Page 16 of Connal

“I didn’t do it on purpose.” She stretched her legs, bumping the side of his. “I keep falling asleep in the strangest places since I came here. The other night I nearly took a nap while we were having dinner. If Fletcher hadn’t noticed I might have face-planted right in my pottage.”

“’Tis unseemly to sleep with a man unwed to you,” Connal told her.

“Unseemly, huh? Like you having your hand on my chest?” she countered, smiling a little.

Connal looked down to see he had put his hand over her left cheb, and would have snatched it away, but for the soft, steady rhythm pulsing against his palm. The little peak of her mound pebbled under his touch, and her heart quickened. He would stop doing such to her now. He would order her from his chamber. He would tell Shaw to take her to the mainland at once, and find some sanctuary for her among the druids or some other kindly folk.

“If you want to get rid of me that badly, I’ll go,” Valerie said, looking sad now as she pushed herself up on her elbow, dislodging his hand. A cascade of curls fell around her face, framing her pretty features.

“No.” He meant to say aye. He meant to order her go. He should never have taken her from the sea, or Merrick. Yet resisting the chance to caress her curls seemed beyond him. So did pushing her away instead of guiding her head down until he could touch her lips to his.

Kissing Valerie vanquished all the dark thoughts in Connal’s head, rendering them into dust beneath a rush of desire so intense he groaned into her mouth. She came atop him, her slight weight pressing her ripe curves against his chest, belly and hips, and he stroked his hand down the long line of her back. It had been a year since he’d touched anyone, and now he could not keep his hands from her. The taste and smell of her suffused him, sending hot blood into his stiff shaft.

She lifted her head to end the kiss and rolled onto her side, scrambling off the bed. Connal would have yanked her back, but she’d fisted her hands, and her entire body trembled.

Now came the time to order her leave him at once. “Come back to bed, Valerie.”

“I can’t do that.” She refused to look at him as she moved away. “You’re absolutely right, this is unseemly and wrong and I should never have…”

He smelled the salt of her tears before he heard the first sob from her lips. Everything inside him wanted to comfort her, this strange woman who had brought back Joana’s ring, this lovely, soft, warm creature who saw a man bleeding and rushed to help him. Yet her sadness baffled him.

How could it be wrong for her to kiss him, to offer him comfort?

Connal saw her thumb rubbing against the plain gold ring she wore on the third finger of her left hand. Some of the Romans had done the same, and Duncan explained that the invaders believed that a vein ran from that finger directly to the heart. Any Roman wearing a ring on that finger had taken a wife.

“You’ve a husband?” he asked, aghast now.

“I’m a widow.” Valerie turned to regard him, her lashes and cheeks wet with tears. “My husband killed himself a year ago to the day I came here. He drowned himself in the same lake where I nearly died. Do you want to know why?”

Connal got up from the bed and went to her, almost reaching for her before he thought better of that. “Only if you wish tell me.”

She ducked her head. “He was in love with another woman, and wanted me to divorce him. But I wouldn’t let him go.” She went and picked up the cloak she had dropped. “I couldn’t. I loved him too much. I suppose he hated me so much he couldn’t live with that.”

Connal thought of the trunk of wee garments that Joana had hidden from him. “He wronged you twice, then, lass.”

Valerie met his gaze, her face flushed now. “Does that make this okay, then? Because he cheated on me and then threw away his life, I should just get even? After I sleep with you, do I jump off a cliff? Will that settle it once and for all?”

“My lady wife jumped off a cliff a year to the day you came,” he told her flatly. “Her body shattered on the rocks below before the sea swept her away. I watched her die. I shall never forget that day. If you wish end yourself, I beg you, choose another method.”

Horror filled her expression. “Both of us?”

Without another word she ran out of the chamber.

Chapter Six

Just after dawn Merrick saw Fletcher walking the shore at the far end of the bay, and considered swimming in the opposite direction. Connal’s youngest brother annoyed him almost as much as Shaw, and possessed an even hotter temper when it came to anything about the laird. He looked worried now, more so than usual. Despite walking Merrick and Connal had not yet officially settled the matter of the woman, and until they did the discord would make both the clan and the Selseus uneasy. Nervous men made for uneven tempers and over-reactions that often caused scuffles and skirmishes.

Merrick then realized that in such could be a rare opportunity to achieve what he had been unable to accomplish for the last year. Glancing around first to assure the seneschal wandered alone, he trudged through the shallows and put himself in the other man’s path.

Fletcher nearly walked into him before he halted, and his gaze shifted to the old pendant he wore. “You’re too tall for Ysal.”

“’Tis Merrick. I took the net maker to the islet.” Merrick touched the ancient metal, and a surge of power swept through him. “Ysal wished end himself.”

The seneschal’s expression grew sad as he glanced out at the place of death. “I’m certain you did your best to persuade him live, King. Why didnae you summon the laird so he might bid the elder farewell?”

“I didnae wish trouble Connal, for reminding him of that person.” He would never willingly speak Joana’s name again for what she had done to his friend. “How fares the woman stolen from us?”

“My lord’s searching the prince’s archives for a method to return her to her rightful place.” Fletcher’s jaw tightened. “And he didnae steal her.”