Highlander's Reckoning (The Sinclair Brothers #3) (11 page)

He set aside these dark thoughts for the time being.
Just then Mairi set a mug of tea in front of him, and then passed around mugs
to Ian and Rona.

“Why don’t you tell me more about all of this,” he
said, locking eyes with Rona. “Who is Bhreaca?”

Rona watched Daniel’s face closely as she led him to
the side of the cottage where the mews were tucked under an extended section of
the thatched roof. His eyes lighted first on Bhreaca, who cocked her head at
them.

Then Fionna came into view, and despite his normally
unreadable features, she noticed his eyes widening slightly. She didn’t blame
him. Fionna was enormous and as white as snow. She could hardly wait to witness
his reaction to seeing the two birds in flight.

She slid on the leather gauntlet she kept at the
cottage as she opened the door to the mews. Once Rona had her hand outstretched
inside the mews, Bhreaca fluffed her feathers and hopped over, perching on
Rona’s forearm.

Rona drew out the bird and closed the mews door.

“This is Bhreaca.”

Daniel extended his hand slowly toward the falcon
and stroked the mottled feathers on her chest.

“Bhreaca means speckled. Like you.” He lifted his
hand from Bhreaca’s feathers to brush one finger across Rona’s cheekbone, where
her smattering of freckles were splayed. She felt her face heat under his light
touch. Lowering her eyes, she nodded.

“She and I have much in common.”

Daniel remained silent, but he let the finger that
brushed her cheek trace down to her jawline. Despite the fact that they had
made love last night, this touch felt more intimate somehow. It seemed as
though he could see straight into her heart at that moment.

Just then, Ian approached the mews and retrieved
Fionna onto his gauntleted wrist.

“Shall we let them fly?” he said with a warm smile.

The three of them strode toward a clearing in the
woods nearby. Daniel was quiet and watchful, but he didn’t seem angry or
suspicious anymore. He’d listened as Ian explained how he’d learned about
falconry from his family, then to how they’d met Rona wandering aimlessly in
the woods not long after she and her family had moved to Loch Doon.

It was strange to hear Ian tell her story. The way
he told it, she was a fiery yet unfocused girl of seventeen when she had first
stumbled into their woods. She was decisive and stubborn but didn’t have an
outlet for her energies back at the castle. So he and Mairi had taken her under
their proverbial wing.

She was a natural at training their newly rescued
peregrine falcon, Ian told Daniel. The bird had fallen from its nest at too
early an age, but was willful and resisted Ian’s efforts with her. Rona, on the
other hand, seemed to know instinctively when to give the falcon freedom and
when to keep her close using jesses, lures, and of course the skills Ian taught
her.

All the while Ian had woven the story, Daniel kept
shooting unreadable looks at her. Even now, as they reached the clearing, he
remained quiet but observant.

Rona bent her knees slightly then quickly shot up,
boosting Bhreaca into the air. Fionna followed a moment later. Though she
normally loved to watch the two birds pumping their powerful wings as they
gained the air, this time she glanced at Daniel’s face out of the corner of her
eye.

He followed the birds with a look of awed respect.
While the falcons grew smaller as they put more distance between themselves and
the ground, Daniel finally spoke.

“I’ve never understood how the falconer knows the
bird will come back.”

“He doesn’t,” Ian said with a soft smile, still
gazing up at the sky.

Daniel raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“Some say the relationship between falcon and
falconer is merely for survival. The bird comes back because it knows it has
guaranteed food and shelter from the falconer. But I think it’s more than
that.”

Rona smiled. She’d heard this speech from Ian
before.

“I think that over time, the bird and the falconer
build trust in one another. The falcon trusts that the falconer will let her
fly, let her hunt, let her do all the things that she naturally must do as a
bird of prey. And the falconer must come to trust that when he lets the bird
free, she will choose to come back to him of her own free will. It takes time
and training, but if the bond is made properly, then both the falcon and the
falconer have a certain kind of freedom in that trust.”

She felt Daniel’s eyes on her, and again she was met
with his unreadable blue-gray stare.

“How interesting,” he said.

They spent the entire day in the woods, flying the
birds, talking, and eventually retiring to the cottage. Mairi had a bubbling
caldron of stew waiting when they returned, and the four of them shared a
simple but hearty meal together around the small wooden table in the cottage.

The early darkness of winter had already settled
around the cottage as Rona and Daniel rose from the table to make their way
back to Loch Doon. Daniel exchanged a firm forearm grasp with Ian, and then
bent over Mairi’s hand gallantly, sending her into a pleased flutter.

Rona was acutely aware of Daniel’s presence as they
walked back toward the village in the dark. She could hardly make sense of all
that had transpired since last night. They had fought, made love for the first
time—the thought sent a strange warmth into her belly—she’d snuck away, he’d
followed her, and her secret had been revealed.

To her shock, he didn’t even seem worried about the
fact that she was breaking the law. Would he seek to end her forays to the
Fergusons’ cottage? Would he finally trust her now?

“Did you really think me a spy for the English?” she
blurted out, ending the silence that stretched between them. She suddenly
realized the fact that he’d followed her still stung.

To her surprise, he made a noise that sounded close
to rueful mirth.

“I don’t know what I was thinking. I was so angry
and confused by your actions that I think I went a little mad. You seem to have
that effect on me.”

She looked over at him, but shadows concealed his
face.

“My brother gave his life to the Bruce and his
cause. My father serves the same King you do. And I have pledged my fealty to
you,” she said quietly.

He halted abruptly and turned to face her. A sliver
of moonlight filtered through the branches overhead, illuminating him. His eyes
appeared almost black as they bore into her.

“Rona, I won’t doubt you again,” he said seriously.
He took her hands in his and gave them a little squeeze.

“And your fears about being cuckolded? Are those
laid to rest once and for all?”

She had to know with certainty that he would believe
her, despite the fact that she’d already proven herself to him.

“Aye,” he replied, then dropped one of her hands to
rake his fingers through his dark hair. “Bloody hell. I’ve been acting like a
fool. You’ve sworn your allegiance, you’ve given me your innocence, and now I
know that you only kept your secret to protect those you care about. I should
have trusted you.”

“But I didn’t trust you either!” she replied in his
defense. “I’ve kept you at a distance and lied and evaded you. I gave you
reason to doubt me, and I doubted you, too.”

A weary grin spread across Daniel’s features. “We
make quite the pair, don’t we, wife?”

She felt herself softening toward him, as she had
last night. “As you said before, we are both new at being husband and wife.
We’re still learning.”

“Perhaps we can practice together,” he said
suggestively.

The grin slipped from his face, to be replaced by a
look of hunger. His eyes slid to her lips, and she unconsciously licked them.
Her stomach pinched in anticipation, recognizing the desire in his eyes. He
leaned into her, his lips descending toward hers.

The nearby whinny of a horse had them both snapping
their heads up. One of Daniel’s hands still held hers, but his other lowered to
the sword belted to his hip.

The sound of voices drifted to them.

English voices.

Before Rona could react, Daniel scooped her into his
arms and moved on silent, lightning-fast feet through the dark woods. He slid
like a moonbeam across the forest floor, somehow not making a sound.

He reached a thick copse of pine trees and set her
down, then gently nudged her forward.

As quietly as she could, she pushed past boughs and
branches until she was in the middle of the clump of trees. There wasn’t an
opening to speak of, so she simply knelt between the needled branches and held
her breath.

She thought Daniel would follow her in, but instead
he remained outside the copse. She could just make him out through the boughs
as he silently drew his sword. She almost hissed at him to take cover with her
inside the clump of trees, but the voices drew nearer.

“…seen the baker’s daughter lately? I’d take a taste
of that tart.”

“The one at Loch Doon or Dunbraes?”

“Either—both!”

“Hmph. You couldn’t manage to land either!”

“And why not? I got Lucy into the barn not so long
ago, didn’t I?”

As the two Englishmen moved slowly in their
direction, Rona caught glimpses of them in the dappled moonlight. They were on
horseback, and their chainmail hauberks glinted. Neither one wore a helm or
carried a shield, indicating that they weren’t planning an attack. Were they
English scouts?

Rona knew from what her father had told her that the
nearest castle to Loch Doon, Dunbraes, was held by an English Lord named Raef
Warren. Her father had paid the man a tax for protection, which kept the
English at bay and away from Loch Doon. But she’d heard occasional rumors from
villagers that the English still lurked nearby, watching.

“But everyone knows Lucy is only a few men-at-arms
away from being a whore.”

Rona heard a thump and a yelp of surprise.

“Watch it. That’s probably your future wife you’re
talking about.”

“I could do better!”

The two men were only a dozen yards away now, though
they didn’t seem to have much of a purpose in their direction. But then one of them
reined in his horse and dismounted.

“I have to piss,” he said by way of explanation to
his companion.

“Christ, you went an hour ago! We’re supposed to be
scouting, not marking every tree in the bloody woods!”

The other man only grunted and made his way to a
clump of bushes to Rona’s right. She shot a glance at Daniel, who shifted
slightly so that the copse of trees remained between him and both the mounted
man and the one on foot. His sword was the same blue-gray as his eyes in the
darkness of the woods.

Rona’s heart hammered in her chest. She was sure
they would hear it, so loud was it in her own ears. She hunkered lower to the
ground behind the screen of trees. But as she did, a twig snapped under one of
her knees.

The two Englishmen froze and whipped their heads
around. Her breath stalled in her chest, her stomach twisting with panic.

“Probably just a rabbit,” the mounted man muttered,
“but check it.”

The man on foot turned fully toward the copse where
Rona hid and strode nearer. His eyes, which glimmered darkly, swept over her.

She sensed more than saw Daniel reach for something
on the ground on the other side of the copse. Then she perceived a flash of
motion. A second later, a rock landed on the forest floor behind the two men.

“What the—” Both men spun toward the sound.

Their momentary distraction was all Daniel needed.

Like a striking snake, he bolted from behind the
copse, his sword raised. But instead of using the blade, he lifted the pommel
and brought it down with a sickening crack on the Englishman’s uncovered head.
He crumpled into a pile at Daniel’s feet.

Rona vaguely registered her own scream. The man on
horseback was yanking his horse around to face Daniel.

Time stretched as the mounted man closed the
distance between them. Daniel waited, sword raised. Just as the Englishman
began lowering his blade toward Daniel’s head, Daniel simultaneously crouched
and thrust his great sword upward.

Though the Englishman’s mail hauberk covered his
torso, his legs were unprotected from mid-thigh down. The mounted man screamed
as Daniel’s blade sank into his right leg. The horse reared, sending the man
tumbling backward onto the ground.

Like lightning, Daniel moved over the wounded man.
He stepped on the man’s sword arm and lowered the tip of his blade to his
throat, just as Rona had seen him do in the practice yard. But this time,
unlike the friendly contest earlier, the specter of death hung in the night
woods.

“What does Warren have you looking for?”

Even though Daniel was normally commanding, he spoke
now with such icy authority that Rona almost didn’t recognize his voice.

The man under Daniel’s blade only groaned.

“Answer me. Why has he sent you?”

Just then, the man whom Daniel had cracked over the
head stirred. Through the boughs of the pine trees, Rona could see Daniel’s
eyes flicker with resignation. Then with a quick twitch of his wrist, he slid
the tip of his sword over the man’s throat.