The Hawk: A Highland Guard Novel (43 page)

Her stomach dropped. It couldn’t be! She forced herself to calm. She’d heard Sir Aymer say the same thing many times before, but Bruce always managed to evade him.

Her father must have had a similar thought. “How can you be sure they won’t move before you can get the troops in position?” he asked. “Bruce doesn’t stay in one place for long.”

“They’re preparing for a feast—one of his men’s saint’s days, apparently—and have sent for some of the village lasses and a barrel of ale. They aren’t going anywhere tonight.”

Women
. Her heart twinged. Not just with fear, but with something else. She knew Erik too well.

But Sir Aymer was right: if they were preparing for a feast, they weren’t likely to be on the move. Could this finally be the time the English captured the elusive King Hood?

“How did you find them?” her father asked.

The powerful Englishman sounded as proud as a lad who’d caught his first fish. “One of my men grew jealous when a lass he’d taken a liking to at a village alehouse kept coming and going at strange hours. Last night he decided to follow her and nearly stumbled into their encampment. I should have thought of it before. Follow the women, and they will lead you to the men.”

“Why didn’t you attack immediately?” Ralph asked.

“They are camped in a valley between two rocky mountains,” Sir Aymer replied.

“And you can’t get your horses through,” Ralph finished.

“Aye, so we’ll take cover in the nearby wood and come upon them unaware. Have your men join us in the wood near the loch at the head of Glen Trool. With MacDougall’s Highlanders coming from the north, MacDowell’s men from the south, and the additional English troops from the king, we’ll attack at dawn and crush the rebels once and for all.” She heard the pounding of a fist on wood. “But I want to make damn sure he doesn’t escape this time.” He paused. “Do you have any loyal female servants with you?”

It was a strange question. Typically, conquering armies made use of the locals for their servants, and the English were no exception. Few personal servants were brought into war—and those that were were men.

“Nay,” her father started to say, then stopped, realizing at the same time as she did why Sir Aymer had come to them. Because of Ellie and Matty. “Aye, my daughter Matty brought a maidservant with her. She can be trusted. What do you have planned?”

Ellie could almost hear Sir Aymer smile. “There is going to be one extra woman who joins the feast tonight.”

“A spy?” Ralph asked.

“Aye, to discover their numbers and how well equipped they are. Despite the rumors, Bruce does not have an army of phantoms. I want to know who those men are—with all the trouble they’ve caused me, I’ve something special in mind for them.”

A cold chill ran down her spine. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard mention of Bruce’s phantom guard, and something about the stories of the mysterious warriors with nearly inhuman strength and skill sounded eerily familiar.

“Alice is a respectable girl, not a whore,” her father said, not hiding his disgust.

“Of course not,” Sir Aymer replied contritely. “She won’t be expected to do anything more than help with the food and ale. Be assured the woman will be well rewarded for her trouble.”

Her father must have looked uncertain.

“She won’t come to any harm,” Sir Aymer assured him. “My men will escort her to the edge of their encampment well after the feasting has begun. She can claim to have gotten lost from the rest of the group. By that time they’ll be too drunk to argue.”

“You’ve thought of everything,” her father said dryly.

Ellie moved away in a trance, her heart racing wildly in her breast as she tried to make sense of everything she’d heard.

One thing was clear: the English had set a trap for Robert and his men, and if they weren’t warned, they’d be in grave danger.

She raced up the tower stairs to the small chamber she shared with her sister, not knowing what she was going to do, but knowing she had to do something. She couldn’t let him die—not when it was in her power to help him. Even if he did not return her feelings, she loved him.

Besides, she owed it to him. She should have told him who she was as soon as she discovered his identity. She could not regret making love with him, but she did regret the difficulty it must have caused him with Robert. Too late she’d realized that he would see his actions with her as disloyal to the king. And with what she’d learned of his past, she understood how important that was to him.

Perhaps this was a chance to atone for her mistake. But what could she do?

Frantic, she tore open the door and was surprised to see her sister staring out the window in much the same manner as she’d been doing earlier. There was something forlorn and sad about the set of her shoulders. Matty turned at the sound and smiled, though it didn’t brighten her eyes. So wrapped up in her own heartbreak, Ellie realized that Matty hadn’t been herself lately. She vowed to find out what was troubling her sister, but first she had to find a way to warn Erik.

The vague outlines of a plan had taken hold. A plan that was both risky and fraught with danger.

Matty took a step toward her. “What is it?”

Ellie met her sister’s concerned gaze and felt the weight of the past two months crash down on her. She hadn’t wanted to burden her sister with her secrets, but Ellie knew that if she was going to do this, she couldn’t do this alone.

She took a deep breath. “I need your help.”

    Erik MacSorley, a man known for his perpetual good humor, was in a perpetually black mood. Not even the pretty lass sitting in his lap doing her best to get a rise out of him could cure what ailed him.

He’d been ruined. Bewitched by a lass with silky dark hair and flashing green-flecked hazel eyes who haunted his days, his nights, and every blasted minute in between.

He hadn’t forgotten her; if anything, his memories of her had only grown sharper. Standing out against everything that had come before—and after—in bold contrast. Making everyone else seem ordinary in comparison. The irony of his first impression of her as just that was not lost on him.

She had been different, he realized. Special. Though realizing it didn’t change things. She didn’t belong to him and never would.

In his darker moments, he tortured himself with the question of whether she’d married her bloody Englishman yet.

His muscles tensed, and the lass tittered something about his needing to relax. She nuzzled his neck and giggled as she whispered naughty suggestions in his ear, but he didn’t feel anything other than vague annoyance. He was tired of simpering and giggling. Of lasses who looked up at him as if he could do no wrong.

He wanted someone who argued with him. Who challenged him and cared enough to delve beneath the surface. Who wanted to give as much as she wanted to receive.

“I love you
.
”

He heard the words over and over in his head. He could see her face in the moonlight and couldn’t escape the feeling that he’d made a mistake. That Ellie had been offering him something special, and he’d been too blind to see it. That maybe the words he’d heard many times before had meant something different coming from her. But he’d asked her to marry him, hadn’t he? It was she who hadn’t wanted him. Why would she? He had nothing to offer her.

His fingers clenched the heavy pewter goblet until the raised metal edge of the fleur-de-lis engraving bit into his fingers.

What the hell was the matter with him?

Disgusted with himself, he tried to relax and give the lass some encouragement. But the teasing and flirting felt forced, and he soon found himself frustrated by the light banter. Still propped on his knee, he was glad when she turned to speak to the woman who’d come up to refill her flagon of ale.

He took a deep swig and gazed around the torchlit tent at the crowd of boisterous, already half-sotted men. Even if he did not share in their revelry, Erik did not begrudge them their fun. There’d been precious little cause for celebrating of late, and the men needed something to raise their spirits. It was the first time he’d seen Bruce smiling since the horrific news of his brothers’ beheadings and the capture of the women had reached them.

There had been small patches of good news. Striker and Hunter had been among the handful of men to escape in the failed second prong of the attack in Galloway. On a two-day mission north, the remaining members of the Highland Guard—including Alex “Dragon” Seton, who’d found them shortly after Turnberry—had slipped into the lightly defended Urquhart Castle and rescued Magnus “Saint” MacKay and William “Templar” Gordon after months of imprisonment. Then, about a week later, with the help of Gordon’s magic powder, they’d freed Domnall and the rest of Erik’s men from Ayr.

But these successes had to be weighed against the heavy costs this war had exacted: three brothers, Christopher Seton, the Earl of Atholl, an imprisoned family, and too many others.

Thus far, Bruce’s return to Scottish soil had yielded no more than a few hundred acres of wild, godforsaken mountains in Galloway. They’d made little headway against the English since Turnberry. The raids and small attacks on supply routes weren’t enough to rally additional men to the king’s banner. They were treading water, just holding their heads up high enough to avoid drowning. And eventually they would tire.

They needed something decisive to draw more men into the fold. But this time the king was being patient, refusing to meet the English unless it was on his terms. Erik hoped it came soon. Any momentum they’d garnered since Turnberry was quickly dissipating in the mud and grime of living on the run.

But tonight they were almost civilized again. After months of living in virtual squalor, it felt good to sit at a table again. Unlike the English nobles who traveled with wagons of household comforts, Bruce needed to travel lightly and be able to move at a moment’s notice. But, for the feast tonight, a kinswoman of the king’s, Christina of Carrick, had arranged for a tent to be erected, and a few tables and benches had been carted to their temporary mountain headquarters near Glen Trool.

As the guest of honor, Erik was seated at the center table a few seats away from the king, his brother Edward, James Douglas, Neil Campbell, MacRuairi, MacGregor, and MacLeod. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that his cousin was arguing with the king again.

If there was anyone who could rival Erik for his black temper lately, it was MacRuairi. He didn’t need to hear to know what they were arguing about. The king had refused to sanction MacRuairi’s repeated requests to attempt to rescue the ladies from captivity. He needed them alive, the king said. Attempting to rescue the well-guarded ladies in English strongholds at this point would be a suicide mission. He couldn’t risk losing them—not when their situation was so precarious. Once he’d solidified his base, he would lead the Highland Guard himself.

But MacRuairi would not be satisfied by reason. He was like a man possessed in his determination to free the ladies—especially the two hanging in cages.

“You don’t seem to be enjoying your present,” MacLeod said pointedly from his seat on Erik’s left.

Erik defied the knowing look in his chief’s eye by sliding his hand around the lass’s round bottom. “Oh, I’m enjoying it fine.”

He tried not to cringe when the lass giggled and wiggled deeper into his lap, swatting at his hand playfully. But thankfully she was too busy enjoying her ale and MacGregor’s pretty face on his right to resume her attentions.

Depressingly, he felt nary the faintest spark of competitive fires stirring inside him. He half wished the famed archer would take her off his hands—or in this case, his lap.

“It was the king’s idea,” MacLeod said, eyeing him over the edge of his goblet. “I think it’s his way of apologizing.”

“He has nothing to apologize for,” Erik said. “I offended his honor and made things even more difficult between him and his father-in-law. He gave no more than I deserved.”

“Ulster doesn’t seem to have taken it personally,” MacLeod said. “As for the king’s honor,” he shrugged, “I think he regrets some of the things he said.”

“He would have strung me up by my bollocks if he could have.”

The Chief of the Highland Guard didn’t argue with him. “You’re probably right. But you’re too damn valuable and he knows it. Besides, he needs every man he can get right now.” MacLeod looked him in the eye. “I think Randolph’s turning affected him deeply. More than he has let on.”

Erik didn’t disagree. It had affected them all. Domnall had filled them in on the details, but it had pretty much happened as Erik had suspected. Opportunistic perhaps, but no less a betrayal.

Erik took it as a personal failure. Randolph had been under his command. He’d thought he was getting through to the lad. Apparently not.

“In any event,” MacLeod said, “now that his anger has cooled, I think the king realizes that you are not solely to blame for what happened. You didn’t know who she was. I think he’s more angry at his brother for failing to recognize the lass.” One corner of his mouth cracked in a half-smile. “Nor has the king forgotten what it is like to fall in love.”

Forgetting all about the lass on his knee, Erik nearly knocked her to the ground when he jerked around to the man at his side. He gave him a hard glare. “Love?” He laughed sharply. “Christ’s bones, I’m not in love.”

The fierce warrior eyed him challengingly. “So there’s another reason for your ill temper these past two months?”

Erik’s mouth fell in a hard line. “You mean aside from living in these godforsaken mountains being chased by a bunch of English dogs? I cared about her, of course, but I’m hardly the type to chain myself to one lass.” He forced himself to shiver, trying not to remember that it used to come reflexively. “Not with so much fun to be had.”

“I can see that,” MacLeod said wryly, with an eye to the buxom lass on Erik’s lap. “You appear to be having the time of your life.”

Erik found himself getting angry, and he didn’t know whether it was from MacLeod’s sarcasm or his damn inability to ignore it. Usually unflappable, when it came to Ellie he’d become almost—he did shudder this time—
sensitive
.