Page 13 of Alec

Chapter Four

Serving as head chambermaid at Dun Talamh, Elspeth had the duty of making ready the guest chamber whenever an outsider arrived. Since the laird and his lady had presently locked themselves in their bed chamber, she went on to dust and change the bed linens for the newcomer.

Och, ’tis never enough.

She wished she could do more than simply tidy the room. The first days one spent inside the spell trap could be terrifying; she had nearly gone mad after coming here herself seven centuries past. Once the laird had explained that he and his clan had been alive in the trap for two hundred years, that had convinced her that she was losing her mind. Secretly she had tried again and again to escape, to no avail. Word had it this new woman had been grievously beaten before being pushed into the trap’s entry, and that she had swooned the moment she’d seen the laird’s wife, whom she believed had been killed in her world.

Poor lass. We must console her however we may.

From the pocket of her apron Elspeth took out some sachets she stitched from scraps of linen before stuffing them with aromatic herbs, which she tucked under the bed pillows. The soothing scent of the lavender would help calm the outsider during the lonely nights. That was when the fear had been the worst for Elspeth just after her arrival, and why she still disliked sleeping alone. Since Ava Travars had moved in with the laird nearly a month past, the guest quarters hadn’t been aired or cleaned, so she decided to do that on the morrow. A bright and clean chamber might also offer some solace to the lass.

The soft sounds of pleasure Elspeth had heard earlier through the door to the laird’s bed chamber came back to her, making her wish she had time to dally with her own swain. Sharing a bed with Kelso had not been the wisest of choices, but he had proven a vigorous lover. He didn’t mind the darkness of her skin, and often would spend the whole of the night giving her pleasure.

I cannae tell him the truth about what comes next moon.

The sound of wood sliding against wood made Elspeth frown and look around the room, at which point the doors to the standing cabinet opened and a fair-haired man stepped out. Only a little taller than her, he had such broad shoulders and muscular arms he appeared like a blonde miniature of one of the McKeran.

Elspeth ignored the little leap of joy her heart made at the sight of him. “Hunter Ulf, what do you in there?”

“Darro bid me make a map of all the passages hidden inside the stronghold for Lady Ava.” Born to Norse parents but raised by a highland clan, the hunter considered himself as Scottish as she did. “When I spied you making up the bed, I could not resist slipping out to offer my aid. Shall we muss it again together?”

His jest made her sigh; he always joked with female vassals as if he desired each of them as his lover. It was an odd way to charm women, but it always worked on Elspeth—not that she ever showed her fondness for him.

“You should join the binding ceremony next week, kind sir,” she suggested. “’Tis many a maid who should love to rumple your linens.”

Elspeth wasn’t looking forward to the gathering, held once every year to free all of the clan’s vassals from their current matches. They had two chances to make a different match, one by ladies’ choice and the other by lottery. Each pair would be wed for a year, and were expected to remain faithful to each other. It seemed harder on the males than the females, as the ladies could take any willing clansman to be their lovers at any time, as Elspeth had always done.

“I should if you’d be among those who choose.” He came over to watch her shovel the ashes from the hearth into a lidded dust bin. “You never join in, Els. Why no’? Surely you tire of bedding the McKeran men.”

Els, he called her—as if she were his favorite among the maids. If only, if only.

“I’m too dark. The male vassals desire fair-skinned lasses.” She couldn’t change the dark bronze color of her skin; her parents had been runaway slaves who had sought refuge in Scotland, which did not shame her in the slightest. “’Tisnae a hardship. The clansmen dinnae mind that I’m so brown.”

“They wouldnae care if you were purple, lass. None of them shall love you.” Ulf crouched down and took the shovel from her hand. “No’ as you desire, by men who ken what you need most.”

Men.

How could he know anything about what she wanted? She’d never spoken a word to anyone about her secret desires.

“You’re mistaken, Maister Ulf.” Elspeth turned to ask and found herself in his arms. “Och, what do you now? Release me, sir.”

“I shallnae.” Boldly he gripped her buttocks with both hands, squeezing her curves hard enough to make her gasp. “You’ve tempted me with this lovely arse one too many times, wench. Today I shall have what I want.”

Without another word he covered her full lips with his mouth, his tongue pushing inside to taste her.

Elspeth should have shoved him away, but her longing got the better of her. She had always wondered what it would be like to kiss the hunter, and her head spun as he dragged her down to the cold stone floor. There he pinned her under his surprisingly heavy body, yanking up her skirts as he wedged himself between her thighs.

“I’ll have you here before I drag you to my chamber,” he muttered, leaning over to nip the curve of her ear. “And there I’ll chain you to my bed. I shall fack you whenever I desire my cock in this sweet wee quim. Mayhap I’ll ask another to join us, and have you suck him as I plow you.”

She cried out as he came into her, his cock as hard and thick as she had ever dreamed it might be–

“Wake, lass.”

The sound of a low voice and touch of a gentle hand made Elspeth’s eyes fly open. She found herself naked and straddling Kelso, the guard with whom she had been lovers since winterfall. Sweat streaked her body from throat to hips, and her thighs ached from being clamped tightly on either side of his. One of her hands had seized hold of his shaft, the head of which she held pressed against the opening of her quim.

Dreams in the spell trap could be uncomfortably strange and vivid, but never had such a thing happened to Elspeth in her long life.

“Forgive me.” Utterly mortified, she released him and tried to climb off, only to be held in place by his big hands. “I didnae mean to force myself on you, Kel. ’Twas…’twas a dream of us doing thus.”