Chapter 35
Chapter 35
“Ihad the strangest dream,” Anna said to Kyla when she awoke.
Kyla laughed. “You weren’t dreaming.”
“I ...” Anna looked ’round the cottage. “You mean he was here?”
“Aye. You two were wrapped ’round each other so tight, if I didn’t know better, I might have thought you’d been sleeping that way for years.”
Knowing that Lachann had come to her and held her while she’d slept warmed and reassured her. She was anxious to find him before her Norse kin returned to the keep.
They gathered their things, but before they left for the keep, Kyla stopped her. “You’re not going to go away with your uncle, are you?”
Anna shook her head. “Not if ... I mean, I hope—”
“You must know your hopes are well founded, Anna,” Ky interjected. “A man doesn’t spend the night on the floor, doing naught but holding a woman, unless ...”
“Unless?”
“Unless she means more to him than one night in his bed. He cares for you, min kj?re venn.” Kyla handed Douglas to Anna and started looking through the crates. “Are there more of your mother’s clothes in here?”
Anna pointed to the one where she’d found the gown she’d worn the day before, and Kyla opened it.
“Kyla, if we don’t leave, Birk will—”
“We cannot think about Birk now,” Kyla said. “We’ve a new laird, and things will be different.”
Anna hoped so, but she knew Birk, and his temper had been getting steadily worse. What if—
“This one.” Kyla drew out a brilliant scarlet gown with golden trim along the edges.
Kyla helped Anna dress, then they gathered their things and returned to the keep. Flora welcomed them into the kitchen and fussed over Anna’s bonny gown, delighted that Anna’s chance to leave Kilgorra had come. She wiped a tear from her eye. “I’ll miss ye, lass.”
“She’s not going,” Kyla said.
“What?” Flora pressed one hand to her breast. “ ’Tis what ye’ve always wanted. You and Kyla—away.”
Anna glanced uncertainly at Kyla and shook her head. “Everything has changed.” And her stomach felt as though ’twas turned upside down. After all these years, desperately wishing for a way to leave Kilgorra, the opportunity had arrived.
And yet she was going to risk everything and place her trust in one man. “Have you seen Lachann this morn?”
Flora shook her head. “No. I think he was up and gone early. So, ye’re sayin’ ye will’na leave Kilgorra and go with yer uncle?”
Anna shook her head. “I don’t think so.” She had been so very fearful of repeating her mother’s failures, or Kyla’s. There was no man on earth who could make her change her mind.
Except Lachann MacMillan.
“Well ...” Flora said, “do ye think the Norseman would take Kyla instead?”
The Glencoe Lass had returned. Lachann and some of his men met with Rob and Stuart Cameron as soon as they came up to the keep.
“What news from Skye?” Lachann asked them then, though the question was practically moot now. Macauley was dead, and whatever reason he’d had for leaving Skye could not possibly matter now.
“Lachann, what we have to say is not—”
“Tell me now. What did Macauley do to her?”
Stuart looked him in the eye. “You know?”
“I suspect.”
Stuart nodded. “Her father believes he poisoned her, but he could prove naught.”
“Aye,” Rob added. “Macauley had fallen out of favor with the old laird and his brothers. They said they’d erred and should have taken you as Fiona’s ...”
Rob stopped to clear his throat and Stuart continued. “After it became clear Macauley would never be named laird, Fiona sickened strangely. She started to have headaches. Confusion. Soon she was unable to eat—”
“Her hair started to come out,” Rob said. “And she could’na keep anything down. Or in.”
“Was there fever?”
“No, Lachann.”
“He’s been poisoning MacDuffie’s whiskey,” Lachann said.
“Gesu,” Rob muttered.
“The bloody bastard is dead now,” Kieran said. “He was blown to bits by his own scheme.”
The Cameron brothers appeared stunned, and Kieran said he would explain what had happened later.
“I have a new mission for the Glencoe Lass,” Lachann said. “I want you to take Catrìona MacDuffie to Glasgow.”
“Aye, Lachann. Today?”
“As soon as possible.”
He gave the Camerons the name of a good contact in the town, a man who would assist them in finding a house for Catrìona and setting up a system for her to draw an allowance Lachann intended to provide.
“Give her a bed on the Glencoe Lass,” he said, “but keep her locked up for the duration of the voyage. And be wary. She—along with the blacksmith—are exceedingly treacherous. Do not trust either one.”
“The blacksmith?” Stuart asked.
“Aye. I’m sending Mungo Ramsay, too. He can stay with Catrìona in Glasgow if he wishes. If not ... Well, ’tis not my concern. He can find some gainful employment that does not include bullying children and drowning cats.”
“Beg your pardon, Lachann?”
Lachann shrugged. “Just be exceedingly careful with both of them. I’ll have some of the men bring them to you, and I want you to get underway as soon as you take on the supplies you need for the voyage.”
“Of course.” Rob and Stuart gave a respectful bow of their heads. “And ... congratulations, Lachann. You gained the lairdship without a troublesome wife to ruin the distinction.”
Ah, but he did intend to have a wife, just not the one he’d planned on.
He returned to the keep, went to his bedchamber and dressed in his finest clothes, then met up with some of his men to greet Count Leirvik and his entourage when they arrived at the castle.
Anna was already there. She welcomed the Norwegian guests as graciously as would the lady of the keep. But Lachann took note of the tension in her neck and shoulders. Ah, how he wished he could ease it for her.
As Lachann’s men and the Norsemen gathered in the great hall for the breakfast Flora had prepared, Anna stood at her stepfather’s table, at Catrìona’s chair. She seemed hesitant, as though she believed she did not belong there.
Lachann pulled out the chair and indicated that she should sit. Gesu, but she was beautiful in her scarlet gown, and when he breathed deeply of her scent, he wanted nothing more than to take her up to his bedchamber and demand the answer from her that he craved.
But he had to give her the chance to make her choice. The Norsemen and Braemore men remained standing until Anna took her seat.
The servants brought the meal, and in heavily accented speech, Count Leirvik told tales of the mother Anna had barely known. He spoke of his homeland in Norway, and the exceptional home she would have when she traveled there to take her place as Sigrid’s daughter—and Lars Frederickson’s wife.
“Your travel plans are premature, Count,” Lachann said.
Anna looked up at Lachann then, and he thought of the risk he was about to take.
Aye, ’tis well worth it.
“I do not understand, Laird MacMillan,” Leirvik said.
Lachann placed his hand upon Anna’s and looked into her bonny eyes. “Anna. You said once that you wanted nothing more than to leave Kilgorra.” He swallowed thickly. “I would ask you to stay.”
Leirvik stood and spoke firmly. “I am afraid that is impossible. My niece is a princess. She belongs in Norway with her family—with her own people.”
“Uncle—”
“We’ve learned of your situation here, my dear Annbj?rg, and Sigrid would have been proud of your ... er, tenacity all these years,” Leirvik continued. “She would have been pleased by your beautiful nobility, which was never subdued by the conditions under which you were raised.”
“Please, Uncle,” Anna said, embarrassed by the compliments. “I only did what—”
“My dear ... ,” Leirvik interjected. “We would have you sail with us upon the morrow. Come home to Norway, where you belong. Marry Lars Frederickson. Return to your family.”
Anna looked at her uncle, and when she turned to look at Lachann, he felt his heart pounding like a hammer in his chest. Gesu, but he loved this woman. He did not want to lose her.
Anna’s breath felt tight in her chest. She could barely hear her uncle’s words, not when Lachann’s request resonated so deeply within her.
The room went silent when she looked into his eyes and spoke the words that had lodged in her heart on that very first day when he’d stepped onto the pier and rescued Kyla. “I will stay with you, Lachann MacMillan, wherever you go—be it Kilgorra or Braemore, or anywhere else. Because I love you as I never expected to love anyone.”
Lachann got up from his chair and pulled her into his arms, kissing her as though she was more precious than the lairdship of Kilgorra, more valuable to him than the farms and the distillery and army he was working so hard to establish.
“I love you, Anna MacIver,” he said between kisses. “Marry me.”
Anna’s heart swelled in her chest. “Aye. I will marry you.”
His men cheered and Lachann kissed her again, then turned them both to face her uncle. “Count Leirvik, with your permission, I would wed Anna on the morrow, and ask that you stay to witness our nuptials. Take happy tidings of your niece back to your home—”
“Laird MacMillan—”
“Norway is not my home,” Anna interjected. “It never was.” She placed her hand over Lachann’s heart. “I would stay, Uncle.”
Count Leirvik hesitated for only a moment, then gave a curt nod of his head. “After all your years of neglect and abuse here ... it seems fitting that you should become mistress of Kilgorra.”
Lachann’s men came to kiss Anna’s hand and congratulate her, and Anna wondered if she would ever have a moment alone with Lachann.
It finally came when her Norse relations returned to their ship, with the promise to return to the keep later, for a betrothal celebration.
When all was quiet in the hall, Lachann took Anna in his arms, and she forgot about all the worries of the day when Lachann fitted his brawny length against hers. He was warm and hard, and the tender stroke of his strong hand on her back was incredibly arousing. As were his scent and the rasp of his unshaven jaw against her skin. She burrowed her face into the indentation at the base of his throat and felt a flood of sensation surging all through her body.
She could have wept with the sheer pleasure of it, the wonder of belonging....
“Anna.”
His deep voice shuddered through her, and as she tipped her head back, he lowered his and captured her lips with his own.
Anna heard a low growl as he deepened their kiss, sliding his hand down and pressing her hips into his groin. She could not help but move against him, eliciting yet another low growl.
This time from her.
He broke their kiss, taking her hand and leading her up the stairs to his bedchamber. There, he pushed open the window and let the sound of the surf roll over them.
“The sweet sound of home,” he said. “But know this, my sweet Anna. There is naught that I need but you.”
Anna felt her eyes fill with tears. “I’ve never belonged anywhere ...”
“Until now.”
“Lachann.”
He took her in his arms again and kissed her deeply, easing her mouth open for his tongue. Her muscles all seemed to melt as he shifted again, moving her to the bed, easing her onto it and sliding over her. One of his legs slipped between hers, and the exquisite tension she’d felt when he’d taken her to his bed returned.
She arched her back as his mouth nipped and tasted her. He pulled her lower lip into his mouth and sucked, and Anna slid her fingers into the hair at Lachann’s nape and held him tighter.
He slipped one hand to the ties at her shoulders and opened her gown, easing it down to give him access to her breast. He fondled it gently, bringing the tip to a hard, sensitive peak that sent an intense spear of sensation directly to Anna’s womb.
Her breath caught when he left her mouth and began to press nibbling kisses down her throat. Anna nearly came off the bed when he sucked her nipple deep into his mouth.
“Lachann ...”
He did not stop but slid one hand down to her waist, then slid her gown up, and up...
“Herregud,” she whispered. Or mayhap the word remained unsaid.
He touched her at the crook of her legs, creating a quivering tautness that was enough to make her mad with need. Anna grasped his shoulders tightly while he fondled and teased, creating a maelstrom of sensation. She bucked against his hand, wanting more, needing—
“Lachann!”
“Aye, lass. Come for me.”
His intimate touch made her feel as though her body would ignite like the powder in the guns he’d brought to the isle. And suddenly, she did explode, and sparks of intense sensation shuddered through her blood and into her bones. Her muscles quivered and she pulled Lachann to her, desperate to be one with him.
She pressed her lips to his chest and he groaned, moving slightly, spreading her legs with his own. “Give me your hand.”
“Lachann, I need ...”
“Aye. So do I.” His breathing seemed labored, but he guided her hand to his shaft, that hard, pulsing, utterly male part of him that strained for her attention.
She encircled him, weighing the length and breadth of his arousal, knowing she wanted nothing more than to join with him. In the flickering light, she saw the muscles of his jaws clench, but he took her mouth in another searing kiss, at the same time spreading her legs with his thighs.
She felt him then, positioning his hard male flesh against her welcoming softness.
“Aye, Lachann,” she gasped, needing him now. Needing that perfect union she’d never believed in before he’d come to her.
His next movements were slow and tentative, as though taking care of the most fragile, most precious treasure in all of Kilgorra. But Anna wanted more, she needed him now.
“Please ...”
“Aye, lass.”
He lifted her hips and surged into her all at once. Then he held perfectly still. “Anna?”
“Aye.” She nearly wept the word. And then she moved against him.