Chapter Fourteen #3
“He knows of our history, or lack thereof. That’s all there is to know.
I’m married now, Maisie. There’s no future between Caleb and me.
It wasn’t meant to be.” I realized it then: I meant the words as I spoke them, even though I hadn’t realized, fully, how I felt until this moment.
I no longer yearned for Caleb. I yearned for only one man.
The one I was now married to. The one I would share a bed with tonight.
The one whose increasingly infuriating countdown numbered... fewer than eight full days.
I was furious enough—by both the countdown and my unresolved dispute with my sister—to brush her off.
I began to follow Bonnie, who had already risen to accompany me to the blacksmith’s hut.
But Maisie walked along with us. I looked at her as we walked, and she read my gaze but didn’t rise to it, nor did she comment on it.
The trace of guilt in her was etched with the lingering traces of sorrow that her disappointments had introduced.
My own damages, I could now consider, had been tempered just slightly by the security and comfort—among other things—that my husband had now introduced.
Maisie wished for what I had: a husband—a Mackenzie, no less—whose growing devotion to me had been convincingly demonstrated.
With that thought, I began to forgive her.
Whether or not she’d had my interest at heart or her own didn’t really matter.
This was more about my relationship with Kade than it was about Maisie.
My sister couldn’t help herself. She was in love with a man she would possibly never see again, let alone have.
A man who resembled my husband as only a full-blooded brother could.
But my husband didn’t want Maisie. He could have had her. She had been his for the taking, only to be refused.
He wants you, my father had said.
And Kade had confirmed it, more than once. Words spoken in the heat of the night, followed by the sensual, devastating pleasure of his claim and his desire as he confirmed his declaration.
I felt mildly flushed when my thoughts were interrupted. We were being approached by the very men we sought out. Jamie and Caleb. We were out of doors, but had only started on the path toward the tradesmen’s village.
I couldn’t help looking around the vicinity, to see if Kade might be around.
We were near the manor’s picturesque rose gardens, at the side entrance.
In the distance were the orchards, which sloped down a gentle incline to the loch below.
I could see the small, moving figures of several gardeners pruning and tending to the trees, readying them for the winter.
Mackenzie gardeners perhaps. Or our own, now newly trained and productive.
It was unlikely Kade would be in the orchards or nearby.
His place was in the weapons sheds and the sparring yards, where he bested men one by one and slowly but surely earned their hard-won loyalty.
Nevertheless, I wanted to make this quick.
It wouldn’t do to be caught again in Caleb’s company.
I could only imagine what punishment a second offense would bring.
Caleb’s appearance had improved somewhat after our last brief encounter.
He had washed and put on fresh clothing.
He didn’t appear quite so gaunt. His hair gleamed with strands of gold, and his white shirt suited the lightly browned skin of his face and his neck.
His hands, as always, were dirtied with a perpetual film of soot.
Once, this image of him, healthy and sunlit, would have clutched at my heart, inspiring me to follow him to the ends of the earth, no matter what the cost.
But now I felt little. Nay, I felt something. What I felt was the shadowy effects of Kade Mackenzie’s fingers in the most intimate place imaginable. I felt his biting teeth. I felt the hard heat of his body next to mine and the fierce, devoted greed of his kiss.
Caleb reached out to me, as though he’d forgotten Kade’s warning. Abruptly, I flinched back. Caleb’s hand dropped to his side, his expression hurt and confused by my odd response.
“Caleb,” I said softly. “Please. You mustn’t touch me.
My husband is very...possessive. You must take his warning seriously.
He meant every word of it.” I had a brief, outlandish desire to reach for Caleb’s hand, to hold his coal-blackened fingers in my own, not to feel him, but to inspire a repeated punishment at the hands of my jealous husband.
But it wouldn’t do. Such an act might put Caleb’s life at risk.
Tempers were too high. Danger lurked and war threatened. So I took a small step back from him.
And Jamie began the very conversation I had been seeking.
“Stella,” he said, his eyes bright with urgency.
“Mackenzie is in danger, and so are you. Aleck and his rebels have allied with Campbell. They plan to storm the keep at Aleck’s invitation.
I’m loyal to your husband, as are enough of us, we can only hope, to outnumber Aleck within our own ranks.
You must tell your husband of this, and quickly.
Have him summon his brothers and their armies tonight. Tell him the attack is coming.”