Kingdom Come (35 page)

“Stop,” he commanded softly. “My horse may injure you if you come any closer.”

The boy stopped and stared at the horse as if it had fangs. Kieran looked at the child; he was fairly well bundled up against the cold, so he wasn’t an orphan. Someone took care with the child.  Kieran started to rein Liberator around, muttering to the child as an afterthought.

“You haven’t seen a strange woman around here, have you?” he grumbled.

“Oy!” the kid piped up.

Kieran paused, peering more closely at the child. “What did you say?”

The boy threw an arm out, pointing behind him. Seized with the possibility, Kieran dismounted Liberator in a hurry and approached the child.

“Did you see a finely dressed woman?” he asked, eager.

The boy nodded and began to run. Kieran ran after him. They ended up at a small stable that butted against the inner wall of Southwell and the boy jabbed his finger at the leaning structure.  Kieran sized it up.

“In there?” he asked, pointing to the stable.

The kid nodded emphatically. Kieran put a trencher-sized hand on the boy’s head, dwarfing him, and gave the kid a gold coin. It was more money that the child had probably ever seen in his life.  Silently, Kieran entered the dark structure.

It was shadowed and eerie. The first thing Kieran saw was two goats, looking up at him with big, curious goat-eyes.  With the utmost quiet, Kieran proceeded to peer into the four stalls of the stable. They were cluttered with hay and other implements, but he had yet to see anything human.  Puzzled, he stood back and assessed the room when his gaze moved upward and he noticed the loft.

There was a small ladder in the corner that led up to the loft.  With extreme care, he made his way slowly up the ladder, his senses alert, as his head finally emerged into the second level. His eyes moved over the hay-filled area but he didn’t see anything other than dried grass.  It was very dark and he took another step on the ladder, gaining a better look.  Still, all he could see was hay.  Puzzled, discouraged, he was about to turn away when his gaze fell on a foot.

But it wasn’t any foot. It was a big, ugly boot that he recognized.  Relief such as he had never known swept him and he very nearly fell off the ladder as the wave of comfort and joy washed through him. Creeping up the ladder, he moved across the loft, towards the boot, on his hands and knees. Rory was lying on a small pile of hay, wedged between the wall and the hay.  Her foot was the only thing visible. And she was sleeping like the dead, snoring softly.

Kieran looked at her, a lump forming in his throat. Truth be told, he was exhausted himself. He had tried so hard to keep Rory happy and soothed during this very difficult transition, but she still wasn’t settling in. He knew it was very hard for her; the addition of an unexpected pregnancy was only making it worse. Still, he would be lost without her. Those few hours she was missing were the worst of his life. He felt like a failure that she had been so despondent it had caused her to flee.Removing his helm, he crawled into the space between Rory and the wall, and lay down beside her. The moment he touched her, the tears came.

Rory woke up to the sounds of sniffles. Her eyes rolled open to the sight of Kieran lying beside her.  The moment their eyes met, he threw his arms around her and burned his face in her neck, sobbing quietly.

Rory was startled. She wrapped her arms around him and held him as closely as she could. She didn’t even stop to wonder how he had found her; it never crossed her mind. All that mattered was that the man, her rock, was weeping.

“Baby,” she whispered into the top of his dark blond hair. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

He couldn’t even answer her. He just held her tightly, weeping into her neck.But very quickly, he composed himself, wiping his face furiously with one hand while holding her with the other.Rory lay silent as the man pulled himself together after his painful outburst. She stroked his face, his hair, kissing his forehead until he was strong enough to look her in the eye. 

“I am sorry,” he whispered. “Forgive my weakness.”

She kissed his cheek tenderly. “I’m the one who should apologize,” she murmured. “I’ve made your life miserable since we appeared on that rocky beach in Nahariya. I’ve done nothing but complain and cry and behave horribly. I’m sorry I ran away; I just couldn’t watch your father scream at you anymore. I just snapped.”

A big hand was stroking her cheek. “I understand,” he said softly. “I am so accustomed to his rants that it did not occur to me that it would take a toll on you. I apologize for his hateful words.  Realizing he has hurt you… it shatters me. We will leave Southwell tomorrow and go to my holding of Peveril. I will not permit my father to spout abuse and hurt you.”

She smiled sadly. “I’m a big girl. I can take it. I promise; no more running. I didn’t mean to scare you so badly. I just couldn’t stand watching him yell at you. I felt like I just needed to get out of there.”

His expression tightened. “He has been yelling at me all my life. It is the way of things.”

“It’s wrong, Kieran.”

“It is his way.”

Rory felt so sorry for the man. She knew what it was like to have an abusive parent; her mother had been the same way; never happy with her only child, constantly brow-beating her for improvement. Rory kissed him, firmly, and Kieran responded ferociously.  He loved her so strongly that words could not express the strength of the emotion; rolling Rory on to her back, his big hands moved over her torso, his mouth moving to the swell of her bosom.  He pinched her nipples gently through the fabric, listening to her groan.  Then he took a full breast in his hand, squeezing carefully.

“You are still wearing your bra,” he murmured against her lips.

She laughed, shaking with mirth as he fingered the underwire. “I can’t help it. I don’t feel dressed unless I have it on.”

“It is too much of a barrier between your flesh and mine,” he growled. “I suppose you have those odd undergarments on as well.”

She continued to giggle. “Yes, I am wearing panties.”

He growled and tossed up her skirts, putting his hand over her mouth when she squealed.  As she continued to giggle, he pulled off the lacy white panties, wedging his enormous body between her legs and putting his mouth on her groin.

“I cannot taste your flesh with those oddities against your body,” he growled, grabbing her behind the knees and lifting her legs. He suckled and lapped the tender flesh of her inner thigh. “I must have my fill of you.”

Her giggles were fading as his mouth moved to the sensitive core between her legs.  He began to suckle on the pink folds and she grasped him by the hair.

“Kieran,” she half-hissed, half-moaned. “Don’t….”

He ignored her, feeling her squirm in his hands. “You’ll not tell me no, Lib, not ever.”

She was quickly succumbing to his wicked tongue. “But… this is just weird. I’m pregnant and….”

He kissed her pink folds gently, his hand moving to her still-flat belly, and he kissed the soft flesh reverently. “I know,” he whispered. “I would taste where my son has been conceived, where our love has come to fruition. I can never be closer to you or to him than at this moment. Do not deny me that.”

Rory’s head came up and she looked at him, wedged down between her legs.  She watched him as he kissed her belly and lay his great head against it. Tears sprang to her eyes.

“That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard,” she sniffled. “I love you so much.”

He didn’t say anything; he just lay there with his head against her stomach. When he did speak, his lips were against her flesh.

“Nothing my father says can hurt us or break us,” he murmured. “We are strong, you and I.”

Rory lowered her head, staring up at the dark rafters of the stable. “We are strong enough to have defied Time and History,” she murmured. “I suppose your father is small potatoes by comparison.”

His head came up, the gem-clear brown eyes gazing steadily at her. “What is potatoes?”

She half-grinned, running her fingers through his cropped hair. “Never mind,” she said. “It wouldn’t mean anything to you, anyway. I guess I just meant that your father is small in comparison to whatever fates have brought us to this point in time.  Your father couldn’t break is if he tried.”

Kieran kissed her belly one last time and sat up, looking around for the white panties he tossed. He found them behind him and retrieved them, sliding them awkwardly up her legs as she giggled.  When he had them secure, he just sat there and looked at them.

“I sincerely hate those,” he muttered.

She laughed softly, sitting up and pulling her skirts down. “Why?”

“Because they are odd.” He wriggled his eyebrows. “But they are strangely enticing at the same time.  I cannot make up my mind.”

She couldn’t argue with him.  They sat there a moment, gazing steadily at each other. Kieran finally reached out and cupped her chin gently.

“Are you ready to return to Southwell?” he asked.

Her smile faded. “Yes,” she said reluctantly. “But I made a fool of myself running off like that.”

He shook his head and held out a hand to help her to her feet. “You did no such thing,” he said. “My brothers were as worried for you as I was.”

Rory let him help her down the ladder, emerging into the dark stable below. Liberator was just outside the stable, munching on a big pile of hay that had fallen from the loft.  Kieran made sure the horse was stable before lifting Rory into the saddle.  He mounted behind her, holding her safe and secure as he directed Liberator back to the gatehouse.

***

“I shall not hear rebuke from my own son,” Jeffrey thrust a big finger in Christian’s face. “You always were a fool, Christian. If you married a lowly peasant, I would understand.  But I expected better of Kieran.”

Tall, flame-haired Christian was the most like his father out of the four Hage brothers. He was hot headed and brash, often speaking before thinking.  But he understood his father better than the other three and was usually the best one to reason with him for that fact.  At this moment, however, Jeffrey did not want to be reasoned with.

“The man has just returned home from the great Quest,” Christian stated, his tone somewhat taut in the fact of his father’s insult. “You have not seen him in three years and the first words out of your mouth are labeling him foolish and stupid? Is that really what you think of him?”

Jeffrey’s jaw ticked. “He should not have married without my permission.”

“That does not make him foolish or stupid.”

“Aye, it does!” Jeffrey stomped about in the lavish solar of Southwell, a room that was resplendent with the riches of the Hages; tapestries, plate and other utensils lined the walls and hearth to an obvious degree. “He knows better. Why should he behave so?”

“Because he loves her,” Sean entered the solar, pulling off his big leather gloves. He moved for the pitcher of wine on the nearby table. “According to Kieran, she is brave and intelligent. And, as we all saw, she is extremely beautiful.  It was only natural that he succumb to her.”

Jeffrey didn’t like it when his sons banded against him, which was often. “So you defend him as well?” he snarled. “I should have expected it. You always defend him and he always defends you.  But I care not what you say; he should not have married that Irish rubbish.”