“As will mine. Send me a warm thought or two.”
He can’t stop us from this. I can say completely inappropriate things in my mind. “Besides, it will make the wedding night all the more exciting. Don’t you think?”
He growled, placed his forehead against hers.
Your words make me so stiff I cannot move. Days of such talk will drive me mad.
It’ll be worth the pain. I promise to make it up.
We will take to our bed after the wedding and stay there for a week. I’ll put a white flag on the door when someone needs to bring us food.
She chuckled.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Brother Malloy said, giving them a look of stern disapproval.
****
Duncan left with Fin on an errand before the guests started to arrive. He needed a diversion from his bride. Not that he didn’t love how she taunted him with her secret words. He did. However, not being able to touch her was maddening. No one would say they were growing apart by not sharing a bed. In fact, to the contrary, they grew closer every day. He didn’t know exactly when he fell in love with her, but there was no denying he had.
He wondered now, as he often did, if she felt the same love for him. Was it only their Druid vows binding them so closely together? Would the deeper words of love bring them closer still?
He couldn’t think of her without joy piercing his 192
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heart. Even now sitting on his horse with his brother at his side, his mind was on Tara and what she was doing. The farther away from the Keep they rode, the harder it was for him to hear her. But he felt her, and the happiness emanating from her.
Fin slowed his horse, peered at his brother, then rolled his eyes. “Good lord, get that blasted look off your face. Someone would think you daft if they saw it.” “Jealous, Brother?”
“Of how she has turned your brain to mush? I think not.”
“You would be lucky to find a woman like mine.”
Duncan liked putting possession behind how he referred to Tara.
She was his!
“One as beautiful, I would agree. But her tongue can cut like a knife.”
“But never undeservingly so.”
Fin shifted his reins in his hands. “Still, I want my bride to be more subdued.”
“Like Alyssa, from the village?”
Fin looked away. “She may be subdued in voice, but not in bed. There she has too many desires, which don’t always require the same bed mate.”
Duncan’s brow creased with the weight of his brother’s words. “’Tis unfortunate. She has Druid blood as well. I thought you two made a good match.”
“As did I.”
They rode in silence for a while, enjoying the quiet and opportunity to think.
“Have you spoken with Tara about the vows you took in California?”
“The subject hasn’t come up.”
“Are you content with leaving it?”
He shook his head. “Nay, but what am I to say? I tell her constantly we are already wed. She knows we are connected with our thoughts.”
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“You are hoping she will come to the conclusion on her own?”
“Maybe.”
“I hope you know what you are doing, brother. I wouldn’t want to get on Tara’s bad side. Something tells me she could bring down the Ancients themselves to fight for her if she pleased.”
“I’ll wait for the right time. Tara is a reasonable lass, she’ll understand.”
Fin kicked his horse to a faster pace. “I hope so.”
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Chapter 17
A few days, turned into five. Five long, painfully slow days, and even longer nights.
If not for the many guests distracting them, Duncan and Tara would never have been able to make good on their promise to stay away from each other.
Two nights before the ceremony, Tara sat opposite Duncan at the other end of the huge table set in the center of the main hall. She was surrounded by strangers who made polite conversation during supper.
Celeste and Haggart had married that day, along with several other couples from the village. All were asked to join the MacCoinnich’s in celebration.
Knights surrounded the table, their pages and squires sat at another.
Some of the men were none too happy about sharing their meal with commoners from the village, but none voiced this opinion to Ian or Lora. They wouldn’t dare. Laird Ian ran his home as he saw fit and defied any to question him. He raised his sons to do the same. When Duncan’s time came to rule, Tara knew the villagers and all their children would pledge their loyalty to him.
She listened to the daunting conversation between Myra and Matthew of Lancaster. He was attempting to impress Myra with his knowledge of the migrating birds near his home. He ignored the quips from some of the men and took advantage of the fact his father was seated several feet away and 195