Chapter 7 #10
When she began to grow cold, she turned and swam without hurry for the shore.
She knew Ceann still watched her, could feel him there, even if she couldn’t see him hidden in the shadows.
She stood in hip deep water and wrung out her hair, then climbed to the shore and sat on a smooth rock there, letting the soft and balmy breeze dry some of the moisture from her skin before she donned the night rail again.
She held her breath and listened, but there was no movement behind her.
He would stay hidden, then. Her shameless siren call would go unheeded.
She was mad to tempt him so, anyway, this warrior-laird that she didn’t even know.
After a while she stood and made her way back to her chamber.
Her bare feet padded up the cool stone steps, and she slipped into her room, closing the door silently behind her.
She went to the window, and looking out, she saw a lone figure pacing in the bailey below, pulling his hands through his hair in a gesture of agitation.
Smiling and giddy that she had apparently affected him after all, she crawled into bed and finally slept, though she doubted Ceann would be able to do the same.
Perhaps she had been a bit too wicked, but she blamed it on the full moon, was it not wont to make people do mad things?
Ceann wanted to howl at that same moon like some wild beast. He wandered the bailey, not ready yet to go back into the keep where she was.
When he had seen her slip out of the castle, he was sure she was either trying to get away, or was meeting someone.
He had thought he would uncover her game; he had not thought he would find himself at the losing end of it.
He should have turned back when he realized that she was only going to bathe in the loch, but instead he had stayed and watched, not trusting her.
No, in truth he had been spell-bound. And she had stood there naked, the moonlight catching the drops of water on her ivory skin, highlighting the lush curve of her breasts…
aye she had a body every man dreamed of…
and that he could not touch. Now he was left alone with his unsatisfied lust, a lust greater than any he could remember, possibly a lust greater than any man had ever felt before, he wouldn’t doubt it.
His body pounded with it. Perhaps it was just that he had been such a long time without a woman in his bed.
Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to find a willing lass in the village, one he knew would be very discreet, just to take the edge off.
He turned and took a few steps in the direction of the gates, and stopped.
The idea of tupping a village lass suddenly held no appeal.
No, it was only the damned lass in the tower he wanted with every throbbing inch of his body.
Ella woke at dawn to the slamming of her chamber door.
She gasped, startled, and sat up in the bed, only to see Ceann standing in front of the door, hands fisted at his sides, looking furious.
She wondered with brief amusement what had him so angry this early in the morning, if he had slept at all the night before, and if he even had any other expressions.
He took a few steps closer, glaring at her, and she suddenly felt like a rabbit to a hawk.
She was naked under the sheet, helpless.
He was so powerful, he could do whatever he wanted with her, and she couldn’t stop him.
No one else would stop him; he was laird.
He held her life in his hands. She frowned slightly.
Should that not bother her? Shouldn’t she perhaps be feeling helpless, maybe a little frightened?
She felt neither. No, instead she felt herself being drawn to that power, dark and sensuous and intoxicating.
She doubted she would even raise much of a protest were he to climb into the bed and ravage her senseless.
The thought made her heart beat faster and her breath come short.
“You were seen leaving the castle last night”, Ceann bit out, jarring her from her less-than-virginal thoughts. “Who were you meeting?”
She regarded him innocently. He knew very well she had met no one, but she would play his game anyway. “And if I did meet someone last night?”
“I would know who, and why, and you would be punished accordingly, I will not have the safety of my people compromised in any way.”
“I see. And how would you see fit to punish me, should I have met someone and handed over all of your greatest secrets? Which, by the way”, she felt she had to point out, “I am not privy to.”
Punish her… He nearly groaned as images, unbidden, flooded his mind.
He would punish her with his mouth, with his hands, with his body.
He would punish her for making him want her at all, when want could only bring more pain.
Seeing her body outlined under the sheet before him was almost more temptation than he could handle.
Though she held the edge up to cover her breasts, her hair was sleep-tousled and fell over her bare shoulders in a most enticing way.
Memories of her creamy bare skin shimmering in the moonlight.
.. what had he been thinking, coming into her chamber like this?
He hadn’t been. “Don’t try me”, he ground out through barred teeth.
Ella looked at him thoughtfully, she had probably pushed him far enough. “I only went swimming in the loch. I couldn’t sleep. You see, the full moon always seems to make me restless.”
It makes me restless too… he almost said. Instead, he took a breath and fixed her with a glare. “You won’t go outside at night, and you won’t leave the castle walls without a guard.”
She couldn’t resist teasing him a bit, as was her nature. And she wondered if he even knew how to smile. “Because you don’t trust me, or because you will punish me?”
“Aye, both”.
“Then I am truly a prisoner here? Is my will no longer my own? Will you never let me leave?”
Ceann regarded her for a moment. “You are not a prisoner, exactly, but you are not free to leave either, unless you would care to enlighten me further. Give me the name of someone who will vouch for your identity.”
She shook her head, and his lips pressed together in a thin line.
“So be it.” He turned and left the room, closing the door with just a little too much force.
Ella sighed. Enough with nettling the laird, for as strangely compelling as that might be, she had a task to accomplish, and in truth she did not know how much time she had to do so.
Ceann obviously didn’t relish the idea of having her around, though she couldn’t quite decide if it would be more to her advantage to try to beguile him into keeping her here, or to be so unobtrusive he would forget she was around.
The answer would no doubt come to her as she learned more about the man.
She bathed herself with the water and cloth left on the table, and quickly dressed, choosing what she deemed the most practical gown in the small assortment left to her.
Apparently Tulloch had so much wealth, they kept a supply of spare clothing, since no one seemed to know where the blue gown she wore had come from, let alone these others.
Anyway, today she would be attempting to search a castle for she knew not what, and that no doubt called for practicality.
She had already begun with her own sparsely furnished chamber, though she doubted very much it held anything of importance.
No, she would most likely have to gain access to the laird’s study, or even his own chamber.
And to gain access to his chamber… God, no Ella!
They would not have meant for you to use your body to find the treasure…
Would they? What if that was the only way?
How she wished she knew exactly what she was looking for!
She had only her Aunt Esme’s vague reassurances that she would be able to find it, and the other women’s hazy ramblings about what they had foreseen and how everything hinged on the “great treasure” at Castle Tulloch.
Even they did not seem to know exactly what the treasure was, or at least they weren’t telling her if they did.
One never knew. One moment she had been out racing her stallion across the moor, lost in her many daydreams, and the next she was being sent off on a mysterious quest. It was odd, now that she looked back, how suddenly everything had come about.
And even Esme was acting a bit strange; there had been a sparkle of excitement in her eyes as she helped Ella pack a few belongings.
If she had been yearning lately for a bit of adventure in her life, she certainly had gotten her wish.
Though she did miss her home already. The rambling old manor house where she had spent most of her childhood was all she had ever known, really.
A minor and ancient seat of the Clan McCrae, Mandaine was little known and little visited, isolated in a small valley, and surrounded by steep and mountainous terrain.
There was just enough flat land to race across…
she hoped again that Malcolm was taking good care of her horse, Sindal.
The beautiful white stallion was a gift for her birthday last year, and one of her most valued possessions.