Chapter 9 #2
Since Harper couldn’t press a finger to his lips, she used her mouth. That wasn’t kissing because she was trying to make him be quiet so the castle didn’t fall on their heads.
“No talking,” she said, rubbing the not-kiss against his mouth to make it nicer.
“Only whispering. Whoa, something is happening down there again.” She pulled back and tried to see around the bowl of stingy herbal water.
“I think there’s ants in my pants. That always happens around you, Rory Blue Eyes McKeran.
If I wasn’t a virgin I’d guess I’m getting all hot and bothered because you’re so close.
Only I’m not supposed to know about that. ”
“Be still,” he whispered as he took her hands out of the water, set the bowl aside and dried them off with another clean cloth.
“Want to know how I know about that? Internet.” She cackled because he didn’t know what that was.
When he took away the cloth Harper was astonished to see the scratches had faded and were beginning to disappear.
“Hey, that looks much better. Thanks for the dunking. Should I like explain the internet to you? Might take a while.”
He examined her palms closely, and pinched something that he pulled out and showed her. “Look upon what you’ve done to yourself, my lady.”
The big black wicked-looking thorn made her scowl. “I didn’t fall into the hurty sticks on purpose, you know. I tripped. It was an accident.”
“’Twas because you’re pished.” Even whispered, he made it sound like a bad thing.
Harper poked him in the chest. “That’s your fault for telling me to be friends with Doon. Doon thinks she dreamed me up. Doon got me drunk on your very fine Scottish whiskey. Doon probably has like a girl—excuse me, lass—crush on me, too. Only I want to get naked with you.” She hmphed.
Rory closed his eyes and sighed. He also grew another head, which vanished a moment later.
“Why are you acting like I farted in church?” she demanded. “I’m just telling the truth. So make up your mind, Blue Eyes. You want me to lie to you? I can say I don’t want to go to bed with you, and I don’t like your pretty face, and I wish you’d–”
She never got to finish her last words, because he dragged her to her feet and kissed her, swallowing them and her exhale of surprise.
Then he grabbed her and hauled her toward the door to the forge, where she bet he was going to throw her out and lock up so she couldn’t bother him anymore.
But then he didn’t, instead hustling her through it and down the passage past snickering guards and a couple of wide-eyed maids.
“Don’t laugh at him,” Harper warned a couple of the medieval ingrates, wagging her finger at them. “He saved my life tonight. Did you try to save my life, guy? I don’t think so. I could have been totally ripped up by a bunch of wicked thorny things. Hey, did they scratch you, too, Rory?”
The armorer stopped and looked at her. “Be silent,” he whispered.
“Why? Are you ashamed of me?” That hurt even more than the thorny sticks. “Oh, now I get it. It’s you and Ava. You know she’s married, but okay. Fine.” Her head started seriously spinning, so it was all she could do to knuckle away her tears. “I don’t care. I’ve always been alone since Mom died.”
As Harper slid to the floor, which turned into a pool of darkness, she wished Rory would love her as much as the laird’s wife. She also knew he never would.
As Una came into the kitchens Doon gave her a narrow look, but for once said nothing.
Eyes down, she kept her expression bland as she brought the dishes over to the sink, but when she saw the other maids were busy she scraped the remnants into the bin for the sculleries to later burn.
Since the cook had her back to her, Una decided to wash the dishes as well, and soon had her hands immersed in the heated water of the scrubbing basin.
Doon joined her, and watched as she worked for a time.
“Need you my aid, Mistress?” Una asked politely. She could smell the whiskey on the cook’s breath now and hoped she wouldn’t hit her or do worse.
“Elspeth claims you’re a changed lass since you came back from the stables,” Doon said at last.
“She’s kind.” She rinsed a goblet and placed it in the drying rack. “You ken I’m no’. I’ve only learned to hold my tongue and do as I’m bid. I do appreciate the chance to work inside the stronghold again.”
The cook grunted. “You’re happier as a chamber maid than you were working for me, that you cannae deny. I see the smile on your face when you and the lass share your morning meal away from the others.”
“’Tisnae hard work.” Una finished the last dish and rinsed off her hands before regarding her. “I dinnae sweat, nor burn myself on hot spits. My meals, they’re hot instead of cold, and Elspeth, she’s fair.” She hesitated before she added, “Just as fair as you, Mistress.”
Doon nodded with obvious satisfaction. “I’ll no’ force you come back to sweat for me. Only ken that lass, she’s earned more than your silence and willingness to work. Do something to show your gratitude for what she’s given you, aye?”
The cook’s words stayed with Una, but she couldn’t think of what service she could provide Elspeth that she would accept.
Being kept apart from the two men she loved had plunged the head chambermaid into endless melancholy.
The endless, unwavering pursuit of her by the McKeran guard didn’t help lift her mood, either.
Una stopped in her tracks as she saw Kelso hovering outside Elspeth’s bed chamber.
He stood leaning against the wall with his arms folded and his eyes closed, so he hadn’t been sent to guard the lass.
No, he was waiting for her to retire, and doubtless would brace her again over his needs and her choices.
Distracting Kelso, ’tis how I may serve my friend. ’Twillnae prove unpleasant, as long as I’m careful.
“You shouldnae dawdle where you’re no’ wanted, lad,” she told him as she walked up to the big guard. “Didnae the lass say your understanding, ’twas over?”
“Our understanding.” He chuckled. “How polite you’ve learned to babble since the MacBren ended me. I recall you had a tongue as sharp as a honed dagger, and swifter than a crossbow bolt.”
Any moment Elspeth would be coming up the stairs, tired and heartsick, and Una couldn’t let her see the two of them arguing like this. Although she had been trying very hard not to lie, it was in service of a friend instead of herself this time.
“Mayhap I yet do.” She nodded at the other end of the passage. “If you wish speak to the lass, she’s sharing my chamber of late.”
The smirk on Kelso’s face faded away. “Never say she’s taken to bedding wenches.”
“You ken better, you eejit.” She sniffed and stalked past him, holding her breath until she heard his boots thumping behind her. Aye, follow me, you nosy fack.
From there she led him to the small bed chamber where she had been sleeping alone, and sent up a silent prayer to the Gods that she’d remembered to bank the fire in the hearth.
“She’s asleep now,” Una whispered to the big guard, shooing him away. “On the morrow you may speak with–”
Kelso grabbed the door, pushed her inside and shut it. He stalked over to the bed, yanking back the coverlet. “Elspeth’s no’ here, you lying wench.”
“You see well in the dark.” Una added some wood to the fire, and then touched a candle to the flame that flared from the banked coals. “A pity you cannae do the same in the light.”
The guard snatched the candle holder from her hand and thumped it down on the little table where she kept her basket of mending. “You meddle in a man’s affairs, you risk his wrath.”
She forced a laugh. “I’ve faced worse than you, lad, and survived.”
“Did you tell Elspeth you wanted me for yourself?” Kelso reached into her mending basket, pulling out the chemise she’d been mending at nights. He rubbed the thin fabric between his thick fingers. “That’s why you lured me to your bed chamber, I see such now.”
“You conceited arse,” she told him, snatching the garment away and shoving it back in the basket. “I could bed any McKeran lad I desire. Indeed, I may offer myself to a different clansmen each night and none would refuse me.”
“They’d welcome you, aye, out of pity.” Kelso laughed at her.
Una nearly slapped him, but knew something to say that would hurt him even more. “You’d ken, for ’tis what Elspeth thinks of bedding you.”
He fell silent, and for a moment he looked as if he might toss her across the chamber.
“Aye, right. She’s forgotten the pleasure I gave her, distracted by those two would-be lassies.
” He came at her, forcing her back against the stone side of the hearth.
“You wish to ken what she’s missing, then, chamber maid?
Do you covet my hefty cock for yourself? ”
His bragging and threatening made Una experience a pang of overwhelming sorrow; she understood the kind of pain that made someone lash out as Kelso was.
She’d taunted others in the same way to hide her own loneliness and suffering.
That was why she flung her arms around his neck, stood on her toes and kissed him.
His big hands grabbed her waist, and for a moment she wondered if he would hurl her across the room. Then he kissed her back, giving her his tongue and sliding his hands to her hips to lift her against his chest.
Una had always used men to better her position or get her what she wanted; with Kelso she’d meant only to stop him from making her only friend more miserable than she was.
So why now did she burn as if he’d set fire to her with his ravishing mouth and lustful hands?
He fondled her chebs with such outrageous boldness she wanted to groan against his lips, but only a low whimper escaped her.
Sweat broke out on her scalp as he ended the kiss and worked one hand into her bodice. The roughness of his calloused fingers rasping over her cheb made her shiver.