Mated By The Demon Collections: Paranormal Romance Page 18

  ‘Do you lie to distract me? Are you on the side of the Campbells?’ Raibert asked the man who had chosen just that moment to convey the disturbing news.

  ‘Nay my laird, I speak the truth,’ the man replied.

  Raibert continued to fight, wielding his sword with his usual finesse, ‘If it indeed be the truth,’ he said, between thrusts, ‘what would you have me do? We have a war to fight!’

  ‘Leave it to us my laird and go to the abbey in the hamlet where the nuptials are being held.’

  Raibert looked at the bearer of the news, never missing a thrust or a parry, and suddenly with redoubled savage energy he burst through the ranks of the Campbells, calling out to his men, and would have massacred all the enemy ranks, if they hadn’t turned tail at the sight of his flashing green eyes, and bared teeth, as he let out a blood curdling shout and came at them growling like a lion.

  After the Campbell armies had scattered, Raibert galloped away to the hamlet to seek the abbey where Elise’s nuptials were taking place, but as he rode along he became aware of a pain in his side and on closer inspection realized he had sustained a battle wound that he had only just become aware of. Blood was seeping through his white shirt and staining his kilt, but he was loath to stop now and return to Armadale for medical aid. He needed to ride to the abbey and attempt to stop Elise from making a mistake. But Raibert was growing weary even as he continued to lose blood, and by the time he reached the abbey he was struggling to stay steady.

  Elise stopped in front of Gilroy Gardyne, wishing the walk up the aisle had been much longer, and as she stared into his cold blue eyes, she wondered how she could have even agreed to such a union. For sure Gilroy was a good man and was prepared to take care of her and her family, but Elise was aware that with him she would have nothing more exciting than a staid marriage and a husband who stirred no fire in her breast at all. She stopped short of him and wondered what it would be like to turn around and run back the way she had come. Just then a murmur went through the gathering and Elise saw Gilroy freeze and turn to look at the doorway of the abbey. Elise followed his eyes and she froze too, as she beheld Raibert standing there, hair flying wildly about his shoulders, blood on his shirt, kilt and flowing down one leg, and his green eyes - tormented yet challenging and even accusatory, upon her.

  ‘This marriage cannot take place!’ Raibert shouted, stumbling forward as weakness claimed him and he fell to the floor in a faint. Elise threw her bouquet aside and rushed to Raibert, crouching on the floor beside his body, crying out his name and attempting to find the source of the blood that flowed in such profusion.

  ‘Please save him!’ Elise cried, tears streaming down her face, as she threw her arms about Raibert’s almost inert body.

  A medic was rushed to the scene, to staunch the blood, cleanse the wound and dress it, as Gilroy urged Elise to leave Raibert’s side and allow the ceremony to continue.

  ‘I will return to the ceremony just as soon as Raibert is declared to be out of danger and regains consciousness,’ Elise told Gilroy, ignoring Seonaid’s imploring looks and turning a deaf year to Angus’s entreaties to leave the ‘scoundrel’ and complete the ceremony.

  At length Raibert was carried from the abbey and laid down on a pallet in a small adjoining room while Elise straightened up and returned to face Gilroy. Even in his weakened state Raibert’s senses were alive. He sensed the attack on the abbey even before he saw the armies of the Campbells surging forward in waves, far outnumbering the unprepared Gardynes. Raibert drew his sword as he picked himself up from the pallet and rushed into the fray, leaping onto his horse which he had tethered to a post outside the abbey. Elise screamed as the Campbell army flew at them, and the Gardynes fought back with any weapon they could lay their hands on.

  ‘Take Elise away to safety!’ Raibert shouted to Gilroy, ‘I will fight back the army!’

  ‘What, and make you a hero in her eyes? No!’

  ‘Please, I implore you, take her and her family to safety. This is my war. It is my fault.’

  But Elise refused to go, urging Angus, Seonaid and Mairi to go away with Gilroy while Brody stayed to fight. But none of them would leave, and instead picked up anything at all they could find to hurl at their attackers.

  ‘What do you want of us?’ Raibert shouted to the Campbell army. ‘Do you want me dead? Take me then. Why are you attacking the Gardynes during a celebration of nuptials? Come, take me on. Leave these good people alone. It is after all my fault. I went back on a promise. The Gardynes were doing the right thing. Elise Gardyne has never sought to be wed to me. It was I who pursued her and that is why I broke my word to Edme Campbell. Come, drive a claymore through me if you will, but leave the Gardyne clan alone. They have suffered enough!’

  Raibert’s speech only served to incense the Campbell army all the more and they resumed their attack with greater intensity. But Mairi had once again run from the abbey and summoned help, and a great wave of men rolled towards the abbey, breaking upon the Campbell men and felling them like trees in a weakened forest. As they fought, Raibert’s eyes fell on Elise and suddenly he knew what he must do. The Campbell armies might be defeated again, he thought, but they would return the next day… and the next… and the next… just as long as he was there.

  ‘I apologize to you Gilroy Gardyne, and to you good Angus Gardyne, and to you my lady Seonaid,’ Raibert cried out over the sounds of the fighting. The three people who were thus addressed looked up at Raibert, perplexed. But they knew why he was apologizing when he leaned over to sweep Elise onto his horse. She cried out in protest, but he clapped his hand over her mouth and rode away with her over the moor.’

  ‘Return at once, Raibert! Will you be a coward? Will you allow the Campbell army to say you ran away?’ Elise screamed.

  ‘I am no coward as well you know. I am not running away, merely taking away the motivation for these skirmishes. The moors were peaceful until I went back on my word to Edme because I laid eyes on you, and now they are a blood bathed battlefield once again. As long as you and I are part of this landscape, the Campbell army will return to fight us. But if we go away, their blood will cease to boil so strong, or so we hope.’

  ‘And where will you take me?’ Elise asked apprehensively.

  ‘To my grandfather’s castle in the Isle of Skye.’

  ‘Please take me back to my home. I must speak with my family.’

  ‘Of course my grandfather no longer lives there. Neither does my grandmother. They both lived good lives and then passed on not so long ago…’

  ‘I beg you Raibert, let me go back to my family,’ Elise persisted, ‘You are wounded and weak…’

  ‘Hush, dear Elise. I will in good time restore you to your family. And as for my wound, I feel so much better after it was cleansed and bandaged. I will give it further attention later, but for now, I want you to be safe. We must give the Campbells some time to recover from their anger against me and as long as you and I live in close proximity to them, they will be frequently reminded of how much they hate me, and how much they hate you because I chose you above Edme Campbell.’

  ‘I am to be married to Gilroy,’ Elise said stubbornly.

  ‘You were to be married to him, Elise. But after I take you away, I doubt Gilroy will want you for his bride. I also doubt you will want to wed him after all…if at all you really did in the first place.’

  ‘I did want to marry him, Raibert. It was the right thing to do.’

  CHAPTER VI

  The journey to their destination was long. Raibert released his horse and they took a boat over the sea to Skye. When they arrived there, Elise was wide eyed, drinking in the exquisite beauty of the place. Raibert exchanged a purse of money for a horse and they rode over heather clad moors, uphill and down vale, by lochs, and in the shadow of towering mountains.

  ‘I have never seen anything so spectacular,’ Elise breathed.

  ‘Wait till you see the castle,’ Raibert said.

  ‘Who does it belo
ng to?’ Elise asked.

  ‘My grandfather bequeathed it to me,’ Raibert said, ‘and I always planned to take my bride there after we were wed.’

  Elise’s heart hammered in her chest. ‘I am not your bride, Raibert, please bear that in mind.’

  ‘But you will be, my Elise,’

  ‘And what makes you so sure?’

  ‘Just before I spirited you away I looked into your eyes and I saw in them what you truly felt – for me, for Gilroy, for your family…and that is when I decided to ride away with you.’

  Elise said nothing, concentrating instead on the turquoise blue of the loch they were galloping past. A stab of homesickness hit her as she saw the battlements of the castle loom up ahead of them and she longed for the homely sight of her own family’s modest cottage.

  ‘There it is!’ Raibert said, ‘MacIntyre Castle of Skye.’

  Elise was quiet. She felt overwhelmed by exhaustion, concern for Raibert’s wound and the distance from her family.

  ‘When will you return me to my family, Raibert?’ Elise asked weakly.

  ‘Don’t fret my beauty, I will return you to your home as soon as it is safe.’

  ‘And in the meantime?’

  ‘In the meantime we will ride and take long walks amidst this beauty. We will tell each other stories and you will play the harp for me, and we will enjoy each other’s company.’

  ‘Oh,’ Elise answered, not convinced that the pastimes outlined sounded at all appealing.

  When they rode through the tall gates of the castle they were greeted by maids and footmen all of whom looked curiously at Elise. She knew they were wondering if she was Raibert’s bride or just a woman he was amusing himself with. Raibert seemed excited to be there, even the pain of his wound forgotten, though as they entered the castle, he asked for a medic. Elise sat by whilst Raibert’s wound was attended to. She watched as the white shirt was peeled away, her pulse quickening at the sight of his bare chest. He saw the expression in her eyes as she looked at his body. ‘Ah, so your eyes do feast on me, don’t they my Elise?’

  ‘No, they do not,’ Elise lied, embarrassed at being thus accused in the presence of the medic. ‘I am merely concerned over your wound and whether the long journey and the battle before that have done further damage.’ She tore her eyes away from that part of his thigh just visible beneath his kilt, which led away to the mysteries she longed to unravel.

  ‘I wish to wash and change but have brought no clothes,’ Elise said.

  ‘You will find something to wear in one of the large wardrobes in the room assigned to you, I am sure. The clothes may be outmoded, and might not fit well, but you may wear them until we get something else for you.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Elise said, and allowed a maid to lead her to her room. She lay back in the ornate bathtub and soaked her aching body in the hot water, emerging hours later feeling greatly relaxed and refreshed.

  ‘You are glowing already,’ Raibert observed as she emerged clad in a flowing skirt and blouse that she had found in the wardrobe.

  ‘I soaked in the gigantic tub,’ Elise said.

  ‘I am aware that you did. You fell asleep and I walked in on you lying there and made a sound to wake you before I hurriedly left the bathroom.’

  Elise turned red. ‘You saw me in the bath?’

  ‘Sufficiently covered by the suds in the water, and besides, I didn’t come up too close. You must bolt the door next time if you wish to dissuade intruders like me.’

  Elise found it difficult to disguise her embarrassment. ‘Yes I will bolt the door next time, to be sure. I had no idea that you would come in. I thought a castle of this size would surely have more than one bath.’

  ‘Yes, it does. But this is the large one that everyone clamors to use.’

  ‘Oh! I shall then use the smaller one if you tell me where it is,’ Elise replied and Raibert laughed. ‘You are scared of me!’ He teased.

  ‘No, I am not. I just don’t want an awkward situation to develop between us. It is awkward enough that we are alone together in this great big castle.’

  ‘I wouldn’t be anywhere else at this moment, Elise, and you have nothing to feel awkward about or to be afraid of. I would never take advantage of this situation…’ His eyes twinkled as he smiled, ‘…unless you want me to, of course.’

  ‘Oh, but you are incorrigible!’ Elise said.

  ‘See? We are having fun already. The ice is broken and we are like old familiar friends.’

  ‘If you say so,’ Elise said dryly.

  CHAPTER VII

  Being at MacIntyre Castle in Skye seemed to transform Raibert. He seemed lighter of heart and his wound healed well. He regaled Elise with stories of his childhood as they strolled through the grounds, or when they dined together or sat by the fire. Every evening Elise would play the harp for him, remembering, even as she plucked the strings, what he had said that evening at the Ceilidh when he had kissed her. Here in MacIntyre Castle Raibert never tried to touch her or kiss her; always maintaining an almost studied distance. But whenever she played the harp she felt his eyes bore into her soul, and she knew that often he fought for composure, growing surly and distant when she stopped playing, and sometimes even leaving the room.

  At night she would lie in the large bedroom assigned to her, feeling dwarfed by the giant four poster bed and missing the comparative coziness of her bed in the cottage. Raibert slept in the room adjoining hers, and she sometimes heard him pace at night.

  ‘Does your wound hurt? Is it healing well?’ She asked him one day as they ate bannock cakes and cream at the dining table.

  ‘It hurts sometimes, but otherwise I think it is healing quite well. The medic is pleased with the progress.’

  ‘I’m glad. Have you any news from home? Any news of my family?’

  Raibert shook his head. ‘No. it takes long for word to reach Skye. We are quite cut off – and I am glad of it.’

  ‘My family will be worried.’

  ‘Only for a while. I have sent word to them that you are safe. But as I sent that message before we left for Skye, they do not know where we are…which is how I want it to be. It would not do for the Campbell army to attack us here.’

  ‘Will they?’ Elise asked, concerned.

  ‘As you see, the castle is sufficiently protected, but even so, I don’t think I want our peace disturbed.’ He took her hand. ‘Enjoy this time away Elise, because soon you will return to the same tedium of your life at home and then you will wish you had savored these moments more.’

  It was weeks later, when Raibert’s wound had healed almost completely, that he took Elise for a ride across the moors. Elise felt a wave of nostalgia sweep over her as they rode together, she on a grey mare whose mane matched her eyes, and Raibert on a white steed. Elise couldn’t take her eyes off Raibert on the steed – his legs emerging, long and muscular, from his tartan kilt, his body bare under a sleeveless waistcoat and his hair flowing free – longer, wilder.

  Raibert was aware of her eyes on him, glad that he had chosen to leave his waistcoat unbuttoned; his bronzed chest open to view, the hardness of his rippling muscles making Elise catch her breath each time her eyes caressed him.

  They stopped by a loch and Raibert leapt off his horse and held his arms up to lift Elise off her mare. As she slid down against him, she felt the hardness of his body against hers and he pulled her close for the first time since they had come to Skye, and buried his face in her auburn hair, smelling the sweet perfume of her flowing tresses. She seemed to have filled out since their arrival on the island, her breasts fuller, her hips more rounded and he kept his eyes fixed on hers as he traced the contours of her body and kissed her gently. Her eyes burned into his as they kissed, but her eyelids grew heavy as his tongue kindled a fire in her mouth and sent flames burning all the way down to her core. His kiss deepened, his tongue exploring hers, his hands first pinning her arms down to her sides and then bringing them up to circle his waist as he crushed her even harder agai
nst him, drawing her pelvis against his in a fiercely possessive embrace. Elise had never felt such passion and she was afraid. Afraid because of the fire she saw in him; afraid because they were alone on the moor and most fearful that she would succumb to his allure and give herself to him completely. He cupped and squeezed her rounded breasts through the thin fabric of her blouse, taking one in each hand, rubbing the aroused tips with his thumbs and bringing his lips down to her cleavage. Unable to contain himself, he released one breast from the confines of the blouse, feasting on its roundness and squeezing the firm flesh until Elise moaned. Raibert pulled away gasping for air, apologizing for being carried away by the moment, and assuring her that it would not happen again. Oh, but she wanted it to happen again, Elise thought, throwing her arms about his neck and turning her face up to his for a kiss. He made a deep sound in his throat as he kissed her fiercely again and again, grinding his hardness against her pelvis. His lips were on her throat, on the sides of her neck, on the soft spot between her breasts… and this time it was Elise who pulled away, afraid of the outcome.

  ‘We must go back before it is dark,’ she said breathlessly.

  Raibert turned to face her holding her at arm’s length before he took both of her hands in his. ‘I love you Elise Gardyne. Will you marry me?’

  ‘How can a Gardyne marry a MacIntyre?’ Elise asked sadly. ‘This is just a dream, dear Raibert. You must return to your home and I to mine and we must go our separate ways eventually.’

  ‘Will you persist with that line of thinking? Even after all that we have just been through?’

  ‘Yes. We have been happy – more than happy – these past weeks. But doubtless your family is biding their time before they summon you back.’

  ‘Do you honestly think that your life will be the same after you return Elise? You have been alone with me on an island for weeks. What will the world assume? Do you think that Gilroy will pledge his troth to you after this?’