Highland Warrior, McCollum, Heather [carter reed .TXT] 📗

“I will go with ye.”

She shook her head, righting the dress around her. “’Tis still Samhain. I must visit my parents’ and sister’s graves. Better that I am alone. I have things to say to them.” A smile grew across her face, and she stepped in to him. “I will not be long.” She lifted her arms, kissing him before he could insist he escort her.

The kiss was leisurely until Kára sighed and pulled away. She picked up her two brooches, fastening one and then the other at her shoulders. “Are your brooches from your family, handed down?” he asked, nodding to them.

“Aye, handed down for hundreds of years, actually,” she said, sliding her finger along the polished silver circle. “They were brought by the first of my kinsmen to come to Orkney from Norway. Legend has it we were related to the aristocracy there, and rivals for the crown sought to kill us off.”

He pulled her back into him, looking down at her beautiful face. “So ye are a queen.”

She smiled broadly. “I think you should call me that all the time.”

His brow rose as a wicked grin spread across his mouth. “After what ye did to me last night, ye are definitely my queen.”

In the light filtering down the well, he saw a slight blush come to her cheeks, but she kept her smile, and it reached her eyes. “I have never done that before to a man,” she said. “You seemed to like it.”

Surprise blended quickly with selfish happiness that she had not given such pleasure to her husband. “I more than liked it,” he said, pulling her into him so she could feel that just the thought had rendered him hard again.

For a long moment, she gave in to their kiss, until it seemed like it would grow wild. Her hands slid up his chest, pressing lightly. “The council is probably waiting for me,” she said through the kiss.

He rested his forehead against hers. “Very well.” Letting her go, he watched her gather her cloak. “What are ye going to tell them?”

“Honestly…I am not sure.” She sat to pull on her boots, looking at him from the bent position. “If we were to travel to Scotia, we would be welcome on your land?”

His heart jumped as the muscles in his chest clenched. “Ye are considering it?”

“I need to know the facts. If those of my people wanted to escape Robert instead of fighting him or staying on Orkney, hiding from him, would they be welcome? Would there be places where they could make their homes? We have about one hundred in total across the mainland of Orkney, but I am certain not all would choose to leave our isle.”

Would her brother? Would the annoying Torben? Calder seemed interested in carrying his new family to safety.

Joshua forced himself to take a breath to calm the excitement that tried to bubble up inside him. “Aye, they would be welcome. My clan is allied with the clan to our south and has taken leadership of the clan to the west. There are miles and miles between us where your people could spread out or stay closer to our castle Girnigoe, where my brother lives.”

She finished the other boot and stood. He came up before her, his hands finding her shoulders. “Kára,” he said and waited for her eyes to meet his. “Would ye be one of them to come over?” He held his breath, watching her closely.

“I am now the leader of my people. If most wish to leave Orkney, then I must lead them—”

Joshua grabbed Kára up before she could finish, wrapping his arms around her to lift her off the ground. She laughed as he spun her around and kissed her on the lips before setting her back down. She might still stay. The warning fell to a whisper under the weight of his hope. She might come!

“I need to speak with the council, Joshua,” she said, echoing his internal warning. But he was too happy with the chance to save her people without marching them toward certain death and incurring the wrath of King James that he couldn’t squelch his hope. As if reading his mind, she said, “Do not become too hopeful yet.”

“There are trees and horses and friendly people,” he said. “And food. Do not forget to tell the council about the deer we have in abundance. And the Sinclairs will teach them how to make homes of wood and grow crops. And Christmastide and Hogmanay are coming up. My sister decorates the castle with holly, and the tarts are delicious.”

“Or,” she continued, shaking her head, “you can completely lose your mind and assume we are packing up tonight to leave at dawn.”

They climbed out the back stairway that led to a trapdoor under the old wagon in Kára’s barn. Joshua had to slide along the dirt and hay on his stomach and rose up, swatting it all off his tunic.

They stepped out into the cold, brisk morning. Even though the sun was not high, it was midmorning from the placement of it. They walked together back toward the village, his boots kicking through the spindly winter grasses. Instead of their hands being intertwined like last night, their arms swayed next to them, staying apart. Was it the light of day that forged a wedge between them? Or was it the vast decisions that must be made? He did not talk, letting her mind churn over her thoughts.

Joshua wanted nothing more than to pull Kára into him, chaining her to his side so he could whisk her back to his home in Caithness on the northern coast of mainland Scotland. Glancing beside him, he watched the wind play among the curls in her long blond hair. She had left it free of her usual braid, and it danced around her straight shoulders, a pale drape over her blue gown. She truly looked like a queen of Norway from