“Do we truly have only one more night until we---” Maude couldn’t finish her thought, embarrassment overwhelmed her.
“Until we can make love? Until I can slip inside you and lose myself to the feel of your body and the pleasure we’ll share? Until I make you scream my name as I bellow yours? Until I am yours and you are mine forever? Aye, one more night. If I can survive this one.”
Lust and need tempted Maude to suggest she would visit Kieran that night, but fear of being caught forced her good sense to return. She turned in Kieran’s arms and wrapped hers around his neck. She stood on her toes and kissed him, her tongue flicking across the seam of his lips until he allowed her entry. His hands slid to her backside, pulling her tighter against his cockstand. He enjoyed Maude’s control over their kiss as she pressed for more. She was insatiable after days of restraint. Her mewling sounds of impatience spurred him on until he lifted her, and her legs came around his waist.
“I would skip the evening meal and feast upon you,” Maude murmured as it was her turn to graze her teeth along his neck before flicking her tongue at the exposed dip between his collarbones.
“Tomorrow, buttercup.”
“Now, turtledove.”
“Not if you want me to have my cock and cods tomorrow. If we don’t appear, your father will skewer me, and it’ll be your mother who hands him the sword.”
Maude sighed as she eased away from the tempting skin along his jaw. She unfastened her legs and slid down his body before pulling her robe closed over her chemise. Kieran released her but made no move to leave despite Maude’s obvious need to dress.
“You have no maid here. Someone must lace you into your gown.”
“Ever practical, turtledove?”
“Aught to assist you. Now be quick.” He gave her a playful tap on the backside before she pulled a gown from a hook and disappeared behind the screen.
They entered the Great Hall together to cheers from the Sutherlands gathered for the evening meal. Even though the official announcement was yet to be made, many had already heard or deduced that Lady Maude had returned home to marry. By the end of the night, Maude’s feet pained her, and she worried she wouldn’t be able to walk to her own wedding after spending much of the evening dancing. Kieran had monopolized her time, and it filled her heart to overflowing. She reveled in every moment she spent in his arms, and she enjoyed the opportunity to dance where she wasn’t self-conscious. She’d spied a few of the young men who had taunted her when she was younger, but many had already married or turned away when their eyes met. She refused to allow them to ruin her night. She bid Kieran goodnight at the bottom of the stairs as her family observed, and the temptation to promise to sneak to his chamber once more coursed through her, but she tamped it down. They had waited months for their wedding; she could wait another twelve hours.
* * *
The morning of Maude’s wedding dawned with the first clear sky in over a week. The sun poured into her chamber as she bathed in peace. Maude accepted that her mother and Blair would arrive with maids to help prepare her for the ceremony, but for the moment, she was blessedly alone and able to soak in the steaming water. She’d passed a restless night often running her hand over the space across from her that Kieran would occupy that night. She scrubbed her hair and body before patting herself dry. She rubbed lemon verbena oil into her skin as she imagined Kieran’s hands one day completing the task for her. Her body warmed more from her musings than her hands. She’d finished pulling her chemise into place when a knock sounded at her door. She eased her robe on before opening the door to find Lachlan on the other side.
“I wasn’t expecting you,” she smiled.
“Can’t I visit ma wee sister?” Lachlan kissed her on the cheek. “You won’t be coming back here often now that you’re to be a married woman. I would sneak in a few more minutes with you before you leave us behind once more.”
“This will always be my home. I pray Stornoway will come to mean as much to me, but Dunrobin will always hold a piece of my heart since this is where you and Mama and Da will always be. Even Blair’s forever connected to Sutherland, even when she returns to court or marries. I’m glad you came.”
“I wanted to speak to you for a moment.” Lachlan pulled the chair to rest across from the foot of the bed and gestured for Maude to take a seat. “I watched you last night with Kieran. I’ve never seen you so at ease with anyone, especially not with a mon. Your entire everything shone with beauty and happiness, and it gladdens my heart. I think Kieran has been a gift to us because you seem once again to be the Maude that you’ve hidden for so long. I have tried to forgive myself for my role in how you changed, but I haven’t been able to. It’s my greatest regret, and my greatest failure. I will forever be indebted to Kieran for helping you to come out of your shell,” Lachlan took Maude’s hands. “But if he should ever fail you, should he ever hurt you in any way, you need only tell me, and I will come for you. No questions asked, no hesitation. You’ll always have a home here. I ken Da has settled dower lands for you but come here. Come home if you need to. I love you, Maddie.” Lachlan reverted to his childhood pet name for her. He hadn’t been able to say the “au” in her name when they were young.
“Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me. It will be strange to move into a new keep and know that it will be my home for the rest of my life. At court, I knew it was temporary. For most of the time I was there, I assumed I would return here one day. At least until you wed and Mama and Da were gone.”
“Until? Why would any of those things change whether you remained here?”
“You’ll marry, and I doubt your wife would want a spinster sister lurking aboot when she is to be lady of this clan.”
“I wouldn’t marry the chit if she wouldn’t welcome either of my sisters in their home.”
Maude smiled and hugged Lachlan rather than argue with him. “I love you, Lach. I always have and always will. You’ve been a good big brother to me. No, don’t disagree with me. All siblings have their differences, but you have always been there for me, and I love you for it.”
They pulled apart, and Lachlan reached into his sporran. Maude watched as he pulled out a beautiful brooch with a large amethyst stone in the center. It was a brooch intended for a laird or his wife.
“Kieran asked that I bring this to you. Mama will bring you a length of the MacLeod laird’s plaid, but Kieran requested I give this to you. He wanted you to look at it with no one snatching it from you to ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’. He said it was his father’s, and it would honor him if you’d wear it to the ceremony and accept it as a wedding gift.”
Maude looked at the jewel that rested in her palm, running a finger over the filigree and craftsmanship. She nodded and blinked several times before whispering, “Please pass along my thanks. I shall wear it with pride. I love it.”
Amelia, Blair, and several maids interrupted them when they entered after a perfunctory knock. Maude closed the brooch in her hand and tucked it into the pocket of her robe. Her finger ran over the stone as Lachlan left, and she took his place in the chair once they moved it before the looking glass. They spent the next two hours braiding her hair and weaving ribbons through the thick plaits before she slipped into her mother’s wedding gown. It fit as though someone had stitched it for her. She twisted to look at herself from various angles and felt beautiful without reservation for the first time in her life. She hoped Kieran liked her appearance. She would know soon enough.
Chapter Twenty
Kieran stood impatiently on the steps of the Sutherland kirk as he shifted, trying to glimpse Maude when she exited the keep. He stood taller than most Lowlanders, but his height wasn’t exceptional in the sea of Highlanders. He caught sight of a dark head with a crown of early spring flowers, but it wasn’t until Maude was nearly to him that the crowd parted wide enough for him to see her face. His breath caught in his chest as he took in his bonnie bride. Her whisky hued eyes sparkled, and the right corner of her lips curled in her shy smile. He took in the brooch on her shoulder and the length of MacLeod plaid that swathed her shoulder. Her trim body looked as though someone had poured her into her gown, and once again, he appreciated his breacan feile and sporran that hid the immediate reaction his body had to her approach. He stepped down to meet her amid gasps and chuckles. He took her hand and wove his fingers through hers, ignoring propriety that dictated he await her on the steps and place her hand on his forearm.
“I have never seen a sight more breathtaking than you, buttercup. I shall remember this moment as I lay in our bed, an auld mon awaiting my chance to enter the Lord’s kingdom.” Kieran kissed her cheek, once more throwing decorum to the wind. “The sight of you in my plaid makes my world perfect.”
