Authors: Sophia Johnson
The warriors smiled and looked friendly enough. From what she could overhear, Alpin’s relative would arrive within a fortnight. He appeared most pleased, for he smiled and thumped Rolf on the back. ’Twas strange, though. Rolf didna return the smile. He looked much like someone who had eaten rank meat.
Dougald’s big hand patted her shoulder. The motion caught Rolf ’s eye. He studied her standing there, and though she smiled at him, he didna meet her eye.
Chapter 19
Meghan did not see Rolf until the evening meal. Though courteous and pleasant, he studied first Garith, then her. His eyes filled with pain, and he squeezed them tight as if to vanquish memories lurking behind them.
“Have you thought of another riddle for us this night, Meghan?” Dougald urged.
Oft of late, she had been called on by the warriors to play the pipes or tease their minds. She glanced at Rolf to judge how much note he paid to his surroundings. Seeing he was deep in thought, she nodded.
It swings by his thigh a thing most magical!
Below the belt, beneath the fold of his clothes it hangs,
a hole in its front end, stiff-set and stout, but swivels about.
Levelling the head of this hanging instrument,
its wielder hoists his hem above the knee:
’tis his will to fill a well-known hole
it fits fully when at full length.
He has often filled it before. Now he fills it again.
“What?” Rolf bolted up and came to jerk her to her feet. “I canna believe you learned that at Blackthorn.” His face darkened, and the heat of his anger wafted his scent to her. “Did you hear such hangin’ around the men’s barracks?” He stood toe-to-toe and scowled at her.
She did not back down from such obvious bluster but frowned back and poked him in the chest with her finger. “I
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can well see where yer mind lies.” She huffed in disdain.
“ ’Tis in the cesspit.”
Alpin laughed heartily. “Aye, Rolf, she has that aright. A key is the answer. ’Tis an old riddle. Did you read more and were less scornful of the Saxons, you would know of it.”
It was the first time she had seen Alpin laugh. It brought glowing color to his pale face, his blue eyes sparkled, and his lips softened. For the first time, she kenned he was beautiful.
But not in a way that appealed to her. Though Rolf’s dark features were not as comely as Alpin’s, she far more favored them.
After that evening, Alpin often sought her company. He brought her the pipes and politely requested she play. At first, she would pipe Blackthorn’s battle song to pry Rolf from thoughts that seemed to sadden him. Once she had his attention, she played all the ancient tunes and the wild music she loved.
Rolf oft took Meghan to the swimming area, and if he could not, Ede and Garith accompanied her, as did six “protective” warriors. After the first day that she and Ede went, they kept their tunics on and invited Garith to join them. He wore his breeches for modesty.
When Meghan learned he could not swim, she remedied that lack. At first, he was fearful for he had little strength in his right arm. As he learned to swim, the exercise firmed the muscles in his weak arm, and he started to use it more often.
One day as they came from the water, Meghan felt a man’s eyes. She talked to Ede as her hand ruffled through the grass at her side. Closing her fingers around a chestnut-sized stone, she positioned it. Her hand whipped up, and she hurled the missile some ten paces away. The man who lurked in the bushes ran, holding his forehead and weaving through the woods like a tippler in his cups.
A guard called out, and Garith hollered back through choked laughter that ’twas no cause for alarm.
“Meghan, are you as accurate with the dirk as with that stone?” His eyes lit with interest.
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“Aye. Though the dirk is far more deadly.”
“Would you teach me?”
“A dirk?”
He nodded eagerly.
“Mayhap. Yet not until ye learn to hit a mark with a stone.
Help me to gather some. We will start this day.”
They began a regular training ritual of Garith first swimming and then firing stones at picked targets.
The exercises increased his strength, and Rolf questioned him about it. Garith kept their secret even from him. ’Twas easy to do as Rolf was often distracted by the frequent arrival of messengers. Meghan asked about them, and he said they brought reports from the village, missives from Alpin’s family or messages from neighboring allies. Now and again, Rolf rose before the hint of a new day and was gone when she awoke.
’Twas the middle of the week, and Rolf had said he would work on the south wall for most of the day. Before she trained Garith, Meghan made sure Rolf was occupied elsewhere.
Using an old shield as a target, the young man’s progress with the dirk delighted her. His aim was accurate and lethal.
“Come, Garith, I would show ye what distance ye can stand from a man and still be deadly.” She set the makeshift target at a longer distance.
“If the blade strikes, would it not be deadly?”
“Nay. It must cut deep and hold. If ’tis but the tip that enters, the man will yet come at ye.”
He stood by her side to hand her the blades. Meghan hurled one after the other until all f ive quivered, embedded in the target. She backed up five paces and waited till he retrieved the knives.
“At this distance, I canna stop a man.”
She used all her strength to throw the first three. True to what she had told him, they did not lodge deep enough. Some fell to the ground after the tips entered the wood, and the knife wobbled about. She had made her point.
“Er, Meghan,” Ede said behind her.
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“Hmm?” She took the next knife and added power from her body by stepping forward as she threw the knife.
“Uh, I think you should stop now,” Ede whispered.
“Aye. One moment. Watch closely, Garith. Ye must get your weight just so,” she said as she released the last knife.
Thunk! “See? Not a killin’ blow but one that will give ye an advantage.”
The hairs on her nape tingled. Her nostrils flared. ’Twas his scent. She knew who stood behind her.
On his way to the pool, Rolf ’s blood had stirred. He had planned to dismiss Ede and Garith so he could be alone with Meghan. He pictured her naked, sliding up and down his body in the cool water. Mayhap today he would show her a pleasant and exciting way to float—with him between her thighs, firmly embedded in her supple body. Sounds much like those made on a practice target broke his blood-stirring fantasy.
Thunk! Thunk!
Devil take it! ’Twas Meghan. How long had she practiced with the knives? She had little need, for she had been as accurate as himself for many years.
He stalked close. Ede spied him and murmured a warning at Meghan. He slitted his eyes at her, and she pinched her lips closed. He didna want Meghan to turn on him with a knife in her hand. Did she know of the forays between Blackthorn and Rimsdale, she would be highly aggrieved. A pang of guilt struck him, for he could not tell her.
At last, the final blade struck, quivering but embedded in the makeshift target. Ah. Good. Meghan stiffened. She knew he was there. He grabbed her shoulders and spun her around.
“Lucifer’s warted buttocks.” His bellow caused her to blink rapidly. “Where came you by the knives?”
“She did nothing wrong, brother,” Garith cut in.
“Wrong? You know I forbade her the use of them. Do you not ken she throws as well as any man?”
“Are ye saying I would use a blade against yer brother? Or Ede?”
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Her shout was admirable, he had to admit. “Nay, not against them. But what is to stop you from pilferin’ one to use later?”
“Against ye?” Her eyes opened wide in disbelief.
Rolf did not answer. Did she learn the reason for the arrival of the “elderly” lady from Alpin’s family, she would very likely use it on him. He would not blame her.
“By your very silence ye give me your answer.” Hurt flashed through her eyes before they turned cold and scornful.
“You warned me aplenty that you would escape given a chance.” His nose near touched the tip of hers. “Mayhap you wouldna use the dirk against me, but what of my men when I am away from the castle? What would stop your use of it then?”
Like an angry cat, she stiffened and near hissed at him.
“What would stop me?”
Had she claws, it would not surprise him if she raked them against his cheek.
Meghan took a deep breath and raised up on her toes to glare at him, eye to eye. “What would stop me?” she repeated.
“A vow! On my honor I promised to be with ye a year and a day. Do ye know so little of me that ye believe I would break my vow? If naught else, my pride wouldna let me.”
“You are but a woman,” he said savagely. “Dinna prattle to me of vows taken and manly pride.”
Rolf ’s conscience tore at him like a freshly honed blade.
He well knew Meghan would honor any vows she spoke. And he well knew he would break those selfsame vows to her.
“Go. Get you back within the castle walls and dinna let me hear another word from your lips.” He forced himself back, though he yearned to clasp her tight and beg her to forgive him for what he had started in motion and could not stop.
“Come, Meghan,” Ede pleaded and tugged her arm.
“Aye, let us tend Simple,” Garith suggested. “Dinna forget you promised to show all the young’ns what a gowk the wee birdie is. They will be waitin’ by now, for we have been gone overlong.” Garith turned a cold eye on his brother and took Meghan’s hand.
Rolf ’s gut tightened at this added look of disappointment
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in his brother’s eyes. As they disappeared down the path, he speedily tossed aside his clothing and plunged his heated body into the cool water. He dove deep and did not surface until his lungs screamed for air.
His mind’s eye filled with the memory of Meghan’s naked body gliding through the water while he followed with but a ripple of current betwixt them. He heard the phantom of her throaty laughter when he had surfaced beneath her, enticing her to ride him like a mermaid. How had she the power to fire his blood at will? To make his rod swell with but a few words?
Lucifer’s withered balls! With powerful strokes, he made for the shore, pulled on his hose and boots and vaulted onto Luath.
His wrenching dilemma grew with each step the horse took.
He didna want to crave her.
He didna want to ever let her go.
He didna want any man to touch the golden skin that was his.
His. She belonged to him. How could he live knowing another man’s body covered hers? That another pleasured her and called forth such stormy passion to the surface?
Luath’s hooves sent mud flying. Rolf paid no heed to the startled curses of the chandler who approached the castle entrance. The man held a pole across his shoulders with the uncut wicks of two dozen fat candles strung across it, and his sudden movements to avoid Luath’s hooves set the candles to swaying as if in a summer’s gale, some falling off the end into a muddy puddle. Rolf felt a twinge of regret, for he knew the chandler had taken extra pains in making them for Meghan.
Sun flashed on Cormac’s bright red hair as the squire sprinted up to grab firm hold of the reins. The horse tossed his head, snorted, and would have bit him had Cormac not been wary. He thumped the beast alongside his head and held tight as Rolf jumped off and bounded up the stairs.
Meghan heard the sounds of cursing and the thunder of a horse’s hooves outside as she crossed the hall to the stairway. The massive door to the castle stood open, for servants
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were busy removing stale rushes they had swept from the floors.
Rolf burst through the doorway like a conqueror intent on raiding the castle. Seeing her, he stopped but a second.
’Twas enough for her to gauge his mood. Her eyes opened wide. She had thought the sounds impatient? Nay. More than that. Determined? Hungry? Both those and more, from the looks of him.
Why, he may as well have been as the day he was born.
His wet leggings were a gray skin that hugged his taut hips and strained over his burgeoning sex. She forced her eyes upward over the dewy whorls of hair covering the sculpted muscles of his chest, until her gaze swept across his broad, scarred shoulders.
When she glanced up at his face, the smoldering flame in his eyes made her tense with anticipation. He waggled his brows at her and licked his lips, and even at this distance, she heard a hungry hum well up from his chest much as one would do on seeing a banquet spread before him. He looked ready to take her here against the stairway as if it mattered not who watched.
“Ho, Rolf,” Alpin called as he came up behind him. “A word with you, please.”
It distracted Rolf. One small step at a time, Meghan inched back so he wouldna notice. The first step touched the back of her heel. Whirling, she sped up the spiral steps. She giggled, excited. She would hide from his sight.
He ignored Alpin’s surprised calls and came after her, his boots ringing out on the first steps. She shrieked with laughter and fled. Her woman’s skirts hampered her, and she grabbed handfuls and tugged them above her knees. Her bare legs flashed as she flew up the stairway.
He pounded ever closer. Not a word passed his lips.
Knowing he gained on her, she tore in a gasp of air. His footsteps resounded with a furious ring. She reached the landing and fled to the door of Garith’s room. She yanked it open.
Darkness welcomed her.
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He would not seek her here; he would mayhap search the other rooms. Slipping under the heavy covers on the bed, she slid against the far wall and made herself small.
The door opened, slow and quiet. Somehow, the lack of sound was more ominous than if he had crashed it back against the wall. ’Twas like he stalked a hapless prey to ground.