Page 10 of Highlander’s Haunted Past

The approval must have been apparent on her face because Rob simply nodded before rising to find a bit of cloth to press against the wound before pulling his shirt back on, fully concealing the evidence of his betrayal.

“Ye really aren’t about anything?” Kenna asked as he heaved himself back into the bed with a grunt, carefully rolling onto his non-wounded arm.

“It would seem that way, wouldn’t it?”

“So, ye have no wish to consummate the marriage?” Kenna felt foolish for not being able to identify the trick he was surely playing on her.

“Oh, believe me, I have a wish, especially if ye keep wearing that frock around. But I’ll not do it. Not ‘til ye beg me,” he said, propping himself up on his elbow to flash her a smile, but there was no laugh there.

It was a challenge, a dare that, clearly, he had already told himself he had won.

“I’ll never beg.”

“Careful, lass, the day will come. I promise ye.”

“Aye, so will the day the cows jump over the moon.”

He laughed at that and collapsed back onto the pillows. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Kenna replied, still standing stupidly on the opposite side of the room.

It wasn’t until Rob’s breathing slowed with sleep that Kenna felt bold enough to move, and even then she only sat down at her favorite place by the window. The sounds of the wedding feast could still be heard on the wind, and the thought made Kenna smile absently. She had always pictured her wedding as the social event of the year, and it seemed that it may turn into just that. Of course, she had imagined herself at its center, celebrating as loudly as the rest, with a husband she loved on her arm. They would sing and dance and drink until they could take it no longer, stealing up to their chambers to happily fulfill their marital duties.

Head aching, Kenna reached up and pulled the pins from her hair, then set them silently beside her until, at last, her tangled curls fell free and the pain in her scalp melted into a strange sort of pleasure; a bit of hurt and a bit of relief all coiled together into one exquisite feeling. She blushed when she understood this was not the source she had expected such a feeling to come from on this particular night. The source was currently abed, snoring away as content as a dog by a fire.

No, none of this was as she had imagined it at all.

The moon cast a calming light across the castle’s grounds, and she scanned the landscape, comprehending that this may be the last time she would ever see this place doused in moonlight. She could close her eyes and see it all so clearly, yet she found herself peering out at the land surrounding the castle anyway, taking it in a bit longer to make sure she had dedicated each tree, hill, and outcropping perfectly to memory.

That was when she spotted him, the Earl of Sutherland, standing out near a tree just beyond the castle’s walls. She might have passed right over him if the gold threads stretched across his massive belly did not catch the moonlight as well as they did.

Questions of what he could be doing were soon abandoned as a second figure, one she would have recognized even without the bright glow of the moon, approached him.

Ach, what could they be on about out there so late in the night?Kenna thought as she watched John begin to talk animatedly with Sutherland. It was as if they were a pair of old friends, going on and on without a care in the world.

“It was Sutherland!” Kenna whispered as the thought struck her that he must have been the one to help arrange her marriage.

John had said he was one of her trusted advisors. She ought to hate him for it, but as her thoughts crossed back to Elizabeth and, reluctantly, her brothers, she had to admit that he had given her a gift that could never be repaid.

John’s friends had never really been ones Kenna wished to share, but she would have to make an exception just this once. She would need all the friends she could get once they set out for the Queen’s court in Aberdeen. Being Rob’s wife only granted her the position of glorified hostage. Should she ever wish to rise to her own identity, to secure her own safety, she would have to make connections, using them to drag herself inch by inch away from the ruined name of Gordon.

Footsteps outside her door pulled her away from her spying, followed by the unmistakable sound of women’s whispers. They were just beyond the threshold, and the candlelight flickering through the frame was unmistakable. So, the Queen had sent some ladies to see if they could hear the consummation. Would they be bold enough to open the door and look?

Not willing to risk it, Kenna rose and crossed the room to the bed, silent as a mouse in the presence of a cat. Slipping into the folds of the blankets, she pressed herself close to Rob, forcing herself to ignore the pleasantness of his warmth on a cool fall night. As one final touch, she ran her hand through her hair and messed it about, knowing that the maids often teased young wives who rose with disheveled hair, saying that it only meant she had been up to one thing the night before.

The tangles would be a nightmare in the morning, but if she and Rob were going to lie, she would participate enthusiastically.