Medieval Ever After (109 page)

“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.

He walked calmly to the crumpled Englishman closer to the copse. Despite the crack to his skull, he had rolled himself onto his back and was trying to sit up. Without hesitating, Daniel drew his blade across the man’s throat, just as he had with the first.

The only sound that pierced the forest was the sickening gurgle coming from both men. Daniel re-sheathed his sword and quickly ran his hands over first one slain man and then the other, presumably looking for a letter or other indication of their purpose. Then he approached the copse and pulled the branches back.

She looked up at him from her crouch on the ground, stunned silent. He slowly extended a hand toward her to help her out of the clump of trees.

There was blood on it.

She shivered and withdrew unconsciously. She crawled backward away from his extended hand and the path he was making through the branches for her. She was dimly aware that branches scraped and snagged her dress and cloak as she backed out of the copse.

As she emerged from the trees, she felt like she could breathe a little better, but then Daniel walked around the copse to stand in front of her. His face was set grimly.

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” he said flatly, looking down at where she still crouched.

“Why did you…” She swallowed, suddenly feeling as though she might lose the contents of her stomach.

His eyes hardened. “This is warfare, lass. What would you have me do? Let them find you and have their way with you? Let them kill us both?”

“They were only scouts!”

She knew hysteria edged her voice, but she couldn’t stop it. She’d never witnessed anyone killed before. Perhaps more disturbing was how calm and unhesitating Daniel was about the whole matter. But he was a warrior, and she was a sheltered girl, she thought dimly.

“Aye, and by their coat of arms they were sent by Raef Warren.”

“But Lord Warren has a deal with my father. He means us no harm. He just wants to collect a tax from us.”

Daniel’s face transformed from grim to enraged. He bent down to where she knelt on the ground and pulled her to her feet.

“
Means us no harm
? Warren has been slaughtering innocent Scots for years!”

“What?” She felt herself begin to shake as her initial panic dulled to shock.

“Warren carved a path across Scotland five years ago. He waged war on Sinclair lands. He slaughtered my people and anyone else who got in the way. Ever since he fled from defeat at my family’s hands, he’s been terrorizing the Lowlands at King Edward’s behest.”

She blinked in confusion. “He never tried to attack us at Loch Doon.”

“Probably the only thing that held him back was the knowledge that Loch Doon is Robert the Bruce’s keep. Warren would know that if he openly struck the castle, the entire Scottish rebel force would come down on him. But don’t be mistaken, lass. Warren will never be satisfied with simply extracting a tax from Scotsmen. He wants every last one of us to rot and vanish into nothing.”

“And…and those two?” She gestured with a shaky hand toward where the bodies of the dead scouts lay behind the copse of trees.

“I’m not surprised Warren would have the area watched. But those two were armed. They would have killed us to maintain the secrecy of their mission, whatever it was. And I would kill a thousand more of them to protect you and Loch Doon.”

Her eyes drifted down to his bloodied hands again, and she shivered. Immediately, he removed his cloak and spun it around her shoulders.

“I don’t have time to bury them, so I’ll just have to hide them as best I can. Stay back here.”

She nodded numbly and rubbed her arms. Once he had gone around the copse, she could hear him slap the rumps of the scouts’ horses, sending them off into the night. Then she heard him dragging first one man and then the other into the clump of trees she had been hiding in mere moments ago.

Daniel came back around to her side of the copse a few minutes later. Without speaking, he took her arm and guided her back toward the village. But despite the added warmth of his cloak, she shivered again.

She’d thought she was in danger for practicing falconry illegally. Tonight, though, she had seen two men killed and learned that her nearest neighbor was a black-hearted murderer who was plotting against them. Suddenly the world seemed far more dangerous than she’d ever realized.

HIGHLANDER’S RECKONING