The Highlander’s Witch (37 page)

She grabbed her head tense with the need to relax so she could figure out what was going on.

Dropping to her knees, she hunched over, arms crossed holding onto her shoulders and began rocking as her mind continued its whirlwind of frenzied thoughts, all with a constant need to stop it.

Calm
me
down,
let
me
think.

Wrap
my
body
in
petals
of
pink.

Ease
my
thoughts,
free
my
mind.

So
the
answers
I
might
find.

She hesitated over the words, trying to find the right mix to settle her racing heart and scattered thoughts, too upset to worry over making a mistake.

She kept rocking and repeating the chant. Relieved when it seemed to be working, her mind slowed down, her body relaxed.

That’s when she felt something strange and looked up.

Aiden rushed up the stairs to his chambers, knowing he had little time to check on Skye and opened his door to see her in the middle of the floor, surrounded by pink flowers, her hands held out catching them as they fell out of thin air.

“
Dè
a
tha
seo?
”

Skye turned her bemused look to Aiden and scrambled to her feet blushing as she stared at him in a formal looking kilt.

“Ummm. This is a spell gone wrong.” She winced. “I told you I wasn’t very good at them. It won’t last long.” She shrugged and gave a crooked smile. “At least it’s not raining.”

Images of her trying to go home whipped through his head.

“Why do ye need to cast a spell, lass?”

Suddenly shy and unsure of herself, Skye lowered her eyes and shrugged.

Believing the worst, he closed the door behind him and crossed his arms.

“Ye were tryin to go home.”

“What? No!”

“Then explain what ye were doin.”

Searching his chiseled face, Skye began to chew her lower lip. She had no clue what to say without him thinking her completely nuts.

“Ye will answer me now.”

Swallowing hard, Skye couldn’t stop the tear that slipped from her lashes.

“I was trying to stop myself from going crazy.”

As soon as she said the words, the floodgates opened and she covered her face.

Aiden suddenly knew what was happening and he was beside her, gathering her up into his arms and holding her close.

“Och,
leanabh
, twill be alright.”

She wrapped her arms around his stomach and held tight, shaking her head against his chest. “But I
am
goin crazy, Aiden.”

“Nay, lass. This will pass.”

“My mind is going in circles. I feel like I can’t think of anything else but one thing.”

“An what be that?”

He chuckled at her words even as he watched in amazement as the petals falling from nowhere lessened.

She looked up at him with big eyes. “You. All I can think about is you.”

Smiling, he kissed her forehead. “Tis no sech a bad thing, is it,
leanabh?”

“It’s consuming.” Was all she could say.

He pressed her head back onto his chest and sighed. “I should no have played with ye last night.”

If he had been thinking properly, he knew he never should have played with her with such intensity knowing he had no time to help ease her from her melancholy.

“I need to leave, lass. I have duties to attend to.” He took her by the shoulders and held her away from him. “I came to check on ye an to hold ye before I had to go. We have thins we need to discuss.”

She looked at him and frowned not liking the possibilities.

If he would only give her an idea of what it was they were going to ‘discuss’.

She raised herself on tiptoe and tilted her face to his.

Looking down on her flushed face, Aiden didn’t trust himself to stop at a kiss so he inhaled her scent as he placed his lips on her forehead, then stepped away.

“I will send Keir up to keep guard on ye til I can return. All will be well.”

Biting her lower lip, Skye just nodded and watched him leave.

When the door closed behind him, she let go of the breath she was holding and looked around at the petals that littered the room and went about gathering them up and tossing them into the fire.

When she was done, she made the bed and sat on the edge, her mind filled with fear that he was still going to send her home.

If only she could just figure out what he meant by, ‘all will be well’.

All will be well when she was gone?

All will be well because she was staying?

She had been so lost in her whirling thoughts that she jumped to her feet when a voice came out of nowhere.

“He left ye too, aye?”

Gasping in shock, Skye stood there staring in confusion at Riona who stood at the entrance to the adjoining room.

“How did you get here?”

“From the secret passage, of course.”

“Of course. And how did you know of it?”

“Aiden showed me.” Riona shrugged. “I know of the dungeon too.”

“You do?”

“There was a time when Aiden couldn’t get enough of me, he would bring me to that room and we would do things, then we would make the most passionate love.”

Riona looked about the room then returned her gaze to glare at Skye.

“I am sure you know of what I speak.”

Skye mind was racing as she looked around making sure there were no more petals.

“He brought you there and . . . and . . .”

“Aye, many times.”

Skye’s thoughts went crazy as Riona’s first words echoed in her head.

He
left
you
too
.

“He came to me earlier wanting to do it again but I told him only if he married me. He left angry.”

Skye remembered seeing Aiden when he had walked out of the girl’s room and hated how pieces of the puzzle seemed to be fitting together. She shook her head, trying to clear it but she found herself falling back into the whirlwind of feelings she had before Aiden came into the room.

“Why are you here now?”

“I have decided to leave. I will no longer accept being used at his will, to be thrown away when another catches his eye. Then my man told me Aiden was sending ye away and I was appalled that he was already doing to ye what he had done to me and I thought to offer ye an escort.”

Riona raised an eyebrow at Skye’s blank look.

“Unless ye enjoy being used with no thought to yer reputation?”

Was that what Aiden was doing to her? Using her when and how he wanted? He’d already told her she had to go home. Had he had sex with Riona while she was still captive and when he had seen that she’d been responsible for two men’s deaths that she wasn’t trustworthy, maybe even dangerous?

Was that why he had gone to Riona earlier?

To take her back after deciding Skye would be returned to the future?

So why last night?

Because Riona had probably turned him down, maybe even told him he had to marry her.

Men hated ultimatums.

Skye had never asked him to marry her but she had told him to keep her.

Had begged even.

And he hadn’t answered her plea last night.

Why buy the cow?

“Look, I am leaving, are ye coming or not?”

Shaking her head, she tried to clear it of the confusion and fear.

Skye didn’t want to leave him.

Everything in her screamed to find him and beg him to keep her.

Clenching her fists and shook her head. She had already begged and it had gotten her nowhere.

What an idiot she was.

Nodding decisively she made up her mind.

“I would appreciate an escort. But only until we get far enough away then I will go my own way.”

“Fine. We will give ye food when ye decide tis time to go yer separate way.”

Skye followed Riona and watched her move the armoire and push the gargoyle, just as Aiden had and she was even more convinced that she was just one more in a long line of women Aiden had taken to his bed.

Riona took a torch from the wall and went down the passageway, ignoring the entrance to the dungeon.

“How did you get to his room this way?”

“There’s a connection from a few of the rooms to this passageway.”

They went down a steep stairway so narrow she imagined Aiden had to go sideways.

“Did he ask you about being English?”

“He has always known I was English.”

“He did?”

“Aye, but told me twould be easier to be accepted by the elders if I was Scotts. So my brother and I took on a Scottish accent.”

Riona stopped and turned in the confined space, her eyes narrowed in anger.

“He said he would marry me. I believed him and would have done anything for him.”

Skye was shocked at the girl’s fierce look and for a moment, she thought she was speaking to a woman possessed.

She hurried to catch up to Riona as she thought of the feelings she had been battling since waking up. Maybe these consuming thoughts wouldn’t pass as Aiden had assured her.

The further they went the more Skye became concerned with her decision and it occurred to her just how rashly she had been.

“Maybe I should have gotten dressed? Or put on shoes. My feet are freezing and the stones are wet.”

“We cannot turn back now. We are almost at the end and need to be gone before they are finished with the tribunal. Ye can wear something of mine.”

“Tribunal?”

“Aye.”

When Skye felt a breeze circling through the damp air, she knew they were close to the end and she suddenly doubted everything she was doing.

“Why do we need to do this in secret? It’s not like we are prisoners.” She said when the ground leveled off.

“For what? So he can convince ye to stay? He does that well. I cannot tell ye how many times I have returned with the assurance that he would protect my good name only to bed me again with nothing but empty promises.”

They stepped out of the tunnel and Skye shaded her eyes from the sun.

Riona turned to glare at her and Skye took a step back only to bump into something solid. She whipped her head back and saw the giant that was never far from Riona.

“Tis because of ye that he has not married me. But he will. Once ye are gone, he will follow through with his promises and this land will be rightfully returned to me.”

Skye glared and swung her fist, connecting satisfactorily with the other woman’s eye.

“You lied to me!”

Skye was yanked off her feet, her mouth stuffed with a smelly cloth as she was hauled away.

A fricken broken record!

That’s what she felt she was on.

*     *     *

“I knocked when I had no heard any noise for some time, an there was no answer. I thought she be sleepin but I grew concerned, so I opened the door an she wasna there.” Keir explained to Aiden after pulling him from listening to his tenant’s complaints.