The Highlander (2 page)

He smiled in spite of himself and hoped that frightened her sufficiently to keep her quiet, at least for a while.

It did...for a time, but before too long, she asked, "Can we not stop for a little rest? I am growing numb all over. It's so cold."

He could hear her teeth chattering. "Aye, I ken ye are cold, lass, and so am I. I would stop if I thought it was safe to do so. You would be colder if we stopped, for there is no place of shelter in these parts. We need to keep moving."

She turned, pushing against him as she shifted her position.

Och! He wished she had stayed where she was, for now her hipbone was pressing against a place that made him very mindful that he had a near naked woman in his arms.

He was certain she could feel him rising hard against her in response. He nuzzled her ear. "Keep wiggling like that and I may ravish you before my brother has the chance."

"Go ahead," she said, sounding so grumpy, he chuckled. "I'm so cold I wouldn't feel a thing."

"Och, 'tis just as well. We've no time for ravishing right now, but if you can wait until I'm home next, I will gladly oblige you," he said.

"When will that be?"

"Not until midsummer, so ye have a while to anticipate it." The track began to climb upward steadily.

"Danegaeld Lodge is just ahead, at the top of the mountain."

Her teeth were chattering loudly now, but she still managed to say, "I th-thought we were g-g-going to your grandfather's."

"Aye, it was my grandfather's home afore his death, and quite a magnificent place it is, too. My mother was the daughter of the Duke of Lochaber. He was one of the wealthiest men in the Highlands. After he died, Jamie made some changes to it so we could use it for a hunting lodge, but you will still see the gilded garnish of its magnificence."

He caught the way she looked down forlornly at the sodden scrap of wool he had wrapped around her, and how she tugged at it where her pale, bare legs gleamed in the moonlight.

He wanted to tell her that if she stopped wiggling about, the plaid would stay tucked around her, but he decided not to mention anything that would sound like a reprimand. "Dinna worry about the way ye look, lass. There is no one there but Jamie and the staff."

As they climbed higher the trees began to disappear, and they followed the trail along a steep ridge of solid rock, strewn with large boulders that probably had fallen from the higher ridges above. She wished the moon would go behind the clouds again, for she could see the terrain that lay before them was as bleak and cheerless as her future, and she imagined herself riding back into time, into the past of this barbaric country, where there resided only strangers, with odd ways and peculiar speech.

She ached in every muscle—at least those that were not so paralyzed with cold that she could still feel. She no longer had any sensation in her fingers and her body began to shiver uncontrollably. She began to despair that they would never reach the place where they were going. She felt as if she had been cursed and turned into an icy block of stone—her punishment for rebellion.

Every extremity was heavy and leaden, and her mental alertness began to suffer greatly, to the point she wondered if she were slipping into a stupor. She did not feel so cold now. It felt like her body was warming. She was deliriously sleepy.

Her head nodded a time or two, before it dropped to rest upon her chest.

Tavish must have sensed what was happening, for he shook her roughly. "Och now, we'll have none of that, lass. Ye canna sleep just yet."

"I can't help it. I'm so slee...py." Her last word dwindled away to nothing.

"Aye, 'tis the cold making you sleepy, but you dinna want to give in to it. Sleep now, lass, and ye will never wake up."

"Mumph..." She was too drowsy to speak legibly.

"Ach, so that's the way it is? Well, I dinna mind telling ye that is what I like—a lass that is all warm and willing to please. Tis a bonnie good way to warm ye, I ken."

She felt a hand brush over her breast. "Why dinna ye tell me ye were so willing earlier?" he said, nibbling at her ear. "I ken we can find a verra good way to make us both warm."

Her head snapped up. She slapped his hand away. "You take liberties you have no right to take."

"That's a good lass," he said, and then he laughed and spurred his horse.

She had to grab the pommel to keep from losing her balance. She had a strong suspicion he had infuriated her on purpose: the sleepiness had passed, and with it the feeling of warmth.

Now she was trembling from the cold again, and wide awake, feeling miserable and capable of crying with very little urging. And still her teeth chattered.

"It's been a long, hard ride and I apologize for putting you through it, but if it makes you feel better, you've come through it as well as any man and, most important, yer still alive, so count your blessings, lass, and take heart. We have arrived at our destination at last."

It was bad enough that this man had seen a great deal more of her than any man had, but the thought that she was about to undergo the same ordeal again made her uneasy. "I am shamed for my appearance. What will your brother think when he sees me?"

"He will think I've brought home a half-naked, frozen lass taken in a raid."

"Hmm, a raid...you still do that sort of thing?"

"Aye, 'tis still done, though not by me personally, ye ken."

She turned her face against his chest seeking his warmth, for her face felt as though it might crack. Her voice was muffled as she said, "That's the first good news I've heard since I met you."

"Och, lass, I dinna remember meeting you at all, for I don't even know yer name."

A moment later, he dismounted and held his hands up to lift her from the saddle. When her feet touched the ground, she found she did not have the strength to stand.

Her knees buckled and she dropped, as if the world had disappeared beneath her feet.

He barely caught her before she hit the ground. "I pegged ye for a troublesome lass," he said, "so I am no' surprised I will have to carry ye." He chuckled. "Although I carina say I am disappointed." He swept her into his arms and carried her up the steps. "Light as goose down ye are."

He called out his brother's name when he reached the top step. "Jamie! Open the door. I've got a lass half frozen to death."

While he waited for the door to open, he said. "Allow me to correct my bad manners. I am Tavish Graham. Tell me your name, lass."

She had her face tucked into the cove of his neck and shoulder, seeking warmth. "I must have a name, but I cannot remember it."

"Dinna ye worry about that, lass. I ken my brother can frighten it out of you afore long."

_Two

A liar should have a good memory. —Quintilian (c.35-c.lOO), Roman rhetorician.
De Institutione Oratoria
(c.90)

If
there was anything Jamie Graham detested more than being roused from sleep, it was being greeted with a surprise.

To have both happen in one night did little to sweeten his mood.

When he heard Tavish call out that he had a half-frozen lass in tow, Jamie knew his carefree brother had become enamored with some tavern doxy and was smitten enough to drag her here with him, when he should be on his way back to Edinburgh.

He grumbled as he climbed out of bed, wrapped his plaid around himself and went below stairs. "Must I be at everyone's beck and call...day and night?"

He jerked the door open.

"It comes with the title, Yer Earlship," Tavish said, and grinned up at his brother.

"Hang the title from the nearest gibbet." Jamie paused when he saw the girl in his brother's arms. "You better have a good explanation for this, or by the cross of St. Andrew..."

He paused midsentence, for whatever he expected, it was not the sight of the half-naked, shivering woman that greeted him. He looked from the girl to Tavish and asked, "What is this?"

Tavish glanced down at the girl lying silent and still in his arms and grinned up at his brother. "I believe they are called lasses."

"Is that all they have managed to teach you in Edinburgh? To be impudent when sincerity is called for?"

"I am being sincere. This lass
sincerely
needs help. Now, are ye going to keep me standing out here all night in this freezing drizzle, or can I come inside?"

Jamie opened the door wider. "Then by all means help her."

Tavish stepped into the room. "I think you are more equipped to handle this than I am. You're the chief."

Jamie barely took notice of the ragamuffin is his brother's arms. "Don't try to foist your ob-

Rations off on me. Our tastes were always different."

"I didn't bring her here for me."

"Well, I hope you didn't bring her for me. I came here to get away from one woman. I dinna need to replace her with another one."

"She won't be any trouble. She needs help. You willna believe where I found her."

"She's a woman. She will be trouble. And I dinna care where ye found her. Take her back."

"That might be harder than it sounds." Tavish lowered her to a chair in front of the fireplace.

Jamie observed her critically. She appeared to be naked under the plaid that was wrapped haphazardly around her. His gaze followed the curve of her thigh, down her bare legs to the shoeless feet.

He was about to inquire about the lack of clothes and shoes when Tavish said, "We need to get a fire going. It is as cold as the North Sea in here. Where are Angus and Mary?"

"I dismissed the staff."

"Why?"

"You are all questions tonight. Do you remember my telling you I was coming here for a few days to be alone?"

Tavish rubbed the woman's hands briskly, trying to warm them. "Aye, you did, but I didn't know you meant to turn yerself into a cloistered monk."

Jamie's gaze was still lingering on her long, bare legs. Just how high did they go?
"Hermit
would be a better choice of word, since there are some of the more carnal things in life I don't intend to give up."

Tavish gave him a teasing grin. "Och! I ken ye will talk differently after ye wed and have a wife to box yer ears when yer eyes start to roam."

"Only until I have an heir."

Tavish turned his attention back to the girl and tucked the plaid around her.

"I had no idea you were so motherly," Jamie said, his tone heavily laced with mockery.

"Make light of it if you like, but I will not be a party to it. Can ye no' see that she is chilled to the bone? Would you rather that I had left her, to freeze to death?''

Jamie narrowed his eyes, suspicion playing with his thoughts. "By God, you haven't married the doxy, have you?"

Jamie heard the lass gasp a split second before Tavish leaped to her defense. "It is not what you think. She isn't some tavern wench I picked up."

Jamie took the poker and began to stir the dying coals in the fire. He placed a few sticks of kindling over them and watched them burst into flame. He shook his head trying to clear away the last residue of sleep. "So tell me, brother, where
did
you find her?"

"Weel, half of her was in the North Sea. The other half was lying on the beach. I would have ridden right over her, if my horse hadn't shied away at the last minute."

His brother's words pricked his interest. He saw the wet hair, the bits of seaweed still clinging to it. "You pulled her from the sea, you say?"

"Aye. I thought she was dead at first, and when I realized she was still alive, I knew I had to get her to a warm place with all due haste. I thought at first to take her to Monleigh Castle, but then I began to fear she would never survive a journey of that length."

"Where exactly on the coast did you find her?"

"Near Ravenscroft."