Hunted (The Scottish Falconers Book 2) (14 page)

Hearing was the first of his senses to return. Muffled voices of men and women filtered through the buzzing noise in his head. Gradually, Derek became aware of his body. He was lying down and felt no pain anywhere but his head. Without opening his eyes, he moved his legs. Still no pain. Then he raised his hands and touched his own face, feeling the bristles of a new beard.

“How are ye feeling?” A soft, lilting female voice—Belle’s voice—spoke. She was barely audible over the noise in his head. Groaning, he managed to open his eyes for a second then snapped them shut against the pain-inducing light.

“Awful. My head is buzzing.”

“Och, a braw lad like you can handle it. Time to get up. We must be away.” This female voice was not Belle. He opened his eyes to find both Catriona and Belle staring down at him.

Derek waved a hand and closed his eyes. “Go ahead, I won’t stop you.”

“Ye dinna understand, lad. Today is your wedding day,” a male voice put in.

“Da! I’ve not had time to discuss it with him yet,” Isobel protested.

Catriona chuckled.

His eyes flew open and Derek sat up, stared at Boyd Graham, and then glanced at his daughter. “Did I hear correctly? This noise in my ears is making it hard to hear. Will we be allowed to marry, Belle?”

Then he realized with a start that he was no longer in the forest. “Where am I? How did I get here? What happened?”

Belle sat down on the cot next to him and began to gently massage his neck and the base of his skull. “Would you two mind giving us a moment alone?”

“No problem, we’ve more packing to do. Come, Da.” Catriona took Boyd’s hand and led him away.

As Derek looked around, he realized they were inside a small cottage. Across the room, Rabbie and William gave him a wave and went back to shoving loaves of bread in a sack.

“This is Catriona and Rabbie’s cottage. We rebuilt it while you were gone.”

Derek swung his legs off the side of the cot and leaned forward to put his aching head in his hands. Belle massaged his tight neck muscles. As he ran his fingers through his hair, he encountered a hard lump on his head. Someone had hit him hard.

“Go on,
mo leannan
. Tell me, please.”

She ran her fingers higher on the back of his skull and rubbed. “When we were in the woods, and you said ye were planning to draw the English to you and away from us, Fin hit ye with a rock.”

“He gave me a good-sized lump. Where is the man? I need to have a word with him.”

“Ye canna. He’s gone. He took your English soldier uniform to wear. “’Twas his idea to disguise himself as you, and take your horse to entice the soldiers to go after him.”

To his regret, she stopped massaging his neck and reached for a tin cup. “Have some water. If ye can hold it down, I’ll bring ye some meat and bread.”

“But why did Fin do that? I thought your brother hated me.” Derek accepted the water and sipped slowly. His stomach was definitely unsettled.

A smile lifted the corners of Belle’s mouth, and her eyes welled up with tears. “Because my brother loves me, and he kens I love you,” she said with a catch in her voice.

“Oh, Belle.” Putting the cup down, he reached out and wrapped his arms around her.

“The big sot better not get himself killed,” she murmured against his shoulder.

“Yes, I have a bone to pick him about his methods of ensuring cooperation.” Derek rubbed the lump on his head. “Ouch!”

Pulling back, Isobel reached up and put her palm against his cheek. “Would you have come back with me willingly?”

Derek grunted. “Maybe, if I knew we could be married.” Then his aching brain remembered. “But you canna marry me, Belle. I’m a marked man now. The English will track me down and hang me for a traitor. I don’t want you involved.”

“They’ll be looking for a single Englishman in a uniform, not a Scotsman in peasant clothing with a wife.” Boyd said as he came up beside the cot and stared down at them. “Besides, Sinclair, the Graham women are a hard-headed lot. Ye canna dissuade them once they get it into their heads that they want to do something.”

Boyd tossed an armful of clothing on the bed. “Get dressed, we’ve a handfasting ceremony to perform before we go.”

A trail of giggles heralded the arrival of young William Ogilvie. “I saw yer underthings, Derek.”

“Och!” Derek looked down at his bare chest. The rest of him was covered by a blanket. “I suppose I should be dressing now. I wouldna want to be married in my unmentionables.” He had been so concerned with everything else that he didn’t notice he was not dressed at all.

William giggled again. “Belle is so pretty, ye would look like a plucked chicken standing next to her. “Bwawk, bwawk.”

“A plucked chicken, eh?” Derek made a grab for the boy who danced out of reach. With a groan, Derek clapped his hands to his head. “I feel like I’ve already drunk a huge amount of wedding ale.”

* * *

As he had for Rabbie and Catriona’s wedding, Boyd stood and waited for Isobel to come meet her groom under the grand fir tree. The fine summer weather of Scotland had shown up today, and they all gathered in the sunshine.

Isobel smoothed her best blue kirtle with its long, close-fitting sleeves and adjusted the blue-and-green Graham sash pinned at the shoulder. She raised her head and pushed her long red hair back over her shoulders. Catriona had made a crown of white flowers and pinned them in her hair.

Everything was ready.

Taking a deep breath, she took Rabbie’s arm and focused on her husband-to-be. Derek’s handsome face sported an ear-to-ear grin when their eyes met. Although he did not wear the tartan of his Scottish half today, he was already embracing the Scottish speech of his youth.

Rabbie walked beside her. Catriona, William, three falcons on perches, and Roger the mule looked on as the wedding guests.

After placing her hand in Derek’s, Rabbie went to join Catriona. Together, they faced Boyd Graham, who began to read from an old book he carried everywhere.

“Do you, Derek Sinclair, take Isobel Graham to be your wife, to be her constant friend, her partner in life, and her true love?”

When the words of the traditional handfasting ceremony had been recited and each had said, “I do,” Boyd turned the page and continued.

“Together please repeat after me …”

“Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone.

I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One.

I give ye my Spirit, ’til our Life shall be Done.”

As they recited the ancient words together, Isobel looked into the eyes of her beloved, saw love, and smiled. It was a true, deep, and abiding love that went beyond their physical need for one another. Heat spread through her belly and up to her face. She hoped no one noticed.

The same ribbon used for Rabbie and Catriona was wrapped around the hands and wrists of Derek and Isobel to hold them fast.

Boyd read the final verse. “Now you are bound one to the other with a tie not easy to break …” Looking up from the book, he smiled at his family. “This is where Derek would normally present the tartan of the Sinclair clan to his new wife.”

Boyd turned to Derek. “Would you be objecting to symbolically accepting the Graham tartan from Isobel instead?”

“Nay, I’d be pleased to become an honorary Graham. When I can, I will give my wife a tartan from my Sinclair clan as my pledge to return to my Scottish heritage.”

“Now ye truly look Scottish.” She stretched up to give him a kiss, intending the kiss to be chaste and brief. Instead, he pulled her to him, held her tight against his chest, and kissed her until her head spun.

“And now ye are truly Mrs. Sinclair.” Derek grinned down at her as she labored to catch her breath while all of the Grahams and William clapped their hands.

“Can we eat now?” William tugged at Catriona’s skirt.

“We can. The wedding feast waits,” she replied and ruffled the hair of her temporary ward. As he scampered off, she turned to Derek. “Willie is really upset that he cannot be with his mother and father, but he understands that they dinna want him to be with ‘bad men’ too. He kens we will take good care of him until it is safe to be with them again. I thank ye, Derek, for warning us, at great cost to yourself, of Morgan’s treacherous scheme to use the lad to get to us.” Catriona rubbed her slightly swollen belly. “We all owe ye a debt of gratitude.”

Rabbie took her elbow. “That we do, Sinclair. Come, Cat. Let’s feast and be gone while daylight lasts.”

Once again, their traveling sacks were full and lined up along the wall of the cottage, ready to be loaded into the donkey cart.

The men had been so busy rebuilding the cottage that there had been no time to make furniture. Catriona sat on the only chair. Rabbie had carried it over from the kitchen. Everyone else sat on the dirt floor or stood to eat.

Isobel and Derek nestled cozily side by side with their legs touching. Each of them held a bread trencher filled with fragrant venison stew. The hunting had been good and a few early summer vegetables added to their meal.

“Will ye be coming with us?” Rabbie asked between bites.

Derek glanced at Isobel. She nodded, and he turned to the group. “No, Belle and I discussed it. With the English soldiers looking for me, and Fin setting himself up as a decoy, we have decided to go to the Isle of Skye, where I have land and a house left to me by my Scottish grandparents. We plan to try and find Fin on our travels to convince him to stop his quest. I will take my chances. As the Grand Falconer said, they willna be looking for a Scotsman and his wife.

“I will be sad to part from ye, Da, Rabbie, Cat, and Willie.” Isobel’s voice wobbled for a few moments, and her throat constricted. She missed her mamm fiercely and now, the thought of being apart from her family hurt like a knife. But her path now lay with her husband. He was her one true love and, as the vows said, Derek was her ‘constant friend and partner for life.’

Da must have sensed her distress, for he put aside his food, stood, and went to kneel beside Isobel and enfold her in his arms. She clung to him and inhaled deeply, capturing the scent that was Da—woodsy and musky—her idea of how a man should smell … Derek’s scent was much the same.

After a few heartbeats, Da released her, but remained kneeling beside her. He smiled and took her hand.

“My beautiful Belle, my falconer daughter, I’m so proud of you. Moira would be so pleased with your choice in a husband. You’ve got a man with a brain and a heart. He is a survivor, and I’ve no doubt he will see ye safe and cared for.”

“Thank you, sir.” Derek held out a hand and Da released her to shake it heartily.

Then her father turned his blue Graham family eyes on Isobel once more. “Ye are a grown woman now, and you will make a life with this man. But my heart and soul will always be with my children. Rabbie and I will take Catriona and the lad to Drum Castle near Drumoak. Perhaps Clan Irvine would enjoy the sport of falconry and the meat we can provide. We will be safe there. Catriona will have a midwife when her time comes, and William will be out of Morgan’s reach. We can blend in with the folk of Drum and disappear.”

“What of Fin, Da?”

At the mention of his youngest child’s name, worry lines appeared between Da’s russet brows. “Your brother is an untamed spirit, Belle. He always did have a taste for adventure. As a grown man, he is free to go where he will. Should you see him, please tell him that I love him, and tell him where we’ve gone. Perhaps one day we will all be together again.”

“God will make it so,” Isobel said and sniffed.

Derek threw the sack containing Isobel’s possessions over the back of one of the horses the Grahams had gained in their scuffle with the English soldiers. He and Isobel would be riding bareback. They had wisely buried both English saddles and removed any ornamentation from the bridals.

The whole family was almost ready to depart. Derek scanned the area, watching deep into the trees for any unexpected movement. He touched the dirk he wore on his belt and made sure the confiscated pike was within reach. Isobel was an accomplished archer as well as a falconry expert. He hoped to get a few lessons from his talented wife.

Roger the donkey had been reluctant to take his place in the traces to pull the cart, but Rabbie and Derek managed to prevail.

Derek watched Rabbie tenderly help his pregnant wife into the cart then lift little William in too. They were surrounded by sacks of clothing and food.

Boyd Graham untied the jesses holding his magnificent white gyrfalcon to its perch, took the bird into his gloved hand, and removed its hood. The Grand Falconer gave Osgar a bit of meat then jerked his arm up. The bird lifted from his arm and quickly disappeared over the treetops.

Rabbie came and performed the same actions with his peregrine falcon, and it too vanished.

Then Isobel came out of the cottage. She had changed out of her wedding dress into brown breeches, high boots, and a loose-fitting blouse. Her golden-red locks had been wrangled into a single braid that hung down her back. He loved it when she wore her hair loose, and she promised to leave it free for her wedding night. Just the sight of her stole the air from his lungs and the blood from his brain. Blood rushed to parts of his anatomy instead.

Absently patting the horse’s neck, Derek watched Isobel walk, hips gently swaying, to where her falcon was perched. Rabbie and Boyd were occupied dismantling the wooden structure.

Isobel’s actions mimicked those of her brother and father as she took her peregrine falcon, Latharna, on her gloved hand. Removing the hood, she then fed her bird and stroked its breast feathers. With one swift motion, Belle released her bird to the sky. She had told Derek that Lantharna would follow them wherever they went, even all the way to
An t-Eilean Sgitheanach
and his grandparent’s farm.

Shading her eyes with one hand and the other raised in farewell, Belle watched her falcon until it was a tiny dot in the sky.

When she turned her face toward him, he could see the impending sorrow there.

It was time to say goodbye.

After loading the falcon perches into the cart, the family gathered for a last round of tearful hugs and kisses. They all included Derek as if he were a family member too. He supposed he was now.

Boyd mounted the horse. He too would ride bareback. Rabbie picked up Roger’s reins to lead the cart, and the Graham falconers with young William Ogilvie, turned southwest. Once more, they left behind the home they had known at Dunnottar.

Derek mounted his horse and leaned down to help Belle up. She settled her tantalizing self in from of him then twisted to look at him.

“You seem happy to have me here.”

“Oh, I am. Verra happy. I’ll be even happier tonight when we make camp.”

She gave him a little preview in the form of a long, deep kiss.

Derek let out an appreciative sigh when she finished and turned to the front. He clicked his tongue to set the horse in motion.

“Here we go, Mrs. Sinclair, westward to the Isle of Skye and our new life.”

“Aye, and I hope we find my pigheaded brother on the way.”

Derek smiled and gave her a kiss on the back of her head. “As long as we don’t find him tonight … I want you all to myself on our wedding night.”

In response, Isobel leaned back into his arms. “Mmmm … I agree,
mo leannan
.”