by Alisa Adams
“Yer mither was a stubborn woman. She was the only woman that DeLeon couldnae have,” Charlotte Lynn said acidly. “She refused him over and over, though he provided a house for ye both. He loved her, the fool!” She looked at Darling with hatred in her eyes. “She begged him to let the two of ye go home—she cried and sobbed and pleaded—but he wouldnae part with her. He could never love any other! Not while she was alive...”
“Mi madre was not stubborn. She was loyal,” Darling said in a firm, confident voice. All those times her mother had cried for days after DeLeon left, it was because he would not let her or Darling leave, not because she missed or loved the evil pirate, but because she missed her home, her family, in Scotland. She looked at Charlotte Lynn, trying to control her anger. “You killed her.” Darling’s voice was quiet deathly quiet as she stared at the woman who had fooled them all.
“Aye,” Charlotte Lynn said with a cold smile. “The man that attacked ye in the cave, the one ye killed? I had paid him well to kill ye, to finish what I had started. He failed, the weak fool,” she said with disdain.
Laird MacKenzie turned to Charlotte Lynn with a look of disgust on his face. “When ye came to ma keep the other night ye were hoping that I would capture and kill MacLeod’s wife?”
Chari Lynn nodded once and looked at Darling again. “I thought ye saw me, the night of the storm. I threw rocks at ye and that giant, black horse of yers. That horse hates me,” she laughed. “Ye came off, and I hoped ye were dead! I took that evil horse and tied it tae a tree, hoping it would get hit by the lightning or starve and die there.” Her face twisted into one of sheer malice as she stared at Darling.
Laird MacKenzie scowled. “Yer evil plan didnae work. Ye didnae know ye were giving me the greatest gift I could have wished for. My niece!” He looked over at his two men. A look of disapproval crossed his face. “Can either of ye two stand up?” he snapped.
Serena moved away from the man on the ground. When she saw that he was having trouble standing up, she reached down and helped him to stand, steadying him until he stopped wobbling. He held his hands to his dented helmet. She pulled the battered thing off. Two large bumps were swelling visibly on his head. Serena gasped and fluttered around him, brushing him off and apologizing for hitting him so many times while he tried to swat her hands away from him and overall looked terribly embarrassed.
The other man that had Darling’s small knife embedded between his tassets let out a long groan. He could not stand.
Cristianna kept her arrow pointed at Charlotte Lynn. “Let me,” she asked Darling quietly from between clenched teeth.
Laird MacKenzie held his hand up to Cristianna. “Nay. Let me,” he said curtly as he took a step forward with his eyes on Charlotte Lynn. “But first, what were ye to the pirate DeLeon?” Laird MacKenzie demanded.
Her eyes went cold as she looked at the other girls who had called her their friend. “His spy, his assassin...at times, his lover,” she said proudly. “I pleased him. In any way that he needed me to.” She smiled evilly.
Laird MacKenzie nodded to the man next to Serena. The laird and his man went to grab Charlotte Lynn.
She was quicker, however, and her head had not been struck multiple times by a golden warrioress wielding a battle-ax at his head. She was also driven by hatred, and she was still young, unlike Laird MacKenzie, with his greying hair and battle-worn limbs. She lunged away from him, grabbing a fallen sword from the ground as she whirled away from the warriors. She stopped and hurled it at Darling as hard as she could.
Darling saw it coming. She kicked her heels into Tommy to move the mare out of the way of the oncoming sword.
In doing so, the mare collided with Jamys and Serena, knocking the two women off their feet.
Serena went rolling towards the edge of the cliff.
Darling screamed out her name just as Serena went over the cliff’s edge.
16
Darling jumped off of Tommy and ran to the edge of the cliff with the other girls. She quickly looked over and then dropped to her stomach.
She stretched her arm down as far as she could, for Serena was clinging to a small rock just below her. Her feet were dangling in the air above the jagged rocks of the valley floor far beneath her.
“I can almost...reach her!” Darling yelled as she shimmied further out over the edge.
Cristianna let out a shout as she pulled her helmet off and dropped to her belly as well. She reached down, scooting as far as she could go to try to grab one of Serena’s hands.
From behind them, they heard Mery and Jamys shouting to one another. They grabbed Darling and Cristianna’s skirts and held on as the two women shimmied further over the edge in their effort to reach Serena.
Darling heard Laird MacKenzie shouting to his men to get to the keep for some rope or anything that may help them. Then Darling felt one of his strong hands wrap around her ankle.
“I have ye both! Can ye reach her?” Laird MacKenzie shouted to them.
“Nay!” Cristianna called out in anguish as her eyes met Darling’s.
They both looked down at Serena’s terrified eyes and her fingers, clinging desperately to the small rock. Her fingers were slowly sliding. “Do not let me fall, please,” Serena whispered brokenly. “Please do not let me fall,” she pleaded urgently.
“We will not, Lady Serena,” Darling answered her quickly. She swallowed at the look in her friend’s eyes. “Put your fear away in a box,” she added in a calm tone. “We are going to pull you up, I swear this to you.” Darling tried to lift her head to look up behind her. “Uncle!” she shouted. “Ease us down more!”
She heard him grunt as they moved the smallest amount. “More, Uncle! More! Hurry!” Darling screamed as she held Serena’s eyes.
Laird MacKenzie groaned, “That...is as...far...as I can...lassies!”
“I cannot hold on,” Serena said harshly as she winced in pain. She looked up at them with tears misting her eyes. “Thank you both for being my friend,” she whispered.
Cristianna screamed at her, “Dinnae ye dare give up! Ye hold on!”
Cristianna suddenly let out an ear-piercing, shrill whistle. Immediately, the thunder of hooves could be heard.
Laird MacKenzie let out an exclamation. “There are two giant horses here! What are ye thinking, lass?” he shouted down to them.
Darling looked over at Cristianna, who had a desperate look on her face. “Could they pull us up? Somehow?” Cristianna said haltingly.
“The reins!” Darling shouted, and Cristianna beamed with relief. “Loop the reins around each of our ankles!”
Cristianna called up to Jamys and Mery. “Girls, can ye do that while the MacKenzie holds us?”
They managed it within a mere moment. “Done!” Laird MacKenzie shouted as he released their ankles.
“Primrose! Buttercup! Come!” Cristianna shouted and whistled again, softer this time. Slowly they were lowered as the two Clydesdales walked to the edge of the cliff.
It was enough. They grabbed Serena’s hands as she let out a sob of relief.
“Back! Back up, boys!” Cristianna commanded the two stallions. They were pulled up and over the cliff, pulling Serena along with them until all were safely over the edge and laying on the plateau once again.
Mery and Jamys rushed forward to unwind the reins from their ankles as they cried and stammered out words of relief.
Darling stood up and pulled first Cristianna and then Serena to her feet. They hugged her tightly.
“Thank you!” Serena cried. “Thank you, my dearest friends,” she sobbed as they hugged her.
Jamys and Mery wrapped their arms around them as well, sobbing their relief.
“Niece—” came Laird MacKenzie’s voice.
Darling spun around and looked at him. His face was red, and his eyes looked anguished. He held his arms out to her, and she rushed into them. “I couldnae have lost ye, not when I just found ye,” he said gruffly.
“Darling! Look!” Cri
stianna shouted.
Everyone looked down at the other end of the plateau where Charlotte Lynn was hurrying along.
Flain and Oger were there to meet her. They had managed to untie each other’s feet and hands. They were bent forward, ready to intercept her.
There was only one way off the plateau besides over the edge, and that was between the two rocks that led down the rough track of the slope. Flain and Oger were not going to let her get past them.
The girls started running towards the other end of the plateau to help Flain and Oger. They were not going to let Charlotte Lynn get away.
But Flain and Oger were ready to block Charlotte Lynn’s only escape. As she came closer, the two men launched themselves into her, knocking her hard, smashing her between the two of them.
She fell like a stone at their feet.
The women made it to them just as Lawrence, Sandolf, and Warwick came running up the slope and between the rocks onto the plateau.
They came to a halt, breathing harshly at the sight before their eyes.
Lawrence’s eyes frantically searched out his wife.
The MacKenzie laird was holding her tightly. Much too tightly.
He let out a thunderous roar of rage and charged down the plateau, only to have his wife step out of the MacKenzie’s arms to smile at him.
He stopped, staring at her wild-eyed.
He reached out quickly and grabbed her away from the laird. He hugged her tightly to him, then cupped her face between his large hands as he stared down at her with fear in his eyes. “Are ye hurt?”
Darling shook her head as she stared up at her husband. Perhaps he did not love her. She would not think about that today, however. She knew that she did love him. She stared up into his frightened face. He was covered in sweat and mud, and his hair was soaking wet and clinging to his face. His helmet lay in the valley below, somewhere. He was still breathing harshly as he stared down at her with such worry in his eyes.
She reached up and caressed his cheek. He grabbed her hand and kissed it. “Lion,” he whispered. He pulled her to him and kissed her fiercely. It was instantly hot and demanding and deep.
A deep voice cleared their throat.
Lawrence dragged his lips slowly from Darling’s as he scowled at the laird, watching them with a smile on his face.
“MacLeod,” Darling said with a happy smile as she patted Lawrence’s arm, “this is my uncle. Mi madre’s brother.” Her hand paused on his arm as she looked up at him with serious eyes. “He also knew my padre, Gabriel MacRae.”
Lawrence looked at her smiling face and then at the MacKenzie laird. “Is this true?”
The laird smiled and wiped a tear from his eye with one giant, weathered finger. “Aye, ’tis true. Her mither was ma wee sister. Her father was a Scottish man named Gabriel MacRae, nae the pirate.” The laird then narrowed one eye on Lawrence. “Ye are ma niece's husband. Do ye love her?” he demanded in a growling voice.
“I heard her scream, saw her and the two other women dangling from that cliff. I died in that moment thinking I was going tae lose her. I couldnae get tae her fast enough. Our horses were being held for us, away from the battle...” He looked down at Darling and his voice softened. “Aye, I love her. I would sail the world's oceans tae rescue her if she were ever taken from me. I would die for her,” he whispered. “I would die without her.”
Darling’s eyes widened and then misted over as she stroked his arm. “You love me?”
“Aye. I told ye I was keeping ye.” He leaned down and kissed her again as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back with all the love that was pouring through her body and into his.
The MacKenzie laird cleared his throat again.
Lawrence turned to him with a grin. “Aye? What is it now? I am trying tae kiss my wife. Yer niece has a tender heart and needs vera much kissing from her husband.”
The MacKenzie laird laughed and held his arm out. “I pledge an alliance of peace between our clans, assuming I still have some men left down there in the valley?”
Lawrence smiled and clasped his arm as he nodded. “Aye, a strong alliance. It would be an honor to fight alongside yer warriors, instead of against them.”
The story was told again that night in the reopened great hall of Kinloch Keep. There was a great feast for the MacKenzie clan and the new MacLeod “clan,” which included all those people rescued and brought from the three ships: the San Gabriel, the Lion, and the Lioness.
The great hall was crowded with people and music and food.
The story was told again and again. All of it. Right down to Charlotte Lynn’s deception and final defeat by the very proud Flain and Oger.
Lastly, they told how the Clydesdales had pulled the three girls over the edge of the cliff to safety.
“I will always have Clydesdales,” Cristianna said proudly as she raised her cup of ale in salute to the Clydesdale stallions of Fionnaghal.
Darling smiled at her friend from where she sat between her uncle and her husband. “For mi madre,” she said. “I will always have the big black warhorses.”
“Ye must teach me tae throw knives as ye do. Having all those little daggers and sgian dubhs is a must for a woman. I shall teach all my daughters and my granddaughters if I am lucky enough to have them,” she said with a laugh.
Lawrence and Darling left the feast early. He knew there would be feasting and music into the wee hours of the morning, and many would fall asleep on the floor of the great hall or anywhere else they could find a space.
He led Darling up the stairway and along a passageway overlooking the great hall. He opened a door that led into a warmly lit room.
There were candles on every surface available. There was also a massive bed against the far wall of the room with an ornate, elaborately carved wooden headboard. Across from the bed the hearth was ablaze with a warm fire. Darling’s eyes went to the floor in front of the fire, for there was a wooden tub of water lined with a cloth waiting there. There was also a drying cloth laid beside it.
“I thought ye might like a bath. I will give ye privacy and bathe down the hall.” He kissed her forehead. “Take yer time.” He kissed her deeply, then pulled slowly and reluctantly away. “But not too much time.”
Darling closed the door behind him and made quick work of her clothing and then sat down in the wooden tub. She sighed as she sluiced the water over and over her body and then her long hair. She looked around the sparsely furnished room as she bathed.
Her eyes caught the headboard of the bed and saw an inscription there.
She glanced at the lovely bed coverings and then quickly away. She knew that tonight Lawrence would truly make her his wife. She sighed as both excitement and trepidation raced through her body. She trusted her husband. She knew he was considerate and kind, and patient. He would not hurt her. Not if he could help it.
She rose from her bath and used the cloth to dry herself as well as her hair as she stood before the fire. She was surprised and very pleased to see that Lawrence had also provided her with a comb!
She immediately set about combing her long, dark hair as she knelt before the fire to let her hair dry within its warmth. She had left Castile with nothing but the clothes on her back. Yet here was this man who had married her, given her a home and a family. Clothing too, she realized as she saw the clean shift laid out on the bed. Even a comb for my hair, she thought with a soft laugh as she realized how much the simple gesture of a comb meant to her.
He loved her, she sighed happily.
She desperately wanted to make him happy as well.
She pulled the clean shift on over her head and tied the little ribbons at the bodice. She continued combing her hair as she walked up to the headboard and leaned forward to read the words carved there.
Within this keep of strong stone-
there beats two hearts
forever one-
for my love has my heart as I have hers
for with every beat, d
oth she make my heart stir.
In this home I have built for her
Where only goodness shall occur
our love shall never be divided-
but instead be blessed
and happily multiplied.
From Rane MacLeod to his beloved wife
Darling straightened up, her breath held tightly. How beautiful, she thought with reverence. How tragic that she died when Law was so young. She frowned. How could Lawrence’s father have deserted him? It did not make sense to her.
The door to the bedchamber opened just then and Lawrence stepped inside. His hair was still wet and hung in waves to his shoulders. She could not take her eyes away from his. He was bare-chested with his bathing cloth around his hips and his tartan thrown casually over his shoulder.
“Wife,” he growled softly as he hungrily caressed her body with his eyes alone.
“Husband,” she whispered as she watched him walk slowly towards her like a big cat stalking its prey.
He took her into his arms and wasted no time in touching his lips to hers. He did not give her time to feel shy or bashful. He pulled the shift over her head and the drying cloth from around his narrow hips and pulled her back against his hot skin. His lips claimed hers once again as he scooped her up and gently laid her on the bed and settled lightly beside her. His large hands traveled lightly up her arms to twine his fingers with hers. She was in awe of his gentle treatment of her. He settled over her, whispering words of love as he murmured, “My lion…tha gaol agam ort agus bithidh gu brath. I love ye, and I always will.”
She sighed and kissed him and then held his face as she looked into his beautiful, bright blue eyes. “Te quiero. Yo siempre. I love you. I always will.” She grinned softly. “Te estoy reteniendo, I am keeping you.”
He stared down at her and touched his forehead to hers as he closed his eyes with happiness.