Laird Halkerston got a triumphant look on his face. “Nay. I don’ think I will give ye permission, Duncan. Maybe that will teach ye no’ to go out for early morning rides with me betrothed. As a matter of fact, ye can hie back to the lodge right now.”
He had no time to react. A happy cry came out from the hostelry at the village square crossroads. “Master Bruce! Ye’ve returned. Alice will be overjoyed!” It was old Agatha, the elder who looked after his sister when the villagers were busy. Her white hair was covered with a well-worn arisaid, and her walking stick was made from the branch of a hawthorn tree.
Laird Roy Halkerston moved his horse forward so Agatha’s slow progress toward them was halted. “Master Bruce has no time to dillydally with his family, ye auld crone. He’s leaving right away.” The laird looked over his shoulder at Bruce and made a shooing gesture with his chin. “Why are ye still here, Duncan? Go back to the lodge. Tell the captain of the guards to give ye double duties. Ye can guard the stables for the next sixteen hours. Off ye go!”
In a way, it was a relief to know Laird Halkerston knew about them. Bruce could only feel relief that he and Laura had never overstepped the boundaries of propriety. If they had, it might have jeopardized this match that Laura and her brother both so clearly wanted.
“Tell Alice I send greetings, Agatha!” he shouted over his shoulder. “Tell her I will see her soon!” He dug his spurs into Maegli’s hindquarters, and the destrier took off at such a speed the familiar landscape of his homeland became a blur on each side.
* * *
They were destined to be lovers. Laura kept that secret locked in her heart, but just because it was a secret did not mean it was as true today as it had been from the second time in her life that she had seen him. Sure, he was more battle-scarred and battle-weary than the time they had first met at Henry’s wedding. Standing on her balcony looking out at the gray mist spreading over the sea, Laura knew that Bruce Duncan’s life had been a hard and bloodthirsty one. Many marauding packs of brigands and opportunistic pirate ships would have come over the horizon with Huna Castle as their target. He had spent the two and half years since their last meeting living in daily expectation of combat, and that was only when he was not actively engaged in it. All soldiers lived such lives.
But Bruce had not allowed this to change him. He was as loving a brother now as he had ever been. Yes, he would have had women dare to invite him into their beds in the same way one might enjoy discovering what it felt like to sleep with one of the godlike heroes from the old tales, but Laura knew this had never led to them loving him the way she did. He was restless, like the shifting sands that curved around the tidal waters on the beach below her balcony. Laura needed to know if he would rest with her a while. She badly wanted to hold him in her arms and soothe away the sadness and worries he had encountered in his hard life.
Laura had had no choice but to slip a mild sleeping potion into Mary’s mug. Her maid slept on a truckle bed beside the dais. The sound of her soft snores let Laura know she could leave. Pushing the bed covers aside and tying her high-waisted dressing gown under her bosom, Laura headed out for the stables.
Over twelve hours had passed since he had ridden away from the little village of St. John’s, but he was still alert and standing guard at the stable entrance. The smell of hay mixed with the hair from horse coats was so sharp it nearly made her sneeze. She walked around to the tackle room and stood amidst the harnesses and stirrups. Knowing him too well by now, Laura pursed her lips and whistled softly.
“Bruce…come deeper inside. I’m here.”
He stretched and seemed to decide it was time for a patrol around the perimeter. When he reached the tackle room, he ducked inside, as the door lintel was very low.
“Greetings, beautiful stranger,” he said in his deep voice.
Laura had forgotten how thrilling she found it to be close to him. She threw herself into his arms. “Bruce, I had to see ye. I have made a terrible mistake. I dinnae want to marry auld Roy. He’s mean to people.”
He stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head, where the soft new curls growing there tickled his nose. “That seems to be a strange reason for such a hasty decision, lass.” He kissed her head again, and she drew ever closer to him. “Why don’ ye marry the auld weasel an’ then tell him to stop bein’ so mean?”
Her soft chuckle filled the room. “Shh,” he warned her. “The grooms sleep over the roof to guard the oats and fodder. Let’s move away from here to somewhere safe.” There was a barn full of hay bales and pitchforks that was nice and dry. No grooms were allowed to sleep in there because of the risk of fire from one of their lanterns. When Bruce led her inside and then went to fetch one of the oil lamps, Laura knew they were breaking so many rules, but she no longer cared. He came to sit beside her, but that displeased her. Laura felt as if she was running out of time. She needed Bruce Duncan to know how much she loved him.
“Come.” She climbed up to the top of the hay bales, where the lush dry grass created a flat, comfortable surface. “I have so much to tell ye.” The top of the bales of hay was not too high, only a few feet off the floor. It had been a long cold winter, after all. He clambered up to where she was sitting, that smile she loved so much on his face. When he reached her, she pushed him so that he would have to lie down. Then she lay in the crook of his arm and began to whisper, positioning her mouth close to his ear so no one would overhear them. “I don’ care what ye say to me, Bruce, but I have to be honest with ye. Agatha took me to visit Alice, and I gave her ten gold sovereigns. That has naught to do with ye, ye ken, so we can leave yer male pride out of it. It was a transaction between yer sister an’ me! I asked her to make me a Duncan clan plaid.”
He had left the oil lamp on the barn floor, but she was still able to see the expression on his face. He held her tightly to his chest, and Laura had never felt so desired and loved in her life before. “Thank ye, lass. That would mean so much to Alice. She is such a good weaver and seamstress, just like our mither was.”
“That was what I was hopin’ ye’d say, Bruce. Now…kiss me.”
It was the most natural thing to do. Lying side by side on the hay bales, they could move so that their faces were opposite. Their kisses were tentative at first, as if they needed to find the perfect way to slot their bodies together. When they got used to the touch and feel of each other’s lips, the kisses became deeper and more like an exploration of their bodies, not only their faces. Laura allowed his hot kisses to wander down her neck and over her breasts, untying her dressing gown so the soft nipples could harden under the gentle nibbles and licks from his mouth.
Then it was her turn, and she did what she had dreamed of doing ever since laying eyes on him in the courtyard. She undid the laces of his plain cotton shirt and tore it open. His body, his chest, was sublime. She rubbed her face against his skin, inhaling his scent, reveling in how every inch of his body had the power to make her want more as her blood heated and pulsed. Laura ran her fingers over the hard muscles, finding it fascinating how his taut stomach rippled with furrows and hard bulges of muscle to form a rigid pattern that seemed to guide her hands and eyes down to below the belt of his plaid. But when her hands reached to touch underneath, he gripped them, saying, “If we want to plan a way of leaving this place together, Laura, we need to keep our wits about us. And I cannae do that if ye tempt me to go further tonight, me dearest lass.”
She could not help pouting a little. “I have kent for many days now that I love ye, Bruce. I’m nearly one and twenty years of age. I ken that love is more than just a few kisses in the dark.”
That made him laugh softly. “Och aye, I understand how difficult it is to stop when the heat is coursing through the veins. It feels as if ye will never feel satisfaction again, but we must see this to the end without distractions. I promise to make it up to ye. The sweet indulgence ye want must be left for another day, me darling girl. I dinnae plan on living off me wife’s money for the rest of our lives together. D’ye think ye can be happy as a soldier’s wife?”
Laura was grateful for Bruce bringing up this subject. She had no thoughts for their future together, but it helped take her mind off the constant throbbing between her soft thighs. “All I want to plan for now is how we can leave the castle together. How I wish we were in our wee snowdrop woods. We could ride away and never look back.”
He grunted. “I’m bonded to Halkerston for another year before I am freed from my contract, Laura. The only way I can leave early is if another laird buys me for a higher price and pays Roy for me. If I leave with me bond unfulfilled, no other laird will take me on. When a soldier swears allegiance and an oath to stay true to a laird, it can be the difference ’tween life an’ death. I cannae forswear meself.”
“How barbaric!” Laura was outraged. “Still, I can speak to me faither to find out if he is willing to buy ye out, seeing as Henry will probably say no.”
They lay in one another’s arms for many long hours, whispering plans about how to escape the wretched coil Fate had lured them into. Both of the lovers were startled when the cock’s crow alerted them to the approaching dawn.
“Ye must go back to yer chambers afore Mary wakes,” he insisted.
A cold shiver ran down Laura's back. “To hell with them all, Bruce. Let’s flee right now! I feel it in me bones that this is our last chance! I beg of ye!”
He showed a little exasperation. With every passing moment, she risked being discovered with him in the barn as the servants awoke. “I cannae forswear me oath, lass! Please understand! Even if I were bonded to the devil himself, I would only still have two choices: to be bought out by another laird or to wait the year out. That’s all I can do! I’m no’ one o’ yer fancy gentlemen who can do whatever he pleases!”
