Page 23 of Tair

Her voice trembled, but her cheeks had already flushed pink with excitement. She waited without fidgeting, her lips parted just enough to show the edge of her small, pearly teeth. So quickly had she become his creature that Beiste could do almost anything to her, including beat her until she bled, and she would endure it in silent ecstasy.

“I noticed at the morning meal that you seemed in need of my attention,” he murmured as he drew her away from the embroidery frame and over to the shuttered window. “Open it.”

“My lord, the sun shall brown my skin.” She gasped as he lightly slapped her, and then took down the wooden shutter.

Beiste had instructed his steward to enlarge the sewing room’s window, although he hadn’t explained why. Now he positioned his wife in front of it so that the men on the compound’s curtain wall could clearly see her. As she trembled he unlaced the back of her bodice, and tugged down the front so that the nearly-transparent shift she wore beneath it was all that covered her small breasts.

“How many watch you?” he asked as he fondled her slowly.

“Two—no, three.” A sob thickened her voice as she begged, “Please, dinnae expose me to those callous men, my lord. Ever they already look upon me with hot eyes, as if they wish to own me like a slave. Some even try to touch me.”

They both knew that would never happen; his men would rather cut off their own hands than lay a finger on Lady Duff. Still, her pretense added to his pleasure as he opened his smalls while he imagined finding her being violated by one or more of his guards.

“Indeed.” He lifted the back of her skirts and pushed his stiff cock against the seam of her tight arse. “Shall we show them who truly owns you?”

Tair left Lucy sleeping in his bed chamber, and posted two guards in the passage with orders to keep watch. Leaving her so soon after their passionate, crazed coupling tore at him, but he had a duty to his clan that outweighed his own desires. She would be waiting for him tonight, and no doubt would prove just as eager as he for more.

The wench might also become a greater weakness for him than his unruly emotions.

Because he still smelled of her, Tair went for a swim in the loch, using the near-freezing waters to clear his head. He knew keeping Lucy as his lover at the stronghold was dangerous for both of them, but she had appeared at the same time the queen had come to demand they find her treasure. She hadn’t come back through time on her own, so it was likely the cluet had brought her here. Once they found the treasure and appeased the dark Fae queen, Tair could move Lucy to a cottage in the village. There he could visit her when he needed relief for his lust, and carry on with ruling over and raiding with the clan as before.

Would Lucy agree to be his kept woman? He didn’t know enough about her to guess; he would simply have to make it impossible for her to refuse him.

Tair walked into the garrison hall, where his senior men had gathered as he’d ordered. “Listen well, lads, and dinnae repeat what I tell you now.”

He gave them the details of Lucy’s abrupt arrival, followed by the dark Fae queen and her ultimatum to the clan to recover the lost treasure. When he mentioned the parlay between him and the immortal monarch Cath made a harsh sound, as if disgusted. After Tair described how the cluet had changed into a blanket in the night to keep Lucy warm in the dungeons, and how it disappeared yet again after she woke, the war master’s expression grew troubled.

“I dinnae ken why the treasure took Lucy from her world and came to our island,” Tair finally said. “If ’tis as the queen claimed, ’twas to fulfill a wish made.” He scanned the men’s faces. “Did any of you eejits wish for a woman from the future to drop from the sky?”

Everyone looked mystified as they denied it.

“No’ even if you held a blade to my throat,” Dorchad said as Tair eyed him. “All females fear me. ’Twas a vassal, mayhap.”

His brother sighed. “Questioning the servants shall serve no purpose. The wish, ’twas made, she’s come and cannae return. We must be rid of her, and soon, so we may get on with finding the cluet—if the queen spoke truth.”

“I doubt she would. ’Tis her nature to deceive,” the war master put in. “Only the pledge she gave you, my lord, ’twas truth. Even dark Fae cannae break a vow once ’tis willingly made. Recovering the treasure must mean more to her than her pride.”

Dorchad glowered at Cath. “That evil hoor slew our sire, and now puts his debt to her on the clan, and you speak so calmly of her? We should lure her back and end her.”

The war master made a contemptuous sound. “Good luck with that, Brother. The queen commands endless armies of beastly creatures sworn to her bidding, and possesses more power in one finger than all the magic folk in our realm. She may squash you into naught with a single nod.”

The chieftain bared his teeth. “She may try.”

“We shallnae fight the dark Fae,” Tair said to put an end to their bickering. “’Tis a battle none in the mortal realm may win. For the sake of our world, I agreed to her terms.” He studied the dark faces around him. “We’ve until the winter solstice to find her treasure. We shall begin here, at Gealladh, and then go beyond the loch. Dorchad, send the men you can spare to look through the woods, the boathouses and anywhere else outside the walls where it may hide. Sgathan, alert the vassals to bring all cloth they find during their duties to you.”

“We need to learn more about the cluet,” Sgathan put in. “Mayhap ’tis some manner with which we may hunt the thing.”

“’Tis come without summons to Lucy Brooke twice now,” Cath pointed out. “Once to save her life, and the second time to keep her warm in the dungeons. Mayhap it regards her as the new master.”

“We cannae permit a female to possess or use such a treasure,” Dorchad said flatly. “In a moment of anger or using one wrong word, she could wish disaster on our world and indeed all creation.”

“She wishes aid us in finding the cluet, and I believe she shall,” Tair said. “I would permit such, but she may learn more about the clan than an outsider should. Thus you must keep her believing what we wish. I shall keep her close to me while she’s here. If the treasure comes to her again, I shall stand ready to seize it.”

His request made the men mutter and eye one another, for they had never allowed an outsider to stay on the island longer than a night or two.

“What shall we do then if she discovers our secrets?” Dorchad asked.

Lightning crackled outside the garrison hall as Tair regarded his second. “I shall deal with her myself.”