Bond of Passion (41 page)

His cock was yet a wonder to her. Annabella could not know for certain, but she assumed its size was of a larger variety. Whether it was or not made little difference to her, as it gave the greatest of pleasures, for he wielded it skillfully. Taking a gentle hold on it, she licked its length several times while her other hand played with his sac. Angus made a small murmur as the message of her tongue was conveyed to him. Annabella next licked the tip of his cock with several seductive sweeps of her tongue before taking that tip between her lips, pressing down on it, rolling it between those lips.

His hand slipped to her dark head. He had taught her months before how to suck his cock, but something instinctual had taken over and she had refined the task into the sweetest of tortures. He felt her mouth opening now to absorb as much of him as she could. She began to tug upon the peg of flesh within her mouth with delicate pulls that grew stronger and stronger. Then, sensing his excitement, she would pull back, her tongue caressing his length and his thickness as it lay imprisoned between her lips. The wicked bit of flesh stroked him, encircled him, but never allowed him release. Finally he could bear no more of this deliciousness. “
Enough!
” he growled in a hoarse voice, and as she released him he pulled her up to kiss her hungrily.

She loved teasing him. She had discovered almost immediately that she had an instinct for pleasuring him without bringing him to completion. Now it was her turn, and Angus Ferguson did not fail his wife. He kissed her until her lips were bruised. His tongue ravaged hers until she was weak. Then he stopped and, seating her upon the edge of the big bed, he pushed her gently back, pulled her shapely legs up over his shoulders, and buried his dark head between her thighs. The tip of his tongue found her love button, touching it lightly at first, then with delicate, quick touches, until Annabella could not refrain from making small noises as his tongue began to stroke her strongly. Then his lips closed over that sensitive little nub of flesh and sucked hard, releasing the first flow of her juices. Annabella shuddered with the tiny burst of pleasure.

Now he raised himself up. Holding his swollen cock in his hand, he guided it into her welcoming sheath with a single hard and deep thrust. “God, ye feel good!” he groaned as he filled her full. Then he began to piston her.

Annabella couldn’t speak at first. His cock moved slowly but steadily, its speed increasing slightly with each strong stroke until it flashed in and out of her with incredible rapidity. Then he would slow his pace again, and when he did Annabella squeezed him, the walls of her sheath closing about him so tightly that he cried out at one point. Then the movement began once again. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth until they were both drenched in utter pleasure.

“Dinna wait,” she whispered hotly in his ear.

“I canna,” he admitted, increasing the tempo that shortly sent them both over the edge and into paradise as his juices flooded her secret garden and she cried out with her need fulfilled. He fell on the bed next to her then.

For some minutes they lay motionless: Annabella with her legs now fallen over the edge of the bed, Angus on his belly near her. Finally she managed to crawl up and beneath the coverlet, tugging at him to do the same, for the night air was becoming chill.

He pulled her into his arms with a groan into her long loose hair, and whispered that he adored her.

“I love ye too, Angus,” she responded. “But send someone to catch the Hamiltons’ messenger before he escapes us.”

He laughed softly. “I hae just loved ye verra well, wife, and ye canna enjoy the afterglow?” he teased her. He released his hold on her, climbing from their bed to yank upon the bellpull. To his relief his serving man, Tormod, appeared immediately, entering through the small door that connected the earl’s bedchamber to his wife’s. “Send several men-at-arms to catch the Hamilton messenger who came to my brother’s house. Treat him well, but put him in the castle dungeon. He may still be at Matthew’s or he may have departed either back south or toward Dumbarton.”

“At once, my lord,” Tormod replied with a quick bow, and was gone again. He was not in the least disconcerted by his master’s naked state.

Angus Ferguson climbed back into bed to pull his wife close. She murmured sleepily, for she was already slipping into rest. In a few hours she would want to play again, he knew. Annabella had gained a healthy appetite for bed sport, he considered with a grin. He chuckled, and concentrated on sleep. The demanding wench would be awake soon enough.

But to his surprise they both slept until Jean awakened them just as dawn was breaking. “They caught the messenger,” she said by way of greeting. “Get up now, for the day is beginning, and yer breakfast will soon be in the hall.”

The earl got up and, walking to the little door separating the bedchambers, passed through it so that he might have the services of his serving man.

“He still has a fine ass,” Jean remarked pithily. “I remember when we swam together as children. What will ye wear today?”

“Something that doesna make me look all female and fragile,” Annabella said.

“Ahh, ye’re planning some naughtiness,” Jean remarked, “aren’t ye?”

“The lad I once was must be resurrected,” Annabella said. Then she explained everything that had happened yesterday.

“Aye, Ned told me of Matthew’s lapse in judgment,” Jean said. “Did Angus really forbid him the castle?”

“Aye, until his anger cools. I think that once we can correct this situation, Jean, Angus will nae be quite so angry, but questioning the earl’s judgment was not a wise thing for Matthew to do. It is his antipathy toward me that seems to direct this. Why does he persist in disliking me so, Jeannie?”

“Because he’s a fool,” her tiring woman said. “Matthew has always almost worshiped Angus. He felt Angus should hae a woman as beautiful as Angus was handsome, and wi’ a large dower to match his brother’s wealth. Instead Angus took ye, a plain-faced lass, to wife for a piece of land he coveted. I think my brother thinks ye are nae worthy of his idol.”

“He told Angus I was too bold,” Annabella said as Jean laced up her gown.

Jean laughed. “Matthew is an old-fashioned man. He thinks women should be silent, yet neither our mother nor Angus’s mother was meek and mild. Is Aggie?”

“Aggie is like our mother: quiet to a point, but she will speak up when she hae had enough, and believes a situation needs correcting,” Annabella explained. “I think she may hae given poor Matthew quite a piece of her mind when she learned what he had done. Angus scolded her severely for nae telling him what she knew until it was almost too late. She is nae used to a woman’s first loyalty being to her overlord, nae her husband. I think Angus hae made that quite clear to her now, however.”

“Aye, I expect that he did,” Jean agreed. “He hae had the responsibility of Duin ever since he was a young lad. He is a good lord.”

“Aye, he is,” Annabella said.

Jean dressed her mistress’s hair. “Ye’re ready,” she said.

“Thank ye.” Annabella got up and hurried from her apartments down into the hall. Angus was not yet there, but Agnes was already seated at the high board. Annabella joined her younger sister. “Feel better this morning?” she asked Agnes.

Agnes nodded, but then she said, “I think I should take Robbie and go home today, Annabella. Angus is certain to be angry until he can straighten out Matthew’s foolishness, I fear.”

“Angus hae told ye ye’re to remain in the castle until he gives ye permission to leave,” Annabella reminded her sibling. “He is the earl, the laird here, sister. It is his word that prevails, nae mine nor yers nor Matthew’s. Ye are nae stupid, Aggie, and this is nae Rath, where our da is laird, husband, and father. This is Duin. We owe our very existence to its earl. Why can ye nae understand this?”

“I do, and yet Matthew is my husband. It seems odd that yer husband must approve his every move.” She sighed. “I know ’tis nae different than the household of any other lord, and yet I chafe, as I know does Matthew,” Agnes replied.

“When this crisis is over,” Annabella said, “I will ask Angus if we may do something that could change all that, but for now ye must obey him.”

“I will,” Agnes promised.

The earl came into the hall. He did not look pleased as he joined them. He gave Agnes a quelling look as she concentrated upon her oat stirabout.

“Eat before ye interrogate the messenger,” Annabella said to her husband.

“I hae already spoken wi’ him,” Angus said. “Now that he believes he faces nae real danger from us, he will nae cooperate and tell me from whence he came. When I hae eaten I will see he is disabused of the notion that we are weak.”

“Angus, ye canna torture the man,” she said.

“Of course I can, and I intend to,” he told her. “Going to Dumbarton is a better idea than going into the Hamiltons’ lair, wherever it may be, but I need to know if this man came from Dumbarton originally. We dinna need any surprises.”

“What will ye do to him?” she asked, fascinated in spite of herself.

“A wee beating will loosen his tongue,” the earl said, helping himself to a large portion of eggs and several rashers of bacon. He pulled a piece off of the cottage loaf, buttering it generously with his thumb.

“Nae too hard,” Annabella pleaded for the man.

The Earl of Duin laughed. “Ye’re too softhearted, sweetheart. We need to know what he knows, and we need to know it in relatively short order.” He began eating with a good appetite, his good nature restored by just being with Annabella.

“Gie the man a day or two to consider his position,” Annabella suggested. “Surely we hae a little time, particularly if this messenger does not arrive as promptly as those waiting at Dumbarton expect. And unless he originally came from there, went to the Hamiltons, and is returning to Dumbarton, it’s likely he isn’t on a fixed schedule. A messenger comes when a messenger comes, Angus.”

“I’ll gie him a day to reconsider his fate,” the earl said.

But by the next day the courier still remained obdurate. Annabella, however, could not bear to know the man would be beaten. She insisted upon going down into the dungeons to speak with the fellow herself. He was surprised to see this plain-faced woman standing looking through the cell door grate.

“I am the Countess of Duin,” she introduced herself.

Her husband’s prisoner jumped up and bowed politely.

“I dinna want to see ye beaten, sir,” she began.

“I can take a beating,” he answered her.

“I’m certain ye can, for ye appear to me to be a strong man,” Annabella agreed. “But what we seek to learn is hardly vital.”

“It seems to be for ye,” he said with a cheeky grin.

Annabella laughed. “If you answer a question for me,” she said, “I’ll answer one for ye, sir. And ye may go first.”

He was surprised, and curious to see whether she would actually keep her word. Offering to allow him to query her first was certainly reassuring. “Verra well,” he said. “Tell me how such an attractive man like yer husband came to wed such a plain lass? Ye must be verra rich to hae gained the wedding band on yer finger.” It was a bold question, and even a bit insulting. Of course she wouldn’t answer it, and then he did not have to answer any query she put forth.

Annabella was startled by the inquiry, but she knew if she did not answer their prisoner she had no chance at all of learning what she needed to know. Looking the man directly in the eye, she said mischievously, “I’m nae rich, sir, but my da had a wee bit o’ land Angus wanted for his cows. The cows gained the pasturage; and I got a husband.”

The prisoner chuckled at her explanation. She had, to his great surprise, answered him honestly, he knew. And the truth was, the questions they wanted him to answer were really of no importance to him. “The Hamiltons hae an encampment in the hills along the border. They move it every few days in order to avoid being discovered by the King’s Men. I am a paid courier and was nae expected to return there, but to make myself of use to Lord Fleming at Dumbarton. I hae never been there before. I dinna care which side in this war prevails, as long as I earn my coin. The Hamiltons dinna pay me. Lord Fleming was to do that.” His tone was slightly aggrieved when he said it.

“The earl will see ye are paid when we release ye,” Annabella told the prisoner.

“And when is that to be?” he asked her.

“When we hae completed yer commission, sir,” she said with a twinkle. “Ye’ll be comfortable until that day. Hopefully ’twill nae be long.”

He nodded understanding, and smiled a small smile. “I thank ye for visiting wi’ me, madam. To hae the lady of the castle concerned wi’ my welfare is comforting.”

“I hae always attempted to be a good chatelaine, although my purview hae nae before extended so deep into my husband’s castle,” Annabella said, smiling back.

“He knows ye’re here?” the prisoner inquired.

“Aye, he does,” she replied.

“He must trust ye a great deal, madam.”

“I hope he does,” Annabella answered him. Then she turned and hurried away.

The courier felt a sudden loss at her departure. She was nae a pretty woman, but by God she had such great charm a man could forget that her face was plain. He wondered just what the Earl of Duin would do with that small scrap of information he had given the countess. And what had been in the message that the earl needed to know from where he had ridden, and whether he had ever been to Dumbarton before. Turning from the cell door, he lay down on his cot. It wasn’t likely he would ever get the answer to his questions, but he had enjoyed his brief conversation with the Countess of Duin.

Annabella had returned to the hall to find Angus waiting. “The Hamiltons move their encampment every few days,” she told him. “And our courier is for hire. He had never been to Dumbarton before. It’s perfect, my lord! I can dress as the young man I was in France and carry this message to Lord Fleming. The castle will afford me its hospitality until they need me to carry a message for them. I will be able to overhear all sorts of gossip, for no one pays particular attention to servants or men who carry messages. And then I will return to ye wi’ the answers we seek!” Her voice was excited, and her eyes alight with her enthusiasm.