“Do you have to rush off so quickly?” Mary asked, in a voice that was at the same time both confused and inviting, “You have been gone for days, no-one would blame you if you wanted to spend a bit more time abed with your wife this morning”.
“I want to check on Ian”, I offered as an excuse. I did want to check on Ian, but I also wanted some time apart from Mary to compose myself before I changed my mind and leapt back into bed to pleasure her as she deserved to be pleasured.
Sighing, Mary climbed out of bed as well, and began to dress.
“I will come with you and see how Bridget’s stitching is holding up. Bridget tells me that it is often itchy and the patient must be told to be sure not to scratch it until the wound is healed”.
I nodded and waited for Mary to be ready before we left our room and headed to Ian’s. Knocking, we found my parents asleep in chairs they had drawn up beside the bed. Mary walked straight over to Ian and placed a hand against his cheek. I knew she was only checking that he was not feverish, but I had to fight against a ridiculous urge to snatch her hand from my brother. I remembered how I had prevented her from running her hands over my body last night, so that I could stay in control of our lovemaking, and now I regretted that I had not let her have free rein with my body as she normally would have. My Mary had the most wicked hands, and had quickly learned how well I responded to her touch. Ian muttered a little and woke up, which had the effect of waking both of my parents. My father stretched and moved to my side as my mother rushed to Ian. Mary spoke first.
“He isn’t feverish at all, Bridget’s poultice seems to have done the trick. If you don’t mind, Ian, I would like to see the wound to see if it still looks clean”.
Ian looked embarrassed at the thought of Mary checking his wound, but my mother as usual stepped in.
“Och, don’t be such a baby, Ian. It’s only Mary, there’s no need to be bashful. Who do you think cleaned your wound before Bridget arrived?”
I tried to keep the smile from my face as Ian fumbled with his clothing and his bed clothes in an attempt to show Mary only a tiny patch of his skin. I tried to put myself in his place. How would I have felt if I was lying in bed, with my mother standing over me, and my brother’s wife insisting on seeing me partially unclothed while my brother stood over me, glowering? Ian looked at me, blushing, and I raised an eyebrow at him, smiling at his discomfort. Mary was quick, and after showing my mother how the wound looked clean, and there were no signs of infection, she turned aside so that Ian could rearrange his clothing and attempt to recover some of his dignity.
My father nudged my arm and we left for his solar, Father explaining along the way that Donald was negotiating with the hostage we had taken during the struggle and would join us there when they had reached a settlement.
We settled in for a whiskey and I told Father of the events of the last few days. After a while, Donald entered after a brief knock, and rubbed his hands together at the sight of the whiskey. After he had taken a long sip and settled himself, he began to speak.
“Some of the cattle are gone of course, but they have agreed to return those they still have, and some calves that have been born recently. It was mostly just a case of young men trying to prove themselves, I don’t think we will have any further trouble with them”.
“What about the man who wounded Ian?” My father asked, “I understand he was only young himself”.
“Yes”, continued Donald, “Not much more than a boy himself. Ian provoked him, but he should not have swung the way he did. If ye agree, we have decided that the boy’s horse should be forfeited to Ian. It is a very fine mount, and if we accept this offer, we can settle this dispute without any more bloodshed. These people are our neighbours after all, and while we cannot ignore what they have done, I think if we show ourselves to be gracious, we will be thankful in the future”.
Father and Donald talked a little more, before Donald took his leave to send a messenger to arrange the release of the hostage after his people made arrangements for the return of the cattle and the surrender of the horse. The hostage would stay as our guest until the agreement had been fulfilled, and although I knew I should have taken an interest in the agreements, I had only been half listening, my thoughts instead were full of Mary. As soon as I was able, I sought her out, only to find that she was not in the keep, but had gone to one of the cottages, where she had assisted in a birthing while I had been gone.
I sought directions to the cottage, and knocked softly at the door when I arrived. The door was quickly opened and I was shushed by Bridget, who whispered to me as loud as she apparently dared.
“Stop making all that noise! The babe has just gone to sleep and Kathryn needs some rest. Can’t ye wait to see yer wife until later?” Then the old healer confounded me by winking and standing a little to one side so that I could see into the cottage. My breath caught in my throat as I saw Mary swaying as she held the little babe. She looked over at me, smiling before laying the babe down in a crib and heading to the door, whispering to Bridget and closing the door softly behind her as she walked out.
“Liam, I didn’t expect to see you so soon. I thought you would be closeted with your father, talking about what happened or something”.
I looked down at Mary as she took my arm. I had been unable to breathe since I saw her holding the babe. The look on her face had made it clear to me that she would welcome her own babe, and I felt like pondscum because I hoped that I had not gotten her with child last night. Although I wanted to see Mary happy, I was selfish enough to want to have many more years with her, and fearful enough for her safety to not want to risk her with a pregnancy. Mary looked up at me expectantly.
“Liam, is there something wrong? You look like you have something on your mind”.
“No Mary, I just finished talking with Father and Donald, and had some spare time. I missed ye while I was gone and wanted to spend some time with ye before I get back into my routine. I don’t think I thanked ye for yer efforts with Ian, ye helped a lot”.
“I didn’t do anything, Liam. Bridget did all the work, but thank you anyway. Bridget seems to think Ian will be up and about soon, and will have a decent sized scar to brag about when he has healed properly”. She looked at me with a twinkle in her eye. “You know, Liam, I think we can steal away for a while, no-one will miss us. I want to show you how much I missed you”.
“Ah, Mary. Ye are a temptress. I don’t know that we should”.
Mary quickly changed my mind, by standing up on her tiptoes and whispering into my ear some of the wicked things she wanted to do to me, and have me do to her, and I was just about to throw her over my shoulder and carry her to our chamber so that she could show me some of the things she had spoken of, when Donald appeared in the roadway, flanked by Robert, our hostage. I grudgingly made the introductions.
“Yer accent is strange”, said Robert to Mary after I had introduced them, “ye are not from close by, are ye?”
“No, I am from a long way south”, replied Mary, with a smile in her voice, “but I am here to stay now”, and she linked her arm anew with mine, snuggling in close to my body.
“If ye don’t mind me asking, how did ye come to be here? We did not know the McGarrow had links to the south”, continued Robert, beginning to annoy me as it appeared I would not now have the opportunity to spirit Mary away to our chamber now. Donald interrupted and further added to my increasing bad temper by laughing and clapping Robert on the back.
“No, we don’t. We stole her away as a hostage, and Liam decided to keep her. Do ye think a big ugly oaf like him could convince a beauty like her to marry him any other way? Be thankful there are no daughters in this house, or ye could find yerself in trouble, Robert!”
The two men shared a good laugh at my expense, then somehow I found myself pressed to join them in the lists for practice, Mary taking her leave of us to check on Ian and speak to my mother.
My mood was not much improved by Donald beating me soundl
y in the lists, landing several blows that he should not have been able to, but I was so out of sorts that I could not concentrate. For the rest of the day, Mary and I kept missing each other, and even at evening meal, I did not have the opportunity to sit with her as mother sat her with Robert, reasoning that as a newcomer, she could reassure him as to his safety. I sat there glowering at them, not missing the smirks that Donald cast my way.
Finally, Mary and I retired to our room, and once the door was safely secured behind us, I wasted no time in dispensing with Mary’s clothing quickly, laying her down on the bed and nestling between her soft thighs.
“Liam, you don’t have to do this, we’ve been apart so long, I just want to feel you inside me. I’ve been wanting to be alone with you all day, and I’ve been aching for you, please”.
I smiled as I nudged Mary’s legs apart with my elbows, and wedged my shoulders in so that she had to keep them spread wide.
“Mary, I want to do this, let me enjoy ye, I haven’t tasted ye for too long. Last night was too rushed, I want to do this slowly and enjoy every moment”.
Mary relaxed and stopped trying to resist me, and even hooked her legs over my shoulders, I smiled to myself as I settled down to tease her with my tongue and my teeth, listening to her little sighs and moans as I wrung as much pleasure from her as I could, all the while feeling my shaft throb for release. After Mary found her pleasure, and her spasms and moans had stopped, I kissed my way up her body before sliding slowly into her, listening to her gasp with renewed pleasure. Her legs had slowly slipped down my body, and now hooked behind my waist, pulling me into her as I thrust slowly at first, then faster as my pleasure built and I began to lose all thought except for how good it felt driving myself into Mary’s hot, wet channel. Remembering my resolve at the last moment, I withdrew and instead of spilling myself inside Mary, I watched myself spray my seed all over her stomach instead. I raised my eyes from the spectacle to see Mary watching me with something that looked like disappointment in her eyes.
“Are we back to that again, Liam? I thought we moved past that last night? It feels so much better when you are inside me when you do that, you shudder over me and push in so deep, it feels so good”.
I shook my head before reaching over for some discarded clothing and wiping Mary’s belly.
“I can’t, Mary. I shouldn’t have been so careless last night, and I won’t do that again. Please don’t ask me. It doesn’t matter what ye say, ye can’t promise me that nothing will happen to ye”.
Mary seemed as if she wanted to speak, but then closed her mouth and snuggled into me instead. It took me a long time to fall asleep, I felt as if something fragile had been broken, and my heart felt heavy.
Mary.
The next three weeks passed awkwardly. Robert was present for the first week and a part of the second, and even though he was polite enough, I could not warm to him. He took too much interest in my story, and I am sure that he found someone to tell him the details of how I came to live in Liam’s home, even though I made sure to keep my distance from him. For as much as Liam and I had a difficult beginning, I never felt that I had been in any way coerced into marrying him, which seemed to be how Robert had viewed the situation. Once the messenger had time to return with the price of Robert’s release, I stood with the family and watched him leave, relieved that he would be gone. Ian was now up and about, and was quite enamoured of the horse that had been surrendered to him.
There was a change between Liam and myself, things were not as comfortable as they had been, and I did not know how to repair whatever had been broken. It seemed to me that Liam no longer trusted himself around me. Before, I had accepted the way things were between us, the way Liam always withdrew from me before completing our joining, perhaps because I didn’t know anything different. But after that night, when Liam lost control and filled me so completely before giving me everything he had, I had never felt so complete and so satisfied. So when things went back to the way they were, I knew what was missing. The intimate relations between us were still wonderful, and I still experienced that amazing climax each time, at least once, but there was still that distance between us. I tried everything I could to make Liam lose control again, but the harder I tried, the more distance there seemed to be between us, as if Liam knew what I was trying to do and was holding himself back from me.
The tension between us was obviously noticeable to others as well, as I had intercepted some odd looks from his family, but had pretended that I had not noticed anything. One day I needed to get away from the atmosphere in the keep, but as it was still very cold outside, I found myself in the stables, where I had taken to sneaking treats to the horses. I was standing at a stall, leaning my face against the neck of my favourite mount, feeling quite sorry for myself when I heard a noise from the stall of Ian’s new horse. Quietly I approached. I was only a short way from the stall when a slight, dirty boy leapt out, brandishing a knife at me.
“Stay back ye thieving McGarrow. I’ve heard tales of what ye people are like, stealing people and horses. Well, ye can’t have mine”.
Once the ‘boy’ had started to speak, I realised that it was in fact a girl, or perhaps a young woman, it was hard to tell what was under all the dirt. I held up my hands in supplication.
“I’m not going to hurt you. Who are you, and what do you mean, stealing horses? That horse was not stolen, it was given to us”.
“It’s my horse, and I didn’t give it to anyone, so that means ye stole it. I’ll just be taking it and going now. Don’t try to stop me or I swear I will cut ye”.
As she spoke, she grabbed the reins of the horse and walked around me. I turned to watch her, and as I did, I noticed Donald entering the stables quietly, behind the girl, who had turned to keep an eye on me, and therefore had her back to the door. I made sure not to watch Donald, as I did not want to alert the girl to his presence, so spoke quietly, both to reassure her and to provide noise to cover any small sounds made by Donald’s stealthy approach.
“What’s your name?” I asked, noting the girl’s surprise at my continued interest in her. She was on the point of replying when the horse whinnied, obviously seeing or scenting Donald, and the girl made to turn. Donald moved so quickly I would have missed it had I not been facing him. Before the girl had a chance to do much more than partially turn, he had tackled her, twisting her wrist and smacking it on the ground to dislodge the knife, at the same time pushing her hard into the ground and landing on her with all her weight. The horse whinnied and reared a little, and I bolted forward to calm it, before it trampled them.
“Donald! Get off her! You’re frightening everyone here and the poor girl looks like she can’t even breathe!”
Donald quickly stood up, a look of horror on his face, as the girl seemed to be struggling to breathe. I passed the horse’s reins to Donald, crouching down over the girl.
“I think you’re only winded, can I check if anything has been hurt?”
The girl nodded at me, her eyes wide with fear as she looked at Donald. I quickly ran my hands over her, satisfied that nothing was broken, then helped her to sit.
“Christ, Mary, I didn’t know it was a girl, I just saw someone holding a knife on ye”.
I shook my head at him as I helped the girl to stand.
“I know you didn’t Donald, and she seems to be ok, but who is she?” At his shrug, I addressed her directly.
“Who are you, and what is this all about?”
The girl leaned over a little, trying to draw in breath, and then stood upright, still making sure to keep my body in between her and Donald.
“I am Eleanor McDonnell, and that is my horse. My brother took it without asking, and then you took it from him. I want to go home now”.
Donald seemed to gather his senses about him and shook his head.
“No. Ye can come to my father’s solar and explain yerself to him, including how you got here and how ye were planning to leave. Is anyone else with ye?”
The girl – Eleanor – drew herself up a little taller before shaking her head. Donald stood to one side and indicated with his hand that we should leave the stables. We walked out, and started walking to the keep, Donald stayed behind to secure the horse. As we walked, I tried to get some information from the girl, but she kept her head high and would not speak. Donald must have found someone to take a message into the house, for as we approached the solar, I saw Liam coming from another direction, which meant that Eleanor was expected to tell her story to Liam, his father and his brother, and I resolved to stay. It was not all that long since I had been in fear of Liam and Donald, and I had not been alone, so I would not let Eleanor be unsupported either.
When Liam senior was settled, he tried to dismiss me but I refused to go.
“No sir. Eleanor is here without family. It would not be seemly for her to be closeted alone with all of you. Besides, after you have asked your questions, I think, a bath and clean clothes are required before the evening meal, and I can help her with that”.
Liam senior muttered something about his son making the same choices as him, and I smiled inwardly as I imagined that Patrice would have made similar difficulties to those I was making, and then listened to the discussion. Although Eleanor explained herself again, she was frustrated by Liam senior’s refusal to accept her claims.
“Yer horse, ye say? Yet yer brother was riding it? So why was nothing said to us before it was given to us in settlement?”
Eleanor shook her head. “I don’t know, maybe my father just wanted to appease ye and make ye leave us alone, but it is my horse. It should never have been given to ye!”
“So, how did ye get here and why are ye dressed as a boy?”
I looked at Eleanor and could see that she was almost at the end of her endurance. She was probably tired and hungry, was certainly dirty, and had been roughly thrown to the ground by Donald, which I was sure had hurt. Although she assured me she was fine, and I had not detected any broken bones, I was also positive she would be sporting some fine bruises tomorrow. I spoke up, in an attempt to settle the situation.
Taken by a Highland Raider Page 15