Arsenic and Old Armor (7 page)

“
Stay there! Work your way
to the shore,” he shouted as the water carried him past her. “I
shall find you.”

To Iain’s disbelief, she let go of the tree
and got swept under the water again.

“
What are you—” The breath
was knocked out of Iain’s body as he slammed against a large
boulder sticking out of the water. He felt a few rib crack and his
left arm went numb as his shoulder struck a submerged rock beside
it. He hadn’t been watching, hadn’t seen it coming. He was nearly
on top of another boulder and he winced, waiting for the next
smashing blow.

“
Don’t worry. I have you.”
Small arms wrapped around him from behind. “Lean against me. I will
carry you to shore.”

Iain was relieved to have found her, but at
the same time he wanted to laugh out loud. He couldn’t, though. It
hurt too much. And his nose and mouth were full of water.

“
I
will carry us to shore,” he corrected. “I am saving
you
.”

“
Say what you will,” she
cried into his ear. “But let’s not waste any strokes or I’ll have
to drown you where you are and take off on my own.”

Iain heard her grunt as she swung him around
and wedged the two of them against another fallen tree trunk. He
glanced toward the shore. It looked like the water was somewhat of
an eddy beyond the tree. They were not too far from the water’s
edge. He turned in her arms. Marion was shivering badly.

“
Hold on to me.”

“
I
am
holding on to you,” she shouted.
“If I wasn’t, you’d probably crack that thick head of yours on one
of these rocks.”

“
Have it your way. I’ll
hold on to you.” He looped one arm tightly around Marion and used
his other to start inching along the tree toward the
shore.

Whatever strength Marion had left in her was
quickly draining away as they tried to free themselves of the
river. Iain wasn’t much better. His shoulder throbbed. The cold had
seeped into his bones, and a terrible sleepiness was beginning to
cloud his brain. He knew that was a bad sign. They managed to work
together, though, until their feet could touch the riverbed. A
moment later, they dragged themselves out of the water.

Once ashore, she sank down on the cold
ground and gathered her knees against her chest. She was shivering
uncontrollably and her teeth chattered incessantly.

“
I don’t know how far the
water carried us,” he said. “I don’t think there is much chance we
could find our way back to my men in the dark.”

“
I am c-c-cold,” she
whispered brokenly.

Iain looked about them. They were both
soaked. She had lost her cloak somewhere in the river. A stiff,
chilly breeze was blowing from the west. He reached for her hand.
“Come with me.”

“
I c-c-can’t walk. I am too
c-c-cold.”

“
We won’t be going too far,
just out of the wind.”

Marion allowed him to pull her up. Iain
wasn’t armed, and between his bruised shoulder and Marion, he felt
very vulnerable. The terrain was rough upstream, and the briars
grew right to the river’s edge. It would be hard going.

“
Maybe we should stay where
we are. Your men should come after us.”

“
They will, but not before
tomorrow morning.”

“
Do you really think they’d
wait that long? We’re missing, by his wounds.”

“
We’re also newlyweds on
our wedding night.”

Her jaw dropped clear to her chest.

“
You mentioned privacy a
while back. Well, they may just think we have escaped into the
woods for some…well, privacy. They would expect it, I should
think.”

She took a step back. “Is
this what
you
were expecting, too? Is that why you came after me, you
unfeeling brute?”

He shook his head. “I came after you because
I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t get lost or get hurt or jump in
the river and try to drown yourself.”

“
I wouldn’t have fallen
into the river at all if it wasn’t for you. You p-p-practically
pushed me.”

Iain forced back his words, thinking on his
promise of getting along with her.

“
Come on, vixen.” A
boulder-strewn hill to their right looked like a possible place
where a cave or an overhang of some sort might provide shelter for
the night. He tugged in that direction.

“
S-s-so you are not denying
it. You planned this,” she said, still shivering.

He decided to let her have her way.
“Absolutely. All of it. The water looked fine and I needed a bath.
But the real reason I pushed you in was so that I could come after
you. I wanted to save you and then take advantage of you.”

“
But I saved you,” she
corrected, digging in her heels and turning to him.

“
Of course,” he said,
facing her. “And because of that, now
you
get to take advantage of
me
.”

She stared at him for a long moment. Then he
took her arm and they continued to climb the hill toward the most
likely boulders. They moved side by side in silence until Iain was
surprised to hear a small chuckle escape her lips. He gave Marion a
side glance. She looked amused.

“
And what is going through
that troublesome mind of yours now?”

“
I wish I knew how to take
advantage of you.” She crinkled her nose, looking up at him. “That
would have been a perfect punishment considering everything that
you have put me through.”

Iain smiled at her innocence. They were
definitely talking about two different things. “Perhaps over time,
you will learn how,” he said, bringing her freezing hand to his
lips and pressing a kiss to her palm.

She fell silent and shyly withdrew her hand.
Iain let her hand go, knowing that it was only a matter of time
before the ice melted.

He helped her climb up the side of a large
boulder. Just as he had hoped, there was a small protective
clearing behind it. “We are spending the night here,” he told her,
helping her down ahead of himself.

“
I am
really
cold,” she said through
chattering teeth.

“
I will try to make a fire.
That should help things.”

“
But everything is so
wet.”

“
Leave that to me. I’ll be
right back.”

Iain left Marion there and went back to the
riverside where he had seen some broken branches and deadwood that
looked dry enough to use. By the time he came back a few minutes
later, he was surprised to find her blowing gently on a small fire
she had made of twigs and leaves from the gorse and heather dotting
the hillside. He was impressed. She was certainly not helpless. He
noticed that she had even made the fire in the perfect spot, a
small corner mostly protected by the outcropping.

“
G-g-good timing,” she
called to him. “I used whatever I could find, but it wasn’t much.
It is ready to go out.”

He crouched beside her. She held her hands
near the flames as he began to feed branches to the fire. She was
still shivering.

“
You’re cold.”

“
I’m not only cold. I’m
hungry, too.”

“
I’m afraid if I turn my
back for a moment, I’ll find you roasting a wild pig.”

“
I have hunted boar before.
Skye has many. I know how to dress them for roasting,
too.”

Iain smiled.

“
You don’t believe
me.”

“
After today, I’d be a fool
to doubt you,” Iain answered.

She edged closer to the fire. “Do you think
I’m accomplished, then?”

Iain studied her more closely. Her dress was
soaked. She had streaks of dirt on her face. The ringlets of dark
hair hanging around her shoulders still dripped with water from the
river. She was a mess, by anyone’s standards. And yet, she’d really
done a minimal amount of complaining.

“
Indeed, lass,” Iain
answered. “I’ll give you that. You are an accomplished woman…in
many things.”

Marion nodded, appearing pleased.

“
Who taught you to swim and
ride a horse and make a fire in the open…and the rest of these
things?”

“
Some of it I learned as a
child, of course, while I still lived at Fleet Tower. My father
treated me no different than if I were his son.”

Iain remembered this much, himself. Even as
a wee child, Marion was allowed to accompany the Earl of Fleet on
the hunt, to watch and even mimic the training of the McCall
warriors, and to travel on visits to Edinburgh and other places. As
far as Iain could tell, Marion had never been limited by any rules,
and she’d been allowed everywhere. As a result, of course, she’d
been a terror to anyone outside of her family.

“
The rest I learned on the
Isle of Skye,” she added.

“
With the prioress’s
blessing, of course,” Iain said dryly.

“
To her dismay, you mean.”
Marion rolled her eyes and shook her head. “The prioress didn’t
approve of the young women of the convent roaming the island with
hunters from Dunvegan Castle. She also punished me numerous times
for hiking the hills on my own and for getting lost in the woods
for days at a time.”

The larger pieces of the deadwood were now
catching fire, and the yellow-and-orange flames were causing steam
to rise off their clothes. Marion’s hair was too close to it,
though, and Iain reached over and tucked the hair behind her ear.
She let him, but then tucked the other side behind her ear.

“
And did you get lost in
the woods frequently?”

She shrugged. “Not really lost. I made many
friends in the villages and at Dunvegan. Life was not the most
exciting at the priory, so when folk I was visiting asked me to
stay for supper, I did. Then, if it were too late to get back to
the priory, I might have stayed…or spent a night or two in a
tree.”

Iain now understood why the prioress was so
agreeable in expediting the marriage ceremony. “You were a great
deal of trouble for her, weren’t you?”

“
That is who I am. I am
trouble.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief when she looked at him.
“There is still time for you to change your mind. Blessing or not,
we’ve not consummated this marriage.”

“
But
I will not be changing my mind,” he said, leaning against the
boulder. He unclasped his broach. Without hesitation, he then
peeled off his shirt.

“
What are you doing?” she
asked, her shock registering on her face.

“
It will dry faster this
way.” Iain spread the shirt on a smaller rock next to him and then
reached for Marion again. “Come here.”

“
No, I’m cold.” She crawled
closer to the fire.

Iain noticed how hard she was trying not to
look at his chest and his arms. “There is no wind. It is warmer
here.” He tugged on her arm. She lost her balance, and he pulled
her to his side.

“
You are a bold and
arrogant brute,” Marion scolded as she settled herself next to him.
They were hip to hip. She continued to shiver, and he knew her
heart was not really in her words. All was not the same as it had
been earlier today.

“
And you, m’lady, are
incapable of following directions, even when you know it is good
for you.” Iain wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her
against him. His other hand felt her wet sleeves. “You need to shed
this dress.”

“
You’ve lost your
mind.”

He picked up a fistful of her skirt and
squeezed. A stream of water splashed on the ground. He touched her
face. It felt like ice. The same was true with her hands. “Between
the heat of the fire and the breeze, your dress will dry before the
night is over. You need to get out of that dress before catching
your death.”

She shook her head stubbornly.

“
You will do it, or I will
take it off for you.”

“
You will
not
force
me.”

Iain leaned over her
menacingly. “I didn’t drag you out of that river to have you die on
me somewhere between here and Fleet Tower. I will certainly force
you to do
something
if I think it is necessary.”

“
Tyrant,” she shot back,
moving away from him and inching closer to the fire. “And you
didn’t.”

“
Didn’t what?”

“
Drag me out of the river,”
she muttered. “I dragged
you
.”

Iain watched Marion’s back as she pulled at
the laces of her dress. His mind strayed to imaginings of a
different night, a more comfortable arrangement, and Marion
seducing him with these very same actions. It was an attractive
thought, and he felt the familiar stirring in his loins.

“
I can help you with
that.”

“
You can help me by going
away and giving me some privacy,” she said in a frustrated
tone.

He didn’t need to go. But Iain actually felt
some sympathy for her, so he stood up and made his way back toward
the river to collect some more wood. The air was crisp and he
needed to keep Marion warm tonight… one way or the other.

By the time he came back, he was reasonably
warm from the climb up the hill. Nearing the outcropping, he could
see her dress spread out on two sticks beside his shirt. Her shoes
and stockings were arranged neatly beside the fire. Marion had
tucked herself into the corner where she’d been before. She was a
bundle of long exposed arms and a thin linen chemise that she had
pulled over her legs. She’d pulled her knees into her chest. Her
chin lifted as he drew near.