A Kind of Magic (16 page)

In the meantime, the day was getting on and too much of it had been taken up with dealing with his errant wife. He wasn’t even sure why he’d gone looking for her by Burke Harboth’s bedside. He did know he was justifiably annoyed to not have found her there. “Why didn’t I find you nursing Burke?”

“Because he doesn’t need nursing.”

“You should be with him.” He waggled a finger under her nose.

“Why?”

“What if he’d run off with you?”

“Is that why you came looking for me? Afraid I ran off with a rival?” She stroked her chin. “He is awful handsome. And nice.”

“He’s a murdering Harboth. I wouldn’t put it past him to steal away—”

“Micaela,” she cut him off. “Not that he’d have to steal her. She’d run off voluntarily.”

“She’d do no such thing. She’s a good girl. Never you mind Micaela’s doings, it’s you I’ve come to chastise.”

Maddie lifted a sardonic brow. “Oh really?” Her words dripped sarcasm.

“You’re to obey me. Get you home.”

“I’d love to, but unfortunately I’m stuck in medieval Scotland.”

“Home to my house.”

“No.”

“Maddie—”

“I have better things to do than obey you, oh laird and lord of the land.” She grinned, looking mightily pleased with herself. “I think I’m getting good at this alliteration thing, don’t you think?”

“No, I do not.” Rowan studied the stubborn expression on her face, the tense set of her body, and realized that his responding with equal stubbornness would get them nowhere. He wasn’t about to toss her over his shoulder for the long trek back to the hall however. Nor was he quite up to being reasonable yet. Perhaps he had feared for her safety as he searched barn and byre and fields for some sign of her whereabouts.

All he knew was that one moment he’d been discussing hunting some unknown beast that was frightening the shepherds up in the hills and then an insistent urge to see his wife overcame him. Whatever the cause of the sudden need to see her, he was relieved to have found her at last, even if she wasn’t where she was supposed to be. He 94

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wasn’t about to give in and mildly go away until he’d had his fill of her irritating but interesting presence.

“Why aren’t you in the hall?” he asked.

“Because she’s plaguing me,” the other man answered. “Take her back to the hall and let me get on with my work.”

“Walter’s being very helpful,” Maddie told Rowan. She took a seat on one side of the break that had been made by the cattle raiders in the drystone fence. She waved toward the artfully layered rocks and the pile of stones on the ground. “He’s been explaining how the fence is fitted together without any mortar.”

“I haven’t been explaining. She’s been pestering.”

“I’ve been asking very pertinent questions.”

“Where’s Harboth?” Rowan asked.

For no reason she could think of, Maddie fluttered her eyelashes coyly at Rowan. It made his scowl deepen. “You know, you frown so much your face could freeze that way and no one would notice.”

For a moment a glint of humor warmed his icy ices. Not long enough to do any real good though. “Where’s my sister?” he demanded.

“With Burke.”

He grabbed her arms. “Alone?”

She shook him off. “Stop that.”

“Rowan, will you talk to this woman?” the other annoyed Murray demanded.

“I am speaking to her, Walter.”

“Make her stop bothering me,” Walter insisted. “This is men’s work.”

Rowan gave Walter a quelling look then returned his attention to Maddie. Lord, but her eyes had a passionate blaze when she was angry. She’d been angry all day from one thing and another, just as he had been. Did she find him attractive when he was angry?

he wondered, inane and useless though he knew the thought to be. The woman gave him good cause to turn his temper on her, yet he found himself attracted to her even as they fought. It made no sense. There were more important things at stake than getting her riled just because he liked the flash of her eyes and the glow in her freckled cheeks.

“Are my sister and Burke Harboth together?”

“I suppose so. Why don’t you leave them alone?” she questioned. “They are in love, you know.” She gave a bitter laugh. “Oh that’s right, he’s a Hatfield and she’s a McCoy.”

“You’re mad, woman. He’s a Harboth and she’s a Murray.”

“Same thing,” she shot back. “Wrong century.” When he continued to stare at her in confusion, she added, “You know, feuding families brought together by love.”

“What!” Rowan’s face went red with fury. “I’ll not have it!”

Maddie couldn’t stop her laughter. “How are you going to stop it?”

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“I’ll kill him!”

Rowan whirled to hurry away. Walter stepped in front of him before he could take a step. “You’re not killing Harboth until you do something about your wife.”

“You’re not killing Burke at all,” Maddie spoke up. “You’re going to let him marry Micaela and end the feud.”

He whirled on her. “What?”

She dusted her hands together. “There. I’ve just solved your problems, saved the clan, whatever.” She glanced up at the sky. “Can I go home now?”

Nothing happened of course, except that the men looked at her as if she were insane. Maybe she was. It was ridiculous to have even a tiny bit of hope that there might indeed be a supernatural explanation to her being in the past. For a moment there though, she tried to believe that she was here to save Rowan’s clan. She’d tried to do it his way but she wasn’t up to believing in magic. Magic didn’t exist. People had to find their own solutions. And she was still stuck in the Middle Ages.

And she had every intention of making the Middle Ages a more comfortable place for everyone involved if she were going to have to live in them.

She looked back at Walter. “We’re going to build a fireplace in the hall. I need your expertise with stone-working.”

Walter drew himself up indignantly. “Mind women’s work, Lady Maddie, and leave men to theirs.”

“There’s no such thing as women’s work!” she answered. “Well, maybe breast feeding, but we can do that while we’re building walls. Can you?”

Walter went so red in the face that Rowan was afraid he was going to have a seizure. “You’re as bad—no, worse—than every other woman at Cape Wrath! Is it any wonder the clan’s the laughingstock of the Highlands! First a fairy woman turns all the others into a pack of witches and now—you!” the older man shouted. He turned to Rowan. “Do something about her.”

“Aye,” Rowan agreed. “I will.” He took Maddie by the arm. “We’re going back to the hall. And you, Walter,” he commanded, “will give her a fireplace if she wants one.”

Walter gave a braying, angry laugh. “You sound like your father, lad, giving in to your woman’s every whim.”

The words stung but Rowan didn’t back down. “No,” he answered. “A fireplace is a good, practical thing. They’ve had such things in the Lowlands for a hundred years.

Time to learn how to warm our backsides like the Sassenachs, I say.”

“Yeah,” Maddie said, nodding firmly.

“It’s not spoiling a woman to make a few improvements to my hall.”

“It’ll be good for everybody,” Maddie assured him. “I’ve got a nice, simple, corner design in mind.”

Walter gave her a furious glance, he sputtered, but he just gave Rowan a dour nod and went back to work as though they weren’t there.

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Rowan gave her a stern look. She was used to his stern looks by now, this one didn’t bother her since he’d actually agreed with her for once. She just hoped he wasn’t going to throw it up to her as he had over her choice of breakfast. She was so pleased with Rowan’s actions that she let him help her off her perch and guide her down the hill as if she somehow needed help. It was a funny thing really, how feminine it made her feel to have his hand cupping her elbow and his somewhat larger presence so close behind her. Under other circumstances having him so near had felt threatening, this time it didn’t. It filled her with a syrupy warmth that had nothing to do with the feeble late-afternoon sunlight.

She was still enjoying as well as puzzling over this strange reaction when they entered the courtyard and came face to face with Burke and Micaela near the gate.

Rowan instantly stepped away from her. She noticed that Burke and Micaela were holding hands. They held their ground as Rowan stalked up to them. His hand was on his dagger while the younger man was unarmed. Burke didn’t seem to notice. Maddie couldn’t help but admire the Harboth kid’s nonchalant bravado. She thought he was crazy but she understood the romantic appeal he projected. She understood it, but looking from one man to the other, she found she preferred the serious, protective determination exuded by Rowan. It was just so much more—grown-up. Even if she didn’t necessarily agree with his attitude, she appreciated it.

“Keep away from my sister,” Rowan demanded. He didn’t draw his dagger but he didn’t take his hand off the hilt.

“I’m a guest in your house, Murray,” Burke answered calmly. “I’d not try to despoil her under your roof, man.”

“Nor would I let him if he tried,” Micaela declared.

“You’d rather meet in some secluded glade and tumble in the heather?” Rowan questioned suspiciously.

“Something like that,” Burke agreed.

“But not until we’re wed,” Micaela insisted.

“You’ll not be married,” Rowan told them. “No Harboth cur is wedding a Murray lass.” He pointed toward the gate. “You’re healthy enough. Get out.”

Burke and Micaela looked at each other. “I’d told you he’d say that,” Burke said.

She nodded, sighed. “Aye. I know.”

“Come with me.”

Rowan’s fist clenched around the dagger hilt.

Micaela shook her head. Tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks. Burke’s fingers brushed them gently away. “I’ll not disobey my laird,” she told him.

“And rightly so,” Burke capitulated. He sighed. “I love you, lass.”

“And I you.”

“Get out,” Rowan repeated.

“I’ll go, Murray.”

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Rowan called for a groom to fetch Burke’s horse and his own. “And one for my wife while you’re at it,” he added.

“What?” Maddie asked as Rowan came back to her. “Where are you going?” She looked at him in alarm. “Where am I going? What about my fireplace?”

“We’ll build your fireplace when we get back.” He took her arm again and didn’t let her get away. She was anything but reassured by his touch this time. “Tonight,” he said, leaning close to whisper in her ear, “we’re going to spend some time together.

Alone.”

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“I don’t know if you’ve noticed this but it’s raining.” Rowan didn’t answer but he did reach over and drape the hood of the cape he’d provided for her over her head. “I didn’t say I minded,” Maddie informed him coolly and got down off her mount.

Rowan dismounted and led his horse through the door of the abandoned house.

Maddie hesitated for a moment at the entrance. She looked around for somewhere else to stable the animals, though she could barely see for the rain and deep twilight. They were in a clearing halfway up the side of a mountain. There had once been other buildings here besides the small stone hut, though she could make out signs of fire.

There was nothing standing that was intact but the house. Norse raiders? she wondered. Or had the place been attacked by one or both sides in the Murray-Harboth feud? Whatever had happened here had been some time ago.

She wondered if anyone would come back to repair the damage and get on with their lives. It seemed to her that there was a desperate air of barely surviving hanging over the countryside. A fanciful notion and she didn’t approve of fanciful notions. It was one that was bolstered by evidence of want at Cape Wrath and other tumbled-down places like this ruin that they’d passed. It bothered her to see this beautiful land damaged, worried her that the people were in turmoil.

In the meantime, she and Rowan would just have to share the shelter with the horses. She sighed at the joys of primitive living and led her horse inside. It turned out that the building was designed to house humans and beasts, the stable area divided by a low wall from the living area. The living area was nothing more than a small, dirt-floored room. She took her horse into the stable.

Inside, Rowan had already seen to his animal and was bent over a hearth circle, striking a flint to steel. He had a fire going by the time she was done.

“What are you using for fuel?” she asked when she joined him in the human half of the room.

“Found some dried cow dung in the stable.”

“Charming.”

Maddie looked around, not that there was much to see by the small glow shed by the fire. They were sitting on a dirt floor with a thatch roof not that far over their heads.

The sights and scents were earthy but not unpleasant. She was as comfortable as she would have been in the hall at Cape Wrath and without the crowd. The steady beat of the rain was actually soothing. She was a bit tired from the ride but not unduly, and the ride itself had been nice. She liked being out in the open, away from the confines of the castle and other people’s expectations. If it weren’t for the realization that she was alone 99

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with the man she’d decided it was best to avoid, Maddie might have said something about how she was happy to be here.

Instead, she asked, “Why did you bring me here?”

Rowan had not exactly been forthcoming about his intentions on the ride. In fact, the only things he’d said had been to Burke Harboth before they parted ways at a crossroads, and that had been something along the lines of, “Stay away from my sister”.

Then silence had descended again until they’d reached this abandoned dwelling.

There had been a time when she’d actually enjoyed silence. She hadn’t been much of a talker, she took silent walks in vastly lonely places and kept her thoughts to herself.

Lately however, ever since she’d ended up in this place, it seemed as if all she’d done were talk. In a way, this urge to communicate, to make contact, had begun to stir in her own time. She had this overwhelming need to reach out and touch, and to be touched.