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“Aye, love,” he grunted, grasping her hips and thrusting hard into her tightness. “God, ye feel like heaven around me.”
Adelaine was in a world of her own, with her kiss-swollen lips parted and her long eyelashes fluttering. She did not see Caelan staring at her as one mesmerized. He did not stop thrusting up into her until his pleasure reached its peak, grabbing at her hip, he shattered, and his hot seed poured into her. Adelaine felt it and her body went tight, her belly quivering and then—nothing but pure bliss as she convulsed around him.
She clutched on his shoulders as the shudders began to subside. Caelan held her trembling body close and she felt him kissing the wet skin behind her ear and then put one to her lips. “Yer lovely, Adelaine, so lovely. I’m nay worthy of ye.”
She laughed softly and looked at him from under her lashes. “We’re a pair, Caelan.”
He softly lifted her off him, did his kilt up again as she put her bodice back in place and placed her skirts between her legs. “I may die in two days but I will never regret this. You’ve made me very happy.”
“Me too, love,” he said. “Me too.” He tucked her into his side, kissed her, then tucked her head under his chin. As she drifted off to sleep, she did not see as he forced himself to stay awake, just to gaze lovingly at her.
Dawn came and so did the footmen that the guard from the day before had promised. They came in to grab Adelaine from him, jarring the peacefully-sleeping woman into a reality of horror.
She kicked and screamed and Caelan lunged at a footman to stop him from ripping his lover away from him but after landing a punch squarely to his jaw, he was overpowered by two men. They pulled his hands back, nearly popping his arms from their sockets.
He was forced to watch as Adelaine was taken from him and then when she was forced up the staircase, he was delivered a bruising punch to his stomach.
“Don’t you worry, Scot,” a man jeered. “You’ll see her at your execution at dawn tomorrow.”
He sank to the ground in despair. The hours ticked away until night and then he heard the gate above scrape open. He looked up, heart in throat hoping that it was Adelaine, that somehow, she had managed to escape and was coming for him. The thumping footsteps were ones had not heard before.
The person who came in was one he had not expected— it was the Earl. The man was stumbling like a drunkard and when he came to the grilled door, he wrapped his hands around the bars. “Scot!”
Caelan did not move but he could smell the whiskey on the man’s breath. How was it that a man of his stature would drink something as common as whiskey? Did he not have wine?
“Scot!” the Earl yelled.
“Aye?” Caelan replied, “What dae ye need of me?”
“Have you defiled my daughter with your mongrel blood?” He snapped. “All your—hic—kind are nothin’ but dogs and scavengers. Why do you think I did not allow my own son to not live after he married that Scottish whore? And now—hic—this woman you claim to love, my esteemed daughter, will die and it is your fault, you bloody parasite. I’d prefer watching her suffer, rather see you be with her.”
Caelan came closer as he sensed something deeper in the Earl’s hatred, “Why? Why dae ye hate me kind so much?”
“Why would I not hate you?” the Earl snarled. “My first love was Scot and she ripped my hearts to pieces. Why should any of ye be different? You are all like that bitch.”
Stunned did not cover a fraction of what Caelan felt. So, this was why the man hated his people so much! “Nay, we are all nay like that. Yer wrong.”
“Liars,” the Earl snarled. “You are all liars, all of you are, and you will die like one, mark my words.”
Chapter 33
Dawn came and Adelaine was wide awake. She had not slept since her father’s men had ripped her away from Caelan’s arms. They put her in her own cell, situated on the other side of the castle. She was due to die this day and she had no regrets. Caelan had given so much pleasure last night and she had no sin on her head from trying to save an innocent man’s life.
Her eyes were dull, looking listlessly at the doorway where she knew footmen would come in to cart her off to her death. She shifted on the tiny cot that she had laid on for the whole day before, resolutely ignoring the guards who had come in to ask her if she wanted anything to eat.
Her father had discounted her as his child and so she had discounted him as her father. She’d rather go parentless than to honor a man that was so wicked. She sat up and rubbed the numbness from her eyes, and stood. She felt her bones crack and then pressed a hand to her belly. She knew it did not take long for a woman to start increasing if she did lay with a man. Did she already have a baby inside her?’
The doors opened, and just as she expected, men clad in her father’s uniform, came in. She stared at them without expression. “Is it time?”
“Yes, My Lady,” one said.
> She stood still as they opened the door and she stepped out. “You don’t have to restrain me.”
They led her out into the cold sunlight and toward the cart waiting in the middle of the outer courtyard. She happened to look up and see her father on top of his horse looking at her without a speck of compassion. She stared at him for a long, loaded moment and then stepped into the cart and sat.
“I’m sorry, My Lady, but I must do this,” a man said as he tied a blindfold around her eyes and then bound her hands.
Blind, she felt the cart move off toward what she could only believe was a public execution in the middle of the town square. She did not want to let the fear lingering at the edges of her mind come forth but as she came closer to the town, she felt her fear heighten. Shame and fear lingered sickly into her stomach and she felt it a mercy that her eyes were bound. A trickle of fear ran down her spine as she thought of what she would face when she got to her destination.
