Chapter 7

Arianna woke to soft, warm lips upon her cheek and a big calloused hand stroking her breast. For a moment, she thought herself back in her marriage bed but then the last dregs of sleep released her mind. Claud had never been affectionate like this. Her eyes widened as she abruptly recalled everything that had happened before she had fallen asleep.

She was curled up in bed with Sir Brian MacFingal, naked and wrapped in his arms. She had taken a lover. She had taken a big, strong, handsome lover many women would envy her for. She had also enjoyed every minute of it. That still astonished her as much as it pleased her right down to her toes. Claud had been very wrong. She was not cold.

Even as she began to smile, fear crept in, rapidly dimming her pleasure. Arianna could not deny that she had finally tasted that pleasure her kinswomen all talked about, but had Sir Brian really experienced the same pleasure? She had felt him spill his seed inside her but Claud had done the same. When she had foolishly given her opinion that that showed he had found pleasure with her, he had laughed. Claud had then told her that a man could rut with a hole in the ground, which he had said was a good thing for she was not much livelier. Had she misjudged the depth of the pleasure Brian had experienced?

When those soft, warm lips touched the corner of her mouth, she recalled something else Claud had often said. She had once attempted to kiss him in the morning upon awakening and he had roughly pushed her away, claiming that in the morning she had breath akin to the bottom of a garderobe shaft. Arianna clapped a hand over her mouth and pulled away from Brian.

Brian tensed and looked at Arianna where she now balanced precariously on the far edge of the bed. His annoyance over what had appeared to be a rejection despite all they had shared before falling asleep turned to confusion as he studied her. She did not look as if she now regretted what they had shared, nor did she look angry. She looked nervous and just a little afraid, rather like someone who expects some sort of blow to fall at any moment.

“What is wrong?” he asked, fighting the urge to reach for her for, if she backed away again, she would topple right out of bed and onto the floor. He was also getting tired of the way she kept fleeing his arms.

“I need to clean my teeth,” she said, her hand still over her mouth muffling her words.

“Why? Ye did it ere ye climbed into bed and ye havenae eaten anything since then.”

“’Tis needed. Claud said I had foul breath in the morning.”

“Nay, ye dinnae.” If Claud were not already dead and buried, Brian thought yet again, he would gladly kill the fool, but only after beating him soundly first.

“How could ye ken whether I do or nay? We havenae kissed. Claud ne’er kissed me in the morning if we woke together for he said that my breath when I first woke rivaled the stench of the garderobe.”

“Claud was an idiot. Ye were sleeping with your mouth open, lass. If ye had breath that foul I was close enough that I would have smelled it. When will ye believe that the mon was probably angry that he didnae have the courage to tell his family the truth, that he had gotten himself caught up in a tangle of lies, and ’tis verra clear from all ye tell me about him that he wasnae a mon to shoulder his own blame. So, he spat his anger out at ye. I cannae say it enough. That was all it was, lies meant to beat ye down.”

“He ne’er hit me,” she said, cautiously removing her hand from her mouth.

“Aye, he did, and weel ye ken it, though ye seem to forget it quickly. All my words of wisdom cast aside like sad refuse,” he murmured, and almost smiled at her glare for it showed she still had her spirit. “He struck out at ye often, I am thinking. With words. Ye ken weel that they can hurt and scar as easily as fists.”

Arianna stared at him as she thought over what he had said. She had been casting his words from her mind, not really thinking much on them. Words could scar. She knew that in her mind, but deep in her heart Brian’s wise words had not yet taken hold. Constant criticisms could beat one down as thoroughly as fists. Claud was always criticizing her when he was not ignoring her or burdening her with all the work he should have been doing himself. The way he had so flagrantly favored his mistress over his wife had also left its scars, if only because such actions silently strengthened every criticism he had flung at her. Arianna was not sure how she could heal those scars for his sharp insults and unending criticisms still whispered through her mind. She had, after all, thought she had cured herself of Claud’s criticism of her worth in the bedchamber yet, with the rising of the sun, had fallen into the same old trap.

“Are ye certain he lied?” she asked, tentatively moving closer to him.

“Jesu, lass, I would tell ye if it was so bad that ye should clean your teeth ere I kiss ye. Foul breath in the morning curses us all from time to time and ’tis nay something to fret o’er but, I swear to ye, yours isnae foul.”

Brian pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She tensed as if she feared he would begin to gag and push her away, but quickly softened in his arms. The way she fit so snugly there, her silken flesh warm against his skin, had him hard and hungry for more of what they had shared last night. When she twined her slim arms around his neck and pressed her lithe body even closer, he decided there was no harm in lingering in bed for a while longer.

His body soon let him know that there would be no lingering. Despite his efforts to control his desire, it rose up fast and greedy. To his delight so did Arianna’s. Her body welcomed him with all the heat any man could want. He could sense her pleasure in her every sigh as he drove them both to passion’s heights. They reached that pinnacle together, her husky voice crying out his name music to his ears as he emptied himself inside her.

It was a long time before he found the strength to pull away from her. The heat of her surrounding him and the way she idly caressed his body with her small, soft hands, as if she truly liked the feel of him, had him eager to remain joined with her. That need had never been there with any other woman and Brian knew he should seriously consider what that meant. Later, he thought, as he gave her a quick kiss and moved to get out of bed.

In truth, it did not really matter if he ever sorted out all he was feeling for Lady Arianna Murray Lucette. She was not for him. She was better born and far richer than he was, used to the finer life he and his kinsmen were only beginning to see glimmers of. The widow of a French comte, a woman born of a clan connected in some way to half the clans in Scotland, both notorious and influential, was too high a reach for one of the youngest of the eleven legitimate sons of Fingal MacFingal. It was true that his brother Gregor had married a Murray, but Alanna had been a maid and they had traveled together. The need to honor her with marriage after that overcame any other considerations as to whether Gregor was worthy of the lass or not. Arianna was a widow and those demands would not be directed at him when he finally got her settled with her family. There was no maidenhead to be lost here.

He grimaced as he slipped behind the privacy screen to wash up and relieve himself. His clan was a jest in many ways, made up of his father and all the sons he had bred in and out of the marriage bed. It was the result of a man being angry with his true family and clan and, like some spoiled child, deciding to make his own. The only claim to fame they might have was that his father was a prodigious breeder of sons. The acknowledgment of their ability as fighters was growing, but slowly, and it did not even begin to equal the place of honor so many Murrays held. Considering how many of his brethren acted, they were more notorious than honored.

No, Lady Arianna was not for him. Brian just wished that he did not want her so badly. He had the brief thought that he could probably tie her to his side with the passion they shared, or even a child, but quickly shook it aside. Her clan had already climbed free of the mire of their rough beginnings. He could not drag her down into that again and it would be a long time before his clan got much beyond the struggle to just survive. He was going to have to keep their affair no more than a sharing of pleasure, and keep his heart from yearning for more. The problem was, he feared he was already far past that.

The moment Brian stepped out from behind the privacy screen, Arianna dashed behind it. She had donned the shirt he had given her for it was easier to find than the shift he had tossed aside in the night, but it was not very modest since it barely reached her knees. Then she realized it was more than simple modesty that made her rush to hide behind the screen, that she feared he would retreat from her once he clearly saw how little her thin body offered a man. A man liked rounded curves, flesh on a woman’s bones to cushion his body, and found the reddish hair covering her privates to be common and gaudy.

She softly cursed. It was Claud whispering his denigrations in her head again. She had never been vain but she had always believed herself to be moderately appealing to a man’s eyes. Until Claud. Until he had found fault with everything from her face to her feet, some of the criticisms poorly disguised as kindly suggestions on how she might improve herself. By the time she had caught her first sight of the buxom Marie Anne, Arianna had been quick to see just how much she lacked compared to her husband’s mistress. It had also given his family and his people all the excuse they needed to show her their scorn. Brian had now seen her naked and she had seen no hint of the disdain Claud had always shown her, but the fear of it lingered.

What had she allowed him to do to her? Arianna began to think that the scars his cruel words had left ran far, far deeper than she had believed. It was embarrassing to realize how much she had let him say to her without retribution, and how much of it she had taken to heart. She should have been stronger than that, should have believed more strongly in her own worth. What frightened her was that, if she did not hold a strong belief in her own worth, how would she find the strength to rid herself of Claud’s poison?

Even worse, if she did not believe in her own worth, how could she hold fast to a man like Sir Brian MacFingal? And she admitted to herself that she did want to hold on to him, tightly. For a moment she feared she was letting her first taste of passion trick her into thinking there was more to what she felt for him than lust, and then she shook that doubt aside. What she felt for the man had been born from the moment she had opened her eyes on that beach and looked into his. Everything that had happened since then had only strengthened it.

“So much for keeping my distance and allowing this to be no more than a simple affair,” she whispered angrily as she finished relieving herself and then began to wash up.

“Are ye all right?” asked Brian.

“Aye, just talking to myself. I will be ready in a few moments.”

Brian frowned at the screen. He had not been able to understand what she had said but the anger behind the words had been clear. Anger was not what he wanted her to be feeling after they had made love. Before he could ask her what she was angered by, a loud banging came at the door.

“Frenchmen, Sir Brian,” said Molly the moment he opened the door.

“At the inn?” He moved to pack their things, already planning how to slip away.

“Will be soon. My youngest lad came to tell me they were asking for a good inn to stay at and had been directed here.”

“Ye have a back way out of here?”

“I do, and I have already told the lads to have your horses readied and waiting for ye behind the stables.” She glanced at Arianna as she ran out from behind the screen still lacing up her gown. “This is about more than ye taking some lass for a wee bit of pleasure, isnae it?”

“A lot more, but I havenae the time to tell ye. ’Tis life or death, hers and two wee laddies. I would suggest that ye keep those burly lads of yours close and armed. This isnae some group of simple travelers.”

“That be what my lad said as he wasnae sure we would be wanting them staying here. Come with me. I will show ye the best way to slip out of here.”

Brian grabbed a pale Arianna by the hand, cast a last longing look at the bed, and followed Molly. He had hoped they could rest for a little while. He had also hoped to savor Arianna’s passion in the comfort of a bed a few more times, if only to make it very clear to her that she was not only desirable, she also satisfied him.

In truth, she satisfied him in ways he had never felt before. Not only did she stir his desire to heights it had never reached in another woman’s arms, she left him far more sated than any other had, too. Brian knew it was going to be very hard to let that go.

As they slipped through the back garden of the inn and to the rear of the stables, Brian could hear the voices of Amiel’s men. The stable boys were clearly trying to delay the men, holding them outside the stable with a long, torturous bargaining over the cost of caring for so many horses. He was tempted to go and see what he might learn, but one look at the fear on Arianna’s face had him pushing that idea aside. He could not take the risk when she was so close to her enemies.

He kissed Molly on the cheek and then lifted Arianna up into the saddle as he said, “I thank ye, Molly. Best ye get back inside the inn to greet your new guests.”

“Aye. Dinnae worry. If ye can slip out of town without them seeing ye, ye should be safe for a while. Sent one of my lads to tell a few maids that there was a party of rich Frenchmen here. I am thinking those men will soon be too busy to come a-hunting ye and the lass.”

Brian chuckled and began to lead Arianna on a winding route that kept them sheltered by the buildings. As long as he and Arianna could get away without any of Amiel’s men catching sight of them, they would have time to put some distance between themselves and their pursuers. He was a little surprised they had stopped for a rest when it was so early in the day. It was an action that confirmed his fear that Amiel knew where he was headed, was not tracking them as much as hoping to get between them and where they needed to go. The man was treating it all more like a journey to visit someone than the hunt it really was.

When the line of buildings ran out, Brian paused, leaning over the neck of his mount to look up and down the street. They would be in the open for a while and he needed to make certain none of Amiel’s men were on the watch for them. What he saw made him grin.

At least eight women, dressed in all the finery a poor whore could afford, were gathered near the stables, flaunting their wares. The men who had not yet entered the inn were all watching the women, some already making their choices clear. Brian just wished the women would get the men inside the inn quickly.

“Are they watching for us?” asked Arianna.

“Nay. They are watching the women Molly sent her son to fetch. A bonnie little flock of birds. I but wait to see if they can get all the men to go inside the inn. If they dinnae do so soon, we shall have to take our chances and go that last distance to the trees anyway.”

“I ne’er would have thought of such a thing as a distraction. Especially not when ’tis barely the middle of the day.”

“Time doesnae matter to a hungry mon, lass.” He grinned when she made a soft sound of disgust. “I but keep wondering why Amiel has stopped so early in the day.”

“He probably just wants a good meal and a bath. Now that he kens who ye are and where ye may be going, he thinks he can take this journey at a leisurely pace. Amiel ne’er liked to do anything that appeared to be work.”

“Ah, one of those men who craves the title but expects everyone else to do the work that comes with the privilege. It looks as if the lasses have finally convinced the men that they will get better service inside the inn. I suspicion Molly told her lad to ask the ladies to do that.”

“Why would she have to ask? Where else would they be able to service the men?”

“In the stable, in the stable yard, in the alley, or near anywhere else where they might stand, sit, or lie.” He glanced at her blush-reddened face and grinned. “I think ye have been verra sheltered, love.” He looked back toward the men. “The last of them has been dragged inside. Best we move. I would love to just gallop out of here but there may yet be one sharp-eyed fellow amongst Amiel’s men, and two people galloping out of town would draw attention.”

The next few minutes were the longest Arianna had ever suffered through, at least since she had been in the water clinging to a keg. She sat tensely on her mount, expecting a cry of discovery to go up every step of the way. By the time they reached the shelter of the trees, she ached from sitting so stiffly in her saddle. She gritted her teeth when Brian began to kick his mount into a faster speed, and followed his lead. Galloping over the countryside was not what she had planned to do today but she would endure.

She prayed those women kept Amiel and his men very busy but did not suffer for doing so. If Amiel even thought he had been tricked, he could turn vicious, and attack the women, Molly, and her sons. It would be a sad way to reward Molly for all her help.

The thought of those women made her recall what Brian had said about where the women could entertain the men. Arianna began to realize that, although her kinswomen had hid nothing about the ways of men and women in marriage, she had been allowed little other knowledge. She had known that her brothers and male cousins went into the village to dally with the maids, but the few times she had thought on it, she had envisioned rooms and beds as the places where the dallying occurred. It was obvious that she still had a lot to learn about the world.

It was late in the day before Brian allowed them to stop for a rest. He had wanted to use the hours Amiel and his men might spend at the inn to get as far away from the man as possible. It would be better if the man decided to stay the night at Molly’s inn but Brian knew he could not count on that. Amiel could have simply stopped for a meal or an ale before planning to continue on. There was only one thing Brian could be sure of and that was that Amiel would get no useful information from anyone at Molly’s. Even if the woman did not have some affection for his clan or Sigimor’s, she would never betray regular paying customers.

He watered the horses and then took out the small sack of food Molly had stuck in his pack before joining Arianna where she had collapsed on the ground beneath a tree. “Nay much farther, love, and ye will be able to rest for more than a night.”

“In a true bed?”

“Aye, in a true bed. And ye can have yourself another bath without worrying about leaving some of the heated water for me.”

“I would like to sleep, just sleep, for a few days.” She sat up straighter and began to eat the food he had placed in her lap. “S’truth, I have badly wished to do that since I first kenned that my lads were in danger on Tillet’s ship and began keeping a close watch on them.”

“Ye can get some sleep at Dubheidland although I am nay sure it can be several days’ worth.”

“Are ye certain your cousin willnae object to our staying there, especially when we are bringing this trouble with us? This isnae his fight.”

“Lucette wants to kill two bairns simply to fill his purse. Trust me in this, Sigimor will want the mon dead for that alone.”

Arianna nodded. She recognized such a man. Her kinsmen would feel the same. It would not even matter if the man were an ally or an enemy, simply that he meant to hurt children because of greed. She had heard a few odd tales about the laird of Dubheidland, ones told her kin by her cousin Alanna and then told to her in what few letters she had received from her family. At least the Lucettes had allowed her to receive those letters, she thought bitterly, wondering if they had read them all and then destroyed ones they didn’t like, just as they had done with the ones she had tried to send those she loved.

Then she tensed. “Brian, I think I have an idea on how Amiel kens where we might go, how he might not need but a whisper of our passing to ken who we might try to get help from.”

“I suspect it is because he has the coin to loosen a few tongues. I fear there are many in this part of the country who ken us weel, the MacFingals and the Camerons.”

“Do ye recall how we thought the Lucettes read the letters I wanted to send to my kin, destroying any they thought were too critical of them?” Arianna could tell by the dark look growing on Brian’s face that he was already seeing what she just had. “What if they also read all the ones my kin sent to me, if only to be certain they destroyed any they believed could cause some trouble for them? Ones that might ask me to come home for some reason or ones asking when they might visit me. Or they looked for information on my family, mayhap to find a way to get some more money from them.”

“And thus they would ken every place ye had kin or allies, or nearly so. That is, if the ones who wrote to ye would speak of such things, tell ye what tales they have heard of concerning other kin and allies.”

“Ye mean they would gossip.” She grinned briefly. “’Tis what it is. And, aye, near all my kin love to tell tales. That is another reason your name and the Camerons seemed so familiar to me. The MacEnroys, as weel.” She sighed. “My family wished me to ken where everyone was and so ’tis verra possible that whoever read my letters has learned it, too. A lot of information about my clan and all we are allied with was in those letters. Amiel was always around and, as Claud’s affair with Marie Anne continued, the elder Lucettes became more and more disgusted with their heir. If Amiel began to aid them in keeping a close eye upon what news passed between me and my kin, then ...”

“Amiel learned about us all and but needed a few clever judgments as to who ye were with.”

She rested her head against the rough trunk of the tree. “I suppose Amiel could have a cunning that I ne’er noticed before.”

Brian nodded and finished his food as he thought over the possibility that the men hunting for Arianna and the boys had come with knowledge of the places she would try to run to. If Amiel had had a plan to murder his brother for a long time, it made sense that the man would learn all he could about his brother’s wife. Yet Brian did not think Amiel had plotted against his brother for that long. The man he had watched in the inn did not have that sort of patience. That meant that Amiel had simply taken advantage of information already collected on Arianna and the Murrays.

The reason for the collection of such information on allies was varied and none of them revealing anything laudable about the family Arianna had married into. None of the reasons mattered at the moment, either. All that was important was that Amiel and the DeVeaux knew too much. He and Arianna could evade the men pursuing them, but never fully shake free of them.

“Ye are verra quiet,” she said, watching him closely. “I am sorry. None of us saw any reason to be verra cautious.”

He took her hand in his and kissed her palm. “Ye have naught to apologize for. The Lucettes are allies and ye all thought the family of your husband would be safe. Why wouldnae ye be free in what ye said to each other?”

“In a way I can understand why they carefully watched what I said to my family, mayhap e’en why they watched what my kin said to me. Yet, why make a record of it all as I begin to think they did? What need would they have had to keep such information at hand?”

“They may nay have had any true plan for its use, just a wee thought that it might be useful at some time. Whatever plan they had doesnae matter now. ’Tis Amiel’s knowledge of it all that we must consider now.”

“We cannae lose him. I suspicion your kinsmen cannae lose the ones after them, either.”

Brian wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. “My kinsmen will be fine. They may ne’er lose the ones on their trail, but they can and will evade and outrun them. As can we. My kin have something we dinnae have as weel, something that gives them an advantage.”

“Oh, aye? And what would that be?”

“More men.”

“Ah, true. Would it help if we hired more men? I can afford it. Weel, once I am back with my clan and can get some coin in my hands, I can.”

“I did think on that, but nay. We are verra close to Dubheidland. Best if we continue as we have. I still believe we have a better chance of slipping round these bastards if we are alone. I will be rid of the third horse once we reach Sigimor, though. I dinnae believe it fools anyone any longer.”

“If they can send word to each other and ken all else we think they do, then nay, it doesnae fool them at all. They ken where the boys are being taken by now.”

She shivered, and the way Brian held her a little tighter only slightly warmed the chill of fear. It was a fear that ran too deep to be banished. With each passing day, each new scrap of information on their enemies, her need to see Michel and Adelar grew until it was a sharp ache inside her. It was not just because she missed them, which she did, but a need to see with her own eyes that they were safe. She also needed to see that Scarglas could keep them safe. Although she trusted in Brian’s word on that, her heart needed the proof her own eyes would give her.

“Dinnae worry so, love.” Brian brushed a kiss over her mouth and stood up.

“Easier to say than to do,” she muttered as she took hold of the hand he held out to her and let him tug her to her feet and into his arms. “’Tis hard for many to understand considering who Michel and Adelar are, but they are my boys.”

“Ye had the raising of them, fostered them in many ways.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and then led her over to the horses. “Ye also have a heart too good to hold the wrongs their parents did to ye against them. It will nay be long now before ye are with them again, a sennight at most. There may e’en be word about them waiting at Dubheidland.”

Arianna prayed there was. It would be enough for her to calm her fears about the boys for a while. Her arms ached to hold them, but if she knew for certain that they were safely behind the walls of Scarglas, she could endure their absence for a few days more.