Highland Lover: Book 3 Scottish Knights Trilogy (45 page)

“Killers,” he said briefly, hugging her again. “I’ll tell you all about them one day, but we have other matters to discuss first. Now, we will greet your family.”

“That be a good notion,” Will said from nearby shadows. “D’ye want me tae help the duke get rid o’ all them other louts first, Cap’n Jake?”

Jake looked sharply at the boy. “What the devil are you doing there?”

Will stepped into the torchlight, cocking his head to one side. “Did ye no tell me tae keep me keekers on her ladyship?”

Amused, Alyson shook her head at Will and told him to stay near. “He has been gey helpful to me, Jake. Do not scold him.”

“Nay, I’m pleased with the rascal,” Jake said, ruffling Will’s hair.

A few men still milled in the yard. Mungo was glowering
at one of Albany’s men. The man spoke, and Lyle reluctantly went with him.

“I’m glad he’s going,” she said. “I’d not have known what to do with him.”

“I know what I’d like to do,” Jake said. “But I warrant Mungo won’t make any more mischief.”

A note in his voice made Alyson look at him but then decide not to demand an explanation. Albany’s ruthlessness, especially toward those who had failed him, was renowned.

The yard was no sooner empty of Albany’s men and Mungo’s than the Highlanders arrived. The men rode into the yard first, led by Sir Ivor Mackintosh and Fin Cameron.

Dismounting, the tall, tawny-haired Ivor looked at Jake and Alyson and said, “What the devil are you doing with your arm around my cousin, Jake? What have you done with her husband and the troublemakers we heard about?”

“Come inside,
cousin
, and we’ll tell you the whole tale,” Jake said, grinning.

The Highland women arrived with Shaw MacGillivray and others who had remained to protect them. By then, Ivor and Fin—having ridden ahead with armed tails in response to messages from Farigaig and Alyson—had settled their men and beasts and were ready to accompany their wives in to supper.

Dismissing the servants as soon as platters of food, baskets of bread, and jugs of wine were on the table, Jake told his tale with Alyson assisting as necessary until they had related the whole story. Jake remained circumspect in
his comments about Niall, so when Fin’s wife—Ivor’s sister, Catriona—demanded further elucidation, he held his breath and left the reply to her husband to make.

Fin said mildly, “We’ll talk about that later, Cat.”

Noting Alyson’s astonishment at Catriona’s nod of agreement, Jake recalled that Ivor had more than once referred to his sister as a wildcat. That Ivor, with his temper, had thought Catriona untamed made Jake eye Fin with even greater respect.

Ivor’s wife, auburn-haired Lady Marsaili—or Marsi, as she preferred them to call her—looked thoughtful but asked no questions. Instead, she said with a small sigh, “I am sorry that his grace has died. He was always kind to me, and he loved Aunt Annabella so dearly. As for what happened to poor Jamie after we kept him safe last year, how I’d like to have Albany under
my
thumb just long—”

“Enough, lass,” Ivor said. “Recall that castles have ears where one least expects to find them. In troth, Jake,” he added, “I hope that you and Allie mean to remove to her Ardloch estate after the consecration. You’ll both be safer there. I ken fine that Albany owes his life to you, but I’d not trust him a whit.”

“Ivor’s right,” Shaw said.

“I know that, sir,” Jake agreed, glancing at Alyson. “In troth, we’d be fain to travel north with you when you return.”

“Then you will,” Shaw said with a smile just like Ivor’s.

Alyson said, “Well, as to that…” Pausing, she gave Jake a look.

“When and where do they mean to bury his grace?” Marsi asked.

Realizing that she addressed him, Jake said, “I don’t
know, my lady. His grace likely made arrangements for a royal tomb somewhere.”

“Nay, he did not,” she said. “He told Aunt Annabella when she urged him to prepare one for himself that he was a wretched man unworthy of such a proud sepulcher. He told her to bury him in a dunghill with the epitaph, ‘Here lies the worst king and the most miserable man in the whole kingdom.’ ”

A tear spilled down her cheek, and she said no more for a time.

Knowing that she had served as a waiting woman to her aunt, the late Queen, Jake was sure that she spoke the truth. He knew, as most Scots did, that Robert III had not liked being King. But it disturbed him to know that the man, who had tried so hard to protect his younger son, had thought so little of himself.

Alyson eyed Jake several more times while she caught up with details of her cousins’ lives. Marsi and Ivor were expecting their first child in the fall; Catriona and Fin related several anecdotes about their two bairns; and Shaw reported that the elderly Mackintosh and his lady were as lively as ever. Shaw’s wife, the lady Ealga, had remained with her parents when the others had ridden to Perth.

Although everyone seemed reluctant to part even for the few days remaining before the lords of Parliament would meet, Shaw soon rounded up his party and rode off with them to MacGillivray House, leaving Jake alone at last with Alyson.

She whirled to face him. “Jake, I don’t know why you told Uncle Shaw that we’d ride back with them after the consecration. I cannot be ready to leave so soon. I’ll have
much to do to put MacGillivray House in order again before—”

She’d have gone on, he knew, had he not swept her into his arms, demanded directions to their bed, carried her there despite her protests, and dumped her on it.

As she scrambled up again, he said, “We are going with them, my love, because I have decided that we will. You need no longer see to your father’s and Ranald’s responsibilities. In troth, I mean to ask Farigaig to look after Braehead Tower for us after we leave, and to teach Ranald what to do here, as well. My hope is that Farigaig will stir himself to teach Ranald
all
that he must know. Your father and your brother both need an object in life. As for you, I mean to be yours.”

Sitting on the bed, she cocked her head skeptically. “Do you mean that you’ll give up the freedom you love so much to stay home with me?”

“Nay, lass, I won’t make a promise I know I cannot keep. As a warrior owing fealty to my liege, I’ll often have duties that take me from home. That is especially true now in the Isles, because Albany makes no secret of wanting to control them and the Highlands as well. And Donald of the Isles is determined to stop him.”

“Then, I don’t see how you expect to be my object in life,” she said. “Even if Father agrees to look after things here… and with Catriona and Marsi nearby when you’re away… Jake, I don’t want to spend my life waiting for you to come home.”

“Forbye, lass, you did say that you like the wind in your face. And I saw how much you enjoyed being on the
Sea Wolf
. I’m hoping that you will often travel with me, if that would please you. Much of my duty lies in carrying
messages or supplies from one isle to another, and womenfolk abound on most of them who would be fain to welcome you. Moreover, today I almost lost you, Allie. It made me think hard.”

“It made me think, too, and recall what I ‘saw’ on the
Sea Wolf
that night, when I thought I was feeling you die in my arms. It wasn’t you but Niall.”

“What I think is that you have much to learn about your gift and should question it always. It was right about Mungo meeting with Albany, and other things. But what I learned today, love, is that you’ve become more important to me than the
Sea Wolf
, and far more important than trying to enjoy my freedom without you. When I say that duty will often take me away, I know that I will always return to your side as quickly as I can. And there I will stay until duty calls again. I want bairns with you, sweetheart, lots of them, and I want to grow old with you. Sakes, I’d even like to bring my father to stay with us if he’d like to do so, and take you to Nithsdale to see where I was born. Now, lass, what do you say?”

She gazed into his eyes searchingly but only for a moment or two. Then, smiling, she said, “I say this, Jake, my beloved. Come here to me and show me that you mean that as much as I hope you do.”

Needing no further invitation, he stripped off his clothes, noting with delight that she managed to rid herself of hers almost as swiftly.

Once he was in bed with her, the urge to take her quickly was strong. But he took his time, teasing her senses until she writhed in her pleasure and pleaded for release. Using hands, fingers, and lips, she stirred him until he could wait no longer.

Easing himself over her, he smiled when an impatient hand closed around his cock to help it find its way inside. Her velvety sheath pulsed hotly around it, melting away his last few grains of control.

With a groan, he gave himself up to his passions, letting her moans and small cries of pleasure fuel his efforts and carry them together to climax.

When they lay back against the pillows, sated, Alyson’s head on Jake’s shoulder, his arm around her, holding her close, she murmured, “You have a most enjoyable way of showing your feelings, my love.”

Grinning, he murmured back, “Want me to show you again?”