His Bonnie Bride (11 page)

"So your people still refuse to buy ye back," drawled Katerine, her eyes hard as they flickered over the way Tavis's hand rested upon Storm's knee with an unconscious possessiveness.

"Lady Mary would not part with a brass farthing to save her own mother," Storm remarked calmly.

"Aye, and mayhaps she kens ye be working off the ransom," Janet purred too loudly.

"Janet," Tavis growled warningly into the sudden hush that had fallen over the table.

Refusing to let the woman anger her, Storm coolly retorted, "Ah, well, I did present Tavis with what I considered a reasonable tally, but mayhaps I estimated too low, for he was loathe to accept it."

Tavis's hand tightened on Storm's knee in warning as snickering erupted around the table. He did not like to hear Storm referred to in such terms. Despite the situation, he did not think of her that way and did not want her or any other to do so.

Kate had reached the limit of her endurance. For a fortnight she had struggled to entice Tavis away from the girl but had failed miserably. The way her former lover treated Storm made Kate grind her teeth in jealous rage. Even when the couple fought there was a casual intimacy between them she had never achieved with Tavis.

"Methinks 'twas too high," sneered Kate, rising to stand next to Storm. "A skinny wench like ye wouldnae bring a ha'penth on the streets."

"Enough!" Tavis bellowed, leaping to his feet to glare at his former mistress.

Wine, frustration and desperation robbed Kate of pride, and she clung to Tavis. "How can ye toss me aside for her? Her folk arenae going to ransom her, 'tis plain. Send her back and return to one who kens how to pleasure ye. She cannae ken the ways o' loving. She's naught but a cold Sassanach bitch. How can ye nay see that I am the woman for ye?"

Storm watched the pair for a moment before standing up to leave. Her insides were knotted with a jealousy that grew with each caress Kate offered Tavis. It mattered little that he did not return them. He neither pushed Kate away nor told her to cease. In fact, Storm thought he looked as if he was thinking about all the woman had said. Storm decided to leave before she lost control, revealing her jealousy and fear to everyone.

"Slinking away?" purred Kate, who also took Tavis's silence as acquiescence.

Turning in her advance toward the door, Storm looked Kate over with ill-concealed scorn. "Nay, I simply do not find groveling an entertainment to my liking."

The soft snickering that reached Kate's ears fueled her rage, and she moved to stand directly in front of Storm. "Ye just cannae stomach being set aside, can ye?"

"I believe I will survive," Storm drawled. "If ye wish to take back a man who has ignored ye for a fortnight, consorting with another right before your eyes, then, please, feel free to be such a fool. Just do not ask me to sit and watch a member of my own sex debase herself so."

With a cry of inarticulate rage, Kate backhanded Storm across the face. Tavis would have interfered, but Iain stopped him, saying quietly that the confrontation was past due. Storm was nearly sent sprawling from the force of the blow. She reacted automatically. With a strength increased by anger suppressed for too many days and a healthy jealousy, she struck back. Bringing a small fist up from her hip in a smooth swing, she dealt a blow to Kate's jaw that sent the larger woman sprawling to the floor and kept her there. A surprised silence fell over the hall.

"She's all yours, Tavis," she said quietly, "though I fear ye will have to rouse her first."

Tavis was too amazed to move after Storm and merely stood staring at the unconscious Kate while Storm strolled out of the hall, Phelan right behind her. It was a long moment before he could rouse himself enough to do anything. Picking up a tankard of ale, he tossed it into Kate's face, watching with no sympathy at all as she spluttered and wakened. He wondered how he had ever managed to bed her and ruefully admitted that lust gave little thought to the character of the vessel in which it spent itself.

"That bitch hit me," wailed Kate as she struggled to her feet unaided.

"Ye struck her first," Tavis pointed out in an icy tone. "I think it best if ye go home on the morrow." He strode out of the hall, oblivious to the curses Katerine screeched after him.

He went to his chambers to wash up. Although he spent every night in Storm's bed, he had not moved himself in with her for reasons he did not fully understand himself. Just as he slipped into his robe, Janet quietly entered his room, shutting the door after her and leaning against it.

With her hair loose and dressed in a diaphanous gown, Janet was beautiful, but Tavis was unimpressed. "What do ye want?" he growled.

"Ye shouldnae be so rude to your stepmother," she purred as she moved toward him. "I thought ye might be ready for a change from the squabbling bairns ye have bedded o' late."

" 'Tis only Kate causing the uproar, and she will be gone come the morn," he said coldly, not reacting in any way when she pressed her full curves against him.

"Ah, Tavis, how soon ye forget," she murmured, trailing kisses over his jaw. "Do ye not yet want to retaste the passion we shared that night?" Her hands slid inside his robe.

Grabbing her by the wrists, Tavis flung her away from him. "So ye claim, but I cannae recall any."

" 'Tis the guilt ye feel that tries to erase the memory. Ye must not feel so, Tavis. Your father hasnae been a husband to me in many a month." She tried hard to touch him again.

Stepping around her, Tavis opened the door. "Ye are still his wife. Good night, Janet."

Clenching her fists in anger, Janet watched him leave. Time was running out. Katerine had failed to keep Tavis from the Eldon girl, who seemed to have bewitched him. Despite the fact that Colin was but a heartbeat from death, Tavis still clung to his chivalrous ideals and would not succumb to her enticements. Janet strode out of the room, deciding that it was time to urge events along.

Storm glanced at Tavis when he entered her room and sprawled on her bed. He lay on his stomach, watching the card game she and Phelan were playing on the floor. There was trouble written upon his handsome features, and she could read an inner torment in his eyes before he veiled his look. Telling herself she was a fool to feel so did not lessen her concern for him. The anguish she sensed in him became her own.

"Did Kate fail to wake up?" she asked idly as she played her card.

"A dose of ale served the trick. I left her raining curses upon my head. She leaves on the morrow. I cannae tolerate her shrewishness another day. She has become tedious beyond bearing."

"That is not what troubles ye, is it?" she asked softly, meeting his eyes.

"Nay, but it will pass."

"Will it? I have seen this trouble in your eyes before. It oft helps to talk about it." She continued to meet his gaze, noticed his hesitancy and said softly, "Is it Janet? She desires ye. 'Tis plain." A small frown crossed her face as she watched him pale slightly. " 'Tis not your fault if she does."

"Is it not?" he replied in an agonized whisper. "Mayhaps I have given her encouragement. Why wouldnae a woman desire a man that has taken her to his bed? Disgusting, is it not? God's teeth, 'tis near to incest."

Silently Storm shook her head, her eyes wide. "Nay. Nay, I cannot believe that of ye."

With a groan, Tavis turned onto his back, wondering why he was revealing so much of himself, his secrets. "I dinnae want to either, but there is no ignoring the fact that I woke up with her in my arms about six months past, both of us naked. I cannae e'en use my drunkenness as an excuse. Drunk or nay, I shouldnae have lain with my own father's wife. 'Tis hard to ken that I am that much of a bastard."

The card game was forgotten as Storm climbed up on the bed to look into Tavis's face. She could not believe him the sort to cuckold his own father, drunk or not. She frowned as her suspicions grew. If he had been with Janet, Storm could not believe he had instigated it. It was probably small comfort, but she could not stand to see him so tormented. His next words increased her suspicions.

With a harsh laugh, Tavis said, "An I maun suffer for my pleasure, 'twould be nice an I could remember taking it. An I had a good time, I might understand it more."

"Ye do not remember taking your pleasure with Janet?" Storm asked.

"Nay, only waking with a sore head and my arms full of a very naked stepmother." He sighed. "I have tried to recall that night, but it willnae come. Mayhaps 'tis too painful. I would rather forget it."

"Ye have not forgotten enough, though. I think ye should try to recall the whole night."

"I cannae," Tavis growled. "I try and I come up against a wall. Leave it, Storm."

"Nay, I cannae," she mocked him. "Something is not right." She reached to untie his robe.

"Eager are ye? Hadnae ye best send Phelan away?" He grinned when Phelan giggled.

She ignored both of them. "I am going to help ye recall all that happened that night. Get beneath the covers and lie upon your stomach. I have the strongest feeling that ye have been played for the fool, MacLagan."

Doing as she asked, Tavis inquired, "How can ye make me remember when I cannae?"

" 'Tis your sense of shame that hides your memories. You tense at the subject of that night, and thoughts cannot run freely when that happens. I will relax ye in a way I have oft used with my father when he wanted to think clearly. A Moor from Spain taught me this. He was in father's retinue for a time." She got a pot of oil from amongst the toiletries gathered for her use and then straddled him. "Now ye are to relax and let your thoughts drift unfettered by guilt and shame. Tell me of the smallest thing ye can remember of that night e'en if you think it of no importance. Would it not be better to know for certain at last? Be it good or ill?"

"Aye," Tavis said uncertainly, but her hands were already massaging away his tension.

Beneath her oiled hands Storm felt him begin to grow lax. "Start with the morning of that day."

"We went out on a raid," he replied in the tone of a man totally relaxed. "That feels good."

"Never mind that. Keep your mind on that day. Step by step ye must go through it." She was enjoying the gentle massage of his strong back, feeling each fit muscle relax beneath her ministrations, and smiling fleetingly over the way his voice began to thicken.

"It was a good raid, a success and only a few wounds to show for it. We put ourselves ahead for the winter. 'Twas reason enough for a celebration and the mead and ale flowed freely. Aye, and nay just a wee bit o' the
uisge beatha.
I ken I maun have drunk deep o' it all."

"Were Janet and the laird at this bacchanalia?"

"Aye, in the beginning. They retired fair early, for my father was suffering from a chill." He sighed as his eyes closed in pleasure. "He hasnae recovered yet. I fear he'll nay last much longer."

"Do not clutter up your mind with other worries now. Did ye stay much longer at this drinking orgy?"

"Mmmm. Much later. This would be muckle fine after a long ride or a battle."

"Father thinks so. When did ye go to your chambers?"

"I think 'twas far past midnight. I got undressed, nay, Alex helped me undress. Aye, Alex had to help me take me clothes off, I was that fou. Tucked me up in bed like a wee bairn."

"So," Storm drawled, ceasing her massage, "ye did not retire alone. Alex saw ye to bed."

"Aye, but I cannae remember a thing after that until the dawn. 'Tis the first time I have recalled Alex."

"Phelan, go get Alex."

"Why do that?" asked Tavis as the boy raced off. "Alex wouldnae have stayed with me long."

"Long enough to know just how able ye were of making love to a woman."

Tavis sat up quickly, sending Storm tumbling off him. "Of course! An I was in a drunken sleep, I couldnae have taken Janet." He pulled Storm into his arms for a hearty kiss. "Now that is tasty."

Pressing her down upon the bed, he indulged in another deep kiss, which led to several more. That was how Phelan and Alex found the couple. Phelan laughed while Alex loudly cleared his throat. Keeping an arm around Storm, Tavis turned to Alex, his smile indicative of his high hopes.

"Do ye recall that last raid ere winter set in?"

"Aye, Tavis." Alex grinned. "A muckle lot o' drink were consumed that night."

"Ye put me to bed, right?"

Alex nodded, his grin widening. "Ye couldnae e'en find the bed."

"So I was in no state to have me a woman," Tavis said in a thoughtful voice.

Laughing, Alex replied, "Nay. There isnae a woman on this earth could have found pleasure with ye that night. Ye were snoring loud ere I stepped out o' the room. Our enemies could've burnt Caraidland doon aboot your ears and ye would have slept on. Ne'er seen ye so fou."

"Thank ye, Alex," Tavis said, finding it hard to hide his elation. "Ye can go now. Sorry to drag ye up here." He pulled Storm deeper into his arms. "Aye, and ye can take Phelan with ye."

"I ne'er thought to see a man so pleased to hear that he was so disgustingly drunk," Storm said when they were alone. "Ye ought to be thoroughly ashamed of yourself."

Wrestling her beneath the covers, Tavis began to remove her nightdress. "An I wasnae so relieved I would find that bitch and make her pay dearly for putting me through such a torment. I cannae understand why, what game she plays."

"Ye can be very stupid at times. She wants ye. I think she hoped to weaken your resolve when she crawled into your bed and mayhaps felt that, if ye thought ye had already cuckolded your father, ye would no longer hold her at a distance. Are ye not flattered?"

"Nay. Disgusted. As I said, 'tis almost incest. Do ye think my father kens what she is about?"

"Mayhaps, though he has been ailing. He could be blind to it all." She caressed his face. "He would not have believed her if she had told him ye had lain with her." She smiled impishly. "Ye may be a bastard, but e'en I could not believe ye would act so dishonorably."

"Ye shall pay for that insolence, wench," he threatened, but his form of retribution was very much to her liking and her cries were of pleasure, not pain.