Chapter Nineteen #2
will have my head do I take you.”
Veronica made to walk past him. “Then I’ll
go alone.”
He blocked her path. “I canna allow it. I’ve
my orders.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “What
orders?”
He flushed. “My orders are to keep you here
no matter if you have a fit.”
“A fit?”
“Leastways,” he said, absently running a
hand over his blond hair, “The Gunn wishes for you to remain
here.”
Didn’t he understand what a good fighter she
was? Hadn’t he seen her take down eaters on the AI scanner?
Lachlan might need her and, quite frankly,
his accusation from the night prior had haunted her upon waking.
’Tis a boon to ken you care, he’d said. Even when he’d
muttered that out she’d known his words were born of sarcasm. And
could she blame him for feeling that way? Veronica understood that
she couldn’t. He’d done everything within his power since she’d
arrived to make her feel safe and secure—the things she needed
most—and had given him paltry little in return. Even their intimate
episode in the bath tub had been about her pleasure and not theirs
together.
She was selfish. The self-absorption had
been born out of fear of getting close to Lachlan, but that excuse
didn’t matter to her anymore. Her husband was at Ground Zero and
she’d never told him she cared. Guilt consumed her.
“Ramsay,” Veronica quietly ground out,
“either move out of my way or I’ll move you out of it. Don’t test
me.”
Just then a stable boy ran into the great
hall and announced Lachlan, Finn, and Victor’s return. Veronica’s
relief must have been palpable for Ramsay put a comforting hand on
her shoulder.
“You see?” Ramsay said. “You dinna have to
fight me. Your husband and brother are home.”
“Child, why are you dressed like that?”
Moira called out from her seat at the head table. “You’ve the look
of a vicious warlord sent straight from the bowels of hell.”
Veronica’s eyebrows rose in amusement.
“Thank you. It’s what the women warriors of my clan wear.”
The wide-eyed soldiers looked dumbstruck.
She was amused enough to give them more proverbial fat to chew on.
“I was going to the Campbells to retrieve your laird,” she told
them truthfully. “I’d have killed any man who got in my way.”
Silence. They looked as impressed as they
did shocked. Finally a big, burly, red-headed man stood up and
toasted her. “To the Lady Gunn!”
“Lady Gunn!” the soldiers said, raising
their cups.
“The fearsome lady warrior from the bowels
of hell!” another called out.
“I’ll drink to that!”
“Aye, to the fearsome Lady Gunn!”
The soldiers were still cheering when
Lachlan, Finn, and Victor strode inside. Catriona immediately
bounded into Victor’s arms as Lachlan looked Veronica up and
down.
“She was coming to get you, milord,” one man
called out, defending her.
“Aye. And she meant to kill any mon who
tried to stop her!” said another.
Veronica’s face turned red. “Well, it’s
true,” she muttered, nervously glancing at her husband.
“Lady Gunn!” the soldiers chimed in unison,
raising their cups and clanging them against the mugs of those
nearest to them.
“The fearsome Lady Gunn!”
Thankfully, Lachlan’s expression was that of
bemusement as the boisterous gathering sang her praises. Their eyes
locked from across the great hall. Hopefully now he knew that deep
down she did care. That was enough for the moment.
*****
Lachlan partook of the nooning meal in his
usual seat at table’s head as his wife, still in her future clothes
with her satchel o’er one shoulder, put every question under the
sun to him. Why hadn’t he awakened her afore he’d taken his leave?
How had he retrieved Victor so quickly? What was the situation at
the Campbells like?
He swallowed a chunk of stew afore answering
his lady wife. “I wished for you to sleep, I ran into your brother
on the road as James was bringing him back, and you will have to
ask Victor aboot the last one.”
Veronica frowned as she glanced at her
brother. Catriona was making too much the fuss o’er Victor for him
to speak to another. “Yeah. Like that’ll happen in this
lifetime.”
Lachlan half-smiled. “Like as naught,
nay.”
She snorted at that. “Well, I’m just happy
both of you are okay. I have to admit I’m glad you didn’t make it
to Campbell land,” she admitted under her breath. “I was worried
some of them might have turned.”
“Victor told me three different Campbells
came down with the icy fever. The thrice of them were burned in
their huts.”
Veronica nodded. “That’s good. That they
were put out of their misery, I mean.”
“Aye. And Victor is working on a…a…” He
struggled to repeat the word. “A maxine.”
A maxine? Oh! “A vaccine?”
“Aye, that.”
“Does he think he can really make one?”
“He seems to think so. ‘Tis a boon,
aye?”
“If true, yes.”
“Have faith. The mon has not let you down
yet.”
An expression he couldna name stole o’er
Veronica’s face. “You’re right,” she said. “He’s much like you in
that way.”
Lachlan’s eyes glittered. “Do you mean
this?”
“I do.”
His heartbeat picked up. The woman had the
power to turn him to mush with her words alone. He dinna ken
whether to smile from that knowledge or frown because of it. He
settled on a grunt.
His wife grinned. “It amuses me that I know
what your noises mean just by the look in your eyes while you make
them.”
“You ken me that well, eh?”
“I do.” Her countenance grew serious. “And I
very much like all that I know to be true about you.”
There went his bedamned heartbeat again.
Aye, his wife had bewitched him. Leastways, he could think of worse
fates.