Gifts of Desire (23 page)

Chapter 9

             
She cornered Maggie in the buttery
just a few minutes
later
.
  Even at this
late
hour, the kitchens were busy with
clean
ing
up and
preparations for the next day’s meals.
  She was greeted with a motherly smile.
 
“What is it child?  You look a bit lost.”

             
“Maggie
”, she began
tentatively
, “I need to ask
you
about something.”

             
The old
er woman gave her a nod
, her arms full of onions she was no doubt taking to the kitchens
for someone
. 
“Of course, dear.  What is it
you
need to
know
?”

             
Ella
took a deep breath.  “What curse does
Ceann
think keeps him from fathering
bairns
?”

             
The onions fell to the floor as Maggie stared at her open-mouthed
for several seconds
.
Ella
tried not to smile
at the
comical
look on the woman’s
round
face
, but her lips quirked all the same.  S
he
had apparently
been
caught completely
off guard
by
her question.  Finally c
oming back to herself,
Maggie
leaned over and busily set
about retrieving the onions
from the stone floor
.
Ella
bent to help her.
 
“I’m
sure child,
” Maggie
declared,
“
that I
don’t
know
what
you’re
talking about.
”
  H
er
uneasy
tone
would have
made it obvious
to anyone
that she did indeed know.

             
Ella narrowed her eyes stubbornly. 
“
Y
e
s
you
do
,
Maggie.  Please, I need to
know
.  What if I can help him?  Surely it must be comm
on knowledge around here anyway.  Legends and curses and the like always are.
”

             
Maggie searched
Ella
’s face carefully before she spoke again. 
“Did he mention the curse to
you
himself?”

             
“
Aye
, he did
. 
I’ve only just come from speaking with him. 
Though he
got
rather angry
and left before he
had
explained
much of
anything
, which is why I came to you.”

             
Maggie
paused and
studied her face for a moment
, her eyes softening
a little
. 
“Do
you
care for him lass?”
she asked at last.

             
The question was unexpected
, but the answer
came to her
without any thought.  “
Aye
, I do.
 
I don’t know why,
since he’s been nothing but rude to me since the moment I met him,
but
I really do.
”

             
Maggie nodded
once, as if satisfied with her
reply
, then
looked away, her eyes becoming distant.
 
“
Well, I’ll tell
you
what I
know
, though I’m sure there’s more to it than that; there always is with such things.  It
was written whe
n
Ceann
was no more than a bairn”, she began.
 
“
The curse, that is. 
No one
knows
for sure who wrote it.  Some say a witch, some say the fae folk
, but that is likely just fancy.
 
Ceann’s father,
Artair,
you
see, had been gone for weeks with no word.  When finally he came home, he brought with him only the parchment with the
words
written upon it.  He would tell no one what had happened,
or where he had been,
but
not
ten months la
ter, Ceann was born
.
  To a couple who had been childless for years”, she said meaningfully.
 

             
“
Artair
died
several years ago
in a battle with the Campbells, and his secret died with him.
  If
Ceann
’s mam, God rest her soul,
knew
any more than the rest of us, she never said.
  I
t is said
the parchment
tells the fate of the clan, and that the line of great lairds will end with
Ceann
, as he will not be able to sire an heir of his own.
”

             
Ella
pondered all this.
“But Maggie, how does anyone
know
it’s true?
  It could all be just a story.
”

             
“Ah lass, I suppose they
don’t
for sure, but
Ceann
believes it. 
Though h
e
certainly
didn’t
when he was a young lad.  All young lads think they’re invincible
.  He would brag that one day he would be a great laird, with a beautiful lady at his side
, and that was when he was only five summers!
”
  She smiled fondly, as if remembering the
exuberant
boy
Ceann
had been.  “When he came to be a man
near
of age to marry
, talk of
the cu
rse and its meaning was renewed
;
that he
couldn't
produce an heir, and therefore the lairdship would one day pass to his younger cousin
.  People w
ere quick to point out that none
of his
many youthful
dalliances had ever produced a child, and
many a village lass would
have considered
herself lucky to have a child of the
future
laird,
mind
you
,
bastard or not
. 
Well,
you
can imagine what all this did to the pride of a young laird just coming of age. 
Reckless, men are at that time of life, and volatile. 
He took
up with
a string of
mistresses
then
, and became angrier
still
when not one ever got with child.  None of those women could give him what he really needed.  None of them loved
him
,
only his power and wealth,
and aye, his handsome face.  And
he loved none of
them;
I could see that he
did
n’t
.
”  Maggie sighed.
 
“
That was
years
ago
now
, and he has since
put such things aside and
grown into an honorable
man
and a strong
laird
.”  Her face grew sad.  “But I
know
he
suffers much for what he can’t
have, and what he sees as his
own
failure to the people he leads.  I see the way he looks at other men’s
bairns
. 
It is fair eat
ing him up inside, that he can’t
ever
have his own.
  It runs so strong in
his blood,
you see,
to protect and lead his people
,
and
to
raise up the next generation of great lairds.
 
He
always loved children, you know.  He
would hav
e made a wonderful fath
er
…
”  She suddenly stopped, coming back to herself with a
gasp and a
little jump.
  Ella jumped a little too
, she had been listening, enthralled, to every word.

             
“
Och, but I’ve said much more than I meant to.”
 
Maggie
bustled toward the door.  “Off with
you
, child
”
,
she said, flustered,
“
and leave me to my work now.”

             
Ella
felt the
unbidden
tears welling up behind her eyes. 
Tears for
Ceann
and all he suffered with. 
If what Maggie said
was true, it explained
so
much about the man
he
had become
.
  She felt more determined than ever to break through to him, to make him happy somehow.  It suddenly seemed like the most important
thing
in the world, and
the task
belonged to her and her alone.
 
And
, she would see to it that he would have no more mistresses. 
Not one, not ever!
If it was in any way possible, she wanted
more than anything to have
Ceann for her own.
  How did one set about winning a man’s heart?

             
All
the next
day
, as she went about helping with the
chores,
Ella
could not stop thinking of
Ceann
.  She had learned so much more about him, and what had shaped the man he was today.  She wanted desperately to
hold him, touch him,
give him everything he wanted
, make him happy
.
I
f he would only have her, they w
ould
embrace
as many children as he wanted, and she would have no
difficulty
loving each and every one as her own. 
And just
where
are
these thoughts coming from
Ella
?
  Children?
  She barely knew the man,
really,
and he claimed to be cursed, for heaven’s sake! 
That on top of bei
ng sullen and surly.  And still
, she had the
inexplicable urge to be near him,
was
irresistibly
drawn
to him.  L
onged to kiss him
…
She
laughed at
herself
.  S
o s
he had
an urge to be in the presence of a sullen and brooding man who was rude to her more often than not,
and didn’t trust her one bit.
She must have gone
stark raving
mad
since arriving at Tulloch
! 
But it was there…
the pull…
she felt it
like a living thing
.
 

             
The
next
day
had
dawned beautiful
ly
;
warm and sunny with a light balmy breeze.  It was the kind of day that made
Ella
feel confined if she couldn’t be out enjoying it.  There was bad weather often enough
in the highlands
that kept everyone inside.  Feeling as if she would burst if
she didn’t leave the castle walls for awhile,
Ella
sought out
Ceann
.  She would need his permission to go anywhere, which irritated her,
but it also gave her
the
excuse
she needed
to speak with him
.  She found him having just finished training
yet again
with some of his men
, and watched their easy comrade
ry
for a moment
.  He smiled and slapped one of the
other men on the back, and the rest of the men
all laughed together at some jest. 
Her heart almost stopped.  Had she even seen him smile before?  She thought not. 
He was devastating when he smiled
, as she knew he would be
. 
His straight white teeth flashed and his eyes crinkled at the corners. 
A more
attractive
man she could not imagine
. 
His hair was tied back at the nape, and he had removed his tunic, displaying a
bronzed
chest that was a solid wall of muscle
, rippling and flexing
when he moved
. 
The
tattooed circlets
on
his arms
only added to the fierce
ly handsome
visage.