Page 67 of Beguiled

It was quite a steep hill, and David was glad to have Murdo holding him steady as the horses picked their way down. It would not have been a comfortable descent on his own, sliding around on the bench, trying to stay still.

At last they were at the bottom, and Murdo said, “Just look at that.”

The glen stretched out before them, long and narrow and yellow-green, between two ranges of mountains. A river gushed through it, bubbling white and frothy over big black stones. Out of the corner of his eye David caught a flutter of movement and, turning his head, spied two peewits tumbling and wheeling in the sky.

He hadn’t seen a peewit in years.

“What do you think?” Murdo said in his ear.

“It’s beautiful,” David answered honestly, even as his gaze tracked up the mountains and he thought with a pang,I won’t be able to go up there.

Not for a while anyway.

“As soon as I saw it, I knew it was what I’d been looking for.”

“Is this part of your estate, then?”

“Not quite. The border of my land begins about three miles from here. This is McNally’s land. He’s not very well disposed to me at the moment, but I hope to change that.”

“Well, you can be very persuasive.”

“Do you think so?” A soft laugh stirred the strands of hair at David’s temple, sending a pleasurable shiver down his neck. The shiver made his whole back brush lightly against Murdo’s chest, and the strong arms around David briefly tightened in response. Just that simple physical exchange made David feel suddenly happy and hopeful as he hadn’t felt in years. Hopeful despite his crumbling career, and his money worries, and his physical injuries.

“Yes, and I should know,” David teased. “None better. God knows I’ve been subjected to your persuasiveness often enough.”

Another good-natured chuckle, then lips at his temple in a brief kiss.

A sigh.

“David.”

Just his name. Not a question but a statement. Or maybe an answer.

David waited, allowing himself the silence and the arms about him as he did so.

“I thought you were dead,” Murdo said at last.

David waited, but Murdo said no more, and at last he broke the silence himself. “I’m sorry if I caused you distress.”

“Distress.” Murdo laughed harshly, as though the word was absurd.

After a moment, he said, “I saw Kinnell push you, and you fell back. I just knew the horse was going to rear. I ran down the steps, but I couldn’t get to you in time. I saw its hoof clip you, and you just dropped like a stone, and then the horse was stumbling all over you. I thought,he’s dead, he’s dead.I ran up to you, and you were so white, as though all the blood had just drained right out of you.”

David didn’t know what to say. He sifted through the threads of too many feelings, regret, anguish, but something too that felt oddly like happiness, to know that Murdo cared.

“The thought of you being dead—I realised I couldn’t bear it. Bad enough not to have you. But for you not to be alive somewhere? That was—it was unthinkable.”

David turned his head, suddenly needing to see Murdo, and for once, he didn’t bother to mask his own feelings. Hell, he didn’t know what his own feelingswere, but he thought they might not be dissimilar to Murdo’s, because he looked as overwhelmed and emotional as David felt.

“I don’t know what this thing between us is,” Murdo said, and he sounded genuinely bewildered. “But I can’t give it up. I can’t giveyouup.”

“Murdo—”

David didn’t know what else to say, so instead he raised one arm, curving it about Murdo’s neck, and drew him down till their lips met. He kissed Murdo, and it was like water. Like something necessary and life-giving. Murdo’s lips parted, and David deepened the kiss, for once the aggressor.

When Murdo finally raised his head, they were both breathing heavily.

“I’ve missed kissing you,” Murdo said. “I never thought I’d miss kissing above all other activities.”