“Do that again, and no one will see us til dawn, and I won’t be leaving until tomorrow.”
Maude’s laugh followed Kieran as he ducked into a nearby empty stall. He hated laying his plaid on the floor in the hay, but he had no choice. Maude was right that he couldn’t wear his breeks. He wasn’t sure which would be worse: people knowing he’d shot his seed in his clothes or people assuming he’d wet himself. Maude was still laughing when he stepped out of the stall, but it died on her lips as she took in the sight of Kieran as a true Highlander. He took her breath away. Her gaze began at the tips of his boots and traveled up to his bare calves and knees to the tiny patch of visible thigh, lingering below his waist before skimming over his broad chest and thick arms before settling on his handsome face. Her body heated all over again. A niggling doubt about why such a braw and handsome man might want her tried to take root, but she pushed it aside as he once more wrapped her in his arms. Rather than kiss her again, Kieran searched for something in her eyes. She feared he wouldn’t find what he sought.
“Will you wait for me, Maude?”
“Where would I be going? I live here now.”
“That’s not what I meant, and I think you know that. Even if it takes me a moon or two, will you wait until I return for you? You won’t replace me?”
“Replace you? I don’t want anyone else. I’m not going to turn loose just because you taught me to kiss.”
“I’d never assume you’d be loose, but you might find someone else who’s here, who can be with you when I can’t.”
“I hadn’t met anyone before you. I doubt there will be anyone else. I don’t want anyone else, Kieran.”
“I need you to believe me when I say there won’t be anyone else for me. We might not have met under the most auspicious circumstances, but I won’t touch another woman. Maude, I know you’ll worry, and I know you’ll try to rationalize it. You’ll try to tell yourself men have needs, that I’m neither a virgin nor a monk, and you can’t expect me to act like one. You’ll wonder if I’ll forget aboot you or change my mind, if I’ll pass my time with someone from my past.” Maude’s expression, first startled, then guilty, told him his suspicions were correct. He’d considered her likely fears at length the night before, after palming himself twice as he envisioned her. “I swear to you, Maude. There won’t be anyone else because I don’t want anyone but you. You’re too special to settle for anyone else. There’s no substitute for you. I wish I were taking you home with me, and I hope to do just that one day.”
Maude wasn’t sure what to say, so she nodded. She rested her head against his chest, returning to a comforting place. However, now she wondered how she ever compared him to how her father or brother felt when they embraced her.
“Buttercup, look at me.” Kieran waited until her whisky-tinted eyes met his slate-hued ones. “I know we don’t know each other well enough for you to completely believe me. I’ve tried to anticipate your doubts, but I’m sure you’ll come up with more. Maude, I’ve never committed to a woman before, but I’m not the philandering type by nature. I’ve never courted another woman, but I’ve known since I was a young mon that I wouldn’t consider marriage to any woman I couldn’t be faithful to. I want to be faithful out of desire rather than out of duty. No matter who I marry, I will never stray from my wife. I know we’re not married, not even handfasted, but I want my intentions to be clear. I intend to marry you, Maude Sutherland. There will never be another.”
“How can you be so certain? So adamant?”
“Perhaps it is experience. I know what I feel for you is naught like any experience I’ve had in the past. I’ve been in lust. I’ve been infatuated. But this is different. I don’t know how to put it in words, but I can only swear that I know it is. That it’s more real, more significant than aught from my past.”
Maude listened to Kieran’s declarations and, despite her suspicious nature, something about his demeanor and the earnestness of his words and expression made her believe him. She put her finger against his lips then brushed them with her own.
“If I’m your buttercup, are you my turtledove?” Maude murmured.
“I don’t know that I’m as delicate as a turtledove, but aye, when I find my mate, it’s for life. I’m your turtledove.” He buried his nose in her hair, inhaling her fresh lemon verbena scent as though he would imprint it in his mind and heart.
“I’ll miss you, buttercup. It’s as though you’ve been a part of my life for ages rather than a few days.”
“Do you believe in fate?”
“I didn’t before two days ago. Now I do.”
“Come back to me, turtledove. I’ll be here waiting.” Maude graced him with one of her half-smiles, and he thought he found those even more alluring than her grins. “And dinna fash, I willna go aboot caterwauling that name when ye return.”
Her smile transformed into that broad, open-mouth grin, and he questioned his thought from only a moment ago. Her smile transformed her face from ordinary to a picture of beauty.
“I must go now, or I’ll never be able to leave you, buttercup.”
“I know.”
They kept their kiss short, lest they lose control again. Maude walked out of the stables with Kieran and Peat. The sun still hadn’t risen, and a little mist hung low. Kieran looked around before wrapping his arm around her waist and kissing her cheek.
“Promise me you’ll be careful and not take any unneeded risks. I’ll worry anyway without you coming to trouble.” He kissed her once more before hoisting himself into his saddle. He clenched the reins to keep from pulling Maude into the saddle before him and riding away with her somewhere no one recognized them. They would go to neither MacLeod territory nor Sutherland; rather, somewhere they’d just be buttercup and turtledove, not laird or laird’s daughter. “If you need me, you need only send a missive, Maude.”
“I’ll be fine. I’m used to it here.”
“Aye, mayhap, but I also know that you’ll fret that you’re taking me away from my people when I’m leaving to handle an emergency. You’re just as important to me. Write me, and I will come.”
Maude nodded and squeezed the hand he offered her. She watched him clatter out of the bailey. He looked back twice before they could no longer spy one another through the light fog. Maude returned to her chamber and climbed back into bed, squeezing her eyes shut to keep her tears from falling. Kieran forced himself to keep his eyes on the road and his surroundings, rather than picturing Maude as she came apart in his arms. He felt as though something had been torn from him, and now he was incomplete.
Chapter Seven
One week bled into another until nearly a moon had passed. It had shocked Maude to receive a missive from Kieran only a sennight after he left. He must have dispatched his messenger within hours of returning to Stornoway. It was a brief message, but one that reassured her that he arrived in one piece. He would travel two days after his arrival to Assynt, where the raid took place. Her heart sank when she read his destination. While any loss to Kieran’s clan saddened her, she had hoped that the raid had taken place on Lewis or even Glenelg which was further south. Assynt bordered both Mackay and Sutherland territories. Both clans were her family. She was born a Sutherland, but her aunt had married the Sinclair laird, and her cousin Mairghread Sinclair had married the Mackay laird, Tristan. Her cousin now lived at Castle Varrich with her husband and bairns. The messenger awaited a response from her, but she wasn’t sure if she should dare ask the man what he knew of the events. She opted not to involve the courier and asked Kieran instead.
