Had grief for the wife he had sparred with and yet loved done that to him? If so, Alec wanted the same for himself…to know such deep emotion for a woman, but how would that happen now?
Rowen’s slurred words flew back to him as she had railed at Gaira.
You’ve gotten your wedding, aye…but no love tae be found, not ever!
Had his bride hoped for the same as him only to be forced into a marriage with a sworn enemy? How would they ever find any harmony together, let alone some guarded affection like his parents? Would his life with her forever be a battleground?
“Ah, God, Laird, she’s gone from her bed! Rowen is gone!”
CHAPTER4
Gaira’s shrill outcry ringing from the rafters, Alec lunged from his chair as his father jumped up, too, beside him.
Yet Gaira’s wasn’t the only desperate shout when one of the two warriors posted guard atop the tower came barreling into the great hall, his face reddened from cold rain and his expression stricken.
“We thought she was going tae jump, Laird! She burst through the door tae the tower roof and ran straight for the battlement. She stands atop the parapet now and we didna dare go near her for fear she would fall tae her death. Och, God, she’s crying out tae the heavens like a crazed woman!”
Alec didn’t wait to hear anymore, nor did he take a moment to grab his cloak. His heart pounding, he rushed past Gaira and the warrior and headed straight for the tower steps, his father not far behind him.
What devilment had come over Rowen to leave the warmth of her bed and climb the tower? Was her plan to curse him and then throw herself over the wall? Did she hate him that much to make two such desperate attempts to end her life this day?
His heartbeat roaring in his ears when he reached the top of the steps, Alec lunged through the door leading out onto the torchlit tower roof and beheld a sight that stopped his breath.
Rowen in a long white nightgown buffeted by the wind and standing upon the parapet with her arms upraised, her fiery hair whipping around her.
She stood so close to the edge that gleamed with a thin glaze of ice, Alec was certain at any instant she would slip and tumble from the tower to the bailey below—which was filled with more of his warriors looking upward.
He thought to rush at her and grab her unaware from behind to pull her down, but she glanced over her shoulder and spied him, her shriek chilling him to the bone.
“Stay away from me, Mackay—or I will jump, I swear it!”
“Dinna jump, lass, I beg you,” he countered, edging slightly forward and keeping his voice calm. “Whatever has so distressed you, I swear on my life I will make it right if you will only climb down?—”
“Distressed me?” she cut him off, flinging her arms wide to encompass the castle and its grounds. “I am a Mackay now and deprived of everything I held dear—my family, my home, my name, and I’m surrounded by enemies! You and you and you”—Rowen turned round enough to point at Alec, the two guards, and his wide-eyed father standing in the doorway and then glance over her shoulder—“and all of them below. If I jumped, they would rejoice that I’m dead?—”
“Iwouldna rejoice,” Alec broke in as he slowly moved closer, holding out his hand. “You’re my wife now and I will protect you tae my last breath. Do you hear me, Rowen? No one in this place will dare tae speak a word against you or harm you in any way, I swear it!”
“You swear?” she scoffed, swiping dampened hair out of her face and stepping dangerously close to the edge. “You would harm me this night by taking me against my will—and I willna endure it, I tell you! All choice in whom I marry was wrested from me, but I have a choice whether I live or die—and I choose tae die rather than suffer ravishment at your hands, Mackay!”
Rowen spun around so wildly to face the bailey that she teetered and fought to catch her balance, her arms flailing—and Alec seized his chance.
With one powerful lunge he grabbed her and pulled her down from the parapet, Rowen shrieking in protest and struggling mightily in his arms.
Aye, even more than earlier that day when she had rained blows upon him, Alec this time keeping her pinned against his body.
Her desperate efforts to escape him no match for his greater strength, though her hollering made him grimace, his ears ringing.
She yelled in protest all the way down the tower steps and into the hallway that led to their bedchamber, when of a sudden she went still in his arms though her breath came in ragged gasps.
She hadn’t fainted again, thankfully, but mayhap the folly of how close she had come to death had settled upon her, Rowen shivering now uncontrollably in his arms.
Her body ice-cold, her thin nightgown plastered to her skin, which he could see with a glance was covered in goosebumps.
“Forgive me, Laird, it’s my fault!” came Gaira’s cry behind him, the poor woman wracked by sobs. “I must have fallen asleep by the fire and when I awoke tae check on her, she was gone?—”
“It’s no one’s fault,” Alec countered, blinking against the moisture dripping from his hair into his eyes as he carried Rowen into their bedchamber for the second time this night. “Stoke the fire, Gaira, and then leave us.”
“Aye, Laird.”
