Bride For A Knight Page 0,45

still more furs, softer looking and more luxuriant, made the room's great four-poster bed an almost irresistible enticement.

Her heart thumping, she went to one of the arched windows and breathed deep of the chill damp air. The night smelled of rain, wet stone, wood ash, a soul-lifting hint of heather and Caledonian pine.

Soft mist and dark, lowering clouds.

The silvery sheen of the moon.

Night scents familiar to all Highlanders and not at all unlike she knew from Fairmaiden. But here, in this grand-seeming chamber with its heavy oaken furnishings and arras-hung walls, intoxications that caressed and stirred. Rousing her deepest, most elemental yearnings. Desires even Kendrick's ghost couldn't squelch. Not with James of the Heather striding toward her, the look in his eyes melting her.

"You needn't fret o'er Gelis," he said again, stopping not a handsbreath away from her. Lowering his head, he brushed his lips ever so gently across hers. "I think you saw in the wood that night just who enchanted me."

He pulled away to look at her and she drew a shaky breath, the taste of him still heady and sweet on her lips.

"I did not mean - "

"I ken what you meant." He smoothed his knuckles down her cheek. "But you're worrying for naught. Duncan MacKenzie's daughters are like sisters to me. I could ne'er think of them otherwise. Though I'll admit they make fair gazing!"

Aveline glanced aside.

He caught hold of her chin, tilting her head for another kiss. A slow, soft one this time, with just a hint of tongue. "See you," he went on, ending the kiss, "those girls have been spoken for since birth."

He slid his arms around her, drawing her closer. "Leastways, it stands clear that they'll wed highborn husbands. If their father doesn't stop hiding them away behind his stout castle walls."

Aveline blinked. "I thought they were traveling north to seek possible matches?"

"Och, nay, sweetness. They came here for a different reason." Jamie splayed his hands across her back, rubbing her gently. Soothing her. "A reason that has little to do with their weddings, whene'er their da allows the like."

"You know the reason?"

Jamie looked aside, his gaze on the windows and the darkness beyond. "I have guessed, aye."

"And will you tell me?"

He was silent, but a muscle jerked in his jaw and Aveline would've sworn she felt him stiffen.

Och, aye, she could feel the ill ease thrumming all through him. A taut wariness she could almost taste, and troubling enough to make her own heart skitter. So she circled her arms around his neck and twined her fingers in his hair, determined to hold fast until he told her what she wanted to know. Needed to know.

"Can the reason have anything to do with the way Lady Gelis was looking at you in the hall?" She peered up at him. "When she ran up to us as we were leaving?"

"So that was the look you meant?" Jamie reached to caress her hair. "You were not jealous? Only concerned about her warning?"

"So it was a warning?"

He shrugged. "I can only guess, but I would say aye. Those three women came here for one reason. To warn me away from the Rough Waters."

Aveline shivered.

He disentangled himself from her grasp and began pacing about the room, peering into corners, eyeing the locked and bolted door. The air around them seemed to darken, the very shadows drawing near. Until, watching him stride past a window, Aveline caught a glimpse of the moon sailing from behind a cloud and its silvery glow returned, once more filling the room with soft, shimmering light.

A cold light, for even the fine-burning log fire seemed to have lost its warmth. Biting her lip, she rubbed her arms against the room's sudden chill. "Surely they cannot think something bad might happen to you, too?"

Jamie turned to face her. "Sweet lass, I'll own they know something unpleasant will happen," he said, not wanting to frighten her, but thinking it best she hear the truth. "The lassies' mother has the taibhsearachd . Her gift is unfailing and so true as I'm standing here. I have seen the proof of her abilities many times."

Aveline's heart stopped. "And you think she's seen something?"

"I can think of no other reason for them to come here." Jamie rubbed the back of his neck. "Even their excuse about the Black Stag wanting to haggle with my da over a stirk or two rings false."

"Because he's always sent his men to do the like?"

"Exactly."

"Then you must make them tell you