Tyler, Lynn - For Her Honor [For Her] (Siren Publishing Classic) (26 page)

Robbie smirked. “You have been talking to my wife I see,” he growled.

Jamie cleared his throat and drew their attention back to him. “Do the two of you think we can get back to the business at hand?”

Robbie’s heart ached as he remembered the tragedy they had been discussing. Their uncle Joseph and his wife had been murdered the day before. The loss was particularly hard for the clan as Joseph had been one of their best warriors.

The only good thing that had happened was that their younger children had been in the keep receiving lessons from Jocelyn while their oldest had been practicing in the lists with the men. Robbie looked over to the huddle of children clustered around Jocelyn. “Young Garret has been training with us since he was twelve,” Jamie said. “He is bent on revenge.”

At seventeen, Garret had the size of a full-grown man and now the responsibility of a man full grown. The oldest of the four children, Garret should be expected to care for his siblings. Their cousin was just a lad, however, and a rowdy one at that. His blond hair and blue eyes had the lasses chasing him everywhere when they weren’t occupied with Jamie. Robbie had asked Garret to sit with the men but he had asked that he be allowed to comfort his siblings. He currently sat next to Jocelyn, cradling a sobbing eleven-year-old Adele to his chest, smoothing her hair and rocking her gently.

Adele’s twin brother, Darroch, sat stoically, his eyes on the three men at the high table. He would make a fearsome warrior one day, Robbie thought as he studied the expression on Darroch’s face.

Fourteen-year-old Adam, Joseph’s middle son, paced in circles and caressed his quiver of arrows. The lad had already shown so much promise with a bow that Robbie had used him once before in a siege against the keep. He had been impressed with the boy’s skill and had set him up to be trained with the best archer he could find.

Robbie sighed and looked away from his young cousins. Garret could not be expected to watch out for this brood alone, and MacGillivrays always took care of their own. “Garret will take his father’s place with our warriors. I would have preferred him to be a little older, but we need all the strength we can get. Allow him to sleep in the great hall with the other warriors at night.

“Adam, Darroch, and Adele will become my wards. Jocelyn and I will see to their care until they are grown enough to be independent. They will sleep in the nursery.”

Jamie nodded but pursed his lips. “Adam will not take kindly to being forced to sleep with children,” he warned, directing a meaningful glance at the pacing fourteen-year-old.

Robbie rubbed his hand over the back of his neck and watched his cousin’s progress. He felt as if he was witnessing the lad’s forced tumble from boyhood, a lad staggering along the fine line toward manhood. No longer a boy but not yet a man.

He searched his memory for a recollection of what the time was like for him. He remembered learning to fight with the men but being kept out of real battles. He remembered the frustrating pains in his legs from growth spurts and the humiliation of his voice cracking. He remembered the first real desire to have a woman and that woman laughing at him.

Nodding his agreement, Robbie looked back at Jamie. “Aye, you are right. Let him sleep and train with the warriors. If a siege is made upon the keep, let him shoot from one of the more protected areas of the keep but keep him out of any real danger. We will protect him from any real battle as long as we can.”

Jamie nodded again and left to tell their cousins what had been decided. Robbie watched them for a few moments longer before he turned to Will. “Jocelyn tells me we should be fetching a priest for you and Sarah soon,” he ventured.

Will whipped his head around, grinning at his older brother. “Aye. Sarah has agreed to be my bride just this morn,” he said.

Robbie made a grab for his brother’s hand, shaking it vigorously. “It is about time you saw what was staring you right in the face, brother. Congratulations. The priest is over at the Dunbar’s keep for the moment. It will take him at least a week to get here. Can you hold out that long?”

Will gave a long-suffering sigh but smiled again. “I suppose I will have to. Tell me,” Will said, changing the subject. “I have noticed that Jocelyn no longer has her two shadows. What happened to the guards?”

Robbie sighed and eyed Will as Jamie rejoined them. “She convinced me that, since she won the chess game and forfeited the dagger fight, we had tied. In the keep and inner bailey, she is free to move about without the guards. If she leaves the walls, she needs to take the guards.”

Jamie’s mouth fell open. “And I had been so sure you would have doubled her guard given the circumstances. So, you have finally come to your senses then?” he asked.

Robbie’s lips thinned. He didn’t like the decision, but Jocelyn really hadn’t given him much of a choice. “She can go without her guards for now. The Campbells have not done anything in a while. If things get worse, I will reconsider. Besides, she threatened to make me sleep with the men in the great hall if I did not see reason.”

Robbie turned to speak with Will but found his attention focused elsewhere. He followed the course of Will’s view, and his eyes settled on Sarah. A soft smile had formed on his younger brother’s mouth, causing little lines around his eyes to crinkle. Robbie frowned at the sight of those lines, knowing it had been the intense pain that had carved them there.

Will held out his hand, and Sarah joined them, allowing him to pull her into his lap. Robbie raised an eyebrow at the action but said nothing. He was happy for his brother and happy to be gaining a sister, even if it was by marriage “I hear we are to be relatives,” he said to Sarah.

She blushed as Will ran a possessive hand over her back. “Yes, Laird MacGillivray,” she said in a near whisper.

“Please, call me Robbie. You have certainly known me long enough. Besides, soon you will have me as a brother-in-law. I have just told Will it will take a week to fetch a priest for a wedding. I trust you can wait that long?”

She smiled and leaned a little closer to Will. “Yes, of course.”

“Sarah,” Jocelyn called from across the room, “would you help me get Adele and Darroch settled in the nursery?”

Sarah left to help Jocelyn, the children trailing after them, leaving the three men alone in the great hall. “How has Elizabeth taken the news of your impending marriage?” Jamie asked Will.

Will shrugged. “She does not seem to mind,” he said. “It is strange though. She seems as if she is far away. Like her body is here but her mind is elsewhere.”

Jamie cocked his head and grinned at his brother. “Perhaps she is pondering her next conquest. Now that you are no longer available, the women should all come flocking to me.”

Robbie punched his youngest brother in the arm. “Young Garret might give you some healthy competition,” he commented. “Ever since Jocelyn told him the lassies preferred a clean man in their bed the lad has been bathing every day.”

Jamie threw back his head and laughed. “Garret? He is just a pup. But perhaps I should have a talk with him about how to control himself around the lasses. We do not need him fathering any bastards.”

Robbie didn’t think Garret was really stupid enough to lose control of himself, but it never hurt to reinforce the idea. All this talk about fathering had him thinking of the small babe growing in his wife’s womb. It might have been wrong for men to be lusting after their pregnant wives, according to the church anyway, but he found himself even more attracted to Jocelyn.

Rising from the table, he fixed his brothers with a stare. “I am off to find Jocelyn. Figure out new duties for Garret and Adam. I will see you both on the morrow.”

“But, Robbie. ’Tis only midday,” Will protested with a knowing grin.

Robbie simply waggled his eyebrows at him and turned on his heel, marching in the direction his wife had gone earlier. He thought he heard Jamie mutter something about newlyweds but decided any comments could wait.

He found Jocelyn and Sarah settling the children into the nursery. He smiled at the old crib that sat in the corner. Soon his own child would take up residence in this very room. Perhaps he should have his men add a few rooms to the keep. That way, if his family grew at the rate he predicted, there would be room for all of them.

Wee Adele was clinging to her eldest brother, her small fingers gripping his tunic desperately. Garret gently tried to pry her fingers off his shoulders to no avail. “Garret, do not leave us,” she whimpered. “Do not go to war with the Campbells. I do not want to lose you, too. I do not want to be all alone.”

The little girl’s pleas broke Robbie’s heart. As gently as he could, he lifted Adele off Garret. He set her on her feet and knelt down so he was at the child’s eye level. “Come now, pet,” he whispered soothingly. “You will not be alone here. You will always have Jocelyn and myself. We will take care of you,” he vowed, stroking her soft blonde hair. When the little girl whimpered and reached for her eldest brother again, he hugged her close. “Garret is a man now, pet. So is Adam and they have to do a man’s duty.”

Adele pushed away from him and stared him straight in the eye, the loathing evident in her small face. “A man’s duty is to get himself killed?” she asked, her voice cold.

Garret looked scandalized over his sister’s attitude with the laird, but Robbie just nodded solemnly. “It is a man’s duty to protect those he loves,” he explained.

“And I suppose you think that a woman’s duty is to stay home and bear children for her husband?” When Robbie nodded again, Adele sneered derisively. “When I grow up, I will not need the protection of any man. I will be able to protect myself!”

Robbie grinned and glanced up at his wife. Adele would fit in with their family quite well. Jocelyn grinned back and touched Adele’s shoulder lightly. “I will teach you to defend yourself after the baby is born,” she promised.

They all glanced around at a scornful snort. Robbie raised his eyebrows at Adam, who was leaning against the door with his arms crossed. Rising to his full height, he crossed the room to look down at his young cousin. “What is your problem?” he asked threateningly.

“A lass who can defend herself?” Adam mocked. “I will marry the first lass I see who can defend herself.”

Much to Robbie’s own amazement, he caught himself remembering the tiny Jocelyn swinging around a badly made sword, holding off a pack of horse thieves on her own.

He had opened his mouth to contradict his cousin when something whizzed past his ear. His eye was drawn to the silver dagger that was wobbling, embedded an inch into the wooden door, scarcely a finger’s width from Adam’s head. Every face in the room turned to find Jocelyn inspecting her fingernails innocently. She looked up at them and smiled dangerously. “If you had been a Campbell, you would have been dead by my dagger,” she promised quietly. “And I am already married.”

Adam’s face blanched before his cheekbones reddened. “I stand corrected,” he said before storming out.

“I apologize, my lady,” Garret sputtered nervously. “I will see that the lad gives you the respect you deserve.”

Jocelyn smiled gently at the young man and patted him on the shoulder. “He is grieving yet,” she said quietly. “Let him be.”

Robbie caught her eye, and she seemed to see the banked fire of desire in his expression. Clearing her throat, she spoke to the room at large. “Sarah will help you settle in. If you have need of me, I will see you this evening.”

“You will see her in the morning,” Robbie corrected. Garret laughed and even the twins giggled as he snagged her hand and began pulling her toward the door. As soon as they were in the hall with the door firmly shut, he swept her from her feet and planted a hard kiss to her lips. “I find your ability to defend yourself very arousing,” he murmured, slipping his tongue into her mouth to dance with hers.

Panting, she rested her head on his shoulder and wound her arms around his neck. “The bedchamber, Robert,” she whispered against his throat. “Quickly.”

* * * *

Jocelyn breathed deeply, trying desperately to slow the frantic beating of her heart as Robbie raced them down the hall. She marveled at the effect her huge giant of a husband had on her body. With one kiss he had her breasts heavy and her lower belly tingling. She might have been embarrassed about her reaction but for the fact that Robbie was always just as frantic for her.

He set her on the bed and quickly jerked his clothing off, cursing loudly when he became tangled in his kilt. Giggling, she helped him to get free of the yards of fabric and stood obligingly with her back to him while he struggled with the stays on her gown.

Muttering swear words under his breath, he managed to push the gown off her shoulders to sag around her hips. “It would be easier if I had some breeches like the stable boys wear,” she said saucily.

The hands roving over her back stilled, and his breath caught. “The idea of you in form-fitting breeches is very pleasing,” he breathed against her ear. “But I do not relish the thought of every man on God’s green earth knowing the shape of my wife’s legs,” he amended, sliding his hands around her ribs to cup her breasts gently.

Jocelyn moaned as his hot breath feathered over her ear and neck and tilted her head so she could look Robbie full in the face. “Perhaps I could wear them only for you then?” she suggested, knowing full well what his answer would be.