William had given his father credit – he handled the uncomfortable situation with aplomb and dignity, and without rightly accusing the Morays of participation in that discord.His clenched hand had relaxed a wee bit.
“The king merely wants assurances that from this moment we will move forward,” Robb had added with a glance at Bernard, who nodded approvingly.
“Aye, King Causantín would seek true unity in the Highlands,” Bernard continued.
Something in his words must have appeased Malcolm, for his eyes had relaxed and he leaned back in his chair, gripping his sculpted chalice.He had spun the cup with his lean fingertips, then shared a tight smile with Bernard.
“It canna be said that the Morays dinna support the king.When it comes to the Highlands, the Morays will always do their duty.”
Malcolm had raised his cup to the MacDougals, and Bernard lifted his in return.Before taking a drink, however, he had flicked his gaze to William and his cousins, a hard gaze that came with instructions.Drink, fools.
William, Robb, and Iain all had lifted their chalices as well and drank deep of the heady mead.
While the meeting seemed to have gone as hoped, something still didn’t sit well with William now that he retired to the dim, cool guest chambers.Had they accomplished anything as emissaries of the king?Did they have new information about the position of Malcolm and the Morays?Not that William could see.
Nevertheless, he brushed these concerns from his thoughts.The last thing he wanted was to have something on his mind that kept him awake for hours.
Reclining on his cot in the Moray tower, he longed to forget this strained visit.For all its finery, Blair Keep carried a film of suspicion and malady about it, and William could not escape that grime quickly enough.
The sooner he fell asleep, the sooner he would awake and be on his way back to Drumoak and his wife.
Ailith awaited him, ready to help him shed the rottenness of this visit and lose himself in the joys of her body.
Her image, her round dancing hips and swirling crimson hair, ushered him into the nether.
Night drew nigh as Teagan rode the darkened path, the moonlight obscured by the clouds drizzling upon her.Only the light pattering of rain on the leaves and grass accompanied the constant thudding of Bonnie Bride’s hooves.She could barely see the pathway in the obscured moonlight.Teagan’s damp curls stuck to her forehead and cheeks, but she was unwilling to release the reins and brush them away, lest she fall off Ailith’s patient beast.
Ailith had been correct about the white palfrey.The horse had been composed and even-tempered despite her awkward riding skills.Her body ached, and her mind burned as with fever over her slow travels and of what Ailith might be going through at this moment.
When Teagan was taken, she had not suffered much more than injury to her pride.From what she saw with the Grants earlier, Teagan knew in her heart that Ailith would not get off as easily.
Would she even survive the night?
The aches and burning in her body and brain fled as flickering lights appeared through the mist.Torchlight.She must be at the Moray Keep!
As the horse ambled up to the gate, Teagan realized what she should have been doing on her long ride – thinking of how to find William at Blair Tower.It was deep nighttime, and the gate rising up before her was securely bolted.
How could she get inside?What if they rejected her?Had her urgency been for naught?
Nearing the imposing stone wall, she noticed something that lifted her spirits.A guard.He tensed and placed his hand on his sword when she emerged from the mist, but his body appeared to relax when he saw the rider was merely a woman on a rain-sodden palfrey.
Fools.Why did men always think women so helpless?
But this time, those assumptions worked in her favor.Putting on her most hapless expression, she rode up to the guard.His face was hidden under a soggy leather hood, and his chain mail glinted under his cape in the torchlight.He turned his bruised face her way, and the nurse in her went on full alert.
A fight?An accident?No broken nose or eye socket from what she could determine ...
Everything in her longed to ask about the bruise, see if he needed it treated, but that was not why she was here.Ailith’s emergency surpassed this strange man’s injury.
“’Allo, mistress.What has ye riding in the rain at this time of night?”
Teagan tugged lightly on the reins to bring Bonnie Bride in front of the young guard.“I am looking for William MacDougal and was told he was here with your chieftain.Can ye bring me to the man?”
The guard’s face darkened under his hood.“What have ye to do with thatbratach salach?”
Och, well, perchance the bruise was courtesy of William if the guard had been angry and foolish enough to call hima dirty bastard.Teagan had to hope William’s encounters inside the wall were better than what seemed to have occurred with this guard.
“I have news of his wife.Please,” she added, trying to sound as wretched as possible.
