Highlander Betrayed (Guardians of the Targe) (17 page)

“So why do you care?” The question popped out of her mouth with such force she looked surprised by it.

“Curiosity.” He stepped closer to her, close enough that his chest nearly touched her still crossed arms. “She is important to you and your clan and I find myself concerned with what concerns you.” It took every ounce of self-control not to reach out and smooth the crease between her brows with his thumb, to run his fingers over skin he knew was soft and smooth. She took an unsteady breath and looked up, and he found himself caught in her gaze.

“So you followed us up the ben?” she whispered.

He nodded slowly, captivated by the darker flecks of green in her eyes he had not noticed before.

“So you
were
spying upon us, aye?” Her voice was sharp, knocking Nicholas out of his reverie. Now she was the one to step back, distancing herself again.

“Nay, I was not.” He was nine kinds of a fool for letting the tricky wench lull him into letting his guard down. “I was curious about where you were bound, aye. I was troubled that you took no men with you to keep you safe. I thought it odd that Lady Elspet was going anywhere at all.” He took a chance and moved close enough so he could reach out and push a wayward lock of hair away from her face. “And I wanted to see you.”

Her expression softened. The truth in his words must have rung through.

“Rowan?” Jeanette’s worried voice sliced through the quiet that surrounded them.

“I am here!” she called back. “We have a”—she looked back at Nicholas—“a visitor.”

There was silence from above.

She turned back to him and lowered her voice almost to a whisper even though it was doubtful the other women, or even Archie lurking somewhere close by, could hear them at less than a shout. “You shall not speak a word of what has passed between us, aye? They have enough worries without wondering what is happening between…” She looked up at him and he could see that she was as confused by the attraction they shared as he was.

“You have my word,” he said. “I have no intention of discomfiting Lady Elspet, or any of you.”

“Good. Stay here while I tell them you are here and explain why,” she said. “Please,” she added, clearly afraid he would follow her again.

“As you wish.” He hooked his thumbs in his belt and looked at her expectantly. “Go on. I promise I will not leave this spot without your consent.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. He flashed a grin at her and was gratified to see a smile light up her face.

Nicholas didn’t wait long before Rowan called out for him to follow her. He glanced into the woods where he knew Archie hid,
but could not see the man. Perhaps now he’d find out at least what the women had been up to. If he could manage it, he might get a closer look at Elspet’s ermine sack and its contents.

When he arrived at the top of the ben he found Jeanette and Scotia scowling at him. A very pale Lady Elspet sat with her back against a rocky outcrop and her eyes closed.

“I do not ken why you followed us,” Jeanette said to him, “but Rowan claims it was out of simple curiosity.” She looked from him to Rowan. When Rowan nodded, Jeanette turned back to him. “Whatever your reason, it turns out to be a boon. Will you help us get Mum back to the castle, sir? I am very afraid our adventure has been more than she has the strength for.”

“Aye, I will,” he said, happy that his very real concern, if not his motivation for following them, would lend credence to his being here.

“Can we trust him?” Scotia asked, standing between him and her mother like a bear protecting her cub, her demeanor at odds with the flirtatious girl he had come to expect.

“I believe we can,” Rowan said, holding his glance in hers. A mad wish to prove he merited such trust gripped him, though he knew he never would.

Scotia glanced at her cousin, then back at Nicholas before she reluctantly nodded.

“If you will lead the pony,” Jeanette said to Nicholas, “Scotia can ride behind to help Mum stay in the saddle, and we”—she nodded toward Rowan—“can brace her on either side.”

“Of course.”

Rowan whistled and the pony stepped out of a tiny side trail onto the bigger path.

As Jeanette helped her mother to her feet, Nicholas moved around the still skeptical Scotia.

“Lady Elspet,” he said quietly to the woman who looked almost transparent. “May I help you onto the pony?”

Elspet nodded and Nicholas quickly settled her into the saddle. Scotia clambered up behind her mother and wrapped her arms around her. “You can lean back against me, Mum,” she said. “Rest
and I shall make sure you do not fall.” Scotia’s mouth was set in a line that trembled but everything else about her screamed determination. He would not have expected such from the flighty lass. An odd sort of pride in her actions settled over him.

Nicholas did not want to feel any softness for these women, but he could not help it. They were all so strong in the face of such impending loss. Even Scotia, who was clearly the spoiled babe of the family, fought hard to do what needed doing for her mother’s sake, and for the sister and cousin she clearly depended upon. Elspet did not complain, though she was barely able to keep her seat upon the solid little pony. These women had more dignity in this harsh moment than anyone at Edward’s court.

“Lead the way, Nicholas of Achnamara.” Rowan motioned toward the trail. “We need to get my aunt home to her bed as quickly as we can.”

Their eyes locked and the image of Rowan draped across his bed suddenly filled his mind just as Rowan’s face betrayed some similar line of thought, going softly pink.

Jeanette looked from one to the other and shook her head. “Lead on, Nicholas.”

With immense effort he looked away from Rowan and began the trek back down the ben, the pony’s reins in his hand. Loneliness flooded into him, filling all the hollows in his heart and in his battered soul. He had a feeling the loneliness had been there a long time, but he hadn’t noticed it until it had, however temporarily, been replaced with a sense of… He could not name the feeling he had when Rowan looked at him, when he touched her, but it was unsettling and welcome all at the same time. He knew he should not pursue the woman or the feeling. He knew he could not let what had begun between them go any further if he ever hoped to leave here as anything more than a broken man.

CHAPTER NINE

F
OLLOWING
N
ICHOLAS DOWN
the ben was a mistake. He was leading the horse at a steady pace, not too fast, but not wasting time, either. But that was not the problem. Rowan put a hand to her belly, below her navel, where heat swirled, urging her forward, toward him, toward the strong hands and gentle kisses that kept her body singing like a tightly strung harp.

Rowan tried to focus on the horse, on her cousin’s bare foot that hung behind Elspet’s foot, shod in her favorite soft leather slippers. She tried to focus on the almost rhythmic gate of the pony as it picked its way down the rough track. She tried to focus on the feel of the fresh spring air as it rushed up the ben rustling the burgeoning leaves—and Nicholas’s plaid.

She tried and she failed. She could not help but watch the sway of Nicholas’s plaid as he strode down the mountain in front of her and the way the wind made it flap and swirl about his legs. The curve of his calf was just as muscular as other men’s, but so much paler, as if he kept indoors or always wore trews. And yet, despite his unseemly pallor she could not help but raise her eyes to his broad shoulders, nor help but enjoy the way his dark curly hair bounced with each long stride down the mountain.

His presence calmed her fears as nothing else had done today, even with the suspicion she’d been forced to consider when she first saw him striding up the path. Jeanette had said it last night. He was a good man, a man she could trust, a man she could…

This would not do. She had no interest in a flirtation with a man who was only passing through, no matter how much his kisses awakened every fiber of her body. She dared not let Nicholas of Achnamara distract her from her duties, as Scotia always let the lads do.

The wind rustled his plaid again, drawing her attention in spite of her best intentions. She forced herself to watch her own feet until the path narrowed between large boulders. Rowan was grateful that she and Jeanette had to fall back from beside the pony, putting the whole animal between her and the man she was trying to ignore. At least she was grateful until she realized she could feel her cousin’s eyes on her. She dared not meet Jeanette’s gaze.

“Do you not have something to tell me, cousin?” Jeanette asked, a true smile evident in her voice for the first time in a long time.

“Nay. Do you have aught to tell me?”

The smile left Jeanette’s face. “Nay. I am still not chosen and neither is Scotia.”

Rowan wrapped an arm around her cousin’s shoulders. “Perhaps that is good. Perhaps that means Auntie will get better, that there is no need to pass the Guardianship along to one of you yet.” But neither of them believed that. They walked in silence for a few minutes until Jeanette caught Rowan looking around the pony.

“You cannot seem to keep your eyes off a certain comely man.”

“Wheesht!” Rowan shook her head. “You need not speak so loudly, Jeanette.”

“I but whispered, Ro. Tell me what is going on between you and”—she nodded toward the pony and the man who walked in front of it—“him.”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? Truly? So that is why your face was flushed when you came up the trail?”

Rowan sighed and pulled her arisaid around her. Jeanette was too perceptive and really there was nothing but a couple of kisses to reveal. She glanced at Scotia and Elspet, then back at her cousin.

“Promise me you will not speak of what we say to Auntie or to anyone else.”

Jeanette’s face went from teasing back to serious in the space of half a breath. “Of course. What did he do to you?” Concern wove through the air binding them together.

“Do to me? Oh, nothing today. He kissed me last night.”

“And?”

“And it was not the first time.”

Jeanette’s mouth made a silent O and then she grinned. “He must kiss well, then.”

A giggle escaped Rowan before she could stop it. She covered her mouth before another one could get away from her and nodded. “Aye, very well.”

Jeanette giggled, too, as she linked her arm through Rowan’s. “Then why were you so serious a moment ago?”

Rowan shook her head. “This is no time to let a braw man tempt me from my duties.”

“In truth, it seems a wonderful time to be distracted from them.” Jeanette squeezed Rowan’s arm and they both fell silent.

As the two of them caught up, the path suddenly widened. The horse stepped on a stone and momentarily stumbled. Jeanette and Rowan both leapt to steady Elspet and Scotia at the same time Nicholas did. His broad hand landed on Rowan’s where it rested on Elspet’s waist. The shock of the touch was so strong she froze, her eyes on his, all thoughts of ignoring him gone.

Nicholas’s eyes went almost black. “ ’Tis rude to stare, lass” he said under his breath.

Rowan’s entire body flushed and Scotia’s delighted laugh ensured there would be lots of teasing in Rowan’s immediate future.

“There is little else to see when you take up so much of the trail ahead of us,” Rowan said quietly as she slid her hand from under his.

Nicholas’s grin transformed his face from handsome to boyish and Rowan heard both Scotia and Jeanette sigh.

“Lady Elspet,” he said, shifting his focus from Rowan to her aunt, “would you like to stop for a little while? I can help you off the pony and you could rest a while before we continue on.”

“Aye,” she answered as she shifted in the saddle with a quiet groan.

Rowan was suddenly very grateful that Scotia sat behind her mother, holding on to her lest Elspet lose her grip and fall out of the saddle.

“I am greatly fatigued today,” Elspet added, her voice thin and feeble. “I thought I would be fine for a short outing.”

Jeanette caught Rowan’s eye over the pony’s shoulder. Elspet used to walk this trail regularly with no fatigue or weakness. If ever they needed a sign that things had changed, this day’s journey was surely it. If only it had been worthwhile.

Rowan showed Nicholas where there was a small clearing just off the trail at the edge of a beautiful fast-running burn. He handed her the reins and reached up to steady Elspet while Scotia dismounted. Rowan held her breath while he gently lifted Elspet from the saddle. He lowered her to the ground but did not let go of her. He wrapped an arm around her waist while Scotia steadied her with a hand under her near elbow. Two wobbly steps and they eased her down onto a blanket Jeanette had quickly spread on the ground.

Jeanette smiled at him as she settled her mother with her back against the rock. Nicholas stood watching Elspet get settled. He rubbed the back of his neck and somehow Rowan knew he was as concerned as they were over her aunt. He had only recently met her aunt, yet he took care with her as if she were someone important to him.

Rowan looped the reins over a low branch, then stood beside Nicholas, close but not so close they touched. She tried to look at her aunt through his eyes, for as hard as she tried she always seemed to see the strong, healthy woman, not the one she knew was dying. Elspet’s sunken cheeks and hollowed-out eyes bespoke a deep-seated illness and pain etched deep brittle lines around her lips.

“Scotia, get some water for Auntie.” Rowan returned to the pony and grabbed another blanket. She and Jeanette spread it over Elspet, tucking it in around her legs. Scotia managed to get a couple of sips of water into her mother, but no more.

Rowan turned away, needing a moment to gather herself, and found Nicholas watching her. She had been so distract by watching him as they traveled that she had not noticed Elspet needed a rest. Guilt and sadness swamped her, lightened only by gratitude that he had kept his head and minded Elspet’s needs. She
stepped close, letting her hand rest on his arm, and whispered, “Thank you.”

Nicholas nodded. “I could see her face. You could not.”