He grabbed me quickly, silencing me with his mouth as he caused me head to spin and me knees to buckle. “I willna let ye go, Blaire. I canna do so again. Tell me that if I come for ye that ye will see me. I must live with the hope of holding ye in me arms once more.”
The tears fell freely now. Any resistance I had shattered. If he came to me, I would welcome him. I was no strong enough to deny him. All that I was had been his for quite some time already. “Aye, I will. Now, leave. Bri and Mary will be awake soon. I should make me way back inside.”
“I love ye, Blaire. When ye left this time, ye took me heart with ye, and it has belonged to no one else.”
He kissed me once more and moved to open the stable doors so that he could mount his horse and depart on his ride. He smiled as he left. Once he was gone, I scanned the horizon. Seeing it clear, I made me way back to the castle.
*
Bri was awake when I arrived back at the room. ’Twas apparent she’d been so for quite a while.
“Oh Blaire, I’m glad you’re back. I couldn’t sleep a wink after Arran came by here looking for you. Are you okay?”
She stood from where she was seated on the edge of the bed and pulled me into a quick embrace.
“Aye, I shall be, in time. We should make our leave today.”
She was kind enough not to question me further and left to wake Mary.
Once Bri had left the room, I cleaned meself using the small basin of water that sat at the back of the room. After changing, I did me best to pin me hair so that it dinna look like I spent the night in the stables.
I struggled with an unruly hair that was difficult to reach at the nape of me neck. It stuck out in a way that defied gravity, but unable to see it, I found meself useless when it came to securing it into place.
Thankfully, Bri re-entered the room and seeing me difficulty, came to offer her assistance. As she grabbed the long piece of hair, combing through it with her fingers, I asked her about Mary.
“Was she still sleeping when ye went to wake her?” While Bri worked on the back, I kept me hands busy trying to soothe the frizzing strands around me forehead.
“She was awake, but lounging in a steamy tub with three ladies sitting around her waiting on her hand and foot. Arran wasn’t joking when he said she wasn’t to lift a finger while she’s here.”
I laughed, picturing Mary ordering the poor lasses about. I was certain she would be no too pleased with having to leave Arran so soon. “What did she say to ye when ye told her we were leaving?”
Bri chuckled, and I caught her eyes roll in the small mirror before us. “Nothing that I wish to repeat. She said that we were welcome to leave if we wish, but she was making this her permanent home because Arran was the only one to show her any appreciation in ages. But don’t worry, she’ll come. In fact, I expect she will be ready for departure before us. Whether she will admit it or not, it’s driving her crazy not to be ruling over her roost. There. Does that feel better?”
I reached behind and smiled as the piece was no longer floating toward the ceiling and nodded in approval. “Aye, thank ye.”
A knock at the door and Mary’s boisterous voice from behind it signaled that Bri was right. Soon we would take our leave from the castle, from Arran, and from the place me heart would always remain.
*
Edana stood back after saying her own polite and expected farewells, watching closely as Arran made his own. He’d given her no explanation, made no excuse for his absence from his bedchamber the night before. Perhaps he thought she’d not come for him and believed his absence had gone unnoticed.
Even before Tormod’s words, Edana had taken notice of her husband’s empty bedchamber, and she’d suspected that he’d spent his night with another. She couldna say she was surprised. The wandering ways of Arran Conall had been legendary as she was growing up, and she didn’t know a single lass who didn’t dream of sharing her bed with him. But this knowledge did nothing to slow the torment of anger that spread its fiery touch over her each time she pictured them together. It didn’t matter that she was in love with another as well. Arran was a fool. ’Twas only right that she should fine a true man elsewhere, but she should have been enough for Arran.
At first, she’d been resistant to Tormod’s suggestion that she lie to Arran about a pregnancy, but as she watched him lean into Blaire as he pulled her close, unable to stop his lips from lingering near her cheek and the undeniable yearning that shown in his eyes, she realized the awful truth. Arran had not only shared his bed with the whore, but his heart as well. Whatever loyalty Arran had once felt for her, it had diminished overnight. In order to keep him close, malleable to her plans, she had to regain his loyalty.
She would do as Tormod bid, and by sundown she would win back Arran’s heart by becoming pregnant with her non-existent child.
Chapter 23