Highland Avenger (3 page)
“We should stay with you,” said Adelar. “All of us together.”
“We will be together again soon.” She kissed each boy on the forehead.
“Do ye trust these men?”
“Aye, I think I do. Ye heard. They are my kinsmen through marriage and I have heard about them. The captain trusts them as weel. Go, my fine brave laddies. We will meet again verra soon and, mayhap, this will prove the safest way for us to get to my family. Heed weel the men who take ye with them.”
Tears stung her eyes when both boys hugged her tightly. She stroked their hair and then clenched her hands into tight fists to stop herself from snatching them back when they joined the men. Arianna ignored the pain and weakness wracking her body and stood watching until they were out of sight. Doubts and fears churned her stomach but she struggled against them. In the end the decision to let the boys go rested upon one hard, cold fact. She was in no condition to keep them safe and would not be for a while.
“Come,” said Sir Brian as he tossed her cloak over her shoulders, grasped her by the arm, and tugged her toward the three horses waiting for them. “We need to leave now.”
“Why three horses?” she asked, placing a hand on the flank of the white mare he led her to.
“I want to be certain the men hunting those boys think they have three choices to make, that they need to break into three groups to track us all down.” He looked at her. “Are ye strong enough to ride?”
Arianna nodded, praying she was not fooling herself. The very last thing she wished to do right now was get on a horse, riding hard in an attempt to pull some of her enemies away from the trails the boys had taken. She wanted a bath, clean clothes, a hot meal, and a soft bed. She even wanted to cease having to be so strong, having to silently endure all her fear, pain, and weariness. It would be so lovely, she mused as she pulled herself up into the saddle, if she could just fall to the ground and give in to her misery, perhaps cry loudly and messily like a child for a little while.
Brian mounted, checked the lead to the third horse loaded with several packs to mask the fact that it was riderless, and then glanced at Lady Arianna, who was securing her cloak more firmly around her body. She did not look as if she would stay in the saddle for long, but he had the suspicion that there was a core of stubborn, hard steel in the woman. All he needed was a few hours of hard riding out of her. As he kicked his horse into a steady gallop, he found himself hoping he could offer her a few comforts when they had to stop for the night.
After an hour of hard riding, Brian slowed their pace a little. The trail they followed was wide enough that Arianna moved up to ride at his side. He caught her glancing behind them several times.
“They wouldnae have reached the place we left for a while, and deciding what to do when confronted with three trails will hold them back for a time as weel,” he assured her. “They willnae follow the whole way at such a hard pace, either. They are unfamiliar with the area and will need to keep a closer eye on their route to be sure they stay on our trail. Nor will they wish to ride their horses to death, if they e’en have them.”
“I suspect they brought horses with them,” she said. “The ship was verra large, much larger than Captain Tillet’s, and they wouldnae have wished to chase me and the boys on foot if they thought we had escaped drowning. Your mon Simon may have left ere they were able to bring their horses to shore.”
“Which will take more time. Good for us.”
“True. The DeVeaux and Amiel may e’en have held back on bringing the horses to shore until they were certain a search or chase would be needed for ’tis a lot of work to do. They were looking for our bodies.” She winced. “When they find the dead we had to leave behind they will ken that Michel and Adelar survived. I am so sorry those poor men died only to be left to the carrion.”
“’Tis nay your fault. And I dinnae think the men hunting you and those boys would act verra kindly toward us once we said they couldnae have ye, so ’tis best we didnae wait there to confront them.”
Arianna sighed and rubbed her forehead, but it did little to ease the pounding in her head. “Nay, ’tis why I ceased to seek any help. That and the fact that Claud’s family didnae wish to believe that Amiel was doing any wrong. They certainly refused to believe that he would ever deal with the DeVeaux.”
“Who is Amiel?”
“My husband’s brother.”
“Ah. So the boys inherit something
he
wants.”
he
wants.”
Explanations were needed but Arianna heartily wished she did not have to give them. It meant revealing her humiliation, her shame. Unfortunately, the man not only deserved the answers he wanted, he might need them to better protect her and the children. She had learned enough from her family, and from ruling over her husband’s lands as he spent much of his time dallying with another woman, to know that even the smallest piece of information could make a difference between life and death.
“At the moment the boys are my husband’s heirs.”
“At the moment? I assumed they are his heirs because he was wed before he married you.”
“He was and he remained married even as he took vows with me.” She could feel the heat of embarrassment color her cheeks and almost welcomed it for it chased away some of the chill lingering in her body. “No one kenned it, but he had married a girl in the village nearly six years before he married me. He did not annul that first marriage, which gave him the boys. Instead, he allowed all of us to believe Marie Anne was his mistress and had me train his boys. I kenned they were his sons, but I had thought they were his bastard children, ones he wished trained to a better life.”
Brian bit back the curses stinging his tongue. He could only guess at the depth of the humiliation she had suffered. It was all too easy to recall the anger and bitterness suffered by his father’s wives over the man’s unfaithfulness. For this woman to discover that she was a mistress and not the wife she had thought herself must have been a hard blow indeed.
Then he thought on how she treated the two boys his family now rushed to a safe haven. Brian had no doubts that she cared for them and they for her. It said a lot about the woman that she did not turn her anger or heartache onto the boys. Few women he had known would be so kind and loving toward the children of a man who had so cruelly betrayed them.
“Yet you still call yourself Lady Lucette?”
“To do otherwise would only shame both our families. I may be angry with Claud for his deception, but he is dead now, as is his wife. Murdered by his own brother, I believe. And his family? They may have nearly cost the boys their lives by refusing to heed my warnings, but they were grieving the loss of their eldest son and still reeling from learning how many lies he had told everyone. My family had naught to do with it all save to offer me what they all thought would be an excellent match. There is naught to gain in letting Claud’s lies be kenned save to shame all the ones who have done no real wrong.”
“Including you and those laddies.”
“Aye, including us. All I demanded of them was that, if they got the boys disinherited, that they gift them with the property held here and leave them with me. Then I left the problem of trying to sort out Claud’s deceptions to the Lucettes and brought the boys here. It was foolish of me to believe, even for a moment, that that would be enough to end the threat to them.”
“Your Claud was a coward.”
“Why do ye say that?”
“He didnae have the stomach to tell his kin the truth. He probably feared he would lose his place as the heir because he wed a woman he kenned his family wouldnae approve of. Instead of fighting for the marriage he wanted, fighting for his sons, he lied and dragged ye into his life of lies without a thought as to how it would affect you. And ye were right to bring those laddies here. They will get the protection they deserve now.”
That sounded very much like a vow but, before Arianna could respond to Sir Brian’s somewhat impassioned speech, he kicked his horse into a gallop. She hurried to get her own mount moving to keep up with him. It was not easy but she forced herself to ignore the exhaustion and pain battering at her body. She just prayed that it would not be too much longer before he claimed it safe enough to stop for a rest.
She fixed her mind on what he had said about her late husband, Claud, and had to agree. Claud had been a coward, too spineless to stand firm on what he wanted honestly and openly. He had also been selfish, thinking only of himself. It embarrassed her to think of how hard she had tried to make their marriage a good one before she had discovered Marie Anne, the woman she had thought was his mistress. Discovering that Marie Anne had actually been his true wife had made her feel, briefly, relieved that she had not indulged in many of her grand plans to seduce him away from his mistress.
Arianna just wished the sense of failure she still carried would ease. She had not failed for there had never been any chance for her to succeed. Claud was the one who had failed them all and was still failing them. Instead of being there to help protect his sons, it was the woman he had lied to and betrayed who was fighting to keep the boys alive. Arianna fixed her gaze on Sir Brian’s broad back and promised herself that she would win this fight. She also promised herself that she would never be so trusting and painfully naive again.
Chapter 3
“M’lady? M’lady! Wheesht, I didnae ken someone could sleep sitting up and with their eyes open.”
“G’way.” Arianna swatted weakly at the hands grasping her waist.
It was not until she was dangling in the air, those big warm hands at her waist all that kept her safe from falling, that Arianna became aware of where she was, who she was with, and that he was simply lifting her off the back of the horse. She breathed deeply, pushing away a sudden surge of fear. When he set her on her feet, gripping her shoulders when she swayed, she looked up at the sky. When had the sun sunk so low? she wondered.
“Are ye awake now?” Brian thought she looked so enchantingly befuddled despite the tangled hair and bruises, he had to fight down the urge to kiss her.
“I wasnae asleep,” she muttered.
“Nay? I had to stop your mount, unclench your hands from the reins, and call to ye near to a dozen times ere ye spoke. Appeared much akin to sleep to me.”
It certainly sounded so to her, too, but she was not about to admit to it. Arianna could recall a few embarrassing tales her family loved to tell about her doing such a thing when she was a child, exhausted yet unwilling to stop whatever she was doing. She had obviously not outgrown the strange habit. The fact that Sir Brian had had to do so much before she had even become aware of his presence was proof enough of that. Sir Brian MacFingal was not a man any woman could easily ignore.
“Where are we?” she asked, praying he would not press her on her strange behavior.
Brian grinned, doing nothing to hide his amusement even when she gave him a narrow-eyed glare of warning. “We are where we can safely rest for the night.”
She could not stop herself from glancing behind them. “Are ye certain?”
“As certain as one can be. Your enemy cannae ride in the dark any better or more safely than we can. The horses can be hidden by the trees and we can rest in a wee cave set behind those rocks.”
Arianna grabbed the reins of her mount and followed him as he moved toward a large collection of stones set between the side of a rocky hill and a thick growth of trees and brush. They moved off the narrow, rough, drover’s trail far enough that she suspected it would be very difficult for anyone on that trail to see the horses. The moon was on the wane so, even if the night remained clear, it would not shed enough light to make anything lurking in the trees visible unless someone rode very close or the horses made some noise that drew attention to them.
She inwardly shook her head. It did not matter. They needed to rest and so did the horses. Without sufficient rest the horses would falter and she and Sir Brian would be hard-pressed to elude her enemies on foot. Arianna began to change her mind about that, however, when Sir Brian ducked into a small opening in the side of the hill only to return to her side a moment later and gesture for her to go in.
“Ye first,” she said, hoping that she would soon gain enough courage to enter that hole in the earth.
“There are no animals in there,” Brian said.
“Ye were nay in there for verra long. Mayhap ye should look again.”
“’Tis but a wee shelter. There wasnae much looking I needed to do.”
“Oh.” It was not only a hole in the earth; it was a small hole, she thought with a shudder.
Brian studied her as she stared at the entrance to the small cave as if she expected some fierce, slavering beastie to leap out at any moment and go for her throat. He could sympathize with her reluctance to enter the shelter he had found for them. He was not too fond of such places, either. Unfortunately, she was not in any condition to travel any farther without some rest. He needed some rest, too, as did the horses. Then he studied her sad state in the fading daylight and nearly smiled. There was something he could tempt her inside with.
“There is water within, enough for ye to clean yourself,” he said, and hid his sense of victory at the interest she immediately revealed, even though that interest was tainted with doubt.
“Inside that wee cave?”
“Aye. To the back of it. Runs in through some opening in the rock when it rains and collects in a pool, a hollowed-out spot that was probably made by the constant wear of the water. ’Tis one reason I marked this as a resting place when I travel.” He grabbed a pack from his saddle. “Come. I will start a fire and there should be something in here ye can wear so that ye can e’en clean your clothes. While ye clean up, I will settle the horses. That will give ye a wee bit of privacy,” he continued as he grasped her by the hand and tugged her inside the small cave.
Once inside, Arianna stood very still, fighting her deep fear of such places, as Sir Brian made a fire. The moment the light of the fire spread throughout the small cave, she was better able to calm her fear. It was not as small as she had first thought, but, for a man of Sir Brian’s height, the area in which he could move without risking a head wound was small. The rest of the cave slanted down toward the back until it shrank into little more that a mouse’s tunnel. She heard the slow drip of water and immediately became all too aware of how ragged and dirty she was.
“Here. A pot of soap and a drying cloth.” As soon as she took the items he held out to her, Brian draped a shirt over her arm. “A clean shirt. Ye are a wee lass so it should cover ye modestly enough. I will tend to the horses now, and brush away our tracks leading to this place. That should give ye time enough to clean up. Aye?”
“Aye,” she answered. “Thank ye. I am verra eager to wash away the dirt.”
She hurried toward the sound of dripping water, glancing back to make sure he had left the cave. It took all of her willpower not to just tear off her clothing, and she sternly reminded herself that she had need of them no matter how badly they were torn or stained. She could not ride about dressed only in a man’s shirt and her cloak.
Tossing aside the last of her clothes, she stepped into the water, pleased to find it reached to her knees. She sat down in the water, uncaring of the slight chill it carried, and hurried to clean herself. Several places on her body were sore, causing her to wince as she washed, but she did not hesitate to give even those places a hearty scrubbing as well. Once her hair was washed, she dried off as best she could, squeezing and rubbing as much of the water from her hair as she could. It was not until she donned the shirt that she lost a little of her pleasure in getting clean once again.
The shirt was soft and clean but hung only to her knees, and she had nothing to wear beneath it. Arianna pushed aside her embarrassment and washed out her clothes. There was no other choice for her. She could not wear the clothes she had shed until they were clean. Ragged though her shift and stockings were, she was not sure they would be wearable even after they were cleaned, but if they could be salvaged, at least they would not stink of seawater, blood, and mud.
Arianna was spreading her wet clothes wherever she could on the rocks when Sir Brian returned with the packs from the horses. Before she could speak, he left again and she frowned. She ought to be helping him but suspected she was still too weak to be of much help. That angered her. Arianna detested the need to place her fate and care, as well as that of the boys, in another’s hands.
“Foolish pride,” she muttered as she searched the packs for some food, determined to at least set out a meal for the man who was helping her.
The aches and weakness would trouble her for a little while longer. She would have to accept that. It was a miracle she and the boys had not drowned, that they had stumbled upon ones willing to help them so quickly. Her pride could take the bruising if it meant that they all survived. Arianna knew her pride had suffered a far worse battering at the hands of her late husband and she had gained little for it. So it could certainly withstand allowing a man to help her and the boys to survive. She had, after all, come to Scotland to seek the help of her family. Sir Brian was at least allied to her family through marriage.
“This may help to fill our bellies,” Brian said as he entered and held up a rabbit readied for the spit.
Arianna stared at the catch in wide-eyed surprise. “I didnae think ye were gone long enough to go hunting.”
“Didnae hunt it. Ill-fated creature hopped right into the midst of the horses. Fortunately, I am verra good at throwing a knife.” He set the rabbit down and pulled a clever collection of iron rods from the pack, which he swiftly set up as a spit above the fire. “My brothers willnae be pleased that I took the pack with this in it.” He winked at her and grinned. “It is a highly prized tool for one’s travels.”
A blush heated her cheeks and her heart actually beat faster in her chest, as Arianna reeled a little beneath the heady power of that smile. He is kin, she reminded herself firmly, but herself was all too quick to also remind her of the very tenuous connection of the MacFingals to the Murrays, despite his brother’s marriage to her cousin. She had a lot of cousins. Arianna just nodded in a way she felt certain looked idiotic and then moved back from the fire to give him plenty of room to set up the spit. And to put some distance between her and a far too handsome man, she thought ruefully, silently accepting her own cowardice.
It troubled her that he could make her feel like some innocent maid who was caught up in her first time of flirting with a man. While it was true that she had had little experience with such games before marrying, she was now a woman who had been married for five years, betrayed, and widowed. She should be long past such blushes and flutters.
“Do ye ken how to cook it?” he asked.
“Aye. All the women in my clan learn how to cook. ’Tis believed it helps in kenning what is going on in the kitchens of the house the woman may rule one day, or if she weds a mon who cannae really afford such help,” she replied, and then quickly shut her mouth, afraid that she was beginning to babble.
“A verra wise thing to do. I will leave ye to it for I need to clean up.”
Arianna was astonished at how difficult it was for her to keep her full attention on cooking the rabbit as he walked away. She had never had any compelling urge to watch men so closely before. At times she had paused to appreciate a handsome face or a tall, strong body, but only for a glance or two. A part of her, however, was eager to closely watch Sir Brian MacFingal, to gaze for a long time at the way his tall strong body moved, the way his long, thick black hair gleamed in the light, or how his eyes lightened and darkened with his changing moods.
He did have a very handsome face, she mused. It was a strong face, its hard lines almost predatory when he was angry yet quickly softened by a smile. Those thickly lashed, dark blue eyes and the slight fullness to his lips softened the harshness of his features as well, but she had seen how fierce he could look when she had told him that Amiel and the DeVeaux wanted to kill the boys. It was that look that had prompted her to trust him with the lives of her boys. Her doubts about trusting the man were only faint ghostly twinges now, perhaps because her heart knew she had made the best decision for the survival of her boys.
She did not like being away from her boys, detested not knowing how they fared, yet was certain they would be protected. Just as she was certain she would be protected, that this man would do his best to get her somewhere safe and reunited with Michel and Adelar. That the occasional doubt she had did not linger puzzled her. It also worried her. She did not appear to be holding fast to her vow to be more wary, more cautious, about whom she put her trust in.
The sound of splashing water yanked her out of her thoughts. Had he shed his clothes to wash? Arianna was shocked that such a question would leap to mind. Worse, she badly wanted to look to get an answer to that question. Utter madness, she decided, and turned her attention to the pack that held the supplies. She put every scrap of willpower she could gather into settling all her thoughts on the simple matter of putting together a decent meal. The whispered suggestion that slithered through her mind that she was doing so to impress Sir Brian was ruthlessly suppressed.
Brian rinsed his clothes and spread them out. The rough shelter slowly filled with the tantalizing scent of roasting meat and something else. Lady Arianna had obviously decided to add something to the simple meal. By the scent of what she had made, he knew he would appreciate it but hoped she had not used too free a hand with his supplies. Gathering more while they fled her enemies would not be easy.
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