He took a deep breath. “You are a princess; I am just a laird…”
She stared at him, incredulous. “And you would not fight for me? You would just let me go? You don’t care even enough to…”
He grasped her by the arms then, roughly, pulling her closer. “Bloody Hell! God, I would fight for you! Till my last breath! But not if… not if I can’t have your heart. Because you already have mine.” His eyes were dark and intense with emotion as he searched her face.
“You have my heart, you foolish man”, she said softly. “I am not going anywhere. I belong here, with you, always.
He leaned down and kissed her, whispering against her lips, “Mo ghràdh bithbhuan”.My love forever.
Chapter
It had been a long day for everyone, the first day of harvest. Ella stretched out in bed and sighed, pleased with the amount of food they had already put away for winter, her mind already on tomorrow’s work. She was proud of what she’d accomplished, and how much work she’d been able to take off of Ceann’s shoulders. A moment later, Ceann came in, smiling when he caught site of her, his eyes softening. He bent to put another block of peat on the fire, before taking off his clothing and sliding in beside her.
“Mmm… you’re warm.”
She took his hand and placed in on her rounded stomach. “Can you feel it? Your son is wide awake still. I think he must have slept the day away while everyone else was hard at work.”
Ceann broke into a wide grin. “Aye, I can feel him!” He looked at her in wonderment. “God, he’s really there… it was so hard to believe before, but now…” He put his cheek to where the babe moved within her. “Go to sleep now son, your ma needs her rest.”
“He is certainly his father’s son.”
He smiled and kissed her lightly. “And what do you mean by thatmo cridhe?”
Ella laughed. “You will find out soon enough. What will you name him?” she asked. “Have you decided?”
He leaned on one elbow to look down at her in the candlelight. “How can we be sure it’s a ‘him’? What if we have a wee daughter instead?”
“Because Ethan said so. He said he will be the next Great Laird of Tulloch.”
“Aye, well if Ethan says so. But I would be just as happy with a wee daughter. This time. Then we would try again…” He leaned over and captured her lips in a deep kiss.
She pushed him away, laughing. “You haven’t answered me, what will you call him?”
His expression grew more serious. “We will name him after my father. The man who not only made certain that I was born, but that I found my soul mate.” He paused, cupping her cheek with a calloused palm. “Do you know, every moment of pain I’ve ever suffered has been worth it, a thousand times over, if it brought me to you.”
Ella felt tears sting the back of her eyes at his words. “Artair it is, then. He will have a big name to live up to.”
“Aye, that he will.”
Ella walked in the garden, her hand on her rounded stomach, her mind on the baby she would soon hold. It would not be long now. She had spent the past weeks sewing tiny clothes with help from Mairi and Elizabeth, while Ceann had made a beautiful cradle of oak with his own hands. She had never known he could do such. She smiled to herself. He was even more excited than she was, and more and more nervous as the time grew closer. He saw to her every need, doted on her till she had to shoo him away to go work with his neglected men.
Suddenly an arm came around her throat, and a hand clapped over her mouth as she was dragged behind some thick shrubs.
“Don’t make a sound, wench, or you’ll die and your babe with you.”
She saw the flash of a blade, and remained silent, straining to see who held her. The voice was familiar… Hugh. She knew it for certain. He turned, pulling her behind him, pushing aside branches and brambles to reveal a tiny door hidden in the castle wall. There were more brambles hiding it from the outside. He pulled her out through the door and into the nearby wood, all the while holding the knife to her throat and muttering quiet threats. “You’ll be a good lass, now, and remember you’re just as good to me dead as alive. It doesn’t matter.” After dragging her a few leagues, he hoisted her up onto a waiting horse, mounting behind her.
This could not be happening again, it just couldn’t! And now she truly feared for her life, for she knew that the curse had been broken, and that she had been the one to break it. If Ross found out, her life would be forfeit, beyond all doubt. And her child, heir to Castle Tulloch and all its wealth, would die with her, as would all of Ceann’s hopes and dreams. She couldn’t let that happen to him, she loved him too much. She had escaped once from this man, she could do so again.
Chapter 21
She stood before him once more, seething, wishing she could kill him by will alone. Ross had the power to take everything from her, but she would not let him. He would not know Ceann had fathered this child.
“I hear Ceann has wed you. Strange. Last time I saw him he was still an avowed bachelor. He swore you were nothing to him.” He looked meaningfully at her belly. “What has changed his mind, I wonder?”
Ella forced her gaze to drop to the floor as if she were ashamed. “I needed a father for my child”, she said softly, making her voice tremble just a little. “He had no use for a wife, but he took pity on me. We made…an arrangement of sorts. It is not a true marriage.”
Ross lifted his eyebrows and looked at her speculatively. “You are saying that this child is not the spawn of the Laird MacKenzie? That you lay with another man before him and he took a slut to wife,andagreed to give his own name to her bastard?”
