“If ye want to leave, I’ll send ye home to Dunscaith tomorrow,” Connor said, though he prayed she would not go.
He loved her so much.
***
Was her happiness to end this quickly? Connor called Dunscaith her home, but it could never be that without him. She had no home.
“What do you want me to do, Connor?” Ilysa managed to keep her voice calm, though she felt as if her life hung in the balance. It was easier with her back to him.
“I’m trying to do the right thing, if belatedly, by you and by…my future wife,” he said. “I swore I would have but one woman as chieftain. If you remain here, I won’t be able to keep that pledge.”
“I didn’t ask what ye thought was right or what ye feel your duty is,” she said, speaking carefully. “I asked what ye want me to do.”
“I want ye to stay here more than anything I’ve ever wanted,” he said, his voice rough. “I need ye at my side every day and in my bed each night—but I can’t ask that of ye.”
Ilysa swallowed against the surge of emotion that closed her throat. Connor still wanted her.
“You don’t have a wife yet,” she said. “I’ll stay until ye do.”
And after that?She could feel his unspoken question, but she was not ready to answer it.
Connor moved to sit behind her, sliding his long legs on either side of hers and wrapping his arms around her in a protective cocoon.
“I’ll cherish every hour we have together,” he said and kissed the side of her neck.
“I have one condition,” Ilysa said, remembering Teàrlag’s warning.Our chieftain can only find happiness if he weds the lass who chooses him on Beltane night.
“What is it?” he asked, his breath warm on her skin.
“Promise ye won’t wed before Beltane.”
“Is that all?” he asked. “I doubt there would be time to wed before then, even if I wanted to.”
“Promise,” she insisted.
“I promise.”
Why had Teàrlag not said Connor must wait to find his bride until the summer solstice—or better yet, Lamas, when August arrived warm and golden?
Beltane was only a week away.
***
Connor awoke abruptly and sat up. It was dark, but he sensed morning was not far off. He held very still, listening for the sound again.
“What is it?” Ilysa asked in a sleepy voice.
“Did ye hear that?”
“Hear what?” she asked.
He could not say what precisely had roused him from a deep sleep, but his warrior instincts had been alerted by a sound that should not have been there. He threw back the bedclothes and walked naked to the windows. He peered out into the darkness, looking for movement, first on the sea side and then from the windows overlooking the courtyard.
“I can’t see well enough from here,” he said. “I’m going to the tower.”
He opened the small door at the end of his chamber and ran up the three steps to the tiny tower room. In addition to the ghost who supposedly dwelled here, the tower had a single large window. Connor opened it and leaned out. He heard nothing but the wind and the crash of the waves against the cliff.
Then he saw them, a line of dark figures coming up the steps.