Page 44 of Captured by a Laird
Alison stiffened at first when he pulled her into his arms, but she softened like butter as he gave her a slow, lingering kiss.
When she slid her hands around his neck and leaned into him, the weariness and frustrations of the last two days melted away. He would have her now. He was almost certain of it.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, David was aware of the gate creaking, followed by the snorts and hoof beats of horses in the courtyard. But no one sounded the alarm, so he dismissed it and gave all his attention to how good this dark-haired angel felt in his arms.Hisdark-haired angel.
“Ye smell like heaven,” he said, burying his face in her hair.
Her breathing grew shallow as he ran kisses along the side of her throat. Aye, his wait was over. Alison wanted him. He would take his time and make love to her all night.
He nipped at her earlobe while he eased the blanket off her shoulders. It dropped to the floor with a softwhish. Now the only barrier between him and what he wanted was her thin night shift. Desire burned like fire through his veins as he anticipated seeing her naked and feeling her soft, seductive curves beneath his hands.
He was inching the night shift up her thigh when someone knocked on the door. He ignored it, but the fool only pounded harder.
Bang, bang, bang!
When he pulled away, Alison’s lips were rosy from their kisses and her eyelids were half closed. Ach, he was going to murder whoever was beating on that door. He stomped across the room and flung it open to find Brian.
“Ye have a visitor,” Brian said.
“Unless it’s our dead king come to life,” David said between clenched teeth, “he can wait.”
“’Tis Laird Cochburn,” Brian said before David could slam the door. “He’s anxious to speak with ye.”
Cochburn was a neighboring laird and an old friend of David’s father. His arrival in a storm at this late hour suggested a matter of secrecy as well as importance. Despite that, David was having a hell of a time persuading himself to put duty before pleasure.
“Pour the whisky,” he said, finally resigning himself to it. “I’ll be down shortly.”
He closed the door and returned to Alison. By the saints, he wanted her. And in his current state, he would not need much time at all. Temptation sang through his veins as he imagined taking her fast and hard against the wall. He forced himself to suck in a slow breath. He should not even think of taking his delicate and refined wife like that—and most definitely not the first time.
He kissed her lips again and left the bedchamber before he could change his mind.
Damn Cochburn.
CHAPTER 17
“We are good Scots—we fought at Flodden with our last king,” Cochburn sputtered. “Yet we’re made to suffer insult after insult!”
Cochburn paused in his diatribe to toss back another draught of whisky and slam his cup on the table. He was a good man, but too excitable for David’s liking.
“How dare the regent appoint D’Orsey, that French outlander, over us as Warden of the Eastern Marches. That position belongs to you,” Cochburn said, pointing his finger at David. “A Hume laird has been our warden since my grandfather’s time.”
Taking the wardenship was the least of the offenses Regent Albany and his friend D’Orsey had committed against the Humes. It was D’Orsey, the famed French commander, who Albany sent to attack the Hume castles and take the wives of the two lairds captive while the Hume men were raiding across the border. Upon the Hume lairds’ execution, Albany declared their lands forfeit. David had taken possession of the Hume lands and badly damaged castles, but his right to them was not recognized.
And D’Orsey still held his stepmother hostage at Dunbar Castle.
“That Frenchman has lands in his own damned country,” Cochburn continued. “He should be home minding them, not ruling over us Scots!”
David shared Cochburn’s outrage, but he was careful to show no reaction. Cochburn had come to ask something of him. David sipped his whisky and waited to hear what it was.
“And now the King’s Council has taken advantage of my nephew’s worthless guardian to quarter a royal garrison—a royal garrison ofFrenchsoldiers, mind ye—at Langton Castle.”
“Ach, I hadn’t heard that.” David understood now why Cochburn was so upset. Placing a minor’s property under royal “protection” was the first step toward claiming it for the Crown. “What do ye plan to do about it?”
“Lay siege and take it, just as ye did here with Blackadder Castle,” Cochburn said. “I don’t have enough men to take Langton on my own if the Crown sends help to the royal garrison that holds it. I’ve come to ask for your support.”
“I sympathize, but as ye know, I have enemies and battles of my own to fight just now,” David said, though he was already inclined to do it.
“Helping me will give ye a chance to do battle with one of those enemies,” Cochburn said. “That cursed D’Orsey is bound to see it as his duty as warden to break the siege.”
