Page 33 of Farlan (Immortal Highlander Clan McKeran #3)
Chapter Thirteen
F arlan followed Grace out of the stronghold to the dimly lit inner bailey, where she stopped to pick up an empty wooden bucket before heading toward the back of the keepe.
When he caught up with her she didn’t look at him or speak, and her remote expression promised more of the same.
She always shut him out, it seemed, except when they were in the throes of passion.
He could not be so controlled, it seemed.
Even now, when she ignored him, he burned for her.
After all they had done together, how could she remain indifferent?
She cannae be done with me. A strange panic filled him as he imagined never kissing or touching or holding her. He’d rather be dead. Still, he had some pride left, and she owed him an explanation for why she’d fled.
“You cannae blame me for doubting that outlandish tale you told me,” he suggested, keeping pace with her.
When she didn’t reply he dragged in an impatient breath.
“Och, then you may. ’Twas you who didnae keep your vow to me first. You slighted me in front of everyone by running from the hall.
’Tis as if you wished to make me angry, like some bairn wanting coddling. ”
Grace stopped in her tracks. “What does that mean, coddling?”
“A wee one in a tantrum demands a màthair’s attention. You’ve been no different tonight.” The moment he said that he saw how she set her jaw. “Do you doubt my affection for you so much?”
“Did you just call me a spoiled brat?” she countered.
“No. ’Tis only that I cannae tell what you’re thinking, or wanting.” He could with every other woman, but not Grace. “You told me of being possessed by a spirit after breaking your word to me. It sounded like falsehood to conceal your fear of declaring yourself mine.”
“And now I’m a coward.” She nodded with a strange satisfaction. “I’m just curious—do you actually believe saying all this is going to make me fall into your arms in front of your clan and everyone, and beg you to be my lover?”
He hadn’t been thinking at all, Farlan realized, but he couldn’t admit that. “’Tisnae what you wished?”
Grace swung the bucket in her hand back and forth. “I know you can’t die in this place, but how would you like to spend eternity with a great big dent in your head?”
“I should like to spend eternity with you,” he answered honestly, and then watched her stalk off. “Fack me.” Something she was never likely to do again, unless he could break through her defenses.
The lady rivaled Edinburgh Castle for her ability to withstand besieging.
Farlan knew where she was going, and kept her in sight as he followed her there.
The thermal stream that ran across the very back of the inner bailey provided heated water for the entire castle, thanks to Ben’s clever pipes.
The remainder that did not feed into those channels flowed from one wall to the other, casting a perpetual cloud of steam into the air.
He waited until Grace reached the banks before he trotted up and snatched the bucket out of her hand.
“I shall fill–” Before he could finish speaking she punched him in the jaw, an attack so unexpected by him that he fell on his arse. “Lass.”
“Stay down, Seneschal.” Grace leaned over to take back the bucket. “And quit messing with me, or you’ll need all the magic of this place to heal.”
She turned her back on him and walked downstream.
Farlan knew she was right. He had insulted her with his distrust, and called her a liar to her face.
He should return to the keepe and aid his brothers while she calmed, and seek her out later to talk sensibly.
Yet all he could do as he hoisted himself up from the ground was stare after the lady, proud of her for standing up to him.
From her demeanor he suspected she had rarely done thus in the world beyond the spell trap.
It made him desire her as never before, for her anger made her blaze like the sun he had not seen in nine centuries.
He wanted to burn with her, atop her, inside her. She was the only pyre on which he wished to sacrifice himself. Stay down? He’d rather have a dent in his head.
With long, swift strides he approached the source of the steaming torrent, where she had just filled the wooden bucket. She glanced at him as she lifted the hot water, and then slowly placed it back on the ground. Her hands trembled a little as she did so before she bunched them.
“I warned you,” she said tonelessly, staring past him .
Farlan took a step closer. “Aye, so you did. Only you ken ’tis time to stop pushing me away, my sunshine. You may hit me all you wish, but later. Tell me again about this spirit lass.”
She took in a deep breath before she said, “She’s Torra MacBren, or she was before she was killed on the day your clan was cursed. She’s been a spirit trapped in here like you and everyone else. She’s also in love with you, and has been using me to get close to you.”
“Why can she talk to you, and possess you, but never did the same with anyone else?” he had to ask.
“She said she and I share a bloodline.” She lifted her hands in a helpless gesture. “I know how ridiculous that sounds, but it makes sense, too.”
“The MacBren likely spread his seed about the king’s court,” Farlan said. “’Tis not uncommon for such men to sire bairns with their lovers as well as their wives. What more did she tell you?”
“She wants to warn the clan about this thing called Bodach, and what he’s trying to do.
” She moved toward him as he came to her, until only a hand’s span of space remained between them.
Her gaze finally met his, and in that moment a pure, terrible beauty came over her features.
“I’m not lying to you. I don’t have to lie to anyone. ”
“I ken that now.” He wanted to touch her so badly his own hands shook at his sides. “Forgive me, my lady, for speaking and behaving like an arse. I thought only of myself, no’ you.”
She nodded, intensity filling her eyes. “I’m not sorry I hit you, but it hurt my hand. From now on I will try to use my words. I reserve the right to punch you if you piss me off like that again.”
“Never shall I,” Farlan promised. “Only I need kiss you, Grace, for being at odds with you, ’tis the worst torment ever I suffered. Or bid me go far from you, right now. Bid me do as you desire, my lady. ’Tis my only wish, to make you happy.”
Grace didn’t say anything for so long he thought she might clout him again. He knew her answer when she smiled a little before she said, “Kiss me, Seneschal.”
Before she could finish the last word he had her in his arms, his mouth on hers.
Ah, she tasted like honeyed wine, and the winter fire scent of her body only aroused him more.
Blinded by the inferno of lust and longing she had stoked in him, he lifted her against his chest, still kissing her breathless as he strode with her into the nearest arch.
That took them into the passage of the chambers reserved for visiting lairds and other dignitaries.
He had sent the maids to clean them once every season, and silently gave thanks that he’d done so for spring the week before Grace had entered the trap.
She broke their kiss as he kicked open the door to the largest chamber. “Where are we?”
“A place no one shall trifle with us,” he promised her as he used one hand to drop the bolt bar. “Where we may be naked and alone, and do as we please.”
The moment he set her down a white mist whirled around the room, lighting all of the candles the maids had left before floating out of the chamber.
“That, ’twas the MacBren lass?” Farlan asked Grace, wary now.
“That’s her.” She watched his face, her expression changing from eager to wary. “But it’s just me here with you. I told her that she can’t share my body anymore. Am I enough for you?”
Her eyes darkened with pain as she waited for him to answer. What had happened to her in the outside world that she would ask such a thing? Farlan’s heart ached for her as he took hold of her hands and touched his brow to hers.
“You’re more than ever I dreamed I might hold in my arms, my lady,” he said softly. “Now I cannae imagine anyone else as my lover. You’re all ever I shall desire.”
She flung herself against him. “Then I’m yours. Forever.”
B en lay in a daze, his hand still clasped in Ulf’s.
After the hunter had been bitten just outside the great hall he had fallen to the floor, seemingly in a catatonic state.
Ben had reacted like a doctor by focusing on the injured, not the attacker, which was why he’d been bitten, too.
Ulf had grabbed his hand as he collapsed on top of him.
Being almost instantly paralyzed had probably kept him from experiencing any pain as he and the man he loved shrank down to the size of dolls.
Everything had blurred when a giant bat seized them and flown off with them to a storeroom on the castle’s outer wall.
They hadn’t been its first victims.
Seeing dozens of other people from the stronghold shrunken and jumbled in a pile made Ben wish he could puke, but nothing seemed to be working.
When the creature dropped him and Ulf they had landed on top of two maids, three guards and a carpenter who only stared back at them with unblinking eyes.
On his way to the great hall Ben had heard Darro ordering all the captains to move the guards and watchers from the outer wall to the inner.
No one was out here now, so no one would find them any time soon .
If they attacked everyone else and turned them into dolls, there would be no one left to defend and protect them.