A Kind of Magic (11 page)

Hasty? Or do you fear he would have been if Aidan hadn’t gotten past us before you had time to have your way with the man?”

Maddie cringed at Rosemary’s well-meant questions. Everyone at Cape Wrath knew far too much about everyone else’s business. She did answer, “I don’t expect anything from the man.”

“Well, you should.”

“I think,” Maddie said, “that I want to go for a walk.”

“You always go for a walk when you don’t want to talk,” Micaela spoke up.

“You’ve walked a great deal since Rowan left.”

“Usually after someone’s mentioned his name,” Rosemary added.

Not only did everybody know what everyone else did, they were far too discerning about motivations. If there was one thing Maddie liked to avoid, it was analyzing her own emotions. If there was one thing she was sure of, it was that emotions just got in the way of clear thought. It was giving in to emotions that got her into this mess. If she hadn’t given in to her longings, she wouldn’t have gotten on that plane.

She fervently wished Rosemary, Micaela and the rest of the Cape Wrath women would stop going on at her about Rowan. It just made her think about him more and thinking about him was the last thing she needed. What she needed was some peace and quiet and a certain reserved respect for her privacy.

She rounded on the women. “When do Highlanders become a dour and reserved people, anyway?”

Rosemary rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Rowan’s a dour lad.” She brightened. “Is that what you like about him then? Because he can be endlessly moody.”

“More’s the pity,” Micaela said. “Though if that’s what you like—”

“I’m going for a walk,” Maddie said again.

This time she didn’t hesitate to move away, though the women continued to talk about her relationship with her erstwhile husband as she made for the castle gate.

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A Kind of Magic

At the castle gate however, a guard called out and then a group of plaid-clad riders and men on foot came pouring noisily into the courtyard. At the head of this ragtag band of course was her erstwhile husband.

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Susan Sizemore

He was frowning mightily and he looked tired, but for some reason Maddie felt a flutter of something she could only define as pleasure at seeing him. Then he looked at her and her pulse jumped and she couldn’t explain her reaction to his fierce gaze at all.

It wasn’t fear, though maybe it should have been because he looked anything but friendly. Of course she’d never been afraid of a man in her life and she didn’t intend to start now.

It was some sort of visceral excitement that was akin to fear but rich with other textures, she had to concede that. Sort of like a, what was that French word,
frisson
?

“Oh Lord,” she muttered. “Whoever thought I’d start thinking about a man in French?”

She’d be wearing lacy underwear next.

Why? She wondered as she did her best to stay out of the way of the sudden tumult in the courtyard. Just because a muscular male on a big horse gave her a sharp look?

Toby had looked down at her from a horse a few times and the thought of lacy underwear had never once crossed her mind.

“And he’s not Toby,” she grudgingly reminded herself as Rowan, a great deal of hard-muscled thigh showing, swung down off his horse.

She considered going into the tower or the chapel to get away from all the noise and bother as much as Rowan Murray. Shouting women and children came rushing up to the returned warriors. People, horses and cattle milled around, churning up even more mud in the already sloppy, slippery courtyard. Rowan momentarily disappeared from her view in this chaos. Maddie turned and began to walk away.

Only to react instantly when Rowan rapped out, “Give me some help here, woman.”

It only occurred to Maddie that perhaps he hadn’t been addressing her when she was helping him hold up a wounded man he’d eased down from one of the horses.

They shared a glance as she wondered just how she’d gotten through the crowd so quickly to reach Rowan’s side. Then she looked at the man they held between them. He was young, blond, totally unfamiliar to her. Maddie had a good memory for faces and she definitely didn’t recall seeing this one at either the banquet or at the wedding.

“Who is he?” she asked as she helped Rowan guide the young man through the crowd that had closed back around them.

Her answer came when Micaela pushed through to them and cried, “Burke! What’s happened to him, Rowan? You’ve killed him, haven’t you?”

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“I don’t carry dead men into my house,” Rowan gruffly told his sister. They slowly moved on toward the entrance ladder to the tower. “Not that a living Harboth’s any more welcome than a carcass.”

Maddie looked from Micaela’s anxious face to the semi-conscious man slung between her and Rowan. Oh
that
Harboth, she thought. No one had actually come out and told her that Micaela was interested in one of the enemy, but the hints had been broad enough.

“Is he your prisoner then?” Micaela demanded. “Will you torture him to death for stealing cattle?”

“He would be, and I would—if he’d stolen the livestock. He’s my guest, girl, now hush your wailing and hold the ladder steady. And keep away from him,” he ordered.

“He’ll need his wounds tended,” Micaela protested. “Or do you hope he’ll die without nursing?”

“What happens to him is no business of yours. My wife will nurse him,” he added.

Me?
Maddie thought, but she didn’t say anything. She had enough to worry about just helping Rowan get the man up the ladder. “He’s heavy,” she pointed out, and glanced at the watching crowd over her shoulder. “Why didn’t you get one of your strapping clansmen to help you?”

“You’re strapping,” was his answer.

All right so she wasn’t delicate and feminine. She didn’t need to be reminded. She didn’t even know why she was bothered rather than complimented that a medieval male assumed she was strong and competent—just like all the modern males who’d treated her as one of the boys all her life. She sighed.

“Besides, you gave me help when others wouldn’t,” he added as they hauled Burke Harboth through the doorway.

“You need a stairway, you know,” Maddie said, rather than respond to the flash of gratitude that passed across Rowan’s face.

“This way,” he said, and they stumbled into the smoky hall.

“And a chimney,” she went on. “And plumbing.”

“Stairs make it too easy for raiders,” Rowan replied. “Can’t pull stairs up after you if the walls are breached.”

“I suppose not.” She gave him a quizzical look. “Do the walls get breached often?”

“Never. No use taking chances though.” Not knowing what the other things she wanted were, he didn’t comment on whether they were needed or not. “We’ll put him here,” he directed after he kicked a dog away from a choice spot near the hearth.

“The wound’s not bad,” he added after they’d settled Burke on the floor and Maddie had not bent solicitously over his ailing form. After a strained silence, he said,

“He’ll not need much nursing.”

“That’s nice.”

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The woman still made no move. Rowan puzzled over her uncharitable behavior.

“Have you a feud with the Harboths as well?”

“No.”

“Well, then. Do your duty.”

The man on the floor looked up at them, and said, “I’m going to be fine.” They both ignored him.

Maddie crossed her arms under her very ample bosom. Rowan tried not to think about her bosom. He’d been thinking about it far too much since leaving Cape Wrath.

She gave him a crooked, sideways smile. “Honey, I don’t know nothing about birthing no babies—or anything else connected with first aid. I suggest you call this kid’s HMO—or Micaela, whichever one is first on your speed dialer. Bye.”

He grabbed her arm as she started to walk away. “What language are you speaking, woman?”

“Damned if I know,” she answered. “We’re probably, improbably on my part, speaking Gaelic.”

“I am, at least.”

Maddie didn’t know why she was behaving so badly. She did know that she wanted to get away from the situation. Probably because Rowan expected her to do something for which she was totally unqualified. She could barely dose herself when she had a cold, let alone nurse a wounded man.

And she was so tired of being out of her depth and out of control.

“I want to go home,” she said. “Where we speak English and sick people go to hospitals.”

“It’s barely a cut,” the man on the floor said.

“Well, you canna go back to where you came from.”

She put her hands on her hips. “Just watch me.”

“I was not offering a challenge, woman, but speaking the truth.”

“More like a bruise, really.”

“Don’t you ‘woman’ me.”

Rowan took a step closer to her. There was a dangerous glint in his eye. “Are you not one?”

“Not the way you mean it.”

“I’ve seen your body, lass, and you’re no a man.” As she blushed he snagged an arm around her waist and pulled her to him. Maddie found herself trapped not just by his embrace but also by the look in his eye.

“I’ll be going now,” Burke Harboth said. “You two just go on with what—”

“Burke!”

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A Kind of Magic

His sister’s shout pulled Rowan’s attention away from the woman in his arms.

Though he kept an arm around Maddie’s waist, he turned his attention to Micaela.

“Go away,” he ordered the girl who was already kneeling solicitously at Burke Harboth’s side.

She ignored him and gently stroked the young man’s fair face. “Are you hurting badly, lad?”

Burke weakly lifted a hand to her cheek. “The pain’s terrible.”

“What can I do for you?”

“Just the sight of you helps.”

“I’m here for you. I’ll take care of you as long as it takes to get you well.” Micaela gave Rowan a swift, determined, look. “You’ll be safe here.”

Burke gave a sickly cough. “It could take weeks.”

“Weeks,” Micaela repeated.

“He’ll be gone tomorrow,” Rowan declared after he heard the lovesick dreaminess in his sister’s voice. “I shouldn’t have brought you into my house, Burke Harboth. And get your head out of my sister’s lap.”

“I didn’t put it there.”

“I’ll put it on a pike outside my gate if you push me to it, lad.”

“He’s a sick man,” Micaela said. “Leave him to me and tend to your own business.

Bedding your wife might help your temper,” she added with a toss of her head.

“Mind your tongue.”

“Yeah,” Maddie agreed with him.

Rowan became aware that his fingers were curled around Maddie’s waist. He became aware that he’d been breathing in the scent of her and welcoming the warmth of her body against his own. He’d pulled her into his embrace without even quite knowing he’d done it. That he had such an automatic reaction to the woman disturbed him. Had he not spent the time away from Cape Wrath calculating every degree of intimacy he would allow himself with his wife? That she was already in his arms greatly disturbed him. He dropped his hand to his side and carefully stepped away from temptation. “Maddie will tend Burke,” he told his sister.

“She hasn’t the healer’s skills,” Micaela said before Maddie could protest again.

“She told me so herself just yesterday.”

“Oh leave the girl be,” Rosemary said as she came up to them.

Rowan looked around and saw that the hall had filled with people since Maddie had helped him bring the Harboth lad inside. He wondered why he hadn’t noticed and blamed his distraction on too closely concentrating on the woman he’d married. The few inches that separated Maddie and himself were too great a distance. He didn’t give in to the urge to step back though.

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Maddie hugged herself to keep a sudden shiver at bay. The temperature in the room seemed to get colder when Rowan moved away from her. Or maybe it was just the look he gave her, as though something were her fault and that something had nothing to do with Burke Harboth.

“You’re insufferable,” she told him.

“That I am,” he acknowledged then turned to his cousin. “You sort out who nurses who.”

Rosemary gave a brisk nod. “And so I will.” She waved a hand toward Burke.

“Micaela, mind the lad’s wounds.”

“I intend to.” Micaela stroked the young man’s brow as Burke gave an exaggerated groan. “I’ll fetch you some wine, Burke, then we’ll get you settled on a warm, soft pallet.”

Burke gave the girl a weak but devastatingly charming, smile. “You’re too good to me.”

Maddie hid a laugh behind her hand when a frustrated growl escaped from Rowan at the sight of his sister fraternizing with the enemy, and the enemy laying it on thick.

She still got an icy look from him, despite the fact she didn’t make a sound. A very brief look, as though the very sight of her annoyed him. Her own good humor disappeared in a flash of temper. The man obviously couldn’t take a joke, or share one, and blamed her for daring to see any humor in the situation.

Before she could complain about his rudeness, he said, “I’m going to see to settling the animals. There’s horses and cattle that need more looking after than the men who rode in.”

Rosemary grabbed Maddie’s arm as Rowan started toward the door. “Your man’s weary and that makes him more vexing than usual. See to his comfort like a good wife while I tend to the rest of the household.”

He did indeed look tired, Maddie had to agree. Maybe his bad attitude had nothing to do with her. She tried to tell herself it wasn’t any of her business. She didn’t succeed.

She marched determinedly after Rowan and caught up to him before he reached the door.

“You do look like you could use some rest.”

He whirled to face her. “I have work to do.” She looked solicitous, her words seemed harmless. He knew the road that could ruin his clan too well. He would not be tempted.

She put her hands on her hips. “Fine. Go catch a cold or get some stress-related injury.” She turned away. “See if I care.”

Rowan grunted, almost apologized, but caught himself in time. “Have a hot supper waiting,” he ordered. “Then I’ll take you to my room and tup you.”