Thistle and Flame - Her Highland Hero (12 page)

Olga had initially insisted upon putting Kenna
back in that awful corset because ‘men, they like the way it makes the bosom
stand,’ but Kenna convinced her that he’d be far enough away that the condition
of her bosom was not the chief concern. And anyway, she said to Olga, he’s not
the sort to worry about that. He loves me for me, she said, not for how I look
or how I poke out here or there or suck in one place or another. For some
reason, when she said that, Olga had just smiled, and Elena chuckled.

When she finally settled down enough to do
anything besides pulling on her clothes or her hair, or worrying that he might
never come, Kenna pulled a large volume of Mallory’s
Morte D’ Arthur
off
the shelf and set to reading. It was a book she’d been through a hundred times
as a little girl and one that continued to fascinate her. She especially loved
the Orkney knights, Gawain and the others, who fought endlessly between
themselves, as brothers do. She read and read, finally letting herself laugh at
one of the stories which had always been her favorite – when the Orkney knights
beat each other roundly and Arthur was concerned whether or not to invite them
to the Round Table – when she heard a rhythmic tapping at the window.

She sat up with a start, flinging the heavy tome
off of her chest and sent it thudding to the floor.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap-tap.

“The window!” She jumped up with a start.

Cheeks flushed with fire, Kenna ran to the window
and opened it, then dodged a stone, and giggled. She squinted out over the horizon,
trying to trace the trajectory of the rock and saw – there he stood against the
trunk of a tree right on the edge of the space behind the manor. He was far
enough away that she could make out only the vaguest glimpse of his features.
She had a pair of opera glasses that she’d scrounged up from a trunk in her
chambers, and used those. He was a little closer, but not too clear.

“Is that...is that you?” She said out the window.

Of course it is, you fool, who else would pitch
rocks at your window at the exact time he said he’d show up
.

Even as she gazed at him, the sun deepened its
slackening and the deep orange of Edinburgh dusk began to set in around them.
She felt a thick heat between the two of them, and knew that if he was in her
room she’d have a great deal of trouble protecting her decency since all she
wanted to do was have him throw her across the mattress and...

Kenna! What naughty thoughts! Keep yourself
decent, at least for now.
She giggled to herself, hearing Olga’s voice in
her head, filling her with all sorts of trouble.

“Gavin?” She said. “Answer me if that’s you.”

The man lurking among the trees looked left, then
right to make sure there were no sentries, then crouched low and advanced to a
place behind a bush, halfway between the woods and her window. He never settled
down, constantly searching back and forth.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “The whole estate is
busy with a dinner party in the north wing. Unless you start screaming, or
shoot someone, they’re blind as a black sheep to you.”

Gavin settled down behind his bush and took a
drink of something from a skin.

“Ach, it’s good to see you again,” he said. “I
canna believe it’s been so long. When Red Ben told me you were goin’ to be at
the party, I dinna believe him, though I knew you were coming to marry that
greased pig Macdonald.”

Kenna was afloat. She listened to his voice, and
although something about it struck her as odd, she immediately passed it off as
nerves, or having forgot what he actually sounded like, or any number of other things.

“You too,” she said. “I mean, it’s good to see you
too. I was just telling my chamber ladies – ach, I hate these words. I was
telling Olga and Elena, the two that take care of me, I was telling them about
you.”

“Good things, I hope,” he said. There was the
Gavin she knew. Or at least the one she thought she did.

Kenna wanted to talk to him, she wanted to bring
him closer and see him, or – God forbid – get him to climb up to her window and
let him to wonderful, terrible things to her prickling, excited, overwhelmed
body, but something held her back.

“Gavin, I...I’m scared. I have to tell you this,
okay? I dinna want you to be mad.”

“I couldna be mad at the likes of you, Kenna.
You’re all I’ve cared about since I was a wee laddie. What could you do to
upset me?”

His voice, that’s not...there’s something amiss
with his voice,
Kenna thought.
He must be sick
.

Before she spoke again, Kenna watched Gavin shift
his weight back and forth.

“Are you in a hurry?”

“No,” he said. “Well, aye, I suppose I am. Dinna
want to be caught is all. What’s bothering you?”

Gavin was so easy and relaxed the other night.
I wonder if he’s having second thoughts about all this. It’s so dangerous, what
he’s doing. Maybe he’s just going to give up on me and go back to stealing things
and giving it all away. I’d understand that. I mean, he’s taking quite a-

“Ach, I’m sorry but can you get on with it?” He
said. “There’s people moving about inside. I think the party’s over.”

“I...” Gavin’s irritation took Kenna off guard.
She momentarily forgot what she was saying. Raising the eyeglasses to her face,
she looked again. His hair was the same color, and he had blue eyes, she
thought. But something about him wasn’t right.
Something
just wasn’t
quite the same. He was hunched up against the back of the bush so she could
only see a part of him, so it was hard to tell if it was a trick of the light
or if this was some imposter.

“Is that really you, Gavin?”

“Yes, of course,” he said. “Who else would know to
be here? Sorry I’m bein’ curt with you, but if I’m to get you out of here, I
canna do it from inside a jail.”

“Aye, I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m being foolish, of
course it’s you.”

She remembered Olga’s words about bad things
moving us forward, trouble making people grow, and she decided to just say what
was on her mind.

“I’m scared of what will happen to you – to us.”

“What are you on about, girl? It’ll be fine. I’m
as well-known as Robin Hood. I won’t be gettin’ myself in any trouble.”

“But that’s what I’m worried about,” she
continued. “I’m worried that if you come get me, we’re going to have half the
police in Edinburgh looking for us.”

“Don’t be silly, lass.”

“No, Gavin, listen to me!” She said. “Macdonald,
he’s come up with a plan that’ll get a lot more attention that you think. We’re
to be married in a week...six days now. He said that if a commoner, as I am
now, gets kidnapped, his men will look for a few days and then give up. Even if
they catch you, the penalty is next to naught. But if I’m married, I become
Lady Kilroyston and...”

“They’ll come after me, find me and catch me and
throw me in the Tower for kidnapping a noble, and a Lady at that. Is that what
you were going to tell me?”

“Well, aye, I suppose it is.”

“Then the answer is to get you sooner, not to be
afraid.”

“You knew?”

“It only makes sense,” Gavin said. “And he’s
right. That man might be a right steamin’ mess, but if he knows anything, it’s
how to make people do what he wants. He’s right and he’s wrong, though. The
penalty is a lot stiffer, but the Crown doesn’t care one shite for us now, and
won’t care one to send a squad of Crown police after some woman, even if she’s
the wife of an Earl. Scots are Scots. Scots are nothin’.”

She stood in silence, and he crouched in silence,
for a moment.

“One more thing before I go, which I should be
gettin’ to presently.”

“What is it? Can we have another meeting like this
soon? Maybe one that’s less rushed? I can lock my door, and...”

“Aye, perhaps, but listen to what I’ve to say. You
need to get away from here and meet me in the city. However you can. We’ve a
plan but we canna do it out here. There’s too much what can go wrong. Do you
understand? Move for a shake.”

She backed away, and a rock whizzed past, then hit
the wall with a muffled sound.

“When I’m gone, look at that paper. On it’s an
address. Wha’ever you got to do, get to that address tomorrow eve. You do that,
we’ll be safe. You don’t, well...I’ll have to think of somethin’ else. Aye?”

“Y...yes, alright. I’ll try my best.”

When she looked next, he was gone.

Vanished without a trace. Not a word, not a wave.

Kenna collected the stone-delivered note, glanced
at it long enough to read an address on Queen’s Street and then folded the
paper and tucked it into one of her pouches.

With her head on her pillow, she closed her eyes
and stuck her hand underneath the soft lump and closed it around a harder one.

Her thistle.

Her anchor.

Her Gavin.

––––––––

G
avin woke up in a cold sweat, shaking and
trembling on a stone bench. The throbbing on the side of his head, the soreness
of his jaw and the dull ache behind his eyes all pulsed at once.

He shook his head. That just hurt worse.

Sitting on his bench, he cupping his palms over
his eyes to keep out what little light there was down in the...jail? He looked
around through half-opened eyes at the bars on the tiny hole in the door in
front of him.

“Why am I...how did this happen?”

Gavin stood on wobbling knees and braced himself
against a stone wall as chilly as the bench. With each step, he feared he’d
fall. Slowly, gingerly, he pushed himself away from the wall and stood on his
own accord for a half second before his left knee, then his right, weakened, collapsed,
and he fell down hard.

“Head hurts, jaw aches like I’ve been
punched...did John and I get in a fight?” His voice echoed off the stone.
“John? John! John! Where are you? What happened?”

“Shut it, then. It’s the middle of the night and
me name’s not John.”

“What?” Gavin turned his head, then winced at the
pain and turned his whole body. “Who’s there?”

“Your cell mate? You’ve been in here almost a full
day, tossing and turning. Lucky it’s just the two of us, lad. If it were any’ne
else, they’d have had their way with you.”

“Ach, well I suppose I should thank you for
not...taking advantage.”

“Say nothin’ of it, lad. I been where you are.
More than once. It’s gone both ways for me, but I prefer it this one. Listen,
the way you were brought down here under lock and key and with the sheriff
hooting and cheering when he tossed you in, you must be someone of some
importance, aye?”

“Ah,” Gavin laughed. “First thing’s first. I’m
Gavin Macgregor, of Fort Mary.”

“Oh, he introduces himself. This is a fresh one, aye.”
There was a smirk behind the man’s words. “Good to meet you Gavin, I’m Liam
Douglas, of nowhere in particular. I think I was born a traitor. Certainly
became one. And I’m well aware who you are, Ghost.”

“Yes, well I – what did you say?”

“The sheriff, he was rather excited about having
you as his guest. For half the night it seemed, he wouldna stop shouting about
it with the guards. Never mind all that, it’s an honor.”

Gavin took a deep breath. “Seems like my work
precedes me.”

“Aye, it does. You’ve done things that no one else
could. Drove three nobles back to their cushioned houses in England, threaten
to break up an entire conspiracy to buy the midlands? I’d say you’re a right
legend.”

“Break up a conspiracy, I don’t...” Gavin pushed
his palms into his forehead and sighed. “I don’t even know how I got here.”

“Don’t surprise me none. You were busted up pretty
good when you made my company. And what do you mean you don’t know about the
conspiracy? That Macdonald fellow, that great, pompous pig’s arse, when you
shook up his little engagement party the other night, he was meeting with a
banker from Lausanne to borrow the money to buy up half the land ‘tween here
and Glasgow. You stopped him.”

“I was just looking for a girl,” Gavin said. “I
don’t know about any conspiracy.”

“Ach!” Liam slapped him on the back, then
immediately apologized. “Just looking for a lass, he says. Listen to me, Gavin
Macgregor, and listen to me good. However it is you’ve got yourself in this
mess, we’ve to get you out. There’s work for you to do. You’ve got to make sure
this land grab doesn’t go through. You can save Scotland, you know, or it can
be damned.”

Gavin rolled backwards until his head touched the
ground, and then stretched his legs out in front of him, wincing at the bite of
pain in his lower back and the bruises on his side.

“I’m not...I don’t know about any of that. I just
steal trinkets from people and give them to others who buy food and drink and
clothe their babes. Nothing I do is bigger than that.”

“You may think it not, sir, but you’ve got
yourself wrapped up in something more important than any one of us.”

“No!” Gavin said, digging his palms into his eyes.
“No, I’m not. I’m not into anything important. I’m not a legend, none of that
is true. All I am is a man who’s in love with a girl he doesn’t know, and has
to get her out of a nobleman’s house before something awful happens. That’s all
I am. That’s all I have to do.”

“The words of heroes,” the man said in a hushed
tone.

“Will you stop? I’m not a hero. I’m a thief. I’m a
thief who is in love with a girl he can’t have, and I’d give anything to change
that. She’s...she’s being wed to Macdonald in six months. And here I am, in
jail. And I haven’t even an idea of how I got here!”

“Oh, that I can tell you for the Sheriff wouldna’
stop with his boasting. He bribed your friend, as I understand it. Fooled him
with a promise of cunny. Even the best of us have our weaknesses. Yours seems
to be love, and your friend’s was...”

“John? John tricked me? No. No, I can’t believe
that. I just can’t. We’re brothers. He’d never do that to me. No matter what he
was promised.” Gavin rocked his head back and forth on the stone, forgetting
the pain. “That’s not possible!”

“And yet, here you are. That fool of a sheriff’s
been chasing you for two years and got nothin’ but a series of embarrassments.
How did he catch you this time? What do you remember?”

“Nothing...not...John got a letter, and woke me,
saying some woman was to let him into a noble’s house for a quick job, and-”

“And you still aren’t putting together the
pieces?”

“I canna...I just canna think that way. He’s been
with me through everything. Through me being given up for dead at the battle, helped
me back to health, he’s been through everything with me. I can’t just believe
my closest friend gave me up. Listen, friend,” Gavin said. “Is there any way to
get out of here? I don’t care what happens to me, but I made a promise to
someone. Promise to help her.”

“Her? Are you with a girl? All the talk was that
the Ghost was alone. How can anyone be worthy of you?”

Gavin sighed.

“I’m not a hero. I’m not even a ghost. I’m just a
thief, and yes, she is...well, I suppose I’m not exactly
with
her, since
she’s to be married to Laird Macdonald. But, but yes, to answer you,” Gavin
stood straight for the first time since awakening, as though the memory of
Kenna put fresh breath into his lungs.

“She’s...well, think of it this way. Do you know
the taste of a roast after you’ve been starved for three days?”

“I do, it’s divine,” Liam said. “Fills a void so
deep, so terrible, that it hurts almost as bad to eat it, to destroy the scents
and the tastes, as it does to stay hungry.”

“That’s far more poetic than I expected, but yes.
Yes, exactly! I had not seen her for almost three years when I heard she had
been taken into Macdonald’s estate. Just hearing that she was here, not three
days away, right here in Edinburgh or close enough to count, it made my heart
thump against my chest.”

“And then when you put your lips around the meat,
feel the salty gravy drip down your throat, and bite into-”

“I’m sorry, but are you still talking about
roast?” Gavin said.

“It’s been a long, long time since I tasted aught
but bread and oats.”

“Yes, well, I’m sorry I brought up such a painful
memory.”

“No, it isn’t painful! I’m just remembering what
it was like to... yes, well. About that girl?”

“Well you know, most beautiful in all the world,
filled my heart with levity just to see her smile and so on.”

“Yes, right. I’m sorry I ruined your excitement.”

“You didn’t, it’s just that right now there are
more important things to discuss than how my love makes my heart pound and my
breath quicken.” Gavin massaged his lower back with balled up fists. “Such as
how to get out of this place. Huh?”

Liam visibly stiffened and poked Gavin with his
bare toe. In the dim light, he made out a cocked eyebrow and a nod of the head.

“He’s right, you know.”

“Sheriff,” Gavin said through gritted teeth. “How
did I know you were behind this?”

“Because you’re a criminal? And now you’re in
jail? That took very little thought to puzzle out. You’re quite a prize, Gavin
Macgregor. I’ll be sure to get something out of capturing you, especially after
the ridiculous stunt you pulled at Macdonald’s estate. But, oh, there’s someone
who wants to see you.

Heavy footsteps preceded a face that was the last
one Gavin wanted to see, though the exact one he expected. As soon as he saw
the short brown hair, Cardinal Richelieu style moustache, he took a step
backwards. When the gloved hand, missing all but the two first fingers gripped
the bars, he fell backwards, and only Liam’s catching him kept Gavin from
caving his head in against the bench he’d woken up on.

“You’re almost late for your appointment, aren’t
you Two-Fingers? Better hurry up so that Lynne doesn’t take the carriage and
leave you alone here,” Alan said, lurking in the shadows. “Hate to be left in
the dead middle of the Hangman’s Quarter all alone, wouldn’t you? Especially
with what you did.” He whistled. “I think most of the town’s less desirable
element has heard of you by now. If they haven’t, they will when they see the
reward posted.”

Gavin opened his eyes and squinted. John’s face
was barely visible in the gentle flickering torch light outside the cell, but
he knew his friend. Or he thought he did. Now he wasn’t so sure.

“Before you say anything,” John whispered. “Wait.”

He put a finger to his lips and tilted his head
over to where the sheriff was still waiting. Before long, keys on a ring
clanked, a heavy door swung shut, and with a ‘tell me when you’re ready to get
out of this shithole!’ the sheriff was gone.

“Now listen, don’t talk.”

“I don’t think he could, you damnable weasel, you
awful snake!” Liam growled. “He refused to believe me that it was you what put
him in here until you somehow had the courage to show your face and now he’s passed
out cold. He’s still breathing, but you’re a lucky man that he’s got a stout
heart, and that his best friend’s betrayal didn’t strike him dead!”

Gavin groaned and rolled over onto one side, then
pitched himself up onto an elbow.

“Gav, listen to me, listen to John, right?”

“Why should I?” the thief whispered. “Are you
bringing Lynne to shoot me before I can hang? Or what is it now, has the
punishment grown all the way to an old fashioned drawing and quartering yet?”

“Can you stand?” John said. “I want to feel your
hand.”

“Liam, will you help me? I’ll look my Judas in the
face.”

The man, not quite as big as Red Ben, but still
sizable, and with a beard that stank of prison and dankness, helped Gavin to
his feet and propped him up.

“Can we not be quite so melodramatic?” John said.

“You put me in jail!”

“Yes, that’s true and I’m sorry for it. I’m
sorrier than I’ve ever been about anything. I thought I was doing what was
right, but there’s something you have to know about these circumstances.”

“What can you possibly tell me that the
‘circumstances’ don’t?”

“For one thing, I could tell you a long story of
blame and who is at fault and who isn’t, but that would waste time we don’t
have. So I’ll just tell you two things. First,” he shot a glance over his shoulder
and then back to Gavin. “First of all, know that I’d never do anything to hurt
you. It looks that’s just what I’ve done, but this is for the best, as
ridiculous as that sounds.”

“I’m listening,” Gavin said.

“The second thing...and this has cropped up very
recently, and will make timing a bit hard.”

“Talk.”

“Yes, sorry, well, it seems as though the Earl of
Kilroyston and his blushing bride are to be wed rather sooner than we thought,
sooner than they announced.”

“What? I’ve to get out of here! I’ve promised to
help!”

“Shh! The sheriff is only down the hall.”

“Do you care to explain to me why you sold me out
to him for a wee bite of a girl?”

“Gavin!” John whispered urgently. “No time! That’s
not what happened anyway. It wasn’t her fault, she was tricked. But, it’s in a
week. Well, nearing five days now I suppose.”

“The wedding?”

“Aye. five. Yell at me.”

“What?”

“Make a big noise. Shout at me and punch at the
bars or try to strangle me or something.”

“What’re you cooking?”

“Do you trust me?”

“No.”

Behind them, Liam laughed in agreement. “He’s a
horse’s arse, this one! Don’t listen to him!”

“That’s probably fair. But give me one chance.
You’ll see. Now yell at me. Make it convincing for the sheriff. He needs to be
convinced that we hate each other.”

“Willna be hard.”

“Then do it!”

Gavin looked back and forth for a moment. Any
other time he would have been able to immediate launch into a vicious tirade
of insults, as that was how he and John spent a great deal of their spare time
between jobs, and now with Red Ben around, he’d honed his verbal jousting
skills further still. But this time, he just stared.

“Traitor,” he said under his breath.

John squinted. “What?”

“You heard me,” he said. “Traitor.
Traitor
.”
The word dripped from his lips like black venom. “Traitor, come here!”

“Oh good, yes, that’s good, here grab my thro-”

Before he could finish, Gavin shot his hands
through the bars and clamped down on John’s neck, thumbs pushing closed his
windpipe. “Traitor!” Gavin screamed and pulled his friend hard against the
door, thumping his chin on the iron rivets.

“Gavin! Okay! That’s good!”

“You betrayed me and now you’re leaving me to die
in this God damned jail so you could get a girl!” He pushed his friend
backwards, then yanked him fore again, slamming his face against the door with
a meaty thump and again, and again.