by Alisa Adams
“Brigda!” Tristan hissed furiously. “For all we know, she is as wrapped up in this as her father is!”
“We dinnae know that. For now, we assume she doesnae know the evil her father is involved in. We listen. We watch. We protect our women.” Gordon looked at the sisters. “These women.”
Tristan smiled ruefully at him. “We have another problem.” He pointed over to Liam, Loughlin’s brother, and Robbie. “They both want Ina.” The two men sat, side-by-side, with their arms crossed. They had a fierce look on their faces and were leaning against a fallen log. They were watching over Ina.
“She is too young for either of them,” Gordon growled. “Tell them to leave her be. Protect her, guard her, sure, but leave her alone,” Gordon said gruffly.
The following morning Gordon gave the order to head back to Castle Conall. The sisters were nowhere to be found. Gordon started to furiously panic, fearing they had been taken when the sound of lilting feminine voices and the splashing of water came to the men.
Gordon followed the sounds. They were coming from behind the waterfall in the little rock glen. He stood there on the bank of the small pool looking toward the waterfall, watching the shadowy figures behind the water. The women were there, bathing. Just as he was about to turn to leave a figure came through the cascade of water. She did not see him, she was holding her face up to the fall of water, her arms raised, rinsing her hair. Her eyes were closed in pleasure as she wiped the long black tresses away from her face. She took a few steps out of the waterfall and leaning back, wrung her hair out. She was clad in a sheer chemise that clung wetly to every curve in her petite body. Gordon stood there, frozen. He could not take his eyes off the vision before him. The chemise left nothing to the imagination. He was seeing Godet in all her beautiful glory. He could not breathe or move his feet to turn and walk away.
Godet opened her eyes after rinsing the salt water from the sea the day before out of her hair. She startled as she saw Gordon standing there on the bank of the pool. He was staring at her, wordlessly. Just staring. She watched his eyes travel down her body and then back up again. She gasped and covered herself, forgetting that her chemise, even when dry, was still virtually transparent.
“Dinnae be staring at me, Gordon! ‘Tis impolite to watch a lady bathe!” Godet chastised him.
Gordon finally was able to clear his throat. “We leave within the hour back to Castle Conall,” he called, his voice sounding hoarse even to his ears. He cleared his throat again and turned abruptly around to return to the camp and his men.
Godet and Ceena were displeased. They wanted to fight Mungan. Godet argued nose to nose with Gordon with hands on her hips that with the addition of the Ross men they could clear the Munroe’s out of Fionnaghall.
Gordon informed her that they hadn’t take into account the number of MacKenzie men that were in Fionnaghall as well. He couldn’t say much more than that. He kept picturing Godet under that waterfall, her arms up as she washed her face and hair with that look of intense pleasure on her face. He had nodded his head sharply at her and walked away, not trusting himself to just pull her toward him and kiss her with every bit of pent up love and longing and desire that was within him.
“Get yer horses ready!” Gordon threw over his shoulder as he went toward his own horse.
Reluctantly, the sisters mounted up and began the journey back to the MacDonell lands. As they made their way back through the Bogle woods, Gordon called to the rest of the Ross men that had gone into hiding there. They willingly followed him back to Castle Conall. As Godet and Gordon emerged from the wood, there in the heather covered meadow in front of them was a group of warriors in the plaids of the Munroe’s and Mackenzie’s.
They smiled at Gordon and Godet. Godet stopped Bluebell sharply. Her heart beating furiously in her breast, not with fear but with anger. These were the men that had taken their home from her sisters and her. The men that had killed their parents. She was seething with anger.
The Munroes and MacKenzies triumphant expressions faded when they saw the many Ross warriors, as well as the giant MacDonell warriors, come out of the wood behind Gordon and Godet. They spread along the meadow, facing the Munroe’s and MacKenzie’s.
Godet did not wait for any signal from Gordon, she did not wait for the Munroe men or the MacKenzie men to make the first move. She did look for Mungan among them but did not see him. She did see the man who called himself Red. Ceena came up beside her. The two sisters looked at each other. Ceena glanced down at the large scabbard attached to her saddle. Godet smiled grimly and reached for her sword there.
Godet called out loudly to her horse. Bluebell reared his mighty body up into the air, his front hooves pawing as if to climb to the sky. Then he dropped to the earth with a sound that reverberated through the earth from his giant weight. She put her heels into his side and charged toward the mass of warriors in the meadow. Behind her came her sisters. The thundering of the giant Clydesdales hooves across the meadow pounded the ground.
She heard Gordon call out to her, heard the shouting of the Ross warriors, but she had not the time nor the desire to stop or turn. It was too late for that. She was fueled with anger. She raised her sword high and charged into the mass of warriors.
19
When they finally came through the front entrance of Conall they looked like a mixed group of bedraggled men and women. Bedraggled but very triumphant women... and men.
Bemused men. Men still in awe at fighting beside these warrior women who very likely could have taken the group of warriors in that meadow by themselves without the men. They fought like furies: fearless, strong, brave.
Gordon sent the Ross men to the barracks to be fed, clothed, and have any injuries seen too. Godet asked for hot water for baths as she and her sisters staggered up the stairs to their rooms to bathe. When they came back down to the great hall for the evening meal, they were greeted by Brigda who seemed to have been hovering at the bottom of the stairs in wait for them.
“Well! Ye have returned,” she said in an attempt at being pleasant. “I thought for sure ye would stay at Fionnaghall.” She stood there, blocking them from taking the last step off the stairs into the great hall. Brigda’s eyes narrowed at the cut on Godet’s temple, but she didn’t mention it.
Godet looked over Brigda’s head and saw Gordon standing by the hearth talking with Tristan and Loughlin and Liam. He was staring at her and she saw him shake his head very subtly at her. She put her hand on Ceena’s arm as she felt Ceena lean forward a bit to give Brigda a scathing remark.
“Och no, we dinnae stay but got our sister and returned,” Godet answered politely.
“I trust yer sister is unharmed?” Brigda asked with what seemed to be genuine concern.
“Aye,” Godet said quietly. “We got her before Mungan could force her to marry him.”
“Tsk, tsk. Such a worry over marriage. A union with Mungan Ross would be advantageous. Why would ye try to stop it?” Brigda asked. “Or why did ye yourself not take his offer?”
Once again, Godet held Ceena back from answering. “Advantageous ye say? In what way may I ask?” Godet asked her, making sure her voice was loud enough for Gordon to hear.
“The Ross holding extends to the sea and all the firth. It is an important location with many possibilities and much power,” Brigda explained with a smile that was all teeth.
“Most of the shoreline is cliffs until ye are closer to the River Spey,” Godet said. “What power dae ye speak of?” Godet asked Brigda.
“The ports,” Brigda answered firmly. Then she looked hard at Godet. “Why did ye run from Mungan’s offer of marriage? Are ye a fool thinking to find love?” she said harshly and with a sad laugh.
“Dae ye not marry for love?” Godet asked Brigda, ignoring her question about Mungan.
“Oh, my dear, marriage is about important alliances. Ye will learn this.”
“What important alliance dae ye need with the MacDonells?” she asked Brigda.
/> “Land is power, my dear, land,” she stated firmly.
Godet stared at her, nodded her head once and stepped down, brushing past her. Brigda put a hand out and touched Godet’s sleeve, fingering the silvery blue brocade between her fingers. Godet stopped and looked at her, then looked down to Brigda’s fingers on her dress.
“Such a pretty dress,” Brigda said lightly with a laugh and moved off.
Godet turned to look at her sisters. She raised an eyebrow. “Isnae my dress presentable?” she whispered to them.
Ceena nodded furiously to her. “She’s just jealous, Godet. Dinnae let her rile yee!”
“Aye,” Ina added, “Ye look like a princess that lives in the highest tower of the castle where the moon shines down and kisses ye with its silvery light which glows in yer eyes and throughout yer dress, and the darkness of the night sky and its stars shines in yer black hair. Aye, ye look enchanted.”
Godet looked at the two of them and then up the next stair to where Flori was standing. “Flori, how dae I look?” Godet asked her.
Flori smiled softly. “Ye look lovely. Our dresses may be a bit older and not of the latest fashion, but they are beautiful and good quality.” Flori looked behind Godet to see Loughlin coming toward them. She groaned a bit. He stopped in front of them.
Ceena growled in her throat. “Are we ever going to get down these stairs and to the table? Am I the only one hungry after a good battle…?”
“Lady Flori,” Loughlin greeted, “I am going to escort ye to the table.”
“No, ye are not. I can escort myself,” she retorted. “And ye ask, ye dae not tell,” she added as she walked down the last few steps, holding her skirts and her chin high, and headed toward the table. Ceena and Ina eagerly followed her.
“Lady Flori, I hold ye in the highest regard. I meant ye no insult,” Loughlin continued as Flori walked past him. Flori hesitated just a mere moment then continued on. Godet looked up at Loughlin. He was scratching his chin. She patted his arm and walked past him to follow her sisters to the table.
Gordon was instantly at her side, offering his right arm to her. Godet looked up at him warily. Not wanting to incur the wrath of Brigda who she knew would be watching, Godet smiled softly at him and hesitated. Ceena had turned to see if Godet was following them to the table and saw Godet’s hesitation at taking Gordon’s arm. Ceena spun back to them and took his left arm. She smiled cheekily up at him.
“Why thank ye for being such a gentleman, Laird. Godet, take his other arm! I am starving, arnae ye? I’m always starving after a good fight!”
Godet heard Gordon’s low growl at that, but he continued to the table and sat Godet at his right hand. Brigda openly bristled at Godet’s seating placement as she was sitting on his left.
No sooner had she sat down than Brigda leaned forward, peering intently at her, she asked, “Lady Godet, where did ye get that violent looking cut on yer forehead?”
“Oh! Oh well, that…” Godet stammered, not sure what Gordon wanted Brigda to know about the MacKenzie clan joining the Munroe’s. He hadn’t heard Brigda’s question, he was talking to Tristan on the other side of Godet. However, she didn’t have to explain because a chorus of Gordon’s warriors and Ross warriors that were seated at the table spoke for her.
“Lady Godet led the charge into battle today. Aye, she did and her sisters too!” said a burly MacDonell warrior.
“Aye! The MacDonell Laird couldnae choose a better woman to stand beside him as his wife than a Ross fer she fought like a true warrior!” This was said by one of the Ross warriors who held his goblet high to a chorus of cheers.
“And right beside our Laird too,” another MacDonell warrior shouted, holding his goblet up as well. “She struck down as many men as the rest of us with her sword! Never seen the likes of these Ross women warriors!”
The table erupted in loud cheering and praise for Godet and her sisters.
Gordon had stopped talking to Tristan as soon as the first man had spoken Godet’s name. He listened with pride and much attention as each man spoke, followed by his men cheering. The Ross warriors that had been invited to join them for the evening meal were raucous in their praise for their mistress and raised their goblets as each man spoke up about something they had seen Godet or her sisters do in today’s skirmish with the combined Munroe and MacKenzie warriors.
They had been quickly defeated and had retreated, but Gordon knew that this was only a small fraction of the men they had. The Munroe and MacKenzie men had been surprised by the number of Ross warriors that had come out of the woods and lined up with the MacDonell’s facing off against them. The shocked looks on their faces had almost made him laugh.
He had not laughed, however, because Godet had let out a shout atop her giant of a horse, bringing him up high into a towering, intimidating rear. It was a sight to behold. She was all fury and bravery and fierceness as she charged into those warriors. His heart had about stopped before he regained his senses and charged after her.
As the men began to clamor down, still talking to one another about the days battle and fighting beside women warriors, Brigda finally had a chance to speak. She had listened with shock and then anger. “What dae ye mean that these women fought beside ye?” she demanded of the table at large. “And who did ye fight? I know there are Ross men at this table!”
Every man at that table went silent. Looking to their Laird to answer the furious red-haired woman who sat on his left. Gordon looked down at Brigda. His jaw was firm and his nostrils were flaring as he tried to control the anger he felt toward this woman whose father had killed Godet’s parents and who had now aligned with the men that had killed his own parents.
“Today we came upon some Munroe warriors. Another clan of warriors had joined them. There was a skirmish. We won. Easily. Lady Godet and her sisters fought bravely and skillfully beside us,” he said curtly.
“Ye won?” Brigda asked.
“We defeated them, the survivors fled,” Gordon said brusquely.
“Survivors? Ye killed some of them? Who was the other clan that had joined the Munroes?” Brigda asked in quick succession.
“Dinnae ye know?” Gordon said quietly.
Brigda glanced furtively around the table at the men there. Then finally, back to Gordon. She shook her head at him.
“They were MacKenzies,” he told her quietly. His eyes were sharp as he stared down at her.
“What...? My father? Was he there? Did ye kill him?” Brigda stammered out.
“No,” Gordon said quickly and went back to eating his food. It was a dismissal.
“I don’t understand,” she said and touched his arm.
Gordon had to resist shrugging her hand off his arm. “Don’t ye?” he said without so much as a glance at her.
Brigda’s hand shook as she lifted her goblet to her lips. “Is the wedding to be canceled then?” she asked softly.
Gordon growled low in his throat. “Was yer father to be coming here? For the wedding?”
“Yes,” Brigda answered him, a faint tremor in her voice. “If ye dinnae kill him…?”
Gordon grunted brusquely without answering her question. Then Gordon looked down the table at his men. He silently raised his eyebrow at them all. Instantly, they stopped staring and went back to their food and conversation.
Ceena leaned over toward Tristan and whispered, “Before there be any wedding he’ll talk to her father then cut his throat, I think.”
“And then marry her?” Tristan asked her, smiling lopsidedly. “After he has killed her father? Ye are a fearsome lass. After today, I know this to be true more than ever.”
Tristan’s eyes twinkled in the light of the many candles that were set down the center of the long trestle table. He was remembering the sight of her fighting today. She was fast, her aim true, wielding that sword like it was a part of her body. He had stayed right beside her, first out of fear for her safety, but then together, they became one unit, one body as they fought back to back
on top of their horses and moving as one. It was as if they could feel each other’s next move and where they must pivot and duck and swing. It had been an amazing fight for him. He had never felt that connected and in union with anyone like that before.
“Aye, I am fearsome and dinnae ye be forgetting it.” At Tristan’s quiet chuckle she added, “He’ll not marry that one. It’s Godet he loves.”
“Ye know this, dae ye?” Tristan asked with a crooked smile.
“Oh aye, ye can tell when a man loves a woman. ‘Tis on his face, the way he looks at her, and speaks to her,” Ceena explained, watching Gordon and Godet.
“Does she love him as well?” Tristan asked her. He was watching Ceena, the play of the candlelight in her brown and gold hair. He watched her green eyes with their mischievous slant that seemed almost erotic to him and her full lips which were tilted up in a slight smile as she stared at her sister and then turned to him.
Ceena stopped what she was about to say. She stared at Tristan a moment, then narrowed her eyes at him. “Ye are doing it again. Ye gaunnie stop that!” she hissed at him.
“Have to stop what?” Tristan asked innocently, batting his eyelashes at her.
“Yer looking at me that... odd way again,” she said, her cheeks turning rosy. “Ye have to stop that. And yes, of course, Godet loves Gordon, look at them,” she said, flinging her hand toward Godet.
Tristan looked over at his brother and on his other side to Godet. Then he looked back at Ceena. “They seem to be quarreling,” he whispered to her with a grin. “They dae that a lot, I have noticed. I suppose that’s love,” he said and winked at her.
“Och, ye are talking nonsense,” Ceena replied and swatted at him. “Ye know nothing aboot love.”
Tristan gave a great laugh at that and tipped his goblet to his lips, saluting her over its rim. His attention was caught by his brother and Godet for they were quarreling. Brigda had left the table. Tristan looked at her empty seat and then back at his brother.