Highland Fire (Guardians of the Stone) (32 page)

She reached out to splay her hand upon his chest, clothed now as the season warranted. But she felt his heartbeat just the same. It thumped against the palm of her hand like a Pagan drum... a drum beat matched by the rhythm of her own heart. She was aware of its thumping every time Aidan was near. He made her body come alive... he made her
feel
... he made her forget all the years she had felt an abomination amongst her own kin.

When her husband looked at her, she wasn’t Lìli the witch, or Lìli the accursed, or Lìli the poor widow of a man who dared to love her... she was simply Lìli.

And only now, as she looked into Aidan’s eyes, did she understand that Stuart had never truly loved her. Stuart had held her as a prize—a lovely trophy to show his men. She could tell the difference in the gazes now... and it filled her with a new fear, for curse or nay, she did not wish to lose this love that fate had unexpectedly gifted her. She wanted to show Aidan how much he was coming to mean to her...

She dared to slide her hand down to his belly and then the crux of his thighs. His chest inflated with surprise. His shaft hardened beneath her palm.

“Lìli,” he said, and the single word was a warning.

But Lìli would not be thwarted. Smiling mischievously, she squeezed gently, her heart racing as she thought of coupling right here beneath the wintertide sky. The very thought of it exhilarated her.

Aidan nearly swallowed his tongue.

Anything he might have said would have come out garbled in that instant while Lìli cupped him in her hands. If she slid her hand beneath the folds of his breacan, she would find him as hard as that boulder she sat beside—and nearly as thick.

“Wife,” he said low. “You cannot know what you do to me.”

She smiled a siren’s smile. “Ah, but I do,
Husband
, and I would have you love me outside those bedroom walls.”

“Ye’re a bluidy temptress,” he swore.

She smiled softly, completely without remorse.

He grinned then, his lips curving roguishly. “Dinna say ye werena warned,” he told her, and then leaned to kiss her lips again. She tasted like rain on a summer day, sweet and fresh. For an instant, it crossed his mind that someone might spy them here, but he didn’t care. Their guests were all amply provided for, and a new bonfire was being prepared. Tomorrow they would leave the vale, but tonight they would be regaled. In the meantime, they had no need of Aidan while he had a sudden, desperate and irrefutable need for his bonny wife.

He pressed Lìli down upon the soft, plump moss, covering her. Of all the places on the hillside, she had chosen the one spot where moss grew as thick as his mattress. She moaned softly beneath him, and Aidan smiled to himself, preparing himself to silence her by making good on his threat.

His hands sailed the ocean of her body, tracing the outline of her curves, reveling in the depths of passion he met in her gaze. She was a goddess. His goddess. His wife. The mother of his children to be—by damn, he would worship her flesh with his heart on the tip of his tongue. With that thought in mind, he slid down, kissing her breasts beneath her gown, leaving it covered to protect her from the chill of the air. He had no need to bare her completely to find the treasure he wanted to share.

His hand sought and found her hem and he lifted the gown to her knees, and then before she could protest, he shifted so that he was settled between her thighs.

Lìli gasped in surprise, her eyes widening at the sight of him between her legs, and she sensed at once what he meant to do. She opened her mouth to protest, but he simply smiled and before she could speak, his lips descended suddenly, his tongue seeking entrance to her most secret place.

With another gasp of surprise, Lìli lay back again, trembling as he moved to kiss her where no man had ever kissed her before. His tongue swept out, teasing her with abandon, and she spread her legs without any will left at all.

Let him do whatever he may...

“That’s it, flower,” he whispered, his breath hot against her flesh.

In the next instant, all troubling thoughts fled entirely—like birds taking flight—banished by naught more than her husband’s whispers and his tongue.

O
nce their guests departed they left behind a pall—a dark presentiment that hovered like an angry cloud Lìli couldn’t seem to banish. It was a feeling that seemed to be growing stronger and stronger by day. In part, she was certain it was because she was growing more and more desperate to find a way to retrieve her son without bringing harm to her husband or his clan.

All the weeks they’d had without a visitation of sickness came to an abrupt end. Aveline confessed she was with child and spent her days retching in her cottage. Then Fergus’ daughter Meara grew ill, stricken with the same mysterious malady Duncan had suffered. It was difficult to believe Lìli had spent nearly two months with these people—two months away from her sweet son. It pained her to think that mayhap she would not see him again for so long. If something did not happen soon, the snows would fall and the mountains would become impassable until the snows melted in spring.

Lìli took the ring out of her coffer yet again, inspecting it. It was not even pretty. There was little about it to notice, and that was as it was intended, she supposed. She slipped it on her finger and stared at the trinket. Aidan would notice… for she wore no jewelry. She had come with little enough but the clothes upon her back. And yet…

She took the ring off, and put it back into its pouch, shoving it again to the bottom of her chest. She would not defile her love for Aidan by even contemplating such a thing!

Very quickly, Meara’s illness worsened.

Aidan was sleeping when they came to tell Lìli, and so she made her way to Meara’s home in the middle of the night with Fergus’ son. Remembering Una’s advice, she followed her instincts, and on the way, stopped by a little stream to gather a bit of water. Fergus’ boy slipped away to relieve himself uphill and while he was gone Lìli peered up at the moon, silently asking the spirits to bless the liquid in her hand. Adding a pinch of precious salt from the pouch she had tied to her waist, she swirled the cup clockwise … until the salt dissolved. She then held up the cup so that it was illuminated by the moonlight, and said, “By full moon’s light, with helping hands, I spread good health throughout the lands.” She took that blessed water to Meara’s house and set it between two lit candles upon the floor near the hearth, and then she gathered the rest of her medicines from the pouch she had brought.

The lass was gravely ill, and Lìli found her sweating profusely, despite that her body was wracked with shivers. Fergus’ wife had been one of the first to be taken by this sweating sickness, and he worried now, pacing the floor of his cottage.

Lìli did what she could to help the shivering girl. Her brother sat in a chair by the fire, petting their whining dog, his brows knit with worry. Since Meara had fallen ill, their home appeared as though it had been ravaged by brigands. For that reason Lìli had set the water down upon the floor, for there was no room anywhere else. Once she had done all that she could and Meara fell into a deep, unsettled sleep, Lìli sat by the girl’s bedside, watching her sleep.

Her father, for all his bluster, had the look of a terrified Da, and his son only slept once his dog left his feet. Lìli was dozing when she heard the animal lapping up the water she had brought from the little stream. By the time she realized, the cup was empty.

Tired and frustrated, she was grateful when Aidan appeared at their door. “Come to bed,” he demanded.

“Nay. I shouldna,” she argued.

“Have you done all you can?”

“Aye, but—”

“Chief is right, lass,” Fergus interrupted. “The waiting is the most difficult part, but ye canna help my daughter any better by making yourself ill as well. Go an’ get ye some rest and return in the morn.”

The look on Fergus’ face was so full of despair that Lìli did not want to leave him. These were her people now and she could not bear the thought of losing even one.

Aidan sensed her hesitation, and he went to her and took her gently by the hand. He pulled her away from the sleeping girl, grabbing her arisaid by the door. He gave Fergus a glance, his voice softening. “Call upon us if aught changes.”

“Aye,” the father said. “Ye know I will.”

“It seems I can no longer sleep without ye in my bed,” Aidan told Lìli once they’d returned to their darkened room. It sounded much like a complaint, but Lìli heard the gentleness in his tone.

The brazier had gone cold, but Lìli’s thoughts were too pre-occupied with Meara to notice the chill in the air. She smiled at Aidan, grateful for his presence, and even more grateful for his solicitude. “I canna imagine what this illness could be,” she worried, as she sat down upon the bed and removed her slippers.

Aidan stoked the fire in the brazier, reviving the flame. “I willna see ye grow ill over this, Lìli.” She loved the way he said her name now, with such tenderness. Nevertheless, she could not simply leave off—not when a young girl’s life hung in the balance.

“What can ye tell me of those who fell ill before?” she persisted.

He turned to face her then, “Fergus’ wife was among the first to go.”

“She lives verra near Glenna,” Lìli said, considering the fact. “Who else?”

“One of my auldest warrior’s—a man who fought beside my father.”

“Where did he live?”

“In a cottage on the hillside.”

Lìli thought about that, wondering how near to the other two. She was so pre-occupied that she did not realize until her husband was naked and standing before her.

“What in bluidy hell must a mon do to gain his wife’s attention?” he asked standing nude, but not aroused.

Lìli laughed, peering up into his face. He was smiling, his teeth gleaming white in the darkness. The fire at his back played with shadows on the wall, casting his form into a sultry firelight dance.

“E’en that weeping maid of yours, the one who doesna seem to realize her place, has a growing belly,” Aidan complained, but not with much concern to his voice. “I would have a son by you,” he said softly, kneeling to look her squarely in the face.

His hand went to her knee.

Lìli’s breath caught as the smile faded from his features, replaced with one of concern. “We arena promised tomorrow,” he told her. “Meara’s illness only makes it clearer to me. If she dies, my brother will weep for what will never be. Come what may, I willna regret a single moment I spend upon this earth.
Buin mo chridhe dhuit,”
he told her gruffly, and Lìli’s heart squeezed at hearing the words, for she could see them mirrored in his eyes.

You are the love of my heart.

It filled her with joy to hear him say so, but worry quickly followed, for she feared what may come. To say it back somehow seemed to seal his fate, and so she could not find her voice to speak.

She loved him too.

Desperately.

Somehow, the feelings had emerged despite her will to stamp them away, and now even the possibility that the curse might be true filled her heart with dread.

She couldn’t speak, but she could show him... and she pulled him onto the bed, desperate to feel life once again growing in her womb.