Chapter 10
10
It was not until a few days later, when Lachlan’s party had come and gone, that Alyth saw him again. She had gone back to reading Davina her bedtime story once more, and to her surprise Davina seemed much more confident than she had before, and was even slowly but surely recovering the power of speech.
Alyth had been afraid that the whole trauma of the attack by the Robertsons might have sent her back into her shell, but the opposite seemed to have happened. After considering the matter for a while, Alyth reasoned that it had been because Davina had been able to defend herself, and therefore she had lost her sense of helplessness and fear.
Alyth wished she could communicate this to Lachlan, but she felt it better to keep her distance for the time being, since the whole horrifying event had been extremely hard on him too. Consequently, she felt that if she approached him, it might bring back memories he wanted to forget.
Lachlan, for his part, had deeply regretted inviting people he had once called friends to his home. He had thought that it was time for him to mix with society again, to hear about the goings-on in the life of people he had once known and cared about. Instead, he found the whole experience stultifyingly boring, and realised that he was no longer the man he had once been.
His values had changed; he had never been hugely outgoing, but while he was with Sandrina she had brought out the best in him. He had become more sociable and able to hold his own in any conversation. Occasionally, especially after a few glasses of wine, his sense of humour had come to the fore, and he had actually been able to make his friends laugh.
But now those days had gone, and he realised that the people he had once valued now meant nothing to him; they seemed shallow, and their conversation centred mainly around social events and scandals.
However, Lachlan realised that he had no interest in those things any more—in fact, he never had, but Sandrina had encouraged him to stay on the right side of the social circle for the sake of Davina. As long as she had been beside him, he had complied, but now he found it impossible, he simply could not make himself fit in.
For the last three years, Lachlan had been a recluse, and he would have stayed that way if he had not had Davina’s future prospects to consider. For a long time, he had thought that she had not much of a future to look forward to.
Now, however, things had begun to change with the arrival of the new maid. He had spent hours thinking and wondering about what made Jeannie special, but he simply could not put his finger on it. One thing was certain, however. She was absolutely gorgeous, and made his body thrill with desire.
He was utterly confused, and realised that the best and only way out of his situation was to talk to her; anyway, he had not thanked Jeannie Dunbar properly for saving Davina’s life.
Accordingly, he waited outside Davina’s door that evening to intercept the maid before she made her way to bed. Listening closely, he heard Jeannie’s voice reading the story, but now and again Davina put in a word; she was speaking more and more frequently now, and Lachlan was infinitely relieved and grateful. It had been years since anything had moved him so much.
As soon as Jeannie’s voice stopped, he opened the door and stepped through into Davina’s chamber. The maid looked up, and her eyes widened in surprise, then she glanced back at Davina, indicating that she was asleep.
Lachlan smiled and opened the door wider, signalling that she should come out with him.
Alyth was mystified, but she complied, and walked beside him silently, wondering where they were going. She was terrified. Had she done something wrong? Was she going to be dismissed?
Her suspicion was confirmed when they arrived at his study and opened the door, then stood aside to let her in. “Sit down, Jeannie,” he said, indicating one of the chairs in front of his desk.
Before he spoke, Alyth pre-empted him and said, “If you would like me to leave, M’Laird, I understand. I—” She got no further before he interrupted her.
“No. The last thing I want is for you to go. Davina adores you and would never forgive me for sending you away. Jeannie, I wanted to thank you… again. Thank you for saving my daughter’s life. It is a debt I can never repay, and as long as Davina needs you, you have a position here. I have asked Maisie about you, and she tells me you are well-liked among the other maids. I told her what you did for Davina, but I made her stay quiet about it until I had spoken to you again, although it has taken me a few days to work up the courage. I feel responsible for the whole incident, I should not have left you on your own, and I should have brought some guards with us.
Yet if I had left Davina with anyone else, I think she would be dead by now. You are an exceptional person, Jeannie, and I have often wondered if I should recruit you into my guards.” He laughed to show he was not serious, then stood up and went to pour them a glass of wine.
“I really know very little about wine,” he confessed. “I know what I like, so I hope you do too.” He handed her a glass. “Slàinte Mhath, and thank you again, Jeannie.”
“Slàinte Mhath, M’Laird,” Alyth replied, then took a sip of her wine. It was not the best she had ever tasted, but by no means the worst. “It’s delicious, but I am not an expert either.”
Lachlan smiled, and realised that it was something he was becoming accustomed to doing. At first, smiling had involved stretching his facial muscles in a very unfamiliar way, but then he had done it so little in the last few years, but now he was finding it much easier. Was it because of the woman sitting opposite him, or because of Davina’s improvement? Both, he concluded; this woman was the cause of the wonderful change in his daughter’s life.
“I have no way to tell you how grateful I am,” Lachlan went on, and the expression in his turquoise eyes was warm. “Again. Do you believe in intuition, Jeannie?”
“Do you mean meeting someone for the first time and liking them at once?” she asked. He nodded. “Yes, I do. It’s happened to me a few times.”
“I think that was what happened to Davina,” he remarked. “She saw you, and she liked you at once. It might have had something to do with the way you look, but I think it was more than that. She has always been able to read people, and she liked whatever she saw in you—something reminded her of her mother, Sandie.”
To her surprise, Alyth saw Lachlan’s eyes begin to glitter with tears as he said his late wife’s name.
“Her death was my fault,” he said huskily. “When the MacAdams attacked us, I was so blinded by rage that I went to fight them straight away and left Sandie and Davina behind. I am bitterly ashamed that I hardly thought of their safety—we had always had a plan to safeguard them, of course.
Yet in my haste to go to battle I left the responsibility to someone else, someone I thought I could trust, but who failed me. But that does not excuse me. I am the Laird, the leader, and I failed in my duty to keep my family safe, even though my castle was undamaged. I fought harder for it than I did for them. Yet, I would rather have seen the castle in ruins and have my wife back than have lost her because she and Davina were my whole world. Sandie and Davina were devoted to each other, and I loved my Sandie more than anyone else I had ever known, apart from my daughter, of course. I would give everything I possess to have her back, and for Davina to have been undamaged.”
Tears had begun to stream down his face, and his eyes were looking into the past as he relived what had been the saddest day of his life.
“When I came upon them, Sandie was lying on her back, and an arrow was sticking out of her chest. She had died defending our daughter. She had taken an arrow for her—stood in front of Davina, blocked its path and died,” he continued. “There was blood everywhere, but the worst thing of all was that Davina was standing looking down at her. She was completely still and silent, not moving, not saying a word.
I had a terrible feeling of foreboding and when I went up to her to ask her if she was all right, her face was expressionless, and still, she did not speak. She was pale as a ghost, and I thought she was going to fall down dead right there on the spot.”
When Lachlan looked up at her again, his tears were falling so heavily that they were dripping onto the desk, but he made no move to wipe them away.
“But she lived,” he went on, “although she has never said a word—until now.”
He looked up at Alyth, and suddenly, she felt so sorry for him that she moved around the desk and put her arms around him, gently stroking his chestnut brown hair and murmuring to him soothingly.
“Not everything was your fault,” she murmured. “It takes two sides to start a war, so there was responsibility on both sides. You were under pressure, and I understand completely what that is like. Stop blaming yourself.”
But Lachlan seemed not to have heard her as he went on: “And I made another child an orphan too, that day. The MacAdams girl.” Alyth stiffened around him. “That too weighs heavily on my conscience.” He wiped his tears away, but they came streaming back, and eventually, he burst into a storm of weeping.
The MacAdams girl, she thought. He is concerned about me, and she suddenly realised that the man she was holding in her arms, whom she had thought cold-hearted and brutal, instead had a loving, gentle spirit. He kept it hidden inside himself because he had been so hurt that he could not bear any more damage. He was too afraid that if he bared his soul to the world, it might become a target for those who wished to ruin him forever.
Alyth felt his agony seep out of him into her own heart, awakening her own hidden pain, and she began to weep with him until they had both run out of tears. Then, for a long time they were still, arms around each other, until Lachlan looked up at Alyth.
They gazed at each other for a long moment before he drew her down and sat her on his lap, then kissed her with such tenderness that her whole body sang with a sweet sensation of desire. She wanted him desperately, but there was no way of telling him that without making herself look loose and wanton. Society held women to a much higher standard than men.
He broke the kiss, leaned back a little on the chair, and gently drew a wisp of hair away from her face. He looked almost puzzled, Alyth thought.
“You fascinate me,” he murmured. “I have never met a woman quite as bewitching as you. From the very first moment I saw you, I felt that there was something about you—something I would never be able to understand, Jeannie. And I want you.”
“You are the Laird,” Alyth said huskily. “I am quite sure you could have any woman you want.”
He laughed softly. “Not quite any woman,” he said, cupping her cheek with one hand as he gave her a small, soft kiss on her lips. “And I don’t want just any woman. I want the one who made my daughter speak again, who awoke my body after years of frigidity. I want you, Jeannie, because of the person you are.” He looked at her quizzically. “Do you not want me?”
This was Alyth’s last chance to refuse, to tell Lachlan that she was not going to risk her reputation or whatever other excuse came to mind, but she simply could not do it. “Yes,” she answered. “Yes, M’Laird, I do.”
“Call me Lachlan,” he replied, as he gazed at her lips before kissing her again. This time it was not tender, but hungry and desperate, as if he wanted to possess all of her in a single moment.
Alyth moaned and gave herself up to it with every ounce of passion and desire she had been storing up inside herself. It seemed that she had been waiting for this moment her whole life. However, in her wildest dreams, she would never have imagined that the man who stirred her senses in this devastating way would have been a Carrick—especially not the Laird.
For a fleeting second, she felt guilty, but that feeling was swiftly washed away by a tide of desire so strong that Alyth could hardly stand it. She had never been with a man, and although she had no experience, she could not fathom it would feel like the sweet madness she was experiencing now.
Lachlan, for his part, needed her so much that he was willing to forego any more kisses and tender caresses so that he could be inside her, driving her to the place where they could, for a fleeting moment, be in heaven together. However, he wanted this, their first and perhaps their only time together, to be wonderful for her.
A moment of sanity returned when Lachlan realised that they were seated on the hard chair behind his desk. He stood, lifting her into his arms as they moved to the soft couch that stood in front of the fireplace. He placed her tenderly on the soft furs so that she was sitting facing him, then cupped her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly. His hands were rough, which both surprised and pleased Alyth; he obviously did some tough manual labour, and she admired him all the more for that.
Lachlan moved his hands to her breasts, caressing and gently squeezing them, teasing her nipples into hard points over the fabric of her dress, while he feathered tiny kisses down her throat. Alyth had never been touched in these most sensitive places before, and she almost cried out at the intensity of the pleasure.
Lachlan made a growl of frustration as his mouth came to the neckline of her dress; she was wearing too many clothes, and for a second, he thought of ripping them off her before reason returned. She probably only owned two dresses. But he urgently wanted to see and explore those beautiful breasts.
Alyth felt a sweet pulse beginning to beat between her legs, and every inch of her skin was tingling with delight. However, the next moment she was unable to think about anything more as she felt Lachlan raising her skirt then gently parting her legs. He bent down to kiss his way tenderly from her knee to the inside of her right thigh, almost touching her sex, before he set to work on the left.
Alyth raised her hips instinctively, moaning softly at the wicked, delicious sensations he was arousing. Her fingers were tangled in his thick, strong hair, revelling in the silky feel of it.
A moment later, Lachlan pushed his first two fingers gently inside Alyth’s channel and stifled her startled cry with a hungry kiss. He moved in and out, in and out, then he found the nub of flesh that was her sweetest spot before using his other thumb and forefinger to tease and play with it. A jet of intense pleasure, so strong that she could hardly bear it, seared through her.
Lachlan looked up and smiled at her wickedly. “Good?” he asked.
“Oh, yes!” Alyth gasped. She could hardly speak, for something wonderful was gathering inside her. She had no idea what it was, for she had never experienced anything remotely like it before. It was heaven, Alyth thought. Perhaps this was what so many poets and songwriters wrote and sang about.
She was a little puzzled when she saw Lachlan push her skirt further up and bend his head down between her legs. She was utterly shocked as she felt his tongue sweeping between her womanly folds, from front to back, over and over again.
“What are you doing?” she gasped.
Lachlan looked up. “Do you not like it, Jeannie? I can stop if?—”
“No!” Alyth cried, then almost screamed as she felt the astonishing new sensation Lachlan was unleashing upon her.
Alyth felt his tongue tip teasing her bud, then he sucked it and scraped it with his teeth, making her cry out in an agony of pleasure. She had never felt or even imagined anything like it before.
Lachlan looked up to see Alyth’s incredulous expression, and smiled inwardly. He was so ready to plunge inside her as nature dictated, to finish what he had started with that kiss, which now seemed a lifetime ago. Yet, he waited, returning to her breasts which he suckled through the fabric of her dress, before he kissed her again.
His arousal was throbbing so hard it was almost painful. “Are you ready for me, Jeannie?” he asked hoarsely. He could hardly speak by now.
“Oh, yes,” she whispered. “So ready.”
Lachlan pushed her legs apart and settled in between them, then slowly pushed himself inside her. Alyth felt herself opening, welcoming him in, loving the sensation of them joining together as one.
He began to thrust, slowly at first, trying to hold back the moment of no return when he would be unable to do so any longer, but the feeling of her warm flesh closing around him was almost unbearably delicious.
Alyth pulled his kilt up at the back and wrapped her legs around his hips, feeling the hard muscles of his buttocks as he moved in and out of her. Then something new and wonderful started to happen. She felt a faint but delightful tingle inside her, which became stronger and stronger as Lachlan’s thrusts became harder and faster. She felt as though she was climbing a mountain, but the summit seemed frustratingly out of reach, yet she strove with all her might until, suddenly, she reached its peak.
A glorious wave of ecstasy swept over her, causing her to scream in rapture. It was like nothing Alyth could ever have imagined; how was it possible to feel that she had just reached heaven?
Lachlan’s climax was fiercer than any he had yet experienced, and he only just managed to pull away from Alyth before he spilled his seed. He leaned his head on her shoulder as he recovered his breath, and wished he could stay there forever.
After a moment, he drew back and sat down beside her. “That was wonderful,” he murmured. “I have not felt so—oh, I have no words to describe it. Thank you for making me feel alive again.”
“Thank you, Lachlan,” she replied, smiling warmly at him.
“I only wish we had been naked.” His voice was regretful as he kissed her again. “Perhaps next time?” There was a question in his eyes.
Alyth felt her heart skip a beat as she looked into his teal blue eyes. She had not imagined that there would be a next time.
“Perhaps,” she said softly.