The Eternal Highlander (23 page)

Connall tossed his reins to the stable boy, and headed for the castle, his heart sinking at the sight of Ewan waiting for him. The man looked sleepy and disheveled, as if he’d fallen asleep while waiting for him and been awoken with the news that he had returned. The fact that he was waiting was what worried Connall, his first only waited when there was something to report. The last two times it had been an accident his wife had suffered, Connall suspected this would be number three.

“Well?” he asked as he reached the other man. “What’s she done now? Tripped, stumbled, scalded hersel’? What?”

“Nothing like that, Eva’s fine,” his brother-in-law assured him quickly and Connall felt himself relax, only to stiffen again when the man added, “I think. Tis what she’s doin’ I’m worryin’ aboot. She slipped away from Keddy and Domhall and they couldnae find her, then I spied her, but she was too quick fer me. I wasnae sure she should be in there, but I couldnae get in to question her and I’m not sure what she’s doin’, but she was cartin’ all that stuff about and Glynis says that half the things from her bedchamber are missing and I suspect she’s taken them all in there with her. Then I worried that the men would see, so I relieved them and took to waiting fer her to come out meself, but I think she’d made anoother trip while I was talkin’ to the men and she hasnae come out since, and I can’t find yer mother to fetch her oot to ask her what she’s aboot, so I thought I’d best stick around till ye returned and—”

“Ewan,” Connall interrupted with amazement. “Yer babbling.”

The older man looked alarmed at this pronouncement, then complained, “It’s yer wife, Connall! She’ll be the death o’ me, I’m sure. Between the scares with her accidents and—sweet Jesus! Me heart stopped when she tripped up on the stairs in the keep, then again when she tumbled down the chapel steps, and then there’s her shenanigans tonight. I’m sure I’ve aged ten years since she arrived and I’m an old man to begin with.”

“All right, old friend,” Connall put a soothing hand on the irate man’s shoulder. “Breathe. Jest breathe and calm down, then tell me what the devil yer talking aboot.”

Ewan sighed and closed his eyes briefly, when he opened them again he said simply, “Eva.”

“Aye.” Connall nodded encouragingly. “She slipped away from the men ye had watchin’ her?”

“Aye.”

“And they came to ye and so ye started to help them look fer her?”

“Aye.” Ewan grimaced. “We looked everywhere. I was starting to think she’d either fallen down the well or been kidnapped, and wonderin’ how the devil I was to tell ye that, when I decided to check her bedchamber one more time.”

“And ye found her there, but she got away,” Connall guessed, recalling the man babbling about her being too quick for him.

“Nay. I spied her walking past the top of the stairs as I went up them. She was bustling along with a great armful of stuff, and I jest knew she’d trip o’er her gown or something and there’d be hell to pay, so I hurried up the stairs, but by the time I got there the hall was empty, wasnae it? I checked the rooms, but they were empty too and the only thing I could think is that she’d gone into the passage to the night rooms.”

“Ah.” Connall nodded with understanding. The rest of what the man had said made sense now. Ewan suspected Eva was in the passage, but wasn’t sure she should be, and while he was one of the few people who knew about it, even he didn’t know how to open it, there had never been a need. Which is what he had meant by not being able to “get in to question her.” Connall considered the rest of what he’d said. His wife had been carting great loads of stuff and—according to Glynis—half the things from the bedchamber were missing.

A sigh from his first, made Connall glance his way to note his weary expression. It was well past the time the man would usually be in bed. It was only a couple of hours till dawn when he normally would be rising. Putting the matter of what his wife was up to to the side for a moment, Connall thumped one hand on his brother-in-law’s shoulder. “Yer weary.”

“I’m old,” Ewan sighed.

“Nay, yer no an old man yet, friend,” he assured him. “Yer just tired right now. Doonae fret aboot Eva, I’ll tend to her. As fer Mother, she rode with us tonight, that’s why ye couldnae find her,” he explained. “But come and I’ll show ye how to open the passage. Had I shown ye ere this, ye’d ha’e gone to bed long ago. Come.”

Connall led the other man through the great hall and up the stairs to the end of the hall. He showed him twice how to open the passage, then had him practice it twice to be sure he had it before wishing him good night and watching him move off down the hall to the room he shared with Aileen. His sister’s reaction to the sun was a lesser version of his own and she could sleep in a normal chamber so long as she kept furs up on the windows. He, however, like Magaidh, needed the secured dark of a windowless stone room. Not that he couldn’t bear sunlight altogether, his reaction wasn’t as bad as some of their people’s, but it burned him and made him sick. It had made the trip to court almost unbearable.

A soft click from the other end of the dark hallway drew his attention from his thoughts and Connall peered up the dark expanse, but there was no one in the hall. Deciding it must have been Ewan going into his and Aileen’s room, Connall turned back to the passage door and stepped through, then closed it behind him.

Connall found Eva in his night room, muttering to herself as she attempted to start a fire in the fireplace. Distracted as she was, she didn’t hear him enter, and he took a moment to peer around the room before making his presence known. His gaze swept over the changes she’d made with amazement; two walls now sported huge tapestries he recognized from the other chamber, the bed was littered with cushions and furs, and there were also several more candles in here now, all of them lit at the moment. Eva had also brought the two chairs from the other room and set them before the fireplace with the chest from the other room between them—he couldn’t imagine how she had dragged that here on her own without being discovered.

Shaking his head, he started forward, then glanced down with surprise as he stepped on rushes. These too must have come from the other chamber and he had to wonder what the other room must look like now with half its rushes and furnishings missing. About as strange as this room now appeared to him, he supposed and glanced around again.

It seemed his wife had moved in. Connall had never considered that she might when he’d arranged to marry her. His own parents had slept in separate rooms with his mother in her room here in the passage and his father in the chamber Eva had been occupying. Obviously they had spent some time together in either room or Aileen and himself would not have been born, but for as long as he could recall, the two had actually done the sleeping part separately. But then they had slept at different times as well. His father, being human, had slept at night as was the custom, while his mother—to avoid the sun—had slept in here during the day as he did himself.

Connall supposed he had expected things to go much the same for him. He would spend some time with his wife in the early evening after arising, then perhaps visit her room in the dark hours before dawn, then sleep in here during the day while she was up and about. It seemed that his wife had other plans.

He peered around the changes again and shook his head. Connall felt rather invaded. The room was cozy and inviting, nothing at all like the sterile room he had slept in for the last almost sixty years. He was suddenly feeling…well…married.

“Oh, God’s toes, you are a stubborn, stupid blasted…”

Connall found himself smiling as Eva growled and slapped at the bit of wood she was trying to light, as if punishing it for being difficult and he thought with amusement that perhaps being married wouldn’t be so bad. The woman had a tendency to make him smile, something he wasn’t used to, but found he rather liked. He had found himself smiling often while playing chess with her at night, Eva was witty and amusing and…well…really rather adorable at the moment, disheveled from her work as she was.

Pushing the door closed, he crossed the room and dropped to his haunches beside her. “Givin’ ye trouble is it, me lady wife?”

“Oh!” she exclaimed, dropping back onto her heels with surprise at what to her must seem a sudden appearance. “You are back.”

“Aye,” he agreed, smiling at her.

She smiled back, then her eyes widened in alarm and she began fussing with her clothes and pushing at her hair in an apparent effort to make herself more presentable. She gave up the attempt almost at once and sighed as she forlornly admitted, “I wanted to clean myself up some and make myself more presentable ere you returned.”

“Ye look fine to me,” he assured her as he took over the task of lighting the fire.

“And the room?” Eva asked hopefully as she watched him do in minutes what she had spent nearly an hour now trying to accomplish. He made it look so easy, she thought with vague irritation.

“The room.” He sat back on his heels beside her and peered around. “Tis…well, it looks more comfortable,” he said at last.

Eva pursed her lips, trying to decide if that meant he liked it or not, then gasped with surprise when he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed.

“Tis time fer bed,” he announced firmly.

“But I am not tired, my lord,” Eva protested. “I napped this evening.”

“Did you now?” He peered at her with surprise.

“Aye.” She grimaced, embarrassed to admit it. “It took a long time for me to drop off to sleep when I came in here last night. In fact, I would not be surprised if I had lain awake most of the day and dropped off just shortly before you woke me again.”

He arched an eyebrow as he paused at the side of the bed. “If ye were takin’ a nap tonight, when did ye do all this?”

“Right after eating supper,” she explained. “When you headed out with the men. It did not take long, the rooms aren’t far apart and I really haven’t done much, but it wearied me a bit and I fell asleep for a while.” She grimaced, then admitted, “A long while. I only woke up just ere you arrived. The candle I had left lit was guttering, so I lit more and then tried to light the fire.”

“Hmm. Then ye willnae be tired.”

Eva gave a squeal of surprise as he dropped her on the bed.

“And ’tis good I came back early enough to take the time to tire ye oot,” he announced, reaching for the buckle of his belt.

“Husband?” Eva ran her hand over the arm across her chest and tilted her head in an effort to see his face. He had made love to her with as much passion and vigor as she could have wished, then they had talked softly for a while, but he had grown silent these last few moments and Eva suspected he was asleep. She wished she could join him in that state, but despite the energetic session he had just treated her to, she wasn’t tired. If anything, she felt rather invigorated.

Positive he slept, she lifted his arm and eased out from under him, moving slowly and cautiously in an effort not to wake him. Once out from under it, Eva set his arm on the bed and pulled her robe on. She wanted to go to the old chamber and order a bath, she should probably check in with Glynis as well, the girl might be wondering where she was and perhaps even be worried. But, while Eva wasn’t sure what time it was, she didn’t think it was much past dawn. The castle inhabitants who slept nights would be sitting down to break their fast, Glynis among them, and Effie would be busy as could be in the kitchens. She thought it might be best to wait a bit before bothering them with a request for a bath.

Eva glanced around the room, debating what to do until then and her gaze landed on the dark blue gown she’d been wearing that day. It was one of the new ones, though it hardly looked like it at the moment, dusty and wrinkled as it was from her first working, then sleeping in it earlier. There was also a tear in one of the sleeves. Eva had caught it on something while moving things about earlier, though she would be hard-pressed to say when it had occurred exactly. She had only noticed the tear on rising from her nap before Connall had returned to the room.

Fortunately, the tear was along a seam and would be easily repaired and that seemed the perfect chore to keep her busy until it would be more convenient for her to take her bath. Bending, she collected the gown and moved to the chairs by the fire, then lay the gown across one of the chairs, and paused to place a couple of logs on the fire, before turning back to remove the untouched chess game and wine from the chest. Once those were out of the way, Eva opened it to search out the needle and thread she had placed inside after hemming the last of the gowns that were being made for her.

She had the lid up and was on her knees with her head buried in the chest when Eva heard the chamber door open. Her first thought was that it would be Glynis, and that the girl must be done breaking her fast. Perhaps it was later than she had thought and she could eschew the sewing for now and go take a bath. Eva had started to straighten to see if she was right, when she recalled that she wasn’t in her chamber anymore. She was in the secret chamber…and Glynis didn’t know about this room.

Eva froze, the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly standing on end. According to Connall, the only people who knew about this room, besides himself, were his mother, sister, and Ewan. And herself now, of course. She couldn’t imagine any of them just walking into the room without knocking. Moving cautiously, she eased back on her haunches behind the chest, knowing it hid her from view at least from the door. Unfortunately, it also blocked her view of all but the top of the door as it was slowly, stealthily she couldn’t help thinking, eased closed.

She waited silently, holding her breath as she listened to see if someone had just looked into the room or actually entered. After a moment that seemed to last an eon, the stirring of the rushes told her that someone had entered. Now, she
had
to look.

Moving carefully, Eva eased up slightly until she could just see over the top of the chest, then quickly ducked back down. Dear Lord, it was the man in the cape, or at least it was a man in a cape, she couldn’t be sure, of course, if it was the same man she had seen the other morning, but thought it was a good bet that it was. He had obviously succeeded at figuring out the secret to opening the door, she realized.

Eva’s gaze slid anxiously to the bed and she willed Connall to wake up and deal with the situation, but, of course, he didn’t. And really, even if he woke up now, he would surely be so sleep-befuddled that he might be slow to react to whatever the fellow had in mind and end up hurt…or dead. Connall had said that there had been three attempts on his life in recent times and Eva very much feared that this was going to be attempt number four, and she was the only person presently conscious and capable of dealing with the intruder.

Now, she just had to figure out how, Eva thought with vexation. And quickly. The man had started moving toward the bed, reaching beneath his cape as he went. She didn’t doubt for a minute that he was reaching for a weapon and Eva now glanced around for the nearest possible weapon she might use.

The wine, the chess game, a needle and thread…One of the chairs? Nay, it was well built and sturdy and she didn’t think she could raise it and run across the room carrying it. Her best asset at this point was the element of surprise, and stumbling clumsily across the room with a chair—

Eva’s thoughts died as her eyes landed on the fire. The fresh logs she had thrown on it were already alight and burning merrily, but she hadn’t placed one of them very well and while one end was buried in the flames, the other was sticking out over the hearth. Eva did not even think, one moment she was staring at the log as the idea formed and in the next she was reaching out for the log and launching to her feet in one fluid movement.

Her timing was close, she saw as she turned toward the bed. The intruder had pulled a sword from his waist and was even now lifting it over his head in preparation for what appeared to be a straight downward hacking movement. It looked to her as if he intended to cut off Connall’s head. Afraid he would bring it down before she could cross the room and stop him, Eva let loose a shriek as she charged forward, swinging the log.

It was a scream that woke Connall, an animal sound of fear and fury that startled him awake and sent his eyes flying open. The first thing he saw was the sword descending toward him and he instinctively raised an arm in self-defense and rolled to the side at the same time. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of his attacker being attacked as Eva swung a burning log into his stomach. The action wasn’t enough to stop the downward impetus of the sword, but did bring the man around slightly so that the weapon was jerked lower along Connall’s body and turned at an angle. He felt the bite of the metal into his side as he finished the roll and tumbled from the bed.

Grunting at the pain singeing through him, Connall grabbed for the wound. He didn’t need to feel the blood pouring over his fingers to know his wound was deep and bleeding copiously, the air was suddenly rich with the scent of his own blood. Connall cursed but had little time to worry about it other than that at the moment. The image of Eva’s pale face as she had run forward to try to save him was etched in his mind and he was very aware that she was on the other side of the bed at that moment with the intruder. His little Eva, small, blonde, and English, was battling alone for both their lives. He had to help her.

Letting go of the wound, he grabbed the edge of the bed and dragged himself up into a sitting position. His eyes immediately moved to the spot where his wife and the intruder should have been battling, but the spot was empty. All he could see was the open door and the dark hallway beyond.

“Connall!” Eva was suddenly at his side. It seemed he hadn’t seen her at first because she’d been moving around the bed to him. “You’re bleeding.”

“Tis fine. It isna verra deep,” he lied as she pressed her free hand to it.

Her gaze met his, then slid to the burning log she still held. After the briefest of hesitations and a glance toward the door, Eva stood and managed to retrieve the sheet out of the tangle the bedclothes had become, then shoved it at him. “Hold this on it, tightly. I shall be right back.”

Connall instinctively pressed the cloth to his side as he watched her hurry around the bed again, toward the door. Afraid she was going to go for help and worried that she might meet up with their intruder again if she did so, Connall opened his mouth to call out to her, then closed it again when—rather than run through it—she skidded to a halt at the door and slammed it shut. Still carrying the log, his wife then ran to the chairs and began to drag one across the floor, apparently to bar it lest the intruder return. He found a small smile curving his lips at this action. He had done well in choosing Eva to bride. She had the courage to risk herself to save him, and the sense to prepare against a possible second attack. She was a damned fine woman.