Chapter 9 #4
The ride to Drumoak was short but fraught with heightened emotion.
William could taste it as it wafted off both Ailith and himself.
What had possessed her to confront the Keiths, go by herself to Stonehaven, and fight that fat Keith man on her own?
She had skills, but she was still a woman, a well-bred lady, and people might question.
Hell, they were already questioning.
Not to mention that the clans did not yet have a strong alliance with the Keiths.
His arms were tight around Ailith as Lugh carried them home.
What had she been thinking?
Ailith had remained quiet while he gathered his thoughts and tried to figure out if he was more angry, frightened, or proud. Or how to deal with the mix of all three. Give him a man with a sword anytime or a drunkard with a bad temper. That he could deal with.
His own wife, however … He didn’t know if he should shout or laugh.
No matter what emotion it was, his fury tinged everything. Did she have any idea of the amount of danger she had put herself in?
He blew out a long breath, catching wisps of her hair around her head.
“How do ye manage to get in all sorts of trouble?” he asked in the most level tone he could muster.
“‘Twasn’t my fault,” she protested angrily, stiffening against him, then calmed. “No’ all my fault, anyway.”
“Tell me how it happened.”
“Teagan saw them on the road. She pushed me into a bush so they’d no’ see me. I believe she had a sense of what they wanted. I watched as they tied her up and rode off, calling her a witch. I could no’ let that happen.”
“Ye know what might happen to her if she were found to be a pagan witch?”
Ailith shrugged a shoulder. “Throw her in a dungeon to rot.”
“A dungeon if she were lucky. Some people dig a deep hole, cover it with a locked grate, and the witch eats whatever is thrown down. Sun, rain, snow, she’d be exposed to it all. Or suffer a whipping.”
Ailith’s shudder vibrated in his arms. “I could no’ let her suffer that. No’ when I had heard of trial by combat. As long as I won, she’d be safe.”
“But what if ye did no’ win?” William asked, his voice rising as his anger slowly overcame his other emotions. “Did ye think of that? Ye might have been killed and she thrown into a cell for the rest of her days! Did that ever come into your thoughts?”
“Ye dinna need to shout in my ear, William. Aye, I considered it, but I figured that the man selected to fight me might no’ be too strong a fighter. Men make presumptions about women, aye? Especially that women canna fight.”
William’s jaw clenched. She was right – he had even told her as much – but he didn’t like it. Not at all.
“While I might see the value in that, others might no’. Ye have to be cautious. Many believe the woman from Eire to be a witch. Ye should keep your distance.”
Ailith turned in his arms, her face a twisted mask.
“What? Why? I canna leave her –”
“If the Keiths believe her to be a witch or a pagan, ‘tis no’ a far leap to believe the same with ye. And after what ye did today? Defeating one of their men? How do ye think they’ll receive that?”
Ailith dropped her chin and turned forward on the horse again.
“Rumors can be dangerous things, mo ruaidh,” William explained as he softened his tone.
“I understand why ye do what ye do, but others might no’.
” The horse ambled along, and William tried again.
There had to be another, deeper reason why she had put herself at such risk.
Something more than to help a woman she’d met all of three times.
He curled his body around hers and pressed his lips to the gentle curve of her ear.
“Why would ye do that? Why could ye no’ leave well enough alone?
I warned ye of it, and told ye I did no’ want ye fighting at all. ”
His voice was a growl. Questioning and softer, albeit tinged with anger.
She didn’t answer right away, but William was patient.
“I told myself I would no’ say anything,” Ailith said hesitantly. “’Tis no’ my story to tell, but I must tell ye. Ye’re the only other person who might understand.”
“Understand what, mo ruaidh?” He held his breath.
“She’s like me,” she answered in a low voice. A hesitant voice – one so unlike his Ailith. “A voyager like myself. I had to protect her.”
William bit his lips. He had been trying to guess what could have prompted his wife to take such a dangerous chance with her own safety, but this?
That was the last thing he expected. He barely understood his own changeling wife when she talked about the future and who she really was.
That there was another? A changeling? Others, like Ailith, who somehow traveled through the fabric of time? Voyagers, as she called them.
“Teagan?” he whispered, trying to understand what she was saying.
Though his anger cooled, simmering under his curiosity, he was not sure his fury was going to go away with such a complicated answer.
“She’s the only person here who understands what this is like, what I’m going through. I had to save her.”
He let this information sink in. How might he have handled such a situation? William could not begin to guess.
“Is she from your time?” he asked.
“No’ quite,” Ailith answered. “Closer to my time than yours, but more than a hundred years before me. So a bit different.”
A hundred years’ difference between their times? William couldn’t conceive of that, of hundreds and thousands of years in the future. They rode in silence again.
His voice was curt when he next spoke. “We must teach ye to fight better with the knife, and perhaps a sword. The sticks can only do so much, and the knife is better for a close-contact fight. And a heavy hand can make ye lose your weapon. But even then, ye canna pick a fight willy-nilly. I’m trying to temper my anger at ye –”
“Anger? But I was helping her!”
“But ye could have been killed,” he finished, ignoring her interruption. “’Tis no’ your time, your world. Ye must learn some control over your actions.”
She huffed out a frustrated breath. “Aye, I suppose ye are right. I’ll try.”
He appreciated her response, but he didn’t much care for it.
It wasn’t a promise or guarantee, and she still did not seem to fully understand the fact that she could have been seriously injured or killed this afternoon.
The mad king might be gone, but the danger among the clans persisted.
And she had just antagonized a clan that had a close tie to the Morays.
They rode in silence the rest of the way to Drumoak.
The more he thought about the afternoon and the danger Ailith put herself in, the larger the burning ball of emotion and rage in his gut grew.
But was it worry that Ailith might be injured? Or that she might kill someone herself?
Several people milled around the yard when Ailith and William returned.
Eoghan and Betris brightened and waved when they entered, but William ignored them all.
After he turned his horse to the stable lad, he didn’t even pause at the main hall and practically dragged Ailith directly through the hallway to the tower.
If he forgave her for the fight regarding Teagan, he had an odd way of showing it.
He kicked the door to their chambers closed as he yanked her into the room.
“Are ye still mad at me?” she asked as she whirled around. William’s face was a mask, and she couldn’t read him. “I thought ye understood! That ye forgave me!”
His jaw clenched. “I do forgive ye. Christ’s blood, Ailith, I can forgive ye for nearly anything. But ‘tis no’ enough to stop my anger!”
He was yelling? Why was he yelling?
“Why are ye angry? We moved past it. Ye even said I should learn how to use a sword!”
Grabbing her arm harder than she expected, he dragged her near the wardrobe where his long mirror leaned against the wall.
“That ‘tis of no accord! I said to fight only for your defense and look at ye!” He shoved her in front of the mirror. “Look at ye! Bruises, stained clothing, bloodied kirtle! For someone else, no’ to save yourself, and this was when ye won! Christ’s blood, Ailith! What if ye had lost?”
“But I did win! I beat him –”
“Because he was a fat, slow-moving man with a poor weapon! ‘Twill no’ be that way all the time. And no matter how prepared ye are, a stronger man can still beat ye. Why do ye risk your life? Why do ye do such senseless things?”
She whirled on him, her own fury a ball burning in her stomach. What was wrong with him? They had talked it out on the ride home! Why was he turning on her now?
“I told ye why! And ye risk your life all the time! If I can fight –”
“I’m a man! A trained warrior! And even then, have ye seen the scores of scars marking my body!
It kills me to see even one mark on ye! One bruise!
Do ye know how much it took for me to bring ye home and no’ kill Alistair Keith where he stood?
Do ye know how badly that would have gone for all of us if I had killed him?
And God above save me, Ailith, it took every ounce of my willpower to walk away and let that bastard live! ”
Wait. He wanted to kill Alistair Keith? He was mad because her life was threatened? And mad that she defended it? He hadn’t seemed that angry at all while they were in Stonehaven.
My God! He has an amazing poker face if that’s the case!
“Ye aren’t making any sense, William. Your anger is making ye see red,” she tried to reason with him.
He grabbed her upper arms, again hard enough to leave his own bruises on her flesh.
“Aye! I’m still angry! Ye canna do what ye want! Do ye know how dangerous this all is? And every time someone threatens ye or harms ye, I have to kill him! ‘Tis my right as your husband! Do ye ken how dangerous ‘tis for ye to fight as ye did today? Alone?”
She was done with this. Ailith lifted up on her toes until her nose reached his chin, and she narrowed her eyes at his icy blue ones.
“Everything is dangerous!” she shouted back, ignoring his iron grip on her arms. “Even ye are dangerous!”