Prologue

Padraig sat behind his young wife as she dangled her bare feet over the edge of the rock face into the water. Pin by pin he took the braid out of her hair and let the dark waves flow down her back. She liked her hair up. He liked it down. She would get used to the feel of it. Already she wasn't protesting that he was undoing it.

He ran his fingers through the soft waves and brought it to his nose, jasmine. She always smelled like jasmine. The scent of her had haunted his dreams for as long as he could remember. He pulled the hair over her shoulder and kissed her neck as he wrapped his arm around her and cupped her breast in his palm. “I’m going to lay you out under that tree over there and lick you from your ears down to your toes.” Eliana shivered in his arms. They had coupled twice already this day, and still, he craved her. The way her body moved when he was inside her drove him wild like no other woman ever had.

“Do you think we will feel like this every day Paddy or is it only today because we are finally wed?”

“I expect the way we crave to be together will change over time. It is not even the same now as it was years ago when we first pledged our love, is it? Now we are wed and can be together anytime we wish, so it will settle more in time. At some point, my child will swell your belly and I will crave to touch you there and feel it move inside you.” Eliana squirmed and looked up at him. “I do not wish to have children right away, Paddy. You know I am taking herbs to prevent it. Mother insisted it is unwise to have children so young.”

“I know,” he said, kissing her gently as he tugged down the top of her dress to expose her nipple, “but one day they will either not work or we will choose -”

Griogair’s high-pitched whistle cut through the moment. Padraig pulled Eliana back from the water’s edge and put her on her feet between himself and the edge of the cliff behind them.

‘What is it, Paddy?”

“I don’t know, Lia, but Gair wouldn’t interrupt our wedding day unless it were urgent. Get your feet covered.”

“My feet? Paddy, I think my bloomers -”

“Nobody will notice your bloomers off unless they lift your skirts, and if they do that I will slit their throat. Cover your feet.”

He glanced back just long enough to see that she was doing as he’d said.

Padraig focused on the sound of heavy footsteps and breaking branches. Several people were headed towards them, and none were making any attempt to be quiet. He drew his sword.

“Paddy?”

“Hush. Pick up your bloomers.”

“I did.”

“See if you can fit inside that cavern.”

“In there? But-”

“Now Lia! I do not know who or how many are approaching. The opening is small, too small for any man, so I know you'll be out of reach. The cave itself has plenty of room. I used it often when I was a lad. You will be safe there, just do not go far from the opening or you may get lost. Hurry, before they know you are here.” He glanced down and saw her struggling to get her skirts in. She herself was tiny, that dress of hers was not meant to fit anywhere.

The footsteps drew nearer and Padraig relaxed a bit when he heard his brothers starting to argue with one another. After a few moments, he realized that they were pretending to argue about where he was and saying he had just gone for a swim alone. What the devil was going on?”

“There he is!” Padraig spun around in the opposite direction. While he’d been focused on his brothers and the noisy group to his left, someone else had been approaching quietly from the right. He glanced quickly to the cavern entrance, glad to see Lia was inside and well hidden.

“State your business!” He ordered when the two men appeared from the bushes on his right.

“We come on the King’s business,” said the group on the right.

“We are looking for Eliana MacDonald,” said the group on the left.

“MacInnis,” Padraig corrected, then cursed himself for letting them know he even knew her. “My wife’s name is Eliana MacInnis. What do you want with her?”

“Miss Eliana MacDonald is no one’s wife,” the guard said. “We are here to retrieve his majesty’s wayward ward and return her back to her father’s keep.”

Padraig felt his blood run cold. The king’s ward? Stealing the lass from her father was one thing, but stealing her from king Charles could have more serious consequences.

“Tell us where she is.”

Padraig glanced at his brothers. The king’s guard had removed their weapons. He clenched his teeth. Six against one were not good odds. Especially since they could also attack his unarmed brothers. 

“I wed her this morning according to Scottish custom. I stole her from her father since he would not let me have her when I asked. She is mine now.”

“He could not have given her to you even if he wanted to. She was not his to give and I hope you were not daft enough to steal her from his majesty. As long as you hand the maiden over now, and she is still untouched, his majesty will overlook your ignorance.”

Bloody hell. Lia hadn’t been a maiden for nearly a year! And untouched? She’d let him fondle her for the first time when they were both children, long before they were old enough to really know what they were about. 

“Tell us where she is or we will assume you have injured her. Injuring the king’s ward would make your life forfeit.”

“Don’t hurt him!” Padraig ground his teeth and closed his eyes as Lia’s voice came from inside the cavern. “I hid in here to have some privacy to relieve myself and I stayed when we heard you coming.” 

“Come out now, Miss MacDonald.”

“Of course, just don’t hurt him!” The guards looked from one to the other. Padraig knew that look. They had no intention of letting him live. His brother’s either. He looked at them and they both nodded almost imperceptibly. They’d had plenty of practice getting themselves out of trouble, hopefully, it would pay off today.

“I'll not touch him, Miss MacDonald. Come out now.”

“If any of you injure him now, or after I come out, I promise I will see you dead. I know the herbs that my father used to kill my mother. I’ll have the cook put them in your dinner.”

Was she stalling for them? Padraig wondered. He didn’t think she would know anything about tactics, but he also knew that she rarely let on how much she understood. Her father hadn’t wanted her educated, so she pretended not to be. Underneath that though, she was smarter than most realized. He looked from one guard to the other and saw the hesitation in their eyes. They were not at all certain they could be safe from her threat. Which meant three things. First, Lia's mother had likely been murdered, secondly, the king knew about it and thirdly, the king had let Donald live, despite knowing the man had made his oldest daughter disappear and killed his wife. Why? And why did they think Lia would be safe there?

“You know I can do it!” Paddy looked down and saw her head peeking out of the cavern. She was being careful to stay far enough inside that they could not grab her and pull her out, but she could see the guard, and they her. “The cook will do as I say, and if you change the cook I will have a maid slip it in. It may not happen today, but it will happen. My father’s servants are more loyal to me than they are to you. They're more loyal to me than they are to my own father! If my husband or his brothers are injured, I will see the whole lot of you dead.”

Two splashes had the guard spinning back toward the water. Lia had distracted them so much that they hadn’t noticed Gair and Dair backing up to the edge of the water. 

“Gair and Dair are in the water,” Paddy said to Lia so she would know what was happening, “they are safe.”

“You too, Paddy. I could not bare to see your life forfeit. Let them take me back to MacDonald land, then send a petition to the king for my hand.”

“You knew you were his ward?”

“No. Only that he left some of his own guards to watch over me. They are quite annoying. It was nearly impossible to slip from the castle without them noticing. They would have followed me into the privy if I hadn’t threatened to write the king that they were trying to force themselves on me in intimate ways.”

“After this, she won’t be leaving her room for a while,” one of them muttered. Padraig clenched his fist around his sword.

“Don’t do anything foolish, Paddy. I can deal with this lot in my father’s keep. The staff will help me as they have been for the past few days. Go home and write the king. I will write him too. Surely he will see it is only right to let the marriage stand. He is Scottish after all. It’s a tradition as old as the highlands! We were handfasted nearly a year ago and have decided we do indeed wish to wed. Our promise predates him taking everything from father.”

Paddy looked down to the cave entrance and saw her pulling herself out. One of the guards bent to grab her arms she swatted his hands away. When he continued to reach for her she grasped some dirt and tossed it in his eyes. “You will not touch me unless I allow it! The king promised me you would not touch me unless I asked for assistance and it required such. Those were your orders. Back away now.” The man did as he was told, wiping his eyes and blinking.

Padraig sheathed his sword and stepped forward, reaching down to his wife, knowing this might very well be the last time he could ever touch her skin.

He grasped her wrists, and she his. Slowly he pulled her from the cave and to her feet. Her face was covered in dirt and streaked with tears. He lifted one finger to brush a tear from her cheek.

“This is not forever,” she said, but her voice trembled. “When the king took my father’s land and title he forbade him from marrying me to anyone. He said the guard was there to ensure father didn’t give me away or send me off as he had Eleanor. He did not say he had chosen a husband for me, nor that he was intending to.” More tears fell and she stepped up to put her head on her chest and hold him close. “Petition him for my hand, Paddy. I will write him too and tell him what has happened. We have been promising ourselves to one another for as long as I can remember, surely the king will honour that.” He held her tight until the guard stepped up.

“We will leave him standing and hail, Miss MacDonald, you have my word. If he does not fight us, he will not be hurt. We will even return his brother’s swords to him. One of us will leave first thing in the morning to take your letter to the king in London. Come. Lingering with him now will only make it harder to leave.” She nodded and pushed away. Padraig loosened his grip and looked around. Four of the men had their swords at the ready. One was still wiping the dirt from his eyes and the other stood near, ready to escort his wife away from him.

First, it was his own father who had forbidden him from seeking Lia’s hand.

After his father’s death, her father had forbidden him from even talking to her.

Now it was the king forbidding him from being with his bride.

Would the woman he loved for as long as he could remember always be forbidden to him?