by Willa Blair
Still, Angus was fairly certain no one would stumble across them this far from the village…and he was tired of resisting the temptation she offered. He couldn’t see the harm in a kiss. He’d tried to kiss her when he was well into his cups and she’d pushed him away. Would she allow it now, when the only thing intoxicating him was her?
He plucked a primrose and tucked it between her fingers, then told her, “I’m not sure ye should trust me.” He smiled as he leaned toward her, holding her gaze and giving her a fair chance to deny him. This time, she did not push him away. Perhaps because there was no convenient puddle of ale behind him? But he lost that thought when his lips brushed hers.
She accepted his feather-light touch without flinching. Instead, she leaned into his kiss, pressed her lips firmly to his, and lifted a hand to his chest.
Angus’s blood roared into a blaze, skipping past the first tiny flame to become a full conflagration in moments. He couldn’t stop caressing her lips with his. When a soft moan escaped her, her lips parting on a breath and giving him access to her mouth, he tilted his head and answered, wanting more, needing to possess this woman. At first, he fought his urge to plunder, going slowly, giving her a chance to naysay his tongue’s sensual assault. Then she clutched his shirt and Angus lost all reserve. He nipped, he tasted every sweet morsel of her mouth, he inhaled her breath and gave back his own. Shona matched him, touch for heady touch, taste for succulent taste. When her fingers traced fire along his neck and threaded into his hair, Angus came to his senses. Fully aware of her allure and its undeniable effect on him, he broke the kiss. As she softly cried out her dissent, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against his side and tucking her head under his chin. He inhaled the sweet scent of her hair. In that moment, a longing awoke in him to take a bride and make a new family for himself. With Shona? He ruffled her hair with his chin. She, or her uncle and Colin, were planting ideas in his head.
Her hair hid her expression, but her body stayed pressed tightly to his as she toyed with the flower. One of them would have to end this, and as much as he did not wish to set her from him, he had to. They did not know each other well enough for him to take any further advantage, and he had no doubt she only sought the comfort he offered, nothing more.
“I willna agree to leave MacAnalen,” he finally said, causing her to lift her face, her wide eyes hinting at the effect his words had on her. Too much hope shone there. “Though Colin can force such a thing, I’ll do my best to talk him out of it if he tries. But I wonder, why are ye so set against becoming the clan’s Lady?” Shona stiffened in his arms. “Colin is no’ that much older than me,” he continued. “He can be argumentative, I’ll grant ye, but ye dinna…”
Shona pulled away from him and crushed the primrose in her fist. She stared off into the distance, her expression suddenly closed off, her narrowed eyes reflecting the pain behind her next words. “The chief and his family were the first ones the invaders killed,” she told him in a voice gone monotone. “We were a village of farmers, no’ fighters. They killed most of the men, raped the women, burned everything—our homes, the fields. A few escaped into the woods and stayed hidden until the invaders moved on. I was in the woods, searching for herbs, when they came. I heard the screams, so I hid, too.”
“Ach, lass.”
“I wish I couldha’ done something to stop it.”
MacAnalen had suffered similar treatment, though with more survivors. The clan could defend itself, and had strong allies to call upon. But thinking about those days, about his brother’s death, still saddened Angus. He took a deep breath, reluctant to tell their story, but knowing she needed to hear it.
“After the lowlander army defeated us, a Lathan patrol wounded their leader, which is the only reason so many of us are still alive,” he told her. “He had no chance to order us killed. His men feared him so greatly, they would do naught without his order. The Lathans came looking for their laird, who’d been captured with us, and they set us all free. We hid. We harried the invaders when we could while they lay siege to the Lathan stronghold.”
“How did ye defeat them?”
“In a trial by combat between the Lathan and their chief. Toran killed him.”
“Where was the MacAnalen laird?”
He took her fist and stroked his thumb over the back, soothing himself as much as the lass. Her fingers uncurled, dislodging the crumpled flower into her lap.
“A few days before it all ended, we’d found my brother, our chief, on the shore of the loch, half drowned, nearly dead. Craig, our healer, tried, but couldna rouse him. A healer came with the invaders who had…special…talents, or so everyone said. Toran took her with him when he escaped. But no’ even she could save my brother.” Angus clenched his teeth. “At the time, I was grateful Toran agreed to risk the trip to bring her to the caves where we hid, and for her efforts. But in the months since, my hopes for a miracle and how those hopes turned to…dust…have chafed.” He blinked away the sudden dampness in his eyes.
“Oh, Angus, I’m so sorry,” Shona said.
Her hands were trembling, and he wondered if she’d heard tales of such talents and feared them.
“She could no’ do what her reputation promised,” he continued, both to reassure Shona and because it was the truth. “If she had such an ability, yet failed like that…let my brother die, then…” He couldn’t finish the sentence. Couldn’t admit he could not count on anyone or anything ever again. Not Aileana. Not his clan who, after he’d worked so hard to lead them through the winter, voted another in his place to be chief.
He hated feeling resentful. Yet resentment had ruled his heart since the election. It was not like him. He only felt like himself when he looked at Shona. Somehow, she provided the only relief from his torment of the past—and the present. He hoped she would not also disappoint him.
The feather-soft brush of her fingertips on his face startled him.
“We have been through so much, ye and I.”
He covered her hand with his, turned it, and placed a kiss in the center of her palm. “We are due for better times.” Despite her uncle’s plans, and despite Colin’s threats, he wondered if they could make a future together. She seemed to be fitting in well in all facets of clan life. She worked side-by-side with the other lasses, and more than once he’d noticed her laughing with them. It warmed his heart to see her growing comfort. He smiled at the memory and pulled her to him. She felt so warm and sweet, he could only give in to the urge to kiss her again. Her lips met his softly. When she did not pull away, Angus deepened the kiss, knowing he should not, but his eagerness to taste her, to know if she might truly welcome his affection, spurred him on. As she clutched his shoulders, she moaned, nearly making him lay her on the newly grown grass at their feet. Bright green, soft and fragrant, it would make a pleasant bed for…nay, he could not think it. Her breath quickened under his kisses while his heart beat faster and stronger in his chest.
But sense prevailed and, reluctantly, he lifted his mouth from her lips.
“Lass, we should head back, before…”
She nodded but didn’t move. He took her hands, thinking to pull her to her feet.
“Come lass, I’m sorry to have brought back sad memories. Let us speak of happier things, shall we? While we walk back to the village?”
“Nay, please. I’m…I dinna want anyone to see me like this.” Her eyes, big, brown, and glistening with unshed tears, held him in check.
“Verra well. We can stay for a few minutes more.”
She nodded. “Thank ye.” She scrubbed at her face. “I’m no’ ready to return.”
“Do ye think ye can be happy here, Shona?”
She hesitated, and Angus steeled himself for her answer. So much depended on it.
“I hope so…but no’ with Colin.”
Shona’s sad smile put Angus on alert, and he cringed at the thought suddenly crowding between them. Had she come here alone with him and now refused to leave, delibera
tely trying to trap him into marriage? It was one thing for her to warn him about her uncle’s suggestion to Colin, and to seek some small measure of comfort from him. But quite another to arrange to be discovered alone in the woods with him. The possibility angered him. The MacDonald lass had tried the same. Was he only a means to an end, or did Shona truly care for him?
He reached for her, and she leaned into his touch. So he wrapped his hand behind her head and pulled her into his kiss. He wasn’t gentle this time. He plundered, putting his anger into the assault on her lips. Her hiss of indrawn breath made him hesitate, but then she kissed him back. So she did want him. But doubt made him deepen the kiss, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, mimicking what he really longed to do. She permitted his invasion, so he trailed his fingers down her throat, but paused at her shoulder. Still, she made no move to stop him, so he let his hand fall to her breast and gently squeezed.
Shona reared back and knocked his hand away. “What do ye think ye are doing?”
“Giving ye what ye want,” he told her, his voice husky with arousal. Testing her.
“Ye go too far. Why are ye treating me this way? First the day of the election, and now…”
“I ken, Shona.”
“What? Ye ken what?” A breeze tugged at her hair, whipping tendrils into her face. Impatiently, she shoved them out of her eyes, as if she needed to see Angus’s face more than to hear his words.
“Ye are trying to avoid marriage to Colin. Do ye think to tease me into marrying ye by offering yer…admittedly delectable…body while waiting for someone else to find us? To compromise ye?”
Shona’s outraged gasp did not sound false. She did not argue with him. She simply stood and stepped back. “I canna believe ye would think such a thing of me…think I’d be willing to…to…”
“Give away yer favors? Are ye no’?”
A sudden gust startled him. She kept retreating, backing away from Angus. “Nay! I thought ye cared…I thought I cared about ye…could trust ye. But I see now I made a mistake. Ye are no better than my uncle and the MacAnalen.”
Her face blotched, and her eyes glimmering with tears, Shona turned and ran from him, leaving behind one yellow primrose, flattened into the forest loam.
His belly suddenly hollow, Angus watched her flee, wondering if she was not the only one who’d made a terrible mistake.
Chapter Four
Half-blinded by tears, Shona stumbled through the woods toward camp, ducking branches whipping in the wind and becoming more furious every time she had to rip her dress free from where it snagged on a branch or bramble. How could Angus accuse her of trying to trap him into marriage? To act the trollop and ruin herself? She didn’t want to marry at all! Not yet. Not ever. Not even him.
Did she?
With her uncle’s plan to force her into marriage, Angus had seemed the better of two unwanted alternatives. After this, she wanted nothing to do with him, either.
And his tale of the healer? Did he suspect her own abilities? Had he been trying to draw a confession from her? If so, he’d failed, and he’d put her on her guard. That would not happen.
While they’d…talked…the wind had kicked up and the sky had darkened again. Though it had yet to rain, another storm fit her mood perfectly. How dare he take advantage of her! She’d told him what her uncle intended, but telling him didn’t mean she participated willingly in his scheme, or the laird’s. Angus’s accusation stung, but the way he’d gone about testing her hurt. A lot. She was new to the clan. An outsider. Some level of suspicion might be natural, still Angus MacAnalen had no right to paw at her, even after his simple, romantic, gesture. She’d crushed the flower he gave her, just as he’d crushed her trust.
She didn’t know what to do with these feelings, but after tripping more than once and nearly sprawling on the forest floor, she knew this headlong, furious rush would not achieve anything but for her to return to the village filthy and bruised. She scrubbed at the tear-tracks on her cheeks. When she reached a burn, she paused to calm her breathing, then knelt to splash icy cold water on her face. People had seen her leave with Angus. She could not be seen returning in a state she did not wish to explain.
No one needed to know how he’d broken her heart. How much his accusations hurt. She would be no man’s whore. She’d rather wander these woods, living alone, than be reduced to that. She’d only told him hoping he’d help her avoid being forced to marry the new laird Colin.
Yet, her future seemed even more dim without Angus. Without anyone. But she would face it. And find a way to have the kind of life she wanted.
The village stood empty when she returned. Where had everyone gone? She paused and finally heard voices coming from the trees on the other side. They sounded strained. Something was wrong. She couldn’t tell if they were angry or upset—or both. Before she could cross into the trees on the other side, Christina ran from the woods, tears streaming down her face.
“Shona! Och, ’tis terrible. Craig canna do a thing to save him.”
“What are ye talking about? Who is Craig?”
“Craig is the healer. He canna help Colin. The new laird. The wind broke a branch. A tree. I dinna ken. It fell on him. Crushed him. He’s dead!”
Dead? The new laird, dead? Suddenly Shona couldn’t catch her breath. Christina must be mistaken. Then the other women came pouring out of the woods, shocked and tearful expressions lending credence to her statement.
Did her uncle know? What would he do when he found out?
Shona looked about, the women’s upset adding to her own caused by Angus. And where was Angus?
“Dinna go in there!” her friend called to her as she took step after hesitant step toward the forest. “Another tree might fall!”
She ignored the warning and all the shocked faces she passed as she entered the woods, looking for the men—and the laird’s body.
One thing haunted her. If she could have prevented Colin’s death, would she have kept the branch from falling on him? Or would her uncle’s schemes have kept her from saving the man he planned to marry her to? Guilt filled her, even though she hadn’t been anywhere nearby. Knowing she could have prevented this tormented her.
When she arrived, several men turned from their circle around the body on the ground and regarded her. Between them, she could see a heavy tree trunk, easily as thick as her arm was long, and the bloodied lower part of a leg and a foot. No more. Either the rest of his body lay under a branch, or on the other side.
“Is he—”
“Aye, lass. Get ye back to the village,” the council elder said, casting a nervous glance upward. Wind lashed the branches above them. “We’ll take care of the laird’s body.”
Numbly, Shona nodded, turned away, and collided with Angus’s solid chest.
“What is this?” he demanded even as he gripped her arms and steadied her. His touch reassured her, but a chill coursed down Shona’s back at Angus’s demand—the same words Colin had used when her uncle had presented her to him. Then Angus set her aside with a softly-voiced command, “Aye, go on back, lass. We’ll talk later. I’m sorry.”
She stared at him in surprise at his gentleness, but his gaze was fixed on the men behind her—and the one under the tree. She felt battered by the conflicting impressions he gave her, but now was not the time to examine them. Shona backed off a few paces and paused to watch the circle open to admit Angus and reveal more of the laird’s ruined body. No one could doubt MacAnalen needed another new laird. She knew it was too soon, but she couldn’t help wondering if, after this, would Angus be chosen? Would he get the vindication he desired?
In a flash of clarity, Shona regretted telling Angus what Colin had promised to do. Would he adopt Colin’s plans to marry outside the clan? Would he make a match for her in another clan? Before they’d argued, she would have been devastated at the thought. Now? Now, she didn’t know how she felt, except relieved she no longer had marriage to Colin in her future.
“No’ even Healer
Aileana could fix this,” Angus’s friend, Brodric, muttered. She couldn’t see Angus’s face, but the way he stiffened told her he didn’t appreciate Brodric’s comment.
She glanced up at the storm-tossed trees and decided to stay near so no further harm would come to anyone. Just as she made that decision, a sharp crack split the air and a heavy branch broke loose near the circle of men. She pulled it downwind and let it fall harmlessly to the ground. Her pulse raced with the urgency and effort it took to use her power. She slipped further into the trees, away from the men’s view.
“We’d best get out of here,” the elder advised. “We can return when the storm is over.”
Shona breathed a sigh of relief as the circle broke up, and the men moved back toward the glen. All but one.
Angus stayed behind, regarding the man on the ground. He stood utterly still, seemingly oblivious to the danger heralded by the leaves and twigs flying free in each gust.
“Angus, come on!” Brodric called to his friend and paused, batting aside a wind-driven spray of leaves as another gust shook the trees yet again.
With a nod, Angus left the body and joined Brodric. Shona slipped deeper into the forest and shadowed them. She wondered what he’d been thinking, standing over his rival’s body. The clan would have to elect a new chief. Did he still hope to gain the position or would his loss to Colin make him reluctant to accept it now? Or had he simply seen another of their clan, dead, like so many others? His expression had been grim and unyielding, giving no hint of his thoughts when he turned to join Brodric. For once, the talkative Brodric had held his peace. They’d said nothing as they made their way toward the village glen.
Shona kept watch over them, and listened for an indication of trouble for those who had gone ahead. Since she could move aside anything that fell, she had no fear for herself in the storm. But without her, the rest had no such protection.