Bound to the Highlander(92)

“I trust you.” She poured conviction in those words. She trusted him. Everything made more sense when he was near. She inhaled and caught his scent of leather and her insides flipped over. Though she did not remember all of their time together, she knew him or rather, her body did.

“Will you kiss me?” she asked.

He raised his eyebrows. “Aileana, you don’t have to do this. We don’t have to do anything until you’re ready.”

“I know, but I need to know something and the only way I can find out is if you kiss me.”

He moved his face to just inches above hers, turned and brushed his lips against hers. Aileana’s lips parted as she responded to his touch. He pressed his warm mouth onto hers and wrapped both arms around her, pulling her closer.

She curled her hands around his neck and sank her fingers into his hair as she pulled him even deeper into the kiss. She had to find out if it was the same. When his tongue stroked hers, all doubt fled. James MacIntosh was her dream, her fantasy, and her husband.

She awoke alone the following morning, remembering his arms around her all through the previous night. She frowned, not wanting to be away from him even for a few minutes.

Aileana dressed and descended the staircase toward the tables in the tavern. When she arrived, she discovered several men including James, Calum, Fergus and MacDougal together with several clansmen and members of the King’s Guard engaged in heated discussion and hovering over some sort of drawing spread out on one of the tables.

“I say we re-trace her steps, it makes the most sense and is the only way we can hope to find any clue as to which direction he may have gone,” James said, pounding his fist on the table.

She froze in place as she comprehended the context of his statement. James intended to seek out Gawain. Her heart thumped hard in her chest as the room spun all around her, Aileana took a step forward to protest, but her words would not be voiced.

“The old lady said Aileana had reacted when she saw the man, and later told the couple she had seen him conversing with Gawain. We must find him also. He may know where Gawain would go.”

“James.” She couldn`t say another word. Her fear consumed her. She was about to faint. He must have sensed it too because he caught her before she fell.

“Aileana, you look unwell, you shouldn’t be up. Here, let me help you back to your bed.”

“No! You’re planning to go after him aren’t you? You’re planning to confront him and after that, God knows what.”

She feared Gawain’s unpredictable, violent nature, but she also feared being separated from James.

Calum stepped toward them. “Aileana, he must be found, he’ll not stop coming for you and he cannot be permitted to get close to you again. If it’s confrontation you’re worried about, we intend to find him and escort him to Edinburgh to stand trial. We have no intention of harming him any further than necessary to secure him.”

Her gaze never left James’s face—she saw a different possibility there.

He was a man of integrity and different from Gawain in every way. If he were to kill someone in the heat of battle that would be something he could live with. But, if he were to seek out a man for the sole purpose of harming him, no matter the provocation, that would be something he would never get over. James could not be responsible for Gawain’s death, for it would always sit between them. She might not have memories of his life, but she was certain she knew this man better than she knew herself.

“Laird MacKay?”

Fergus displayed mild surprise.

“Lady MacIntosh.”

“Is it not true that you owe my husband a life debt?” She sensed James’s unease. James would never claim the debt Fergus owed him. She would claim if for them both.

“Aileana, no.” James said.

“It’s the only way.”

“Yes, my lady, it is true,” Fergus said. “Your husband saved my life and those of my clansmen. I owe him a life debt, possibly more than one.”

Fergus appeared to understand what she asked. James did too but wore an expression of defiance.

“I don’t want you to leave me,” she said.

James released her and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. His eyes narrowed and pained, he shook his head and stormed out of the tavern.

Aileana had no words to offer any of them, she wanted Gawain found, aye, but she wanted to protect her husband as well. James was not a killer and she would not allow him to become one. She wasn’t concerned about the level of violence any of the other men might use since they didn’t have the same motivation.

Fergus returned to the map and the table. He studied all the roadways leading into and out of the town. He confessed he could not see the path Aileana had described but at least knew where it led. When he had gained all he could from the map, he spoke to Aileana.