Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

“ G avin!” Her arms spread wide in welcome, Cora ran across the bailey in a fluttering of blue silk and enveloped her husband in a hug even as he embraced her fiercely, his heartbeat thudding so strong and steadily against her breast.

“You’re back—ah, God, I was beginning tae wonder when you would ever return!” she blurted just before Gavin found her mouth in an impassioned kiss that took her breath away.

Cora heard awkward coughs from the ramparts and knew the guards had spun back around to survey the countryside, which only made her laugh against Gavin’s lips.

Her joy was boundless…and yet tempered a moment later when he lifted his head to stare down at her with an apologetic look upon his handsome face.

“We have only two days, Cora. King Robert is already heading south with forces gathered thus far while other lairds and their clansmen are expected to join him soon at his encampment—including myself and Errol. How is he faring? Tira and the bairns?”

“All are well, husband…very well.” Cora mustered a reassuring smile to mask her dismay at his news, and looped her arm through Gavin’s as they walked together toward the keep. “They wed two days past?—”

“ Wed ?”

Gavin had stopped and looked astonished, indeed, which made Cora laugh again and reach up to stroke his stubbled cheek.

“Aye, we’ve been very busy here—but it wasna too difficult tae arrange. Errol loves Tira and she loves him…though I dinna know if she’s told him as much yet—och! Listen tae me going on when you’re probably famished!”

“Aye, lass, but for more than food,” Gavin murmured huskily against her cheek, drawing her close to hug her again. “All I’ve thought about since the king granted me a few days tae return home?—”

“Since then only?” Cora cut him off with a teasing smile. “I would hope you think of me night and day…ah, Gavin.”

She had pressed her forehead to his and cupped his beloved face with her hands, closing her eyes when he kissed her…and so languorously, so tenderly that she felt shivers to her toes.

“By God, woman, if only we lay in a meadow without all these eyes upon us, I would take you here and now…”

His passionate whisper like a sweet caress against her lips, Cora nodded and wished, too, that they were already in their bedchamber and alone—until childish squeals suddenly erupted from the doorway to the keep and Sinclair and Maud came running.

“Papa!”

Sinclair reached Gavin first and he swung his six-year-old son high in the air, only for Maud to capture Gavin around his knees to hug him, giggling.

“Swing me, too, Papa!”

Grinning, Gavin obliged her by setting Sinclair down next to Cora and then sweeping up Maud, whose delighted giggles made them all laugh—Cora’s heart welling with happiness to have her family reunited, aye, even if only for a few precious days.

“I hear there was a wedding while I was gone,” Gavin said to Maud after lowering her to the ground, the little girl skipping between him and Cora, who held Sinclair’s small hand as they set out toward the keep.

“Oh, aye, Papa, Tira looked so beautiful in her gown. May I have a gold-colored one, too, when I marry?”

Cora cast a sideways glance at Gavin, who looked startled and seemed to want her to answer.

“Aye, sweeting, whatever you want,” she said with a laugh at her husband’s discomfiture—her fearsome Highland warrior undone by their daughter’s innocent query while Sinclair let go of Cora’s hand to scuff his boots in the dirt.

“Och, you’re silly, Maud—that’s years and years away.”

“No, it isna! You will marry first since you were born before me and then I will marry a man as handsome as Papa, aye, I will !”

Now Maud stopped to kick at the dirt, too, and crossed her arms in a pout, which made Gavin grab her up and settle her onto his broad shoulder.

“Enough about marrying. Have you been tae the nursery tae see Tira’s twins?”

“You mean Isobel and Monroe?” Cora interjected with another laugh, Gavin’s gaze widening as they entered the foyer while Sinclair rushed forward to stop right in front him.

“Did you hold us in your arms like Errol does with his bairns? We went by just before you came home and there he was, cradling Isobel and speaking so funny tae her?—”

“No, no, it was Monroe!” Maud piped up with irritation at her brother, only to glance at Gavin and roll her eyes. “He always mixes them up, Papa. Monroe has red hair like Errol and Isobel’s is just like Tira’s?—”

“Och, they look alike tae me,” Sinclair countered, though Cora could see that he still stared up at Gavin as if awaiting an answer. She gently nudged Gavin with her elbow, which made him glance from her to their son.

“Aye, I held you both as often as I could—and dinna let anyone tell you it isna a manly thing tae do.” Gavin swung Maud down from his shoulder to look with mock sternness at her and Sinclair. “That’s enough questions for now. Go on with you tae the garden and play while it’s still warm and sunny. A thunderstorm is brewing tae the west—och, there they go.”

He chuckled and watched with Cora as the two skittered back outside, though she was distracted at once when Gavin drew her into his arms to hold her close.

“I have missed much while I’ve been gone…a wedding, Tira naming her bairns, and Errol thankfully accepting them as his own. Is there anything else tae tell me?”

Cora didn’t want to mention the mysterious ships sighted from the ramparts, not when Gavin had only just returned home, but he must have sensed her unease and lifted her chin to stare into her eyes.

“Cora?”

“Och…Lorne said it must have been two merchant ships sailing westward, but I dinna know, Gavin. He and Errol and a dozen men were gone yesterday for hours searching the coastline and they didna see anything amiss, yet I’ve been plagued by such a strange feeling. Do you think mayhap Thorgren Sigurdson has come looking for Tira?”

Gavin had grown tense even before Cora had finished, and he released her as he sighed heavily, his expression grim.

“I considered that it might happen when a prisoner escaped his death at the island by jumping overboard. Errol and I should have gone after him—but we wanted tae leave that accursed place. It’s possible the man knew enough tae somehow lead Thorgren here—by God, we’ve got only two days before I must leave again, damn that Orkney bastard! What does Errol think?”

“The same as me, I fear. I saw him early this morning when he left Tira still asleep tae train with your men. He said he did his best tae reassure her after he returned last night, but we share a like feeling…”

Cora fell silent as Gavin’s expression grew more ominous, the lightheartedness of their reunion gone.

“Will you fetch Errol tae me? I’ll await him in the great hall.”

“Aye,” was all Cora had a chance to say as Gavin clasped her hands and then left her in the foyer, his stride appearing weary after the long trip from Dumbarton.

Her husband so strong, so formidable…but Gavin was flesh and bone after all with much responsibility on his shoulders.

A baron of Argyll, in charge of protecting the western coast of Scotland with the fleet of ships given to him by King Robert.

A warrior soon to head into battle against King Edward’s army—ah, God, she couldn’t think of that right now.

Cora instead hastened toward the tower steps while thinking of her own memories of sitting with Gavin in the nursery cradling their precious twins.

Why could there never be any peace even for a few days?

Errol couldn’t drink in enough the sight of Tira cooing to Isobel while he held Monroe now, the babe with his downy red hair feeling so solid and sturdy in Errol’s arms.

A sharp contrast to Isobel, who had felt as light as a feather and just as delicate, though her pink cheeks were becoming plumper every day, which greatly relieved him.

He had feared the wee lass wouldn’t survive her first day of drawing breath, but Isobel was thriving right along with her brother…as was their beautiful mother.

With sunlight from a narrow window illuminating her flaxen hair, Tira looked to him like an angel as she smiled so lovingly at Isobel, the babe’s tiny hand curled around her finger.

Just as Tira had appeared angelic to Errol early that morning with the first rays of sunlight spilling across their bed when he had awakened to find her curled up against him, fast asleep.

Tira’s folded hands resting upon his bare chest, which had made him wonder what she might think if she had awakened, too, at that moment—but she had thankfully slept on while Errol had lain as still as possible.

His heart so filled with love for her.

His chin pressed against the top of her head, her hair feeling as soft as silk and her gentle breaths fanning his skin.

Such thankfulness had washed over him even as he felt the same emotion now when Tira looked up from Isobel and smiled at him from where she sat between the two cradles. The tenderness in her expression for her daughter, aye, he knew that…yet he hoped some of what shone in her eyes was for him.

“Is he growing drowsy?”

Errol glanced down at Monroe, who gazed up at him with big blue eyes as if fascinated by his face, and he shook his head at Tira.

“Not yet.”

“Och, a while longer then…until they fall asleep.”

Errol nodded, content to remain in the nursery for as long as Tira wanted, though a wet nurse sat nearby.

One of two village women who took turns tending to Isobel and Monroe while the other went to care for their wee ones in the comfortable room Cora had set up for them.

Her kind graciousness knowing no bounds, Errol chuckling when Monroe clutched at his thumb and gurgled at him.

Who would have thought a babe could squeeze a finger so tightly? Monroe would make a fine, strong warrior one day, aye, his son now and not Thorgren’s, Tira surprising him last night when she’d said they never had to tell the twins the truth of their birth .

She had stunned him, too, when she had invited him to share the bed…just as he had been astonished to find her sleeping so soundly against him—until at last he had forced himself to rise so he could join in the training already commenced in the bailey.

Tira not stirring at all when he had eased himself from the bed, though he hadn’t wanted to leave her.

A few hours later he had rushed back into the keep, aye, sweaty, but not wanting to spare a moment to clean up before seeing her again…only to find Tira in the nursery, which had suited him just fine.

These moments were so precious, especially with him soon to leave her, Errol trying to shove away a darker thought that kept pressing upon his mind of the two ships spied yesterday.

Cora had risen early as well and had stopped him on his way outside, her anxious expression telling him that she felt troubled, too, but he and Lorne and the other men riding with them had seen no sign of any raiders during their search.

Yet a niggling of unease remained with him, Errol noticing that Monroe had fallen asleep in his arms?—

“Here, Errol, let me take him.”

He had started at the sound of Cora’s voice behind him, and she bent down to scoop up Monroe before Errol could utter a word—the same anxious look on her face.

“Gavin has returned and wants tae see you in the great hall…I think you know why.”

Cora didn’t need to say more and Errol didn’t want her to, a glance at the unspoken query in Tira’s eyes making him say lightly, “Och, he wants tae hear about Lorne knocking me on the head. So you told him?”

“Aye,” Cora murmured with a soft laugh, though her gaze held no humor. “Go on now, dinna keep him waiting.”

Errol nodded with full understanding and rose from his chair, casting a smile at Tira before he strode from the room and hastened downstairs.

Yet he no sooner approached the entrance to the great hall when a guard burst into the foyer from outside, his face flushed red from running.

“What is it, man?” Errol demanded, but the guard rushed past him, clearly seeking Gavin.

“Laird MacLachlan, there’s a lass outside the gates pleading tae enter! She says she escaped from marauding raiders—och, her tunic is bloody, her legs. She looks tae have been ravished?—”

“By God, then open the damned gates!” Gavin roared out as he stormed from the great hall with the guard on his heels, Errol lunging after them into a bailey resounding with commotion.

More guards shouted from the ramparts and warriors ran from the barracks with their swords drawn.

Gavin bellowed for someone to fetch the healer as he reached the entrance and helped to lift the heavy iron bar, Errol right alongside him to pull open the creaking gates.

His heart pounded at the sight of a young woman with tangled dark hair crouched on her knees and begging near incoherently for help…until she collapsed into a heap upon the ground.