Chapter 28
“Dinna move, love.”
Rob hadn’t used the bed-curtain cords to tie her, but Elspeth obeyed his order to keep still all the same. Every time she moved, he stopped. She couldn’t bear that.
Every fiber of her body, every finger-width of her skin strained toward him, longing for them to join. He’d teased her with his cock’s nearness twice, slipping just the tip of him inside her aching emptiness, but he pulled back to torment her more each time. When she moved to stroke him, to entice him back, he gently pushed her hand away, pinioning her spread-eagled.
“This time is for ye, Elspeth.” He kissed down her ribs, past her belly, and settled between her splayed legs. “I dinna wish ye to think on anything but your own pleasure.”
“What of your pleasure?” she’d asked between gasps as his tongue flogged her intimate places.
He paused, midlick. “Any man who says this didna give him pleasure is a dead man. I love the soft, secret parts of ye, Elspeth, all musky sweet with your dew. And I love that this special bit of ye is only for me.”
She was ready to surrender every bit of herself, not just the throbbing mass between her legs. She trembled. She lost control of her limbs. She balled the sheets in her tightly clenched fists. She drew near, teetering on sharp-edged longing. Then as the first contraction pulsed in her nether lips, Rob pulled back.
“Ach, Rob, please!”
He rose and covered her, mouth to mouth, body to body. His full length filled her in one long thrust, and she was once again near the edge of bliss.
“That’s all I was waiting for, love,” he whispered. “Ye beg so prettily, how can I refuse ye?”
He rocked his hips, and the pressure on her sensitive spot sent her over the edge. Her inner walls spasmed around him in violent embrace. It was as if she was coming unraveled, and the only thing keeping her from unspooling completely was the solid length of his cock. He arched his back, plunging deeper as she continued to pulse.
His kiss swallowed up her cry of completion.
Once she finally stopped throbbing, he began to move slowly. Still aglow from her release, Elspeth fell into rhythm with him. She peppered his neck with kisses. She whispered urgent endearments. She loved every bit of this man with every bit of herself.
And when he came inside her, she held his shuddering frame, still rocking against him, drawing him farther in. He was hers. She would have all of him.
Peace descended like a mantle, draping over them, sheltering them. The armies beyond the walls faded from Elspeth’s mind. There was no rush. No need. All that mattered was holding each other and protecting their joining for as long as it could last.
“I love ye, lass,” Rob whispered as he finally slipped out of her. “Ye ken that, aye?”
“Aye. Ye loved me so well I almost dinna need to hear it, but I’m glad for it all the same,” she whispered back. “I love ye, too.”
“On the morrow—”
“Let’s not waste our time together on such things.” She put a finger to his lips. “The morrow will care for itself.”
“All right.” He rolled to one side and snugged her against him. “What shall we talk of, then?”
“I wasna thinking of talking.” She stole away from him and out from under the covers, braving the cold room long enough to retrieve one of the bed-curtain cords. “I was wondering what it will take to make ye beg.”
***
The morning dawned gray and mizzling. No hint of the sun’s warmth cut through the lowering sky. Rob girded himself in his hardened leather breastplate and strapped on his greaves and forearm guards. He was determined to have his parley with Stewart and Drummond before the heavens burst open and the light rain became a drenching torrent. He mounted the second-best horse in his stable.
He missed Falin. Since the stallion hadn’t found his way back to his own stall, Rob feared the worst. He hated to imagine Falin coming to a bad end in a wolf’s belly. He preferred thinking the wicked beastie was kicking up his heels, wallowing in his freedom, and rutting every stray mare he found.
Hamish sauntered into the stable and swung his leg up and over a roan gelding.
“Ye dinna have to come with me,” Rob said.
“I’m no’ likely to let ye go alone, am I?” Hamish said.
“I’ll come to no harm under a flag of truce.” Rob nudged his mount into a sedate walk across the bailey. Hamish rode alongside as the milling populace parted before them. Rob motioned for the portcullis to be raised, and the drawbridge lowered.
“Ordinarily, I’d agree with ye. Men of honor respect an offer to parley.” Hamish hefted the pole with the white flag fluttering at the top, and clomped across the bridge behind Rob. “But that means ye must trust Lachlan Drummond to be honorable. I’ve no’ got that much trust in me. Ye might have signaled from the safety of the walls and given Stewart and Drummond safe conduct.”
“No, I need to be seen making this offer of peace,” Rob said. “By both sides.”
But only one person seeing him do this really mattered to him. He knew Elspeth watched him from the battlements of Caisteal Dubh, though he resisted turning to look at her. She needed to see that he was trying to settle this impasse, that he wished to make peace with her father.
But damned if he’d make peace with her former bridegroom.
***
“This canna be. ’Tis a trick,” Lachlan said, narrowing his eyes at the approaching pair of horsemen. The colors of the caparison on one of the mounts declared its rider was the MacLaren himself. “Mad Rob wasna inside the castle when we parleyed last week. And not a soul has entered or left while we bided here.”
“That’s as may be, but they come under a flag of truce,” Stewart said, pulling on his heavy gloves. “The riders halted beyond the range of their archers and within the reach of ours. ’Tis a gesture of good faith. Whoever it is on that horse may have news of Elspeth, at least. I’m willing to hear what they have to say. ” He shot a cold glare at Drummond. “Come or stay, as ye will. ’Tis of no consequence to me what ye do.”
In the time they’d been encamped before the castle walls, squabbles between their men had strained the relationship between the two lairds. Drummond watched his ally stalk toward the groom who led the Stewart’s horse from the picket lines. If Stewart’s daughter was dead, their alliance was on shaky ground at best. It was time to mend the damage. Lachlan signaled for his horse to be brought as well.
But he didn’t hurry. The riders from the castle were the ones who wanted to parley, not he. He would have been just as happy to mount up and ride back to his own stronghold for the rest of the winter.
Once there, he’d be able to plan and find someone from Caisteal Dubh with a grudge against his laird deep enough that he might be bribed into opening the gates for Lachlan’s assault come spring.
The Dark Castle had never been taken from without. No one had tried to take it from within, but Lachlan was willing to be the first.
But Stewart would brook no delay in settling this question. If Drummond could have left him there in the mud and still kept his agreements with Stewart intact, he’d have been gone in a heartbeat.
When Alistair saw that Lachlan was making ready to join him, he reined in his mount and waited just beyond the first ranks of men. Lachlan knew all eyes were trained on them as he caught up to Stewart and they rode to meet the delegation from the castle.
He straightened his spine. Men respected strength, so he always tried to project it.
But his men also appreciated guile. Cunning was strength of a sort, after all. Lachlan wasn’t about to disappoint them.
***
“Well, Robbie,” Hamish said as Stewart and Drummond approached at a trot. “Ye’re about to get yer wish. Dinna say I didna warn ye.”
Rob raised a hand in greeting and also to show that he was unarmed.
Alistair Stewart’s eyes flared with recognition as they drew closer. Lachlan’s shifted from Rob to the castle and back, clearly reasoning that there were more ways into the stronghold than met the eye.
“Where’s my daughter?” Stewart demanded.
“Straight to the point. I respect that,” Rob said. “Your daughter is safe and well.”
“Ye’ll pardon me if we’re disinclined to take the word of a madman,” Lachlan said.
Rob reached into his saddlebag. His opponents’ hands shot to the hilts of their swords. They hadn’t come unarmed to parley.
“One moment, and ye’ll be able to see for yourself,” he promised Elspeth’s father. He drew out a pair of glass discs and attached them at either end of a leather cylinder. His grandfather had brought the strange ocular device home from the Crusades, and it was one of Rob’s most prized possessions. He always called it his “Grandsire’s Eye.” He handed it to Stewart. “Look at the rightmost turret. Elspeth is there.”
Lord Stewart brought the glass to his eye and scanned the battlements for a few heartbeats. A smile burst over his face. “I wish to speak with her.”
“That I cannot allow,” Rob said. “But you have my word she is being well treated. No harm will come to her while she bides in my care.”
“So ye willna kill her as ye threatened?” Lachlan asked with a sneer.
Rob ignored him and spoke directly to Elspeth’s father. “Your daughter has naught to fear from me.”
Stewart’s gaze flicked to Drummond. “We’ve been told she was injured.”
“Aye, she was,” Rob said with a glare at Drummond. “But no’ by me.”
“All this talk is a waste of time,” Drummond said. “Ye’ve heard our demands, aye?”
“Aye,” Rob said calmly. “Ye wish the return of Elspeth Stewart, which I’m prepared to consider. My head is no’ negotiable.”
“All I want is my daughter,” Stewart said.
“Then you and I can come to an accord,” Rob said, deciding he liked Elspeth’s father. “I’m prepared to release the lady to ye, Lord Stewart, on the condition that her betrothal to Lachlan Drummond be sundered immediately.”
“Ye canna do that,” Lachlan thundered. “There have been agreements made, moneys paid.”
“Unmake them. Return the money,” Rob said. “I’ll no’ release the Lady Elspeth if there’s the slightest chance she’ll be forced into marriage with ye. Ye may lay a siege on Caisteal Dubh till Our Lord comes again, but I willna budge. On that matter, ye have my solemn promise.”
Stewart didn’t speak, but Rob could see he was considering the offer seriously.
“And once she is free, Lord Stewart, I ask your leave to court her and marry her,” Rob said.
“So that’s what ye’re about!” Lachlan all but pounced. “Ye wish to increase yer herds and lands by yoking yourself to the House of Stewart.”
Rob shook his head and turned back to Elspeth’s father. “I ask no dowry. I’ll pay whatever bride price ye name, my lord. My men will answer your call should ye find yourself in need of MacLaren swords, with no return promise of aid. All I want from you is your daughter to be my wife. That’s riches enough for any man.”
“If I accept your terms, and I’m no’ saying I do, ye must accept mine as well, MacLaren,” Elspeth’s father said. “While I might give consent to ye courting her, I’ll no’ force Elspeth to marry anyone. It didna work the first time. If she willna have ye, there’s an end to it, aye?”
“Agreed.” Rob’s chest burned with triumph. Elspeth would be his. He was certain of it.
Lachlan Drummond’s face was turning an unhealthy shade of scarlet.
“And as for the second of your demands, I’ll make it part of my own,” Rob said, turning to Drummond. “Ye may have my head, Lachlan, if ye’re man enough to take it. Before I release the Lady Elspeth to her father’s keeping, ye and I will meet in single combat.”
“Why should I agree to that when we have your castle surrounded?” Lachlan said. “Your people willna be satisfied to stay inside the walls come spring when there’s planting to be done.”
“Spring’s a long ways off,” Rob said. “D’ye really intend to pass Christmastide in a cold siege instead of warm by your own hearth? I’d warrant a coward such as yourself would prefer that.”
Drummond drew his sword in one smooth motion.
“Peace!” Stewart thundered, drawing his own and crossing it over Lachlan’s. “We are under a flag of truce, and the man is unarmed.”
“He insulted me!”
“Then accept his challenge,” Stewart said.
“Can ye no’ see what he’s doing?” Lachlan returned his sword to its sheath sullenly. “He only made this offer to divide us.”
“If so, he’s done a good job of it,” Hamish muttered under his breath.
“Ye’ll have your answer on the morrow, MacLaren,” Lord Stewart said as he returned Rob’s glass device. “I thank ye for your care of my daughter. I trust it will continue, whatever our decision.”
Rob nodded solemnly.
The Stewart reined his horse around and rode off the field. Lachlan glared at Rob.
“If we meet in battle, ye should know I give no quarter,” Drummond said.
“And I was set to show ye mercy,” Rob answered pleasantly; then his face went hard as winter oak. “The same mercy ye showed my wife.”