To Tempt Highland Fate (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (64 page)

             
She reached for Willa’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.  “I’m Faith, welcome to Creagmor.  You don’t know how excited I am to have another woman living in the castle!  At the moment we are greatly outnumbered by the men and I could sure use some help making the keep pretty.”  She winked at Bren, who scowled at her.

             
Then Faith turned to Drust and immediately her face crumpled with emotion.  She threw herself suddenly into his arms, leaving Drust looking highly uncomfortable. He tentatively patted her back.

             
“Thank you!” she said.  “I know what you did for us… just… thank you.  I’m so glad you’re safe.”

             
Drust gently pulled her off his chest.  “It was nothing lass.”  He looked over at Willa, who was watching the exchange with blatant interest and a little smile.  “And it all worked out for the best.”

             
“Nothing?  Like hell, Drust Mac Coinnach!  But I
am
glad you found your mate.”

             
With a smile, she took Willa by the elbow, guiding her away from the men.  “Come with me, I’ll give you a tour, then we can get to know each other better.”

             
Willa glanced back to Drust, and she thought she saw a look of
trepidation?
on his face.

             
“Faith”, he called out, “please have her trunk sent to
my
room.”

             
“I don’t think so, Drust!” she called back.  “You aren’t wed yet, isn’t that right?”

             
Drust crossed his arms over his chest, frowning as he watched the two women walk toward the keep.

             
“I hadn’t even considered… “

             
Bren nodded.  “I ken…”

             
“We’re in trouble.”

             
“Aye.  Two women banded against us, we dinna stand a chance, brother.”

***

             
Faith drew her towards a door at the end of a long corridor.  They had just finished a whirl-wind tour of the keep, and Willa felt as if her head was spinning.

             
“And this will be your room”, she said, opening the door.  “Though not for long.  I have a feeling you’ll find yourself married within the week.”

             
Willa dropped down onto the bed, and Faith followed, settling beside her.

             
“I didn’t know Drust for long, before… everything happened.  But he sure looks different.”

             
“What do you mean?” Willa asked.  She knew Faith was referring to whatever Drust had done to help her and Bren that almost got him killed.

             
“Well, he’s smiling, for one thing.”  Faith paused.  “He looks like a man in love.  Yes, that’s it exactly!  You can’t know how happy I am for both of you, but especially for Drust.  It was eating Bren up inside, thinking his brother died for him, even though I know he would have done the exact same thing.  Stubborn as hell, the both of them.  I’m just so glad it all worked out so wonderfully.”

             
Willa was glad too, if not a bit confused.  No one had told her the whole story yet, and perhaps she would have to just find out for herself.

             
“If you don’t mind me asking, Faith, where are you from?  I can’t seem to place your accent, though I admit I haven’t travelled much.”

             
Faith looked startled, and for a moment Willa wondered if she had gone too far.

             
“You mean no one has told you?  My God!  Not even Drust?”

             
Willa shook her head.  “To be fair, there wasn’t much of a chance for him to tell me.”  Before she was captured, they were both keeping secrets to protect themselves, and after… well things had been pretty eventful since.

             
“Well!  I can see I’ll have to fill you in.  Men are such awful communicators.”  She settled back onto the bed, making herself comfortable.  “It started with a ring… no wait…a prophecy.  There was a prophecy about a certain ring that would bring the chief of the Mac Coinnachs his mate.  And so to make a long story short, the household sorcerer, you’ll meet him later, with the help of Eian, the youngest brother, took the ring to help the prophecy along.  And I found it. 
Hundreds of years in the future.
”

             
“You… you were in the future?”

             
Faith gave her a look that said:
and this gets even more unbelievable!

             
“I am
from
the future.  I was born there.  But that ring can find soulmates, even if they’re separated by time.  I think that must be why it’s so rare, finding a soulmate.  What are the odds of both souls being in the same time and place to find one another?  I’m betting it doesn’t happen very often.  So, anyway, I found this old ring in a box in the museum where I worked, and I tried it on.  Next thing I knew, I was
here
.  At first I thought I was crazy, but then I met Bren, and even though I tried to keep him at arm’s length at first, I really never had a chance.”

             
Willa smiled, because Faith’s expression had gone all soft and dreamy.  “So you decided to stay here with Bren?”

             
“I did.  But the ring had gone missing, and I was sent back to my own time.  That’s when I found out I was carrying Bren’s child.  I would have done
anything
to get back to him…”

             
She paused and glanced at Willa.  “I know how crazy this must all sound…”

             
Willa shook her head.  “No.  Not crazy at all.  So that’s when Drust went to take the ring back from Mored?”

             
“Yes.  From what Bren says, the two of them fought, and fell down through a hole in a cavern.  He thought they must both be dead, especially when the rest of the cave started collapsing around him.  It turns out they are both very much alive.”

             
“And Bren was able to use the ring to bring you back?”

             
“Yes”, Faith whispered, wiping at tears with the back of her hand.  “And now you’re here too, I have a sister!  And if the next prophecy is right, there will be one more of us soon.”

             
“There’s another prophecy?”

             
“Yes.  Dirc, he’s the sorcerer, found it only recently.  It basically says that all three Mac Coinnach brothers will find their true mates, and all will have a first born son.  So far, it seems to be holding true.”

             
Willa held her breath for a long moment.  Would she really have a son?  If it was written in a
prophecy
,
meant to be
, Drust could hardly stop it from happening, could he?

             
“Now there’s only Eian, the youngest brother”, Faith continued.  “He’s been away almost as long as Drust, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he comes home with a woman.”

             
She sat up suddenly.  “Oh, I’m sorry, I’m being so rude!  You’ve been travelling all day and you probably want a bath before dinner… and then we have a wedding to plan!”

***

             
A short time later, Willa sank gratefully into the hot water of her bath while Faith went off to find an army of seamstresses who could sew a wedding gown in a matter of days, even though Willa had insisted she could wear one of the two gowns she already had. 

             
So much had happened in such a short space of time… and her mind was spinning.  She truly hoped that life would be a bit more… boring… for a while.  As she washed the road dust from her skin and hair, she found herself longing for Drust.  He was in her thoughts constantly.  She wanted him here… touching her, kissing her.  Her hips arched at the memory of his lips on hers, hungry and demanding.  Needing.  There was something achingly vulnerable in the way he kissed, as if he wanted so very much to be loved and needed, but wasn’t sure he deserved to be.  But then… then he would quickly become lost to the passion that he’d kept reined in for far too long, and there was no holding him back.  Oh, yes, making love to Drust Mac Coinnach was more than she could ever have imagined.

              There was a knock at the door, and Willa jumped.  She had been so lost in her thoughts, it took a moment to even remember where she was.  Before she could even gather her wits enough to answer, Faith came into the room.  Her cheery smile and the aura of happiness that surrounded her instantly brightened the room.  No wonder Bren was so taken with her.

             
“Good news!  Everything will be ready by the day after tomorrow.  I just need to have you measured this afternoon.  Drust wanted to marry you
today
, but I told him he had to wait so you could at least have a real wedding.  So…you have less than two days left to be a single woman.”  Her grin turned teasing.  “Any last-minute doubts?”

             
Willa smiled.  “No”, she said with all the bone-deep conviction she felt.  She loved Drust with all of her heart.  She hungered for his body, and she wanted to spend the rest of her life learning every little thing about him.

              Washed, measured, and dressed in fresh clothes, Willa made her way to the Hall for her first dinner at Creagmor.  When Drust saw her approach the table, he stood and came forward to offer her his hand.  His eyes never leaving her face, he led her to her seat. 

             
“You look beautiful”, he whispered near her ear, and she was fairly certain she blushed.  Oh yes, this life was going to be everything she had dreamed.    Faith took the seat next to her, and Bren sat across from his wife, so that he could talk to Drust.

             
“Yer settling back in all right, brother?”  Bren asked.

             
“Aye.  It’s good to be home.  “Thank you”, he said with a rueful smile, “for not selling all of my things right away.”

             
“Aye, yer welcome”, Bren teased back in an easy manner that made light of what they had both just gone through.  “I was verra busy and didna have the time.”

             
“Tell me about Eian.  Where is he, exactly?”

             
“West of here, somewhere, I imagine.”  Bren leaned back in his chair and took a swallow of his ale.  “But really, he could be anywhere by now.”

             
Drust picked up his own mug and raised his eyebrows at his brother.

             
“After… we lost ye”, Bren continued, “Eian got it into his head that there was a way to go back in time, and pull ye forward just before ye fought Mored in that cave.  He’d heard talk of a powerful charm that could bend time.  I think he heard it from a gypsy lass he was tupping… I dinna remember.  But anyway, he went to see if there was any truth to it.”

             
Drust frowned.  “But if he found it… and it worked… then I never will have met Willa, and ye might no’ have Faith back.  He shouldna be messing with such things!”