Highland Song (21 page)

Stephan laughed and shook his head.

"All fooling aside," he said a moment later, "how do you expect to slip past the sentries on the road to Edinburgh?"

"The men who will have the duty will be tired and hungry, and they won't be expecting me to take the back roads."

"Don't count on anything. Her brothers will be looking for her too. Don't you forget they will most likely ask the questions after they've skewered you through if they ask any questions at
all.
"

"I'm not a fool. But I would like a few answers to the questions I've posed. Hell, I expected the little lass to tell me by now, but her lips don't want to tell me anything that might help her out of her predicament."

Stephan looked at Lainie. "What about it? Don't you think the man guarding you ought to have answers to his questions? He's putting his life at risk riding into the highlands with you at his side."

"I don't think he should invade my privacy. He made up his mind about me a long time ago. He believes I'm Bertram's mistress," she said bitterly.

"But you have information that could change that," Stephan encouraged.

"Not for the better," she spoke softly, the back of her throat filling with moisture. She didn't want to shed
one more tear thinking
about Bertram's filthy hands and what he did to her. Yet she started to shiver, cold-fear snaking down her spine at the thought.

"Slade thinks you are a spy and guilty of treason. What's worse than that?" Stephan asked.

"There are a lot of things worse than that."

"Tell me then," Slade challenged.

His voice was unusually deep. It was a sound like black velvet. The tone was a caress as intangible and undeniable as the subtle currents flowing between them.

"I can't," Lainie said, knowing her life would never be the same once she spoke the words.

Slade watched her with such a strange look in his eyes. Would he believe her? Of course he would. He already thought she was a tavern whore, willing to sell her body to the highest bidder. He would believe the rape had been her fault, and in some crazy way she had asked for Bertram to attack her and take her innocence.

The pain seared through her as he seemed to stop everything, even breathing to wait for her to speak.

She inhaled a long deep breath, wishing Josie were in the room to lend some kind of support. A woman would understand.

"Well," Slade said, his deep green eyes glimmering with impatience.

"It was a long time ago," she whispered, looking for some way to delay the inevitable.

He crossed his arms in front and leaned back in his chairs, his eyes impaling her.

She moistened her lips, her heart racing with fear of speaking the unspeakable. "I defied my brother's orders."

"I've heard that before. Tell me something I don't know," he challenged, leaning forward slowly, watching her, waiting for a truth she was too terrified to speak. "But that isn't what you want to tell me, now is it?"

She looked down at her hands, loosing what little courage she had. "No," she said. "I don't want to tell you anything."

"But you are going to."

"Hawke and Ian were gone. I was told not to leave the castle, because Bertram and his men might still be in the highlands."

"You left anyway." Slade's fingers tightened on the armrest. His face was grim. "You went after him. Were you seeking one last lover's tryst?"

She inhaled sharply, her hands shaking with renewed anger. How dare he think she would run to that man seeking him out for any
reason.

"I wasn’t looking for Bertram. I needed to feel the fresh air on my face. I didn't mean for anything to happen. Bertram was gone. No one had seen him in days. I thought the orders to stay inside the castle walls were unfair and stupid."

"Were they?"

Lainie shook her head no. "I went riding. Bertram was waiting for me almost as if he knew I would come. He won't stop hunting for me. He’ll never stop. I thought he was finished with me, but I’m his obsession."

"He kidnapped you."

Lainie looked up startled and confused, her fists tightened into hard little balls.

"You didn't have a choice, did you? He took you with him. That is why you left MacPherson land."

She wanted to hit out at Slade. She wanted to hurt him because he was there and because he knew, and because he would never want her again. He would never look at her with hunger in his eyes.

"So you took the easy way out. You became his mistress," Slade said. "You kept his bed warm for the trinkets and baubles he gave you. What did you get, Lainie? Tell me what he gave you?"

The anger Lainie saw in Slade's haunting green eyes surprised and terrified her. She didn't want Slade to hand her over to Bertram. That thought frightened her more than anything. She inhaled a quick, sharp breath, turning her face away from the man who held her future in his hands. She had defied her brother. Now her very defiance would change her life once more.

She wondered what it would be like to have her virtue back. She pondered what lovemaking would be like with a man with hard green eyes and a gentleness that baffled her. She wondered what it would be like with a man who listened to her and didn't jump to conclusions before she could tell him the truth.

She would never find out because she would never let this man touch her in anger and that seemed to be all he felt when he looked at her.

“He didn’t give me anything,” she whispered. “And I would never take anything he had to offer."

Chapter Eight

"He won't leave me here," Lainie muttered, her eyes still closed. She was half-asleep and half-awake. In that dreamlike state she was having doubts then she realized she was his prisoner until she set foot on MacPherson land or worse the city of Edinburgh.

When she finally woke, it was to a hazy darkness that came just before daylight. Mumbling under her breath about men and dawn, she groped for her shirt, slipped it on over her head then found the rest of her clothing.

"Darn boots don't seem to fit," she muttered. Yet she pulled them on then moved quietly out of the house trying not to awaken Josie and the babe. Lainie grabbed her one small bag, and headed for the stables. She expected to find Slade already there, getting the horses ready. She had heard Stephan earlier and expected Slade to be with him. A few minutes later, she had caught the faint rumble of men's voices coming from the stable.

Despite the fact that Lainie had had a restless night and hated rising before the sun, she had not wanted to sleep in the guest room a moment longer. She knew it was up to her to convince Slade he should not take her to Bertram. Lainie just didn't know how to do that--convince Slade.

Yet it wasn't the trip haunting Lainie's waking dreams. It was the realization that the word rape had not been used. That perhaps Slade did not know the truth after all. She had not been able to say the word. And she had hoped and prayed he would be able to decipher the truth. Something in the back of her mind kept telling her he believed Bertram had not forced her into his bed. He thought she slept with Bertram for the little trinkets he left on the stand beside the bed.

Men… How on earth could they think the way they did?

The stable door was open. Slade and Stephan were talking and working over four horses. A lantern suspended on a nearby pole glowed pale gold against the fading darkness of night.

As Lainie silently approached, she heard Stephan's voice.

"…going into the high country you have to be wary of the bandits, the men who have had everything ripped from them by the English. These men have little to loose and everything to gain. Lainie is money, ransom money. I doubt if any of them have loyalties to any clan. If captured, the choices revolve around one thing--money. Just who would pay the most for her--Hawke or Bertram? She didn't tell us everything, and it seems she was in exile. Was it self-imposed or did her family make her leave? After she was kidnapped and became Bertram's mistress, what happened then?"

Slade grunted.

"Then there is the part you don't want to talk about."

"What I don't want to talk about?"

"Well, I just figured that as a friend and brother-in-law, I should warn you what can happen when a man takes a pretty girl into wild Scottish country," Stephan said with a wink.

"Save your breath," Slade shot back.

Lainie held her breath.

Leather slid over leather with a rushing sound as Slade drew his horse's cinch strap up tight. The horse snorted and stamped a foot in displeasure.

In the stillness of the morning, each sound was distinct and clear, knifing into Lainie’s heart and widening the distance between her and Slade.

"Just the same," Stephan said. "I would watch your back. I've known more than one young man who escorted a girl into dangerous country and ended up married."

Leather snapped against leather as Slade tied off his horse's cinch with smooth strong motions.

"Josie was a different situation," Slade said finally. "Lainie isn't the same kind of woman."

"Oh, I don't think so. Sure, she is feisty and smart,
Her
hair is pure spun silk, and her eyes are as clear a blue as the most beautiful loch on a hot summer day but--"

"That's not what I'm talking about," Slade interrupted curtly. "She's done things Josie would never do."

"You remind me of a man who is backed into a corner and doesn't know which way to move so he can save himself." Amusement rippled plainly in Stephan's voice voice.

Slade grunted.

Laughing aloud, Stephan settled a packsaddle onto a wiry little pony that snorted and shook his long mane in objection to the added weight.

Another pony stood patiently beside the first. The two animals looked amazingly alike. It was hard to tell them apart. The ponies seemed inseparable. Even inside the barn, where one went the other followed.

"You protest too much and make excuses where none are needed," Stephan continued cheerfully. "You'll come around though. Smart men know when something good has wandered into their life. Lainie is good for you."

Slade acted as though he hadn't heard.

"Listen to what I've said," Stephan said. "Whatever you think you have now isn't worth giving up a good woman for."

Slade smacked his horse on its warm haunch.

"Stand on your own feet, Baby," he muttered. "Mine have their work cut out as it is."

"She’s good with babies," Stephan pointed out.

"No," Slade said curtly. "Stop trying to play matchmaker. It isn't going to work."

"If you didn't like watching her with Robby why couldn’t you stop yourself from looking?"

"Damn it Stephan, mind your own business. There is no woman worth changing your life for."

"Then tell me what you want with her," Stephan urged him. "You've got some major thinking to do. You aren't going to let Bertram have her. So what are you going to do with her?"

Slade swore beneath his breath. He ducked under his horse's neck and went to the last horse in line. "She was Bertram's fancy piece. I don't take leftovers."

"You sure of that?" he asked. "She hates Bertram. I doubt if she was ever his mistress."

Now the two men were working so closely they were all but stepping on each other, which made it harder for Slade to ignore Stephan's low, casual voice. Working quickly, as though anxious to be on the trail, Slade curried the pony with muscular sweeps of his arm.

Just as Lainie thought it would be safe to walk into the lantern's ring of light, Stephan started speaking again.

"Josie likes Lainie. The baby seemed to like her too. Every other stranger that tried to hold him he bellowed like a bull."

Slade froze with the brush just above the pony's barrel. The pony snorted and nudged him, wanting more of the currying.

"She is bright and she is spirited," Stephan said. He laughed softly. "She will be a real handful, and that's a fact. She'll keep you wondering what whirlwind you got caught up inside."

"Lainie's horse?” Slade muttered as if too himself. “Maybe I better give her one of the ponies to ride."

Stephan's grin flashed. "She'd run circles around most men. But you're not most men. She's special, Slade. She's a match for you that will keep you going day and night."

"I'm not looking for a match--day or night."

Stephan chuckled. "But you found one now didn't you? And Lainie's about to teach you a whole lot more."

"Lainie isn't like Josie if that's what you're getting at," Slade said, his voice cold.

"That's it friend. The harder you fight the faster that silken rope around your neck is going to tighten. If you don’t take heed, it’s going to hang you."

Slade said something brutal under his breath.

"Fighting your feelings won't do you any good," Stephan said. "But then no man worth his salt ever gives up without a fight. She’s worth fighting for just don’t take too long to figure that out."

With a hissed curse, Slade turned and faced Stephan.

"I should be whipped for bringing Lainie into my sister's house," Slade said flatly.

A chill swept down Lainie's spine. She knew what Slade thought about her and what he'd be saying next. She didn't want to hear it. Nothing she'd told them last night had changed Slade's mind. He hadn't believed her.

And she didn't want anyone to catch her eavesdropping even though it had not been her intent. She began walking backwards as silently as she could, praying she would make no sound that would alert the men to her presence there.

"You asked me how I met Lainie, and I wasn't completely honest with you," Slade said. "I met her in that tavern in Ary stealing sealed papers from the table I'd set them on."

"You told me that."

"And that same night, she stole gold coin and anything valuable she could get her nimble fingers on. That's the part I didn't tell you."

Stephan's smile vanished. "She isn't a thief."

"Just because you want to ignore what is as plain as day, doesn't mean I will. You heard me. She was stealing whatever she could get her hands on. Jericho was there and he was looking for her."

Slade stopped talking.

"And," Stephan prodded.