Eleven
Laurel was sandwiched in a chair between Brodie on her left and Monty on her right. The trio sat across from an aggrieved King Robert. They hadn’t been made to wait when they requested an audience. The sneer the chamberlain cast her said more than his haughty greeting. Word had clearly spread to nearly every echelon within the court, and she could only imagine what awaited her on the other side of the portal to the Privy Council chamber. What she discovered was a very irritated monarch.
“Your Majesty,” Brodie said. “Lady Laurel consented to be my wife.”
“Before or after you nearly sucked her face from her head?” King Robert snapped.
Brodie ignored the Bruce’s comment. “I did not intend to remain at court overly long, but I wish to remain and properly court Lady Laurel.”
“You seem confused, Campbell. The courtship occurs before the marriage proposal and generally before you compromise the chit,” King Robert grumbled.
“Be that as it may, Lady Laurel and I seem well suited to one another, but I will not have her forced. I wish for Lady Laurel to have time for us to come to know one another, and then decide if she still wishes to proceed.”
“That is not how things work, Campbell. And well you know it. You both made the decision that you knew one another well enough when you trysted on the landing of the ladies’ floor. Unless you forced her,” King Robert glowered. “And now you wish to excuse yourself.”
“Laird Campbell did not force me,” Laurel said evenly, her head held high, and her spine rigid. “I was an equal participant.”
“Your honesty and courage are commendable, but your common sense is deplorable,” King Robert stated. “You have caused a scandal of proportions I cannot last recall. At least your peers usually cause their scandals far away from court. And how am I to believe that you or Laird Campbell came willingly to this agreement, when the men who sit beside your sport cuts and bruises?”
“That was my fault, Your Majesty,” Monty spoke up. “I had unkind words and less-than-brotherly comments for Lady Laurel. I justly received my comeuppance.”
“And Laird Campbell’s swollen nose and split lip?” King Robert pointed out.
“Proof that I defend Lady Laurel by choice, not merely out of duty.” Brodie didn’t look at Laurel, but he reached for her hand. She jumped, unprepared for the contact, but quickly splayed her fingers for Brodie to intertwine with his.
Robert cocked an eyebrow at the gesture and scowled. “That is still not how courtship works. And it certainly isn’t how a scandal works. There is no taking one’s time to become better acquainted—though the nature of the scandal is that you are already too well acquainted. I have already decreed that there will be no weddings until after Lady Laurel’s.” Robert turned his attention toward Monty. “I’ve also read your father’s missive. I reasonably suspect you aren’t aware of its contents.”
“I am not,” Monty admitted. “My father directed me to deliver it to you with haste, but I wasn’t made aware of its subject.”
“You won’t be sitting so comfortably when you are,” Robert mumbled. He looked at the couple, then Monty. “Lady Laurel, I received a missive recently from your father, which prompted me to order you to find a groom with haste. Your father offered me a choice, one which I was not pleased to receive. His last missive stated that either you wed before the new year and keep your dowry, or you remain here as an attendant to my wife with your dowry to pay for your upkeep.”
Laurel swallowed. She’d known the day would eventually come, so the king’s words hardly surprised her. She was a spinster, and her father had given up hope five years earlier. But she couldn’t imagine what the newest missive could contain if her father had already provided an ultimatum. King Robert sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“I’d rather be crawling on my belly in a bog facing the English right now.” King Robert scowled. “Your father decided on another alternative, retracting part of his previous offer. You are to wed and receive your dowry, or you may remain here either at the queen’s behest and expense, or you may find a protector to pay for your upkeep.”
Laurel gasped. The protector her father intended wasn’t a man willing to defend her honor like Brodie. Just the opposite. Her father intended her to become a man’s mistress, so she might have a roof over her head and food in her belly. As she saw it, her father intended to make her little more than an expensive prostitute.
“Then I am fortunate that it was God’s will to bring me to court,” Brodie responded. “And His will that I should meet Lady Laurel.”
Laurel cast a dumbstruck look at Brodie as though she heard his voice but didn’t understand his words. She shifted to look at the king, but she refused to look at her brother. She believed he didn’t know what the missive held, but she couldn’t bear to look at him since he bore a striking resemblance to their father. She feared she would lash out with wishful thinking that it was Laird Ross rather than Monty.
“Ross and I will sign the contracts this afternoon, and Lady Laurel will remain here as she has, but as my betrothed. I accept responsibility for aught that my lady needs or wants,” Brodie announced.
“Are you amenable to that, Montgomery?” King Robert asked quietly, unprepared for the turn of events.
“Quite,” Monty said tightly. He leaned toward Laurel, but her gaze made him pull back. He looked at a shell of the woman he’d known and knew her expression would haunt him for the rest of his life. He was certain their father had finally struck the blow that broke his sister. “Laurel?” he whispered.
But Laurel looked at him as though she saw nothing. It was unnerving to Monty, who shot a panicked look at Brodie. Easing Laurel from her seat as he rose from his, Brodie guided her around the table before he swept her into his arms. He didn’t wait for the king to dismiss them, nor did he ask permission to go. He carried Laurel to her chamber in silence because she fell asleep before they reached her floor. He laid her on her bed and covered her with a blanket after removing her satin slippers. He noticed for the first time how they were threadbare around the sides. He pulled a chair to the head of the bed and sank into it, his body as weary as his mind. But he refused to leave Laurel to wake alone. She was already isolated enough in her own mind without feeling abandoned by Brodie.
* * *
Laurel was in the Highlands, but she didn’t recognize the hills surrounding her. But the swaying wildflowers, bright cerulean skies, and crisp air told her that she was home. Her horse, Teine, nickered beneath her as she galloped across the meadow, and the breeze lifted her hair from her shoulders. It streamed out behind like a shimmering golden banner as she and her steed charged ahead. She knew not where she was going, only that she was free. Laughter burbled from her lips as she tilted her face to the sun before drawing her attention back to her mount. She heard nothing but birdsong and the tall grass rippling beneath Teine’s pounding hooves.
When a keep came into sight, Laurel slowed her mount, cautious for a moment. But she caught sight of a dark-haired man riding toward her, and while she couldn’t make out his face, she didn’t fear him. Just the opposite. She relaxed and grinned before kneeing Teine forward.
“I thought you would wait for me, thistle,” Brodie said by way of greeting.
“You snored so loudly. Who could sleep? But I feared I exhausted you last eve, so I thought to let you sleep,” Laurel grinned as they sat, alongside each other, atop prancing horses, facing one another. Brodie swooped in for a searing kiss that left Laurel breathless, but hungry for more.
“Indeed you did. You ken I’m normally a light sleeper.”
“Aye. But in truth, I was up with the bairn, so once he slept again, I slipped out. I hoped you would join me.” Laurel gazed at Brodie and noticed the gray hairs at his temples now wove through more of his chestnut mane, and his beard was more salt-and-pepper than it had been when they met. She glanced down at herself, noting her bust was larger than it had once been, and her belly was no longer flat. She looked at Brodie, a smile reflecting happiness that came only from living a life filled with love spread across her face.
“Fear not, Laurie. I will join you, but it shall be in our bed. Ride back with me?” Brodie asked. Laurel sensed it wouldn’t anger him if she refused, but she wanted to return home with her husband.
“Don’t you have duties to tend to?” Laurel asked.
“There is always time to love my wife,” Brodie grinned.
