He stood unmoving, his heart at war while she began to remove his clothing and then her own. The only light came from the other room, yet he could see her—oh, aye—when she unfastened her bodice and shed her skirt. Naked, she stepped into his arms and pressed herself, trembling, against him.
“Please,” she beseeched. “I must have you this night.”
Somehow, by a miracle of will, he held himself back. “I thought you wished to hear a dire tale.”
“I do, if you will tell me. Come, lie with me.”
They lay entwined atop the blankets, she close to his side, her lips just a breath from his ear.
“Tell me,” she urged once more. “I may be able to help you reach Deirdre, woman to woman.”
He laid one hand on the soft flesh beneath her breasts, narrowed his eyes, and thought back to the night in question.
“I was asleep,” he began like a man in a dream. “My mother woke me, calling my name and weeping—she, who never wept easily. Her tears fell all the while she told me what they had done, Gregor Avrie and his two young sons. They had walked into my da’s library where he sat reading, wounded him mortally, and then hauled him out onto the stones of the courtyard to finish him. She saw it all and hid herself. When Gregor sent men to search the house, she knew what they were after. She reached me first and implored me to flee. I wanted to take Deirdre with me, but we could not find her, and the wolves were on the hunt.
“By then, our household guard had roused and engaged Avrie’s men. ’Twas the distraction we needed. My ma and I crept to the courtyard, where I took my da’s torc still with his blood upon it, and his sword. My ma sent me away by a route known to no one but the family and promised to send Deirdre after.”
Jeannie’s hand crept to his chest, a gesture of comfort. But comfort lay well beyond his reach. “I made my way out and waited for Deirdre at the head of the glen. She never came, and I had vowed to my mother I would go. I know now the Avries must have seized Deirdre even before coming after me. Clever of them, really, for they knew with me dead she represented the best claim on the land.
“I still remember how my mother looked when I parted from her, weeping and begging me to go, that I might come back some day and regain what was rightfully ours. I did not know ’twould be the last time I ever saw her.”
“What happened to her?” Jeannie whispered.
“For years I did not know. I only learned later from a family friend in Fort William that she had died.” He paused and swallowed painfully. “I have had plenty of time to wonder about it since, and to be certain I never should have left that night. I should have stayed and battled to protect her—to protect both of them—and the glen.”
“You were but a lad.”
“Old enough. I could ha’ taken up leadership of the household guard, fought the Avries and their hirelings back. I might at least have saved Deirdre.”
“How, if they had already seized her?”
He shook his head. “I swear I did suppose her dead all this while—oh, perhaps not that night, but long since. All these years, for her to live so. I should be slain for permitting it.”
“You did the only thing you could,” Jeannie comforted, “came back when you were able, and regained the glen.”
Finnan turned his face to her. “Did I? Then why am I on the run? And they hold her still.”
“She must know you are here, must have heard them speak of you. She will know you have come for her.”
“She will scarcely be able to imagine the man I have become,” Finnan said bitterly. Sometimes he barely recognized himself. “And I am sure I will not know her.”
“You will. She has the look of you. She appeared steady, and strong.”
“And has Stuart fathered his brats on her?” he wondered aloud.
“Aggie has never spoken of seeing children in the house, not in any of her visits.”
“’Tis a blessing.” Possibly the only one.
“Anything I can do for you,” Jeannie vowed, “you need only ask.” She followed the words with a kiss upon the corner of his mouth and then another square upon his lips. He felt her devotion pour into him and knew to his soul this was what he had awaited. He could—should—break her now, consider Geordie well avenged, walk away and never look back.
Or he could love her first.
His hand slid from her belly upward to cup one naked breast. He knew the depth and intensity of the fire that burned within her, knew exactly what it took to fan it. He brushed his thumb across her nipple, and she caught her breath.
She whispered into his mouth, “I would do anything you ask, Finnan. You know that.”
“I do, Jeannie.”
