The Campbell Trilogy
Page 101
Jeannie put her hand on his arm. The old woman noted the gesture and looked back and forth between them.
“What happened?” Duncan asked, his voice emotionless.
“She slipped and fell off a cliff onto the rocks below. It was a terrible tragedy.”
Ten years ago. “About the same time as my father died,” he noted.
The old woman nodded. “Aye, we’d just heard that he’d fallen in battle. News of your troubles had not reached us.” He heard the implied “Thank God.” “When did you return?” she asked.
“A couple months ago.”
“You’ve been exonerated?”
He and Jeannie exchanged a look. “Not exactly,” he explained. “That is why we are here.”
“Is there anything you can tell us about her?” Jeannie asked.
A slight wariness appeared in Mary MacDonald’s eyes. “Why don’t you tell me what you know.”
Duncan answered. “That she was a nursemaid to the present laird’s children, that she had an affair with my father, and that she left me with my father not long after I was born,” he couldn’t quite keep the edge from his voice.
“Do not judge your mother too harshly, lad. ’Twas not easy for her to do what she did. My brother would have killed you had he discovered what she’d done. The MacDonalds and Campbells were locked in a vicious blood feud.”
The vehemence in her voice took him aback. But from what he’d heard of the old laird he did not doubt her. The old MacDonald chief had a well-earned reputation as a harsh and merciless leader. “She must have been a favored nursemaid.”
A strange look crossed her face. “Aye. Your mother was a special lass. Everyone loved her.”
Yet she’d given away her child and never looked back.
Jeannie seemed to sense his thoughts and moved to get them back on course. “Can you think of any reason why Duncan’s father would send him to find her? It was his dying wish.”
The old woman held Duncan’s gaze for a long moment before turning back to Jeannie, a sad look on her wrinkled face. “I can’t think of anything.” She paused. “I’m sorry, I wish I could be more help.”
It was no more than Duncan expected, but it did not lessen the disappointment. One more road had led him nowhere. Sooner or later (and he suspected the former), he was going to have to deal with the very real possibility that there was simply no proof to be found.
Chapter 21
They’d stayed only a short while longer, declining Lady MacDonald’s offer of a glass of claret and cakes, in favor of returning to the inn. Duncan was anxious to leave the MacDonald stronghold—not wanting to chance running into the laird—and Jeannie couldn’t blame him. Any hope of learning something important had died ten years ago.
It seemed strange and sadly ironic that both his parents had died within months of one another. She’d wanted to question Lady MacDonald further, but it was clear the subject was a painful one for the old woman, as it was for Duncan.
Not that you would know it by looking at him. She glanced over at him, so big and strong riding atop the powerful black horse, utterly in command, his handsome face devoid of emotion as he spoke in low tones with Conall. But the stoic façade did not fool her. She’d seen the flash of pain in his eyes when Lady MacDonald had spoken of his mother’s death.
Jeannie’s heart went out to him. She, too, had lost her mother without being able to say good-bye. Worse, she knew, was the lost opportunity to confront the person who’d caused so much pain.
It was only a few hours past midday, but already the light had begun to wane as they navigated the narrow path back to the village, which consisted of a handful of buildings that had sprung up around the port. Duncan seemed preoccupied and for once Jeannie was not inclined to disturb him. Did he blame her for delving into a painful past unnecessarily?
She didn’t blame him if he did. By the time they reached the inn, her stomach was tied in knots. She’d been so certain they would find something. Now she just felt foolish—impulsive—having dragged them across the sea on a silly madcap adventure. It felt distinctly like something her mother would have done. Shame crawled up her cheeks.
Duncan had a quick conversation with the men—she assumed giving them instructions for the evening—before joining her and leading her to the small private chamber he’d secured for her, for them, she hoped.
The inn was more of a large cottage—a two-story stone building with a thatched roof that hadn’t been built with men of Duncan’s build in mind. With his broad, muscular shoulders, he could barely negotiate the narrow wooden staircase up to the second floor. They reached a small landing where it appeared that three very small partitioned chambers had been created from one space. Fortunately, the room he’d selected for her was in the back, overlooking the port. It was also the most private. He had to duck his head through the doorway as he showed her inside, putting down the small bag of belongings she’d brought with her on a side table.
The room was barely functional—only a small bed, side table with basin and chair—but appeared clean.
“If you’d like, I can send for a bath,” he offered.
She nodded, biting her lip. Did he mean to leave?
“Would you care to eat your meal up here or downstairs with the men?” he asked.
She twisted her hands, looking at him anxiously. “Are you very angry with me?”
His head jerked back with surprise. “Angry? Why would I be angry with you?”
She gazed up at him, tears in her eyes. “You didn’t want to come, but I wouldn’t let it go. I’m sorry for dragging you all the way—”
“Stop.” He cupped her chin and tilted her face to look deep into her eyes. “You’ve nothing to apologize for. You didn’t drag me anywhere. I should have come years ago—when my father asked me to. It was I who was foolish with pride. I didn’t want her to think I needed her.”
He was only trying to make her feel better, which only succeeded in making her feel worse. “You think I’d learn my lesson by now. Whenever I feel something strongly it always seems to get me in trouble.”
“We aren’t in trouble.” She shot him a glare and he grinned. “Well, no more trouble than I was already in.” He smoothed his thumb over her cheek. “I love your passion—your joie de vivre. In truth, it was what first drew me to you.”
Passion and joie de vivre? She supposed that was one way of looking at it. “I think my father used to call it flightiness.”
Duncan’s expression hardened. “You aren’t your mother, Jeannie. You follow your heart, but not without thought. Stop punishing yourself for her mistakes.”
She nodded and pulled away. “I didn’t mean to keep you. I know there are things you need to do—”
“They can wait.” He closed the door behind her and reached for her, pulling her into his arms. His eyes bored into hers intently. “Leave with me. We can sail to France right now. Within the week we can be in Spain. You shall want for nothing and we will be safe.”
Jeannie gasped, her eyes searching his face. He seemed to be in complete earnest. “But I can’t.”
“Don’t you want to be with me?” He challenged, bringing her closer so that she nested into the hard crevices of his body. “I love you, Jeannie. I’ve never stopped loving you. I’d hoped that you loved me.”
“I do,” she said without hesitation. It took a minute to realize what he’d said—he loved her—and then what she’d said. She loved him. She couldn’t help it. She’d tried to bury it, to push it away, but it didn’t work. Her heart had belonged to him from almost the first moment she’d seen him. But her girlish love had only grown stronger as she’d come to know the man he’d become. “I love you, Duncan, but I could never leave my children—”
She stopped, realizing what she’d said.
He smiled and dropped a soft kiss on her mouth. “See? You are nothing like your mother.”
The realization took her aback. He was right. She might be impulsive, but unlike her mothe
r it wasn’t without bounds. Her mother had run off without care to those she left behind. She’d been fun and carefree, but also, Jeannie had to admit, selfish and irresponsible. Jeannie loved Duncan with all her heart, but not even for him would she ever abandon her children.
She had another realization. Her mother had fallen in love at the drop of a pin, but Jeannie had only loved once. She might have some of the impetuousness of her mother, but she also had duty and loyalty that her mother did not.
She eyed him warily. Perhaps he’d only been trying to teach her a lesson. “Did you mean what you said?”
He gave her a jaunty grin, the dimple in his left cheek making her heart squeeze. “About leaving or about loving you?”
“Both,” she whispered, her heart pounding. He was horrible to tease her like this.
“Not about leaving, I intend to stay and fight the charges against me. But about loving you …?” He ran the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip, his voice turning husky. “Aye, Jeannie, I love you. From the moment I first saw you, there has never been another woman for me.”
The hot wave of emotion rose up in her throat. She’d forgotten what it felt like to be truly happy. “It’s the same for me. I’ve never stopped loving you. I thought my heart had broken when you left, but my love for you never died.”
The fierce look in his eye sent shivers of anticipation shooting through her body. “You don’t need to say that. I have you now, that’s all that matters.”
He thought she’d loved Francis. She opened her mouth to correct him, but he covered it with his in a kiss that left no room for argument so thoroughly did it consume her.
His tongue wrapped around hers in an insistent dance. She knew what he needed because she needed it, too. To give proof to their words in the most basic of ways.
Within minutes he’d divested them both of their clothes and their bodies came together in seamless abandon. His hands stroked her skin, smoothing over her back and cupping her bottom to lift her against him. His erection rose hot and hard between them.
Gently he lowered her to the bed, his hard warrior’s body looming over her. She reached up to touch him, to run her hands over the thick slabs of muscle and pull him down on her. She loved his solidness, his strength.
She throbbed between her legs, growing damp with her need for him. His eyes burned into her intently, holding her gaze the entire time. Spreading her legs, he looped his hands under her knees and positioned himself at her entry, nudging forward.
Duncan had never felt like this, his heart seemed too big for his chest. I love you. Hearing those words was far more powerful the second time around, for now he knew how precious they were. He knew disappointment, heartbreak, and the emptiness of what it was like to live without.
But the mistakes—the distrust—of the past were behind them. He felt as if he’d been given a second chance at life. Not even the threat hanging over him would interfere with this night. Tonight, nothing would come between them.
He wanted her aware of every moment of their joining. He didn’t touch her, didn’t kiss her, didn’t make her half-crazed with passion. Instead, he held her gaze, looking deep into her eyes and entered her. Inch by inch. Slow and purposeful. All their senses honed on one place.
She gasped as he filled her, her soft pink lips parting with the erotic hitch of breath. Her round ivory breasts with the tiny pink nipples lifted as her back arched to accommodate him. To take him deeper.
It felt incredible. Her warm, wet body closed around him like a tight velvet glove. He stopped about halfway in, forcing himself to savor every second of sensation. But it was the tightness in his chest that truly moved him—the sheer intensity of emotion. How every time he looked at her, his heart seemed to expand. He never thought this would be his again. Fortune, it seemed, had smiled on him at last. A fierce wave of emotion rose up and took hold. This time he would never let her go.
He continued his slow possession, sinking into her until at last they were one. She was his: his heart, his soul.
“I love you, Jeannie. More than I ever thought possible.”
She smiled and reached up to cradle his cheek in her tiny palm. “And I love you.”
He held her there—at the deepest part—and then looking into her eyes took her a little farther. Her eyes widened and the little moan of pleasure nearly undid him.
He moved in and out with long, delicious strokes. Loving how her body milked him, how it fought to hold on to him.
She wrapped her legs around his buttocks, drawing him even closer. He lowered his chest to hers, his skin searing at the contact, and thrust. Harder now. Faster. Demanding.
Her moans drove him on. He couldn’t wait for her to come.
He watched as the sensations clouded her expression. As her gorgeous features grew soft, as her eyes grew dreamy with the pleasure he was giving her.
He felt the first spasm as she arched underneath him, her taut nipples pressing deeper into his chest.
She cried out his name. She cried for God. And then she cried out for her release.
The hot spasms quivering around his cock were too much.
His ass clenched. Pleasure intensified at the base of his spine with all the subtlety of a lightning bolt. His bollocks tightened and he began to pulse. The force of his climax possessed him body and soul. Surging one more time, he drove into her, threw back his head, and let go. Crying out as it shattered over him in a torrential wave of hot pleasure. Pleasure that seemed wrought from the deepest part of him. Pleasure that so consumed him it seemed to stop his heart from beating. For a minute he thought he’d died and glimpsed Valhalla.
When it was over and his mind could once again form a coherent thought, he rolled her under his arm, tucking her against the length of his body.
Everything that had needed to be said was said.
They were meant to be together. Whatever future he had would be with her.
Jeannie must have dozed because when she opened her eyes it was dark outside. Duncan had lit the candle and sat at the edge of the bed, pulling on his clothes.
He turned at the sound of her stirring, and swept his gaze down the length of her naked body. A lascivious grin turned his mouth. “Sorry to wake you, but I need to go check on my men and make sure everything is in readiness for our journey tomorrow.”
A chill of foreboding swept over her as his words brought her back to the reality of their situation. It wasn’t fair. Duncan wasn’t an outlaw. Argyll should know the type of man he was, should know that he would never betray him. It infuriated her that he must go through this.
“How do you do it, Duncan? How are you not bitter with all that has happened to you?”
“What good would it do? Raging against the injustice will not set me free. I prefer to think that justice will eventually win.”
She studied the strong, noble features of his face and smiled. “Don’t tell me that the most feared warrior in the land is an optimist?”
He laughed. “Nay, a realist. Eventually the truth will come out. It always does.”
The truth. The cold, hard truth. After what they’d just shared, how could she keep it from him? How could she tell him she loved him one moment and then the next keep the truth of their son from him? But she was scared. Scared what he would think and scared what tomorrow might bring. Tears gathered in her eyes and she spoke her thoughts aloud. “What are we going to do?”
He bent down and kissed her eyelids. “Don’t give up on me just yet, love. I intend to live for quite some time. Long enough to marry you and see a babe or two suckling on those beautiful breasts.”
The surge of guilt took her breath away. He has a son. Tell him.
“I’m done running,” he said. “If I can’t find Colin, I’ve decided to go to Inveraray and take my chances with my cousin.”
Her eyes widened with the sudden icy blast of panic. “You can’t do that!” She grabbed his arm. “What if he doesn’t believe you? You’ll be executed on the spot.”
“I do,” she said. “It’s Argyll I don’t trust.” He was doing this for her. She couldn’t let him go through with it. She had to do something. “What if all of us were to come with you—me and the children. We’ll go wherever you want to go until the truth comes out.” Even if it meant sacrificing everything she’d worked to achieve for her son.
He gave her a long look and shook his head. “I’d not ask you to do that. I’ll not strip your children of the future that rightly belongs to them. I’ll not see your son deprived of his—”
“He’s not Francis’s son,” she blurted. The words were out before she could take them back.
The room went completely still. He didn’t move a muscle. The eyes were black as coal, boring into her with a cold intensity she’d never seen before. “What did you say?”
The change in him was instantaneous. His voice was so hard and flat it was nearly unrecognizable. Panic fluttered wildly in her chest. Knowing this moment was inevitable didn’t make it any easier now that it was here. But she trusted him. He would understand. He would do the right thing.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her naked from the bed, holding her more harshly than he ever had before. His hand felt like a steel clamp around her upper arm. “Tell me what you said,” he repeated.
She lifted her chin, bracing herself for the maelstrom. “Dougall is your son.”
He looked at her as if she’d just shot him again. His fingers bit into her arm. He swore—a vile curse she’d never heard him use. “You lied to me. How could you keep this from me?”
The cold accusation in his eyes cut her to the core. He was looking at her as if he didn’t know her. He was looking at her the way he’d looked at her that night ten years ago when he’d snuck into her room and accused her of betraying him.
The look shattered the rein she had on her control. How dare he act as if she’d wronged him! She’d done the best that she could under the circumstances. All she’d done had been for her child—for their child.