Highlander's Beautiful Liar A Scottish Medieval Highlander Romance Historical Novel - Adamina Young Page 0,39
have expected her to do a better job.
“Thank yer King and make yer excuses,” he ordered roughly. “Ye may retire to yer room.”
Bowing her head, she turned, and he blew out his breath. “My chambers, Cora. Ye may retire to my chambers.”
She hesitated for a moment before she hurried inside. Alec took a few more minutes outside to order a few men who were still sober to follow Innes and make sure they crossed the border. In the morning, he would reinforce the guards to make sure Innes kept his word and didn’t return.
When he returned, Cora was gone. “Yer Majesty—” he started as he greeted Edward.
The King cut him short with a frigid look. “She is the daughter of a man that I respected, admired, and loved,” Edward reminded him quietly. “And she has experienced nothing but pain and fear since she arrived in the keep that should have been her home. Ye will do to remember I can be a very unpleasant man. My man will be keeping an eye on her, so make sure that yer endgame doesna eat away at her soul.”
His words cut Alec to the quick, not because of the threat, but because they were true. His own paranoia aside, she was a woman ripped from her home and imprisoned.
And now she was his wife. He’d pledged to protect her, and that meant more than just her body. He would protect her spirit.
He would open this home to her and hope that she didn’t destroy it.
12
She was caught in the nightmare. Back in the prison, she listened as the water trickled along the stone walls and inflamed her own desperate desire to slake her thirst. Pulling at the chains, she tried desperately to reach the source only to stop when the doors opened and familiar voices reached her.
They were back. It was twice in one day. Surely they realized that she could not take much more. Her skin was parched and her body ached from when they last beat her.
Tears swam in her eyes as she moaned. No, no, no.
“Cora,” a new voice ordered. “Cora, wake up.”
Alec. She heard him even though she couldn’t see him. “Please, don’t let them do this. Don’t let them!”
“Cora! Cora!”
Wrenched from the nightmare, she came awake with a start and stared at the man whose arms were quickly enfolding her. “Doona fight me, lass,” he crooned as he pulled her into his embrace. “Breathe.”
Only then did she realize that her hands were digging into his shoulders, her nails almost drawing blood. Releasing her hold, she sucked in air and shuddered as the world righted itself.
It must have been late if she’d had enough time to fall asleep after the celebrations. She’d waited for Alec to return, to claim his marriage night, but he hadn’t.
“I fell asleep,” she said dully. “I did not mean to.”
“‘Tis alright. I just returned.” As she pushed against him, he released her. “What were ye dreaming?”
“I do not remember.” Another lie dropping from her lips. They weighed on her shoulders and threatened to bury her alive, but Innes’s last words had nearly unraveled her.
A reminder that all it took now for him to have her was Alec’s blood on his sword. He would threaten her family and her husband's life to keep her in line, and she had no idea how to protect them.
To distract him, she reached for the buttons of her shift. “I will require some help,” she said as she turned to him.
His hands settled on hers. “Sleep tonight,” he said quietly. “I will not take from ye what ye are not ready to give.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “What if I am never ready?”
“Ye will be.” His voice was dipped in arrogance. “Of that, I am sure. Tonight, ye will sleep, and tomorrow, we will discuss yer new role as mistress of the keep.”
She didn’t want to sleep. She didn’t want the nightmares to claim her again. “We can discuss it now.”
With a chuckle, he threw back the blankets of the bed and slipped under. After a moment of hesitation, she followed suit. Although she’d already shared his bed once, tonight seemed different. More intimate, and when he pulled her close, her body seemed to naturally curve around him.
“I will wake ye should the horrors take ye again,” he assured her. “Close yer eyes and sleep. ‘Tis been a long day.”
“Alec,” she whispered. “I do not know if I can do this.”