Chapter Fourteen

G uy's heart beat louder than his footsteps as he paced through the Great Hall and ran up the tower stairs. One thought pulsated through his mind, beating like a great resounding drum.

Will she come? Will she come?

He couldn't blame her if she chose to stay away. After all, he had placed the decision in her hands and with it, the seed of doubt in her head. Needs must. Her choice must be made with a rational mind.

Not that his mind was in any way clear. Not when the feel of her was imprinted on his skin, the taste of her in his mouth.

He paused as he passed the entrance to his bedchamber, noting with some small part of his brain that the door had been left unlocked. Such had been his haste to get to the beach earlier. His hands went automatically to his breeches, but the pockets were empty. The keys must still be in the room.

So be it. He hadn't the patience to search for them now. Not while his whole being burned for her. Kitty. The enigmatic maid who had somehow calmed both his horse and his own frenzied demons. She had shown him kindness. Broken through his barriers. And all the while, her green eyes captured him in a spell of her own making. One powerful enough to chase away the darkness, even before she ran her palms over the bare skin of his back.

He slowed to a walk on the final flight of steps. Here the stone treads were narrow and slippery. But he was no longer afraid of injury. He slowed only to prolong this moment of not knowing.

If she wasn't there, he would not pursue her.

He emerged onto the half-landing and his eyes adjusted to the gloom. The sight of her made him warm with relief.

"You came."

She looked him straight in the eye and he wondered why he had doubted her. She had given him her word, and she was not one to do so lightly.

"Of course."

Her voice was steady, but her arms trembled beneath the folds of his shirt. He put a reassuring hand to her slender shoulder as he reached into a crevice for the iron key he had found some weeks ago. The key was long and rusted with age, but when he slid it into the lock, it turned smoothly.

He should have brought candles. The tower room was small, circular and dark. Just two slit windows to relieve the gloom. Once inside, even the relentless crashing of the waves faded away.

Kitty crossed her arms over her chest, shivering in the sudden chill.

"The walls are so thick, the heat doesn't penetrate," he said.

"It must be freezing in winter."

"Indeed." He wanted to keep her talking of such mundanities. Anything to stop her eyes wandering around the infamous room he deeply regretted bringing her to.

What was he thinking? To bring an innocent maid to a place where such vile acts had taken place?

He closed the door behind them and then wished he hadn't. Gloomy as it was, the stairwell had cast a shaft of light into the room. Now they were plunged into near total darkness. He could just about make out Kitty's pale face.

"There must be candles," she suggested, practical as ever.

"There must," he agreed. He put out his hands and felt for the wall, remembering some wooden shelves on the far side.

This was madness. He should apologise. Let her leave.

"Here. I've found something."

There was a rustling sound, then the spark of a tinderbox followed by the flickering flame and sour smell of a tallow candle.

His eyes found her. She stood with her back to him, holding the candle high to survey the room. Her beautiful hair rippled down to her waist. But what expression showed in her eyes, he dared not guess.

The newly lit candle cast dim light on a circular room hung with velvet drapes. Affixed to the stone walls were a dozen wooden cabinets. A cursory glance on his last visit had told him they stored a variety of objects, in themselves harmless. Though if the stories of the old earl were to be believed, the uses they were once put to would have been unsavoury at best. He should have emptied the room and burned the lot, including those antique chests in the solar. But he hadn't deemed it important. Rossfarne Castle had been a place to convalesce. What care did he have for the props of the previous occupant?

But he'd never imagined he would be bringing a young woman here. Much less one so innocent, for whom he cared so deeply.

Clarity of thought gripped him anew. He cleared his throat. "Kitty, a girl like you shouldn't be in a sordid place like this. I never should have suggested it."

Her face was impassive. He imagined she was thinking of a way to concur, with grace of course. But when she finally spoke it was to issue an order.

"Lay down."

"Pardon me?"

"On the bed." She smiled suddenly, sunshine after rain. "I'm not letting you talk me out of this for a second time."

Mercifully he had instructed the servants to strip the bed when he first arrived. "Are you sure?"

She nodded firmly. "Those are your orders."

"I hear and obey, my lady." He held his hands up in surrender, unable to resist a burst of laughter. Desire pricked him once again and he walked over to the bed willingly, even though he had only ever followed orders from the king.

She sat down beside him and placed her palm on his chest to lower him down.

"You must help me," she said, her breathlessness betraying her nerves. "I'm not sure what should happen next."

Longing surged through him and his need for her hardened as she lowered her sweet lips to the planes of his stomach. Her breath was warm, and her kisses were light, chasing all notions of restraint from his mind.

"I assume I should divest you of these?" She raised her head to meet his eyes, her hand hovering over the fastening of his breeches.

He suppressed a moan of pleasure. "You assume correctly."

She untied them with deft fingers, showing no hint of surprise when the male part of him burst free. He closed his eyes, focusing his energies on keeping control when his loins surged towards release. Warm fingers danced along his sensitive skin. Warm breath invited him to arch towards the source. When he felt her take him in her mouth, just the tip, just ever so tentatively, he knew he would be lost.

Quivering with effort, he sat up.

"Am I doing it wrong?" she asked him directly, worrying at the lip that had been caressing him to distraction.

He struggled to speak, such were the emotions swirling within him. "No, Kitty," he said, when he finally found his voice. "Not at all. But it isn't right for me to lay back and allow you to do all the work."

Her lips formed an O of protest, but he silenced her with a long, deep kiss. She was warm and heavy in his arms. So close, so very close. But he would show her again what pleasures her body was capable of.

He unbuttoned the shirt and let it fall from her slender shoulders. Kitty herself gripped her chemise and pulled it over her head, her tumbling autumn-coloured hair glinting with gold in the candlelight. She was more than he had dreamed. Creamy skin, soft, generous curves and a waist so narrow he could span it with his hands.

"Your turn to lay down," he breathed, raining kisses down her neck. She complied, giving in to the urges of her body as his mouth traced a line over her high, firm breasts. He moved lower and kissed her curls, exulting in her sharp moan of surprise. Then he gently parted her thighs and tasted her fully as she writhed with pleasure. He was gentle and exploratory, following her signals as to what pleased her, wanting only to take her to the edge, not teeter on the brink.

He rose over her, linking his fingers with hers, moving with deliberate slowness. As much as he longed to bury himself inside her, he must ensure she was ready. Their union should bring her only pleasure, no pain.

He nudged himself in, just slightly, and her eyes flew open.

"Oh, Guy."

He felt the effort of restraint in his whole body, but he stilled for her. Her palms ran over his back and down over his buttocks.

It was all the invitation he needed. He sank into her and was immediately lost. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, bringing his weight down on top of her and kissing him deeply as he moved inside her. Their hearts beat as one and their bodies moved together, slowly at first but soon rising to a rhythmic crescendo of mutual pleasure.

Waves of tension built inside him with dizzying speed. It was too much to bear. Just in time, he mentally pulled himself back, taking a moment to gaze down at her rapt face and to drop a featherlight kiss onto her parted lips. His breath caught in his throat as she tightened around him, her hips rising to meet his thrusts. He felt the moment she tipped over the edge, and he instantly felt himself come undone in turn, rational control giving way to sensual pleasure as he roared towards release.

He fell down beside her and pulled her into his arms. Cradling her spent body as he caught his breath and waited for his heartrate to slow. A glow of pleasure was still upon her. He traced delicate circles on her soft skin, marvelling at what had passed between them.

He looked into his heart for regret and found none. Yes, he had been overcome with desire, but it felt right to hold Kitty in his arms. She accessed a part of him he'd locked away from all others. She'd brought in the light and shown him how to trust again.

He would take care of her. They would be together. He would find a way.

A shudder ran through her and he lifted her chin to find her face wet with tears.

"Don't be sad." He kissed them away fervently, thinking how best to reassure her. "Our coming together means a great deal to me."

"To me, too." Her voice shook with emotion.

"When I met you, I was a broken man. Not just my body, but inside."

"No," she interrupted, but he ploughed on.

"No one but Thomas knows of this, but shortly after I was injured, my bag of coin was stolen. It contained my earnings for the year. Enough silver to bring warmth even to my uncle's castle."

She stilled, listening hard. He could feel her heart beating against his chest even though the dim light cast by the one candle made her expression impossible to read.

Guy swallowed, unsure where this urge to unburden himself had sprung from, but not wishing to stop. With every word he spoke, a dam inside him shifted apart.

"As it turned out, I didn't need the coin anyway. You saw yourself how full the castle coin chests are?" He glanced down at her, and Kitty gave a small nod in response. "But it was never about the amount of money that had been stolen. It was the fact of the theft. Someone took advantage of my weakness. They saw me, laying injured in my hospital bed, and they ascertained that I was a man who could be crossed." He clenched his fist in momentary anger, but then calmed himself when he breathed in the citrus scent of her hair. "I promised myself, long ago, that I would never be that sort of man."

Images of his younger brother assaulted him once more. Angus had died because he was too small to defend himself. Memories of that terrible day had been buried so deeply inside him that even Kitty's presence couldn't shine a light upon them. All he would allow himself to recall was the cold, undeniable fact that Guy, as the older brother, had failed young Angus. He had known, from that day, that for the rest of his life he would have to be bigger, stronger and fiercer than any other opponent.

She wrapped her hand around his clenched fist and dropped her head onto his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"You have no need to be sorry." He looked down at her in amazement. "You are the one who showed me there is goodness to be found, in people, even here in this castle which was full of darkness before you came."

She shook her head. "No, you've got it wrong."

"Yes," he insisted, kissing her hard. "And I would have you here always, to show me the way to the light." To illustrate his words, he leaned over the side of the bed and brought the flickering candle closer to them.

She opened her sea-green eyes and gazed frankly into his. Painful indecision passed over her face and he knew she must be thinking of the unlikelihood of their union. An earl could never marry a servant. But resolution tightened within him. Guy was not a man to bow to the dictates of convention.

"I want to be with you, Kitty." The words were wrenched from him. A declaration of feeling from someone who professed to having none.

And his words found their mark. He saw the moment the clouds shifted from her eyes and she smiled, alight with new possibility. "And I you."

"Then it shall be." He dropped a kiss onto her pert nose as the belltower tolled for midday, the dull echoes reverberating around the bare walls of the tower room. Guy was startled to realise the whole morning had passed without him attending to any business, although nothing seemed as significant as the beautiful woman in his arms.

Kitty put a hand to her heart, seeming to share his concerns. "The midday bell."

"Is there some place you need to be?"

"Many places, my lord. I mean, Guy." A blush found its way to her cheeks as she struggled to navigate this new path.

Guy caught at her hand. "Not ‘my lord,' not anymore. I will find a way forwards for us, I promise."

"I believe you." She took a breath. "It may in fact prove easier than we fear."

That was exactly as he hoped. He dropped a kiss onto her palm, but saw how she wrestled with the need to be elsewhere. He stood and stretched his arms overhead, marvelling afresh at the ease of his movements. Life fanned out before him, brimming with possibilities.

Their love-making had banished the gloom of the tower-room. He could have new windows put in and turn this into a study, or a day-room. The views would be magnificent.

He reached for the blue shirt and passed it back to Kitty. "You cannot pass through the castle wearing this."

She caught at her lower lip. "The servants will be eating in the great hall."

His mind raced, searching for a plan.

"Then the kitchens will be almost empty. If you leave through the tower door and come in through the back, scarcely anyone will see you."

Her eyes widened. "One would be too many."

"Come down to my bedchamber first. I will find you a travelling cloak. You can simply say you were gathering more herbs and wore it to ward off the sun."

At that moment, a distant crack of thunder rolled over the sky ahead. Kitty put her head to one side. "The weather is breaking."

"At last." He pulled on his breeches and helped her with the shirt. "The noise of the storm may provide some distraction for us."

Hand in hand, they slipped down the spiral staircase, waiting at each bend to ensure no one was present. They reached Guy's bedchamber without incident, and he closed the door behind them, sliding shut the bolts to guarantee another few moments of privacy.

"The storm clouds are gathering." Kitty stood at his window, gazing out at the castle grounds. The bright, searing sunshine had been replaced by a sky as grey as the granite walls of the tower room. She jumped at another crack of thunder.

He pulled a dark green cloak from his closet and folded it around her shoulders. It was far too large, but it would certainly cover her modesty.

"Do you know where you're going?" He didn't want her to leave his side, not even for an afternoon.

"Back the way I came." She smiled, momentarily transformed. He was struck anew by her grace and bearing. "Guy, may I tell you something?"

He smoothed the cloak over her arms. "Anything."

She lifted her chin to look him in the eye. "My name is not really Kitty. It is Katherine."

"Katherine." He liked the way it rolled from his tongue. "Why do you not use such a beautiful name?"

"I did once." Her eyes darted to the side. "I believe I may do so again."

"You should." He dropped a kiss onto the top of her head. His cloak swamped her. She needed a hand to hold it closed and another to prevent herself falling over its folds. It would never do, not for climbing down the tower steps. Surely, there was a pin somewhere that Thomas used on such occasions?

He walked over to his washstand but found nothing. He scratched his head, aware that time was passing. His desk then. Maybe he could fashion something from there. Or else Kitty could make use of one of the Answick jewels?

He smiled at his fancy, but the smile froze on his lips when his fingers encountered the saddle bag. It was empty. The Answick jewels were gone.

Someone had stolen from him, again.