Chapter 13 #2
her forehead. “I’d say being madly in love is a large part of
it.”
“Don't let Rose hear you say that,” she
warned him. “She’d happily strangle me in my sleep and throw my
body in the loch if she thought it meant a chance with you.”
He chuckled, the low rumble of it
reverberating from his chest to Alina’s ear. “It’s only a girlish
notion she has of me. I’m the dashing hero who saved the damsel in
distress.”
“Hmmph.”
“Ach. Are you jealous, my lady owl?”
Alina lifted up onto her elbow so she could
see his face. “Should I be?”
“Nah.” He gave her a teasing grin. “I promise
I won’t bring her into my bed until you’re well on your way
home.”
Alina punched him in the shoulder. Hard.
“That’s not funny.”
He rubbed his shoulder, pretending to pout,
and then he grabbed her and flipped her onto her back in one swift
motion, and pressed his half-hard cock against her belly. “Don’t ye
ken, Ali love, how you’ve ruined me for any other woman?”
“Then sail back to Sea Ridge with me.”
“You know I cannot.”
“I know you will not.”
“Ali girl.” He held her gaze, his rain eyes
pouring into hers. “I wish it could be otherwise. You know I
do.”
“I know,” she said with a resigned sigh. “I
do. And I understand your sense of honor and wanting to do the
right thing. I respect it.” She’d promised herself she wouldn’t beg
or plead with him about this again, and she’d meant to keep her
promise. It was just… “I love you, Roark. So much more than I ever
expected to love any man, ever. I was content with my family and my
plants and animals, and then you showed up with your earth-kissed
face and your rain eyes and the MacLeod woman in me came alive.”
She laughed, low and throaty. “She came alive with a
vengeance.”
“So she did,” he rumbled, bumping his pelvis
to hers. “Glad and honored I am she chose me.”
Alina ran her fingers through the soft curls
of his beard and rubbed his full lips with the pad of her thumb.
“Having chosen you,” she told him, “I can never un-choose you.” She
couldn’t foresee ever wanting to. “I hope I carry your babe in my
womb,” she blurted out.
“You do?”
“I do. Then I’ll always have a part of you.
Not only memories, but a physical part of you. Of us.”
He smiled, slow and easy and heartbreaking.
“I confess, I hope you do too,” he said, his voice low and rough.
“For the vain and selfish reason I too want you to always have a
part of me. A part of me to love and cherish, who will love and
cherish you as you deserve.” He grinned. “A little girl with eyes
as green as spring grass.”
“And auburn curls.”
He chuckled. “I can see her now, elbows deep
in soil, planting seeds in her greenhouse, with a tabby cat rubbing
against her legs.”
“Her rain-eyed brother scouring the sea with
his spyglass, searching for the ship carrying his father home to
us.”
“Brother?”
“Twins do run in my family.”
“So they do.” His expression turned somber.
“What would you tell our children of their father?”
“That we loved each other very much. That
they were born of love, and that one day, when he’s able, he will
come to us.” Alina held his gaze, her own serious. “It’s what I’ll
tell myself every day from the day I leave you until I’m in your
arms again.” He said nothing. “Promise me I won’t be waiting in
vain.” Or for a ghost.
“I swear to you, Ali love, I’ll come to you
as soon as I’m able.”
Which could be a moon, a year, a score of
years, or never, depending on Roger and whether he or his family
insisted on him marrying Gwyneth.
Unlike the night before, Alina didn’t fall
back to sleep after Roark left her bed. She lay there remembering
every glance, every word, and every touch between them since the
moment she’d seen him watching her from the deck of The
Rover until this moment. She lay there in the first real bed
they’d shared and thought about how it could be the last, for
despite her plea and his promise, she knew how many obstacles there
were between their wishes and reality.
She threw off her bedcovers, splashed water
on her face, donned the clean, coarse linen long tunic given to her
at North Shore Keep, and headed down to the dining hall.
“Laird Owen, Lady Siusan,” she greeted them
at their table. “Good morning.”
“Lady Alina,” they said in unison.
“May I speak with both of you in private,”
she asked them. “After you’ve finished your breakfast.”
“We’re finished,” Owen told her. “Would now
be a good time?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
She followed them to the laird’s private
chambers and sat on a sofa facing Lady Siusan as her husband closed
the door. He took a seat beside his wife, reminding Alina of her
parents, and how they faced everything together.
“What do you wish to speak with us about?”
the laird asked.
“First of all, I cannot thank you enough for
taking us in and helping us out as you have.”
“Of course,” Owen said. “You’re kin.”
“Aye. Kin you never knew existed until two
days ago.”
“Kin, nevertheless.”
Alina smiled into green eyes as familiar as
looking into a mirror. “Yes. We are. I’m so grateful to have found
family like you.” She took a deep breath in and blew it out.
“Roark, however—”
“Is not kin.”
“Yet I would ask you to continue to help him
after I’ve sailed. To send a man or two to ride back with him to
his home. To make sure he gets there safe and sound.” Where his
family would either take him in and defend him, or denounce him and
let him face Roger and almost certain death alone.
“Does Roark know you’re asking us this?” Owen
asked.
“No. He wouldn’t ask it for himself.”
“No,” Owen agreed, “he wouldn’t. He’s a proud
man in the best sense of the word.”
“Yes,” Alina squeezed out past the lump in
her throat, grateful Owen could see this about Roark even if his
own father couldn’t. “He is.”
Owen looked to Siusan, speaking that wordless
language of long-married partners.
“I’m sure we can find two good, stout
Highlanders willing to travel there with him and back,” he told
Alina.
“Thank you. Thank you both, so much.” She
broached another subject that had come to her this morning. “My
father is always looking for new trade partners,” she said. “I
think he'd be quite interested in your whisky.”
“Do you now?” Owen said with a sparkle in his
green eyes.
***
Roark woke so late the dining hall was empty
of people and the tables cleared. In the kitchens, the cook gave
him a thick slice of bread and cheese and told him he could find
the ladies Siusan and Alina at the herb and vegetable garden down
by the loch. Stepping out under the noon sun, Roark couldn’t
remember the last time he'd slept so late, well, except for the two
days and nights he and Alina had spent sheltering in the cave,
where day and night had made no difference. A time and place he’d
remember and treasure for the rest of his life, no matter how long
or short it turned out to be.
Swallowing the last of the cheese, he walked
past the smithy and the brewery to the path leading to the loch,
where he found Alina and Lady Siusan kneeling in the middle of rows
of newly sprouting spring seedlings, their heads bent together deep
in conversation.
“You could sow the seeds in a greenhouse a
moon earlier than in the open ground,” Alina was saying, “then
transplant the seedlings outdoors after the frosts have gone. By
doing this, I’ve found I can get two good crops in a season. Three,
if it’s fast growing like greens or beans and radishes.”
“A greenhouse with glass panes in the walls
and roof,” Lady Siusan said. “Intriguing, and quite costly I’m
guessing.”
“It is,” Alina said. “At the onset. But it
pays for itself within a few short years with the extra crops it
yields.” She glanced up, saw Roark, and smiled. “Roark has seen my
greenhouse. Is it not a wonder?”
“It is,” Roark agreed. “As Alina said, it
allows you to plant and harvest early and often. Did she tell you
about the herbs she grows year-round in it? Healers from all over
the Northlands visit her greenhouse to study and trade for
them.”
“Impressive,” Lady Siusan said. “I admit, I’m
not much of an herbalist, but Agnes is. She will definitely want to
speak with you about your herbs and greenhouse before you
leave.”
“I look forward to it,” Alina said.
Lady Siusan stood and wiped her hands on her
apron. “I’m off to the kitchens to speak with cook about supper. If
you’ll excuse me.”
Roark and Alina both dipped their heads to
their hostess, and then Alina turned to Roark.
“You’re the sleepyhead today,” she said with
a teasing grin.
“Aye. A certain lady owl kept me up half the
night demanding my favors,” he teased. “Glad I am she did,” he
rumbled, leaning in and nuzzling the tender skin of her nape,
thinking of how he’d nuzzled her even more tender flesh this
morning.
He glanced around, and saw nobody else
nearby, folded her into his embrace and kissed her, long and deep.
A thirsty man granted the purest, sweetest spring water. “I look
forward to being kept up all night again tonight,” he murmured
against her lips.
She bumped her pelvis against his eager cock.
“If we don’t stop now, you’ll be up here in broad daylight.”
Roark chuckled. “I cannot help it, Ali girl.
I swear I’ve been half-hard since the moment I spied you racing
your mare on the beach with your long legs bared.” He rubbed his
thickening cock against her belly. “Now that I’ve had those legs
wrapped around me, I can hardly think of anything else. You’ve
enthralled me, my lady owl.”
Alina laughed, low and sultry. “I suffer from
the same enthrallment, sir stag.” She twined her hands around his
neck, her green eyes darkening with a passion as natural to her as
breathing. “Yet unless we wish to be discovered rutting here in the
dirt, we should probably find something else to do with our time
until tonight.”
“Agreed,” he said, though every nerve in his