by Editor
“Ye doona think she’s trying to read our minds right now, do ye?” Gavin asked in a whisper.
Keenan almost laughed. “Ye doona need to whisper, man. She can hear ye loud and clear when she concentrates.”
Gavin’s anxious look spread to each of his men.
“Think of happy things,” Keenan said again. Keenan saw Serena frown and knew his men were failing.
“But she said she tries to block the thoughts of others,” Thomas said.
His men had no idea who Serena was. Keenan shook his head at them. His words came slowly as if educating a group of young lads. “Serena was raised among people who mistrust her. The only comfort she had, came from her mother whom she is now leaving, again. She knows ye all think she should marry Lachlan, not me. And therefore, once again she is encircled with mistrust.”
Keenan looked back at the lovely woman seeming to catch her breath amidst the chaos of packing. “Her only protection lies in her gift.” Keenan’s eyes warmed with admiration for the beautiful, strong lass he’d just wed. “She may na’ wield a sword or shoot a bow, but doona doubt that Serena Maclean is a warrior. She risked her life to save her brother. She saved Lachlan, the boy and his mother from the Campbell. She masqueraded in court to cleanse her brother’s name. She defended herself here this morning. Serena has courage that could match any of ye.” Keenan stared his men in their eyes, challenging them to refute his words.
None did.
“So she will use the only weapon she has when she is threatened. Just as ye would. Just as any warrior would.” Keenan nodded to emphasize his point. “Serena Faw is worthy of the Maclean name.”
As the point he was making sunk into his men, Keenan watched Serena’s face. A slight frown still haunted her lips, but when she opened her gorgeous eyes, there was a light in them, a hint of the spirit that made her so incredibly desirable. She shifted in the seat so that she sat taller. Aye, she had heard his words of her courage through the minds of his men. His wife still couldn’t read his thoughts, but she could read the interpretations, and unfortunately misinterpretations, of his thoughts through them. Keenan’s jaw tightened. For the first time he wished that she could spy into his mind instead of depending on those around him to supply her with information.
Thomas turned to him, his face tinged pink again, but he looked straight into his leader’s eyes. “I may have thought about her marrying Lachlan once ye die, like ye said to us at the creek.”
Keenan had already guessed as much. He clapped his hand on Thomas’s shoulder and walked past him toward the tent. “Next time try na’ to dwell on my death. It seems to upset the lass.” Thomas nodded as he hastened past him. “Ready the horses,” Keenan said.
Keenan strode across to Serena. She stood as soon as he began to approach.
“Wife, we must leave for Kylkern.” Serena’s cheeks reddened at the new title. “Make yer farewells,” he said as he hefted her rolled bundle over his shoulder. Keenan turned to King Will and Mari and gave them a nod. “The Faw tribe will always be welcome on Maclean land.”
King Will bowed his head in reply. “We will travel up into your Highlands this summer. That should give William enough time to recover and continue on with us.” King Will’s eyes moved to Serena. “And I will want to see that my daughter is happy with her choice.” The hint of threat tinged the old man’s voice as his eyes glanced to Keenan and then back to his daughter. King Will walked over to Serena. She stood tall before him. He placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned forward to kiss her forehead. The old man cupped her face in his wrinkled hands and they touched foreheads. “You are very brave, my Àngelas. I am proud of you.” When he released Serena, she smiled fully despite the tears in her eyes.
Mari came over and wrapped her arms around Keenan’s torso in a hug. “Care well for my daughter, Highlander,” she said smiling. Tears brightened her knowing eyes. She lowered her voice. “Be true to your heart, and don’t give into death too easily.” She poked him in the chest. “I want grandbabies.”
Keenan’s eyes mirrored his amazement at the Romany woman’s nature. He smiled at her. “I will try na’ to die.”
“Good, good,” Mari said then lowered her voice to the wisp of a whisper as she turned from him. “Because she will never marry your brother.” But Keenan still heard her. The woman walked back toward Serena.
Nodding once more to King Will, Keenan went to Serena’s mare to tie her bundle across its rump.
His men led their mounts toward him. Keenan pulled out two of the four scrolls clearing William’s name of murder. One he had left with King Will, another he kept to give to William. He handed the third one to Brodick and fourth one to Thomas.
“Brodick, ye will ride with Gavin to the north and west. Thomas, ye will ride with Ewan to the north and east.” His men looked confused.
“We doona travel to Kylkern?” Ewan asked.
“Serena and I travel to Kylkern,” Keenan answered. “Ye,” he indicated the men as he’d paired them, “ye will travel to every town on yer way to Kylkern to show the local magistrate that William is innocent.” He saw the question in their faces. “The Romany travel, and it would be best for them to have us spread the word before they encounter accusations. That is why King George sent me with four original parchments with his signature.”
This excuse was authentic enough that Keenan did not have to supplement it with the real reason he wanted his men away from Serena. His new bride needed to learn what was in his mind through him, not through the skewed perceptions of their traveling companions.
He turned briskly toward his horse. “We will greet ye at Kylkern. Doona tarry. King George is making plans.”
Thomas and Ewan took off at once. Brodick and Gavin walked over to Serena. Keenan tensed as he watched Brodick engulf her in a large hug, his massive body eclipsing her frame. The sight of another man wrapped around Serena brought every muscle in Keenan’s body alert. With great restraint, Keenan stood his ground. Lucky for Brodick, he released her quickly. But then Gavin put his arms around her. Keenan strode over before he realized where he was headed. Gavin saw him and dropped his arms. “Only a farewell gesture,” Gavin said a bit too quickly.
Keenan stopped, relaxing his hands that were fisted at his sides.
Brodick pulled a sword from his scabbard, flipped it and handed it to Keenan. “Since yers is gone, use mine to guard yer bride.” Brodick looked to Serena. “She may be a warrior too, but her sword is puny.”
Serena laughed. “I will miss you, Brodick,” she looked to Gavin, “and you too. I look forward to greeting you at Kylkern.”
Gavin and Brodick departed to the northwest.
Keenan led them along hills and narrow paths. Serena rode behind him when the path remained too narrow. They traveled in silence, broken only by her bird’s chirping and an occasional sigh that escaped her.
Keenan looked toward the deepening sky. A granite boulder sat at the base of each tree.
“The gloaming is upon us. I ken a place to shelter for the night.” Serena’s large violet eyes shone with fear, but she nodded. A maiden’s fear, perhaps? He would find out soon enough, as soon as he could find the clearing he knew hid among these trees. Where exactly was it?
Keenan led them off the narrow path into a woods budding with the warmth of the spring evening. “Aye, blackberry bushes, in full flower as usual,” Keenan said to himself.
“What do you say up there?”
“Follow me, Serena. Let yer horse find her way through.”
Keenan disappeared through a curtain of shrubs and trees. The blackberry blossoms flitted up into the air as a funnel of wind whipped them into a dance. They hovered before scattering around the perimeter of the ring of bramble, ash trees and ancient oaks. The trees reached upward into the deepening blue sky, swaying, their branches filled with newborn leaves, so green and eager.
“Isn’t it too early for blackberry blossoms?” Serena called from behind.
“Just follow me
,” he said, as he pushed through the dense shrubs and grasses.
“Oh,” she called and Keenan heard her pull on her skirts. “These thorns are catching me. They will harm the dress.”
“Elenor will repair it. Just come through.”
Keenan broke through the thick foliage into the clearing he knew was there, hidden in the small unpopulated forest. The first time he’d come across the odd clearing, he had wondered if it held magic. It certainly looked like a fairy ring the bards liked to sing about when visiting Kylkern. Tall oaks bent gnarled limbs up into the sky. They formed a nearly perfect circle around the clearing. Low ash trees spread their screening leaves at the height of a man riding a horse. Blackberry bushes billowed up out of the earth blocking entrance to all but the rabbits that grew fat on the berries, berries that grew year round. Moss pillowed the soft ground so one could lie back comfortably and stare at the stars as they moved across the open circle of sky overhead.
Keenan inhaled a full breath of clear air. Aye, the ring had to be enchanted. He’d stayed many nights in its sanctuary, nights when enemies hunted him, nights when he had no one to guard his sleep, but he had to succumb to slumber else lose his mind. He had never brought another person to this place. It had always been his alone, a sanctuary where he could sit and ask the stars about his fate. But tonight he brought Serena into its quiet refuge.
Serena dismounted in the cumbersome costume and smoothed her skirts before turning toward him. A gentle wind blew through the clearing encircling her with blossoms.
“Oh,” she said in a hushed tone and raised her arms to allow the fragrant flowers to drift about her as if investigating a new arrival. Serena blinked several times and let her eyes wander around the darkening area. “By the Earth Mother,” she whispered.
“Ye feel it.”
Serena nodded. “What is it?”
“I thought ye might know.” For he certainly didn’t.
“It’s like a hum, a hum of energy.”
“Are there spirits here then? Anyone speaking to ye, lass?”
Serena shook her head and walked around the mossy ground as the wind gentled. “No real voices, no real consciousness. It feels like it’s warded.” Serena turned back to him. “I think magic was practiced here at one time, long ago perhaps. Protective magic. Only the residue remains.”
“Nothing dark then?”
“No,” she closed her eyes and opened her arms to the sides as if opening herself up to the air around her. “It feels more like a cloak of protection.”
Keenan nodded. “It’s saved me before.”
A small smile tipped her lips upward casting a playful look along the planes of her face as the last color of twilight vanished. “Perhaps we should stay here in this glade forever then. For we’re in definite need of saving,” she mused.
Keenan turned to the small ring of stones still at the center of the clearing where he’d left them last fall. “Hmmph, and hide away like a rabbit.” He let out a quick snort as he gathered some sticks and crouched down to pull some dry peat from his satchel. “Nay, I am not Lachlan,” he mumbled and cracked the flint and stone together. As night flooded the clearing with darkness, the fire’s glow reached out to illume Serena where she still stood. Keenan leaned back on his heels. She stared at him, the smile gone.
“Nay,” she said staring at him. “You are not Lachlan.” His brother’s name sounded bitter on her breath.
Keenan stood, sensing battle. “Serena, I…”
She held up her hand to stop him. “You don’t need to explain your reasons, Keenan.”
“Reasons?”
“Yes, your reasons for marrying me. I know you were as desperate as I was to get me away from Damin.”
That much was true. “Aye,” he said cautiously.
She frowned. Had he given the wrong answer? Serena moved closer to the growing fire and splayed her palms out to catch the first waves of warmth. Her eyes watched the flames. She spoke to the fire. “You married me to keep me from marrying another.”
Also true. “Aye.”
“You intend to take me up to your brother so that when you die, I will have to marry him.”
“Serena…”
She turned abruptly toward him, her eyes sharp. “Don’t deny it, Keenan. I read your plans through your men.”
“Through my men.”
She didn’t answer, just glared at him, her arms crossing under her luscious breasts, plumping them upward. He couldn’t deny it so he nodded instead.
“I suppose I said something about that to convince my men to accept my plan quickly. It was a tactical choice that made sense at the time. I had no intention of ye knowing about it.”
Her eyes widened at his confirmation.
“A mistake on my part,” he admitted. “I kent that ye couldna’ read my thoughts, but the skewed thoughts of my men were easy to sense.”
“So you admit saying that you are bringing me up to Lachlan, so that when you die, I can marry him?”
“Nay, I dinna say all of that. That is what my men inferred. I but said that if we wanted to bring you up to Kylkern it would be as my wife. The prophecy couldna’ come true with ye married to Damin Yallow.”
“You never mentioned your death?”
Keenan thought for a moment. He wouldn’t start their marriage on lies. He spoke slowly. “I did say that the prophecy never specified if the witch had been married before and that if I died, the prophecy could still be fulfilled.”
Serena’s shoulders sagged. “So you still intend to die. You intend to leave me.”
Keenan took two steps and caught her shoulders in his hands. He stared down at her until Serena slowly raised her gaze back to his.
“Before I met ye, all I thought about was staying alive to die.” She tried to look down but he caught her chin with a finger beneath it. “But now that ye’ve entered my life, all I’ve been thinking about is staying alive to live my life, no matter how long or short it is.” Keenan lowered his voice to a rough whisper in the still circle. “I want to live, Serena. I want to father children, I want to be more than a sacrifice for my clan, more than a wall of defense around my brother, more than a noble death as part of a long recited prophecy.”
Serena’s lips parted as her face remained upturned to him. Her warmth penetrated the linen of his shirt. “Forgive me, Serena, if I pulled ye away from yer life out of selfishness. But understand, I dinna do it for my clan, and definitely na’ for my brother. I married ye for me.” Keenan placed one hand against her chest where he felt the rapid pounding of her heart. He leaned in so that their hands lay trapped between their bodies. When she leaned in too, he smiled feeling his whole body relax. “Aye, I will die one day, Serena. But God willing, I will die after a good dose of living, with ye beside me.” His lips brushed hers. “Let us start this eve. Let me love ye, Serena.”
Her nod was almost unperceivable, but it was there. Permission granted, a truce given freely. Keenan’s lips descended on her parted mouth. So warm, so soft, he nearly melted into her sweet, moist breath. The heat in her mouth surged through him as his mind moved to another part of her tender anatomy that he anticipated would be just as moist and hot. A lightning flash of masculine power surged down through him, hardening him. He tilted her head, twining his fingers through the ribbons still tied loosely in her hair. His tongue touched her lower lip timidly, testing while his hand moved down her back to cup her buttocks through heavy skirts.
Serena moaned and touched her own tongue to his. Again Keenan’s muscles tensed in frustration at the costume that locked her supple body away from his touch. Without breaking the kiss, Keenan slid his hands in front and unbuttoned her jacket bodice, sliding it off her shoulders. His fingers shook with the exertion not to rip the gown from her.
He released her rigid stays. The peaks of Serena’s breasts pushed upward as he hugged her, cradling her upper body. Next came her heavy skirts. The ties caught, the tight knots mocking him.
“Cut them,” Sere
na breathed.
He severed the restricting ties with his dagger. A billow of cloth settled around Serena as the petticoats landed on the moss beneath their feet.
Serena stood in her silky shift, the thin white fabric lying seductively along the hills and valleys of her breasts, waist and hips. Keenan held his breath as Serena pulled the ties of her sleeves so that they fell in the voluminous cloud of green silk at her feet, leaving her slender shoulders bare except for the thin strap of lace at each shoulder. He stepped back to better view the landscape of her body where the silk ebbed and flowed like a sea of milk across her skin. She breathed deeply, her full breasts rising and falling, their erect peaks rubbing teasingly against the confines of the shift.
“Ye are so beautiful,” Keenan murmured as he combed his fingers through her hair, freeing one of the ribbons. He watched the slender, milky column of her throat as she swallowed, his gaze moving back up to her wide eyes. Desire lurked there, but also fear. He cupped her cheek in his rough palm. He traced his thumb below her eye and looked deep.
“Ye ken the way a man makes love to a woman,” he said and she nodded slowly.
“I’ve,” she said and swallowed as if her throat were dry. “I’ve seen the minds of men before.”
No wonder fear warred with desire. The minds of men could be violent in their lust. He pulled her close into the warmth of his arms and rested his chin on the softness of her hair. Keenan breathed deeply to calm the rush of his blood. “The minds of men, lass, are not always accurate and often lack the gentleness and respect that guides desire.” He felt her tremble, from cold or fear?
“Stay here while I raise the fire.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” She looked about the clearing.
Keenan found several dry branches under an old saddle blanket that he had left the last time he had visited. He threw them on the fire looking back over his shoulder at Serena’s soft form reflecting the glow of firelight. “Not in this clearing.” He indicated the thick bushes around them. “It seems to hide anyone it allows in.” He stood up. “And tonight lass, we are its guests.”