A Dark Christmas Knight: A Marriage of Convenience Historical Romance by Aurrora St. James

Author:Aurrora St. James [St. James, Aurrora]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-11-14T16:00:00+00:00

“It’s bloody remarkable that ye’re on yer feet, Laird,” William said as he leaned back against a wood fence surrounding the castle’s training yard. More knights stood around the ring, waiting to spar. “Two days ago, I thought ye’d be dead within hours and here ye are, swinging a sword.”

Dougal wiped his hand across his brow and lowered his sword. Though the midday sun beat down on him, every breath frosted in white puffs. He’d needed to not only be out of bed that morning, but working his muscles, moving through the stretches he’d learned as a squire in the training yards. The wounds to his shoulders and thigh didn’t pain him like they had days ago and the skin was healing fast. Even the bruises he’d received from the kicks and punches of the last raiders had mostly faded. Whatever Slaine gave him for the poison worked miracles on his other wounds. He hadn’t felt this energized in weeks.

“Any more time on my back and I’d have become a permanent part of the mattress.”

“Yer new lady wife might not complain too much about that,” William replied, waggling his eyebrows.

Dougal flushed and his cock hardened to thoughts of having Slaine in his bed.

“She feared for ye,” William said when he didn’t respond. “Both in the village and after, when she healed ye. I sensed she wouldna shared that book but yer life was more important to her than the secret.”

“I’ve come to care for her also,” Dougal said.

“Mayhap yer time is better spent with her than in the training yards.”

“Aye.” He wasn’t going to fight his feelings for his wife. Now that he was healed enough to walk, he needed to seek her out. He needed to show her how she affected him. Dougal returned the training sword to the weapon rack, nodded his thanks to William, and went in search of his bride.

The great hall was a flurry of activity as servants set out trestle tables for supper. As he crossed towards the stairs, a tall figure to his left caught his eye. A muscular man with blond hair ducked into a corridor, a pile of evergreen boughs hanging over his shoulder.

Dougal knew every person who lived and worked at the castle. No one had hair that pale. Everything inside him stilled. There was only one man he knew with that coloring. He strode across the great hall and into the empty corridor. Footsteps echoed ahead.

The hall held a few storage rooms, but at the end it led to the unused section. The decorative plaster used in the rest of the castle stopped abruptly, leaving the stone walls bare except for the lit candelabras.

He cursed. No one was to come here. Dougal clenched his jaw and marched to the short flight of stairs. A servant woman hurried up them and smiled when she passed.

“It looks lovely, it does. My lady Yester will have us celebrating Christmas in right fashion. Thank ye, Laird.”

She ducked her head in deference to him, then skirted by to hurry back to the great hall.

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