Return Of The Highlanders: The Guardian Part 26

"Your wife is going to choke to death if she keeps falling asleep with her mouth full," Connor said.

She opened her eyes with a start to find the men all smiling at her.

"That would be a shame, after we went to the trouble of fetching her," Duncan said.

"Goodness, Duncan, is that two jokes I heard ye make tonight?" she said, and they all laughed.

Ian handed her a flask of ale and rubbed her back as she took a drink to wash down the rabbit.

"Let's get ye off to bed." He set the flask aside and scooped her up in his arms.

"Night, Sileas," and "Sleep well," the others called to her as Ian carried her off into the darkness beyond the firelight.

When Ian had found a secluded spot some distance from the others, he set her down and spread their blankets. She thought she would fall asleep as soon as her head hit the ground. Instead, she lay in Ian's arms listening to the wind in the trees and the faint sound of Duncan playing a tune on his whistle.

When Ian lifted her chin and gave her a soft kiss, she opened her mouth to him and pressed against him. How she loved him.

He pulled back. "Are ye sure you're not too tired?"

"Aye. I want ye, Ian MacDonald." She ran her hand up his erect shaft to show him how certain she was.

It was the same each night of their return to Skye. After riding so many hours that she could barely stand, they would eat and talk with the others. Then Ian would lead her off to make their bed away from the others.

As soon as she lay down with him, her tiredness evaporated like the morning mist and they would make love half the night. What Ian did to her was a constant wonder to her, a magic she feared the faeries would envy.

By the time they reached the coast, she was in an exhausted fog of happiness. They found a distant cousin of Alex, one of the MacDonnells, who was willing to take them across the Sound of Sleat in his boat. Despite the cold, wet wind on the sea, Sileas fell sound asleep to the rocking of the boat with Ian's arms about her.

She awoke to an awareness of tension in Ian's body. When she opened her eyes, she saw Knock Castle shrouded in low clouds up the coastline to the north.

"I hope ye believe I would want ye as my wife whether or not ye were heir to Knock Castle," he said.

She ignored the grain of doubt that remained in her heart and nodded.

"But we must take it back," he said.

She tightened her grip on Ian's arm. Even if she had Ian with her, would she be able to live in a place that held such sorrow for her? Could it ever be cleansed of her mother's suffering or her stepfather's malevolence?

Could she and Ian be happy in a castle that made a ghost weep?

She understood the importance of the castle and her claim on it to the clan, but just the sight of it made her stomach tighten into knots. Knowing Murdoc and Angus were there now made her feel worse.

"They can't see us from the castle, can they?" she asked, though it made her feel foolish.

"They'll see the boat, but there are many boats in these waters," Ian said. "This isn't one they'll know."

Ian kept his gaze fixed on Knock Castle until it disappeared from view. "I'll not let the man who hurt you keep your home."

But Knock Castle had never been a true home to her.

CHAPTER 29.

Shouts of greeting filled the house as soon as Ian opened the front door.

"Praise G.o.d, all of ye are safe and that ye brought her home to us," his mother said. She hugged him and each of the other men in turn, while his father embraced Sileas.

"Is my thick-headed son treating ye better now?" his father asked, with his arm about her shoulders. "Sometimes a man needs a good scare to clear his head."

"Then my head must be verra clear, for she had me scared witless, da," Ian said, laughing.

Ah, it was good to be home.

They caught up on news over dinner. Though no one was told of their departure, as happens on Skye, everyone knew of it within a day or two.

"Hugh's supporters spread the rumor that Connor's left for good," his father said. "We hear from Duncan's sister that Hugh is making promises he's not likely to keep in order to gain support. Unfortunately, it seems to be working."

That didn't bode well at all. From the start, it was always going to be a challenge for Connor to take the chieftains.h.i.+p from his uncle, but they had counted on taking Knock Castle to swing support in Connor's favor. Men love a victory. But it was too late now to gather men and mount an attack.

"With Samhain but two days away," Alex said, slapping Connor on the back, "we'll have to move quickly to let the men know you're home and ready to take your place as chieftain."

Time was too short. Still, there had to be a way to convince their clansmen that Connor was the right man to choose-or that Hugh was the wrong choice.

They discussed their strategies for the gathering over supper. But when they were done eating, they set aside the uncertainties ahead to celebrate coming home and the start of Ian and Sileas's life together.

Duncan pulled out his whistle, and the rest of them took turns singing verses to the old songs they all knew. As Sileas sang and clapped with the others, there was a glow about her that warmed Ian's heart.

He leaned back in his chair, watching the others. He caught his father winking at his mother and knew how pleased his parents were that matters were settled between him and Sileas. Even Niall had come around. Although Niall had been cautious around him the day they left Stirling, his brother had warmed once he saw how happy Sileas was.

Ian felt at peace here at home with Sileas, his friends, and his family. He couldn't remember a time when he felt so content.

"We'd best say our good-byes now," Connor said, getting to his feet. "Duncan, Alex, and I will leave early in the morning-long before our pair of lovebirds are up. We'll talk to as many men as we can before the Samhain gathering."

"I'll meet up with ye before the gathering," Ian said.

"Sileas, la.s.s," Duncan said in his gruff voice, "will ye be wearing that new gown ye was telling us about to the gathering?"

Ian almost fell off his chair. Duncan was a good man, making such an effort to bring Sileas into the circle of their friends.h.i.+p.

"I must have been light-headed with weariness to be speaking about gowns with ye," Sileas said, a pretty blush coloring her cheeks. "I didn't think ye were listening to my blathering about it."

"I don't talk all the time like some," Duncan said, turning to raise an eyebrow at Alex, "so I heard ye well enough. It's green to match your eyes, am I right?"

Ian exchanged glances with Alex and Connor, who appeared to be as startled as he was by Duncan's conversation.

"It is green," Sileas said, giving Duncan a huge smile. "Tell me, will ye play your whistle at the gathering?"

"Ach, this little whistle is for when I travel light," Duncan said, patting where he kept it on a cord inside his s.h.i.+rt. "When Connor is made chieftain, I'll play my pipes-and perhaps my harp as well. My sister has been keeping them for me."

The men stood up, preparing to go to the old cottage for the night.

Sileas rose up on her toes and kissed Duncan's cheek. "I'll see ye at the gathering."

"Careful, la.s.s," Duncan said. "I don't want Ian's dirk in my back."

"I'll risk it," Alex said, opening his arms to her. "Remember, ye promised me a kiss when we were on the boat."

"What promise-" Before Ian could get the question out, Alex had lifted Sileas off the ground and kissed her right on the mouth.

No sooner had Ian pried her loose from Alex, than Connor said, "Since we're leaving early, I'd best get my kiss now as well."

Connor, wise man, settled for a friendly peck on the cheek.

"I've had enough of ye handling my wife," Ian said, putting his arm around Sileas and pulling her close.

"But I didn't get my turn," Niall said, stepping forward.

"Ye were alone with my wife overnight and lived to tell the tale," Ian said, lifting his hand to ward off his brother. "Ye'd best be content with that."

After the men left for the cottage and his parents had settled into quiet conversation near the hearth, Sileas took Ian aside.

"I want to tell Grdan about us," she said. "It's not right that he should hear of it from someone else."

Ian nodded. "All right. I'll take ye up there in the morning."

"I'd rather go now and get it over with," she said. "Do ye mind?"

Ian recalled what his brother said about a long line of men waiting for Sileas to lose patience with him. If she was in a hurry to tell the first man in that line to stop waiting, well, that was fine with him.

"I'll walk up with ye and wait outside," he said. "I don't want ye out alone."

A short time later, Ian was leaning against a tree under a moonless sky and watching his wife rap on Grdan's door.

When Grdan opened it, a shaft of light fell over Sileas and across the dark yard. Ian heard their murmured voices as they talked in the doorway.

Then he heard Grdan's mother shouting, "The wicked la.s.s has left her husband for ye, hasn't she?"

Grdan was patient, as always, with his mother.

"Quiet, mam. I can't explain now," he called to her, before he stepped outside and shut the door.

The two spoke in quiet voices a while longer, then Sileas left Grdan to walk toward the tree where Ian waited. Ian felt Grdan's eyes on him in the darkness.

"Be good to her," Grdan called out.

"I will."

Ian held Sileas's hand as they walked home along the dark path. He didn't ask about her conversation with Grdan; if she wanted to speak of it, she would.

Before they reached the house, he stopped in the path and turned to her. He brushed back the hair whipping about her face, but it was too dark to see her expression.

"I never meant to shame ye by not coming home," he said.

"I know ye didn't," she said.

But the truth was that he had given her feelings little thought at all, and they both knew it.

"If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't be such an a.r.s.e."

"Are ye sure?" she said with a smile in her voice.

It was like her to try to ease his conscience by making light of it. He pulled her into his arms and rested his chin on her head. "I'm sorry I hurt ye. I wish we hadn't been forced to wed back then before we were ready, so we could do it now, and do it right."

" 'Tis true I wasn't ready," Sileas said. "But I always wanted you to be my husband in the end."

"That's because ye are wiser than me," Ian said, rubbing his chin against her hair. "I hate knowing that my wife will always remember the start of our marriage as the worst day of her life. I'd do anything to change that."

Sileas leaned away from him, and he felt the soft touch of her fingertips graze his cheek. "Then let's count our marriage as starting now, and not five years ago."

Ian realized she was right for wanting to tell Grdan tonight, to have all that done and behind them. They were embarking on their new life together, now that they were home.

Ian held her tight against him. "I'll try to make it up to ye every day from now on."

CHAPTER 30.

Sileas understood why Ian was saying these things to her. It wasn't that she didn't believe him when he said he wanted to make her happy-he did. But Ian had a hole inside him. Until he redeemed himself for being gone when they needed him, he could not forgive himself. That only made her love him more.

Watching him tonight, laughing and talking with his friends and family, Sileas knew she could sit across the breakfast table from him for fifty years and never tire of it. But love was not always equal. If Ian cared for her and did his best to be a good husband, that was better than what most women got from the men they devoted their lives to-and far better than Sileas's poor mother ever had.

The feelings between them when they made love were so powerful that she believed Ian could come to love her in the way she loved him. When he was inside her, he called her "love" and the beautiful endearment, a chuisle mo chroi, pulse of my heart.

She'd heard many a young woman tell of a man who spoke of love in the throes of pa.s.sion and was gone before the babe came. Someday, Ian might say these words to her at other times-perhaps across the table or while he held a child of theirs on his knee-and she would know he meant them.

In the meantime, she would take the warm affection he gave her-and, aye, the pa.s.sion in the night as well-and be glad for it.

But she would wait for that day when he gave his heart to her wholly.

Ian was glad to find the house quiet when they returned. When he opened their bedchamber door for Sileas, the room was filled with the warm glow of a dozen lit candles. He smiled at his mother's thoughtfulness.