The Highlander's Touch (14 page)

But lying about who she was, and entertaining the notion of becoming physically intimate with her … ah, those were unacceptable. He would not utter one more lie, nor would he permit himself to be tempted by her.

Sighing, he headed for the outer courtyard, resolved to
take one of the feistiest stallions out for a punishing ride. As he loped down the rocky slope, he noted a cloud of dust spiraling beyond the land bridge behind the keep, at the same moment as his guard cried a warning.

Narrowing his eyes, he studied the approaching dust cloud. His body tensed, eager for a battle. It would do good to fight right now, to conquer, to reaffirm his identity as a warrior. As the first riders crested the ridge, the adrenaline flooding his body altered swiftly to dismay, and then to something akin to desperation.

The banner of Robert the Bruce was splayed between his standard bearers, announcing his arrival to relieve Circenn’s men and send them home to Brodie.

And as for his last lie having been told, he thought sardonically,
Hmph!
Here came the lass’s “cousin” himself.

C
IRCENN RODE LIKE A MAN POSSESSED—OR PERHAPS, HE
thought, aggrieved, more accurately
obsessed
with a long-legged, unpredictable woman—to intercept the Bruce before he could reach the keep. As he rode, he marveled over how his one wee decision not to kill her yet had created dozens of problems. Each time he tried to address one of those problems, he succeeded only in creating a new set of problems. Committed thus far, he could not turn back. He dared not stop perpetuating the lies he’d begun without exposing her to risk.

Robert raised his hand in greeting and quickly broke off from his troops, his personal guard falling back a few paces, but not leaving his side. Directing the bulk of his men toward the keep, he kicked his horse into a gallop.

Circenn’s gaze swept over the king’s guard. Instinctively, he dropped his chin, looking up from beneath his brows. No hint of a smile touched his face. In warrior’s language, the look—head lowered, eyes unwaveringly fixed—was a challenge. Circenn assumed the posture subconsciously, his blood responding to the two men flanking his king. It was the simple and timeless instinct of a wolf when confronted by another mighty wolf stalking the same territory. Nothing
personal, just a need to assert his masculinity and superiority, he thought with an inward grin.

When Circenn had last seen Robert, the king had not had these two men with him. Their presence meant that the deepest Highland clans were now fully in the forefront of the war. Circenn was pleased that his king merited two of the legendary warriors to protect him. They were massive men with eyes of preternatural blue marking them as what they were—Berserkers.

“Circenn.” Robert greeted him with a smile. “It has been too long since last we met. I see Dunnottar is still the ruin I left last fall.” His gaze played across the overgrown landscape, the piles of rocks, the blackened stones of the keep.

“Welcome, milord. I hope you have come to tell us it is time to join forces with your men,” Circenn said pointedly. “Since Jacques de Molay was burned a fortnight past, my Templars are seething with the need to do battle. I doona know how much longer I can placate them with minor missions.”

Robert shook his head, a wry smile curving his mouth. “You are as impatient as ever, Circenn. I’m certain you’ll manage to rein in their tempers, as you always do. Your Templars serve me better in their stealthy, circumspect missions than on the front for the now. The dozen I’ve slipped into my troops have done remarkable things. I trust you will keep the rest ready for my command.” He gestured to his guard. “I believe you know Niall and Lulach McIllioch.”

Circenn inclined his head. As his gaze moved over the McIllioch brothers, he smiled with anticipation. One move from either of them and he would be off his mount and at
their throats. Admittedly the brawl would end in laughter, but every time he saw these two men he reacted the same way. They were the strongest warriors he’d ever trained with, and fighting with them was as exhilarating as it was futile. He could no more take a Berserker than a Berserker could take him. Their fights ended in a draw every time. Of course, that was one on one. Circenn had no doubt that if ever both of them combined forces they would bring him down with little effort unless he used magic.

“Brodie,” Lulach said with a nod.

“Perhaps we’ll have time for swordplay before you ride to Brodie,” Niall offered. “I think you could use another lesson,” he provoked.

“And you think you can teach me one?” He’d love nothing more than to channel his frustration into a challenging fight, but his mind was consumed with the problem at hand. “Perhaps later.” He dismissed them from his thoughts and turned to Robert. “May we speak in private, milord?”

The Bruce nodded to Niall and Lulach. “Go on with you. I am well guarded with Brodie. I will join you shortly.”

Circenn kneed his horse around and he and Robert rode in silence to the edge of the cliff. Robert looked out to the sea, breathing deeply of the chill, salty air. The waves crashed against the rocks below, sending silver plumes of foam spraying up the cliffs.

“I love this place. It is wild and full of power. Each time I visit Dunnottar I feel it seeping into my veins and leave renewed.”

“This bluff does have that effect,” Circenn agreed.

“But perhaps what I sense is nothing more than the ghostly courage of the many men who have died defending this coveted rock.” Robert was silent for a moment, and
Circenn knew he was brooding over the numbers of Scotsmen who had fallen and would continue to fall before their country was free.

Circenn waited until Robert roused himself from his thoughts. “Yet it does not compare with Castle Brodie, does it? You must be eager to return.”

“More eager to join the battle,” Circenn said quickly. Weary of holding critical sites, tired of protecting and running messages, he needed to bury his frustration in the all-consuming heat of battle.

“You know I need you in other places, Circenn. You also know the Templars are hunted for the price on their heads. Although I have given them sanctuary, parading them out in force would invite an attack before I’m ready. Mine have shaved their beards and doffed their tunics, masquerading as Scots. Do yours still cling to their ways?”

“Aye, they have a hard time breaking any of their rules. But I might be able to persuade them, if they thought they would be permitted to wage war. We could help take back some of the castles,” Circenn pointed out irritably.

“You help me best precisely where I have you. I will summon your private forces to battle when I am ready and no sooner. But I doona wish to argue, Circenn. Tell me what is weighing upon your mind so heavily that you rode out to greet me with unusually grim countenance, even for you.”

“I need to request a favor from you, milord.”

Robert quirked a brow at him. “Formality between us in private, Circenn? With our past?”

Circenn smiled faintly. “Robert, I need ask of you a boon, and that you not question me, but simply grant it.”

Robert angled his horse closer to Circenn’s and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Do you mean trust you as you
trusted me so many years ago when I’d fought for Longshanks against my own motherland? Do you mean grant you my faith as unwaveringly as you granted me yours when you had no reason to believe I wouldn’t cross the lines and go back to England again?” Robert’s mouth curved in a bitter smile. “Circenn, not too long ago you gave me reason to believe in myself. When you came at my summons I knew naught of you but that you were rumored to be the fiercest warrior in all the lands. I believed that with you behind me, I could regain Scotland’s freedom. You came to me, and you gave me your fealty when I did not deserve it. You had no reason to trust me—yet you did, and in the strength of your faith I rediscovered my own. Since that day I have come to believe that I have earned a place in this land again. Ask. Ask me and it is yours.”

Robert’s words had the impact of a fist in Circenn’s gut. His king gave him his faith and trust, and he was asking Circenn to help him break a vow and perpetuate a lie. What would Robert say if he knew the truth?

Circenn expelled a breath. “It is a woman,” he said finally. “I need you to claim her as your cousin, and when you meet her to pretend it is the renewal of an old acquaintance. Cousin by blood—Lisa MacRobertson.”

Robert laughed. His eyes sparkled and he whistled. “With pleasure. It is long past time you took a wife and had sons to continue your line. This land needs your blood to fight for our freedom.”

“It is not that kind of—”

“Please!” Robert raised his hands. “I see in your eyes what kind of situation it is. I see passion I have seen only in battle. I also see discomfort, which tells me you have deep feelings about this matter. And since I haven’t seen
any feeling in you for far too long, I am pleased. It is done. I am eager to reacquaint myself with my ‘cousin.’”

Deep feelings indeed
, Circenn thought morosely.
Deep disgust with myself
. But if Robert needed to believe there was marriage interest in order to acknowledge her, so be it. The end result was what mattered. In a few hours, he, his men, and Lisa would be on their way to Brodie, and Robert would have no more involvement in the issue. She need never know he had secured the king’s cooperation by leading him to believe he cared for her. Circenn remained silent, wallowing in his guilt, ashamed that his king trusted him so readily.

“Do you recall when we were in the caves in the valley of North Esk?” Robert asked, his gaze on the horizon.

“Aye.”

“It was the blackest hour of my life. I had warred against my own motherland for wealth, land, and Longshanks’ promise that he would spare my clan. Whether from sharing too much whisky with you, or inspired by a moment of divine clarity, I saw myself as I was—a traitor to my own people. Do you recall the spider?”

Circenn smiled.
Did he recall the spider?
He’d coaxed it in, compelled it to perform its feat before Robert’s eyes as he lay healing from battle wounds, and in watching the spider try time and again to weave a web across a span of futility, Robert had remembered his own strength and determination. When the spider had succeeded on the seventh try, Robert the Bruce had dragged his battered body and soul from the damp soil of the cave and shaken his fist toward the sky, and the battle to liberate Scotland had begun in earnest.

Robert regarded him intently. “I have never seen a spider of that kind, before or since. One almost wonders if it
was a natural occurrence. I do not question some things, Circenn. Now take me to your woman.”

*   *   *

After Duncan left her chamber, Lisa waited three minutes, impatiently tapping her foot, then ventured into the hall, determined to track down the flask. She’d made it no more than halfway down the corridor when Duncan came storming back up the stairs.

“I thought you’d left,” she exclaimed.

“I did. Then I looked out the window. We have a problem and I suggest you pack.”

“Pack what? I don’t have anything!”

“Circenn’s things. Put them in the chests and the men will load them. We’ll be riding out very soon. As soon as we can possibly manage. As soon as I can sneak you out of the castle,” he muttered, glancing nervously about.

“To where?” she exclaimed. “What’s wrong?”

Duncan stalked to her side, took her none-too-gently by the arm, and steered her back down the hall and into Circenn’s chambers. “I am not going to ask what you were doing outside of your room. I feel better not knowing. But, lass, as I glanced out the window I saw your ‘cousin’ arriving to relieve our post at Dunnottar. Unless you wish to encounter him and reminisce over old times that never happened, I suggest you keep out of sight and do as I tell you. Would you please indulge me and exercise blind obedience now? It may keep you alive.”

“Would someone really try to harm me if they knew I was from the future?”

Duncan’s expression was glum. “The Templars doona trust women, they doona care for Druid magic, and they feel there is never a reason to break an oath. Should they
discover Circenn lied about you, they will lose faith in him, and if they do that, he will not be in much of a position to protect you. Not to mention the fact that the Bruce will also wonder who you are. Then it will come out that you are from the future, and och—I doona even wish to think about it. We must hide you.”

“I’ll pack,” she offered hastily.

“Good lass.” Duncan whirled around and raced back down the corridor.

*   *   *

Lisa finished packing in fifteen minutes, having simply thrown everything that wasn’t too heavy to move into the many chests scattered about the room. Afterward, she paced between the door and the window for another ten minutes, trying to convince herself that she must not, under any circumstances, leave the room.

It wasn’t working. In the keep just below her room, there were legends walking, talking, planning. Unable to resist the lure of the voices of history, she slipped from the chamber and followed the noise to the balcony that encircled the Greathall. With no roof, the hall was freezing but the men didn’t seem to notice, nor did any of them look up, as they were far too engrossed in battle plans. She lurked abovestairs, surreptitiously watching from behind the balustrade, prepared to duck and cower at any moment. She knew Duncan would strangle her if he had an inkling of the risk she was taking, but the lure was irresistible: How many twenty-first-century women could lay claim to watching Robert the Bruce plan the ousting of England, battle by battle?