Hannah Howell
Page 21
When she spotted Revan walking toward the bed, she scowled. She suddenly remembered all she had wanted to think about, all that had happened with her uncle Silvio, and all she had wanted to say. As he paused to shed the robe and braies he wore, she tried to put some order into her sleep-scattered thoughts. She did not want to say anything that would expose her deep feelings for him. With all his talk of honor and duty, she was not sure he could be trusted with the truth of her emotions or that he would welcome any indication that he had won her heart.
Inwardly she grimaced. She, in the way that she behaved, had undoubtedly given him a multitude of hints about her feelings for him. However, she was determined not to give him the words that could give those hints the weight of fact.
“So, have ye and my uncle finished planning my life?” she asked as he climbed into bed beside her.
“I believe it was Silvio who did the planning. As ye did, I but complied.”
“I didna comply.”
“Ah, aye, ’tis true. I stand corrected.”
“It would have been a wee bit more helpful if ye had stood firmly—against Uncle Silvio ordering us to the altar.”
Revan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He turned on his side to face her. Even in the dim light cast by the branch of candles on a table by the bed, he could read her expression. Her anger was still strong. Although it was strange for a young lass to fight the marriage plans her male relatives arranged for her, he could understand and sympathize. What puzzled him was that he was not sharing those feelings.
“Tessa, ye were a virgin. We are both wellborn. We both have families who see honor and duty as important. The moment we bedded down together, our fate was sealed. We just tried to ignore that truth and think ourselves free to break the rules. In truth, the moment ye passed one night in my company, our marriage was set.”
“I dinna see why it must be.”
He reached out to stroke her hair. “Aye, ye do. We canna have our wellborn lasses running too free.”
“Just our wellborn lads.”
“As Silvio said—lads dinna have a maidenhead and canna get with child.”
“Nay, they can just leave bastards all about the countryside to haunt them later.”
“A good point and true enough—if they are foolish.” He slid his hand down her side and rested it on her abdomen. “I fear I was a wee bit foolish with you, lass. My bairn could already be stirring beneath this soft skin. Why not cease this bickering and just tell me what troubles you so about wedding me?”
Ye dinna love me, was what she ached to say, but she swallowed those words. She did not wish to hear him agree with that statement. It was hard enough to know that her love was not returned. To prompt him to put that knowledge into words would only make it hurt more.
“I dinna wish to have a husband who was brought to the altar at sword point.”
“There has been no threat of that.” He kissed her cheek and edged close to her. “Silvio but recalled me to my duty, to what my honor, and yours, demands of me.”
“Honor and duty.” She spat the words out as if they were curses. “They are cold things to bring to a marriage bed.”
“Tessa,” he whispered as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “Has any bed we shared ever been cold?” He smoothed his hands down her back and felt her move against him involuntarily. “ ’Tis the fire we spark between us that has brought us to the point where we must confront matters of honor and duty.”
“And will this fire be able to survive, or will it be smothered into cold ashes by the weight of honor and duty?”
“Is that what worries you?” He brushed soft, light kisses over her face.
“ ’Tis something to consider.” She tensed, trying to fight the pull of desire because there was so much they needed to discuss.
“Even such weighty things as those couldna dim the passion we share, lass. I had some firm rules concerning lasses of good family. They have held firm for many years. Yet, even they couldna still the hunger ye bred in me. Nor could all ye have been taught still your wanting. Nay, burdens though they can be, duty and honor willna cool this fire.”
“Then why were ye reluctant? And ye were. I could see it in your face, feel it.”
Revan grimaced. “Ye are an heiress, Tessa. I have naught—little coin and no lands. Although I can find few who dinna consider me a great fool for thinking so, I canna like wedding the land and money I havena gained by birth or skill.”
“Ye mean it was your pride?” Tess found that alarming, for pride could be a strong and destructive thing.
“Aye, my pride. Tessa, I just didna like the thought that I needed to marry for such gain. It seemed to me to be the act of a whore. I have yet to find a man who agrees with that view. I begin to think I am the only man who holds it.”
He smiled at her as he turned so that she was sprawled beneath him. “However, ’tis not gain that brings about the marriage but honor and duty. I will soothe my foolish pride with that. Come, Tessa, dinna frown so. We are well matched. Ye ken that as well as I do.”
When he kissed her, she clung to him, fully returning the kiss. Although he had eased her concerns about honor and duty nudging him to the altar, he had given her a new one with his talk of pride. She grasped tightly at the passion his kiss stirred, needing it to wash all thought from her mind and replace the cold fear in her heart with the warmth of desire.
She eagerly matched his every kiss and caress. So desperate was she to completely lose herself in the pleasures of the flesh, she grew more bold and more aggressive than she had ever been before. Revan’s enthusiastic response to her tactics inspired her to go even further.
Tess nudged him onto his back and straddled him. After giving him a deep, fierce kiss, she began to kiss her way down his long, taut body, moistening and heating his skin with her lips and her tongue. She even used her own body to caress his, never missing a chance to rub against him. As she drew faint designs upon his stomach with her tongue, she curled her fingers around his erection and very slowly stroked him. The way he shifted beneath her and his hoarse murmurs of pleasure added to her own hunger.
While continuing the intimate play with her hand, she knelt between his strong legs. Revan whispered her name and looked at her. She smiled faintly and, holding his gaze, replaced the gentle caress of her hand with the warmer one of her tongue and her lips. He groaned, his hands tightening their grip in her hair, and, although his eyes grew increasingly heavy-lidded, he watched her. Tess boldly kept her gaze upon his face as she continued her intimate caress. It heightened her own desire to see how much she was pleasing him. She loved him slowly, retreating a little now and again when his control appeared close to breaking.
Finally he grasped her by the arms and tugged her up his body. Tess straddled him and eased their bodies together, trembling with pleasure as she felt him fill her. For a little while longer she held the reins, moving slowly and with care, to keep them on the edge of satisfaction for as long as she could. Then Revan suddenly took control. She gave a soft cry of surprise when he sat up, his strong arms around her so that she could not falter. The moment he leaned her away from his body and took the hard tip of her breast into his mouth, she lost what little restraint she had clung to.
Revan kept them lurking on the edge of release for a little while longer. He feasted upon her breasts as he gently moved her upon him. When her movements grew more frantic as her release shuddered through her, he let her draw him along. He held her tightly against him and kissed her, swallowing her cry and feeding her his, as the culmination of their hunger swept over them.
It was several moments before Revan felt inclined to separate their bodies. As soon as they had washed up and slid beneath the covers again, he pulled her back into his arms. He smiled faintly as she yawned and curled her body around his. Idly stroking her hair, he crooked one arm beneath his head and stared up at the ceiling.
“That, lass, was as far from cold and weighty honor and duty as anyo
ne can get,” he murmured.
“Aye, true enough. I suppose I must concede that ye were correct.”
He chuckled. “Painful, is it?”
“Ye are far too arrogant now. It needs no boosting.”
“Silvio apologized for being unable to bob that sharp tongue of yours ere he sees us married.”
“Did he. Well, I shall see he pays for that insult.” She smiled faintly when Revan laughed.
“Best ye get some sleep, then. ’Twill not be easy to bandy words with Silvio. Ye will need all your wits about you.”
“Aye. Where do ye think I honed my sharp tongue?” She laughed softly along with Revan. “But, ye are right. Sleep is what I need. Even if I dinna squabble with Uncle Silvio, the Douglases and Thurkettle are still about.”
“We shall be the victors in that fight, Tessa. Dinna worry on that.”
She nodded and closed her eyes. The Douglases, Thurkettle, and all their treasonous plans did not really worry her that much any longer. Now that she and Revan were with her kinsmen, she felt safe, as safe as anyone could with a battle for the throne looming before her. All that concerned her about the battle between the Douglas and King James was that the king won and none of her loved ones were maimed or killed. That worry was one that would not really trouble her until the battle itself was at hand.
Revan concerned her now, he and their forthcoming marriage. Now that passion no longer held her fears at bay, they all rushed back into her heart. He had softened the threat of duty and honor, even given her the hope that he did feel more than passion for her when he spoke of their being well matched. Then he had ruined it all by talking of his pride, of how it would be sorely bruised by wedding an heiress.
Inwardly she cursed. Although she did not really feel that she had lied, she knew she had not told Revan the whole truth. She had spoken of a few thousand riders and made her land holdings sound somewhat meager. Tess dreaded to think of how he would react when he found out that a “few” was thirty thousand or more and that her land holdings were not only somewhat large but profitable. It was past time to tell him the whole truth, but she lacked the courage. It was going to be even worse if she gained all that Thurkettle now held. Most often a traitor’s holdings were forfeited to the crown, but she knew, because of her role in bringing information against those traitors, that she could well inherit it all. If Revan thought his pride bruised now, when her full wealth was disclosed, he would surely feel it had been mortally wounded.
And she would be the cause of that shattered pride, she thought and cuddled closer to Revan. Considering how he felt about wedding an heiress when he was virtually penniless and landless, the truth of her riches would leave him with no pride at all. She shivered. That would be the death knell for any happiness they might find together. He would grow to hate her, the loss of his pride slowly eating away at any feeling he might have for her.
She felt like weeping but forced back the tears. It would solve nothing, and he would notice, then press for an explanation. She had about a month to find some solution, some way of salvaging a scrap of Revan’s pride. If none presented itself, she knew what she would have to do—she would have to let him go, free him of the bonds of duty and honor. It would hurt, but she knew the pain would be greater if she had to see him stripped of his pride and watch that loss destroy them both.
CHAPTER 17
Tess yawned, then quickly glanced around her to be sure no one had seen her. She hurried down the stairs and into the great hall, embarrassed that, for the third time in three days, she had slept through to the midday meal. What troubled her a little was that she could go back to bed and easily sleep for a few more hours. That had never been her way, but she supposed the arduous travel with Revan could have depleted her strength more than she had supposed.
It also annoyed her to miss so much of the day. That meant missing time she could spend with Revan. Although the marriage was still being planned, she had not yet come up with any way to salvage Revan’s pride. Unless she did, she would not allow the marriage to take place, and that meant her time with Revan was limited. It was foolish to waste it lying in bed like some pampered queen.
Entering the great hall, she admitted to herself that she had another reason to want to be with Revan as much as possible. She was dressed as a lady again, and she wanted to impress that image upon his mind. If they were doomed to part, she did not really want his strongest memories of her to be those where she was dressed in the old, ill-fitting boy’s clothes.
“Ah, she lives.” Silvio grinned as his niece blushed and hurried to her seat at the table next to Revan while the others in the hall chuckled. “I was about to send your man off to see if ye were still breathing.”
As she helped herself to the wide array of food set out, Tess frowned at her teasing kinsmen. “Ye shouldna let me be so lazy. ’Tis a scandal.”
“Ye have been hard-pressed since this rogue yanked you out of Thurkettle’s grasp. Ye need rest. I but tease you, lass.”
“I ken it. But, I believe I have ‘rested’ quite enough. I must not be left to lay about on the morrow. It becomes a habit too easily, I think.” She smiled faintly when her uncle, Tomas, and Revan laughed.
“We sent out the third messenger this morning,” Silvio reported.
“Three?” Tess was a little surprised at how full her plate was but started to eat, a little dismayed at how sure she was she could finish the hearty meal and a little more besides.
“Aye, Tess. Three. We want to be sure the king gets the information Revan and ye uncovered on his behalf.”
“Why not send Revan?” Although she did not want Revan to leave, it was a reasonable question.
“Nay, we need the lad here. Besides, all of the Douglas’s men, and Thurkettle’s, ken his face and search for him.”
A glance toward Revan revealed him smiling faintly. Revan did not believe Silvio told the whole truth, either. The reasons Silvio gave were sound ones, but she knew there was at least one other. Silvio wanted to keep Revan within reach until the wedding vows were exchanged. In a way Revan was a prisoner. Tess did not like it but made no complaint. There was little she could do to change it. Arguing with her uncle Silvio would certainly not help much.
“Any sign of their men? Do they still lurk in the area?” she asked.
“I fear so, although there arena so many. When my men have the time, they set after the rogues. They consider it fine sport. We have culled a few men from the Douglas’s traitorous army.” He frowned as an uproar was heard from beyond the doors of the great hall. “It canna be an attack,” he murmured. “No alarm was sounded.”
A moment later the heavy doors to the great hall were flung open. Two of Silvio’s men entered dragging a man between them. He struggled in their hold, loudly cursing them. The rumpled state of his clothes and the trickle of blood from his mouth revealed that he had put up a fight from the start. Tess mused that Silvio’s men had probably tried to shut the man’s mouth as well and reached for another thick slab of bread. Suddenly she froze as the man looked their way. It was the man on the black stallion with the white stockings. Her uncle’s men had captured Angus MacKinnon, the traitor. She shivered when the man’s cold gaze rested on her for a moment before fixing on Silvio.
“Ah, lads, here is a fine catch,” her uncle said.
“I demand to ken the meaning of this outrage, Delgado,” the man said, uselessly trying to tidy his clothes as Silvio’s men loosened their grip on him.
“Actually, the name is Comyn.”
The man gave a soft scornful laugh. “Your family changes names as others do their shirts. Why have I been dragged here?”
“For the blackest of crimes, MacKinnon. We will take you to the king to answer for it.”
“Crimes? What crimes are ye babbling about? I was on my way to the king when these curs grabbed me. If we speak on crimes, ye had best consider the one ye commit—halting a king’s man in his mission. I was taking an important message to the king.”
“Ye are mad, Delgado.”
Tess had to admire the man, if only slightly and fleetingly. His poise was awe-inspiring. There was no question of his guilt, yet he barely faltered when told that his crimes were now known. Only the faintest loss of color gave away the fear he had to be feeling, and one had to look very closely to see even that.
“Nay, but I think ye may be, MacKinnon. What could ye hope to gain with such a black betrayal? How can ye turn against the king, a man who has given you nearly all ye can lay claim to? Is this how ye repay our liege? With treason?”
“Ye have no cause to spit on my honor like this, Delgado.”
“Honor? Ye have no honor, traitor. As for proof, for cause, may I present my niece—Contessa Comyn Delgado.” Silvio smiled coldly when MacKinnon’s eyes widened slightly, revealing his shock. “And her betrothed—Sir Revan Halyard.”
“Ye call me traitor and treat me like some outlaw yet house these two as guests? Have ye heard nothing of the crimes they are charged with? Halyard is a kidnapper and a rapist. Your niece, Delgado, is suspected of aiding the man in betraying the king. Aye, and she is already betrothed—to a nephew of the Douglas who plots to steal the throne.”
“I am betrothed?” Tess could barely speak above a whisper she was so shocked. “I canna be.”
MacKinnon gave her a cool glance. “Aye, to one of the Douglas’s nephews. ’Twas announced.”
“Not to me.”
“Dinna fret, Contessa,” Silvio said. “ ’Tis but a ploy they use to try to strengthen their cause. If nothing else they tried to accuse ye with was accepted, the fact that Revan took a man’s betrothed probably would be.”
“And it would allow them to do just what they have been trying to do—kill him, or us.” Tess was relieved to see that Revan was nodding in agreement. “My saying I wasna betrothed to this Douglas cur would carry no weight.”
“None at all, darling.”