Chapter 26
“Let me go!” Leah cried as Kenneth pulled her down the hallway.
She wished to lunge at Magnus and gouge his eye out for the things he had just said.
“He is protectin’ ye, M’Lady. Please. We have to get out of the castle.”
The urgency in his words finally placated her, and she allowed him to lead her down the corridor and outside again. They both ran toward the steps, where they now knew that Thompson’s men had been waiting disguised as their own guards.
Kenneth seemed to know exactly who the imposters were as he charged through the archway. Leah screamed as he ran full-pelt down the stairs. She watched as four of the men in the boat jumped out and sprinted away into the trees.
She stared after them, feeling numb, as Kenneth pursued them. They would not get far. She could not feel any sympathy for them—they were cruel-hearted and followed orders from a madman.
She looked back at the castle, hoping against all the odds that Magnus was all right. Despite her anger toward him, she did not want him to come to harm. Kenneth had told her that Magnus was protecting her, but his words were still burned into the back of her mind.
She trapped me into marriage.
Often the truth was the hardest thing to hear. He was right, after all. If she had not climbed into that carriage and forced him to help her, her father would never have been able to manipulate him in the first place.
Leah turned to see Betty and Katie approaching. Katie looked confused, but Betty had the same dreamy look in her eyes that Leah had grown accustomed to.
“Is all well?” Katie asked.
Just as she said that, Leah looked back at the castle and saw Magnus emerging, a sheen of sweat on his brow and a bloodied sword in his hand but otherwise unharmed.
She lifted her chin when he met her eyes and turned back to her friend. “All is as well as it will ever be,” she muttered and walked away from all of them.
She crossed the courtyard and the rear gardens toward the edge of the water, not wishing to be around anyone.
“Leah!”
She kept walking, knowing that he would follow her and that she was powerless to prevent it.
I am sick and tired of men telling me what I can and cannot do.
She wished that she had gotten on the boat and sailed away so that she would not have to deal with her feelings anymore.
She walked out of the gardens through a small opening in the rear wall, which led to a high ledge above the sea. It was a beautiful spot, hidden from view from the rest of the castle. The sun glinted above her and reflected on the water, its fragile warmth beating down on her and clearing her mind.
Magnus stomped through the archway behind her, frowning when he saw her.
“Ye can stay where ye are,” she stated quickly. “I dinnae wish to see ye.”
Magnus advanced nonetheless, coming to stand a few feet away from her. Her eyes were drawn to the bloodied blade in his hand, and he looked down at it before throwing it into a flower bed behind him.
“Are ye alright?” he asked.
She scoffed. “Yes, quite well. Your wife, who was forced upon you, is still alive, much to your chagrin, I’m sure.”
“Leah,” he said in exasperation and then sighed heavily, running his hands through his hair and turning away from her to look out over the water.
A flock of geese flapped by, leisurely and calm in their movements, and they both watched them pass. Leah wished that she were one of them, able to glide away on the water and escape the life she had made for herself.
“Ye’re safe now,” Magnus assured her, looking out at the wide expanse of the hills on the horizon.
“I was stupid, that’s all,” Leah replied stubbornly, and he turned to her, raising his eyebrows.
“And what do ye mean by that?”
“When that servant came to find me, when he told me you wanted to see me, I thought…”
“Well? What did ye think, lass?”
“I thought that you wanted me!” Leah cried. “And then I arrive, and you tell that man that I have trapped you into marriage. That you don’t care what happens to me!”
Tears welled up in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
Magnus sighed heavily again as he turned to her, his good eye full of despair as he met her gaze.
“I had to say that to him, Leah. I was lookin’ at the man who had killed Elizabeth and tried to kidnap ye—all because I wouldnae marry his daughter.
” He threw his arms wide. “That is what caused all this. I refused to marry his daughter, so he decided to take my wife from me. The man was mad. Crazed.”
He shook his head, looking revolted.
“Elizabeth was innocent, she did nothin’ to him at all, and yet he took her life like it was sport.
He would have done the same to ye. He said he had men stationed at the boat, and if anythin’ happened to him, they would scupper it and drown ye.
I thought ye were on the lake when he told me that, but then ye arrived, and I was scared he’d kill ye in cold blood.
I kenned I would have to keep his attention on me.
I needed to get ye away. I thought that if I convinced him that I didnae care what happened to ye, he might leave ye alone. ”
Magnus shook his head again, looking at her imploringly.
“But the reality is…” He paused, and Leah held her breath.
“That couldnae be further from the truth.” His gaze met hers, his jaw set in a hard line.
“If ye still wish to return to England, then ye will have to explain to me how I can pass for an Englishman because ye arenae goin’ anywhere without me. Nae as long as ye live.”
Leah stared at him, finally hearing the words that she had never believed he would say.
“Do you really mean that?” she asked.
“I do.”
“And what about my castle?” she asked defiantly.
He took a step forward, looking bigger and manlier than she had ever seen him.
“What castle is that, lass? Ye are livin’ here with me.” His voice was a low growl as he took another step forward, so close that he could have reached out and touched her, but he stopped, seemingly waiting for her to give him her permission.
Leah looked out at their estate before her, at the rolling hills and rolling clouds above their heads. “In truth,” she said softly, “I never want to leave this place. I would never leave somewhere so beautiful to return to England.” She looked back at him. “And I do not wish to leave you.”
She gasped as he gripped her waist and pulled her against him. He took her mouth in a fiery kiss, thrusting his tongue against hers and aligning their bodies perfectly as the wind rustled through the branches of the trees nearby and ruffled her hair.
She was breathless when he released her, but only to push her back against the wall of the castle, grinding his hips against hers as her back collided with the stone, and she looked up at him in shock.
“I love ye,” he said earnestly. “I believe I have loved ye since I pulled ye out from under the seat in that carriage. Ye are stayin’ here with me, and all this talk of separate lives is over.”
“That was your idea,” she protested but could not help the smile that tugged at her lips.
“Aye, well, I was wrong. Ye’re mine, lass, and that isnae goin’ to change.”
“Yours?” she asked coyly as his hands moved down her waist and he pressed his body against hers. “We are married, yet we have never shared a bed, My Laird,” she said boldly, feeling the heat of a blush suffuse her cheeks again. “I am not yours yet.”
He ground his hips against hers again, and she shuddered as she felt his hard length through the layers of her dress.
“Och, aye, who needs a bed?” he asked.
Suddenly, his hands lifted her off the ground and spun her in place, laying her down on the grass beneath them, right there beside the castle.
Leah shuddered beneath him, and she gasped as he lowered his head to plant open-mouthed kisses on her neck, her fingers digging into his shoulders.
“Ye’re mine,” Magnus grunted, hovering above her as his hands caressed her breasts, his eye roaming over her skin with a hunger she had never seen before. “I am goin’ to take ye right here, in the open, for all the world to see, as me wife. And I may nae let go of ye for some days to come.”
Leah shivered, shaking her head. “We can’t. Not here. Let’s go inside.”
She made to pull herself up, but he gripped her wrists and pinned them above her head, and she cried out at the thrill of being so overpowered. She might dislike it when men dictated what she had to do, but it appeared she had no issue with Magnus taking control of her body.
“Ye will lie here and take it, wife of mine, because ye belong to me,” he purred darkly, and she trembled as he brought his mouth down on hers, his heavy weight pressing into her, one hand pinning her wrists while the other ripped at her dress.
She felt fabric tearing, and she groaned as she lifted her hips to meet his, fresh arousal flooding her at his rough, angry movements.
“I hate this dress,” he growled. “It reminds me of the day ye came to me when ye were desperate and alone, and I hate that ye wore it today when ye were leavin’ me. I shall burn it once I have torn it off ye.”
She cried out in surprised pleasure as he tore the fabric away, kneeling before her to pull the garment off and flinging it behind him, leaving her lying in only her undergarments on the side of the lake.
“You are mad,” she declared breathlessly, but she could feel his desire rolling off him in waves as he ran his hands up her body, over her stomach and the mounds of her breasts.
“Even when I saw ye the first time, I thought ye were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, and I havenae been proven wrong yet.”
Leah arched her back as his thumb and forefinger pressed against her nipple through the fabric.
But then, deciding he no longer wanted barriers between them, he pulled at the neckline of her shift and pulled it down roughly to expose her breasts, plunging downward to wrap his lips around a bud and roll it gently between his teeth.