“And I feared you’d be disappointed,” Finn said as he accepted the cup of wine Moray poured for him. “What changed your mind about wanting a Douglas kidnapped?”
“As I told you before, the council decided to rotate custody of the king’s person among four magnates to avoid giving any one faction too much power,” Moray said. “Douglas was given the first three months.”
Finn waited to hear why Moray was telling him all this again.
“Douglas’s rotation is coming to an end.” Moray folded his long, elegant fingers on the table. “He’s refusing to relinquish the king to the next custodians.”
Finn sat up straighter. “Refusing? Can he do that?”
“He has the king in his possession, and my sources tell me he keeps a close guard on him at all times,” Moray said. “Douglas claims it’s his right as the king’s stepfather to be his sole custodian and that the king wishes this as well.”
“Does the king wish it?” Finn asked.
“After his mother filled the lad’s ears with venom about Douglas for the last three years? I sincerely doubt it,” Moray said. “I’m told, however, the king’s cage is a gilded one designed to divert a young man—with feasts, gambling and, of course, women.”
“I would think that would give us all the more reason to want leverage over Douglas to force him to return young Huntly,” Finn said.
“Archibald Douglas has won the battle, and the kingdom is in his hands now, which changes the calculation considerably,” Moray said. “For however long Douglas holds the king, it’s in young Huntly’s interest to remain in Douglas’s care as well.”
“Something tells me you’re not leaving him there for the feasts and the women.”
“Huntly will be the king’s constant companion throughout his ordeal—and the king will come to view this time when his stepfather keeps him under his thumb and rules in his name as an ordeal, despite the feasts and women,” Moray said. “No matter what Douglas does, the king will eventually become a man and rule, and the special bond between Huntly and the king will be of value to him, the Gordons, and their allies for many, many years to come.”
Finn was not surprised that such dramatic news of the king had traveled faster than he did among the nobility or that news of Margaret’s disappearance had not. The Douglases would want to keep Margaret’s disappearance quiet while they searched for her to avoid rumors that such a valuable marriage prize had run off with a lover.
“Tell me,” Finn said, tilting his head, “what would ye have done if I had succeeded and come here with Lady Margaret?”
“What do you think I’d do?” Moray asked.
“Put the blame on me and throw me in chains,” Finn said. “You’d have Douglas in your debt for rescuing his sister from a damned rogue you would say tried to exchange her for gold.”
Moray leaned back in his chair and smiled. “My mother said you were clever.”
“Ach, not as clever as all that,” Finn said. “If I had succeeded in kidnapping the lass, I would have walked right into the trap and ended up in your dungeon.” Or dead.
“I would have sincerely regretted having to do it,” Moray said as he refilled Finn’s cup. “My mother would have been rather angry with me. But what else could I do?”
Moray’s remark reminded him of what Margaret said. Men always have choices, though they may pretend they don’t.
They finished their drinks companionably enough. Finn had known from the start Moray was guided by interests larger than Finn’s fate, and the man held no true malice toward him. But for all his trouble, Finn had gained nothing and would have to go to France or Ireland after all. He should have known this was where it would end.
But this meant he would have to return Margaret first. He rubbed his hand over his face as he thought of the days and nights of temptation ahead. Still, it would be good to see the relief on her face when he told her she was going home.
Since his audience appeared to be over, he started to get to his feet, but Moray stopped him.
“Were you aware,” Moray said, “that, before your unfortunate decision to fight for the Sinclairs, your uncle the Earl of Sutherland intended to make you captain of the guard at Dunrobin Castle?”
Damn it. Would the consequences of that decision never end? Captain of the guard was a position of great honor and responsibility. Yet Finn had to admit that even if he’d known at the time, he probably still would have been fool enough to give in to the lure of lands on Orkney to fight with the Sinclairs.
“I received a message from your uncle indicating he is most anxious for his son Alex Òg to return home,” Moray said. “I think it would be wise for you to be the one to take him.”
“I’m not certain I’d be welcome at Dunrobin,” Finn said. “Besides, his father would insist on an escort of at least ten men.”
“Sutherland was very particular in asking me to provide an escort of only one or two guards so as not to draw attention to his departure,” Moray said, tapping the tips of his fingers together. “In fact, he mentioned you by name, as he knew I expected you here, though I did not tell him why.”
“Is Alex in danger?” Finn asked, leaning forward.
“All I know is your uncle wants his son brought home as quickly and as quietly as possible,” Moray said. “If you want to persuade your uncle of your loyalty to him and your clan, you’ll take Alex Òg and make haste for Dunrobin Castle.”
How in the hell was he supposed to do that and return Margaret at the same time?
Moray drew out a clean piece of parchment, ink, and a quill from the drawer in his table.
“I’ll send a message with you advising your uncle,” Moray said, as his quill scratched across the parchment, “that you have my trust and, in my judgment, are worthy of serving on his guard.”
Moray was a powerful ally of the Gordons, and his endorsement would go a long way with the important men of the clan, particularly Finn’s uncle.
“I’m verra grateful for this,” Finn said.
“I know,” Moray said with a small, satisfied smile. “I may have need of you again.”
###
Finn caught sight of Margaret as he hurried up the path. Though time was short, he paused to watch her as she sat on a fallen log with Ella on her lap and chatted with Alex as if they were old friends. She’d shown such grace throughout their journey, despite being ripped from her home and family, dragged across half of Scotland, and forced to endure days and nights of rough travel.
After everything he put her through, Finn knew what he had to do. Before he took Alex to Dunrobin, he must give her back her life and return her home. He owed her that, even if it meant he lost the chance of gaining his uncle’s trust and a place in his guard.
Margaret smiled when she saw him and stood, waiting to hear his news.
“Mind Ella while I have a private word with Maggie,” he told Alex, then he led her a few steps away and explained the situation to her. “So ye see, you’re no longer needed as a hostage.”
“I’m not?” Her eyes were wide with alarm. “What will ye do with me?”
“Don’t fret,” he said, taking her hand. “I’ll take ye back to Edinburgh.”
“But I don’t want to go back to Edinburgh,” she said, and pulled her hand from his.
“Then I’ll take ye to Blackadder Castle or Tantallon,” he said.
“Nay, I don’t want to go there either,” she said, her voice rising. “I don’t want to go back at all.”
“What?” He thought he must have heard wrong, but she was stepping backward and shaking her head. “Why not?”
For a moment, the ridiculous thought entered his head that he—and those few moments of reckless passion against the tree—had something to do with her not wanting to leave. Even more ridiculous, the thought did not send panic rushing through his veins.
“I cannot go back,” she said.
He glanced at Alex, who was shamelessly attempting to overhear them, and drew her farther away.
“Tell me, what is this about?”
“Ella isn’t really mine,” Margaret said, twisting her hands in her gown. “I mean, she’s mine now. But she wasn’t always.”
Wasn’t always? By the saints, had Margaret stolen the bairn? Something had seemed off from the very start. It had been too easy to persuade her to come with him, but he had put that down to her cool head and calm facade. And she had not seemed to know her own daughter very well, but he dismissed that when she told him Ella had been in the care of a village woman.
“Explain this to me, leannain.” Finn rested his hands on her slender shoulders and spoke in a soft voice. “How can Ella be yours, but not yours?”
“I didn’t give birth to her,” Margaret said in a tight voice. “She was…a…a gift.”
“A gift?” People did not give away children. He cupped Margaret’s cheek with his hand. “Oh, lass, what have ye done?”
She proceeded to tell him a wild tale of a murdered mother and a desperate lad who brought Ella to her on the very night Finn kidnapped her. His head was spinning.
“Do you believe me?” she asked, looking at him with those big brown eyes that appeared to hold no guile.
Finn would be a damned fool to believe her. And yet he did.
“Ye cannot take me back,” she pleaded. “My brothers will use me to forge an alliance. They’ll force me to marry again!”
Jealousy rammed him like a raging bull as Finn imagined another man touching her velvety skin…sliding his hands over her soft curves…tasting her lips…
“No nobleman my brothers would choose for my husband will accept the child of poor villagers as my adopted daughter.”
She was talking about Ella, but his mind was still stuck on the notion of a husband who would wake to see Margaret’s face every day and lie with her each night.
“Do ye understand?” She gripped the front of his tunic in her fists, forcing him to hear what she was telling him. “If I return, my brothers will take Ella away from me! I’ll never see her again.”
“I’ll not let that happen.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her hair. “I promise.”
He gave her his word without thought because he could not bear to see her so distressed and because it would be wrong to part her and Ella. But what in the hell was he going to do with them?
He’d never wanted to be responsible for a woman or a bairn—and he’d never been in a worse position to do so. He would protect them with his life, but he had little else to offer them. He had no home he could take them to and no certain means of providing for them.
With a deep sigh, he rested his chin on her head. How did he get himself into this mess? Their lives had become entangled like his fingers in her hair. There was nothing he could do now but bring them with him to Dunrobin and pray his uncle would take him into his guard.
He felt a tug on his tunic and looked down to see Ella with her arms raised, wanting him to pick her up. He tossed her into the air, which earned him a rare laugh from the bairn. When he turned to Margaret and saw her face glowing with happiness and relief, his doubts fell away.
No matter what it took, he would find a way to take care of them until Margaret decided what she wanted to do next.
###
Margaret was overjoyed that Finn would not abandon them or try to return her to her brothers. But the smile froze on her face as she recalled their wild moment of passion no more than an hour ago. If she had known she and Finn were not parting today, she never would have asked him to kiss her. Her cheeks grew hot as she recalled how quickly that kiss led to having her back against a tree, her skirts around her waist, and Finn staring at her bare breasts.
Her hand flew to her chest. She had not even considered the consequence of Moray’s change in plans to Finn.
“Forgive me for only thinking of myself,” she said. “This must mean ye won’t receive the lands ye were promised for kidnapping me.”
“Ach, I’m no worse off than I was before,” Finn said with a shrug.
She was not fooled. This was a hard loss for him.
“I’m sorry,” she said, resting her hand on his arm. “I know how much ye wanted that land.”
If he had no home, where he would take them? She did not care where so long as she could keep Ella. From the tale Finn told of how he came to kidnap her, however, he might not be welcome with either his father’s or his mother’s clan.
Though Finn surely wanted to be rid of them, it would be a lot to ask him to take her and Ella across the Highlands and through mountainous terrain to Eilean Donan Castle. And what if Sybil and her husband had changed their plans and were not there when they arrived? Still, she was about to suggest it when Finn spoke.
“I’m glad I don’t have to choose between taking you all the way back to the Lowlands and taking Alex north to Sutherland.”
Finn turned around and caught his young cousin inching closer, obviously bent on overhearing their conversation.
“We’re leaving for Dunrobin Castle at once,” Finn told him. “Your father wants ye home.”
Alex groaned. “Do I have to go?”
“You’re my means of redemption, so aye, ye do,” Finn said with a grin, and put an arm around his cousin’s shoulders. “Your father is so anxious to have ye brought home that he just may be willing to overlook my excursion with the Sinclairs and take me into his guard.”
“At least it’s you taking me,” Alex grumbled. “I’m surprised my father didn’t send thirty warriors to escort me, as if I couldn’t make it home by myself.”
“You’re the future earl, and he’s your father,” Finn said. “Ye cannot blame him for wanting to protect ye.”
“It was bad enough before,” Alex said. “But since that wee accident, he treats me like a bairn.”
“Just what was this wee accident?” Finn asked.
“I found shards of glass in the bottom of my cup,” Alex said with a shrug. “A servant must have broken something in the kitchen and not noticed that some pieces fell into the cup.”
Finn’s teasing manner disappeared. “When and where did this happen?”
“Here at Huntly Castle when my family was here for the gathering after the old earl died,” Alex said. “You’d already come and gone before we arrived.”
“The castle was verra crowded for the gathering,” Finn said.
Judging from his grim expression, Finn suspected the shards were no accident. And in a crowded castle, it would be difficult to discover who the culprit was.
“’Twas an accident, and I didn’t swallow the shards,” Alex complained. “But ye know what my da is like.”
“I do,” Finn said, his humor returned. “He suspects everyone is as sly and conniving as he is. And yet your father trusts me to take ye home.”
“That’s because Da knows you’d never harm me,” Alex said.
“He also knows I left the gathering before ye had your wee accident.”
“That may have enhanced his trust in you,” Alex agreed with a smile.
“Lucky for you, I’ve nowhere else to go,” Finn said, and ruffled Alex’s hair, “so we’re off to Dunrobin.”
“I need to go back to the castle first to bid farewell to someone.” Alex darted a glance at Margaret and blushed, confirming her guess that the someone was the lass he thought he was in love with.
“We can’t risk alerting anyone who may want to follow us,” Finn said, shaking his head. “If someone here does mean ye harm, they’ll be watching for ye to gather your things and make your goodbyes.”
Alex groaned but did not argue this time.
“When danger is chasing ye, always do the unexpected,” Finn told him with a wink. “Mount your horse—and you can tell me on the way who the lass is.”
Though he spoke in a light tone, Finn clearly took the threat seriously and was anxious to get Alex safely home to Dunrobin Castle.
Asking Finn to take her to her sister Sybil was out of the question, at least for now. Even if Alex’s safety were
not at risk, she could not ask Finn to give up the chance to earn a position in his uncle’s guard and acceptance back into his clan.
“Where is Dunrobin?” she asked him as they rode off.
“In the far north, up in Sutherland.”
He was taking her farther from the Lowlands, her brothers, and her past life. And that was all she needed to know.
CHAPTER 13
Margaret started to object when Finn lifted Ella onto Alex’s horse, but Ella seemed happy to ride with him. Though Alex was a few years older than Ella’s brother Brian, Margaret suspected she took to Alex so quickly because she missed her brother. A wave of sadness swept over her at the thought of Brian. She touched the bag of broken onyx tied to her belt and told herself they would see him again one day.
Finn kept a vigilant watch, scanning the hills as they rode. They spoke little and did not stop until late in the afternoon, when they reached the sea.
“Where are we?” Margaret asked, trying to get her bearings.
“This is where the North Sea meets Moray Firth, the large inlet that reaches inland to Inverness,” Finn replied.
“We’ll pass through Inverness?” Margaret asked.
“Nay, ’tis faster and safer to sail across the firth,” Finn said. “To reach Dunrobin by land, we’d have to travel all the way west to Inverness and then ride along the far shore of the firth for another forty miles or so, much of it through the lands of unfriendly clans.”
This information might be useful later. Castle Leod, the MacKenzie stronghold on the easternmost part of their clan lands, was somewhere near Inverness. In several weeks, Margaret’s sister Sybil and her family expected to return there. While forty or fifty miles was no small distance, particularly on these rough Highland trails and traveling alone with a small child, it was not impossible.
“How will we find a boat this time?” she asked.
“I left mine hidden here when I sailed over,” Alex said.
Alex’s boat was just large enough to hold the two horses and them. After Finn and Alex raised the sail, Alex took the rudder, and Finn sat beside Margaret with Ella on his lap. Despite the uncertainties ahead, she enjoyed the sail. It was June and the days were long, so they still had a few hours of sunlight. Ella seemed livelier, even squealing with delight when she saw seals in the water. Watching her daughter smile and laugh made Margaret’s heart feel lighter. She wrapped her arms around her daughter from behind and pressed her cheek to Ella’s while Ella pointed at another seal.
Kidnapped by a Rogue, kindle Page 12