“What if he is killed?” Agnes asked her sister.
“He is apt to be if he persists in choosing sides,” Annabella said.
“Angus chose sides,” was the reply she received.
“Nay, not really. What Angus has done is accept the facts in this matter. Mary Stuart is gone from Scotland, and unlikely to ever return. James the Sixth, for all he is a wee lad, now sits upon the throne, while Moray stands behind it. Those are the facts. Angus neither lobbies for the king nor seeks to bring the queen back. He simply accepts what is.”
“Matthew hae explained it all to me now. Our poor queen was driven from her throne by wicked and ambitious men,” Agnes said.
Annabella found herself exasperated by her younger sister’s sudden conversion. “That is nae the complete truth, Aggie. Ye hae lived wi’ us, and ye know the full truth. I shall nae go into it wi’ ye. I would like ye to stay, but go if ye will wi’ yer husband. At least yer son will be safe here at Duin.”
“I will send for him when I am resettled wi’ Da and Mam at Rath,” Agnes said.
“Of course,” Annabella said. She seriously doubted that Agnes would send for her son, and if she did it was unlikely the Fergusons would turn the boy over to her. They would not allow one of their own to be placed in needless danger. As it was, her parents were not going to be happy to have Agnes bringing treason into their house. “I’ll ask ye to carry a letter to our parents, if ye will,” she said.
“I will be happy to do so,” Agnes answered her. “It is little enough, considering all yer kindness to me.”
Later that evening, as she and Angus lay abed after a delicious bout of lovemaking, she told her husband of her sister’s change of heart regarding Matthew. She was sitting between his long legs, her back against his chest while he played with her full breasts.
“She loves him,” Angus said dryly. “Women do odd things for love.”
“I never did!” Annabella protested, then purred as he dropped a kiss on her rounded shoulder. “Umm, that’s nice.”
“Ye dressed as a lad and followed me to Brittany,” he said with a chuckle. “Since ye hae nae business in Brittany, I must assume that ye love me, madam.” He gave the two round breasts a gentle squeeze, tweaking the nipples as well.
“Ohhh!” The tweak sent a flash of sensation to her nether parts. She could feel his cock growing harder against her lower back. Removing his hands from her breasts, Annabella rolled over, kneeling first in order to push him fully onto his back. Then she grasped the towering flesh, swung over him, and guided it into her wet sheath. Sinking down upon him, she sighed with satisfaction as she began to ride him.
At first he held her hips to steady her, but eventually she found her perfect balance, and his hands reached up to grasp her breasts again. His eyes closed slowly, and he groaned with the outrageous pleasure she was giving him, not just with her luscious, perfect body, but with her long sable hair that swung back and forth, brushing his sensitive flesh until he was almost ready to scream with delight. He groaned again.
Annabella loved feeling as if she were in total control of their passion. Her knees and thighs squeezed his torso. Her hot sheath squeezed his thick length. She watched the lust build and spread over his gorgeous, handsome face. His dark, thick eyelashes quivered against his wind-tanned cheekbones. He groaned once, and she knew she had him. When some minutes later he groaned again, she could feel his cock trembling within her, and then as her sheath tightened about it one final time, his juices burst forth. Unable to help herself, Annabella threw back her head and screamed. Then she collapsed atop him.
After a few moments he rolled her over onto her back. “And now, madam, you will pay the piper for your wickedly skillful torture of your master.”
“Ye’re still hard.” She gasped and shuddered in a final burst of pleasure.
“Aye,” he whispered hotly in her ear, the tip of his tongue teasing at the whorl of her ear. His teeth nibbled delicately on her lobe. “Hard and hot and hungry still, madam.”
He began to move on her once more. The rhythm was very, very slow at first, a teasing hard thrust followed by a leisurely withdrawal that after a few moments had her gasping with a burgeoning need she couldn’t quite believe. Then his movement increased in its tempo, becoming faster and faster and faster. Her legs wrapped about him. Her fingers dug into his muscled shoulders. She moaned with a need that kept growing greater and greater and greater. “Dinna stop!” she cried softly.
“I dinna intend to,” he growled back.
The world was suddenly changing around her. The air was sweet and hot by turns. A myriad of colors flashed behind her closed eyelids. She was flying. Aye! Flying and flying straight up into the bright golden sun. Stars burst all around her, showering their glittering bits over her head. Annabella cried out as she shuddered again not once, not twice, but three long shudders of utter perfect pleasure. It was too much. Too, too wonderful! And then everything went black.
With the last bit of his strength Angus rolled off of her and lay gasping on his back like a large salmon pulled from the water and tossed upon the grassy bank. Reaching for her small hand, he squeezed it tenderly; then, bringing it to his mouth, he kissed it several small kisses. The most passionate woman in the borders hid her gorgeous, shapely body behind a plain face that most men wouldn’t give a second look. And she was his till death parted them. He meant that to be a very long time.
This time they both slept soundly until the morning. But as much as they wanted to remain abed, they knew they must arise. Annabella hurried to dress so she might see Agnes off personally. Angus, she knew, would not come to the courtyard. He would stand on the battlements of the castle and watch his brother and Agnes depart. He had said all he had to say to Matthew. If his damned fool of a younger brother could not see the error of his ways, then he must go forth from Duin before he brought trouble down on all of them. If Angus Ferguson felt any regret in his actions, it was for the sorrow this would bring old Jeanne, Matthew and Jean’s mother. But Jeanne would understand.
She was loyal to Duin and always had been.
Annabella hurried into the castle courtyard, where Agnes was embracing her small son and promising to send for him one day. Robbie Ferguson didn’t really understand, for he was still too young. He squirmed away from her and ran off to find his twin cousins. Annabella hugged her youngest sister. Then she handed her the sealed parchment she had written to their parents.
“Write to me, and tell me whether Rob has found a wife yet. And if he has, tell me if you like her,” Annabella said. Then she hugged Agnes. “I’ll miss ye, Aggie.”
“My place is with Matthew,” Agnes said primly. “He awaits me on the other side of the drawbridge. Ten young Duin men are going wi’ us. They are loyal to the queen.”
“I am glad ye will hae protection. ’Tis a long ride to Rath,” Annabella said.
Ten men! She must remember to tell Angus. He would want to know.
