Nineteen
Callum crept along the ground, keeping his body as flat as he could manage, not daring to get up until he was at the moat. He rose only enough to slip over the edge of the moat wall, yet when he glanced toward the castle, his heart felt tripped within his chest. The moon shone on a window, and hanging there, seemingly by her fingertips, was a woman. He would wager his life that it was Marsaili.
“Alex,” he hissed, pointing at her.
“God’s blood,” Alex swore under his breath.
Before Callum could reply, she dropped and the darkness consumed her, the only trace of what had occurred a single splash and then horrid silence.
“She kinnae swim,” he growled, not waiting for a response. He dropped into the cold, black water and was swallowed immediately in a slimy liquid with a foul stench. He broke the surface, gulped in a breath, then swam toward where he thought she’d dropped, fear making his strokes choppy. Above him, he heard shouting, and then one by one, torches began to flare to life on the castle allure. A horn blasted from above, and a volley of arrows rained down. He went under again, searching for her, as did Alex and Cameron, who had pulled up beside him.
Nothing! He felt nothing but slime, grass, and water. He rose, gulped in air, and dove back under again. Still nothing. Dark despair entered him as he rose to and dove under the surface several more times, Alex and Cameron doing the same. Arrows dropped into the water around him when next he surfaced, and Alex and Cameron swam over to him.
“We have to flee,” Alex said. “She’s lost, Callum. And if we dunnae go, we will surely die here, as well.”
“I’ll nae leave until I have found her,” he bit out, refusing to believe she was gone.
“Callum,” Cameron said, his tone harsh. “Would ye make yer son lose both his parents? Marsaili would nae have wanted that!”
“Damn ye both!” Callum bit out and dove once, twice, three times more. And when he came up after his last desperate attempt, chaos filled the night, and grief filled his heart. He had failed her. She had drowned, and he had failed to save her. “I kinnae leave her,” he choked out to Alex and Cameron, who were treading water before him.
“For yer son, ye can,” Cameron said.
Yes, for his son. He had to. He nodded, a thousand regrets, a thousand memories, assaulting him. He shoved them down and swam through the darkness toward the shore.
Another volley of arrows flew toward them, and they all ducked under the water to swim the rest of the distance under the surface. When Callum came up for air, he was at the rocky wall of the moat. He gained his purchase at the same time as the other men did. They began to climb upward, toward the sound of shouting. Armed men raced across the bridge on horses, and when they reached the top, Callum paused as confusion swept over him. He had expected knights to be standing there waiting on them, but what he found was mass chaos and fighting.
To the left of him, Cameron muttered, “’Tis the Summer Walkers.” Cameron pointed at the flag that fluttered in the moonlight which bore no emblem. It was white and devoid of anything. As Callum glanced around, he counted, as best he could, twenty Summer Walkers. They were vastly outnumbered, but they had provided a much-needed distraction.
All three of them retrieved their swords from where they had left them, and when Callum stood, he raised his sword as Ulster’s men charged them. He fought through one knight only to be surrounded by three more. He lost sight of Alex and Cameron while he battled the man to his left and then the man to his right. When a sword whistled through the air behind him, he whirled around to meet his foe, his heart lurching. The blade of the knight’s sword came swooping toward him, but then the man grunted, swayed, and stumbled forward. As he did, Callum noticed the dagger protruding from his back, and when he searched the fighting throngs to see who had come to his aid, he could not believe his eyes.
Marsaili stood not four feet away beside Lucan. He had a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. She closed the distance between herself and Callum and jumped into his arms, hugging him fiercely.
“How?” he managed to ask, emotion closing his throat.
“I dropped from my bedchamber window.” She pulled back and bent down to yank the dagger from the fallen knight.
“Aye. I saw ye. I searched in the moat for ye. I thought ye drowned. I—” He shook as he spoke. “I thought ye dead.”
In the moonlight, her eyes widened. “I did nae see ye! I swam!” He could hear the happy shock in her voice. “I swam under the water, but then a hand grabbed me and I thought myself discovered.”
As a knight came toward them, Callum shoved her behind him and fought the man, felling him just as Lucan reached his side. Instinctually, he raised his sword to the man he considered an enemy, but Marsaili shook her head. “Nay, Callum. Lucan followed us. He went into the water to save me and guided me to the wall.”
Callum’s eyes flew to the man who looked battered and ill. By all accounts he should be dead. “Why?”
“She spared me,” Lucan said as a cough racked his body. “I owe her a debt, and I pay my debts.”
Callum nodded. “Take her from here,” he pleaded to Lucan.
“Nay,” she replied. “I will fight with ye. This night we will live or die, and we will do it together.”
He wanted to argue, but he knew she would never agree to leave him. “Together,” he said.
In that instant, she screamed for him to duck.
He fought with Lucan through four of Ulster’s knights, striking down his opponents with ruthlessness to make his way to the woods, but as the three of them reached the tree line, three more knights appeared. As he battled one, he could hear Marsaili’s grunts as she fought the other. He cut his opponent down by slicing across his legs, but when Callum turned, all he saw was a knight thrusting his sword toward Marsaili’s heart. She threw her dagger as she jumped sideways, and though it lodged in the man’s shoulder, it did not stop him. Callum raised his own sword as he closed the distance to her and took the knight’s head off in one quick blow.
Callum grabbed her hand as Lucan turned to them both. His gaze rested on Marsaili. “We are even now, aye?”
“Aye,” she croaked.
“Then let us flee before we all die,” Lucan said.
Callum shook his head. “I kinnae leave her brothers, the MacLean, and the Summer Walkers to this battle.”
Marsaili gasped. “My brothers are here!”
“Aye,” a voice said from behind them. “It’s good to ken ye would nae leave us, Callum.” Callum turned to see Alex, Lachlan, and Cameron standing there. Lachlan winked at him. “The Summer Walkers are fleeing, what’s left of them. We should, as well.”
With a nod, he turned, taking Marsaili with him as a volley of arrows came through the woods after them, one striking Lucan in the throat.
Marsaili screamed as the man dropped dead to his knees, eyes wide. And then Marsaili’s father and the earl came toward them from out of the mist. Without thought, Callum threw his dagger, and it lodged in the earl’s thigh. The last thing Callum heard as he took Marsaili’s hand and they continued to flee was the earl bellowing her name.
The ride to escape her father and the earl’s men was relentless and exhausting. On the second day of being awake, Marsaili succumbed to sleep, slouching against Callum in the saddle. She awoke to darkness and a much slower pace than the frenzied one that all the men had insisted was necessary to reach allied territory. Her first reaction was fear, but when Callum squeezed her from behind and pressed a kiss to her head, her fears dissipated.
“Sleep, mo ghraidh.”
The sound of being called my love by Callum made her smile, even as her eyes drifted closed once more. “We have entered yer brother Graham’s territory, and his men have joined us. Neither yer father nor the earl’s men can follow without threat to their lives.” Relief made her sigh as she nodded. Callum pressed his lips to her ear. “Soon, we will be with our son.”
“Aye,” she replied drowsily and drifted to sleep once more, where she was met with a dream of Brody and Callum.
They were all floating in the water, the sun shining down on them. The day seemed perfect. But then a shadow appeared of a figure holding a dagger. She could not see its face, and she jolted awake with fear and dread in her heart. They traveled through the day and into the night without stopping. There was no time for talk with the pounding hooves and jolting road. She fell asleep once more near the break of a new day, and when she awoke sometime later, the sun was high and Dunvegan Castle loomed before her. Her breath caught in her chest as joy flowed through her.
The courtyard was filled to capacity with MacLeods, but at the front of the gathered men and women stood Iain, who held his son Royce’s hand. Beside Iain stood Marion, his wife. In her arms, she held the most beautiful thing that Marsaili had ever seen—Brody. He was giggling as Marion tickled him, and then she pointed toward Callum and Marsaili and whispered something in the child’s ear.
Behind her, she felt tension ripple through Callum’s body, and she understood why because she felt the same thing, had the same worries. What if Brody feared them? What if they were terrible parents? What if—
“Together,” Callum whispered to her.
She nodded. Callum dismounted and helped her to do so, too. They interlaced their fingers and walked to their son as one. When they stood before him, Brody reached for Marsaili, holding out his chubby arms, and said, “Mama.”
She promptly burst into tears.
After greeting her brothers, her sisters-in-law who were present, and Maria, Marsaili made her way to her bedchamber to wash and spend some private time with Brody. Callum followed. She could sense he was reluctant to part with her, and she was with him, as well, but Iain had asked Callum to attend him in the laird’s solar before supper, which did not give them much time.
When Marsaili opened her door, she was shocked and grateful to see a beautiful crib within, nestled under the window. Callum rested his hand on her shoulder as she bounced Brody on her hip. From behind them, someone cleared their throat, and Callum and Marsaili turned as one.
Marion stood there and gave a radiant smile. “Iain commissioned the crib to be carved for you,” she said, her English accent not as heavy as it once had been. Marion brushed a hand over Brody’s head. “When Lena wrote to him and told him of the bairn and what had occurred—”
Marsaili tensed knowing that Marion was referring to Marsaili’s treachery. Iain had been kind enough when he had greeted her in the courtyard, but she had not expected him to denounce her on the spot. She assumed he would discreetly call her to him for her reckoning.
“He was angry,” Marion said, ever truthful, “but Marsaili, he does understand. I told him I would have done exactly as you did.”
“Truly?” Marsaili asked. Marion was one of the most honorable, bravest women Marsaili knew, and if she would have done as Marsaili had when put in such a terrible position, it somehow lessened the guilt she felt.
Marion nodded, then hugged Marsaili as she held Brody. “Truly.”
“Down!” he pronounced, wiggling out of Marsaili’s arms. She set him down, though reluctantly. He marched over the bed on still-wobbly legs and picked up some toys that had been left there for him before settling on the floor to play. Tears of joy came to Marsaili’s eyes.
Marion patted her as Callum drew her near and squeezed Marsaili’s arm reassuringly. “We will have a thousand of these moments,” he said quietly.
She nodded, knowing it was true.
Marion cleared her throat. Marsaili looked over at her, but Marion’s green gaze was focused on Callum. “I took the liberty of putting you in the bedchamber next to Marsaili. I presumed you would want to be near her and your son.”
“Thank ye,” he replied, his voice catching with obvious emotion that made Marsaili’s heart squeeze.
Marion looked at Marsaili now. “I had the gowns you left here washed and the wrinkles shaken out. I’ll have them bring up a tub and water. I gave Brody a bath this morning. Royce helped me,” she said with a chuckle. “Those two boys will be the best of friends.”
“Thank ye for taking care of him.”
Marion waved a hand. “He’s a joy to have around, and I am his aunt, at any rate. We will have to visit you a great deal after you are married—” she gave Callum a pointed look that made Marsaili chuckle “—so the children will all grow older together and be close.”
“I could nae agree more,” Callum said, taking Marsaili’s hand. “And I’m certain that Marsaili will wish ye all to travel to our home to attend our wedding.”
“When will that be?” Marion asked, giving Callum another pointed look that left no doubt in Marsaili’s mind that Marion had heard Callum was promised to wed the Earl of Ainsworth’s daughter.
“In the next fortnight,” Callum replied, glancing at Marsaili. “If ye agree, that is?”
Marsaili barely got out the “aye” that cracked on her lips. The swirl of emotion inside her stealing her ability to speak.
“I’ll leave you now, but I will see you both shortly at supper.” Marion started to walk away, then turned back around. “Oh, Brody usually takes a nap right about—” She laughed suddenly and pointed at something behind Marsaili. She turned to find her son curled up on the bed with his thumb in his mouth, his tiny chest rising and falling with sleep. “I’ll send a supper tray up for you, Marsaili, if you prefer to stay with him.”
Marsaili nodded. “I’ll stay with him until he wakes. Does he sleep long?” She hated that she did not know.
Marion shook her head. “Actually, no. So you should likely be able to attend supper if he wakes and is not fussy. He has only woken fussy once, though, so all should be well.”
Once Marion departed, Marsaili and Callum made their way to the bed. Callum very carefully scooped Brody up, set him in the middle of the bed, and then the two of them lay on either side of their sleeping son, facing each other. Below Brody’s curled-up feet, they interlaced their fingers and each of them set a palm on their child. Marsaili could see in Callum’s eyes that he had just as much need as she did to touch their son and ensure he was here, that it was all real.
For a long time, they lay in silence, alternately staring at each other and at Brody. Then Callum spoke. “When we return to Urquhart, I will need to speak with Coira alone to break the pledge of marriage given to her.”
Marsaili nodded. “I ken. I am nae vexed about it. But I am fashed that yer mother will be angry with ye. Will ye ask Iain for an alliance to help continue to defend against the MacDonalds, the Gordons, and now possibly the Earl of Ainsworth?”
Callum rubbed a gentle hand down their son’s back. His tender touch to their child made Marsaili’s chest ache with happiness. She could see he was contemplating things, so she did not speak. She simply enjoyed watching him with their son.
After a moment he said, “Aye, if ye are fine with my doing so?”
She smiled, pleased he asked her thoughts. “Aye.”
He smiled. “I dunnae wish to be like my father, but I see and ken that he did what he needed to in order to keep the clan safe. He made an alliance and used me to do it. We will need alliances, but I dunnae wish to use our children, unless it is something they wish for.”
“We are of a like mind,” she said, relieved. Her father had always used his children, and she had thought for a long time that all families did the same until she had met her half siblings and their partners. They had all married for love, and only one of those alliances had been dictated, and that had been Iain and Marion’s. Yet, even then, Marion had chosen Iain. Albeit, her only other choice had been an evil English knight, but she had picked Iain. Marsaili would give her children the opportunity to marry for love. Trying to deny the love between herself and Callum had almost destroyed them both, and she did not want that for her family.
“We will find a way,” she said, squeezing his hand, “but I believe Iain will be agreeable.”
“I believe so, as well. Iain has a heart for ye, lass. He is yer family.”
“I felt alone all my life, and now I dunnae. I feel so blessed. It scares me a little.”
“Why?” he asked, giving her a perplexed look.
She felt foolish telling him, but she did not want to hold anything back from him. “I have nae ever had such good fortune. I feel as if something bad must surely be brewing.”
“I will nae let anything bad happen to ye again, Marsaili,” he vowed.
“Nor I to ye. We will have to guard each other well, aye. We will have many enemies to contend with.”
Brody started to stir. Callum and Marsaili both went to pat him at the same time and in the same spot. They laughed, and Callum moved his hand down to pat their son’s bottom as Marsaili patted his back.
Once he stilled, Callum said, “I hope the MacDonalds will pull back if I secure an alliance with yer brother. That reprieve would allow me needed time to strengthen fortifications and train new warriors so that the need for an alliance is nae so great. The Gordons will want my blood always, but I dunnae fear them. As for Ainsworth, I am hoping that he will see reason when I offer to keep the alliance with him and help defend his land against sieges from the MacDonalds.”
“Ye have given this much thought,” she said, impressed.
“Aye. The moment I kenned I could nae deny my feelings for ye and honorably marry Coira, I started to think on how I could protect my clan and also have ye. I love ye, lass. I would rather wage a thousand wars than live another breath without ye.”
“I love ye, too.” She wiped away a happy tear as their son’s eyelids fluttered open.
Large, brown eyes stared first at her and then at Callum, and then Brody promptly announced, “I hungry.”
“That’s my, laddie,” Callum crowed, scooping the child into his arms. “He already kens his mind, and I will teach him to stay true to it.”
“We will teach him,” Marsaili corrected with a chuckle.