Chapter 23

23

M aeve couldn't tell how long she was unconscious for, but when she opened her eyes, the blinding ache in her head made it impossible for them to stay open.

She heard the tense voices surrounding her. It sounded like a fight. Archer's voice boomed around them, and Maeve knew there was no way she could call out to him because her throat stayed tight.

"Archer," she tried, but her words were only a croak, and he didn't even hear them. "Please…"

"Ye think this is my fault," Archer thundered as Maeve looked to see her brother was in the chamber to. Both men faced each other with tense stances. Archer's hands were twisted into tight fists, and her brother's eyes blazed with his anger.

"She nearly died. Ye have made a lot of enemies over the years, Laird Devlin. Who knows which of them wants yer wife dead?"

"I willnae condone ye accusin' me of…"

"It isnae an accusation! It is the truth!" Flynn yelled.

"Archer," Maeve finally called out on top of her voice. The ache in her head doubled from the force she used, and a tear slid down her cheek as she groaned.

Archer spun around to look at her, and every angle of his face contorted into one of pain when he saw she was awake.

"Maeve." He was at her side in the blink of an eye, and his hands smoothed over her face to console her. "Oh, thank goodness ye are all right. Thank goodness," he cried out before burying his face in the side of her neck for a hug.

"What happened?" Maeve questioned as she hugged him tightly. "I remember leaving my chamber to come find you, and…I do not know what happened next, but I fell."

"You were pushed," Flynn supplied. "Someone in this castle tried to kill ye, and I willnae have that. As soon as ye get better, ye will leave Devlin at once. I only just got ye back, and I cannae lose ye again."

"She is me wife," Archer thundered and rose to his feet to face Flynn again. "She will go nowhere unless I say so."

"She was me sister before she became yer wife, and she is still my sister. I can protect her, and ye cannae. It is only wise that she leaves this castle at once and returns to O'Kane with me."

Maeve squeezed her eyes shut because their bickering only made her headache worse. She licked her lips nervously and tried to find her voice above the roaring in her ears.

"I will stay here," she finally managed to say then tried to sit up on the bed, but Archer stopped her and laid her back against the head rolls.

"Try nae to move so that ye dinnae hurt yerself further. Ye lost a lot of blood, and the healer says ye need to rest."

Archer's words were gentle, and the look in his eyes also warmed her heart. She smiled at him then looked to her brother whose eyes shot daggers at Archer.

"May I have a word with me brother, please?"

Archer nodded almost immediately then kissed her forehead. He spared Flynn a hard glance before walking out of the room, and once they were alone, Maeve extended a hand to him.

"Flynn…"

"He cannae protect ye," Flynn said as he sat by her side of the bed and held her hands tight against his cheek. "Ye are me sister, and I can protect ye. Our clan is well loved in the Highlands, and if ye return home with me for Yuletide, then ye will give him time to get his affairs in order."

Maeve shook her head and rasped out the words because her chest felt tight, and the pain grew greater with every passing second. "Ye married me to him, Flynn. He is a good man, and he can protect me."

Flynn still did not look too convinced, so she continued, "Archer needs me. He needs someone by his side, someone who does not know or care enough about his past to think less of him. I will stay here with my husband because it is the right thing to do. He will protect me."

Flynn finally sighed and shook his head. "Maither told me ye were stubborn, but I never believed her. There is nae changin' yer mind, is there?"

Maeve released a light laugh as she shook her head one more time, and Flynn sighed again. He brushed his hands over her face and kissed the side of her cheeks.

"Did ye see who pushed ye down the stairs? Did ye see anyone?"

"No, I did not." Maeve closed her eyes and snuggled her head deeper into the head rolls, so she could relax. "My head hurts."

"Ye should rest. The healer will be with ye later to make sure ye are all right. Maither and our sisters have gone for a ride in the moors, and they will come to check on ye later."

Maeve nodded then blew air out of her lips. She heard nothing else after that because she fell into a deep sleep. The next time she opened her eyes, Erin and Ayda giggled by her side of the bed, and their mother kept trying to hush them.

She saw Quinn squashing some leaves into a vial, and Lauren helped her with water.

"Maeve is awake," Erin announced when she saw Maeve looking around. Both sisters jumped on the bed and began questioning Maeve about what happened.

"Yer sister needs her rest, girls," Blair said to them after some time. She successfully chased the girls out of the room then she caressed Maeve's hand gently and asked, "Yer brither tells me ye have refused to come home with us. Are ye sure ye want to stay here?"

Maeve did not need to re-think her decision. She nodded the second the question was out of her mother's lips. "This is my home now, maither. These are my people too, and this is my keep. I will not abandon them because of this."

She knew her mother's worry. Six years of being away from your children would leave you permanently terrified of losing them again. Maeve feared her mother leaving too, but she feared leaving Archer more.

Memories of the times they shared together filtered through her mind. The few times he had smiled at her, Maeve's world had tilted, and her heart had raced. She recalled his kisses and every single breathless whisper of his lips and tongue on her skin.

There was so much passion she was yet to experience, and she wanted all of him. There was no going back now and definitely no consequences strong enough to keep her away from him.

"He will protect me," she whispered because she was certain that he would.

Blaire nodded as they stared deep into each other's teary eyes. "Then we will stay here, too. Till the end of Yuletide. I willnae leave unless I ken ye are fully recovered."

Quinn stayed quiet the entire time Maeve and her mother spoke. When Blaire finally left the chamber, Quinn uncovered Maeve's head wound and began to treat it.

"Ye should return to O'Kane if ye believe it is safer there for ye, Me Lady," Quinn said to her. Maeve noticed her hands shook as she said the words, and Maive took a bold step, placed a hand over Quinn's, then looked her in the eye.

"Would ye leave Jensen if ye got hurt because of his enemies? Would ye run?"

Quinn shook her head before she lowered her eyes. "He is me family."

"And so is Archer to me. I will never run because I am too scared to be by his side."

Once her wounds were treated, and Quinn left her chamber, Maeve managed to get on her feet and walk to the windows. She stared into the night's sky for a long time, enjoying the cool breeze and the sight of ashen white snow dropping from the skies.

The grounds outside the keep were fully covered in snow. When a soft knock came on her chamber door, she still did not turn away from the window.

"It is a beautiful night, Dahlia," Maeve whispered, assuming it was her servant after the door closed behind the visitor. "Did ye bring me a bath?"

Maeve spun around when she still got no response, and she froze in her tracks the second the person in the chamber took off the cloak covering his face.

Her right hang flew to cover her lips and muffle her shocked scream. Maeve's entire world crumbled before her as she stared into the cold blue eyes that mirrored hers with a mocking smile.

"Did you miss me?" he asked, taking one step closer to her.

She backed away from him till her back pressed into the wall.

"Please…" Maeve whimpered because that was the only word she could muster. Her body convulsed violently. The sudden grip of the paralyzing fear tunnelling through her clamped hard on her chest, making it hard to breathe.

Her heart raced too, and all she could think of as he got to her then slid his knuckles over her cheek was how she needed to run.

Did he push me down the stairway? How did he get into the castle? How did he…

Knots twisted in her guts till the rolling wave of nausea hit her hard.

"You went ahead and married a Highlander, but you are not one of them, remember? Maeve, there are consequences…dire consequences…" The gleam of mischief in his eyes twinkled as he stared at her lips.

"You have a choice to make, now. Come back to me or watch every one of them suffer worse than you did when you fell down that stairway. You have until the end of the season to decide."

She gasped when he drew away from her, marched to the door, then stopped in his tracks. "Make the right choice Maeve, or I will kill that scoundrel laird of yours first. You are mine and no one else's!"

The second the door closed again, Maeve's knees gave way, and she sank to the ground in a pool of tears and fear. She had hoped her past was far behind her. She had hoped for a brighter future here in Devlin.

But it wasn't over yet. Gilbert Hampton had found her, and she knew all too well how far the man was willing to go whenever he wanted something for himself.