Chapter 15
His hands played with her hair, pinning her head to the wall as his lips continued their search.
Kate felt it in her stomach, each kiss drawing at her delicate skin.
Reuben’s lips trailed down her neck to her chest where he lingered.
His hands fondling with her through her clothes.
Kate found it hard to breathe, closing her eyes as she continued her labored breathing.
She arched her body forward, egging him on for him to take more.
Kate wanted to give all that she had, she wanted the Laird to take it, and she would give without holding back.
As his lips continued lingering over hers, his arm began to trail down to her belly where it lingered for a moment.
Kate knew where he was going, and could not stand the suspense.
She moved his hands, taking it further down.
Just as he lifted her skirt, Kate felt wetness on her face.
She had broken out into a sweat, and her body had reached the precipice of desire.
She felt her body shiver, and with her eyes closed, it was almost too much for her to take. The pleasure was just too intense.
Her eyes shot open, and she found Lily and Freya standing over her bed.
Kate quickly sat up, wiping the sweat from her forehead, looking around in embarrassment.
Her cheeks flushed as she realized that she had been dreaming.
Reuben was not in the room, yet her body had reacted in the way it did.
She let out a sigh as she remembered that it had only been yesterday when they had shared their long and passionate kiss on the roof, and since then, the memory of the kiss had not left the forefront of her mind.
There was nothing else she could think about.
“Are ye all right?” Freya asked, staring at her sister.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” said Kate. “Was just a dream.”
“Looks more like a nightmare with the way ye were bucking and moaning,” said Freya.
“Moaning?” Kate asked, suddenly apprehensive of what had happened.
“Uh huh,” Lily nodded, staring at Kate.
She suddenly felt a wave of shame come over her as she wondered what her sisters would think if she was having dreams about being with Reuben. She swung her legs over the bed and got to her feet, trying to shake off the feelings of the dream.
“I’m fine, I need to go check on Willow,” Kate began.
“She’s fine, woke up a little bit ago,” said Lily. “She’s doing a lot better.”
“That’s good to hear,” said Kate, walking out of the room.
As she walked down the corridors, she passed by the Lady Grear who was giving instructions to some of the servants.
Kate bowed before she walked by, and Grear smiled at her.
Another turn took her to the infirmary where she knocked before opening the door.
As it opened, she saw Reuben inside, with Hilda finishing up his new bandage.
“Morning,” said Reuben.
The sound of his voice suddenly made her hot behind her ear. She looked to his lips, and quickly averted her eyes elsewhere, not wanting to embarrass herself again.
“Morning,” Kate fired back, before walking by him, heading past Hilda as she murmured a similar greeting.
As she pushed aside the curtains, she found her sister seated on the bed, staring out to the fields outside the window. Willow turned around and smiled at Kate weakly, with a dull look in her eyes. Kate quickly sat next to her, touching her head to check her temperature.
“Let me see yer tongue,” said Kate, looking into her mouth.
“I’m a little dizzy,” Willow replied, not wanting to open her mouth.
“Let me see, it might be reducing.”
“It was just a day, there is no way for ye to tell that it has been.”
Kate looked up at her face, raising an eyebrow at just how easily Willow could talk. Of all of her sisters, Willow was the one who talked the most, and so it made sense for her to chatter on a lot, but now she was sick, the fact that she could still pull it off felt a little off.
“Fine,” Willow replied, opening her mouth and sticking out her tongue.
Kate glanced at it, and noticed that the pink color was returning to it, and the underside seemed to have completely reverted.
Whatever Hilda had been given was doing its job.
The color had returned to her face too. Her lips were still a little blue, but the rest of her skin seemed to have recovered quite quickly.
“Well, what do ye think?” Willow asked, speaking with her tongue out her mouth.
“I think Hilda has done an amazing job, and you will be fine soon,” Kate replied, looking out the window. Once Willow was fine, the fact that they would have to leave once again would arise, and she would have to make that decision.
Willow watched her for a moment, realized what she was thinking, and then laid back in bed. “I would like to rest some more now.”
“Aye, you get yer rest. I’ll have some food brought to ye myself. Once they are done in the kitchen, I’ll excuse myself, so I can come over and have breakfast with ye.”
Willow smiled. “I’d like that. I’d like that very much.”
Kate got up, and turned to the door, walking towards the corridor. Just before she could get to the door, she heard Willow sit up and retch, throwing up behind her. Kate turned around to see the floor covered in vomit, and Willow wiping her mouth as though she had just thrown up.
“I’m sorry, I’ll get that cleaned u…” Willow began, throwing up again.
Kate rushed over to her, rubbing her back as she let out the rest of the fluids inside her.
Once she was done, Kate grabbed a rag and got on her knees, cleaning up the place just as Freya and Lily walked in.
Kate turned around at the sound of a giggle from Lily, but as the girl made eye contact with Kate, she quickly went silent.
“Willow, are ye okay?” Freya asked.
“I’m fine, Hilda said this would happen the more I took her potion, it really knocks out everything I have in m…” Willow heaved again, almost as though she was going to throw up, but then she held herself back.
Lily covered her mouth and looked away, before turning back to Kate and helping her with the bucket. “I’m sorry about Willow, if she had not fallen sick, we would have left.”
Kate froze for a moment, hearing her sisters talking about it for the first time made her skin crawl.
A shiver ran down her spine as she suddenly pictured them out in the wilderness, riding horses and struggling to find food as they made their way to the coast. It was going to be the greatest struggle they had gone through, and it would be because of her.
Because Kate could not come to grasps with what she felt.
At the McDonald estate, they were truly happy.
“I’m so sorry,” said Kate, feeling her voice break as she knelt on the floor. She looked to her hands, seeing the tears come. “I’m so sorry.”
Freya and the others turned to Kate, with Lily asking, “What for?”
“I was supposed to protect ye, all of ye. And I have done such a bad job. I have failed so bad, with Uncle Max, and now bringing ye here. I have been such a fool, and now, I…I kissed the Laird, and I am afraid I may have feelings for him. I have made this all so complicated, and now…”
Willow got off the bed and grabbed her shoulder, making Kate look up at her. For a moment, Kate felt glad that her sister was going to comfort her. She needed the words of encouragement, and Willow was a strong voice of reason. Freya and Lily got behind her, helping her up to the bed.
“Ye’re a bampot,” said Willow.
Everyone turned around to stare at her as she sat up in bed. Freya scolded her lightly, but Willow held up a hand, stopping Freya.
“I daenae understand how ye can feel somethin’ so strongly, and yet ye deny it.”
“What I feel is nae important. I have to do what is best for ye, and this here, the Laird, there is no telling what he has done, or if it is even safe here for us.”
“It was never safe, not when we were with our parents at home. They were killed, and it was a miracle that we survived.” Willow began.
“It was a miracle that we survived Uncle Max, and now we are here, and just because ye got in a bit of trouble, ye think that makes this place unsafe? Kate, we all know that is nae the reason ye want us to leave. Ye cannae get it behind ye, the idea that this family was behind the murder of our parents.”
Grear stepped into the room with a somber expression on her face. She grabbed Kate’s arm, pulling her into an embrace, staring at her face. Kate felt her head spin for a moment, trying to turn her head away, but Grear held up her face.
“Listen to yer sisters, my child,” Grear began.
“We didnae have any personal relationships with yer family. There was no reason for us to want to hurt them. When yer parents were killed, we were out in the wilderness, Reuben too, along with his faither. We were fighting the Jacobites, and it was shortly after, that Reuben lost his faither.”
Kate wiped at her eyes, “How did the Laird die?”
“A poisoned blade. He killed the enemy who cut him with the blade, but he was not able to get to Hilda before the poison had spread through his body. Reuben was forced to watch his faither die in his arms, and he spent years after that training to be the new Laird of the estate, training to be a brave and powerful warrior.”
“I’m sorry,” said Kate, making her peace with the beliefs.
It was the one truth which she had held on to for so long.
A truth which her uncle had fed her for so long, making her hate the McDonald empire, despite never actually knowing or meeting them.
It had taken everything she had to shake away the idea that they were the one’s responsible.
But now, being there with them, held by Grear, and kissed by Reuben, Kate realized that she had been lied to, and there was no truth to the statement.
“If we had anything to do with it, we wouldnae have accepted ye into this family. I began loving all of ye as my own children, and what happened to ye was terrible, and I understand that ye want to leave Kate, but I promise, if ye agree to stay, we will treat ye with love and respect, and as I treat all of those who live here. Ye will be a part of this family, I assure ye,” Grear said, stroking her hair lightly.
Willow quickly spun her head, and in the process, something dropped from the far side of the bed, dropping to the ground and pouring all over the floor.
Kate turned to look and realized that what she had seen was the vomit which she had just cleaned up.
She looked to the side and saw the bucket she had used by the door, and peered in, seeing that it was a different bucket.
“What is that?” Kate asked, looking under the bed and then at Willow.
“What is what?” Willow asked, unable to hide the smile that was creeping up her face.
Kate bent low and touched it, realizing that it was the same thing, and she turned back to Willow, “What are ye doing?”
“Oh, no that was her bucket, the one she used to throw up into when ye were not here.” Freya quickly jumped in.
Grear smiled and held up a hand, “That is a bucket of oatmeal which Willow takes in her mouth just before she throws up.”
“So she’s not really throwing up?” Kate asked, still confused about what was going on.
“Aye, she was faking it,” said Grear.
Freya flashed her eyes quickly at Grear, trying to get the woman to stop talking. But Grear was not listening, she had made up her mind on what she was going to do, and it involved letting out the whole truth to Kate, hiding nothing.
“But Willow, ye’re sick…” Kate asked, looking at her.
Willow shrugged, not sure of what to say. “Aye…”
“Lily had a beautiful plan to use a plant to turn Willow’s tongue to that color, and Freya used powder and coloring to make her skin look as it did. This was the plan that yer sisters came up with, and Hilda and I helped them with it.”
Kate chuckled, looking at them with amusement on her face. “Why?”
“Because we didnae want to leave Kate, we are happy here, and we know ye can be happy here too. Ye just have to forget what ye were taught, and understand that everyone here, they love ye. More than ye know,” said Freya.
“Also, because I daenae want to leave this beautiful garden and head out with ye,” Lily added, hugging Kate from behind.
“My tongue tastes like shite, but I did that, because I want to stay. I am happy here, and I think we can make this our home, Kate. I hope ye see that.” Willow wrapped an arm around Kate’s neck, in her own form of a hug which was a bit too tight for her.
“We understand that ye want to do what is best for us, ye want to take care of us, as our maither would want. But ye need to understand that we are all family, and we all have to take care of each other. It’s not just yer job Kate, it is all of ours, and so allow us to take care of ye as well.
” Freya finished off, standing off to the side.
“Ye better get over here and hug me,” Kate sniffled with a laugh.
Freya rushed over and hugged Kate, drawing a laugh from inside her. Kate felt her heart warm inside of her as she let out a deep breath. They were all right, and she had been too stubborn to want to see. But seeing how far they had gone, hearing it from them, it made Kate feel a sense of relief.
She would have to trust herself, trust her sisters, trust the McDonalds, and most importantly, she would have to trust her heart. She hugged them tighter as a tear dropped from her eyes, knowing that she was changing, and everything would change.