Page 13 of Intrigued By A Highlander (Highland Revenge Trilogy #2)

CHAPTER 13

K nox ran his hand over his face, then went and sat on the bed.

“Please don’t lie to me,” Dru said, worry roiling her stomach at what he might tell her.

He glanced at her, silent for a moment, then said, “Because I wanted to.”

With confusion in her eyes and a slight shake of her head, she said, “But you don’t find me appealing, so why kiss me?”

Lies would get neither of them anywhere, so he spoke the truth. “That is the question I have been grappling with since I kissed you.”

Dru went and sat beside him on the bed. “I planned to leave after you left me and head to Autumn’s place, but you changed all that by kissing me and saying that you didn’t want to lose me.” She smiled softly. “Besides, I liked the kiss.”

Knox chuckled. “And here I imagined you dragging your sleeve across your mouth to wipe it away.”

She shook her head. “Nay. I favored the tingle it left in me.”

“I favored it as well,” Knox admitted.

“What does this mean?” Dru asked, innocently.

“I don’t know. It is not something with which I am familiar.”

“But you have kissed women and have done more with them before I came along,” she said as if he should have the answer.

“Aye, several women, but have you not kissed at least one man?” he questioned.

“Nay.” She scrunched her face. “Your lips are the only ones that ever touched mine.”

Bloody hell if that didn’t stir something in him.

“What do we do about it?” Dru asked.

“A good question and with neither of us having an answer, I suggest we leave it be for now and revisit it another time.”

“The next time you kiss me?” she asked and wondered if that was hope she felt flutter inside her that he would kiss her again.

He turned away for a moment, fighting the impulse to kiss her right there and then. Not a wise thought. There would be a next time, of that he was certain. But not now. It couldn’t be now.

He turned, ready to tell her they had discussed it enough, but one look at her and he saw it, felt it. She wanted him to kiss her, so he did.

It was a gentle kiss, like a sip of a fine wine that left one wanting more, so he eagerly partook, and she responded, just as eagerly. He slipped his hand around her waist to draw her close to him as the kiss turned from gentle to eager to demanding.

Dru was lost in a misty haze of pure pleasure. She didn’t want the kiss to end and when with the slight ease of Knox’s arm, she found herself lying on the bed, his arm tucked firmly around her, she didn’t protest. Sensations she never felt before trickled along her body until it felt as if they consumed every part of her in the most pleasurable way.

She felt a gasp rise up only to be captured by the continuing kiss when she felt his hand slip over her breast and squeeze it before his thumb ran over her nipple. A feeling so pleasing gripped her that it frightened her, and a warning ran clear in her head— pleasure with a man can be amazing and can also prove dangerous.

Harsh memories flooded her head, and she shoved at Knox’s chest. He let her go, and she hurried off the bed and turned away from him.

Knox sat up silently cursing himself. “I should not have done that, Dru.”

She turned around, her response anxious. “Kissing me is one thing, touching me is another since it may go much farther than it should, than either of us want. I am not what you are looking for in a wife and I do not want a husband. It is best you don’t kiss me anymore.”

Why did it feel like her heart was breaking with every word she spoke and that she feared life would never be the same again?

“Aye, you’re right. You’re not what I want in a wife, and we made an agreement, and I will see it honored,” Knox said, standing. “I need to check on Star. Sleep, we leave early tomorrow.”

Dru almost stopped him when he walked to the door, but fear kept her silent. Fear of what could happen if she surrendered to her heart and allowed herself to love her husband.

Knox walked a short distance from the closed door, stopped, and rested his brow against the stone wall.

“Bloody hell,” he whispered.

How was it that he felt as if he was just stabbed in the heart? The pain was like nothing he had ever felt before this, and he had suffered God-awful pain at times. But this—this pain—was different. It was on the edge of unbearable and when he silently admonished himself for being a fool and walked away, the further he got the more intense the pain grew.

He hurried to the refectory and poured himself a tankard of wine and drank it down then poured another.

“Trouble sleeping?”

Knox spun around, his hand on the hilt of his dagger at his waist, annoyed at himself for being so lost in thought that he hadn’t heard anyone approach.

“Easy, my son,” Brother Ewan said. “I have trouble sleeping myself.”

Knox dropped down on the bench, resting his elbows on the table and rubbing his brow with his fingers.

“Marriage isn’t easy.”

“If only,” Knox said with a sorrowful chuckle, thinking if they were truly wed, their marriage consummated there would be no problem. Things would be easy. Or would they?

“Your wife has woken something in you that you don’t understand,” Brother Ewan said, joining him at the table and filling a tankard for himself.

Knox tilted his head to look at the monk oddly.

“I recall what you said to Phelan about how he beat the fear out of a frightened, and I imagine, very young lad. It was more than fear he took from you. He beat all feelings out of you. Your wife, with her boldness alone, has opened your heart and no doubt your soul to feel once again and that can be confusing, painful, and joyous. It will take time to heal from such harm and you are lucky to have a wife who loves you so much that she will keep you safe as you do the same for her.”

Knox shook his head. “I don’t even know what love is, what it feels like.”

“Aye, but you do, Knox. It’s there every time you look at your wife, when you take her in your arms, when it pains you to leave her. It is far too obvious to deny.”

Confused, Knox shook his head again. “How could it happen? I barely know her.”

Brother Ewan laughed. “An age-old question many wish to know. Love arrives when we least expect it and can be delivered with a wallop, or it can creep up on you.”

“Does it leave the same way?” The thought of never seeing Dru again tearing at his heart.

“A strong love, a love that is true, can not only bear life’s burdens but grow stronger in spite of them.”

Knox’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve been in love.”

“Aye, I have,” Brother Ewan said with a soft smile and a nod. “And it was a strong and true love and when I lost her to an illness, I knew I’d never find another like her. So, I turned to the church, and I do my best to help others until the day I am reunited with her.” He rested his hand on Knox’s back. “Trust me. Yours and Dru’s love is strong enough to survive the worst of life. You both will do well together. Now you best get some sleep with that early start you want to get in the morning.”

Knox nodded, swallowed the last of his wine, and stood. When Brother Ewan remained seated, he asked, “Morning will come soon enough for you as well, Brother Ewan.”

“I sleep little most nights, my son. Now go and be with your wife and cherish the moments you have with her.”

Knox’s mind was chaotic with thought as he walked to his room, and he fought to make sense of it. He stopped abruptly before reaching the door. He had to put the mission before anything else. Whatever was between Dru and him would have to wait. Besides, if what Brother Ewan said proved to be true then he needed the land so that he and Dru would have a place to start their lives together. The mission suddenly became even more important to him. All else would have to wait—if it could.

He already felt like kissing her again and that wouldn’t be wise because it was obvious he wanted to do more than just kiss her.

With a gentle turn of the latch, he opened the door and slipped in, closing it quietly behind him. He walked over to the bed, seeing his wife curled around a pillow, sound asleep. Was the pillow a substitute for him? Did she miss him there with her? There was no room for him unless he took her in his arms and wrapped himself around her.

A quick arousal alerted him to the problem with that and he turned around and left the room.

Tonight, he would bed down where it was safe—with his mare.

Knox reached up and lifted Dru off Star. “Take a drink from the stream then we’ll be on our way.”

Dru nodded, her head filled with endless things she wanted to ask him and even more things she wanted to say to him, but she remained silent.

Silence had been between them since this morning when she woke up alone and even when she did find him, he had not spoken a word to her. Oddly enough, she held her tongue, something she rarely did, though she wasn’t sure why.

She was still trying to comprehend what had happened last night between them and the consequences if it should continue. Fear warned her to keep her distance. Love, which was what she thought she was feeling, told her otherwise. And warnings hovered in the middle that she couldn’t ignore.

She also couldn’t ignore this silence between them any longer. “I don’t like this discomfort between us.”

“Better than it be otherwise,” he said briskly.

His cold, stoic manner annoyed her, but then he had been clear. She wasn’t what he was looking for in a wife and yet he had kissed her three times. And hadn’t she made it clear as well, telling him she wanted no husband?

She sighed heavily as she walked to the edge of the rippling stream. She dropped down, eager for a drink. She had barely drunk a handful when she thought she heard her name called. She turned and saw that Knox had led Star downstream for her to drink.

A quick glance around proved she was alone. It had to have been her mind playing tricks on her. She scooped up another handful of water and barely got it to her mouth when she heard it again. This time stronger.

She tilted her head away from Knox to where she believed the sound came from and she spotted a familiar face peeking through bushy branches. She got up slowly, glanced at Knox, turned away from her, and slipped past the bushes.

“I need help, Dru.”

“What’s wrong, Busby?” she asked, moving closer to the young man, his grime covered face nearly as filthy as his dirty garments. He’d always been slim, but now he looked like he had been starving for some time.

He wasn’t one to allow himself to get in such poor shape. Like her, he was on his own and had managed to do well for himself, so she was surprised to see him in such dire need.

“My usual haunts are overrun with mercenaries and they are scooping up any young man they can find and forcing them to join with them in the hunt. I’m not a warrior. I can’t kill. I don’t even know how to use a weapon. I’m starving and I don’t know where to find safe shelter. I caught sight of you and the giant and knew it was a sign from the heavens. Please help me, Dru.”

“Of course, I’ll help you and I know just where to send you.”

“And where would that be, wife?” Knox stepped out from behind the bushes and his hand shot out to grab the lad by the arm when he went to take off.

Busby’s eyes shot wide. “Wife?”

“Don’t hurt him, Knox,” Dru pleaded. “He’s a friend.”

“You told me that you had no friends.”

“She would say that as would I about her, but only to keep each other safe,” Busby said. “People can be cruel to friends of those they want something from.”

“Please, Knox, he needs food and a safe place to stay while the mercenaries hunt for Autumn.”

Busby gasped. “You search for Autumn?”

“You know her?” Knox asked.

Busby glanced nervously at Dru.

“Let him eat while he tells you what he knows,” Dru suggested.

“Sit by the stream,” Knox ordered. “I’ll get the sack of food.”

Knox heard Dru assure Busby as he walked away. “Everything will be fine.”

When Knox was a distance away, Busby whispered, “You married him? Why? You said?—”

“I had no choice, and I have no time to explain it now,” Dru said. “Just know that it isn’t a marriage meant to last. Before he returns, I need you to deliver a message for me.”

“Hurry and tell me.”

Knox glanced at the pair, whispering, and he got the feeling Dru was telling the lad something she didn’t want him to hear.

He dropped the sack in Dru’s lap. “Why the whispers?”

Busby was quick to respond. “Habit. One has to be careful when traveling the road.”

Dru reached in the sack and pulled out bread and cheese to hand to Busby.

His eyes went wide, and he snatched them out of her hand.

“Easy, you haven’t eaten in a while,” Dru cautioned. “And there is enough here to share so you have no worry of finding food on your journey to Clan MacLeish.”

Busby chewed as he said, “Bless you, Dru bless you.”

Dru patted his thin shoulder. “All is good, Busby. Shade is a healer and will see to any healing you may need and Quint, her husband, will make sure you are kept safe.”

“I look forward to meeting them,” Busby said, continuing to shovel food into his mouth.

“Tell me what you know about Autumn,” Knox said, sitting on the ground beside Dru.

“Only that mercenaries swarm the area searching for her and that many believe she traveled safely to the lowlands and now lives with a friend of her mum’s.”

“Why do they believe that?” Knox asked.

“A traveling merchant tells a tale about picking up a proper lady who sought travel to the lowlands to a friend’s home,” Busby said. “According to his story, he took her there since he was going that way to pick up wares to sell.”

“Do you know this merchant’s name?” Knox asked.

Busby shook his head and stuffed a chunk of cheese in his mouth and chewed while he spoke. “Nay, but his tale mentions how frightened she was and that he felt bad for her. The road can be a harsh place for one who knows it, but for one who doesn’t it could be deadly. It’s something a traveling merchant would be aware of and know what roads to avoid.”

Knox stood. “How long ago was this?”

Busby tilted his head back to look up at him. “Long enough for her to have settled herself in the Lowlands.”

“Did the merchant mention where he left her?” Knox asked.

Busby shook his head. “From what I heard, he never mentioned it. But he claims to have warned her that lowlanders don’t particularly care for Highlanders. They think the lot of us are savages.”

“Only when we need to be,” Knox said and crouched down in front of Busby. “Forge your own pathway to Clan MacLeish. You’d never survive the grueling regime some of the stronger mercenary crews put the lot of abducted men through or the punishment they inflict for not learning fast enough.”

Busby shuddered. “I have heard horror tales, especially about a man called Phelan.”

“He’s the worst,” Knox said and stood, looking down at Dru. “Give him what you wish of the food. We need to be on our way and so does he. The sooner he gets to Clan MacLeish the better.”

“He knows of what he speaks,” Dru said, staring at her husband as he walked to his mare. “He was sold to Phelan when he was only eight years and was with him until he got free.”

“How did he get free?” Busby asked.

Dru turned to Busby. “I don’t know.”

“He must have done something powerful to have gotten free of such a vicious, controlling man.”

Dru nodded, agreeing and recalling how Phelan didn’t pursue Knox’s offer to fight him at the abbey saying he had better things to do. He feared Knox, and Dru wondered why.