“Lucette will probably be killed by his own allies if he tries.”
“Da, they sunk a ship the lads were on. Doesnae that prove that they want the boys dead?”
“That may have been a hasty judgment. Or, that Lucette did it whilst the others slept. Mark me, if they did try to kill them, now they want the lads for a different reason.” Sir Fingal frowned as he thought it all through. “Or, there is something that noble gave his daughter, something the lads now hold, that those DeVeaux want.”
“And probably havenae let Lucette ken anything about,” Brian murmured, seeing the logic in that.
“It doesnae matter,” said Fiona, drawing everyone’s attention her way. “Two wee lads are in danger. That is all that should concern us. Let us end the threat to them first and then we can talk about what their blood kinship matters. I am nay sure it matters at all anyway.”
“Nay?” Brian grimaced. “Anyone related to a royal is naught but trouble.”
“Those lads are sweet, weel mannered, and show great promise. They are nay trouble.”
“Fiona, I ne’er said they were nay good wee lads. I but wonder on how safe they can e’er be with a blood connection to the king of France. If that first cousin was a favorite of the king ...”
“Oh, hell.”
“Aye. The best we can hope for is that their mother was truly a bastard and nay the child of some secret marriage such as Claud had with Marie Anne, their mother.”
“Oh, hell.”
Brian could not help but fully agree with Fiona’s concise opinion on the matter.
Chapter 17
“Those cursed Camerons are here.”
Brian lifted his head from Arianna’s plump breasts and glared at the door. He was pleased to see that his father had gained enough sense not to simply walk in. The man’s timing was still bad, he thought as he met Arianna’s sleepy but shocked gaze. Brian had anticipated waking her with his lovemaking. His father pounding on the bedchamber door and yelling at him had spoiled that.
“Good. We have need of more men,” Brian said, pinning Arianna to the bed when she tried to squirm away. “I will be down to talk to them by the time they have washed and sat for something to eat.”
“So ye mean to leave me to have to see to them? Just as Ewan always does?”
“Aye, just like Ewan.”
He groaned and rested his head against Arianna’s breasts as he listened to his father stomp off, his grumbling about ungrateful sons slowly fading away. Brian suspected Ewan had not appreciated their father banging on his bedchamber door any more than Brian had and probably for the same reason. He looked down at Arianna and kissed each blush-stained cheek.
“Should we nay go and greet them?” she asked, idly trailing her fingers up and down his spine. “They have come to help us fight our enemies, after all.”
“And will be taking some time to wash the dust of travel away first. I intend to properly welcome the new day first.”
“But your father will ken what we have been doing once we join the others.”
“Arianna, ye do ken that ye are fretting about the sensibilities of a mon who has filled this keep near to bursting with bastards and continued to rut with every woman who didnae knock him over until he married our Mab, dinnae ye?”
She had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Sir Fingal MacFingal was a very strange man. She would think him a bitter, heartless fool if she had not seen him with the children running all around Scarglas, did not stop to think on how he had gathered all those carelessly bred children of his close to him. From what little she had seen last night, the man was also good to Mab, his wife, in his own peculiar way. Before she could say a word, however, Brian kissed her. Arianna wrapped her body around his and let the hot desire he so easily stirred within her push all thought from her mind.
He made love to her with a fierce greed she reveled in. His every touch, every kiss, fed her need for him until she was just as greedy as he was. Arianna clung to him as he drove them both to passion’s heights, her release so hot and wild, she could do no more than gasp out his name as it tore through her. The way he growled her name as he emptied himself inside her only intensified her pleasure.
Arianna was not certain how long it took her to come back to her full senses, but she did not try to pull away from Brian as she did. His weight on top of her, the warmth of his strong body, and even the lingering scent of their lovemaking filled her with contentment. At that moment she could almost believe that she could hold him this way forever. A banging at the door startled her out of her dreamy lethargy.
“Some of those Murrays are here,” bellowed Sir Fingal through the door. “They want to see the lass. Want me to send them up here?”
Brian found himself abruptly shoved aside. He sat up and caught a brief, delightful, glimpse of Arianna’s tempting backside as she hurried behind the privacy screen in the far corner of the room. Sighing, he climbed out of bed, slung his plaid around himself, and strode to the door, his annoyance with his father growing every step of the way. He flung open the door and glared at his father.
“That isnae amusing, Da,” he snapped.
“Didnae intend it to be,” drawled Sir Fingal. “Thought ye might prefer your old fither disturbing ye again rather than having her kinsmen find ye when they started searching for ye. Suspicion they will be starting to look for her soon.”
