“Nae,” she said without hesitation. “Let us sit here fer a bit.”
He bent his knees and sat back down on the tree stump. Ismay thought he looked like some fabled king on his throne.
She joined him on a nearby rock and ran her fingers through her wet hair. She felt his eyes on her but when she looked, he quickly averted his gaze.
“Ye are the color of autumn,” he said, finally giving away his fascination with her.
“And ye are like the winter, thawing in spring.”
He grinned from beneath his brows and Ismay was thankful he did not do it often. If the simmering seduction that shaped his lips and sparked his eyes were not enough, he rose from the tree stump and went to her. Without saying a word, he bent again, this time before her and leaned in close enough to kiss her.
He did not kiss her but reached up to touch her hair. “We should return to the castle and let Joan dry yer tresses.”
She shook her head. “I want to stay here for a wee bit longer.”
“Verra well,” he said with tenderness.
“Ismay,” he breathed her name. She responded as if he touched her. “May I—”
“There ye are!” Lewis called out with a smile. “I have been looking fer ye since we met in the Great Hall.”
Constantine clenched his jaw but said nothing in anger to his cousin.
“Is it true? Are we going to fight the Confederation?”
“’Tis possible if they side with John MacKintosh,” the chief toldhim, to which Lewis let out a boisterous shout of glee.
Constantine didn’t say what he had meant to tell her before their interruption. May he what?
They returned to the castle and Constantine left her to meet up with his kin in the Great Hall.
Ismay spent the rest of the afternoon with Hilary and Joan, the former lamenting that her kin were going to battle against the kin of her betrothed. Ismay refused to think about Highlanders coming at Constantine with swords and axes. He had been stabbed once already since she had known him. She prayed he didn’t get stabbed again.
Later, when word came the meeting was over, Constantine did not return to her, but Lachlan found her and let her know that the Lochiel waited for the elders to let them know his decision. He would fight.
Chapter Fourteen
For the firsttime in years Constantine didn’t want to leave for battle.
He sat alone in the Great Hall after his kins’ meeting took place. His men had all left and now he waited for the elder council.
In the silence, his thoughts drifted toward things of war. He had been a soldier since he was a boy, though it was not until he was five and ten that his fame began.
Dispatched to Inverlochy by his older brother, Gilbert, Constantine had fought under the Marquis of Montrose against the Campbells. They won a decisive victory and every battle after that. When it became evident that the victories were all due to him. He was promoted to captain and gained several other titles. But the cost had been too high. So high.
It didn’t escape Constantine’s notice that he had been apart from Ismay Drummond for several hours and thoughts of Alison had returned to haunt him.
He had been called to duty while building their home at the foot of Ben Nevis. He had not wanted to leave her. She was carrying their babe and the thought of her alone had vexed him deeply, so he moved her parents to Tor Castle to be with her. He had left to fight the Battle of the Pass Near Tullich, but after that victory his name became something to be feared and admired for his great strategic mind. Hefought, loving making the enemy suffer for supporting Cromwell and killing his kin. He feared no army and won the next three battles.
He had received word that his wife had started her pains of labor. He celebrated with his men and asked for leave to see them. By morning, approval for his leave had been granted but it was too late. His wife and child had perished in the night.
He felt a swell of regret and guilt course through him now.
Fighting and killing took precedence over yer family, Constantine,his father-in-law had rightly accused.
Nae, her mother had spat.’Tis fame and glory that beguiled his twisted heart.
We took them away and buried them without ye. Ye didna deserve to be there.
