Their horses nibbling side by side at the grass interspersed with late-blooming heather while Alec swept up a long green blade to chew upon thoughtfully.
By God, was he a fearsome Highland warrior or a sheep? Rowen couldn’t stop the giggle that erupted from her, and he echoed her with a laugh that made warmth sluice through her as she stared at his face made all the more handsome by his easy smile.
“You never chew upon grass?” came his teasing query, Rowen shaking her head and giving a most unfeminine-like snort.
Her reaction made him laugh again, though this time she looked away and did her best to focus upon the intense blue of the ocean and the wind-whipped waves.
Anything to help her ignore the quickening of her heartbeat and the strange way his husky laughter made her feel—ah, God, whatever was the matter with her? She didn’t like it, no, she didn’t like it at all!
“Rowen, look at me. Do you ever wonder why King Robert chose us tae wed each other?”
CHAPTER8
“Why bother with such musings?” Rowen snapped, meeting Alec’s gaze, though she was startled that he had voiced such a query. “The thing is done and canna be undone unless—” Her face suddenly feeling warm, she had stopped herself before saying anything about death separating them, but mayhap Alec had thought the same thing for he sighed heavily.
“Aye, I’m a warrior and my death could come at any time during battle, which would set you free…but I know nothing more than what my father told me when I arrived back in Mackay country. King Robert knew that you and I were both unmarried, our position as the offspring of ruling chieftains making us the perfect choice?—”
“Perfectchoice,” Rowen echoed bitterly, the sudden pained expression on Alec’s face making her wonder if he felt she had just insulted him. Yet she rushed on, unable to stop herself. “We areenemies, Mackay! The king must have drank too much ale the day he decided that we should wed tae foster peace. It’s an impossible position—aye, and hopeless, too! Your clan hates my clan, your kinsmen have slain my kinsmen. Shall I list the transgressions between the Sutherlands and the Mackays?”
“Och, lass…” Alec began, but still Rowen continued after inhaling sharply.
“You were gone these past two years, aye? North Lanarkshire tae train with your cousin Roger Douglas’s men, or so my father told me. What do you think happened during that time? Rainbows and all of us living in harmony? Ha! More like your clan stealing cows and sheep from our clan, farmers murdered and cottages burned. Your clan trespassing upon our lands tae hunt game that spurred the same from my kinsmen with some wounded or killed—aye, and worst of all? The abduction of Tira Cheyne this past summer, her father the chieftain of a sept of our clan whose lands lie closest to Mackay country. The Cheynes caught the Mackay bastards that committed so foul an act, but not before they traded her tae raiders harrying the coast!”
“Aye, I heard of it, and they exacted their revenge by beheading those men,” Alec interjected even as Rowen jumped up from the rock to glare at him.
“As they well deserved—but how did that help Tira? No one knows if she’s alive or dead. Ah, God, dinna you see? There’s no hope for this marriage with such hatred sown between our clans. Even if by a miracle from heaven we found some peace together, do you think it would make a difference? Och, you’re a fool if you believe so?—”
“Idobelieve it, Rowen.”
Alec stood now, too, and stared into her eyes with an intensity that made her face flush with warmth, and she took a step backward.
“I-I dinna understand…”
“I’ll tell you then. I canna say why King Robert chose me for your husband other than my father’s rank among our clan, but I believe he chose you because he must have heard you were raised more as a lad than a lass. Not coddled and meek like many highborn daughters, but strong-minded and spirited and courageous—aye, and more beautiful than any woman I’ve seen.”
Rowen blinked and took another step backward as Alec drew closer, the way he still looked at her making her feel all shivery inside—och, what madness was coming over her?
“B-beauty has n-nothing tae do with courage,” she stammered, no one ever having so complimented her before. “Dinna come any closer, Mackay, or…or I’ll?—”
“What? You’ll bite me again or pommel me? It’s those traits that will give you strength tae face any challenges coming our way as a Sutherland and Mackay joined in marriage. King Robert knew it wouldna be easy for either of us…so mayhap he believes I possess those traits as well. I met him once when I rode with Roger Douglas after his English bride when she ran away from him.”
“English?” Rowen blurted, grateful at least that Alec hadn’t moved any closer.
“Aye, if there ever were two enemies thrown together by fate…yet I’ve never seen such love as what was forged between them.”
“Yet…yet you say she ran away from him.”
“Only because she’d learned Roger’s father and brother had a hand in the slaying of her family years ago. If Julianna hadn’t come upon King Robert’s camp, she and her horse would have been torn apart by wolves—och, the king was the one tae reason with her that Roger had nothing tae do with her family’s murder, though I believe in her heart she already knew.” Alec gave a small laugh as if remembering. “All was made right in the end, Roger and Julianna so happy together when I left Douglas Castle two weeks ago. I prayed then that mayhap I might find even a measure of what they shared no matter the marriage forced upon me…but as you’ve said many times, we are enemies. So what is tae be done, Rowen Mackay?”
“I…I dinna know,” she murmured as once again, Alec moved toward her. “Damn you, Mackay, dinna come any closer! Do you hear me?”
He didn’t appear to hear her, but reached out instead to draw her into his arms so suddenly that Rowen shrieked and struggled—until his mouth came down upon hers in so possessive a kiss that she went still against him.
Her senses reeling, her heartbeat thundering at the warm pressure of his lips that only deepened, his tongue sweeping into her mouth.
She had never been kissed before…never could have dreamed that she would feel so lost in the breathless wonder of it…until he lifted his head to look down at her, Rowen clinging to him with her trembling fingers clutching his tunic.
“From now on, wife, I will kiss you every time you curse. Even as enemies, our clans are both loyal to King Robert so we have tae begin somewhere in this marriage, aye?”
