Spellbound (23 page)

51

When Kade returned to the great hall, it was afternoon and preparations were being made for the evening meal. He was disappointed that Maighdlin did not greet him on his return. She always greeted him with a warm smile that he felt in his soul.

A
quick search of the halls and his chambers did not turn her up. She wasn’t in the gardens taking a walk. He questioned the servants, but no one could remember seeing her after she’d been in the courtyard that afternoon. A chill ran up his spine. He felt something was wrong, felt it in his bones.

Back
in the great hall, he spied Amaris and Davina. “Have ye seen Maighdlin? I fear something is amiss.”

“
I havena seen her since the meal this morning,” Amaris said

Kade
tamped down niggling doubt. Maighdlin had left him twice before. Nay, he didn’t believe she’d leave him now.
She’d said she’d loved him, and no’ just with words. The way she’d touched him told him all he needed to know. He wouldna doubt her now.

He
felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down to see the deaf, blonde-haired child called Lillias. “No’ now, child,” he mouthed to her as she watched his lips move and made out his words.

“
I saw her in the courtyard earlier,” Davina said. Kade turned sharply back to Davina even though Lillias continued to pull on his sleeve.

“
Lillias!” He looked at her again and saw the fear in her blue-green eyes. She was trying to tell him something. She tried to speak. “Ma…Maggie.”

He
knelt swiftly so he was at her level and grasped her shoulders gently. “What? Where is Maggie?” She watched Kade’s lips move.

“
They took her.”

“
Who took her, Lillias?”

She
put her hand on her breast, near her heart. “They took yer heart.”

“
Yes, Lillias, she is my heart. Where? Quickly, lass.”

She
held up four pale fingers.

“
There were four of them?”

She
nodded. And pointed toward the door. “I followed her. She was going to the village. I only followed her because I like her. She is kind to me. I wanted to see if she would walk with me later in the gardens. The bad people, the dirty wanderers, had horses.”

It
suddenly dawned on Kade. The four people who had wandered onto their land and been questioned and released. What a fool he’d been!

He
and Ian quickly gathered a band of men. The guard confirmed that Maighdlin had been walking toward the village.
Toward me,
Kade thought.
She was going to meet me in the village but someone had taken her.
How long ago? How far had they gotten?
The men mounted their horses and they rode from the keep in a fast fury, the horses’ hooves kicking up dirt.

Who
were they and why had they taken Maighdlin?

Near
the orchard, they found marks in the dirt, left by horses, and marks of a struggle. They headed in the direction of the marks, Kade praying he wouldn’t be too late….

52

Maighdlin’s arms ached from straining to lift herself from the pit of hell. Her fingers were bleeding, and her face, hands, and arms were covered in muck.

She
had managed to push the gag down. She gulped in fetid air. She felt bone tired. Her strength and will were slipping away. She could hear her assailants above her, talking furiously. Arguing about something.

Was
this place part of an old pit house? She knew they were sometimes dug into the earth for animals. Or could it be an ancient, underground dwelling? The inside was oval. There were thick mats of vegetation, and it was a water-logged mess.
A layer of wet peat
, she thought again
. Mayhap it would give her time, prevent the fire from licking her alive right away, if the smoke didna kill her first.

Maggie
heard a whirring sound and turned to see a torch had been dropped in the hole. She couldn’t lift her leg from the muck quick enough to put it out and some of the kindling caught.

She
desperately clawed at the wall and made it half way up only to drop down again. The smoke was starting to fill the hole. She coughed, unwilling to cover her mouth. She screamed while she kept trying to climb out.

As
she did so, she heard a sound like thunder. A storm? She listened again.
Horses!

She
heard a scream from above—one of the women and then silence. “Kade!” she screamed.
Dear God, please let it be Kade!
“Kade, I’m here!”

It
was becoming difficult to breathe and the fire was inching closer to her, the heat brushing her skin. “Kade,” she said softly.

She
looked up and miraculously his face was above her, his hands reaching down to her, and she was being pulled up and free of the fiery pit.

Ian
had grasped Kade’s legs and lowered him enough so that he could reach Maighdlin and then had hauled them both up, where they landed in a heap together, tangled on the ground. Kade’s arms held her tightly while he whispered soothing words and stroked her mud-begrimed face and hair.

“
Ye found me, Kade.”

“
We’ll always find each other, love.” He grimaced. “But ye do get into more trouble than any lass I know.” He held her tighter. “I wasna sure what I would find…I had no idea who’d taken ye. The thought of losing ye was too much to bear….”

Maighdlin
coughed and gulped in air, clinging to him for dear life. “I think my ankle is broken. I canna walk. How did ye find me?”

“
The girl Lillias, she’s taken a liking to ye. She was following ye when ye left to make yer way to the village.” He looked at her sternly. “If she hadna been…I thought I made myself clear about that.”

“
When have I e’er listened?”

“
Yer a stubborn woman.”

“
Headstrong, stubborn, proud, impulsive, foolish at times….”

“
Are we talking about my faults or yers?” he asked.

She
laughed, realizing how much her chest hurt from the smoke. “My faults this time, Highlander.” She paused. “Thank ye Kade for saving me from that horrible woman. She was Calum’s Mum. Everyone thought she was dead. She let her son believe she was dead. What kind of woman is capable of deserting her own son like that? Yet she heard about Calum’s death and sought to make me pay. They thought to burn me, calling me a witch. ’Twas almost like the vision I saw in my dreams. I think it was what Niall was trying to warn me about while he still had time. That I was in some sort of danger.”

She
shivered mightily and he rose, pulling her gently from the ground, lifting her, an arm beneath her shoulders and another beneath her knees. Behind Kade, Maighdlin could see the humps of her attackers’ bodies slumped on the ground, all with arrows in their backs.

“
Yer safe now, Maggie. Yer safe.”

She
nestled into his neck. “I love ye, Kade. And I love the bow and arrow. ‘Tis a wicked good invention.”

He
quirked a dark brow. “As long as ye love me more, lass.”

“
Aye, Highlander.”

He
surveyed the damage, thought of what could have been, if he’d been too late. The rage in his chest was wild. “A fitting death for a cutthroat band of murderers.” Then, “They should’ve known better than to play with fire.”

He
held her close as Ian and the other men dropped the bodies into the fiery pit, where they would be consumed in the hellacious fire meant for Maighdlin.

Kade
looked at her as if he knew her thoughts. “None of this was yer fault, Maggie.” He placed her on his horse and swung up behind her.

“
Such a sad life Calum had,” she said softly.

He
tipped her chin up with his fingers. “Such a sad life
I’d
have had if they’d succeeded. A life no’ worth living. It would’ve been like…someone tearing my heart from my body and asking me to live without it.”

It
started to rain, making the fire in the pit hiss but not diminishing its strength or roar. Kade’s hair grew dark with the rain. Maighdlin let her tears fall freely now, twining her fingers in his wet hair.

“
Promise me ye’ll no’ be foolish like that, again, lass. This place, ‘tis a hard place. There are wars. There is hunger and madness. Scotland, she’ll smile at ye and enchant ye, hold ye spellbound. Her beauty can make ye forget the tragedy and dangers that await if yer no’ careful.”

“
I promise, Kade.”

53

It was a bright day in December when Maighdlin married Kade, this time both of them meaning the vows they spoke.

A
recent snow had blanketed the moorland and river-filled glens with a swirl of white that ran down to the rocky cliffs and covered the crescents of the red-gold sand at the base of the keep. Fields and hollows and hills glistened white, the snow lending a soft quiet everywhere. And now it was snowing again.

They
married in the great hall in the keep because travel to the chapel was not practical in the snow, and Kade did not wish to wait until spring to set things right.

The
great hall was lit by high window recesses, positioned to catch the setting sun. The warm light fell on Kade now as he waited by the great hearth for her, and illuminated the MacAlister coat of arms hanging above the hearth. Kade was dressed in leather boots, trews, a gold saffron shirt, and his red-striped plaid. A gleaming amber brooch held his plaid in place, mirroring the hazel of his eyes, which glimmered with gold heat as he looked at his bride. His black hair was pulled back and tied with a gold ribbon.

Lillian
walked toward him, lightly scattering rose petals as she walked. Lillian had saved Maighdlin’s life and had no mum of her own; her mum had died of fever when the lass was but two. So Maighdlin wanted to include her in this important day.

The
child wore a white satin dress, the finest she’d ever owned, and white petals were woven into her white-blonde hair. She sneaked a look back at Maighdlin, a broad grin on her tiny face, and Maighdlin smiled warmly at her.

As
Maighdlin followed Lillian toward Kade, his eyes traveled the length of Maighdlin’s body. Her dress was fitted at the waist and bodice and flared out from the hips in a skirt that draped around her body. The long, form-fitted gown was made from sea-blue, crushed velvet that accented her dark eyes, and adorned with silver-colored satin trim on the arms and waist. He smiled when she reached him, tucking her arm in his and turning to face the grinning kirkman.

Kade’s
voice was rich as he spoke his vows; it filled the hall. Maighdlin spoke next, her voice trembling and full of emotion. Kade slipped his ring on her finger and then ripped his plaid and her sleeve, tying them together.

The
kirkman announced them man and wife and Kade kissed her, a passionate kiss of promise, a kiss to show her how much she was cherished. “This time it’s for real,” he said, his amber eyes ablaze with warmth.

A
great celebration in the hall followed. There was laughter, ale, platters of food, and drums. The pipes were played as children were lifted merrily and twirled around. The dancers trod on freshly woven reed mats, occasionally stirring up dried flowers and herbs that had been strewn on the stone floors.

Maighdlin
could see the snow falling outside the windows and felt like she was seeing the world in a new way. Clan members, both men and women, smiled at her and congratulated her, welcoming her as never before.

Kade
never left Maighdlin’s side. Not even when the women faded to their hearths with their children and left the men bragging of masculine things. One lone tacksman danced alone to the piper, stamping his feet. Life had been celebrated by all, a new life.

The
Highlands were a place of creeping shadows and quick deaths, where winters alone could kill a person, as well as feuds and mad plots of revenge. An eye for an eye. So when life swept in through their doors, they celebrated it, and Maighdlin and Kade never more so than the day and night of their true wedding.

A
fire blazed in the hearth. As the winter storm outside grew in intensity, so did their lovemaking. Cocooned in the bed with the canopy curtains drawn around them, Maighdlin stretched her arms above her head, her fingers linked in her husband’s.

They
looked into each other’s eyes, spellbound, and began to shape their futures….

*****

I hope you enjoyed Kade and Maighdlin’s tale and will look for Book #2, CHARMED, in my Hot Highlands Romance series. –Kelly Jameson