“If anyone dares insult ye, I’ll have their head on a platter,” Leith’s eyes gone dark with his emotion. “Lass—”
Another knock came at the door and Leith huffed a curse under his breath. He kissed her forehead and went to answer it. He slid the deadlock back and yanked it open, ready to tell whoever it was to go away but shut his mouth quickly when he saw Rinalda there.
“Rinalda, why are ye here?”
She gave him an exasperated look, “For Mary, of course. She dinnae come to the house last night, and she wasnae in the infirmary, so the only conclusion was ye. If I kent of it, many others will too. Let me be yer cover, Sir.”
Shaking his head, Leith allowed her in, Mary was already dressed and was trying to finger comb her hair into some sort of neatness. Beyond her, he spotted the dark stain of blood, proof of Mary’s innocence, on the sheets and he knew Rinalda saw it too. Mercifully, she did not say a word but hugged her.
“Let’s get ye to yer station,” Rinalda said kindly.
Leith knew that it was not going to end there. Rinalda was going to grill Mary about her experience with him but he was not worried. She had lost her virginity and that was important to every woman, literally a life-defining moment, but if anything, he knew his life had spun on its head.
She was passing by him but he was not going to let her go that way. He snagged her arm and tugged her right into him and kissed her right in front of Rinalda. He had told her that he was not ashamed of her and he was ready to prove it. Pulling away he said, “I’ll see ye later.”
“I’ll be counting down the moments,” she replied, then she was gone. He lingered in the doorway seeing Rinalda whispering in her ear as they disappeared around the corner.
Rubbing his face, he went to clean up and go meet the mind-healer. He slipped a kilt on this time and a linen shirt with a vest over it. With his boots on, he left the room and hurried to see the man.
He found him in the great hall, sitting at a table and drinking something, but at first notice, he would have never realized it was him. The man was short, clad in nondescript brown clothes with a dark grey cloak over his shoulder. The only thing that stood out for him was his head of pure silver hair.
Striding over to him, he stuck out his hand, “Ye must be the man from Laird Robasdan, welcome to Lenichton, Mister Magrath. Have ye traveled far?”
“Fairly,” he replied. “I hail from Kildrummy, Young Lenichton, but I travel as a part of me profession. I had just set out from Dunblane heading to Perth when Laird Robasdan found me.”
“Come to me meeting room where I’ll tell ye all ye need to ken before ye go see me Faither,” Leith said. “Ye should ken what happened and why we need ye.”
Taking the cloak from his shoulder, Leith spotted a leather satchel strapped to his side. As they moved off from the room, it clinked as he moved and Leith assumed there were instruments or potions inside it.
“Leith?” his mother’s voice came from the bottom of the main stairs. “Who is this?”
“Luag Magrath, mother, the mind-healer Laird Robasdan sent to me. He’s going to look after Father,” Leith said. He expected a happy expression from his mother but she only looked concerned. “Dinnae ye worry, Mother, Faither will be set right.”
His mother only gave him a thin smile. “Oh…tell me how it goes.”
It was only days later that Leith began to carefully analyze his mother’s look, but for now, he ushered Mister Magrath up to the stairs and to his meeting room. He opened the door and gestured for the man to sit. Magrath unlatched the satchel first, resting in carefully on the table before he sat.
Leaning a hip on his table, Leith rubbed his eyes, wondering how to proceed. “Me Faither, Aaron Balloch, was not ill a day of his life. The man could swim Loch Ness in winter and nae contract a sniffle. But six months ago, he suddenly became manic. It came out of naywhere. Looking back on it now, he had started off getting a little suspicious of those around him, but we kent that was who he was. He always had that temperament to nay trust many, but when he turned on me mother, we kent he was ill.”
“What did he do?” Magrath asked.
“He nearly broke her arm when she tried to touch him, yelling that she was going to kill him,” Leith said darkly. “My mother would never hurt a fly, she doesnae have a mean bone in her body. Ye saw her a while ago. And furthermore,” he sighed. “She is his wife. They’ve been together for years and I ken they love each other. How was it that he kent she was hostile to him?”
“What does he eat?” Magrath asked, and Leith gave him a strange look. The healer sounded like his mother when it came to his food. Was he thinking the same, that his food was the thing that addled his mind?
“He used to eat a lot of red meat,” Leith said. “Now that he’s recovered, he asks for the same thing. Could that be it?”
“It has in rare cases but I dinnae ken this is the issue,” Magrath said. “I did me own inquiry when I came to the town last night. I was told yer Faither’s madness had left. Perhaps it is an imbalance of his life-humors or lunacy.”
“At first, we contacted a physician,” Leith said, shuddering at the memory of that day. “The man kent it was an imbalance too and placed leeches on him, even cutting him. He almost died under that man’s so-called treatment. I stayed at me Faither’s side for days, making sure he lived.”
“And others?” Magrath asked.
“They tried other methods, but I quickly realized they dinnae have their head on their goddamn shoulders,” Leith seethed. “When the last wanted to open me Faither’s head, we quickly realized it wasnae of the body but rather of the mind. When he came back to himself, he told us that he saw himself doing those deeds but could not stop himself from doing them.”
“I’ve had some men complain about that,” Magrath said. “It comes from a dual malady, one part is mania and the other, melancholy. Mania makes a man frantic and melancholy can come from certain food, like meat with blood in it. Those who suffer from melancholy are often sad and suspicious, seeing phantasms and delusions. They are unable to recognize the real world from those they alone can see.”
Hope surged into Leith’s chest. If the man had seen this before, he could cure it. “Ye ken a lot about this. Do ye have a cure?”
“There are some herbal potions that can purge his body of his blood if it is tainted, but I need to see him first,” Magrath said.
Leith nodded and stood, “Please come with me.”
He guided the man to his father’s room and hailed Dugald. “This is Magrath, Dugald. He will be seeing me Faither for a while, keep a keen ear on them.”
“Will do, Sir,” Dugald nodded. “I was looking for ye, Mister Cooper is searching for ye. He seems serious. He left yer Faither’s office for the barracks.”
Hellfire, Leith cursed. He was already on edge, and a sudden ominous feeling in his gut told him that something was not right. What is Cooper up to now?
With his teeth gritting, he strode through the corridors, his mind set on throwing back anything Cooper had to dish out. He had it up to his neck with the man’s insolence. He might be the best war-chief around but he could be replaced. Leith was teetering on edge. If Cooper uttered one disrespectful word, he was removing the man from his office and—God help him if he did anything more—from the clan entirely.
He found Cooper in right where Duglad he told him, near the barracks. He must have just done his regular checks and was coming back. He stopped a cool five feet away from him. “Ye were seeking for me?”
The way Cooper stiffened and his eyes going deadly had Leith preparing for an attack. “How foolish are ye, boy? Ye bedded the lass?”
Despite not expecting that, Leith did not flinch. “How the bloody hell is that any of yer business?” He demanded again, rage beginning to flow through him like a river.
“I have eyes around this place, boy,” Cooper seethed. “I’d be a fool if I dinnae have eyes inside and out.”
“Ye spied on me?”
&
nbsp; “There was nay need,” the man sneered nastily at him, “if ye werenae so obvious with it. Ye ken, I am the one who is protecting the clan, it is me business to ken what goes on here and outside,” Cooper snapped. “Ye dinnae ken who this woman is, and it’s so convenient that she has nay memory. And now, yer sleeping with her! What is next, ye want some poison in yer food before our enemies come upon us? What would we do if we came to find ye with a knife in yer back and this woman suddenly gone? Wake up, boy! If it wasnae for me, ye ken ye would be living in peace now? The other clans would have taken us over and we’d be nothing but a memory.”
Leith was seeing red, “Attack me all ye want, but when ye dare imply that Mary is a part of yer bloody suspicions, I have nay choice, Cooper. From now on, ye are relieved of yer duties. Until ye get yer head from the clouds, ye have nay doings here or in the village!”
“How dare ye—” Cooper lashed out, reaching to grab Leith, but he ducked under, swiftly grabbed a dagger from his boot and pressed against the man’s neck, right onto his pulsing vein. “I dinnae want to hurt ye, Cooper,” he hissed as the blade rested on his skin. “Ye’ve been good to me and me Faither, but this is beyond yer place. Get out, peacefully.”
The man’s face was a slab of flint, “Ye will live to regret this. I’ve been on the battlefield three times as much as ye have been. Ye dinnae ken how to spot a real enemy if one was in yer face.”
“Is that a threat?” Leith said coldly, his blade not slipping an inch. He hated doing this but Cooper had pushed him too far. It felt horrible holding a blade to the neck of the man who he had once counted as a friend. “Give me one more reason to deem ye as a traitor to this family and I’ll put ye into exile. Just one.”
Cooper batted his hand away, spun on his heel and walked away. Leith’s fist curled around his dagger so tightly his hand went numb. He stood there, wondering if he had made a massive mistake all because of his love for Mary.
Ye dinnae ken how to spot a real enemy if one was in yer face. “What the bloody hell does that mean?”
24
After nearly cutting herself twice with knives, Mary let them alone and went to wash the goblets. It was the time of day when the kitchen lulled. It was just her and two other washers in the kitchens. Last night had changed her life. Her hands stilled in their movements as she remembered how Leith had looked down on her as she lay below his naked form. His eyes had gone dark, so very dark, but somehow held a fire. A shiver ran down her spine and branched out to every limb.
The heat of his touch, the desire in his eyes, the pleasure he had given her were all seared in her memory. Her eyes went to the window with the hope that she would feel all of those again. Her face brightened when she remembered what she had done to Leith, how she had used her mouth on him.
She’d woken this morning shocked at her boldness. Never in her life had she ever imagined using her mouth on a man much less on his member. Mary feared to admit what had come over her—lust.
Lust was a sin, but how could she not succumb to it? Inches away from her face, his eyes were glowing, deep and ethereal. His look made her feel beautiful and wanted. When their gaze met, her heart thundered in her chest and her belly shivered with desire. She briefly wanted to lift her hands from the water and touch where his kisses were, but the marks on her neck were still raw were still raw and sensitive—but she could not.
No one needed to know about her and Leith. Well, someone did but Rinalda was one she trusted. She had been her help from the day she had arrived and lay in the infirmary bed. That morning, she had given Mary a high-necked gray dress to wear to hide the kiss marks on her neck.
The day was coming to noon, and she had not heard from Leith since that morning when Rinalda had come for her.
She rinsed a goblet with her head canting to the side. A smile crossed her face. This was one of the few places she felt safe, the other was in the servants’ house and lastly, when she was resting in Leith’s arms.
Leith…God, what a man he was. He took almost everything to heart. When he was in pain, she felt it; when he was distressed, she ached inside. When he was happy, she delighted with him; and when he was conflicted, she wished she could reach into his mind and sort out the problem for him.
It came to her as plain as the clear blue sky she was looking at. She did not just love Leith—she was in love with him—a warmth of a different kind cloaked her chest.
A sudden crash in the great hall beyond had her jumping nearly a foot in the air. She spun in time to see the doors shoved aside and Mister Cooper stride in. She barely had her hands out of the water before he grabbed so hard, nearly yanking her arm out of the socket and then his grip went vice tight on her elbow. The pain was so intense that her body curled over her hand.
“Listen here, woman, I ken who ye are…” his voice dipped, “ye are a whore. If he dies, I’ll be coming for ye. Leave.”
He yanked his hand away and then was gone as quickly as he had come. Mary sank back cradling her hand to her arm. She glanced down at her wrist, it was beginning to turn black and blue. Someone came over and touched her shoulder too but she could not stay. Gripping her hand to her chest she ran out and collided right into Leith.
Large hands grabbed her but she began to twist away. Leith’s happy face sobered and his eyes went dark. “Mary, what is it?”
Again, she tried to pull away but Leith grabbed her, on the same hand Cooper had nearly broken in half. She cried out and sank to the ground with how intense the pain was. Leith dropped with her and reached for her. She shied away.
“What the devil!” Leith yelled. “What happened?”
“‘Twas Mister Cooper, Sir,” someone said timidly, “He came in and grabbed her arm. Told her something too but I dinnae hear it.”
Mary was then in his arms and her head found the dip of his neck. He was carrying her but to where. Was he carrying her to his bedchamber? In plain daylight? She wanted to twist out of his hold. This was not right, no one could know. Then, she realized he was not taking the stairs; sunlight met her face and she knew he was carrying her to the infirmary.
She did not look but when she inhaled the soft smell of burned herbs, she knew she was right. Her panic lessened. She was rested on a bed and Leith called out. “See what ye can do to ease her pain.”
“Aye,” a woman said, “we will.”
“Good,” he said. “I have something to take care of.”
It was his tone, so dark and brimming with tightly bound rage, that she opened her eyes and reached for him with her other hand. She nearly spoke but clamped her lips in time. She looked around to see that no one was within earshot and whispered. “No, Leith, no, please don’t do anything foolish. Don’t…don’t kill him.”
“I wish I could promise ye that, but he deserves it,” Leith said.
“Please no,” she whispered, “find another way.”
A healing woman was coming in and Mary pulled away, unable to say another word. Leith's brows were knitted tightly, and his jaw was working, but he nodded and turned away. As the woman came with a mortar, pestle, and some thin strips of bandages, she turned on her side to give the woman her arm, but then Leith bent over and kissed her forehead.
She stayed still even as the sensation rippled down to her toes. The healer was looking between them with surprise but Leith did not seem to care. “Take care of her.”
Her arm was slathered with a paste and wrapped while she was given broth to drink and then a dose of mandragora root. Her ebbing pain and worry took her to an uneasy sleep, and when she woke, it was nearly dusk. Almost instantly, her worry for Leith reared up.
Sitting up hours later, she did not see anyone around but could not stop to find anyone. She left the infirmary and hurried back to the castle in the growing evening.
Please Lord, I pray Leith did not do anything foolish.
She took the backdoor to the kitchens while it was in full swing, a meld of aromas from the stew, baked bread, roasted meat, and pickled mackerel near
ly made her sneeze. She spun before anyone could see her and walked to the great hall. Noise from the supper meal was loud and the laugher was inviting. Mary lingered at the doorway looking in, searching for Leith. He was not there.
“Looking for someone, lass?” Leith said behind her.
She grabbed his hand and turned toward the stairs. As everyone was occupied, she had the chance to speak with him privately. They made it to his room with no interruptions and she shut the door behind them.
“Please, please tell me ye did not harm him?” Mary asked worriedly.
His expression was pinched, “Nay, I dinnae lay a hand on him because he was gone. By the time I went to look, I couldnae find skin nor spirit of him.”
Mesmerized by a Roguish Highlander: A Steamy Scottish Historical Romance Novel Page 20