Highlander’s Veiled Bride: Scottish Medieval Highlander Romance (Highland Seductresses Book 2)

by Shona Thompson

  “Do you think that I should leave?” Ishbel asked. “Do you think I should do as he says? You know how stubborn he is, you know he won’t change his mind unless he thinks it’s his idea. How else am I supposed to make him think that?”

  Euan seemed to consider that for a moment. He stayed silent, scratching his beard as he thought about it, and in the end, he seemed to deflate a little against that wall.

  “Ye have a point there, lass, I willnae argue with that,” he said. “Our Laird isnae the easiest man to convince.”

  “Neither are you,” Ishbel said. It earned her a smile from Euan, who then shrugged a shoulder.

  “What can I say? The men of this clan are stubborn. It’s a shame that yer uncle isnae here to talk some sense into all of us.”

  At the mention of her uncle, Ishbel swallowed hard, pushing the grief that resurfaced inside her down. Cormag had always been at the back of her mind, his memory constantly lingering there, but she never allowed it to reappear, never allowed it to be the central thought in her head.

  She called it self-preservation.

  “I suppose I have different methods than him, but I can still make Angus see reason, I think,” she said. “Trust me, Euan . . . I won’t do anything that will harm you or Angus, or the relationship between the two of you. I wouldn’t do such a thing.”

  “Aye, I ken that, lass,” Euan said. “But ye dinnae ken how Angus can be.”

  “I’ve heard stories.”

  “Did ye hear how the stories ended?”

  “Well . . . Donal said that he thought Angus was incapable of loving another woman, and yet here we are,” Ishbel said. “He loves me, Euan. I know he does. All he needs is a little push.”

  “Aye . . . I ken all about giving the Laird a little push,” Euan said.

  Ishbel didn’t doubt that for a second, she had seen how insistent Euan could be in their arguments.

  There was a stretch of silence between them when Euan looked as though he was giving Ishbel’s plan, some thought. She didn’t want to be impatient, lest she not get the answer that she wanted, and so she waited until Euan spoke first.

  “Fine,” he said in the end. “Fine, but be verra careful. Ye dinnae wish to push him too much.”

  “I won’t,” Ishbel promised. “I don’t think I’ll have the time. If I know Angus, then it won’t be long until he interferes.”

  Euan let out a soft chuckle at that, but he didn’t argue with Ishbel’s reasoning. “So . . . what will ye have me do?”

  “Meet me tonight, at supper,” she said. “Simply follow my lead.”

  “Ye ken . . . there is a lass that I . . . fancy,” Euan said, struggling to get the words out as though it pained him to say them out loud. “And this lass, she’s verra kind, and verra beautiful, and I would hate nothing more than to hurt her. I dinnae wish to do anything that would hurt her, Ishbel, do ye understand?”

  It was a complication, of course, one that Ishbel hadn’t been expecting, though it didn’t seem strange to her that Euan would have his eyes on a girl, or that a girl would have her eyes on him. He was a handsome man, after all, and that was one of the reasons why Ishbel had chosen him as her partner in crime in the first place.

  “Who is it?” she asked.

  “None of yer business.”

  “Euan.”

  Euan sighed, rubbing a hand over his face as he glanced at all the possible exits that he could take. Instead of leaving, though, he looked at Ishbel sheepishly, with a small smile on his lips. “It’s Mairead,” he said. “Perhaps ye dinnae ken who she is, but—”

  “I know who she is,” Ishbel assured him. “And I promise ye that I won’t do anything in front of her, alright? If she’s there at supper, I’ll wait for her to leave first. I won’t do anything to give her any reason to doubt you. All you have to do is meet me there.”

  Euan didn’t seem completely convinced about that, but Ishbel simply smiled sweetly at him, in that way that her uncle used to tell her that it could get her anything she wanted.

  Still, Euan didn’t seem to be convinced. Could he be immune to her charms?

  “If ye take it too far, lass, I will stop ye, have no doubts about that,” he said.

  Ishbel nodded in understanding. After all, she didn’t wish to take it too far, either. Just far enough for Angus to understand that pushing her away was not the best option.

  “I’ll meet ye tonight, then,” Euan agreed. “Leave me noo . . . I still have me pie to eat.”

  Isabel couldn’t help but laugh at that as Euan returned to the kitchens, leaving her alone. She finally breathed a sigh of relief, and then made her way back to her chambers, unwilling to see Angus until later that day, when she would put her plan in motion.

  A part of her wondered if Euan’s first instinct had been correct. She wondered if trying to make Angus jealous would backfire, effectively destroying any relationship they could ever have between them.

  She couldn’t back out, though, not when she had forced every party involved to agree to her plan. The risk was worth it, after all, if there was even a small chance that Angus would see that he was making a mistake.

  Ishbel couldn’t imagine a life without him anymore. A life without Angus would be no life at all.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Angus was watching Ishbel carefully, and he was barely listening to what Donal was saying to him as he did. His plate of food, which had been placed in front of him a long time ago, was rapidly going cold in front of him, and he hadn’t even touched it yet.

  Ishbel was sitting with Euan, and the two of them seemed to be having a lot of fun together.

  “Angus!”

  Angus’ head snapped up, and he looked at Donal, finally shifting his attention to him, though not for long. Even as he tried to listen to what Donal had to say to him, his gaze kept drifting back to that table where Euan and Ishbel were sitting.

  “Are ye listening to me?” Donal asked.

  “Aye, aye, of course, I’m listening,” Angus said absentmindedly. “What is it?”

  “I dinnae ken,” Donal said. “I asked ye.”

  “What?”

  “I asked ye, are we going to attack the Keiths,” Donal reminded him. “Since I stayed, I’d like to ken what the plan is.”

  “Aye, we’ll attack them in the morning,” Angus said. “We shall sneak up on them at dawn when they least expect it.”

  “And the men? They all ken this?”

  “Aye,” Angus assured him. “Why did ye stay, Donal? Why didnae head back home?”

  “I thought ye’d need the help,” Donal said with a small shrug. “Besides, it has been too long since I was last in a fight. My blade needs some polishing.”

  “And ye’ll polish it by fighting?”

  “How else?”

  Angus laughed at that, shaking his head. “Yer a mad man,” he told Donal. Just as his mood was shifting, though, he glanced at Ishbel once more, and he saw that she was laughing, as well.

  She was laughing with Euan, with something that he had said.

  Angus tapped his fingers on the table, feeling a strange concoction of emotions bubbling up inside him. He could not believe that Ishbel seemed to have moved on from him so quickly and that she was already flirting with another man.

  Perhaps he had been mistaken about her. Perhaps her resemblance to Vika went deeper than being simply superficial.

  Angus could hear Donal talking again, but once more, he didn’t pay any attention to him; he couldn’t pay any attention to him. He couldn’t tear his gaze from Ishbel and Euan, from the way that they talked, the touches they gave each other, casual and sweet, as though they had been together for a long time. Angus wondered, briefly, if she had lied to him from the beginning.

  Could she have been with Euan that entire time?

  “Angus . . . yer nae listening to me,” Donal said with a sigh. “What is it? What are ye looking at?”

  “Ishbel.”

  It was all Angus could say, but he coul
d see from the corner of his eye that Donal turned to look at the pair, as well. Angus scoffed, shaking his head at the sight in front of him, and then he picked up his cup of wine to drain it for the fifth time that evening.

  “Ye should slow down with that wine,” Donal cautioned him. “Ye dinnae wish to do something that ye’ll regret.”

  “Ach, I’ve already done something that I regret, Donal,” Angus said. “I shouldnae have trusted her. I kent that I should have never trusted another woman after Vika. I was a fool to think that Ishbel was any different.”

  Donal remained silent, and Angus couldn’t blame him. What else was there to say? Angus had been fooled twice, and he had faced bad luck with romance no less than three times in his life. He should simply accept the fact that he would never find love or a woman to love him.

  “What will ye do?” Donal asked him. “Will ye talk to her?”

  “What is there for me to say? I told her to leave, after all . . . but I didnae think that she would replace me so soon. I didnae think she would be so eager to find another man.”

  “And what a man she found,” Donal muttered under his breath, sighing heavily as he took a sip of his wine. “Weel . . . I think ye should talk to her regardless. There must be something that ye wish to say to her.”

  “Aye.” Angus slammed his fist on the table, which caught the attention of the people who surrounded them, but Ishbel didn’t seem to notice. She was too focused on her conversation with Euan, and so was he. “Aye, I wish to ask her how she could do such a thing when she begged me to let her stay here. Do ye think she only begged me to stay because she loves Euan? Is that what she wanted the entire time?”

  “I dinnae think so, Angus,” Donal said. “But I think ye should speak to her yerself. Ye’ll never ken if ye dinnae do that.”

  Donal had a point, and Angus was well aware of that. He simply didn’t think he could talk to Ishbel without starting a screaming match between the two of them, and without saying something hurtful to her in the end.

  What did it matter, though? What did it matter if he hurt her after she had already hurt him so terribly? Angus meant nothing to her, he was certain of that.

  “Yer right, Donal,” Angus said. “I should talk to her. I will talk to her. Should I go the noo?”

  “Aye, I think ye should,” Donal said. “But dinnae speak to her in here. Take her somewhere else, ye dinnae wish to do this in front of the entire clan.”

  That was a good idea, Angus thought, as he began to stomp towards the table where Ishbel and Euan were sitting, like a child who hadn’t gotten what he wanted. Once he reached them, he cleared his throat to get their attention.

  No one looked at him.

  Angus did it again, and again, and then once more, practically coughing on them before they finally acknowledged him.

  “M’lord!” Euan exclaimed, standing up and kicking the table with his knee in the process, sending all the drink and the food flying around him. “What can I do for ye?”

  “I dinnae need ye, Euan,” Angus said. “I need Ishbel. Come.”

  Angus turned around to leave without another word, expecting Ishbel to follow him. Ishbel did so, but only after a short pause and the delay had her running after Angus to catch up to him.

  Angus led Ishbel to the courtyard, which was empty at that time of the night, save for the guards who were protecting the gates. With any luck, they wouldn’t hear them, Angus thought, but even if they did, well . . . then they wouldn’t mention it to his face.

  Angus only stopped walking when he reached a secluded corner of the courtyard. It was dark there. He could hardly see under the light of the stars, the thick clouds above him casting gargantuan shadows and drowning the place in darkness.

  “What is it, Angus?” Ishbel asked, putting her hands on her hips as she looked at him. “I was having a perfectly pleasant supper, and you—”

  “Did ye betray me?”

  “Excuse me?’ Ishbel asked. Her eyes narrowed in that dangerous way that they did every time she became angry, and Angus hated the tightness in his chest when he looked at her face.

  He couldn’t love her. He shouldn’t love her.

  “Did ye betray me?” Angus repeated. “I saw ye with Euan. I saw how ye were talking to each other. Dinnae lie to me, lass.”

  “Lie to you about what?” Ishbel said. “Can I not talk to anyone I please? Should I ask for your permission to talk to other men first?”

  “That isnae what happened in there and ye kent hat,” Angus spat. “Dinnae ye pretend to not understand, Ishbel. I saw ye . . . I saw the two of ye with my own eyes.”

  “What does it matter to you to whom I talk?” Ishbel asked. “You made it perfectly clear that you don’t want me here, and that I would be nothing but a distraction to you. I told you I’d stay, and you said nothing. What do you want from me, Angus? You were the one who said no to me, the one who rejected me. Do you wish for me to wait for you to change your mind?”

  Angus stayed quiet. He didn’t know what to say to Ishbel, because the truth was that he wanted her. He wanted her for himself, and he had wanted her for a long time, but he was afraid. He was afraid that he would lose her, too, and he was afraid that he would never recover from it.

  He didn’t worry so much about himself, though, as much as he did for his clan. Without him, he didn’t know what would happen to his people. Perhaps he would end up perishing, and he would be replaced by a good man, or he would continue to rule them, a shell of the man that he used to be.

  “Well?” Ishbel asked, impatient. “Will you say anything?”

  “What do ye want me to say?” Angus asked, suddenly raising his voice. “Do ye want me to say that it tears me apart to see ye with Euan? Do ye want me to say that I want ye, but I am too scared to be with ye? The last thing I want is to lose ye, too, Ishbel, and I dinnae ken what will happen in the next few days. What is the point of asking ye to stay if ye’ll end up in the ground? How can I ask ye to stay when all I can think about is ye, dead, just like me wife? How can I tell ye I love ye when I am afraid for me life and yers? If it wasnae for this war . . . if it wasnae for the Keith clan, then I’d have ye, Ishbel. I’d have ye as me wife if ye so wished. I even told ye that ye could return here after the war, but ye didnae listen. Nay . . . ye went straight to Euan. Tell me . . . were ye already laying with him?”

  There was a moment of silence, a moment in which Angus could see the anger in Ishbel’s eyes. Then, she turned around, the hem of her skirt swishing around her, and she began to stomp away from him.

  Angus grabbed her arm before she could get too far, stopping her in her tracks. He looked at her in silence, unable to find the right words.

  What was he supposed to do, he wondered. What was he supposed to say?

  He didn’t have to wonder for long. Ishbel kissed him, her lips soft and pillowy, and he couldn’t help but kiss her back. His other hand rested on her waist, pulling her even closer, and he felt her sigh softly against him, melting in his arms.

  When they pulled back, neither of them spoke for what seemed like an eternity to Angus. He didn’t want to say something that would ruin the moment; he didn’t want to risk it.

  In the end, it was Ishbel who spoke first.

  “I love you, Angus,” she said in a whisper. “I would never betray you. What you saw between Euan and I . . . it wasn’t real. I simply wished to make you jealous. I wanted you to see that you love me, just as I love you. But . . . but this is what will happen if you make me leave, do you understand? There is only so long a girl can wait before she’s forced to marry in this world. Would you have me marry another man?”

  It was the last thing that Angus wanted, of course, to see Ishbel with another man. Seeing her with Euan had been enough of a shock and grief to last him a lifetime. He had thought that the only way he could lose her was if she died, but now he understood that even if she were alive, even if she were somewhere in the world, he would still suffer her loss if they were not together.


  “Perhaps I have been stubborn,” Angus admitted. “Perhaps I didnae think my plan through as much as I thought I did. Ishbel I . . . I love ye. Of course, I love ye, ye are the only woman I could ever love. I never thought I would love another, but ye changed that. Ye changed me. I’m a different person because of ye, a different man . . . a better man.”

  Ishbel smiled softly at Angus, a hand coming up to cup his face gingerly. “Let me stay,” she said. “Let me be with you, Angus.”

  Angus had denied that request too many times already. He couldn’t say no to Ishbel again, he couldn’t deny his own feelings anymore.

  “Ye can stay,” he said, as he leaned closer to Ishbel and rested his forehead against hers. “Ye can stay, but only as me wife. Ye can stay, but only as the Lady of the clan. What do ye say?”