Lyon's Gift (30 page)

He made her feel this way.

And she couldn’t help but smile.

She stirred, lifting her face from his
chest, thinking that she should dress, but he pressed a hand to her
head, drawing her back to cradle her head against him.

“
Stay with me,” he urged
her.

Meghan wished in that instant that she could
lay there forever, listening to the quickened beat of his heart.
She wondered if her own still beat so fast.

“
How is the arm?” He
sounded concerned. “Did I hurt you, Meghan?”

“
Nay,” Meghan assured him.
He had done anything but that. In truth, he had been cautious to a
fault. It was difficult, having been privy to his written words,
because she couldn’t help but yearn for the unrestrained passion he
had written about in his manuscript. He hadn’t been that way with
her at all... He had been gentle and solicitous instead.

“
Good.” He lifted her head
gently from his chest. “I almost forgot,” he told her, “the reason
I brought you out here, Meghan.”

Meghan had forgotten as well.

“
Sit up,” he commanded
her, and helped her to rise.

Meghan blushed as his gaze slid
appreciatively over her body, lingering at her breasts. He curved
his lips roguishly.

“
What is it?” she asked,
returning a demure smile of her own.

“
Look about,” he commanded
her, turning his head from her abruptly. “Do you see naught at
all?”

Meghan did as he bade her, and saw nothing
more than she had before: a meadow wide and green, resplendent with
posies and heather. Colorful and bursting with life... except for a
small plot of soil that had been freshly turned...

She peered up at him, her brows drawing
together in bewilderment.

“
I hope you do not mind,”
he said. “It was not my wish to make you sad, Meghan.”

“
I dinna
understand.”

“
I buried Fia here for
you.”

Meghan blinked in surprise. “You did?” She
was staggered by the gesture. She hadn’t asked about the lamb, only
because she hadn’t wished to know its fate, had assumed they would
use the animal for its meat. Tears sprang to her eyes, though she
knew it was foolish. It was naught but a lamb, she told herself.
And his gesture... She didn’t know what to make of it.

He stared at her, seeming to be searching
her face for answers. “I... I know how much she meant to you,” he
said. “So I buried her. I hope you do not mind,” he said again,
more than a little hesitantly.

Meghan shook her head, discomposed by his
confession. She wasn’t certain what to think of a man who would
bury a lamb, simply because she had claimed it was her grandmother,
despite that he didn’t believe her.

Or had he?

Was he so willing to accept the body without
the soul? As with Gavin, did her thoughts not matter to him? Her
mind not at all?

Well, it didn’t matter at this instant, as
she was overwhelmed by his kind gesture. It was the sweetest thing
anyone had ever done for her.

Gulping down the knot that rose in her
throat, she turned to gaze at the tiny plot of soil, not more than
three yards from where they stood. “When?” she asked him, turning
to look into his eyes. “When did you do this?”

“
Yesterday… when I left
you. I came here. I am sorry if it was not the right thing to do,
Meghan. I simply thought—”

“
Shhh.” Meghan lifted her
finger to his lips. “Hush, Lyon Montgomerie... and kiss me
again.”

She didn’t have to ask twice.

Lyon trembled as he drew her into his arms,
and lapped the tears from her eyes with the tip of his tongue.

“
Be mine,” he begged her,
and gently covered her mouth with his own.

Meghan’s lips parted in helpless surrender,
though she refused him an answer.

How could she reply nay when it was already
so?

And neither could she yield her heart so
completely.

They spent the entire afternoon upon the
meadow.

It wasn’t until late that Lyon returned
Meghan to the hall, bidding her go upstairs and rest before it was
time to sup.

Meghan could scarcely protest as she was
weary in a way she’d never been in her life. And her arm hurt
terribly, besides.

She didn’t wish to, because she didn’t like
the drowsy way it made her feel, but Lyon had left the vial of
medicine upon the desk for her, and she was in too much discomfort
to care if she supped at all. She was going to go take some of the
elixir and lie down upon the bed, for it seemed that every step she
climbed toward his chamber left her all the more fatigued.

He had asked to carry her up, but Meghan
refused to be coddled in such a way. Her will was as yet her own,
and she was perfectly capable of climbing stairs on her own.

In her weariness, however, she was blind to
the figure standing in the shadows of the corridor leading to
Lyon’s bedchamber.

“
Meghan!” came an anxious
whisper as she reached for the door.

Startled, Meghan whirled to find the old man
Cameron stepping from the shadows toward her.

He peered anxiously about. “Is he comin’
after you?”

“
Lyon?” she asked him,
startled.

“
Aye!”

Meghan frowned at his strange behavior.
“Nay, but he did not say where he was off to,” she informed him
warily. “If you’re needin’ to speak—”

“
Nay,” he replied. “ ‘Tis
you I wished to see!” He held out a small cloth sack and pressed it
into her hands. “This comes to you from Alison, lass.”

“
Alison!” Meghan said,
suddenly feeling more alert. “Is Alison here?”

“
Nay, lass, but I met her
in the woods. She bade me give you this, and to tell you that it
was she who came to tend you after the fall.”

Confused, Meghan took the sack from his
hands. “It was Alison? But they didna say so!”

He gave her a look of reproach, lifting
heavy red brows. “Neither did he say your brothers came to see you…
while he was out there wooing you? I’m sorry but I spied you
together lass.”

Meghan’s face warmed. “Leith and Colin and
Gavin came here?”

“
Do you have other
brothers?” he retorted. “Aye, lass, they came yesterday, but he
would not let them see you. In any case, they didna realize it was
Alison who came to tend you, as she came disguised as an auld
hag.”

“
But how—”

“
When they asked me if I
knew of a physician, I answered that I knew of a midwife. They sent
me out after her, and I brought Alison.”

Meghan could scarcely believe that Lyon
would fail to mention to her that her brothers had come to see her.
He had to realize she would be concerned for them, and they for
her. It didn’t make sense to her that he could be so generous about
the lamb, and then so ruthlessly deny her brothers and herself.

“
Alison has a good plan,”
Cameron revealed. “Dinna fash yourself, lass, we’ll get you home to
your brothers soon enough.”

Meghan was confused. How could he make love
to her so sweetly, say such warmhearted things... and then keep
something so important from her?

She shook herself free of her thoughts, of
the memory of his touch, forcing herself to consider her brothers.
“What sort of plan?”

“
The sort that will work,
I think,” he said, and bent to whisper it quickly into her
ear.

CHAPTER 23

Staring at the manuscripts that were spread before
her, the small vial of medicine clutched within her fist, Meghan
sat transfixed at the little bedside desk.

It was, in fact, an ingenious plan.

If she had ever wondered about Alison’s shrewdness,
and which of them had the keener mind—and she had not, she had
always known Alison was the more clever of the two—she certainly
didn’t wonder now.

Meghan could never have conceived such a cunning
scheme on the spur of the moment. As Cameron relayed it to her, she
was to use the potion primarily for the pain, and the pouch of face
powders and colors to validate the outlandish tale Alison had woven
for Lyon’s benefit. She was to disfigure her face, make herself as
unappealing as possible with the powders, until he no longer
recognized her so well, so that when Alison came to replace her,
he’d not suspect the two of them were different women.

With their hair and eye color so similar, and her
own face covered with a veil, along with the doubts placed within
his head by Alison’s shrewd tale, Lyon was certain to believe
it.

Aye, it was a perfect plan.

Even if it failed, Meghan had every faith Lyon would
simply let Alison go, as he wasn’t a cruel man. The worst that
could happen would be that they would be discovered and they would
have gained naught by it.

Meghan would remain with Lyon, and Alison would be
sent home to her father with a scolding.

Not so terrible a thought to remain with Lyon, if
the truth be known.

And if it worked... well, then... with Cameron’s
help, she would be home with her brothers soon enough. And when
Meghan was safely away, Alison would simply remove her disguise and
slip away with no one the wiser.

The question was... did Meghan truly wish to
leave?

She considered that a long and anguished moment and
decided that it didn’t matter what she wanted. She owed it to her
brothers to go to them. And if Lyon respected her enough to court
her properly, then Meghan was certainly willing. No matter whether
he held her heart or not, this was not the right way to go about
it, she knew. Her brothers would never accept him this way, and she
loved them all too much to choose between them. If Lyon wanted her
truly, if he cared for her, if he loved her—aye, she dared to
hope—then he would want her to come to him of her own free
will.

As for the deception...

She set the vial of medicine down upon the desk.

If Lyon wanted her for more than her body, well
then, this was the way to discover that, too, and Meghan refused to
feel guilty for simply trying to find her way home.

And less so for attempting to learn the truth about
the man who would have her heart.

With that decided, she opened up the little pouch,
tugging the ribbon loose with her teeth, cursing her bad hand that
she could not do this properly. That done, she set the pouch down
upon the desk and removed a few items from it—a small piece of
looking glass, a tiny box secured with ribbon, and a little bottle
filled with a substance that appeared to be fine-ground meal.

To begin with, these would be enough.

Casting a glance first at the door, she struggled
with opening the small bottle, popping the cork with her teeth at
last. She poured a small amount of the flour upon the desk. Keeping
her attention upon the door, she powdered her hand and then her
face, making certain to blend it well. That done, she lifted up the
small box and, with her teeth once more, she untied the ribbon that
held the lid secure. She set it down then and lifted the tiny lid
to find a substance like black ash within. She lay the mirror flat
upon the desk, and dipped in a finger, bringing it to her eye,
giving herself ghastly circles beneath. She was generous with the
ash, but blended it well, and when she was through, she looked more
like the living dead than a living, breathing being.

Scrunching her nose at the sight of herself in the
distorted little glass, Meghan inspected her handiwork with a
critical eye. Then she dipped her finger within the ash once more
and added it to the powder upon her face, blending it well, and
then dabbed on more powder to soften the effect.

When she was finished, the sight of herself within
the tiny mirror was enough to make her grimace in disgust.

Deciding she had used more than enough for the first
time, she re-covered the box, blew the remaining powder from the
desktop, replaced the stopper within the bottle, and then placed
the items once more within the small pouch. With her injured arm it
was impossible to bind the box again, and so she did not even
attempt it. She lifted the pouch carefully, so as not to spill
anything, and then bent to place it carefully beneath the bed. When
it was still visible from where she sat, she went to her knees upon
the floor to better push it out of sight. No sooner had she done so
when the door burst open.

Startled, Meghan sprang up at once, smacking her
cheek against the comer of the desk in the process. “Ouch!” she
cried, and bounded back up into the chair. Jesu, but she was
determined to kill herself in this place!

“
Meghan?” Lyon said as though he
didn’t recognize her. His brows drew together as he
stared.

Meghan tried to appear unaware of his careful
scrutiny. “Aye?” she answered, clearing her throat.

“
Are... are you well?”

“
Certainly!” she said brightly,
and cast a glance down at the little desk to be certain the
telltale powder was gone. She brushed away the last remaining
traces and lifted her gaze to the door where he stood. “Why should
I not be?” she asked, and then for good measure, lifted the vial of
medicine within her hand to show him. She held her breath as he
entered the room, closing the door behind him. He faltered in his
stride as he approached her, and was frowning still as he sat upon
the bed beside the small desk, scrutinizing her.

She lifted the vial once more and said a little
nervously, “I—I thought I’d broken it.”

He didn’t seem to hear her. And he wouldn’t stop
staring. Meghan’s heart thundered in apprehension.