HIGHLAND PROMISE (THE SONS OF GREGOR MACLEOD)

Chapter Five

Darach handed his horse to a lad in the stable and hurried up the hill toward the keep. He found himself breaking into a run and slowed down. Everything was in order.

About to mount the steps that led to the keep's heavy wooden door, he paused and wondered if Caitlin was still in the kitchen or in her room bathing? A vision of her naked in a tub of steamy water heated his chilled flesh. He sighed as the familiar ache filled his groin, all the time he'd spent in the icy water for had been naught.

Shaking his head, he glanced toward the kitchen and noticed a group of people milling around the building.

The heat of desire turned to anger as he realized what they were doing.

His steward Henson, a tall, thin, bald man, peeped through a closed shutter, while the stable master Ronald, short and sturdy, stood behind on his tiptoes trying to see past him. Others crowded around as well, some of the young women who helped in the keep and a few grooms. Darach's cook Ness, a middling woman who had been lovely in her day and now was as round through the hips and breast as the pink sow that had recently birthed seven piglets, peered through a crack in the door, perhaps as Caitlin soaked in the wooden tub in the kitchen.

He marched toward them, intent on bashing the heads of the men together. One of the lasses saw him coming and squeaked. After bobbing a quick curtsy, she hastened away. Others beat their own retreat, but Henson, Ronald, and Ness were too entranced to notice his arrival. Darach grabbed the men by the scruff of their necks and hauled them away from the window. They howled in surprise.

Ness rushed over. "Laird, 'tis not what you think!"

Darach stopped just short of assaulting them. Ronald and Henson cowered before him, petrified, but also guilt-ridden. It was exactly as he'd thought.

"I believed they were spying on the lass as well, and did give them a tongue lashing for it, but 'tis not true. She bathes the lad, and he stands there willingly. 'Tis a miracle."

When he looked over, tears trailed down her cheeks. Ness had five grown children of her own and had spent much time with Fergus in the kitchen, trying to mother him to no avail.

Releasing the men, he clenched his hands into fists. They knew what they had done, even if Ness did not comprehend it.

"I willna abide any man spying on the lass. To do so is an insult to me, and I will act accordingly. She has the protection of the MacKenzies, and you will treat her with honor. Do I make myself clear?"

The men nodded. "Aye, Laird."

The message would spread like wildfire through the clan. Anyone who dared treat Caitlin with disrespect would be well warned. He walked to the kitchen door and pushed into the darkened room. His gaze found them immediately. Fergus stood naked in a pail of water, eyes wide. He held a squirming kitten in his hands as far away from his body as possible. Darach watched as Aila gave the lad a new kitten to hold and placed the other one on the table with its littermates. Caitlin washed the boy's body with a rag and soap, while Edina poured a pail of water over his hair, rinsing away the suds.

Darach wouldn't have said Fergus was willing, but as willing as any lad his age when put in a tub. It was a far cry from the last time Darach had come upon a similar scene – the lad struggling and screaming in fear as the women tried to wash him. Now Fergus looked anxious and uncomfortable, but not deathly so. Until he saw his Laird standing by the door.

At that moment, his face paled and a pitiful whimper came from his throat. Darach cursed his own stupidity. The poor lad had been in just such a position when his father had entered their cottage and attacked his mother. Darach had brought the boy's memories back unwittingly.