Despair made Caitrin’s limbs heavy. So it was true. Madeleine didn’t need to say it. Her face said it for her. “How can ye condemn me to the same?”
“I hope ye will be wiser and more circumspect.” Madeleine sighed and met Caitrin’s gaze. “I took too long to learn my lesson. My stubbornness cost me two babes before Alasdair’s older brothers came along.”
Caitrin’s stomach threatened revolt as horror washed over her. “He hit ye while ye carried his babes?” Could Alasdair do the same to her?
Tears glinted in the older woman’s eyes, but they were quickly blinked away. “Dinna make the same mistakes. Ye have years ahead of ye, to suffer or to enjoy. ’Tis up to ye.”
With that, Madeleine brushed past Caitrin and continued down the hall. Caitrin turned to watch her go, chilled to the bone by what she’d learned. Women in this clan had suffered at the hands of its lairds for years. Nay, Madeleine MacGregor would not help her escape this marriage. She had only one option left—admit to Jamie how she knew as much as she did about the MacGregor and hope he believed her. If Jamie refused, as her father did, to accept her ability, she would be lost indeed.
****
Caitrin waited until midnight before making her way silently down to Jamie’s chamber door. She tried the latch, not really expecting it to open, but it did. The door swung inward at her touch. She slipped inside and closed it silently behind her, latching it against another’s entry.
In the dim glow of failing embers in the hearth, she could see Jamie sprawled on his back on his cot. Boots, belt, and plaid lay strewn on the floor where he’d stripped out of them. Likely he’d enjoyed too much of MacGregor’s ale or whisky by the time he made his way here.
Caitrin took advantage of his repose to study the man before her. A day’s growth of dark whiskers shadowed his face, and his hair fell across his eyes. His broad chest rose and fell with each quiet breath. The rumpled, drawn up hem of his shirt exposed strong thighs but hid the bulge above them. He had tucked his feet beneath one end of his plaid that remained on the bed. His arms crossed above his head, and his hands were hidden by the sack that served as his pillow. His mouth, relaxed in sleep, invited her kiss.
He looked delicious. She wanted to stretch out on top of him and wrap her arms around his neck.
She took a step toward him then paused. Nay, she dared not go too close. He was a warrior. Likely one hand clutched a dirk under that pillow, and she could find herself with her throat cut before Jamie came fully awake.
“Do ye like what ye see?”
Jamie’s sleep-gravelled voice startled her into a squeak of surprise. “I thought ye asleep,” she admitted, approaching him. He had yet to move or open his eyes, but she had no doubt he knew, even before she made a sound, who had entered his chamber.
“I slept until I heard ye come in.” His eyes opened then, blue shadowed to the color of the midnight sky.
She reached out and brushed his hair away from those eyes.
Quick as a lash, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her atop him.
Just where she wanted to be. She wriggled herself fully on top of his body and heard him groan as he gripped her hips.
“Ye’d best stop that.”
“And if I dinna wish to?” She wiggled again and felt the evidence of his desire beneath her body, hard and straining against her.
“Ye try me, lass.”
“I hope to, aye.”
In answer, Jamie rolled her underneath him. Then he found her mouth and kissed her.
She pulled his head tightly to her while his mouth plundered hers.
As suddenly as he started, he stopped and lifted from her. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he rubbed his jaw. “Nay, we canna do this. My beard will mark yer face as surely as MacGregor’s fist did.”
Caitrin sat up behind him and draped an arm over his shoulder, resting her head against his broad back. “I hate this, Jamie. I want to leave here—with ye.”
“I ken it. But we must find a way that doesna lead to war.”
“And is drinking with the MacGregor getting ye any closer to that?” she taunted softly.
Now Jamie scrubbed his face with both hands. “I canna say for certain.”
“I can. He lies as he breathes, easily and without thought.” Jamie tensed against her cheek.
“Ye canna ken such a thing.”
