Twelve
“There has been another reply from your father,” Gabel announced as he strode into Ainslee’s bedchamber.
Ainslee tensed, clutching her hair comb tightly. From where she sat on a sheepskin before the fire, she kept her gaze fixed upon Gabel’s boots as he walked over to her. All the pleasure she had gained from her hot bath abruptly faded. Inwardly taking a deep breath to calm herself, she began to slowly pull the comb through her hair.
It had been a fortnight since the storm, and she had allowed herself to be lulled into a false sense of calm and happiness, spending her days within the safe, elegant Bellefleur and her nights curled up contentedly in Gabel’s strong arms. The Frasers had gone, her dog roamed freely throughout the keep, Ronald was now completely healed, and she was blissfully wrapped in passion every time she and Gabel had some time alone. That had made it easy to push aside all of her doubts and concerns. Now her father had rudely intruded into her dream world. All she could do was hope that her father was going to continue to be stubborn, lengthening the negotiations, but something about Gabel’s expression made her feel certain that that was not going to happen.
“Does my father want me back now?” she asked, feeling that she had a firm enough hand on her errant emotions to look at him again.
“Well, he still does not agree to all I ask, not fully,” replied Gabel as he sat down next to her.
“So? What does he offer?”
“Too little.”
“Gabel, what has my father said?”
“He will ransom you and says you may bring Ronald along as well, if you must, but that he will not pay anything for the man.”
“Ungrateful bastard,” Ainslee muttered, angered as always by her father’s contempt for Ronald, a man who had always been a faithful, hardworking servant. “Many times I have wondered if my father scorns Ronald because he can never be the mon Ronald is.”
“ ’Tis possible. Some men find those who have the goodness they lack to be very irritating.” Gabel smiled faintly when Ainslee laughed.
“When am I to be sent back to Kengarvey?” she asked in a soft voice, her humor fading swiftly as she tensed for his reply.
“We will leave here in three days’ time and meet with your clan at the river.”
Gabel inwardly cursed when she used her hair to hide her face and thus her expression. He wanted to know how she felt about leaving Bellefleur, about leaving him. It was unfair and he knew it, but that did not dim his need to know. He could not keep her. Although they shared a passion he had never tasted before and was not sure be would ever find again, he could not cast aside all his carefully laid plans and disregard all he believed was right for Bellefleur and his people just to hold onto it. Knowing that, it was wrong, even cruel, to try and make her expose her feelings for him, yet he realized that he ached to know what was in her heart and mind now that she was faced with the end of their time together.
“We have a few days left to spend together, Ainslee,” he said, as he edged closer to her, took the comb from her hand, and began to comb her slightly damp hair.
“I ken it.” She sighed and glanced at him. “I confess, I am surprised that my father has agreed so swiftly”
“I thought he had proved to be most stubborn.”
“Nay, not truly. If he had wanted to, he could have played this game for months.”
“That could have put your life in danger, at least as far as he could know.”
“Nay, my father kens that I am safe here at Bellefleur. He learned all about you, Gabel, ere ye had lit your first hearth fire in your fine new keep. How do you think my father has survived for so long when so many ache to kill him?”
“Luck and skill,” he replied as he set the comb aside and tugged her into his arms.
“Aye, there was some of that, to be sure.” She leaned against him and stared into the fire. “He also kens that a mon’s best defense is to learn what he can about his enemies, and he had no doubt that ye would soon join that vast number. If my father had put all of his wit and skill to a good cause, he could have become the greatest of men. Howbeit, both gifts have served only to make him the most elusive and deadliest of foes. As soon as I was of an age to ken what he was, I also kenned what he could have been. I think that is why I grow so angry at him at times.”
He slid the robe she wore off of her shoulder and touched a kiss to her warm skin. “Mayhaps he saw that knowledge in your eyes, and ’tis why he so dislikes Ronald. Your father knew who you compared him to.”
Ainslee frowned as she considered that possibility, then shrugged. “I find it most difficult to believe that my father was ever concerned about what I thought. Howbeit, pride may prompt it, for there was a strange incident once when I was but eleven that I have ne‘er found a reason for. Ronald had taken ill and had sent me from his side for fear that I would catch whate’er it was that ailed him. That evening I dined in the great hall with my father and brothers for the first and last time in my memory. I ken that I watched my father as I ate, but I dinna believe I cast him any particular look which could have revealed the thoughts whirling about in my head, not all of which were kindly. Suddenly, he lunged at me and began to beat me, bellowing about teaching me some respect.”
“Did he hurt you badly?”
“It felt so at the time. My brother Colin rescued me at some risk to himself when he began to fear that my father would kill me. I returned to Ronald and told him that, whate’er ailed him, it could not be as frightening nor as dangerous as being near my father.”
Gabel said nothing, just held her and softly kissed her neck. He fought the surge of guilt sweeping over him as he thought of how he was about to return her to that life. But what choice did he have? Even if he decided that he did want to take her as his wife or she agreed to become his leman—something he could never ask her to do—he still had to go through with the ransoming. He was doing the king’s work now, and could not cease simply because Ainslee might suffer a beating when she returned to her family. Few men would understand why that should even trouble him, for, while they might not agree with the beating of women and children, Ainslee’s father had the right to do with her as he pleased. Gabel silently cursed again, and wondered for the hundredth time how and when he had allowed one tiny red-haired woman to so complicate his life and disorder his thoughts.
“So, in three days’ time we will meet my most notorious sire at the river,” she murmured.
“Aye,” Gabel agreed, forcing a smile when she turned in his arms to face him directly. “I felt it would be wise to have the river between us.”
She smoothed her hands over his chest and then began to unlace his tunic. “ ’Twould be for the best to put the whole of Scotland between you and my father, but I ken that ye must draw closer than that.” She smiled faintly when he laughed, but then grew serious, taking his face between her hands. “Beware my father, Gabel.”
“Is it not strange for the daughter of the man to warn the one who seeks to punish him?”
“Aye, and it may e’en be a wee bit traitorous. Howbeit, I see no real wrong in simply warning an honorable mon that he is about to face one who, sadly, doesna have any honor left. Ye deal in the truth. My father could spout lies to a priest on the altar. If ye make a bond, ye will hold to it. My father will do so as weel, but only if he can gain from it. If he sees no gain, he willna keep any treaty or honor any bond made. And, if my father believes he canna defeat a mon in a fair fight, he will slip about in the dark and cut the mon’s throat or stab him in the back. Ye have been kind and fair, Gabel de Amalville, to me and to mine. ’Tis only fair to tell you the truth about the mon ye will soon be facing.”
“I thank you for that. Howbeit, your father must have the wit to see that, if he does not honor this bond, he will bring on the complete destruction of your clan.”
“I pray he does. Even my brothers, who arena the best of men, dinna deserve that.” She eased his shirt off of his shoulders. “I dinna wish to talk of it or to worry about what is to come. I certainly dinna wish to think of my father.”
Gabel closed his eyes and sighed with pleasure as she trailed soft kisses over his chest. She had slowly grown bolder in the week they had been lovers and he reveled in it. He did not want to think of her father either, for it reminded him that, in three very short days, he would lose her. What he wanted to do was spend every moment of those three days making love to her, but he knew he could not do that either. As he threaded his fingers through her hair, releasing it from the loosely tied leather thong she had caught it up in, he felt a surge of angry frustration. He had never considered how much he might have to give up to be lord of Bellefleur.
All thought of what he was forced to do and to forego because of his high birth, faded when Ainslee unlaced his hose. She tugged them off of him, heating his legs with kisses as she did so. He tensed as she crouched between his legs, smiling seductively at him from behind her tousled hair. His breathing grew heavy when she undid his braies and tossed them aside. A soft groan escaped him as she slid her hands up his thighs while she bent towards him and touched a feather-light kiss to his erection. He gently caged her between his legs as she stroked him with her tongue, kissing his length as she smoothed her hands over his hips and thighs. Watching her pleasure him so put him into a sweat, but he grit his teeth and fought to keep his passion under some restraint. He wanted to enjoy her loving for as long as he could. When she answered the request he made with an unmistakable shift of his hips and slowly encased him in the heat of her mouth, he cried out from the strength of the pleasure flooding his body. He could endure it for only a few moments before he caught her up in his arms and pressed her down onto the sheepskin.
Crouching over her, he stared down at her as he fought to rein in his need so that he could repay her for such delight, giving her some before they were forced to answer the urges of their bodies. “Do you think to drive me mad ere you leave Bellefleur?”
Ainslee smiled and trailed her fingers over the front of his muscular thighs, enjoying the way he trembled from the power of the desire she had stirred within him. “I but sought to please you,” she murmured.
“Oh, you did that tenfold, and ’tis clear from the cocky look on your lovely face that you know it.”
“Ye appear hesitant to act upon it.”
“Oh, nay, not hesitant. I but catch my breath so that I may show you that two can play at that game.”
Ainslee did not have the time to worry about his passionate threat or ask him what he intended to do. Gabel began his assault upon her senses at once. Although she blushed when he removed her robe, she did not attempt to hide herself from his eyes, despite the bright light from the fire. She found the way he stared at her so hungrily, his appreciation of her form easy to read in his eyes, exciting and the perfect cure to any touch of modesty.
He lowered his body onto hers and kissed her. Ainslee returned his deep kiss with a fierceness to match his, and a touch of desperation. She had very little time left to soak her mind and senses in the feel of him. With a murmur of pleasure, she tilted her head back, allowing him free access to her vulnerable throat, as he began to ease his kisses down her body.
A shudder tore through her when he stopped at her breasts, lathing the tips and suckling as if he had all the time in the world, as if passion was not causing him to tremble and breathe heavily against her skin. Her own passion had been so heightened by making love to him that she was not sure she could endure such a leisurely seduction, but she fought to keep enough of her senses so that she could enjoy his every touch and kiss. She did not know where he found the strength, but she was determined to match it.
He crept his way down her midriff, kissing her, gently nipping her skin and soothing the light sting with strokes of his tongue. When he reached her thighs, she was unable to touch him and she murmured her regret. He chuckled against her inner thigh and proceeded to cover the length of her legs with his caresses. Despite her intention to push aside all modesty, she tensed and gasped in shock when he touched a kiss to the soft curls between her thighs, but this time he ignored her. With one slow stroke of his tongue, he took away all urge to protest the intimacy of his kiss.
Ainslee fell completely beneath the power of the feelings he stirred in her, opening herself to him and moaning her pleasure. The only clear thought she had came when she knew she was too near her crest to wait any longer. She cried out her need and groaned her relief when he forcefully joined their bodies. Wrapped tightly around his strong body, she clung to him as he took them both to the heights they had resisted for so long.
It was not until they lay sated in each other’s arms that Ainslee gave any thought to what they had just done. She fought the embarrassment that seeped over her, but was only partially successful. It was not even dark yet, she thought with an inner groan.
“Ainslee,” Gabel whispered against her ear as he idly stroked her side. “Cease berating yourself.”
“And what makes ye think I was berating myself?” she asked, unable to look at him, and she cursed softly when he laughed.
“For one so bold when she is loving me, you have become quite the blushing maid now that I have served you in kind.”