If only tae win her favor…
Why had it not occurred to her that might be behind Cameron’s desire to help her find her father? All she had to do was think upon how he’d held her, wedged between his thighs, his breath so warm against her ear and making her tremble… to know that something in that moment had forever changed between them.
She had felt it, and he certainly must have felt it from how he had stared at her afterward, his gaze always upon her.
Cameron doing his best to try and overcome his affliction and talk to her.
Cameron always so close to her… just as he was, even now. His hand still clasping hers, the strength in his fingers alone making her shiver.
“Ah, yes, when you return home, tell Conall that I havena forgotten him for his part in saving my life,” King Robert said, as he walked with them to the door. “Leaving him in command of the fortress is a fine test of his mettle. He’ll have his own estate one day when he accomplishes the task I’m considering for him. Yet the time isna right, not until midsummer—och, but enough.”
Throwing open the door to the clamor of a great hall filled with his men at their midday meal, King Robert reached out to clasp Cameron’s shoulder.
“Go with God, Campbell.”
For Aislinn, the king gave only another stern look and then left them standing outside the antechamber, a great cheer resounding from the rafters as he strode toward a raised dais.
“Come, Aislinn.”
She didn’t tarry at Cameron’s low command, her heart racing again when he drew her close against him as if protecting her from all of the curious glances, and proceeded to hustle her from the hall.
A strapping warrior and a long-limbed youth!
Yet something told her from the men’s admiring looks—aye, and lustful, too!—running up and down her body, word must have flown she wasn’t a youth at all.
Muttering a curse, she decided as soon as she could, she would use her knife to crop her hair as close as it had been when she stowed aboard her father’s ship!
“A good plan,” Cameron muttered back at her, startling Aislinn that he’d read her mind until she realized her free hand had strayed to her short locks. “You’re safer with me… unless the king intended tae lock you away in a tower. All these men, and few women save for servants—och, I may have tae fight our way out of here.”
“I want twenty men tae accompany Laird Campbell!” came King Robert’s command from the dais, a loud scraping of benches upon the stone floor making Cameron curse this time as thrice that many rose to their feet. “You there… and you—and you! Follow them and make ready, they’re leaving at once!”
Suddenly it wasn’t just Aislinn and Cameron leaving the great hall, but a host of boisterous Scotsmen striding after them.
“I dinna need more men, mine are enough,” he groused under his breath, his arm tightening around her waist. He didn’t stop hustling her until they were well into the central bailey, where he wheeled around to face King Robert’s soldiers.
“Lady De Burgh is my intended bride and you will afford her all respect! Am I understood?”
At once, any appreciative glances vanished altogether at Cameron’s menacing tone. To a man, the soldiers nodded and straightened their spines to stand at attention.
All of them stiffly awaiting his next command while Aislinn glanced up at Cameron to see an expression on his face that she had never beheld before.
Fearsome. His handsome features as if set in stone.
The formidable Highland warrior that King Robert had spoken of, suddenly right there beside her… his penetrating stare enough to make grown men falter.
So it seemed that several of the soldiers had begun to shake at the knees, but Cameron’s roar to secure their weapons and horses sent them scattering to oblige him.
“Was that enough blustering for you?”
She met his eyes, incredulous that he could tease her after such a display, but it was the slow smile he gave her that madeherknees suddenly feel weak.
Without another word, he kept his hand firmly at her back and guided her toward his own men who had already mounted their horses, while her spirited steed and his stallion snorted and pawed the ground as if eager to resume their journey.
It seemed within the blink of an eye, Cameron had lifted her up into the saddle as easily as if she were weightless, Aislinn feeling an intense wave of disappointment that they’d had no more time to speak to each other.
Her mind still reeled from his declaration to King Robert that he hoped to wed her—aye, Cameron had claimed her again as his intended bride only moments ago!
She had declared as well that she would accept Cameron as her husband with her father’s permission, but what else was she to have said? If she had denied him, he might have refused to take her with him—ah, God, everything was happening so fast!
