Chapter Fourteen
KADE WOKE ME, the light trace of his fingers drawing a line along the arch of my eyebrow, down my cheek, across my lips. His expression was softer than I had ever seen it. We lay like that for several minutes, in silence, savoring this nearness and this new, strengthening bond.
There was an inexplicable, thoughtful glow in his eyes. Not sorrow, not awe. Something rare and vast. “You hold my heart with both hands, lass. I have completely fallen. I am forever at your mercy.”
His words, so touching and unexpected, fed me a strange warmth.
“I will take infinite care with your heart, husband,” I whispered to him, sensing that the changes in me, in him, were more profound than I could ever have imagined.
I repeated the assurance he had given me, and proven to be true. “You have nothing to fear with me.”
Kade continued to draw his soft line, as though committing each nuanced curve of my face to memory.
There was a deep fondness in his expression, a gentle amazement.
Gone was the heartless savage I had once taken him for, replaced, here in our private haven, by a lover who was becoming so deeply comforting to me I wondered how I ever could have feared him so.
“I must rise now to organize the hunting parties,” he said. “I’ll stay close to home today to attend to matters here. I might see you in the day.”
“I’d like that very much. You don’t need to hunt?”
“The hunting parties are able to dispatch without my guidance. There is a growing number of men whose loyalty I trust. I was assured of this yesterday. We ran into a small brigade of Campbell’s troops.”
This news sent a bolt of foreboding through my heart. “Where?”
“About ten miles from here. In the exact direction that leads to Campbell’s keep, if one were to follow the line due northwest. We have reason to believe they were expecting a message from a Morrison soldier.
They asked us if we had word, before they realized that I was among the party.
” The very fact that Kade was sharing this information signaled a change.
I thought he might be warning me. To be aware.
To be on guard. “We’re better prepared than we were only two weeks ago.
Many of the soldiers’ training is coming along well, Jamie among them.
Most of the key weapons have been newly sharpened.
And I will remain within close proximity to my wife, who I have sworn to protect above all others. ”
Of course I was glad to learn that he would be close by if I needed him. If he needed me.
“And so I must take my leave of you, for now,” he said, rising from the bed, preparing himself for his day.
Before he left me, he kissed me only once, as though mindful of our effect on each other, and making a point to avoid temptation. “Good day, milady,” he said.
A short time later, several of the housemaids arrived at my door.
I spent most of the day with them, organizing the rooms that Kade’s brother and sisters would sleep in during their visit, along with their entourage of military and other personnel.
I was glad that we could greet them with a more welcoming keep than they might have found only weeks ago.
And I couldn’t get my husband out of my mind.
I couldn’t wait to see him again. I couldn’t wait to lie next to him, to feel his hands on my body.
In my anticipation, I felt like a different person altogether.
I was still glowing with the effects of Kade’s erotic torment.
My limbs felt loose, relaxed yet strong.
My body was fizzing with satisfaction the likes of which I had never experienced.
And my mind was sharper than I could ever recall.
I felt, in the broader sense of the term, powerful, as though I had swallowed a seed of invincibility.
I felt peaceful. Whole. Womanly. Alive. My husband had beaten my weaknesses out of me, apparently.
He had soothed me, riled me and awakened me all at once.
And I was pleased with the newfound harmony of the manor in general.
We still had mountains of work to do, but the small changes were evident.
The hall and the kitchens were noticeably cleaner and more efficient.
The staff were more energized as they spoke and worked.
Once the new ground rules had been established—and rewards aplenty gifted to those who followed through—real change was detectable, not only in the slowly improving look of the place but in the entire atmosphere of the keep.
The changes, it was widely acknowledged, were positive.
We were enjoying the tastier, more abundant food.
Random clan members commended me on my efforts, and those of my husband, and had begun to offer to assist in any way they could.
The manor itself was looking somewhat more polished and proud and was getting close to being ready, Kade said, to host his eldest brother and two sisters, who would visit in two weeks’ time.
Knox Mackenzie’s visit, I knew, could not come soon enough for Kade.
My husband was becoming increasingly anxious about the uprising not only outside our walls, but inside them, as well.
About half the men of the army were loyal to Kade, he estimated, or perhaps more.
It was the other contingent he was worried about.
The timing for an internal uprising couldn’t be worse, if the threat of Campbell’s return—wherever it might be—was to be believed.
I knew my husband took Campbell and his army seriously.
I remembered my husband’s words about Campbell’s vicious nature.
The large crescent-shaped scar on Kade’s shoulder was proof that there was at least one warrior roaming the Highlands who posed a very physical threat.
That the man in question had been spotted repeatedly in these very parts was distressing indeed.
And with only half an army’s allegiance, Kade was eager to have his brother—and his brother’s troops—on hand and at the ready.
I hoped my husband’s worries were for naught.
I hoped Campbell’s men were merely en route to some other conquest. What, after all, would they be seeking here at Glenlochie?
We had little to offer them. As improved as our provisions and our living quarters might have been, we hardly seemed worthy of a full-blown takeover.
It was Ossian Lochs they wanted—Roses and Wilkie’s keep, given to them by her father the king.
I allowed the disquieting thoughts to fade into the background.
I wanted instead to savor the effects of the night and to appreciate the momentary harmony of my home.
In fact, both the pleasant, beautified state of our keep and the lingering aura of my husband’s astounding night-lit attentions were nothing short of miraculous.
I had never, in all my twenty-one years, experienced such a profound sense of physical well-being.
It was late afternoon by the time I made my way to the kitchens where several of my sisters and all of the staff were busy at work.
I could hear their laughter. The hall, although set for the evening meal, was empty.
I took a moment to revel in the quiet scene that bustled at its edges.
The fire was lit and I went to stand next to it.
The doors to the kitchen had been propped open, and I could hear the busy, productive sounds of pots clanging and cooks’ discussions, my sisters’ voices among them.
Clementine, in particular, had taken to her new pastime with dedication.
Her plans for the nunnery had been delayed, at the orders of my husband, since he didn’t want to spare the men who would escort her at such uncertain times.
She’d offered no protests, I’d noticed, and instead seemed more than content to spend her days in the kitchens.
Baking had become her new obsession. I could hear Agnes’s and Ann’s voices, too.
It seemed my sisters were glad of their new opportunities.
The minute they’d been allowed to work, they had embraced the employment with something akin to happiness. Just as I had.
At that moment, they came bustling as one out into the hall, noticing me immediately.
“Stella!” Clementine said, beaming, coming to me. In her hands she held a platter. “You have to taste this bread. It’s fresh from the oven. And we’ve just finished churning the butter. I’ve added walnuts and grains to the dough. ’Tis simply divine.”
“It looks it,” I said, taking a bite of the piece she held out to me.
But before I could compliment her or comment on how fine she looked with the new sparkle in her eye, we were confronted by the sudden presence of our father, Aleck and one of my father’s other senior officers, Hugh.
The officers themselves strode into the room, while our father hobbled.
With each passing day his frailty seemed to be compounding.
He looked tired yet agitated, and his eyes were watery with age and the debilitating effects of his accelerating madness.
I noticed immediately that my father was not leading his men, but following.
This was no small detail. My father was all-powerful laird, no matter what his condition.
He had either bestowed a new authority to Aleck, or Aleck had taken it regardless—either scenario spelled trouble, I could feel it to my bones.