Highland Rake (20 page)

***

Before dawn, Alana heard someone thump at the guest chamber door, and she groggily tried to stir herself fully awake. She had slept hardly at all, waking at every unfamiliar sound, worried that someone would come for her before she was ready to face the day.
Like now.

At first, she hadn't even been sure how she came to be in bed last eve, only woke to see concerned faces peering at her. Once they had told her what had happened, then were assured she'd be all right, the chamber had emptied of onlookers, and she had been left to sleep. Which she had been unable to do.

The heavy oak door opened, and four women hurried into the chamber, two carrying a lovely dark green
léine
.

"This should fit you, my lady," a maid chirped, smiling brightly, looking much more alert than Alana felt.

They hustled her into the
léine
trimmed with delicate silver embroidery. "'Tis lovely," she said, her eyes so scratchy from the lack of sleep, she had difficulty making out the intricate designs.

"Lady Akira said 'tis yours," the maid said.

A woman snorted.

Alana glanced up from looking down at the
léine
and saw Seana watching her, looking perturbed, face scowling, arms crossed. Alana wanted to ask if the
léine
was Seana's and if it was all right with her to wear it to the wedding, but she dared not dismiss the maids again.

Seana nodded. "'Tis fine that you wear it. 'Tis just that my mother should have asked me first."

Alana didn't know whether to be saddened at the admission or amused. It was as if those who had died believed they truly had a say in the world of the living still.

"Thank you," Alana mouthed to Seana as the maids hurried to comb her hair.

"I told you that you shouldna wed that brother of mine. But I have a plan. If he intends to seek another bed for the night, I will make him wish he hadna."

Alana couldn't help herself. She asked the maids very sweetly, "Can you leave me alone for a moment?"

The maids all cast each other glances. The eldest said, "We are to have you to the kirk within the hour."

"Aye, just for a moment." They looked concerned, but nodded and quickly vacated the chamber.

Seana smiled at Alana. "Marry my brother with my blessings, and I will make sure he doesna stray. Although you will need to do your part as well."

Alana blushed.

Seana smiled again. "You will be fine."

Connell was suddenly standing by the narrow window, glaring at Seana. "Mayhap I shall have to protect Dougald from your scornful mischief."

Seana's brows arched and she shrieked, "Mischief?"

Alana glanced at the door and hoped the maids who waited beyond it could not hear Seana.

"I will give you mischief, you rogue, should you aid my brother in seeing another woman other than his bonnie bride,
your
sister."

Connell scowled at Seana. "When did this happen?"

"I told you I had no choice about this last night." Then Alana realized Seana was the one who'd stolen his attention last eve.

Seana rolled her eyes. "Where were you last eve when your sister fainted dead away, eh?"

Connells's eyes widened and he quickly looked at Alana to see her take on it.

"Hearing James wants me to marry Dougald came as a bit of a shock. I have to finish getting ready for the wedding," Alana warned. Wanting to straighten out a misconception Seana had about her brother, Alana said to her, "Dougald canna see you as I do, but he said he does believe that I can see and speak with you."

Seana let out her breath. "Good. 'Tis time he and the others quit dismissing that I exist."

"He canna marry you," Connell said to Alana.

"'Tis him or Hoel MacDonald, I fear. At least Dougald appears to believe 'tis all right that I speak with the two of you and others like you," Alana argued.

Connell looked at Seana as if he was getting her final view on the matter. She folded her arms and raised her brows at him.

Someone knocked on the door. "Lady Alana?" Lady Akira called out, sounding anxious.

"My mother," Seana whispered, just as worried.

"Aye." Alana hurried to get the door, her heart pounding. She hoped the maids had not told Dougald's mother she was having a ghostly session in the chamber, or that she was beset with a sudden case of nerves and didn't want to go through with this.

She barely had opened the door, when Lady Akira took Alana's arm in a firm, persuasive, but motherly way and guided her back into the chamber, motioning to the maids to hurry up and accompany them.

"We really must hurry, lass," Lady Akira said, stepping back to observe Alana and smiled. "You are beautiful. Dougald will be most impressed and his brother Angus and cousin Niall will wish they fought to have the right to wed you instead."

Alana didn't believe either of the men would fight over her, but she appreciated Lady Akira's words just the same. It made her miss her mother terribly though, and she fought back a shimmer of tears that threatened to spill.

The maids began plaiting Alana's hair again as Connell and Seana watched.

Thankfully, they did not attempt to engage her in conversation in front of Lady Akira and the maids.

"The men are betting on whether you say no to marrying Dougald at the ceremony," one lass said, looking very serious, then a smile curved her lips.

"Some are betting you will faint dead away," another maid said.

"Will you say no to marrying Dougald?" the first said. "I do believe 'tis the first time I have seen him so anxious."

Alana stifled a laugh. He was anxious because he would be tied down to a wife for the first time in his life.

"If I tell you what I will do, it will spoil the betting, will it no'?" Alana asked.

"Oh, aye, except we wouldna tell the others and we are no' betting."

Alana could just imagine the maids telling the men they might lose if they bet one way or another if they knew the outcome. The truth was that even Alana did not know what she would say when the time came.

"You look lovely, lass," his mother said. "I worried a wee bit about where Dougald was off to late last night, but one of my servants brought me news he had returned early this morn, so all is well."

So Dougald had left the castle to see a woman in the village or a neighboring farm, had he?

Seana cast Connell an evil glower. Connell looked as if to say
what did I do
?

Once they had attached a veil, they quickly moved her out into the corridor, and then down the narrow winding stairs where they hurried her through the great hall. They hustled her to the kirk as if they were afraid she'd bolt if she was not rushed through this. Or mayhap they worried Dougald would run away. She could not see him doing such, though.

As a duty to his brother and the clan, he would do what James asked of him, she was certain.

She would not faint this time, although she didn't remember fainting the other time, not until one of the ladies told her what had happened. She'd been in the great hall, attempting to eat, learned Dougald was taking her to wife, and then…

She collapsed. He must have really loved seeing her reaction to marrying him.

Now she was feeling lightheaded, her stomach jumping about, her heart beating wildly in her breast, and she barely remembered passing through the kirk to stand beside Dougald.

When it came to the vows, she actually spoke them without hesitation, as if she was repeating the words by memory and had no ability to control her own tongue. Dougald did likewise, his gaze barely leaving her, and he didn't look as though he was going into battle, but that he was actually content…mayhap even pleased with the way things had turned out.

She, on the other hand, having decided that the MacNeill clan had treated her with graciousness and even as family, believed the marriage to Dougald could not be all that bad. She had no idea what it would have been like in the MacDonald clan. Mayhap she would have been as well-received, but mayhap not. 'Twas her problem with seeing ghosts that could have given her difficulty with the MacDonalds.

The difficulty would be that her uncles wished her heir to eventually lead the Cameron clan. Would her uncle wish to kill James for having married her off to his brother instead?

Dougald's kiss brought her to full awareness that they were husband and wife, the way he took hold of her shoulders as if to keep her steady or ensure she didn't bolt away from him, the way he leaned down to press his lips to hers. In that instant, nothing else existed. The kirk. The MacNeill clan squeezed into the place, the rest of the clan members peering through the entryway, trying to catch sight of the wedding in progress. The silence. Not a murmur. Not a whisper.

Only Dougald's warm mouth pressing against hers, gently at first, then seeking a response. She'd never even kissed a man, well except for a knight who had kissed her, but when her uncle had caught them, he'd had him severely whipped. The kiss had been hastily done, not slowly, not like this where she could feel Dougald's thumbs sliding over her shoulders, building a fire low in her belly. Not like this where his mouth parted and she too parted her lips to take a breath because she felt so breathless and fully aware of him. Of the smell of him, of heather and the woods, of summer heat and all man. Of the heat radiating from him, his warm touch, yet she could see the raw passion in his eyes. If she had hauled him off to his bedchambers, she would have been in bed beneath him before she could stop him, she was certain.

His mouth curved up slightly, but then he did the unexpected, flicked his tongue over her lips, and she moaned, not believing how exciting and decadent that felt. She couldn't have moaned in the kirk, of all places. Her reaction seemed to please him, and he slipped his tongue quickly between her parted lips, stroking her tongue, shocking her. Thrilling her. She wasn't sure what to do, but touched his tongue back tentatively with hers, and this time he groaned, pulled her into a hard embrace and kissed her gently on the mouth, declaring she was his. That she was what he needed.

Murmurs began then, whispers growing until she could hear some of the bits of conversation. They were husband and wife. They had agreed to the union. They would make it work.

She barely remembered being escorted to the great hall where the feasting and drinking and dancing began. She only remembered Dougald's kissing her in the kirk, and she felt she would melt into the floor like heated candlewax. Now, his hand held hers beneath the table, his thumb gently caressing the top of her hand, soothing but also titillating. She'd never been touched in such a way by a man. The sensation was making her body tighten with a warm need she'd never known before.

"You have made me proud, my lady," Dougald said, smiling down at her.

She tried to summon a smile, but everything had happened so quickly, she couldn't adjust to the idea that she was married to Dougald MacNeill.

He fed her bites of his bannock cake, a spoonful of his cullen sink, the finnan haddie smoked and immersed in a thick soup filled with onions, and flavored with rosemary, fennel, mint, and parsley, chopped, and cooked kale, and shared his ale with her. Mayhap because she wouldn't have eaten had she been left alone, her stomach was unsettled from the reality of the situation as it was sinking in.

The hall was filled with conversation and laughing, of tankards clanking as they were set down roughly on the tables. The fragrance of mint in the soup and of the smoky peat burning at the great stone fireplace in the great hall filled the air. She tasted the rosemary and mint in the soup, trying to get her mind off what would come to pass.

All she could think of was Dougald bedding her this very eve, the way his warm touch made her feel connected to him, cared for. She was not a member of his clan, and she was far from home. Her uncle would not even know what had happened to her. She should have been worried about how her uncle would feel about what had occurred. None of that took her concentration as much as what the man, her husband, seated beside her was doing to her deep inside.

"You have naught to worry about, lass," Dougald reassured her, and she loved the way he seemed concerned about her silence, and inability to eat much.

Her body tingled, tensed with the fluttery feelings pooling in her belly. She wanted to draw closer to him, show she liked his attentions, wished he'd continue to want her after he'd bedded her. Just her, no other woman.

But what if she did not meet with his expectations? She was afraid to show him affection in front of all his kin.

Raucous laughter and shouts of ribald humor startled her to attention, but Dougald looked down at her, smiling sweetly, as if the man could look sweet in the least. He was the seducer of maids, and something decidedly wicked stirred beneath that smile that made her believe he knew she was thinking about their wedding night.

She was afraid he'd be sorely disappointed. She could barely stay awake because of not having slept last night. Now with the excitement and anticipation of what was to come, the early morning hour and the late one this eve, the food and drink that she'd managed to partake in, all of it was taking a toll on her ability to stay awake, focused.