The Knight's Temptress (Lairds of the Loch) (38 page)

“Then go,” Rob said.

“Art sure your man is on the gate?” Mag asked as Ian turned to leave.

“If he is not on it now,” Ian said, “he soon will be.”

He walked quickly but cautiously amid the trees but had gone only a short way when one of his lads emerged from shadows ahead. “What news?” Ian demanded when he was near enough to make himself heard in a normal tone.

“Many ha’ been leaving, sir, many riders and gey more afoot. The horsemen rode ahead, o’ course. One o’ them flew the Stewart banner, and at least six or eight wi’ him wore noble garb. Doubtless, it were James Mòr and his nobles, along wi’ his usual armed tail o’ men.”

“So he has kept his word and will join my lord father,” Ian said, relieved. Pointing, he added, “Go to the men yonder, and tell Sir Magnus I’ve gone on. He must send a horseman to tell the laird how many are riding his way and that some are armed. Then Sir Magnus and the others should meet me where we agreed.”

The others soon joined him in a wood near the river Leven, with Mag leading Ian’s horse. Dismounting beside him and handing him its reins, Mag said, “That lad you sent told me that there are at least four watchers on the walls.”

“They won’t trouble us,” Ian replied. “Rob and I are going there to pay respects to James Mòr from MacAulay of Ardincaple, who was sadly unaware of any deer hunt.
By following the river Leven south from here, we’ll look as if we had forded it, aye?”

Mag shook his head, but his hazel eyes twinkled appreciatively.

Ian and Rob had no need to offer their spurious explanation at the gate. With eight men riding behind and one riding before them, flying the MacAulay banner, they reached the top of the path unchallenged.

Jed Laing opened the gates before they reached it, and they rode right in.

As they had hoped and expected, the remaining guard at the castle was small. From the look of the place, most of the men who had been inside were taking part in the hunt, hoping to bring back venison to augment the castle’s depleted stores.

Ian did note one unusual detail, however.

“Most of the men I see here are men who served Gregor Colquhoun,” he said when Gorry hurried to meet them. “I see only a few that I don’t recognize.”

“Aye, but there be Stewarts inside,” Gorry said. “Except for them on the wall, these outside be underlings. The captain o’ the guard did tell them on the wall tae keep close watch for trouble. ’Twas the senior man on the wall that tellt Jed tae open the gate when he saw ye were MacAulays,” he added with a grin.

“Tell Jed to leave that gate ajar,” Ian said. “We have more men coming.” He glanced at Rob. “You and I can attend to those on the wall before then, aye?”

“Aye, sure,” Rob said, drawing his dirk.

Leaving the men in their tail to look after the Stewart minions in the yard, Ian went up one stairway and Rob another. The four men keeping watch from the wall all
faced outward, so they accomplished their task with ease and in silence. Then Ian waved one of the rampart flags to summon Mag and Alex with their men.

“We’ll wait now for our chief guests to return,” Ian said. “I look forward to seeing the look on James Mòr’s face when he discovers our wee surprise.”

Less than an hour later, riders appeared in the north, riding hard until they reached the track to the castle. Men on the wall recognized Colquhoun’s banner.

The gates opened. The horsemen rode in.

Their leader flung himself from his horse near Ian.

“Himself said tae tell ye quick, sir! The only men wha’ came from the castle a-seeking him tae hunt were afoot. We saw nae riders. They’ve all disappeared.”

He was touching her, his fingers lightly stroking her skin, making her arch upward, trying to press harder against them. But he teased her so until flashes of heat roared through her body and she moaned deep in her throat.

His hands, fingers, and lips had been all over her, delightfully touching and tasting her wherever they roamed.

Faith, but the man could stir her senses in so many ways and more than anyone she had ever known, often without touching her at all!

She could smell the leathery scent of him.

The tormenting fingers drifted to her breast and belly, then up again.

Catching hold of that tormenting hand, she pulled it to her mouth and kissed it, touching it with her tongue to taste its saltiness. But when she would have moved it lower, past her belly to the fork of her legs, the hand
shifted in hers. It gripped hers now, and firmly, so that she could not pull it free.

Raising it to his mouth, he sucked her little finger, then the next, and the next, until she wanted to scream.

He moaned then. The sound tormented her even more.

“I want you,” she murmured. “Please, I want you inside me.”

“Do you?” he asked. But her increasing passion had stirred his, too, and he did not wait for an answer. He moved himself over her.

She reached for him to help, but his eager cock had already found the entrance to its favorite sheath, and…

Lina’s bedchamber door opened abruptly, and a female voice said, “The mistress sent me tae ask if ye mean tae lie abed all day, m’lady.”

Staring at the elderly maidservant and striving to conceal the mixture of dismay, fury, even embarrassment, that filled her, Lina said, “Thank you for telling me. I shall be down directly.”

The woman left without comment, and Lina got up and swiftly performed her ablutions. She was determined to have private speech with her mother.

Unless she was dreaming of Ian, the image of Lady Aubrey on the ground under the misshaped tree haunted her. But it was as if her mother and Lady Margaret conspired to defeat any chance of private talk. Lady Margaret seemed to have changed from a woman who sought solitude to one who could not bear to be alone. Either that, or she was determined to perform a belated spring cleaning.

“James Mòr and his lot have escaped, then,” Mag said when Ian told him what the messenger from Colquhoun had said.

“They have, aye, but we’ll go after them,” Ian replied grimly. “First, we’ll secure the Stewart men who are still here. Mag, you and Rob check inside. Alex and I will confine the ones in the yard. Gorry, if you still have the key to that tower room, you can lock some of our prisoners in there if you need to.”

The Stewart followers were soon secure. Ian gathered his men around him.

“Mag, you, and Rob, and your men will ride with me. Gorry, you come, too. Alex, I’m leaving you and your men here with Jed Laing and his lads to welcome whomever Jamie sends here. Don’t let anyone—especially Douglas or Buccleuch—inside these gates. We don’t want either one taking over this castle before Jamie arrives. Tell them they are to secure the burgh and the harbor for his grace. And warn everyone not to mistake friend for foe,” he added, giving Alex a direct look.

In return, he received a barely discernible nod. Alex would look after any Colquhouns who had remained at Dumbarton.

“And, Alex,” Ian added as an afterthought, “be glib with the Border lords but… um, tactful.” Hearing his father’s favorite word from his own lips, Ian smiled. Then, to Alex, he added, “You’ll have your eight men plus the Colquhoun lads who were inside.” He looked at Gorry. “Another dozen, you think?”

“Ten,” Gorry said.

“Enough to do the job,” Ian said. “I’ve a sack on my saddle full of Colquhoun banners. Hang them from the ramparts for Jamie’s watchers to see.”

“We’ll attend to that,” Alex said. “You look after yourselves.”

Nodding, satisfied that Dumbarton was in capable hands, Ian shouted for his men to mount. Flanked by Mag and Rob, he set off down the road from the castle and heard the heavy gates shut behind the last of their men.

“Which direction do you suppose James Mòr will have taken?” he asked the other two as they scanned the Vale of Leven ahead and its river plain below.

Rob frowned thoughtfully.

Mag shrugged.

Woodland lay to the east and ahead to the north, the river Leven to the west. Since the river was nearing its confluence with the Firth of Clyde, it was wider and deeper there than farther north. The road to Loch Lomond stretched alongside it.

Mag said, “James Mòr’s lot took no boats. Someone in the burgh would have reported it if they had. ’Tis unlikely, too, that they’d ford the Leven straightaway. They’ll also want to avoid Colquhoun or MacAulay lands, aye, Rob?”

Rob nodded.

“Nor will they have traveled eastward along the Clyde,” Mag added. “Your own people would have seen them.”

“They might try to reach Murdoch’s castle at Doune,” Ian suggested.

“Too far,” Rob said. “Also, Jamie has taken possession of Doune.”

“They may not know that yet,” Ian said. “Jed Laing said that James Mòr took more than two score men with him. So where are they?”

“Out of sight somewhere,” Mag said. “If they
are
daft
enough to try for Doune, they’d head up east Lomondside rather than go cross-country, I think.”

“And to head west, they’ll go from
west
Lomondside,” Rob added. “They’d have to ford the Leven, and there is a ford in the woods a mile north of here.”

“Aye, sure,” Ian said. “I ken that place fine. By a clachan that’s nobbut an alehouse and two cots. But if we ford it there, and they stay on this side—”

“They’ll run into your father and the hunters,” Mag said. “I’m thinking they may head north to Arrochar or into the Highlands beyond. Many Highlanders looked dimly on Jamie’s return. They may welcome James Mòr.”

“The Loch Lomond road is what we want for now,” Ian said. “The one on the other side of the river winds more than this one does. We’ll have hunters on both sides, and the locals will help,” he added. “The day the rebels captured Lina and Lizzie, Dougal and his men made a show of strength that must have irked many of them. I’ll wager that someone will soon tell us exactly which way they went.”

Neither of his chief companions accepted the wager.

They had ridden little more than a mile from the base of Dumbarton Rock and had just passed the clachan with the alehouse when they met two young men afoot. One led a garron with a small deer roped across its back.

Ian signed to his men to draw rein.

“Have you seen a party of riders recently, on this bank or yonder?”

“Aye, a party o’ two dozen men or more flying a banner we dinna ken,” one replied. “They be riding toward the loch. Said they was a-seeking the hunting party. But when we told ’em the ones after the great stag be in the woods
east o’ Balloch, they kept tae the road. Said they’d head west and find their own deer.”

“Likely, they’ll see few deer at all, that road,” the other man said.

“I’ve seen you before, I think,” Ian said.

“Aye, Sir Ian, me granddad runs the alehouse yonder.”

Thanking them and extending his respects to the lad’s grandfather, Ian waited only until they were beyond earshot before he said to the others, “That party they saw, unknown banner or none, has to be James Mòr’s.”

“Aye, and I’m thinking they’ll stay west of the loch,” Mag said. “Patrick must be with him, but they certainly won’t ride to Inch Galbraith.”

“Or any other island,” Rob said. “Too confining, too easily besieged.”

“What about Dougal, though?” Ian asked. “Mayhap we should look more closely at his sudden departure. Gorry, to me!” he shouted over his shoulder.