your meal. I remember being amused that such a small lass could put away so much food.”

  Maryn bit the ridge of hard muscle above his nipple.

  “Ouch! I’m going to break you of that habit before we’re old and gray, I swear it.”

  “If you do not like the feel of my sharp teeth, then you should stop provoking me.” Maryn bent her head and ran her tongue along the place she’d abused before giving it a sultry, open-mouthed kiss. She felt her husband’s arousal jump against her sex and smiled. Raising her head, she gave him a heated look. “Do you want me too, then, husband?”

  His growl was the only reply she received before he tugged her head down to meet his lips and plundered ravenously with his tongue and teeth.

  A ragged moan came from deep in her throat as she rocked against him, enjoying the friction of his erection against her swollen, wet folds.

  He dragged the chemise up and over her head, tossing it to the floor next to the bed. Lifting her slightly, he took her breast in his mouth, suckling the sensitive point and teasing it with his tongue.

  Maryn’s breath caught and her channel throbbed in reaction. She grasped the back of his head and pressed her breast deeper into his mouth. The added sensation made her blood rush even more rapidly through her veins. She quivered, crying out, when his laving tongue sent a shockwave through her system.
>
  He took her hips in his hands and positioned her above him so that his sex was just at the entrance to her canal. As he tilted his pelvis up, he urged her down, entering her in slow increments.

  “Daniel!” she gasped, her hips writhing within his grasp, already craving deeper penetration.

  *

  Daniel would not allow it, enjoying the gradual, voluptuous glide home too much to rush the finale.

  When he’d entered her as deeply as he could from that angle, he placed his hands on her shoulders and pressed her into a sitting position, causing her to take more of him inside her.

  She gasped.

  Daniel threw his head back, gritting his teeth. “God, you feel so good,” he ground out.

  She rotated her hips and groaned. “So do you, my love.”

  Daniel opened his eyes. Highly arousing little bumps had broken out on her limbs and her head was thrown back, causing the silky ends of her hair to tease his thighs. The look of ecstasy on her face made his heart race. “I want to take you, hard and fast, but I will not risk hurting you or our babe.”

  She looked into his eyes and nodded dazedly.

  Daniel sat up in a cross-legged position and gently drew her legs behind his hips. Holding her in his lap, he laved her nipples with his tongue before taking one into his mouth and gently suckling it in an erotic rhythm that matched the throbbing in their loins. After a time, he grasped her sweetly rounded bottom in his hands and lifted her, showing her the slow, shallow movements he wanted. “Like this, love.”

  “Aye,” she whispered.

  Daniel continued the onslaught of her senses, kissing her deeply for a time as he stroked his palms up her back, her shoulders and down her arms before softly sliding them up her quivering belly to at last fill them with her full, warm breasts. He teased their peaks, rolling them between his thumb and forefinger, as he left a trail of humid kisses and nipping bites down her neck, across her collarbone and, at last, over the soft mounds he held, ending his journey with a wide, open-mouthed kiss to first one tightly budded peak and then the other.

  “Daniel!” She tried to move faster.

  “Nay, not yet, love.” Daniel took hold of her bottom, keeping the rhythm steady. “God. Your skin tastes so good. Like warm honey,” he said as he once more left a moist trail of kisses on her breasts and neck. Stroking his hands over her babe-ripened bosom, he brushed his thumbs over the rose-colored crests. “I love you so much,” he said fervently.

  “I love you…mmmmm…too.”

  He licked her nipples and blew on them.

  She panted, she whimpered, she continued her shallow thrusts. After another moment, tossing her head from side to side, she cried out. “I need…I need—”

  “This?” He stroked the hidden nub of her pleasure center with his thumb and clamped his hot, wet mouth around the tightly pebbled peak of her breast, sucking hard.

  “Aye…aaahhh! OooohhhhGaaaaawd.” She tensed, her inner muscles tightening around him.

  Daniel moaned. The sound vibrated against Maryn’s nipple. “Daniel!” she cried out once again as her climax took her by surprise. She threw her arms around his neck and, though he controlled the roughness of the tempo with his hands at her hips, bounced on him uncontrollably, lost in the throes of the acute pleasure of a prolonged release.

  Feeling his own orgasm begin, Daniel pushed down on her hips, impaling her more deeply. “Ahhh…ahhh…ahhh!” He pumped her, shallowly, but enough to force her to take him more thoroughly inside her as waves of erotic pleasure racked his frame. And then, with a final push and a shout of pure ecstasy, he grew rigid, exploding into her, his hot seed splashing against the mouth of her womb.

  Blowing hard and gasping for breath, he held her close, his face buried in her thick, soft locks. He breathed in and the heady scent of honeysuckle filled his lungs.

  *

  Maryn felt as if all the bones in her body had melted like so much butter. She rested her head in the crook of her husband’s neck as she held him in a loose embrace. Still seated on his lap, his pulsing shaft remained deep inside her. “Well, that worked pretty well, I’d say.”

  She lifted her head and looked at him when she got no response. “Did it not?”

  He raised his head slightly. “Hmm? Oh. Aye,” he said finally, and then rested his fiery, damp cheek back on her shoulder and closed his eyes.

  *

  “I cannot help feeling saddened that Bao must leave on the morrow,” Maryn said a few minutes later as she lay in bed waiting for her husband to finish washing. “He was only here a few days before you all left for the MacGregor holding and then afterward…well I was under such tight watch I was too angry for company.”

  Daniel shot a contrite look her direction. “I am sorry for that—for how I behaved. ‘Tis still a struggle, but I am trying.”

  “I know you are—I didn’t mean…anyway, I would have liked a bit more time to get to know him better is all.”

  He turned back to the washstand. “Aye, I’ve cajoled and entreated—I’ve even tried playing on his guilt. But naught will sway him. For he is determined to go back to his life in Perth.” Completing his ablutions, Daniel got into bed next to her and opened his arms. She settled into him and placed her head on his shoulder, stroking her hand over his chest.

  Maryn was silent for awhile. Drawing circles on her husband’s shoulder blade with her finger, she said at last, “Was Callum pleased with his marriage?”

  Daniel took in a deep breath. “He seemed pleased enough. His bride is lovely and he gains a lairdship in the bargain.” He stroked his hand up her back under her damp and clinging hair and then took the bottom ends in his fist and started fanning her with the mass. “And I know he was anxious to end the feud with minimal bloodshed—which his marriage certainly accomplished.”

  “Mmm, that feels good.” Maryn enjoyed the cool breeze he was creating against her back and neck a moment before saying, “Do you suppose he’ll find the happiness with his new bride that we have found in each other?”

  He stopped fanning her. “Why are you so concerned with Callum’s happiness of a sudden, wife?”

  She sighed. “I just feel pity for the man; we were friends before I stole those horses and set in motion his dismissal as laird here. After all, he’s had quite a few blows to his pride and his amorous endeavors these past moons. I’d simply like to see him settled and happy, that’s all.”

  “Ease your worry, then. Callum and the lass seemed to like each other well enough. Besides, you can see for yourself come Hogmanay when they visit.

  “Aye, there’s plenty of time between now and then for love to bloom between the two.”

  Rolling her onto her back, he settled next to her, resting his head above her breast and holding her hand. “Now, wife, you must rest, and give our babe his rest as well.”

  PART SIX

  The Bright Beginning

  “Why, then the world’s mine oyster

  Which I with sword will open.”

  Merry Wives of Windsor (Act II, Scene ii) I know myself now, and I feel within me

  A peace above all earthly dignities,

  A still and quiet conscience.

  Henry VIII (Act III, scene ii)

  CHAPTER 20

  “I believe it not,” Maryn said to Lady Maclean and Branwenn the next morn as they stood in the courtyard watching Bao and Daniel in deep conversation. “The man is still set upon leaving, even after all our endeavors to change his mind. Why does he feel he must return to soldiering for the king when he has a family here who needs him?”

  “He enjoys soldiering,” Branwenn answered. “He’s been doing it for as long as I can remember.”

  “Aye, and he no doubt craves a bit of freedom, at least for awhile. After all, he has cared for Branwenn all of his adult life and now that duty has been transferred,” Lady Maclean said.

  Branwenn bit her lip and bowed her head.

  “My dear, you mistake my meaning,” Lady Maclean rushed to explai
n. “He had no desire to discontinue his care of you, ‘twas only his need to keep you safe from the predators of the court that prompted his settling you here.”

  “Aye, he has made that quite plain to me. Still, ‘tis no easier for me to watch him depart.”

  *

  Jesslyn and Alleck came through the open gateway at that moment and Maryn waived to them.

  Alleck tried to pull away from Jesslyn’s grip on his hand, but she would not release him. “Mama! I want to say g’bye to Bao!”

  “We’ll say our farewells in a moment, Alleck. Can you not see that Daniel and Bao are trying to speak privily? ‘Twould be rude to interrupt them.”

  “But I wanna show Laird Daniel the trick Bao taught me last eve.”

  “You shall have plenty of time to do so after Bao is on his way.”

  Alleck tugged harder. “I wanna show him now, while Bao’s here to watch me, too!”

  Her son had been trying her patience all morning with his demands and belligerence. Though Jesslyn knew he was acting out as a way to deal with his own feelings of sadness at Bao’s departure, the tight reins she’d been keeping on her temper finally snapped. After hauling him a distance away from the group, she got down on her knees so that they were eye-to-eye and said, “You are not going to bother Daniel and Bao right now, do you understand?”

  Alleck bobbed up and down. “But, Mama—”

  “Nay, no ‘buts’. For I am the mother and you are the bairn; I am the leader and you are the follower. Whatever I say is law. At least until you are grown and wed. Do you ken me, lad?”

  His shoulders slumped in defeat. Bowing his head, he said, “Aye, Mama.” After a moment, he looked up and cocked his head to the side, a question in his countenance. “So when I’m grown and wed I’ll get to be leader?”

  Jesslyn grinned and tweaked her son’s nose. “Nay, then your wife shall be leader.”

  Alleck giggled and stuck out his chest, pointing at it with his thumb. “Nay! I’ll be leader and my wife will do whatever I say. Even if I tell her to eat worms or roll in horse dung.”

  Bao and Daniel walked up just as Alleck said the last and they both chuckled.