“Remain from my way, Sir Callum,” Holger warned, then darted his eyes at her. “The lady is a beauty; it would be a true shame if your choice saw her killed by this choice.” A thick tension hung the air before Holger’s face broke back into a grin, the mask worn by a gestr back in place before he bowed gallantly. “Good eve to you all. Hereupon, the treaty awaits and peace between our two kingdoms if your ‘rash’ decision does not spoil it all, Sir Callum.”It won’t. Good riddance!
Chapter 15
Callum saw Lord Kolson turn then vanish beyond the threshold almost stomping over the slight figure whose wide eyes peeked around the same doorway’s corner. The lady’s maid who had helped Nella earlier appeared carrying a fresh linen sheet.
The maid’s elder voice crackled. “Lady Fawnella.” The weathering about the maid’s eyes smoothed after they grew bulbous. “Pardon, I was not aware so many Scotsmen were present. I have brought a fresh linen for you and a wee chamberlain is but a moment in step behind me with hot water for your basin, but I may…”
“We were just taking our leave,” Callum assured then glanced at Nella. “Freshen then perhaps later we may speak?”
A determined glint caught in her eyes and matched the tone’s reply. “Aye.”
“Come, Brayden.” Callum raised his arm toward the doorway as the young chamberlain entered huffing while balancing the filled pitchers.
Once clear of the passageway, Callum stated to his fellow knight, “Will you see to the stable marshal and any preparations for our leave upon the morrow’s first light?” Brayden was under his command but the trials they had survived lent an air to him asking at times in tasks rather than simply ordering.
“Aye,” Brayden answered in ease.
“Then take the eve to rest, I shall stay at watch.”
The knight nodded.
Callum directed his attention at the chamberlain who just shuttered Nella’s door after relinquishing the pitchers into the bedchamber. “Lad, would you see about fetching three large mantle cloaks, dark, with hoods from the master of wardrobe before our leave upon the morrow?”
The lad’s head bobbed eagerly in answer for his request before the youth stepped away. Hiss had seen Nella and him; this would not happen in Dundee. Spinning on his heel toward the chair, he paused when Brayden remained placed like a summit’s boulder.
His friend’s expression bore an unusual glimmer to it as if he had seen a dragon and now held a will to see it brought to heel. “Callum.” His eyes darted toward Nella’s closed doorway. “The choice regarding Lord Kolson’s demand. Do not doubt the essence in which it was made. It was the grandest one given the circumstance. Years I have been at your side and never have I seen such a will born of iron in your actions as I do now. Lord Kolson was mistaken. Lady Fawnella strengthens you, not weakens, as he accused.”
Callum inclined his brow with respect. “Thank you, Brayden.” The knight’s hulking self moved with a silent step; he was gone in a blink.
Setting himself into the chair outside Nella’s chamber, Callum took a deep breath. Did it ease his rage at what Lord Kolson accused about Nella earlier? No, it did not. Even with Brayden’s assurances, were his emotions clouding the choices best suited for the situation? The way Nella had looked up at him with admiration after he cast Lord Kolson out. If he could bask in the warmth of that look forever, then he would have. Aye, his judgment was clouded but what a sweet fluffy cloud it was.He inwardly frowned. He was captain of the royal guard,who answered to the king. He needed to be above reproach inallhis choices. Yet, even as logic pounded his mind like a hammer, why did it feel right, the choice just made?The gut.How many times over the years at his post had his instincts belonging to his gut proven fruitful when logic appeared the right choice? More than he could count. It felt right to have her with him. Instinct in senses aside from her clan’s line, his Nella… no, Nella had a keener mind than most Scotsmen he had ever met. In this moment with the treaty being threatened and the memory possibly being tarnished of Scots who had died for it he needed that keen intellect of hers. Aye, it was the right choice.
He rubbed his fingers over his eyes. Now if he could only pause the mental portrait of what was taking place in her bedchamber things would besomuch simpler. He rubbed his eyes harder.
***
Was the tie tight? Nella’s fingers gripped the knot harder on the robe she had worn the previous eve when she had thrown Callum from her chambers. Ugh, the knot was still loose! She tied it again.No need for nothing to fall out.
“My lady, pardon once more for the lack of fresh chemise. The laundress assures by the morrow one shall be in your grasp. There was a slight delay given the eve’s events,” the sweet lady’s maid declared behind as Nella fought with the woolen ties, the linen sheet wrapped under the robe instead of a chemise.
“There is nae need for apologies…” Nella began, then turned to halt. Um, why was table set with two clean goblets and a bottle of wine?
A grin appeared as warm as the candle on the side table. “Lady Alaina sends her regards; she cares for the tall dark-haired one.” Oh. My. Word. They had chosen a lover for her.Perhaps this was the hidden purpose of no chemise and the reason for extra attention brushing her hair. She left the waves loose about her shoulders even as Nella had protested it should be plaited for rest.
Nella’s fingers dropped quick as her gaze at the knot on the robe. “As do I,” she murmured softly. Even after all the hateful things Callum had said all those years ago, she did; she wished him back in her life for all times forward. When had the moment crashed? As he threw Lord Kolson out on his arse and championed her instead of choosing the warrior’s camp.
“My lady?” Nella’s gaze rose. “Lads of the most honorable sort whether they are grown or wee may need a push from a lady or lass to claim what they seek, understood?” Nella’s cheeks blazed like a wee lass. “Ah, good, understood. Take care and savor that one. The years I have walked these Highlands not many are found such as he.” Aye, Callum was the rarest of finds.
Nella briskly blew out all the candles in the chamber at the questioning look given she explained. “It makes for a more romantic setting with only the hearth.” And darker so Callum could not see her lack of curves if things took a turn intimately.
The tiny Scotswoman gave a giant smile and nod at her before opening the door. “My lady shall receive you, good eve.”
“Good eve,” Nella heard Callum reply before a scrape as he took to his feet. He halted on the threshold once he spotted her.
Had her hair gone awry? Her palms shook slightly while she smoothed the strand briskly. She should be cold; a harsh breeze blew through the arrow slit but something in the way Callum stared at her made her warm as the sun.
“We have not held a moment alone since the solar. In honor of what you said to the laird regarding his care of Lady Alaina” – she held his gaze which seemed to have awakened bythe sound of her voice before he shuttered the door – “Callum, you have my sincerest gratitude.” If she was going to take this Scotsman to her bed, she needed to state all her emotions. “’Twas a selfless act upon your part, which…” Her voice trailed off when her courage bounded away same as a rabbit from a fox.He needs to know.She took a deep breath; the hearth’s smokiness and a spice that was only Callum. “You inquired last eve regarding the purpose I had not shown up at our bridge.”
“Aye, it has been years,” he said somberly. “There are those who have thought me a true Templar, which I am not, given my abstinence from a lady’s touch at court. I simply could not allow myself to feel that pain once more and expect to breathe after. Aye, I believe it only fair to garner an answer regarding your whereabouts before you raced off to be married.” How could he sound so sincere after the root at what he had done?
