Love Beyond Time (Morna's Legacy Series) (10 page)

“Come, Blaire. I want to hold me new bride in my arms, satisfied that I know she doesna find me as abhorrent as she tried to make it seem.”

He crawled into bed beneath the covers, and I looked down at him as he smiled.
That smile has probably found dozens of other women exactly where I am right now.
It both surprised and displeased me, so that the thought sent an unpleasant surge into my stomach. This man didn’t actually exist, after all.

He gestured for me to join him, and I slowly crawled on top of the bed. I glanced down to see my breasts swaying to and fro and scrambled to cover myself.

“I . . . I forgot I was naked,” I stuttered as I flailed my arms around wildly, trying to cover the most intimate parts of myself.

Eoin’s hands caught mine, and I could hear him chuckling as he struggled to tug the blankets away from me.

“I’ve already seen ye, Blaire. Ye have the most beautiful breasts I’ve ever seen, and ye have no reason to worry. I’ll no be touchin’ ye again tonight. We’ve no rush, lass, and I’ll see that I woo ye properly.

I stopped my senseless struggle as his words sank in. The time to be embarrassed had long since passed. I laughed at myself as I joined him beneath the covers and rolled into his arms.

* * *

Moments later, a fierce knock at the door caused us both to jerk upward in the bed. Just on the cusp of sleep, I found myself disoriented as I looked around the room to take in my surroundings, trying to remember where I was and what I was doing.

A hand on my naked back caused me to turn to my left, and the sight of Eoin beside me reminded me that I was still in a coma. I couldn’t quite make sense of why I seemed to fall asleep while sleeping; the only answer that came to mind was different medications must be causing a different reaction.
At least my dream seems to be the same.

Eoin’s voice yelling toward the door caused me to jump, and he gently rubbed my back in response. “Who’s there? Ye better have a damned good reason for waking my wife.”

“Me lord! Ye must come quickly. There has been a fire set outside. It’s small, but we must contain it before it reaches the stables.”

“What? I’m coming Kip. Get on with ye, and help the efforts.”

I watched as Eoin, cursing, quickly dressed and headed for the door.

“I’m sorry to leave ye, lass, but I must go. Just go back to sleep, and I’ll be back soon. I’m sure tis nothing to worry yerself over.”

With that, he was gone. I stood and made my way to the window to watch the scene below. The fire was small, surely there’d been no injuries, but it would take the men awhile to properly put it out and clean up the mess. It seemed silly that I should stay and not offer help, but something told me that the offer wouldn’t be appreciated. I didn’t worry about Eoin. It was my dream. Surely, I wouldn’t let anything like a fire take my Coma Husband from me.

Instead, I pulled one of the blankets from the top of the bed and wrapped it around my naked body as I curled up into the stone window seat that looked out over the back greens of the castle and out onto the sea.

Chapter 13

I’d just begun to drift, and I could feel my eyelids dropping further with each passing second when the door handle to my right started moving clumsily. Startled, I jerked upward and wrapped the blanket around my shoulders more tightly.

I glanced toward the bolt, which rattled noisily as the person opposite the door struggled to get into the room. At first I assumed it must be Eoin, but a quick glance out the window showed him still working away at the small remains of the fire. I scanned the room for my dress and spotted it still lying crumpled in front of the door where it had been so expertly removed.

I slipped myself off of the window seat and, leaving the blanket behind, watched my skin turn to goose flesh as my toes touched the cold stone below. I tip-toed as quickly as I could over to my dress and slipped it on as best I could. I didn’t even attempt to tie up the back; the intricacy of the laces was impossible for me to maneuver on my own.

Twisting and turning, I worked the gown into place so that it fit snugly across the front. Perhaps now at least it wouldn’t be quite so obvious that it was completely open in the back if I opened the door. As long as I kept my arms to my sides, I thought it would stay in place while I saw to whoever needed my attention.

The noise at the door had stopped by the time I went to open it, but I still made an effort to smush my hair into some semblance of order before I reached for the handle and opened it.

In a series of movements that came too quickly for me to process, I found myself knocked onto my bottom with a man lying in between my legs.

“Ooomph!” I shoved a foot into the ribs of my lap partner and pushed him away as I struggled to stand and keep my dress in place. “And you are?”

“God, lass! What are ye doing in my bedchamber? Eoin would be none too pleased to find ye here.” The man stood with great effort, and I could tell from the glazed expression in his eyes that he’d been either unconscious or close to it when I opened the door.

“I know that I haven’t been here long, but you are the one in the wrong room. You must be his brother?” I started to stick out my hand, but changed my mind as I felt the shoulder of my dress begin to slip.

“What the hell are ye talking about, Blaire? Ye know I’m his brother. Ye know me as well as ye know anyone else around here! God Blaire, I knew ye could be cruel, but I doona see why ye would punish me so! Ye have to know how hard it was for me to watch ye marry him! And why in the name o’ God are ye talking like that? I know I’ve had too much to drink, but ye sound nothing like yerself!”

He swayed slightly and leaned back against the wall. His eyes were red, and I could tell it was more pain than drink that made them so. A hurt behind his reddened eyes went beyond his being drunk.

Something I’d said had upset him. This Blaire had hurt him, and once again I’d forgotten all about her. I’d also forgotten the accent Mary had been so insistent on. No wonder he thought Blaire sounded odd. I was making all this up as I went along. It couldn’t be good for my brain to be dreaming up something this complicated.

As my current coma state crossed my mind, an uncomfortable flicker of a thought tugged at me, but I was too occupied with the situation in front of me to give it much thought.

I walked toward him and tried to remember the accent once again. “I’m sorry. I dinna mean to upset ye. Ye look as if ye are about to collapse. Let’s get ye to yer room. Aye?”

He nodded somberly before responding. “Aye. That’s where I thought I was when I fell over outside the door. I’m a fair mess, no? I’m sorry, lass. I doona like for ye to see me so.”

“Oh, shhh. I’ll help ye down the hall, and we’ll forget all about it.”

“Thank ye, Blaire, but I can make it on me own. I just missed by one door. I’m a bigger sot than I thought if I canna make it that far.”

He pushed away from the wall and tripped with his first step but caught himself by placing his hand on my shoulder.

I snickered and placed my arm around his back, using his side to hold my dress in place as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I didn’t see how I was going to get him to his room without my dress falling to my feet, but it was clear he wouldn’t make it through the door without my assistance.

“Well, looks like ye are a bigger sot than ye thought, no? Let’s go. Ye can use me for balance. But doona fall on me, or I’ll be trapped under ye for a week.”

“There’s an idea, lass, and the kind I should keep to myself now that ye’ve married me brother.”

He threw his arm sloppily around me as I started toward the door.

“Come on.”

We waddled down the hallway, doing our best to help one another. He leaned on me to stay upright, and I leaned into him to keep from exposing myself in the hallway. This act was exactly the sort of self-deprecating comedy that I could see myself dreaming, and whatever unconscious thought had been nagging at me seemed to recede.

With each step, my dress slipped farther and farther off the shoulder that was underneath his hand, and I increased the pressure of my right side into his ribs.

It was a short distance to his room, but it seemed a mile, each of us struggling with every step. As we made it to his door, he removed his arm from around my shoulder and stepped away from my side.

I quickly made to squeeze my arms back against my own sides, but not before his first step away landed on the bottom of my dress, starting its descent to the floor.

Unable to catch the gown before it slipped off my shoulders, I threw myself against him to keep my chest from being exposed.

I glanced up at him to try and explain myself, but stopped as he backed me into the wall next to his chamber door.

“What do ye think ye are doing, Blaire? We canna do this! We shouldna have in the first place, but ye have married him now! We must stop.”

“I . . . I,” I had no idea how to respond. Obviously, Blaire had been involved with both brothers. Not that I could blame her, Arran was just as handsome as his brother. I couldn’t imagine what their parents must have looked like to have two boys who appeared so different but were both equally breathtaking. He interrupted my thoughts before I could respond.

“God help me, Blaire! I’ve tried to stay away from ye. It felt like ye were ripping me heart out watching ye wed Eoin. I thought at the very least ye wouldna seem so pleased to be doing so. Ye have to know I dinna mean a word I spoke to ye this morning.”

He bent down then, his hands on my hips to keep him steady. With his cheek pressed flushed to mine, he continued his plea.

“If I’m being a fool, Blaire, put me out o’ me misery and tell me so. If I’m not, I doona think I can stay away from ye anymore.”

I scrambled for a response. I didn’t want to hurt him any more than he obviously was already, but I was afraid that in his state of intoxication whatever I said would do little to discourage him.

Part of me hoped that if I waited to answer he would simply pass out on my shoulder, and I could leave him snoring in the hallway and make a quick escape back down the hall.

Instead he seemed to take my silence as surrender.

“God, Blaire! I knew it was no only me. I want ye so badly. I’ll burn in hell for it I know, but I canna stop myself any longer.”

His lips met mine with a heartbreaking sense of desperation. There was such an ardent sense of longing in the way he moved against me, I couldn’t bring myself to stop him. It seemed too cruel to push him away. He wasn’t assaulting me. He thought I was someone else, someone he loved. And he obviously believed Blaire would have matched his fervor with her own.

I found myself surrendering to him, responding and matching his affection with a sort of mind-body detachment that felt more dreamlike than the dream I was having now.

A roar to my right brought me back, just as a fist pulled Arran’s lips from mine and sent him flying to the floor, unconscious.

Stunned, I let my dress slip below my breasts before I scrambled to put it back on.

Seeing that his brother was not to rise for some time, Eoin whirled on me, grabbing me around the middle as he threw me over his shoulder with far too little effort.

I assumed he was returning me to his bedchamber, but he took off in the other direction. He didn’t say a word as my head jostled up and down against his back, and as he descended two different sets of stairs, dread settled in my gut.

I could tell he was angry. His face had been blood red when he’d spun on me, and I could feel his anger rising in the form of heat off his back.

I couldn’t imagine what he would say or do. I’d seen him angry once before and that had been over nothing compared to this. And what could I say in defense of myself?
It wasn’t me he was kissing
. I was sure that wouldn’t cut it.

Dread turned to fear as the dank and dirty smell of some place far below ground reached my nostrils. I turned my head to see a row of dark cells, as empty and foreboding as the look on my husband’s face. He carried me down to the last cell in the farthest corner of the room, which could only be described as a dungeon, and roughly threw me onto a stone seat that was part of the back wall. My back hit with a force that sent pain shooting up through my head, and tears unwillingly filled my eyes.

“Don’t ye dare cry, ye wee bitch! Ye have no one to blame but yerself. What do ye expect me to do? Ye let me take you naked to me bed, and then the same night I find ye in my brother’s arms! Ye are a liar and a whore, Blaire! I’ll continue to protect yer father’s territory for my own father’s memory, but I will never lay eyes on ye again. I will not have a wretch like ye as lady of my keep!”

His hands were trembling and his face was deep red as he took in a deep, shaky breath and turned away. He threw the door shut and locked it in place, leaving me shaking and gasping as I tried to stop sobbing.

* * *

Hours turned into days, and I started to fear that my placement here was not a temporary arrangement made out of his initial anger at finding me in Arran’s embrace. By my count at least four days had passed. A total of eight meals, two a day, had been brought, as well as plenty of blankets. Someone had come to empty my chamber pot three times daily, and I always had plenty of water to drink.

It could have been much worse, and I was certain that for anyone else who had ever been placed here, it had been. Still, I was accustomed to central heating and air, at least three meals a day, and regular showers. Not to mention a daily dose of television . . . and toilet paper. As far as I was concerned, my pleasant, fantastical coma dream had turned to the worst kind of nightmare. A nightmare that I now firmly believed was not a dream at all, but a state of reality I couldn’t begin to understand.

Always an over-thinker, I had learned through the years that it was best if I kept busy. Limiting my time spent analyzing and thinking about things too much helped me to stay content with work and a home life spent entirely alone.

Once the initial shock of being tossed into the dungeon had worn off and I realized that Eoin wasn’t coming back to get me, I was left with nothing else to do but think. The dizzying emotional highs and lows, the elusive mentions of Blaire that I didn’t understand, everything was far too complicated for me to dream up on my own.