To Tempt Highland Fate (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (6 page)

Chapter 5

             
Willa woke sometime deep in the night to the sounds of the man moving in the bed.  She had fallen asleep with the candle still lit, and though it had burned down to no more than a stub, the room was still bathed in a soft yellow glow.  Sitting up, she saw that he had turned his head on the pillow and was watching her, though his eyes were still glazed with fever.  Her heart jumped into her throat, and for a long moment she was held by his gaze, mesmerized.  What color were his eyes?  In the dim light, she couldn’t tell.  Damn!

             
“Have I died?” He asked in a weak voice, almost a whisper.

             
She smiled.  “No, you have most certainly lived.”

             
“Ah, good, my brother will be pleased.  He was verra angry with me for dying, I’m certain.”

             
She leaned forward.  “You have a brother?  Where is he?  What’s his name?”

             
But his eyes closed and he was asleep again.  She rose and went to him, putting her hand automatically to his forehead.  He still burned with fever, but it was a very good sign that he had finally woken, if only for a moment.  She stood there for a time, stroking his hair and humming softly.  He did not stir the rest of the night.

              At breakfast, Maura handed Willa a stale roll and some dried fruit.  “Here, before James comes back in and eats it all.”

             
Willa laughed and pulled the roll into two parts, putting the larger half back on the trencher.  “He needs it more than I do, anyway.  He’s a big man and he’s been working hard ever since we arrived.”

             
“Aye, that he has.  Though so have we.”

             
That was true.  Between the two of them, Willa and Maura had managed to cook all the meals, haul water from the river, clean and scrub the little cottage, gather what food they could find in the surrounding woods, and even set some snares for game.  And care for the as-yet-nameless warrior, of course.  She supposed she should be tired, but Willa felt anything but.  Instead she seemed to have more energy than usual (and she usually had a lot to begin with), a restless kind of energy that made it hard to sit still for very long.  Well, that wasn’t entirely true.  She would have no problem sitting by the warrior’s bedside all day long, just watching him sleep.  She was only restless when she was anywhere else.  Hmmm, was it possible to have a crush on a man who’d been asleep for nearly the entire time you knew him?  It seemed to be so.

             
Maura swallowed the last bite of her roll and looked up. 

             
“James and I are to leave in two days time for my sister Janie’s wedding, and of course to learn what we can about what is happening at home.  Janie’s betrothed is a cousin to the Mac Coinnachs, and though it’s no’ likely, perhaps we can convince them to help us.”  She looked uncertainly at Willa.  “But I suppose now I’ll have to stay here with ye.  We canna verra well leave the man here alone, and we certainly canna bring him with us.  The journey will be dangerous enough, as it is, even if I can manage to keep us cloaked along the way.” 

             
Willa dismissed the idea with a flip of her hand.  “Oh Maura don’t be silly, of course you
must
go to your own sister’s wedding!  After all, it’s no more than a day’s ride from here, isn’t it?  That’s what James says.  And I know how close you have always been with Janie.  I’ll stay and watch over him.  I’ll be fine here by myself for a few days, and the man’s as weak as a babe.  He’s only woken for a moment, and even if he does wake, he won’t be able to leave his bed for days yet.  I can certainly handle him.  Besides, the Mac Coinnachs might just be our only chance.  After all, right now we really have
no
chance, just the three of us alone with any men still loyal to us trapped within the castle or fled for the hills.  We need help. 
Any
help.  We can’t just hide here forever, you know that.  Eventually someone is going to come after us.”

             
She stopped abruptly, realizing she had been rambling on and on while Maura looked at her doubtfully.

             
“But I canna leave ye all alone, no’ with a stranger in the house.”  Maura gave her token protest.

             
“A man to protect me, is that not
better
than being alone?”

             
Maura laughed.  “He is no’ able to protect ye right now from so much as a kitten.”

             
“Then I shall protect him.  And we don’t have a kitten, anyway.”

             
“We dinna ken who he is… what if he turns out to be an enemy?”

             
Willa shrugged.  “How can he
know
he’s my enemy if I don’t tell him who
I
am?  Besides, he may not even wake up again while you’re gone. And”, she reminded, “He’s still tied up.”

             
“Well, yes, there’s that.” 

             
Maura looked unconvinced, and Willa waited while her sister in law seemed to think the matter through.  It slowly dawned on her that she
wanted
to be left alone with the stranger, almost as if she would have him all to herself, which was senseless, since again, she didn’t even know him.  And when he woke, she might very well find she didn’t even
like
him.  Although she had a strange feeling deep inside that wouldn’t be the case. 
The knocking of fate
, her Aunt Avida would have said. 
Answer, Willa
. 

             
“Ye’re certain, then?”

             
Willa shook herself from her musings, realizing Maura had finally spoken.  “Yes.”

             
Maura’s lips quirked up into a conspiratorial smile, and she narrowed her eyes.

             
“Dinna think I’ve missed the way you look at him.  He’s a verra handsome man.”

             
Willa gave her an innocent look and then pretended to be suddenly interested in her fingernails, though she couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from turning up.  “Is he then?  I hadn’t noticed.”

             
“Aye, I think ye have.  Ye’d have to be half-dead yerself, no’ to.”

             
Willa sighed and looked up at Maura, her brows drawing together in thought.  “Have you ever just
felt
something… just
known
something… oh, but of course
you
have!”  Maura was known for her uncanny premonitions.  Such gifts had run in her family for ages.  “But for me, it doesn’t happen very often, just a dream now and then, and I always seem to doubt my instincts rather than trust them as I should, but…”

             
“But ye have a feeling about this man?  One ye canna explain?”  Maura’s eyes danced with suppressed excitement, and she leaned closer, making Willa want to admit her every wicked thought.  But then it was so easy to talk to Maura.  To trust Maura with her darkest secrets and most furtive hopes.  It had been almost from the first day they’d met.

             
“From the very beginning”, Willa confessed with a sigh.  “As if I was
meant
to find him.  Meant to save him.  I have told myself over and over again that it’s impossible, that it can’t
possibly
be, but I swear Maura, that when I look at him, he seems almost… familiar to me.  Which makes no sense, and I half think my mind is playing tricks on me and I just
want
to feel something for him.”  She blushed, lowering her voice to a whisper.  “And… and I have the most terrible urge to be close to him, touch him even.  As I never have before with any other man.”  A frown crossed her face as she was reminded of Colm.  No, never any other man.

             
I am so blessed to have escaped before it was too late…

             
“Och, Willa, ye ken well it’s no’ impossible.  There are so many things in this world that we dinna understand.  That we just have to trust.  Ye are… drawn to him then?  Physically?” 

             
Maura tried to contain her giddy excitement as Willa nodded enthusiastically.  It was just as she had seen, then.  The two of them were fated, Willa and the mysterious warrior.  Destined for a powerful bond both physical and emotional.  It didn’t happen often, though it was more likely among those with the ancient Druid blood flowing in their veins.  Perhaps the magic they still held to varying degrees helped mates to find one another in time and space, even against all odds. 

             
As she looked at Willa’s lovely glowing face, saw the strange mix of excitement and confusion in her eyes, Maura longed to tell her what she knew.  But, no.  It would not be wise to interfere, that was one of her earliest lessons at her grandmother’s knee.  The best she could do was ease the way for fate to take its course, and hope that Willa would eventually find the same happiness she herself knew with James.  She drew back a little and smiled conspiratorially. 

             
“Well, then.  I say ye should follow yer instincts; all of them.  If ye are drawn to the man in such a way even afore he has fully woken, there
must
be a reason.  Ye will care for him, and after he wakes, ye’ll come to ken what kind of man he is.  Then ye can decide for yerself what all this might mean.  Just keep yer mind open to the possibilities.  And dinna be afraid to try.”

             
She stood, brushing out her skirts.  “I’d better go and break the news to James that yer staying behind.  He willna be happy.”

             
Willa bit her lip.  Her brother would be protective of her, especially in light of the danger she was in.  She was his only sister, and only just found.  “You can convince him though?” 

             
Maura threw Willa a cocky smile over her shoulder as she turned to leave.

             
“Of course.”

***

             
James paced the short length of the room, struggling between his sense of duty and the trust he held in his wife.  “Maura, I dinna ken about leaving my sister alone with that man.  We dinna even ken who he is, and he may recover faster than ye think.  I’ve sworn an oath to our father to protect her, and I canna leave when…”

             
Maura reached over and put a finger to his lips, silencing him.  “Dinna worry so, James, it’s the right thing to do, I promise ye.  And the oath to yer father is meaningless.  He wanted ye to protect her as his
property,
which she is no longer.  Ye should keep her safe if ye can, aye.  But ye should protect her happiness too.  Ye ken as well as I do that life is meaningless without it.”

             
James sighed when she moved her hand from his lips. “Ye’re talking in riddles again, woman, have ye seen something?”  His wife was from a long line of women with the precious gift of Sight, and he trusted her more than anyone.

             
“Aye”, she said simply but firmly, and he did not question her further.  So far, she had always been right.  Just as she had been right about him, about
them
.  And about the need to prepare this temporary refuge.  James felt his heart beat faster as he watched his wife prepare for bed, unbinding her lovely auburn locks to let them cascade down her back.  He moved to stand behind her, drawing her back into his arms and sinking his teeth gently into the side of her slender throat for a love bite as she melted against him.  He was done talking for tonight.  And at this moment he was eternally grateful to his sister for insisting he have a private room with his wife.