What has this Scottish Gypsy done to me in such a short time?
Falcon shut the door behind John and turned on the heel of his bare foot, his flaxen hair streaming down his naked back. He started down the corridor with a spring to his step. “I do believe I will break the fast with some ale, after all. Mayhap wash some ham and eggs down with it. Join me, brother?”
“You know, do you not? You read it in her mind,” John accused as he fell into step beside Falcon.
Falcon raised a golden eyebrow and cast John a sidelong look as he descended the straight rear stairway leading down to the kitchen. “Hmm?”
“Goddamn it, Falcon, do not toy with me. Who is this Duncan fellow?”
“Ah, that.”
“Ah, that,” he mimicked sourly. “Falcon, I warn you—”
“Very well. He is Duncan McNicol. ‘Tis her deceased husband of the Nicol clan I spoke of earlier. She is estranged from her in-laws and it seems has taken back her maiden name Graham in the process. But she does not know why they have cast her out in the aftermath of her husband’s execution.”
John set his jaw and followed Falcon below stairs. Guilty relief washed through him that this Duncan did not live, that he had proven to be her long-dead husband. So why did a strange sense of foreboding immediately replace the short-lived pacification in his gut?
* * * * *
“You spoke of Lorcan,” Salena began, settling against the headboard at Catriona’s right.
“Aye, he came to me in a dream.”
“Hmm, he did but the same to me decades ago during the early, stormy days of my relationship with Falcon.” She glanced at Catriona’s bare cleavage peeping through the gap of the linen sheet. “But I see you do not wear the Scorpian. Did Lorcan not offer it to you in this dream?”
“The Scorpian?”
Salena nodded eagerly. “Aye, the medallion I mentioned to you days ago. In your dream, did he not wear the golden amulet adorned with the unusual emerald…just like your eyes?”
“Nae—aye, he wore the chain with the stone. But what would that have to do with me?”
Like her eyes? At the echoing thought, Catriona shivered. Yes, that was why the stone had seemed so familiar in her dream. It had been as if she had looked into a single duplicate orb of her own eyes.
“Because, ‘tis my belief ‘tis yours by fate’s right, just as the Centaurus was mine. Yours used to seal your destiny as John’s chosen one.” Salena reached for her hand and weaved her fingers into Catriona’s. At first, Catriona’s instinct was to withdraw, but the tender gesture eased warm and soft into her system. It was enough to make her nearly overlook Salena’s words. Instead, her ears perked and she twitched her gaze to the right.
“This cannot be. Ye have just used the exact words of those in me dream, those spoken by this Lorcan. ‘John’s chosen one’ he had called me.”
“Ah.” Salena’s mouth curved up ever-so slightly at the corners. “This does not surprise me.”
Catriona came up on her knees, heedless of the sheet falling away from her nakedness. She looked down into Salena’s lovely, startled face. “I tell ye, I cannot become anyone’s wife!”
“Wife?” She said it more as a smug statement than as a genuine inquiry. “Do you recall me saying such?”
“Nae, but this Lorcan, he recited some ridiculous riddle, one that spoke of me gift and me heart leadin’ to an eternity as me chosen one’s wife. ‘Tis utterly absurd! I’ve but kent John for one week’s cycle, I tell ye. And this Lorcan…who is he—nae, what is he?”
Salena reached up and curved her palm over Catriona’s cheek. She rose up on her knees, as well, and leaned closer, so close, Catriona caught the sweet floral scent of woman mixed with raw sex. It pleased her somehow, in spite of the topic. It made her feel calm and at ease on the one hand, yet excited and intrigued on the other.
Salena’s eyes betrayed her excitement. They sparkled like two turquoise gems upon the Firth of Forth waters. “That settles it, then! There is no doubt in my mind John has finally found his intended. Why Lorcan chose to gift me with the Centaurus in my dream and yet withhold the Scorpian from you, I do not yet know.” She giggled, clasping Catriona’s hands into her own small ones. “But I do not care! ‘Tis a moot point, and it shall work itself out in the end.”
Catriona collapsed to the bed, drawing the pillow to her breasts. She squeezed its feather softness and stared into nothingness. “This is all happenin’ so verra fast. I-I do not ken how to process it all.”
“Shh, shh,” Salena soothed, drawing Catriona into her embrace. The warm, soft skin, the sweet scent of rose wafting up from Salena’s hair, it all rushed into Catriona’s senses. It pleased her, made her nerves calm somewhat, but it proved to be the curve of breast pressed to her own that intrigued and sent her system into a strange gallop.
She recalled Salena’s speculation on the possible compounding of John and Falcon’s energy. Gifting them with two women at once rather than their usual one, according to Salena, might bring them untold quantities of energy. Catriona’s thoughts scattered, bounced from one emotion to the next. Visions of Salena being ravished between the two handsome men made Catriona’s heart flutter with a reluctant thrill. But it quickly turned to envy when she thought of John’s massive cock entering the passage of this gorgeous woman.
The three of them obviously had something special together. It made Catriona feel like an outsider peering in through a forbidden window. Yet her wayward, wanton heart still yearned to experience their fascinating union, to taste of the titillating, taboo concept of multiple, inviolable companionship she had heard whispered in her band of Gypsies.
What would it be like? she wondered, even as her pussy throbbed with the possibility. To have two men at once—and one who had quickly gained a very special place in her heart. Ah, but both were so breathtakingly pleasing to the eye! To think they would be pleasuring her…and another woman at the same time. It boggled her mind knowing it was hers for the taking. And she somehow knew there would be nothing dirty or temporary about it. She had but to say aye to their earnest needs and ecstasy would be hers. Dare she?
“Catriona?” Salena gripped Catriona’s shoulders and firmly held her away. “Are you all right?”
She blinked, her eyes coming back into focus to take in the face of an angel, a woman who she knew could become a true friend if she just allowed it. “I-I am fine.”
Salena combed a hand through Catriona’s hair making her shiver with delight. “You are sure?”
“Aye.”
“We may take this as slowly as you wish…or not at all. ‘Tis completely your choice. Both Falcon and John will respect your wishes.”
Her choice. In some strange manner, those few words freed her from that one shred of indecision. Aye, it was her choice. They were not forcing or coercing her. She could flee this place if she so chose, or stay as long as she wished. She could refuse to participate in this experimental carnality proposed for John and Falcon’s sake, or offer to gift them with a lover’s energy to power their sorcery to a possible level not yet achieved.
“Hmm, ‘tis me choice, ye say…”
“Oh, aye,” Salena said with earnest, shaking Catriona gently. “There was a day many decades ago, before this…” She lifted the Centaurus from her breast turning it this way and that. Dawn had since broken sending shafts of orange light through the open window. The blue, cat’s-eye-shaped stone glittered, nearly blinding Catriona with its brilliance.
“A day that I longed for choices,” Salena went on, “only to realize Falcon had been giving me the option all along to say nay to his charms…and to John’s. ‘Twas merely my own prudishness, my ingrained morals and propriety’s standards that held me back. Ah, and the most important fact that my betrothed awaited my return. But my quickly evolving love for Falcon during my captivity, and the respect and fondness for John and their brotherhood, made me realize I had it all for the taking, and that I was not meant to be with my betrothed.” She
grinned impishly. “Pray tell, what red-blooded woman would not want two gorgeous men fawning over her?”
Indeed. Catriona relaxed a small measure and pressed her palm to the back of Salena’s right hand where it still clutched Catriona’s upper arm. “Aye, I believe I am beginnin’ to understand what ye mean.”
Salena’s mouth curved into a relieved smile. “Truly?”
“Truly.”
“You do understand that I—we—would not be opening the bond of our triad to just anyone, do you not? In fact, in all our decades together, we have never invited another person to join us.”
Catriona scooted across the bed and rose, dragging the sheet with her. “Aye, that I am beginnin’ to comprehend, as well. I ken this is not taken lightly by the three of ye, that rather than as a shockin’ insult, I should take this as an immense compliment. And I suppose I do.”
Salena leapt to her feet. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “Then you will do this thing for Falcon and John?”
Catriona clutched the cloth to her chest and paused for just a moment, long enough to allow herself this one last chance to turn and flee. But her pussy pounded with a relentless curiosity and desire she could not resist any longer. “Nae.”
Salena’s expression fell into one of dejected disappointment. “Oh, well, then…”
“I’ll be tellin’ ye now, I am verra uneasy about this, but I do it for John. I fear I am fallin’ in love with the arrogant thief. And since there seems to be a bond between him and the two of ye that I cannot or will not break, I concur.”
Salena threw herself against Catriona’s sheet-clad body. The feminine form molded to her, and that rosy aroma once again engulfed her. Catriona stiffened at first, but it did not take long for her to embrace the woman when she felt Salena quiver with emotion.
“Thank you. Thank you so very much, Catriona.”
She felt petite, warm and soft in Catriona’s arms. Faint waves of a strange desire fluttered deep in her womb. Though it did not stir her blood to the echelon John did, it was pleasing on a lesser level. Aye, she could do this, by Scots! She would do this. And she suspected she would be enjoying herself far more than she ever thought she would.
Catriona drew Salena away from her chest and looked down into her tearstained face. Something struck her at that moment, something that made her heart warm. Friendship. She had had many women acquaintances in the band of Gypsies she had grown up with. But none had melted her heart so swift and sure as the emotion that now clutched at her soul. It felt wondrous and heartwarming. It felt so very right.
“Nae.” Normally a hard woman by necessity, Catriona could not believe her own eyes stung with sentiment. She sighed inwardly and smiled with sudden relief. “Thank ye for takin’ me as friend, for trustin’ me to engage in passion with ye and the only two men ye care about in this world. I am honored and wholly humbled. Now,” she murmured, attempting to choke back the tears as she slid her hand down into Salena’s, “let us go and seek out our men—and pleasure their souls with our powerful, feminine wiles. In the meantime, I am quite curious…what is this about a gentlemon betrothed and ye being held in captivity?”
* * * * *
You both must come below to the underground cave. It is of an urgent, dire matter. Please hurry! Love, Salena
Salena had perched herself at the secretary’s desk in the chambers she and Falcon always occupied while visiting John’s keep. After relaying to Catriona the entire shocking tale of her kidnapping by Falcon, and her brother’s sinister part in a plot to murder her, Salena scrawled the words onto parchment paper, and promptly returned the quill to the ink well.
“There. That should send them running to us like two knights rescuing their damsels of woe.” She giggled. “Mayhap they will worry so acutely, John will even invisilate them to us.”
Catriona’s heart fluttered with the little plan Salena devised. Now that she had made the commitment to go through with this taboo affair, she could not contain herself. Catriona’s clitoris throbbed in anticipation. She could barely withhold her juices as they threatened to spill from her pussy.
“Mayhap,” Catriona echoed with an excited quiver to her voice. “But however ‘tis they arrive, it must be soon before I faint.”
Salena winked and rose from her seat. “Faint, you will, lovely Catriona, once you get a taste of our lovemaking.” She paused as if she pondered her next words and chose them very carefully. “You do know you are the first woman—besides myself—that John has ever brought here to this home, do you not?”
The cryptic proclamation was enough in itself to make her heart still. “Nae, I did not have an inklin’. I…oh, dear.”
Salena reached for Catriona’s hand and squeezed it firmly. “Do not worry, love. This is a very good thing. Here, take this,” she said as an afterthought, plucking a fur-lined cloak from a nearby peg and shoving it into Catriona’s hands. Salena reached for another for herself. “‘Tis chilly where we are bound. Now, let us be on our way.”
Stunned as she was, Catriona could do naught but nod and agree. She obediently took the cape and draped it over her arm.
They swept from Salena’s chambers into the corridor, Catriona clad in her braies, linen man’s shirt, jerkin and boots, and Salena in a lovely day dress of deep navy. Catriona watched as Salena’s gaze fell upon a servant exiting John’s suite with feather duster and dirty garments in hand.
“Althia!”
The plump brunette woman turned, her eyes widening. She deposited her load on a nearby settee and waddled toward them. “Mercy, ‘tis Lady Montague! Welcome back to Sedgewick Castle, melady.”
Salena glided up the hallway, smiling all the way as she pulled Catriona along with her. “Thank you, Althia. ‘Tis good to be back. Where have you been this last week since our arrival?”
The woman waved a dismissive hand. “Eh, tendin’ to me grandson, the little rascal. Master John gave me some time off.”
“Good for you!” Salena peered through an open chamber door where housekeeping appeared to be in session. “You know, you always keep the house in such excellent order for our John. I am sure your talents were missed.”
The woman bobbed her kerchiefed head. “Oh, aye, aye. Always for the master. He is such a good mon and well deservin’ of bein’ pampered. Ah, and I do thank ye for yer kind words, melady.”
“It does not surprise me that you would take such good care of him. You are such a valued employee.”
Althia grinned, revealing a toothless gap in one corner of her mouth. “And I teach me Edwina to honor our lord as much as I.”
Salena tsked. “Ah, Edwina is but a babe.”
Althia’s mouth rounded as she shook her head. “Oh, nae. She be nearin’ a good dozen years. Wee bit more than a bairn, that she be. And here I was thinkin’—oh, pardon me manners! Good day to ye, miss.” She nodded with a quick curtsy to Catriona.
“Please, please,” Catriona said hurriedly when she realized the woman honored her. She put out a halting hand. “I thank ye, but do not bother with formalities. There is nae need.”
Althia gasped theatrically. “Ah, it warms me verra heart!” She layered her hands and pressed them over her ample chest. “A genuine Scottish lass in me presence.”
Catriona mentally winced. Her stomach twisted into a regretful knot. How foolish of her to speak when she had instantly recognized the woman’s accent! It would be to her advantage to remain as anonymous as possible. She did not trust King James’ tactics or any of his soldiers in pursuit of “witches”. Making herself known to anyone, especially a native Scot, might be tantamount to suicide.
Catriona managed a warm smile. Already caught, she did not wish to draw attention to herself or to insult the maid. “Aye, and I see by yer sweet brogue ye hail from one and the same,” she said to Althia in Gaelic.
Althia nodded and returned her comment in their native tongue. “Mmm. Eastern Lowlands at Edinburgh, just off the lovely Firth of Forth. Once lived to the east of the grand Ed
inburgh Castle upon The Rock. Nae more for me, I tell ye. ‘Tis right cold here, that ‘tis, but—” she shivered, “I’ll be takin’ the south any day.”
Catriona laughed, instantly taking a liking to the woman. She switched back to English. “I have yet to test the seasons, but I will be takin’ yer warnin’ to heart.”
“Althia,” Salena put in, obviously eager to get on with their plan. “May I ask that you go below stairs and see that Lord Montague receives this note?”
Althia reached for the sealed, folded message. “But of course, melady!”
“Thank you. You are a kind and valued friend.” She angled to her left and hooked her arm into Catriona’s. “Shall we be on our way, then, Catriona?”
“Aye, please.” Do get me as far from the Scotswoman as possible!
“Althia,” Salena nodded, dismissing the servant as she guided Catriona back the way they had come. To Catriona, she said under her breath, “I am privy to a back way to the caves below the manor.”
“The caves, ye say?”
“Mmm, the hot springs where we all bathed that eve. ‘Tis why we have these.” She indicated the cloaks and donned hers. Catriona did the same. “This particular passageway ‘tis a cold journey into the bowels of the manor.”
“Ah, I see.”
Salena guided her down another corridor, a different one from which John had taken her the previous trip below. They proceeded through a sitting room of sorts and on to a far door set in the corner. She pulled it open and revealed a darkened, hidden stairway. A faint, musty scent wafted up to invade Catriona’s nostrils.
“Come.” Salena lifted her skirts and descended into the darkness. “Close the door behind you. ‘Twill be dark but an instant. Just hold to the rail and you will be fine.”
Catriona stepped into the cold space and suppressed a quiver of cold as she pulled the door shut. She burrowed into the cloak’s warmth thankful Salena had thought to include them in their excursion.
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