Page 18 of The Black Wolf's Captive

‘I have sired no bairns that I am aware of.’

‘No not that you are aware of but I’ve no doubt there are several black-eyed little bastards running around the Highlands that bear your looks.’

Duncan tried to steer his uncle in another direction. ‘She’d never agree to this marriage anyway and she hates me so there’s a slim chance of my siring an heir.’

‘Then you force her.’

‘I will never do that as you well know,’ he replied, angered at his uncle’s ruthlessness.

‘Bah, if that is so distasteful choose some other MacLeod girl, I care not which,’ Hugh replied nonchalantly. ‘I hear one of her sisters is widowed and needs a new husband, she’d take you. Though you’d get more pleasure from Ailsa MacLeod, she’s far and away the prettiest little strumpet I’ve seen in a long time and no other man’s hands have been on her either.’

‘I don’t want to marryanyone,’ snarled Duncan.

‘No I don’t suppose you do. Like your freedom, don’t you. But I’m not blind and any man with eyes in his head would want to bed that girl.’ Hugh came close to Duncan, his pinched, skeletal face inches from his. ‘Hear this lad. With winning comes power, it takes skill to wield that power but first, you need to accept you have it and as master here you are entitled to take whatever you want. Asking permission makes you look weak and when an enemy sees that they go in for the kill.’

‘Aye I know I can take what I want but I don’t want this. Abandon your scheming, I will marry when I am good and ready.’

‘You have a duty lad - to me and to your clan. You swore to protect these lands and hold them against all comers and to do that you have to forge an alliance with the MacLeods. This storm will break over us again Duncan. Do you think the Sinclairs are cowed forever after one battle? We’ve wounded them but they are still dangerous.’

‘Even if I did think as you do, I can hardly drag Ailsa MacLeod kicking and screaming to the altar and forcing myself onto the old laird’s daughter is hardly likely to mend fences.’

‘She’s loyal to her brother is she not?’ His uncle had changed tack, an ominous sign.

‘Aye.’

‘That’s useful to us. Tell her this and make no bones about it. Marry you and Robert MacLeod will be released from our dungeons, refuse and he dies’.

‘I cannot threaten her with that. She has lost so much already and we need not be that cruel’.

‘You have a choice Duncan,’ snapped Hugh, losing patience with such delicate scruples. ‘You can take her to your bed, willing or no, and enjoy putting a child in her or I can give someone else the privilege.’ He smiled lasciviously. ‘There’d be no shortage of takers. She’s a tasty little morsel to be sure, young and fertile and ripe for the plucking. If you don’t make this marriage happen I will marry her off somewhere else to my advantage. I’m a widower so I might even snap her up myself.’ Hugh let this last threat hang in the air as Duncan’s scowl deepened.

‘You’ve not the stamina for a young wife.’

The insult to his manhood slid off Hugh as if it were nothing. His nephew’s anger was something he often used to his advantage. ‘Which is it to be? Are you going to accept this gift I am offering or be your usual stubborn self and cut off your nose to spite your face?’

‘I’ll think on it,’ replied Duncan turning away, disgust twisting his gut at the thought of Hugh’s bony, wrinkled hands all over Ailsa. ‘Now press me no further on the matter.’

‘Very well, as you wish,’ replied Hugh with the satisfied look of a fox that has burrowed its way into a henhouse. ‘Come let us feast and celebrate our victory over those bastard Sinclairs.’

Chapter Six

Duncan stomped up the winding staircase to Ailsa’s chamber in a state of intense rage and frustration. Hugh’s suggestion was infuriating in all sorts of ways. Was he to be told what to do and who to marry like some whelp of a boy? Was he to take to bed a woman who did not want him?

He had never had to force a woman and he wasn’t about to start now. Bonny women keen to bed him had never been hard to come by and he was damned if he’d beg a powerless young woman to trot up the aisle with him.

Admittedly Hugh’s plan was not without merit. It was an excellent way to heal wounds between the clans and he would have to marry eventually in order to sire an heir and it was impossible not to desire such a beauty as Ailsa MacLeod.

Duncan allowed himself the brief luxury of imagining what it would be like to be climbing these stairs as her husband and lover, knowing that she belonged to him and no other. He pictured her soft, willing body moving against his and taking him inside her. ‘Curse you Duncan Campbell for the fool that you are,’ he said. He was at her door now and, clenching his fists, took a deep breath. The image in his head was making it hard to control his lust, he was frustrated with his uncle’s scheming and angry with himself for letting Ailsa get under his skin. If he did not master himself he would not be able to stop himself from doing something regrettable. So instead he focussed on the unhappy task of dragging her down to the banquet so that she could despise him some more.

He barged into the room to find Ailsa standing at the window. She turned in surprise and gave him a filthy look.

‘I am come to escort you to the banquet,’ Duncan said impatiently. She was fully dressed in a lovely gown of cornflower blue which complemented the rich brown of her hair, hanging loose around her shoulders. She looked innocent and flawless which made him feel like a rough, brutish oaf.

‘My lord I am afraid you are mistaken. I am not attending,’ she replied loftily.

‘Ah yes, you are indisposed.Well, you appear in excellent health to me so come along.’

‘No I will not!’ snapped Ailsa.

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