Page 28 of Awoken
He’d deserved a blade in his belly.
Even so, Duncan was now without a priest, and he needed one if he was to wed Lady Leanna.
Damn the wedding ceremony, damn all of these rules.
Fury kindled once more, racing through Duncan’s veins. He’d planned to bed Leanna tonight, and now he was being forced to wait. His groin ached, and his body was restless.
Duncan clenched his jaw.I need to plow a woman.
He wasn’t used to being thwarted, and if he hadn’t been determined to wed Leanna, he’d have had her by now.
Maybe I should go to The Goat and Goose, he thought dully, taking another gulp of wine. It was his favorite brothel. The whores there were always accommodating, although these days there weren’t any that really took his fancy. There hadn’t been for many years, not since the delectable Coira.
Duncan’s eyes closed as he lost himself in memories. Coira—tall, dark-haired, and sultry. How he’d reveled in her long-limbed body and full breasts. How he’d enjoyed reducing her to a trembling wreck upon the bed, those startling violet eyes huge with fear. Her disappearance from the brothel a decade earlier had soured the place for him. Duncan had looked for her, but the woman appeared to have simply disappeared. He often wondered what had become of her.
Shoving aside memories that still rankled, Duncan decided against visitingThe Goat and Goosetonight. Despite that Coira’s ghost tantalized him, the only woman he burned for these days was Lady Leanna.
He remembered spying her for the first time at the clan gathering between the MacKinnons and the MacDonalds of Sleat, over two years earlier. It had been a bright summer’s day, and she’d been wearing a robin’s egg blue kirtle, her long pale hair tumbling down her back.
Entranced, Duncan had watched Leanna dance with the other maids, her laughter drifting over the glen—a sound he infinitely preferred to the wail of the highland pipe.
He’d decided then and there that he’d one day have her as his wife—no woman but Lady Leanna would do. And despite all the trouble the woman had caused him of late, he still felt the same way.
Leanna was lying upon her bed, staring up at the rafters, when she heard the thud and rattle of her door being unbolted.
In an instant, she sprang into a sitting position, heart pounding. It was late, almost at the witching hour. Who would dare enter her bed-chamber at this time of night?
To her surprise, a wiry man with a permanently downcast gaze entered. Leanna went still as she recognized him. She’d seen him attend on MacKinnon a few times since her arrival at Dunan. His name was Hume—and he was the clan-chief’s manservant. “What’s the meaning of this?” she demanded, fear turning her hostile.
“I’m sorry to bother ye at this hour, milady,” the man murmured with a low bow, gaze still averted. “But ye must get dressed and come with me.”
Leanna’s breathing caught in her throat. “Why? Where are we going?”
“Please don’t ask any questions of me, milady,” the servant replied. His voice quavered nervously. “Just dress quickly in yer nun’s habit and come with me. I will wait outside while ye ready yerself.”
As quickly as he’d appeared, the manservant vanished, the door shutting with a gentle thud behind him.
Leanna got to her feet, her pulse racing.
Why did he want her to dress in her nun’s habit? Was this an escape? Had she been wrong about not having any allies here? That was the only explanation she could find to this bizarre request.
Hope fluttered up within her. She’d prayed fervently before retiring for the night—maybe the Lord was indeed answering her prayers. It looked like this nightmare was about to end.
Leanna moved over to the chair, where her black habit and under clothes still draped. With a trembling hand, she reached for them.
“Where are we going?” Leanna’s whispered question echoed loudly in the silent corridor. She had dressed as bid, and was now following Hume along the hallway.
“Hush, milady … it’s best we do not speak,” he replied, his tone gruff now.
Of course,Leanna chided herself.We must be quiet.If they were making an escape, she should hold her tongue. However, now that she was dressed and following the manservant, a strange misgiving had settled over her.
Something about this felt wrong.
Hume hadn’t met her eye once. And his furtive, guilty manner put her on edge. She tried to tell herself that he was merely nervous, for he was going against his master in order to aid her escape, yet that assurance couldn’t smother her instincts.
Why would he help me?
Halfway along the hallway, they stopped before a large oaken door. Leanna frowned. She didn’t know this door—it didn’t lead to the clan-chief’s solar at least. Perhaps this was the chamber of the person who was helping her.
