Highland Champion

by Hannah Howell

  “Keira!” he yelled as he banged on the door.

  “What?” his wife called back.

  “Let me in.”

  “Nay, nay tonight. I need to think, and I dinnae get much of that done when ye are about.”

  That sounded good, but the thinking alone sounded very bad. Liam suddenly recalled what Keira’s brothers had said about the danger of letting her think. He had thought their remarks funny at the time, but he felt no inclination to laugh about them now. There was no telling what path her thoughts might lead her down. Liam could all too easily think of several conclusions she could reach that he would suffer for.

  “I think it would be better if we talk.”

  “Nay, we can talk about it when I am done thinking.”

  Liam stared at the closed door. He considered getting a few burly men and some very sharp axes and turning the door into a pile of splinters. It was a pleasant thought, but he sternly repressed the urge to do just that for two reasons. It would be undignified, and he had the sudden thought that Lady Maude would find far too much enjoyment in it.

  “Fine then,” he snapped. “Ye think. I will go find something else to do and someone else to do it with.”

  That was a stupid thing to say, he decided as he hastily retreated to his ledger room. He wanted Keira to trust him, and he had just left her thinking he was running off to be the rutting swine she had once called him. When he found his cousin Tait waiting for him, he almost ordered him out of the room, but then he saw the large jug of wine and the two tankards set on the worktable.

  “I had a wee suspicion ye might hide away in here,” said Tait as he poured them each some wine. “And that ye might appreciate something to drown your sorrows.”

  Liam threw himself into his chair and drank half the wine in the tankard before saying, “She has locked me out of our bedchamber.”

  “Did she happen to say exactly why she has barred ye from the room?”

  “She says she has to think.”

  “That sounds ominous.”

  “Aye, and as I left, I gave her e’en more to ponder.” He told Tait what he had said.

  Tait grimaced. “That wasnae particularly wise.”

  “That was stupid is what that was. Utterly and astoundingly witless.”

  “What do ye think she needs to think about? Ye? Lady Maude? Or ye and the Lady Maude together?”

  “All of it, I suppose.” Liam frowned as he sipped at his wine. “I just wish I kenned what game Lady Maude plays with us.”

  “Are ye so certain it is a game she plays?”

  “More and more with each thing the woman says and does. I just cannae be certain who is declared the fool in this game—me or her husband?”

  “Mayhap both of ye,” said Tait after he frowned in thought for a moment “Do ye think she really will leave Ardgleann in the morning? She seems the tenacious sort, and one who is verra good at hearing only what she wishes to hear.”

  “She may not leave in the morning, but she will leave on the morrow ere the sun sets. Then I go and get that cursed door unlocked. I willnae spend more than one night alone.”

  Keira almost unbarred the door as Liam’s parting remark echoed through the room, but she forced herself not to give in to that weakness. He had told her that he would hold true to the vows they had taken. She had to trust in that. And if he was the sort of man to break those vows simply because they were having an argument, it was best if she knew that, too.

  “Do ye think he meant that?” asked Meggie as she sat on the edge of the bed and scratched Thunder’s belly.

  “Nay, of course he didnae,” said Joan. “’Twas an empty threat thrown out in anger, one said to try to make m’lady fret in retribution for locking him out. Are ye certain this is what ye should do?” she asked Keira.

  “Aye,” replied Keira. “I need to think, and that mon can make thinking verra difficult at times.”

  “Just what do ye need to think about? Him and that woman? I would believe him when he says he ne’er bedded her. If he had, it would have been before ye were married, and so there wouldnae be any reason for him to deny it.”

  “Oh, I believe him, too,” Keira said and realized she spoke the truth. “Yet there has to be some reason for the woman to act this way. When I first came up here, I was angry—at him, at her, at the whole situation. I thought I wanted to think about how this was a bad omen for my future with that mon. Yet now that I have calmed down a little, I discover that isnae what I am thinking about.”

  “What are ye thinking about?”

  “I cannae really put my finger on the why of it, but something tells me that Lady Maude isnae as daft as she would like us to think she is. Nay, not at all. In truth, I begin to think she is playing some game with us all.” Keira scowled into the flames as she let that thought rest in her mind for a moment and discovered that it felt right.

  “A game? What sort of game?.”

  “I dinnae ken. That is one of the things I must think about now. I truly believe that she doesnae love Liam as she keeps claiming she does. So why does she do this? It makes no sense at all. It appears that Liam’s rules about not cuckolding a mon are weel-kenned, so Lady Maude cannae be so vain she thinks she will be the one who can make him break those rules.”

  “Weel, I thought she seemed vain,” said Meggie. “Just look at how she kept drawing attention to her big breasts.”

  “Oh, that doesnae have to mean that she is vain,” said Keira. “She just kens that most men appreciate such bounty and uses it to draw their attention to her. Some women think that nonsense is flirtation.” Keira put her hands on her hips and slowly shook her head. “Nay, I grow more certain with each passing moment that that woman plays some game, and Liam is but a pawn in it. She is probably the one who had him beaten, ye ken.”

  “Weel, that certainly sounds like the act of a jealous woman,” said Joan. “So, would that nay mean that she does care for him?”

  “Not necessarily, although it gave me pause. Jealousy can be bred from many things, however. Who can say? Mayhap she hoped Liam would believe her husband had it done, and then Liam would break his own rules so that he could bed her as a form of revenge against her husband. She could have e’en ordered it done in a fit of temper because Liam wasnae playing her game in the way she wished him to.”

  Joan shook her head. “I dinnae ken how ye think ye can untangle this. The woman just might be as daft as she seems.”

  “Daft or not, she is clever enough to keep finding Liam. And there is one consistency in all of this. In a verra short time, her big husband and his equally big men will be here, and Laird Kinnaird will be screaming for Liam’s blood.”

  Meggie frowned. “That happens every time?”

  “As far as I can tell, aye,” replied Keira. “Ye would think that a woman who is clever enough to slip free of a watchful husband and hunt down a mon who doesnae wish to be found could do so without leaving a trail her husband can so easily and quickly follow, wouldnae ye?”

  “Aye, ye certainly would. So the question I would like answered is, which mon does she want dead?”

  Keira stared at Meggie in astonishment. She noticed Joan doing the same. Try as she would, Keira could not argue away the keen insight Meggie’s question revealed.

  “Meggie, ye have a wondrously clever and devious mind,” Keira said.

  “Is that a good thing?”

  “Oh, I certainly think so. I but pray it stays sharp and devious as the night wears on.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we need to find the answer to that question ere Laird Kinnaird comes bellowing at our gates.”

  CHAPTER 22

  “How long are ye going to allow Keira to think?”

  Liam scowled at his grinning cousin. The fact that Tait had caught him standing in the bailey glaring up at the window to the bedchamber Keira had locked herself in annoyed him. Now it would be impossible to act as if the fact that his wife still would not speak to him or see him did not bothe
r him at all. Even worse, Tait’s grin told Liam that his cousin knew he had absolutely no idea of how to solve this problem.

  “In two hours, it will be exactly sixteen hours since she started pouting—”

  “Thinking,” Tait said.

  Ignoring that, Liam continued, “—and if she doesnae open the door to me, then I will break it down.” He glared at Tait again. “Laugh, and I will grind ye into the mud.”

  “I will laugh later when ye cannae hear me.” Tait shook his head. “Sorry, Liam, but after years of watching the lasses grow faint at the sight of ye and listening to ye charm e’en the most ill-tempered old crone, I cannae help but find this amusing.”

  “Ye find it funny that my wife thinks me a rutting swine? That she is undoubtedly hurt by all of this?”

  “Och, nay.” Tait crossed his arms over his chest, glanced up at the window Liam had been glaring at, and then looked at his cousin again. “Actually, I dinnae think she believes that woman.”

  “If she doesnae believe Maude, then why has she locked me out?”

  “She told ye. She needs to think.” Tait chuckled when Liam growled. “Mayhap, Cousin, she needs to decide if she has the strength to endure this nonsense for a lifetime.”

  “I told her I would hold to my vows.”

  “Aye, but have ye told her that ye love her?” Tait asked quietly.

  Liam opened his mouth to tell his cousin that that was none of his business, but then he sighed and dragged his fingers through his hair. He did love Keira; he had known it for certain from the moment he had thought Rauf would kill her, but he had never told her so. Coward that he was, he wanted her to say it first. There was a chance he was now paying dearly for that timidity.

  “What makes ye think I do?” he asked, ignoring the way Tait rolled his eyes.

  “Everything. Dinnae forget, I have watched ye with women for years. Oh, ye are kind, and ye say pretty things to them, but little more than that. And I am certain ye made sure they got pleasure out of the rutting or thought they did. But again, nay more than that. Ye just, weel, liked them in some fleeting way as ye like most women. When Sigimor told me that ye had found your mate, the right one—”

  “The one that fits,” Liam said quietly.

  “Aye, the one that fits. Weel, I wasnae sure I believed it. I was here but one day, and I did.”

  “Ye thought I had married her for this place, for the chance to be a laird?”

  “There is naught wrong with that, Liam. At least ye would be a good husband to her. I had no doubts about that.” He smiled faintly. “I also believe that ye fit her, but, I suspect, she hasnae told ye either.”

  “So why should I bare my soul to her?”

  “Because she needs to ken it and believe it more than ye need it. Aye, I suspect ’tis difficult to nay ken how your wife feels about ye, but ye have had enough experience with women to ken enough of how she feels to keep ye waiting patiently for the rest. That wife of yours may ken the ways of men, but nay in this situation, nay in love or lust. I am afraid ye must be the one to go first.”

  Liam cast one long last glare at the bedchamber window. “May I throttle her first?”

  Tait laughed and shook his head. “Ye will have to be satisfied with threatening it.”

  “M’laird!”

  Even as Liam turned in response to that call, Kester stumbled to a halt at his side, his shadow Meggie close at his heels. The lad looked concerned. Meggie also looked concerned, but there was anger in her expression as well. He had a sinking feeling he knew what was wrong.

  “There is that mon—” began Kester.

  “Cameron, ye bastard!”

  Liam sighed and shook his head as Kinnaird’s bellow echoed through the air. “I truly fear that the only way this will end is if I kill that fool.” He caught Meggie opening her mouth to say something, but the girl quickly closed it and pressed her lips together. “He will drive me to it, lass, if only to stop him from killing me.”

  “I dinnae think ’tis that fool who holds the reins, m’laird,” she muttered and then ran off.

  “Now what did she mean by that?” asked Kester, frowning after Meggie.

  “I was about to ask ye the same thing,” Liam murmured.

  “Cameron, ye cuckolding swine, come out here!”

  “Do ye think we can talk any sense to the fool?” asked Tait as he joined Liam and Kester in walking toward the front bailey where Sir Kinnaird was bellowing out insults and challenges.

  “It hasnae worked yet,” Liam replied.

  “I was afraid ye would say that.”

  Keira stood in the doorway of the bedchamber that had been given to Lady Maude Kinnaird, Joan at her side. She, Joan, and Meggie had finally given up trying to guess what twisted game this woman played with them all and had sought their beds. When she had been awakened a few hours ago, Keira had felt tired, her head had ached, and her stomach had finally ceased being merely uneasy in the morning and had openly rebelled against her. As she had struggled to settle her stomach and get dressed, determined to keep a close watch on Lady Maude, she had begun to doubt her own conclusions about the woman. Now, standing there watching the woman smile down at her raging husband, Keira lost all doubt.

  She marched over to the woman, grabbed her by the arm, and twisted it up behind the woman’s back. “Enjoying the wee play ye have written, m’lady?”

  “Release me this moment!” Lady Maude demanded. “Who do ye think ye are to handle me this way?”

  “The lady of this keep ye forced your way into. The wife of the mon your husband seeks to kill. The woman who is going to break your arm if ye dinnae answer my questions promptly and truthfully.”

  “I dinnae ken what ye are talking about.”

  Keira twisted the woman’s arm a little more and winced at Lady Maude’s screech of pain. She waited for the healer in her to be appalled by how she was behaving, but she found no hint of regret or revulsion in her heart. Keira decided that this was because she was so very certain that this woman had plotted all of this, that Lady Maude had worked very hard to put these two men at sword point. If in hurting this woman, she could stop two men from killing or maiming each other, she would be content, and her conscience would be at peace.

  “Dinnae press me too hard, m’lady,” Keira said. “I am nay in a verra good humor. My head aches, and my stomach is nay too happy about that rose scent ye have poured all over your scheming body. Now, answer me this—which mon do ye wish to see dead and why?”

  “Ye are talking utter nonsense.”

  “I can break your arm. Dinnae doubt me.”

  “Aye,” said Joan, chancing a look out the window. “She had all of my mon’s fingers on one hand broken.”

  Keira almost grinned when Lady Maude grew pale. Joan had chosen a brilliant way to give weight to Keira’s threat. She spoke only the truth, so her words held the appropriate tone of conviction. Lady Maude could not know that it had been done so that Malcolm’s fingers could be set correctly and the hand healed.

  “Nay, ye dinnae understand. Liam and I—”

  “Did naught,” Keira snapped. “Liam made himself a rule to ne’er take part in adultery, and he has ne’er broken it. Did ye think he had spent five years in a monastery because he liked the robes? He believes in God’s laws, and he can follow rules, e’en those he makes himself. Aye, he was a lecherous wee piglet for several years, but he was never a, cuckolder. So, let us try again with the truth, shall we?”

  “He bedded my wedded sister! She told me so!”

  “She lied.”

  “’Tis obviously a trait that runs rampant in the family,” Joan murmured.

  “Oh, what do ye ken about it? Ye dinnae ken my sister Grace,” Lady Maude said, her voice roughened by tears of pain and, Keira suspected, fury. “She can have any mon she wants. She had my husband!”

  “Ah, I see,” said Keira. “That is why ye tried to cuckold him with Liam.”

  “And why not? If he can, so can I, but, och nay, sud
denly, Sir Liam Cameron dons the armor of the saintly. And fool that I was, I believed him. Then he bedded Grace, who is married. He turned me aside, but nay her.”

  “So ye made certain your faithless husband kenned all about your pursuit of my husband. Now, why do I think Liam was nearly killed because ye heard your sister’s lies?”

  “He wasnae supposed to be killed!”

  “Nay, of course not. Just punished.” Keira looked at Joan. “I think that is enough. Are the men fighting yet?”

  “Nay, but I think it willnae be long now,” replied Joan. “I think your husband is trying to talk sense to her husband, but the fool isnae listening. He just keeps bellowing insults. I dinnae think our laird will be able to stomach many more.”

  Keira showed Joan how to hold Lady Maude’s arm in a grip that could be painful, could even be used to break the arm, but that was also a very useful means of restraint With Joan firmly holding Lady Maude, they headed out of the room, Keira pausing to pick up the sword she had leaned against the wall just outside the door. In the mood she was in right now, she could probably use it, Keira thought as they made their way out of the keep.

  Liam shook his head as the word coward still echoed in the now utterly silent bailey. If he were not standing on his land, surrounded by his closely watching people, he might have let that insult pass unchallenged, just as he had all the others. He knew it was not true. Most of the people watching knew it was not true as well. Unfortunately, he could not simply stand there and keep reasoning with this fool now that he had said that. It was one of those insults a man was expected to respond to with his sword. As a laird, that was even more true. Yet, he still waited until Sir Kinnaird drew his sword before he drew his own.

  “I am nay a coward, sir, and weel ye ken it,” Liam said quietly. “I but hate to draw blood, yours or mine, o’er a lie.”

  “’Tis probably what ye say to all the men ye cuckold,” said Kinnaird.