Anna let out a sigh as Kenneth nodded and walked out of the stillroom. For better or worse, she was all three of those and word was getting around. All her plans to blend unobtrusively into the people here were over. That she had caught Davidh’s attentions—whether as friend or something else—gave a signal to other men. And though he had not approached her or touched her or in way showed interest in her outside the privacy of his own house since that day, word must also be out among the men that she was available.
Anna gathered up what she needed from the bottles and jars she’d checked, cleaned and organised and filled her basket. Since sweat still beaded on her face and trickled down her back from her work, she tossed her cloak over her arm and pulled the door until it was nearly closed. No one would enter without her permission or that of Laird Robert or Lady Elizabeth.
With a mind to peek at Iain as he worked, she left the keep, crossed the yard and sought a shadowed corner from which to observe him without being noticed. The men were working to expand one side of the stables and were constructing the walls now after having cleared and levelled the ground. Iain stood there in the midst of it all.
For a moment, when he turned at someone’s call, he resembled his father so much it made her gasp. She covered her mouth so her position would not be exposed. Iain was adding inches to his height by the day and, with the colour of his hair growing darker each year, he looked much like Malcolm did the year they’d met.
She’d heard that Mal had had a twin, a sister, born just a few minutes before him and that their colouring was as different as two could be. The girl, Arabella, was fair-haired with light eyes and, even in her youth, her beauty and graciousness was spoken of by everyone who’d met her. Even Lara Mackenzie, the witch of Caig Falls, had been impressed.
Mal was born with darker hair and eyes and a completely different disposition from his sister, her mam had said. He relished his role as the chieftain’s son and was on his way to becoming one of the best warriors in the Cameron Clan.
Then he was killed, not by Brodie Mackintosh as was first reported, but by Caelan, his cousin, who was intent on taking control of the mighty Mackintosh Clan and the larger confederation that ruled over great swathes of the Highlands.
Now, watching her son as he worked with the others, all she could see was his father in his every move and every smile. Tears trickled down her cheeks and she tucked back into the shadows lest anyone see her.
‘The lifting and carrying will add to his strength.’
The soft voice surprised her, even more by coming from over her shoulder. Davidh was there, standing in the same shadowed alcove behind her. Anna did not face him.
‘Each day, Lachlan Dubh will add more and more to build muscles.’ She nodded.
He stepped a little to her side and she knew he saw the tears. He used the back of his hand to wipe them from her cheeks. ‘A mother’s tears.’
‘Aye.’
‘Have no fear, he is in the best of hands with Lachlan,’ Davidh assured her.
‘Could he be a warrior, Davidh?’
Silence greeted her and Anna wondered if that question had exposed too much. The desire to see Iain follow in his father’s path and gain what his father never had filled her.
‘With training and more growth, aye, he could.’
Anna waited for the words she knew were coming next. If she had only continued on her way back to the village and not stopped, she would not face this challenge now. But the sight of Iain, in the midst of other lads and young men, working and laughing, had drawn her. And filled her heart with hope that he would find his place here. She held her breath now, knowing the consequences of her words.
‘Was his father a warrior, Anna?’
‘Aye.’ She let out her breath and nodded, her gaze still resting on Mal’s son. ‘Aye, he was.’
He let it rest then, not asking the next and most obvious question as she expected him to do. Instead, he let out a breath and nodded.
‘We lost so many in our battles with the Mackintoshes. Not only warriors, but women and wee ones also.’ He thought that Iain’s father had been killed in one of those fights!
‘And now?’ she asked. Though she’d gleaned some knowledge from those in the village, as commander and counsellor of the chieftain, Davidh knew much more than anyone else here.
‘Those who would reclaim the clan from Robert are costing us lives and goods. ’Tis a pity when we must fight our own rather than another clan.’
‘Where does The Mackintosh stand on this?’ she asked. If he thought her too nosy, he did not show it. She kept her gaze on the stables to appear less interested than she truly was.
‘Brodie came to the old chieftain for help when his cousin tried to destroy their clan. Euan helped him save Arabella, unseat his cousin and claim the high seat. Now, Brodie stands for Robert.’
Ah, so the formidable leader of the Chattan Confederation supported Robert’s claim. But would his wife, Mal’s sister, if she knew the truth of Iain’s parentage? Lachlan called out to those working and they followed him away from the stables and to the keep. When they’d passed by, Anna stepped in the bright light of the sun and lifted her hand over her brow to watch them go. Davidh stepped out at her side. She began walking towards the gate, her path taking her around the side of the stables.
‘Worry not, Anna. These outlaws will be discovered and defeated before Iain is trained.’ He reached out and laid his hand on hers then, stroking the top of it softly with the intention, she thought, to offer some measure of comfort to her. ‘All will be well for the lad.’
Every movement of his fingers was like a caress, waking her skin and making it tingle. When she stared down at the motions, he moved his fingers around her hand, rubbing his thumb into her palm and teasing her wrist with the feathery light touches. She had no idea that those places were so sensitive. Anna shivered at the small pleasure of such a thing.
The pulses spread up her arm and into her body as he drew her closer and tugged her sleeve up out of his way. Anna dropped her basket and the cloak she carried as he pulled her into his embrace and into the now-empty stables. When he found an empty stall, he dragged her to him and kissed her.
Anna lost all control as his mouth took hers and forgot every vow she’d made not to let this happen again.
Chapter Sixteen
The power of the need for his touch stunned her.
It seemed that she was fine, able to carry on as though nothing had happened between them, until he touched her. Or kissed her. She could not resist these hungry kisses, when he tasted her and invited her to do the same. She could not stand firm when his hands moved over her breasts, cupping and caressing her even through her clothing. It was when he knelt down, sat back on his heels and pulled her astride his lap that she lost all thought.
Somehow, during her path down to his lap, he’d managed to tug their garments out of the way and her aching flesh met his erect manhood. His hands seemed everywhere on her body at once. Her mind blurred as passion filled her. One arm around her waist held her off his flesh while he did not cease kissing her. The other wicked hand slipped between their bodies and caressed between her legs. Fingers, thumb, palm and the edge of his hand all became weapons in his battle to pleasure her.
She could not help it, she wanted him. She wanted this.
While his mouth possessed hers, she rocked on his hand as the tightness within her grew. Anna tried to make him touch that small place within the folds, the one that would bring her release, but he would not allow it.
‘Ride me, Anna,’ he ordered in a whisper against her mouth. ‘Ride me now.’
He spread her thighs wider and guided her down until she felt the tip of his hardness there between her legs. She grabbed hold of his shoulders and lowered herself, inch by inch, until he filled her completely. So intent on the pleasure racing through her body, she’d not ev
en looked at him. Now she did, their gazes meeting as she stilled, his flesh touching her very womb.
‘What madness is this?’ he asked, sliding his hands up and caressing her cheeks. One soft kiss followed another and another until she pushed up with her hips. He caught her and as he thrust his own hips she pulled hers down. They gasped as one.
‘What madness indeed?’ She echoed his words and began to enjoy whatever it was between them.
It took only a few movements before their bodies fell in the rhythm he’d asked her for. His hands under her buttocks moved her faster if she slowed. His mouth sucked in the screams of her first release. As his flesh lengthened and hardened inside her and she knew his seed would spill, he pushed up on to his knees and forward until he lay above her.
His breathing strained, his hips moved at a vicious pace, pumping into her and bringing another release, one that caused her to clench her teeth to keep from screaming. He withdrew at the last moment, reaching his own satisfaction between their bodies. Shivers racked her as her release continued, echoes of pleasure pushing into every part of her.
It took several minutes for her heart and breathing to slow. This man knew how to give pleasure. Though, with only two encounters to think about, there were many things they had not even tried yet. Her legs squeezed together as another wave trembled through her body at the very thought of those other things.
He laughed then and she felt the depth of the tone rumble through her whole body. Davidh raised his head and gazed down at her. He stared into her eyes and then at her mouth. Her lips throbbed from his kisses. He touched them with his once more before leaning back and nodding.
‘Madness indeed,’ he whispered.
The sounds of the real world around them seeped into this small cocoon they’d woven and Davidh eased back off her body. As he helped her to her feet, she tugged her shift down and smoothed her skirt into place. In rushed movements, he picked off pieces of straw from her hair and back. Voices could be heard growing closer.
Davidh smiled as he plucked more straw free and she wanted to outline his lips with her tongue. He stilled and met her gaze.
‘I am struggling to control myself now. If you continue to stare at my mouth in that way, I will have no choice but to—’
‘Lachlan!’ a voice called out from just outside the stable door. ‘Lachlan Dubh!’ Damn it, it was Parlan again.
‘Go. Use the back door,’ he said, as he picked up her basket and cloak and handed them to her. ‘I will stop him.’
Anna gathered her things and ran out the door, making her way around the stables and to the path that led to the gates. Her legs trembled as she walked down the steeper part, but she continued on. Unwilling to return to Davidh’s house just now, she walked on into the centre of the village and sought the well.
It was a busy time of day and many gathered at the well to fill their buckets, for cooking and cleaning and washing clothes. The women called out greetings to her as she waited her turn in the line that formed.
What she wanted to do was to douse herself with several buckets of the cold, refreshing water and ease the ache that yet filled her body. What she did was to pull the bucket, fill the dipper that was tied there and drink several times from it. It eased her thirst and did cool her. She pulled a cloth square from under her belt and dipped it in the bucket, too. After one more drink, she stepped down from the well and away, wiping her face and neck with the wet cloth.
‘Are ye well?’ Anna turned to find Davidh’s neighbour Lilias there. ‘Ye look flushed. Mayhap feverish?’
‘I am well,’ she answered, trying to escape the woman. Lilias watched Anna with a close attention that made Anna uncomfortable. ‘I thank you for your concern, mistress.’ Anna tried to walk around Lilias when the woman grabbed her arm and pulled her in close.
‘I ken ye for the whoring slattern ye are, Mistress Mackenzie. Coming here when you could catch no suitable man and trying to steal one of our own. I willna let ye get yer heathen claws into Davidh Cameron.’
Anna gasped not only at the harsh words, but at the nasty pinch to her arm that Lilias gave her. Tugging her arm free, she was tempted to slap the woman until she remembered her mother’s words of warning.
She was the stranger here.
The women in a village were more dangerous than any man could be.
Pay heed not to insult the women.
Anna settled her basket and stepped back, not missing the dangerous expression of hatred in Lilias’s gaze now. She walked a wide circle around the woman and made her way to Davidh’s house, shaken by the encounter.
‘Whore!’
Lilias’s furious whisper echoed across the clearing to Anna. Then just as she thought she could not hear the woman, Lilias uttered the word that had the power to frighten the very breath from her and Anna prayed no one else had heard it.
‘Witch!’
Pray God, no! Not this kind of thing and not now. Not when her plan for Iain was moving forward after years of waiting. It was exactly this—women claiming witchcraft and ill deeds on her mother’s part—that had seen them leave here before. No proof was necessary to blacken the name of a woman other than vague suspicions and complaints.
This could not happen now!
Anna held in her tears and ran the last yards to Davidh’s house. Slamming the door behind her, she leaned against it and offered up a prayer that this would go no further. If she avoided Lilias, it would go no further.
* * *
‘You have a problem, my friend.’
Davidh sat at the table in the hall as Robert had requested. He’d sent word to Anna that he would not be eating with her and the lads since the chieftain had called him to his side. He swallowed the mouthful of ale and put his cup down.
‘I have many problems—the outlaws, securing our keeps against them, finding out who is behind them. Which one are you talking about?’ He took a bite of the cheese on his plate and chewed it, waiting for Parlan to decide that baiting him would not work.
‘The one named Lilias.’
Davidh sucked in a breath and the cheese went down his throat, choking him. Parlan smacked him on the back several times until it loosened and he coughed it out.
‘Hell, Parlan! Did you have to say that?’
‘You were ignoring me. Got your attention, did it not?’
Davidh pushed the plate away and filled his cup from the pitcher on the table. He glanced around to see who was close enough to hear their words and then leaned over to Parlan.
‘And how is she a problem?’
‘I’m not certain whether it began with your conversation with the lovely widow Cameron this morn or before that,’ Parlan explained. ‘She just said something to the widow Mackenzie that made that one almost strike her.’
‘Anna? Hit Lilias? That is absurd.’
‘She didna hit her. The fire spitting from her eyes warned me. I was about to intervene, when Anna dropped her hand and fled to your house.’
‘Parlan, you have the most aggravating way of telling me something. Just spit it out, all at once, and get it done!’ he urged through clenched jaws that threatened to shatter his teeth. Parlan turned his stool to face Davidh.
‘As I see it... First, Lilias approached you in the yard, flaunting her wares and trying to get you to buy.’ Davidh let out a sound much like a growl, but it did nothing to encourage his friend towards brevity.
‘Then you and Mistress Mackenzie examined the quality of the straw in the stables.’ To keep from doing it, Davidh imagined his hands around Parlan’s neck, wringing the life and breath from his body. ‘Widow Cameron was not three yards from the open door of the stables just then, so I called out Lachlan’s name to gain your attention.’ If Davidh had anything in his mouth, he would have choked once again at this revelation.
‘She saw us in there?’ The food and drink in his gut ro
iled at Parlan’s nod. ‘But did she see us?’ The view of the stall where he’d led Anna should have been blocked to anyone at the front entrance.
‘Not certain what she saw during the act itself. She and I could see you both standing there readjusting yourselves.’
‘Hell!’ Those around him stopped talking at his shout. Even Robert and Elizabeth glanced towards him there at the end of the table. He nodded an apology to them. ‘You disappeared after you called to me.’
‘Lilias looked angrier than I have ever seen her,’ Parlan said. ‘So, when I saw Anna leave with Lilias stalking behind, I followed her.’ His friend coughed then and took a mouthful of his own cup.
‘Just tell me that Anna is well.’ It was his only concern. His lack of control had led to this situation. He did not want Anna caught in the middle of it because of the possessive streak in a woman he cared little for.
‘Anna went to the well and that was where Lilias caught up with her. Lilias grabbed hold of her and said something to Anna that made her angry. Then, she shook free of her and ran back to your house. When I got there, the door was closed and I heard no sounds within.’
‘I will speak to Lilias,’ he said. He’d never expected the widow to lay any claim to his affections or person. ‘I’ve made my intentions very clear from the beginning.’
Parlan sat up as though struck and looked at him with an expression that mixed shock, disgruntled horror and disbelief all together.
‘What?’ Davidh asked.
‘I do not know how it is that a man like you has gained the years you have, been educated and risen to the level of trust you have and know nothing about women. You were married which means you would have wooed your wife. You lived with her for years. Had a child. Have been surrounded by women all your life. And you know nothing.’ Parlan reached out and cuffed Davidh on the side of his head when he finished his diatribe.
‘You are wearing my control thin, friend.’
A Healer for the Highlander Page 15