Page 72 of Highland Treasure (Highland Brides 9)

Rory smiled with amusement at the words and shrugged, not really interested in what it might be. He had other issues on his mind at the moment. Not least of which was getting his wife to the docks and onto the boat waiting for them. He did dislike London.

It was a soft warm nuzzling of his ear that woke Rory. Smiling before he was even fully awake, he opened his eyes and slid his arms around his wife where she stood at the side of the bed bent over him. It had been a month since their meeting with the king and their short but surprisingly enjoyable stop in Carlisle. Elysande was even larger now than she had been then, but she was still gorgeous to him and he couldn’t resist trying to tug her back into bed with him.

“Nay,” she said on a laugh, pressing her hands to his chest. “You have to get up.”

“Why are ye up and dressed already?” Rory asked as his hand skimmed over her arisaidh.

“Your bairn was restless and woke me early,” she explained. “Now up with ye.”

“Nay. Come back to bed, love. Ye canno’ wake a man like that and no’ expect him to get ideas,” he complained, sweeping one hand down her back to her bottom and squeezing gently. “Ye ken I love lovin’ ye in the mornings.”

“Aye, I know,” she laughed. “But you must get up. Our gift from the king is here and you must come and see.” Eyes twinkling with excitement, she added, “I just know you will be so pleased.”

Rory hesitated briefly, desire warring with curiosity, but when Elysande pulled out of his hold and straightened to head for the door, he allowed curiosity to win and tossed the bed furs aside to get up. He didn’t rush after her, however, but took the time to splash his face and tend to personal needs, then donned his plaid and headed out of the room.

Ella, the maid Jetta had sent for Elysande, was the only one on the main floor when Rory made his way downstairs. Before he could ask where his wife was, the woman smiled and pointed to the door, so he continued outside. His eyes widened with surprise when he saw his brothers Alick and Aulay waiting for him on horseback, and he started to smile in greeting, but that smile died under the weight of concern when he spotted Elysande mounted on her mare with his horse saddled beside her.

“What are ye doing, lass. You should no’ be riding in yer condition,” he said at once, moving to her side with every intention of lifting her back to the ground.

“I am with child, not ill, husband. And I have three months until my time,” Elysande said, waving him off with exasperation. “Besides ’twould take too long did we walk. I promise I will go slow and be careful. Now mount up. I cannot wait for you to see our gift.”

“Neither can I,” Aulay said with a dry amusement that made Rory glance at him in question. His brother did not answer the silent question though, and merely said, “Mount up, brother. There is a boat in my bay that I should like out of it as quickly as possible.”

“A boat?” Rory asked, moving to mount up.

“Aye. It brought your gift,” Alick told him on a laugh, and then apparently unable to contain himself, he set his horse to trot toward the path to the beach.

Elysande headed out right behind him at a more sedate speed as Rory gained his saddle, and he glanced at his eldest brother as he gathered his reins.

Before he could again ask what it was, Aulay shook his head and said, “There are no words.” He then set off after the others, leaving Rory to follow.

It wasn’t far to the beach from the lodge, and that’s all it was, a beach. There was no dock for boats to tie to.

Or three boats for that matter, Rory thought as he stared at the three large ships presently anchored offshore and the many, many smaller rowboats being paddled to the beach, each one full of men who were apparently coming to join the scores of men already milling about onshore.

“What the hell?” Rory breathed, staring at the men coming from the ships bearing the English king’s banner.

“Is it not wonderful?” Elysande asked, her voice filled with excitement.

Rory glanced to his wife to see her attempting to wiggle her way around to dismount and cursed under his breath as he leapt from the saddle to aid her to the ground before she hurt herself.

“Thank you, husband,” she said a little breathlessly once on her feet, but then she turned to wave toward the English army growing on the beach and repeated, “But is it not wonderful? The king’s gift was to send us workers to help build our castle.”

“What?” Rory asked with amazement.

“Aye. He sent a thousand men!” She told him, her mouth spread in a wide grin. “Why, that will double the numbers of our workers and halve the time it will take to build.”

“A thousand men,” Rory breathed with dismay. “God in heaven, he sent an army.”

“They are stonemasons and laborers, husband, not soldiers,” Elysande said with an exasperated laugh.

“They are one thousand Englishmen in Scotland, wife,” Rory countered. “That’s an invasion, not a gift. It’ll start a bloody war.” Scrubbing a hand wildly through his hair, he shook his head. “We will have the clans marching up here to send the bastards running once news of this gets out.”

“What?” Elysande cried with alarm. “But they are a gift from the king. He would be insulted. And they will speed along construction for us. You cannot let the clans chase them off.”

Rory frowned at her distress, and moved to slip an arm around her. “Calm yerself. I’ll think o’ some way to explain this to the neighboring clans so it does no’ cause trouble.”

“Ye’d best think quickly, brother. It looks like that explaining will be soon,” Aulay commented, and Rory glanced around toward him, and then followed his gaze to the path to see that it was filling with men on horseback. He had just recognized the MacGregor, Aulay’s neighbor on one side, when Elysande squealed happily.

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