by Starla Kaye
Maggie stole through the secret passage within the outer wall. Nicholas had ridden away with his men at dawn. He’d not even kissed her. She’d sat on the bed sobbing for a long time. She wanted to forgive him for leaving Brodie to his horrible fate, but forgiving him would feel like she was betraying the memory of her brother. And no matter what, she still believed Brodie lived.
“Are ye verra sure we should do this?” Fia asked from behind her.
“Aye. I must. But ye dinna have to come with me.”
Maggie felt the heaviness of the chainmail shirt she wore. She’d borrowed it from Nicholas’ trunk. It fell nearly to her knees. She carried a small bag, too, filled with bread and cheese snatched from the kitchens. And on her shoulder she carried her quiver of arrows. Fia was dressed much the same but she carried a small dirk and Maggie’s bow.
“I go with ye.” It was clear in her tone that Fia was against this plan, but she was a loyal friend.
Chapter Eight
Nicholas had ridden quietly at the lead during the ride from Middleham to Spennithorne. Gerald rode beside him, but he’d left Nicholas to his thoughts. He’d had much to think over: his argument with Maggie, the continuing trouble with Mary, a missive from King Edward wanting him to bring Maggie with him to Court, and a growing uneasiness he’d felt that he couldn’t quite figure out. It was his walking away upset from Maggie and not kissing her good-bye that bothered him most.
They crested a small hill and the stone buildings making up the village of Spennithorne came into view. It hadn’t been a long ride, but he and his men would be glad to reach their destination. He’d ridden them hard for the first miles, as if the devil himself chased them. The devil had actually been Nicholas’s conscience and the guilt he felt for not wanting to discuss Brodie. He’d finally realized what he’d been doing and slowed the pace, offering a muttered apology to his soldiers. None had questioned him. None would dare. Still, he shouldn’t have treated them so badly. He would make sure they were fed well this night and that ale would flow freely as well.
“There appears to be a truce between your lady and Lady Stanhope,” Gerald commented, gaining Nicholas’s attention. “Granted, ‘tis an uneasy one.”
All in the keep and most of his men knew the truce had come at a cost. Lady Stanhope had screamed out her distress at being soundly paddled and anyone in the great hall had been sure to hear it. Maggie, too, had cried out from her paddling, although not as loudly. Two days had passed since their punishment. Two days of awkward peace.
“My arm got a workout to gain that peace. I only hope it lasts for a while.” He didn’t like disciplining his wife, but she could sorely test his patience at times. He did like driving into her hot bottom, though. A very interesting experience that.
Gerald chuckled. “I had to warm my Fia’s bottom, too. She went on and on about how unfair it was of you to punish your lady. I grew weary of defending you and upended her.” He grinned knowingly at Nicholas. “There’s nothing quite like sex after a spanking.”
Nicholas agreed, but let the subject drop. Just thinking about sex had him envisioning his pretty wife, her legs spread wide for him. He shifted awkwardly in the saddle.
“We should only be here a day or two.” He focused on the village ahead. People were bustling about in the main area taking care of everyday matters. Just as his people back in Middleham would be doing. Now that he was away from there and the strain between he and Maggie, he felt calmer. Yet he missed Maggie already.
“You’ve fallen in love with her, haven’t you?” Gerald questioned quietly.
He wasn’t a man who normally discussed matters of the heart, but then neither was Gerald. He said simply, “I believe I have.”
Gerald nudged his horse into a faster trot and Nicholas did as well. “I’m missing Fia, too. Let’s get your business here done so we can go back to Middleham as soon as possible.”
A shiver of unease crept up Nicholas’s spine. Something was wrong at Middleham. But he shook off the thought as he noted the people milling about in the village ahead stopping what they were doing and looking in his direction. These were good people, familiar ones. He’d lived here for over a year before going off to the Crusade. As he and his men drew closer, he noted the smiles of greeting, the pride in their eyes. He’d treated them well and continued to support them from afar. One day he would bring Maggie here. They would like his Scottish bride, almost as much as he did.
* * *
“Me feet are hurting something awful,” Fia complained.
Maggie’s feet were hurting as well. The two of them had been walking for what seemed like forever, but was probably only four or five hours. Long enough that the chainmail hauberk she wore weighed heavily on her small shoulders. Sweat coated her back and ran in rivulets between her breasts beneath the hauberk and shirt. Her long braid hung limply. She glanced at her friend and knew she was as miserable as she.
“If only I’d been able to borrow a pair of horses.” She’d been thinking about that almost from the moment they’d stepped out of the secret passage in the outer wall and hurried toward the trees.
She spotted a fallen tree in the forest they were passing through and headed for it. “Let’s take a bit of rest here.” She’d truly like to shed the hauberk, too, but didn’t dare. She couldn’t just abandon her husband’s garment here and she didn’t want to carry it, either. No, she must keep it on.
Fia sat heavily beside her. Sweat trickled down the sides of her weary-looking face. She set Maggie’s bow and quiver down at her feet.
“Do ye think anyone saw us racing across that patch of ground from the castle?” Fia reached for the leather pouch holding their only water.
Maggie had worried about it as well, but no one had come after them. Still, she’d taken to glancing back over her shoulder every now and then. She forced a smile and shook her head. “Nay. The guard on that wall only walks there twice a day now. He wasna there when I looked up.”
Fia didn’t appear convinced. She took a quick sip and handed the water to Maggie. “I can only imagine how angry Gerald will be when he learns I’m gone.” She shifted uneasily on the log. “Me bottom will feel that nasty strop of his fer sure when he catches up.”
“I’d rather no’ discuss the subject.” Maggie had a feeling her bottom, too, would greatly suffer once Nicholas found her. But then maybe he wouldn’t come after her. Maybe he’d be so relieved to find her gone when he returned to Middleham that he’d forget all about her. Maybe he’d turn to Mary now.
She grumbled under her breath at that idea. Nicholas, as impossible and unreasonable as he could be sometimes—especially about Brodie and returning to Urquhart—was her husband! “She’d best keep her hands off him.”
“Are ye talking aboot Lady Stanhope? Aboot yer husband?” Fia studied her with a twinkle in her eye. “Ye love the mon, dinna ye? Even when he gives ye a devil of a skelping?”
“Canna we no’ talk aboot him wearin’ oot me poor bottom?” Maggie stood and blew out a breath of frustration. Then she slumped and admitted, “I might love him. At least I’m verra fond of his kisses and the way….”
Fia giggled and Maggie slammed her mouth shut, mortified that she’d almost said “and the way he drives his rod inside me.”
Frustrated, Maggie glanced around trying to get her bearings in the tall trees. She worried her lower lip and turned slowly around. Her stomach tightened with unease. “Do ye get the feeling we’ve been here before?”
Fia stood and surveyed the area as well. “When we first came to Middleham? Aye, we might have passed through this way.”
“Nay. In the last hour or so.” She concentrated on a particular tree a few yards away. She recognized the odd twist to its trunk that she’d noted before. “We’re going in circles.”
“Are ye sure?” Fia followed Maggie’s gaze and grumbled a Scottish curse. “Ye’re right.”
The daylight that they’d seen above the towering trees was fast fading. It would be dark soon
, even darker here in the forest. While Maggie had camped out with her father, her brothers, and their men, she wasn’t sure about camping here alone with just Fia. In truth, she had a bit of fear of the deep darkness of a forest. Her heart started racing. Why hadn’t she thought this all out better? Because sometimes yer stubbornness gets the best of ye.
“How do we ken which way to go?” Fia asked, now sounding frightened. “We’re awful deep in this forest now.”
Maggie thought a second, looked around again, and nodded toward the oddly-trunked tree she’d recognized. “I think I could climb that one. Get up high enough to mayhap see Middleham. Then we would strike out in the opposite direction.”
She started to pull the hauberk over her head, snagging her braid in it and swearing at the painful tug on her hair. When she managed to free herself, she tossed the chainmail vest to the leaf-covered forest floor.
“I dinna think this a guid idea.” Fia’s face was pinched in concern. “What if ye fall? What if ye get too high and canna get back down? Nay. ‘Tisna a guid idea.”
Maggie rolled her eyes. “When have ye become such a worrywart? I’ll be fine.”
She walked to the tree filled with determination. They had to do something to keep from walking about in circles and this was all she could come up with. “Come here, Fia. I need a bit of a boost to reach the first limb.”
Fia walked over but didn’t look the least bit happy. As they stood directly beneath the lowest limb, she scowled and then cupped her hands in front of her.
Maggie had a second of hesitance but put her boot-covered foot in Fia’s hands. Then guiding herself with her hands up the thick trunk, she stretched up until she caught hold of the lowest branch. It took a bit of squirming and huffing and puffing, but she finally scrambled onto the branch. She sat there a few seconds to regain her breath.
Beneath the tree, Fia looked as if certain disaster lie ahead. Maggie hoped to prove her wrong. Although she was quickly discovering she wasn’t all that fond of heights, at least not sitting precariously ten feet off the ground on a mere branch.
“Well, best get climbing before it becomes any darker in here.” Each passing minute seemed to steal away the light in the forest.
She sucked in a steadying breath and eased to her feet along the trunk, holding tightly to it for a second. Then as she stood there, she heard the crunch of leaves, quickly followed by the pounding of hooves.
Fia plastered herself to the trunk of the tree, screeching in fright. “Lord, help us!”
Maggie’s foot slipped and she clung frantically to the tree, trying to find her footing again. At the same time a half dozen war horses burst through the trees nearby. Richard, Middleham’s first knight, looked in horror up at her as he and the others reined in a few feet from Fia.
“God’s teeth, woman, have you no sense!” In his distress, he failed to call her by her title. “Get down immediately!” Then he noted how far off the ground she was and corrected, “Nay! Wait there. I will come help you.”
“Have ye been following us all this time?” Maggie asked, irritated at her failure to sneak successfully away.
He dismounted and strode beneath her, his expression one of worry and fury at the same time. Two other men dismounted as well and wore the same expressions as they joined him.
“From a distance. I wanted to see just what you were up to.” He blew out a frustrated breath. “You were heading for Urquhart, weren’t you? In spite of your husband’s wishes.”
Thinking about how mad Nicholas was going to be when he learned what she’d done had her considering just staying in this tree. She wouldn’t be sitting comfortably anytime soon. “He’s a verra stubborn mon.”
Richard’s mouth twitched for a hairsbreadth of a second. “And you’re a very stubborn woman, m’lady. One who’ll certainly pay dearly for this little bout of mischief.”
She scowled down at him, and then lost her balance. With a squawk of dismay, she plunged downward. And with her rotten luck of the day, she managed to land hard on her bottom between the horrified men who’d failed to catch her.
“My lady!” Richard knelt beside her, eyes wide in fear. “Have you hurt yourself?”
Maggie wiggled a bit, wincing and rubbing at the pain on her bottom from landing on a thick stick. “Only my backside.” She blushed as she met Richard’s gaze, both knowing this mere bruising would be nothing once Nicholas got hold of her.
Richard was enough of a gentleman not to speak of what everyone there knew would happen. Instead he helped her up and she brushed off her braies.
“John, grab her lady’s bow and quiver. Her knapsack as well. Thomas, Fia can ride with you.” He faced Maggie with a look that said there would be no discussion. “Lady Middleham, you will ride with me.”
* * *
Maggie stood looking out one of her bedchamber’s windows two mornings later when she spotted Nicholas leading his men back from Spennithorne toward the drawbridge. She froze, drew in a sharp breath. Soon she would face her husband’s wrath. She had no wish to suffer a tender bottom, but it was inevitable. She had gone against his wishes. And she’d done something foolishly dangerous. She and Fia had been lucky that it was her husband’s men who had found them and not some bandits. Richard had lectured her fiercely about that nearly the entire ride back to Middleham. Then, worried that she’d try something again, he’d locked her in her chamber since then. He’d only allowed her to come down for meals, accompanied by one of the guards. At first it had angered her to be treated like a prisoner. But she’d soon realized he’d not only been frightened for her but also worried about his position with Nicholas. She hadn’t meant to cause trouble for him.
She rubbed her hand over her nervous stomach and watched her husband ride across the drawbridge. He rode tall and proud in the saddle. His dark hair nearly touched his shoulders and fluttered lightly in the gentle breeze. He was a handsome man and she’d missed him, although she was still a bit miffed that he’d left without kissing her good-bye. He’d been angry with her, she with him. He would be even angrier now.
Drawing in an anxious breath, she went to sit on the side of the bed. Waiting was not something she liked.
Tension seemed thick in the bailey as Nicholas rode into it. The men who had been training near the paddocks stopped and looked at him. Something was wrong. He felt it in his gut. Immediately he feared something had happened to Maggie.
He noticed Richard, frowning and walking toward him. His fears intensified and he all but leaped down from his horse. “Maggie? Is she all right?”
Richard blinked and appeared relieved. “Yes, she suffered only a few bruises. She waits for you in your chamber, My Lord.”
Nicholas felt as if he was missing something important. “How did she suffer these bruises?”
The frown returned to Richard’s face. “You don’t know then? I thought mayhap you had already heard.”
“Heard what?”
Now Richard didn’t meet his eye. “About Maggie and Fia’s adventure.”
Gerald stepped beside him, scowling. “Adventure?” he growled.
“The two of them snuck out through the secret passage in the outer wall not long after you left, My Lord.”
Nicholas’s hands fisted at his sides. “Snuck out? Headed for Urquhart, I assume. But you brought them back.”
“Aye. I took some men with me and we followed them discreetly from a distance. I wanted to see what they were up to.” He heaved a sigh. “They got lost in the forest. She was climbing a tree to find their way when—”
“Lost? Climbing a tree?” Nicholas questioned in a growl. He looked toward the keep. “She’s in our bedchamber?”
“Actually I have locked her in there since we returned. I didn’t want her sneaking off again.” At Nicholas’s nod of understanding, he glanced at Gerald. “Fia, too, has been confined to her room.”
Gerald stormed past them both, grumbling about blistering her ass.
Nicholas followed him inside. His
independent wife was going to be the death of him. He didn’t want to think of all the dangers she’d risked facing. The bandits who roamed the forests, who would have…. Nay! He wouldn’t think of that now. But his headstrong young bride would pay dearly for such foolishness.
He stopped by the solar first to get the tawse. The soldier standing guard outside his bedchamber noticed it in his hands and nodded in approval before walking away. Nicholas doubted there was a man on the castle grounds who wouldn’t give their woman a fierce leathering for such misbehavior. And he was fairly certain Maggie knew what she faced.
Pulling in a breath to calm his anger, he pushed open the door. Maggie sat on the side of the bed in her chemise, plaid skirt, and bodice, the familiar Scottish dress she wore when uncomfortable. It soothed her somehow. She raised her sassy chin and met his gaze boldly.
Nicholas closed the door and stood for a second just looking at the wife he loved but who was a trial in his life. He sensed she would always be so. “You know I must punish you, wife.”
“If ye’d just agreed to go with me….” She stopped talking when his scowl deepened.
“I told you that I would consider it in a month or so.” He tapped the tawse against the side of his leg. She focused on it, tensing. “You disobeyed me, didn’t you? Worse, you risked not only your life but also Fia’s.”
She fidgeted with her skirt. “I suppose Gerald will be unhappy with Fia as well.”
It pleased him to see she felt guilty for what her friend would suffer because of her decision. “Aye. You will both have very sore bottoms for a few days.”
“Ye canna jist be glad we’re back safe and sound?” She looked at him hopefully, although he knew she already knew his answer.
He walked closer. He’d much rather have returned to Middleham and come to this chamber to take her to bed. He’d thought many times about how he wanted to….
He forced those thoughts aside. “I’m pleased that you are back safe and sound, of course. But I’m most displeased with what you did.”