Justin held her tight until she let go and stepped away. “We are very happy to have you back, Lass. I must go relieve your mother and sister of their worry.”
Rachel nodded, watched him hurry up the stairs and then turned to Kevin. “They nearly caught me.”
“Were you frightened?” Connor couldn’t help asking.
Kevin rolled his eyes and Rachel tried to kick Connor in the shin, but Kevin caught her around the waist before she could. “Rachel, did you see the children?”
It took a moment to calm down enough to answer. “Nay, I do not believe they have them. I saw no injured lads either.” She wasn’t finished glaring at Connor, but finally turned to face Kevin. “The children must still be hiding in the forest.” She looked up, watched her family come down the stairs and smiled reassuringly.
“Are you positive they do not have the boys?”
“Kevin, their hold is nothing like ours. They have no moat, their wall is made of wood and I firmly believe a strong wind would knock it down. I could not search every cottage, but I did look in the doors of the ones I thought were the most likely. It is a warm night and all the doors were open. When I arrived, they were celebrating something and there were torches everywhere. Many of the women and children were in the courtyard, the gates were wide open and people were coming and going just like always. I walked right in and right back out. No one tried to stop me.” She was wondering why she hadn’t mentioned the woman when Connor broke her concentration.
“I thought you said they almost caught you.”
Rachel didn’t even look at him. “Connor do you wake up stupid or does it creep up on you later in the day?”
Kevin tried hard not to laugh, but Anna did, Catherin did and Justin was nearly doubled over. The only ones not laughing were Connor and Rachel, who both folded their arms defiantly. “Go on, Rachel,” said Kevin.
“Well, they do not look like they are expecting us to attack or are preparing for war. I saw no extra guards at all. After I left, I watched them from the woods for a long time. If they noticed me, I wanted to see if they would increase the guard once they thought I was gone. They did not.”
Justin asked, “Are you cold, Lass? You are wet from head to toe.”
“Nay, father. I would have been back sooner if that dim-witted boy had not spotted one of my Ferguson plaids in the forest. I took two just in case I needed another. He seemed to think if he looked hard enough, he would find a naked lass somewhere. He sure wanted a good look and muttered the same out loud. I could not move from my hiding place until he gave up and it took a long time.”
“Did you bring your plaids back?” Anna wanted to know.
“I brought everything back. I lost my arrows in the moat, but I can get them tomorrow.” She glared at Connor daring him to offer to get them for her.
Connor didn’t say a word.
CHAPTER III
After Justin took Catherin and Rachel back to their cottage and Anna went to bed, Connor wanted to know how Rachel got back in.
Kevin shook his head. “I do not believe you heard a word I said. You challenged Rachel’s courage and her honesty.” He sighed. “You fight well, but you do not yet understand people. Justin is a wise lad because he learned to see what is in a lad’s heart by watching his eyes and carefully listening to his words. You would be wise to do the same. As for Rachel, you will have to learn the hard way and we will all enjoy watching it. My wife and I have made a wager. I think she will marry you. Anna does not think Rachel will let you live that long.”
Justin slept late the next morning. When he opened his eyes, Catherin had her head on his chest. From the beginning, Catherin liked to listen to his heart when she was frightened. She found comfort in it and he certainly didn’t mind. It gave him plenty of excuses to hold her, especially before she finally agreed to be his wife.
She was a complicated woman with dark memories that sometimes clouded her mind and invaded her sleep. By rights, she could justify a mountain of self pity, but Catherin was a strong woman who made up her mind to have a happy life, and for the most part they were both content. It‘s just that sometimes she needed to hear his heart. He wrapped both arms around her.
“If you move, I will never cook for you again.”
He smiled. “You know we will protect you from the Fergusons, so it must be something else. Is it Rachel?”
“Anna thinks Rachel is beginning to remember. I think something frightened her? Do you know what it was?”
“Rachel believes she is afraid of nothing, but I will ask Connor. He is never far from her.”
Catherin smiled. “They are fun to watch. Does Kevin say it was fun to watch us fall in love? Anna laughs about it.”
“We must have been quite a sight. I was in love with you the moment you kissed my neck. You took a bit longer.”
“A whole year longer and then I was not quite convinced. If you had not let me hear your heart whenever I wanted, it would have taken a lot longer.”
“I would have let you break my head if I thought it would help. Where is Rachel?”
“Gone. She left to look for the arrows she lost in the moat last night.”
“Do you intend to keep all those clothes on?”
Rachel wanted her arrows back but she didn’t want to have to jump in the moat to get them. She walked along the outside edge searching and searching but couldn’t find a one. Before she realized it, Connor was standing right in front of her. If Connor was a handsome man, Rachel was going to be the last woman on earth to notice. His ability to sneak up on her unheard was getting on her nerves, and she put her hands on her hips.
He found her fury rewarding. “How did you get back inside the wall last night?”
“I walked across the bridge.”
“I did not hear it put down.”
“That is very sad. I fear your hearing will completely go before you are twenty.”
“I am twenty now.”
“Indeed? I thought you were much, much younger -- a little boy even. You are in my way, move!”
“Kevin wants you back inside, it is not safe.”
“Oh, all right.” She huffed and started back toward the bridge. But then she suddenly stopped, turned around and threw her arms around his neck, “We are being watched.”
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. “I know. Do you want me to kiss you? It might help convince them we have not noticed.”
“I would rather die.”
“If we do not get back inside soon, you may get your wish.”
“Pretend to chase me.” She threw her head back and laughed. Then she pulled away and started running. She kept laughing, he kept smiling and as soon as they were across the bridge, the guards started to raise it. Connor and Rachel didn’t stop running until they were up the steps and on the landing of the keep where Kevin was waiting.
“Did you see them?” Kevin asked.
Connor answered, “They wear Ferguson plaids.”
“How many?”
“Ten,” said Connor.
“Fifteen,” Rachel countered. “There were some behind us as well,”
When they heard a long, soft whistle, they followed Kevin inside and up the stairs, to a nearly empty bedchamber on the opposite end of the balcony from the one he shared with Anna. It once belonged to his parents and he rarely ever entered it, but this room had the only window that faced the front of the village. With Connor and Rachel right behind him, Kevin walked to the window, pulled the curtain aside and spotted someone walking up the road toward them.
“It is a lass,” Rachel muttered, “And she walks alone.”
“Aye and she wears a Ferguson plaid,” said Kevin. He watched the woman come to the end of the road and stop in front of the moat. He watched her for a moment more and then searched the woods behind her with his eyes. The Ferguson men were well hidden.
“It is a trick to tempt us to lower the bridge,” said Connor.
“Aye. Take ten lads, climb the ladd
ers and look over the wall. We must know if we are surrounded.” He waited for Connor’s nod and turned his attention back to the woman outside. All the families were inside the wall, everything was being handled and there was no reason not to just wait for the woman to say or do something. But the Ferguson woman only stood there, looking up at the window.
A while later, Justin came in and stood behind Rachel at the window. “What do you think she wants?”
Rachel shrugged.
“I have no idea,” Kevin answered.
Said Justin, “Connor has the lads on the wall, but they report seeing nothing so far.”
“Good.” Still Kevin waited. An hour passed, the woman sat down on the dirt road, and it was clear she had no intention of leaving. Still she did not say or do anything to indicate what she wanted.
Connor finally came back carrying two chairs, but none of them wanted to move from their positions at the window. Nevertheless, he was more than happy to sit down. “I changed the guard.”
“Change them every hour until dark,” said Kevin.
When Rachel left for a few minutes, Justin turned to Connor. “My wife wants to know if something frightened Rachel yesterday.”
Connor thought about it for a moment. “She did not seem frightened. She let me get close to her for the first time.”
Kevin looked amazed. “She let you get close to her? Have you looked for injuries?” Justin chuckled and Connor rolled his eyes just before Rachel walked back in.
Another hour passed. The afternoon shadows were steadily growing longer and would soon cover the woman outside. Finally, she stood up and turned toward the trees. She said something and the two missing MacGreagor boys ran out of the forest to her.
When the boys appeared, Kevin closed his eyes. Tired of standing, he finally took a seat next to Connor and left Justin and Rachel at the window. “First the Fergusons kill a man, a lass and a child. Then they return the missing boys. Why?”
“It is a trick still,” Connor mumbled.
Justin wrinkled his brow. “Perhaps something has gone wrong and they are not yet ready to fight us.”
“We can not just leave the boys outside the wall. They must be terrified,” Rachel said.
Finally, the Ferguson woman cupped her hands and shouted in Gaelic, “The Fergusons did not do this. We found the boys hiding in the woods.”
Kevin and Connor walked to the window while Justin thoughtfully rubbed the side of his face. “Our lads saw no Fergusons when they searched the woods. The boys would have come to us when we called out if they could.”
Rachel turned to Kevin but kept one eye on Connor. “Kevin, let me go get them.” She expected Connor to say no again, but this time he kept quiet.
Kevin frowned. “There are at least fifteen Fergusons in the woods, what could you do?”
“The children know English. I will tell them to run to me in the forest, and then I will hide them until it is safe to bring them inside.”
“It might work,” Justin admitted.
Connor added, “She knows all the hiding places.”
Rachel was puzzled. Of course, she knew all the hiding places and so did he -- he’d followed her often enough and now, he sounded as though he was on her side. She swore she would never understand the way his mind worked.
“Rachel is not the only one who speaks English,” Kevin said to Justin.
“Aye, but she is the only one who knows the secret.”
Kevin wasn‘t convinced. “One of us could go.”
Justin shook his head, “The Fergusons would love getting their hands on you, and my English is not that good. Besides we are far too large and with two children, we can not easily hide.”
Rachel’s neck was starting to hurt from repeatedly looking up at one tall man and then the other.
“There could be two hundred lads waiting in the forest,” said Kevin.
She realized that was true. “I will go all the way to the loch and come up behind them. If there are too many I will come back without the boys, I promise.”
Kevin studied Rachel’s eyes and finally nodded. “Not until it is dark enough.”
When she was gone, Kevin looked out the window again and put a hand on Justin’s shoulder. “Tell our wives what is happening. If they object, there is still time to stop her.” He watched Justin leave and again turned his attention back to the woman and boys outside the wall.
Connor was certain Rachel’s mother and sister would refuse their permission this time. Rachel’s plan was sound, but Kevin was right -- there could be two hundred Fergusons hiding in the woods. Convinced it would not happen, he relaxed and waited until Justin came back.
“Anna said they would never keep Rachel from going out,” Justin said.
Kevin seemed to, but Connor didn’t understand at all. They were willing to let her go, knowing she would be in even more danger than the night before? Why? He knew of no other mother who would allow it. He wondered too, if Kevin would even ask any other mother. No, Kevin would simply order it done.
Rachel suspected Kevin would ask permission and was listening from her hiding place under the stairs. She heard the consent, walked out the door and quietly closed it behind her. She continued on down the steps, across the courtyard, up the path and disappeared into her cottage.
Then she walked to the small window, pulled the curtain back, folded her arms and leaned against the wall. It wasn’t long until Connor rounded the corner and headed up the path. When he passed her cottage, he didn’t even look her direction. He seemed deeply troubled and she’d never seen that look before.
Rachel had nothing better to do, so she decided to follow him. He didn’t go to his cottage as she thought he would and instead kept right on walking. He turned up one path and then chose another until he reached a large garden area where the clan grew vegetables and herbs. Because he didn’t sit down on a log, Rachel expected him to turn around and come back, so she slipped behind a bush. But he didn’t turn around. He walked behind a tree trunk and didn’t come out the other side. She waited for several minutes but he still didn’t come out.
What in the world was he doing? She could try to get closer, but on the other side of the tree was the wall and there was no way to see him unless she approached from either side. If she tried that, he was sure to spot her. There was only one thing left to do. She boldly walked through the garden and was only a couple of feet away when she heard his voice.
“So, you have finally found my hiding place.”
She cautiously moved around the tree and found him sitting with his back against the trunk examining his dagger. “I was not aware you had a need to hide.”
“All people need a quiet place to think from time to time. You prefer that rock by the loch.”
She folded her arms. “You have a cottage all to yourself, why not do your thinking there?”
“Sometimes I do. But it is not the same as being outside in the good air.”
“What could you possibly have to think about anyway?”
“Sit down, Smudges, and I will tell you.”
She was reluctant, but finally chose a place where she could lean against the wall opposite him. Then she sat down and judged the distance. She was just far enough away to keep him from grabbing her hand. “I am too old to be called Smudges.”
“I will try to remember that.”
He agreed a little too easily, but she dismissed it. “So, what do you think about?”
“Many things. I think about a war with the Fergusons, for one.”
“We could not possibly lose, could we?”
“I think not. The MacGreagors are better trained than most of the other clans. Still…”
“What?”
He put his dagger away and folded his arms. “Some will die.”
“But not MacGreagors.”
“Aye, even MacGreagors. If we think the Fergusons are weak, which we do, some of us will make mistakes.”
It was not something Rachel spent much time co
nsidering and she didn‘t want to consider it now. “What else do you have to think about?”
“Well, I think about having a wife someday. A loving wife who will smile when I come back from the hunt and she sees I am safe.”
He wasn’t grinning when he said it as though he meant to taunt her. He wasn’t even smiling, but it was not her favorite subject so Rachel looked away.
Connor couldn‘t believe they were actually having a normal conversation. First she let him get closer to her and now she was talking to him instead of glaring. “What do you think about?”
“If you must know, I have a thousand questions. I think about my questions.”
“What sort of questions?”
“You would not understand.”
“Oh, they are those questions.”
“Nay, they are not those questions. I wonder about...I sometimes think about a dark place, but I do not know where it is. It is far away from here, of that I am certain.” She wasn’t sure she should mention it, but one particular question had plagued her for weeks. “If I ask you something, do you promise to be honest?”
“I give you my word; I will never lie to you.”
“Do you remember when I first came here?”
Connor smiled. “I was young, but I remember my father being very happy. I believe we waited a long time for a mistress and everyone loved your sister.”
“Oh.” Rachel still looked greatly disturbed.
“What is it?”
“I thought perhaps I was the baby they found outside the wall.”
“Nay, Rachel, you came to us later. I was the one who found the baby. Kevin sent inquiries to all the nearest clans, but none came to claim her. Emily and Dan took her in and named her Charlet.”
Rachel looked stunned. “Charlet? I never knew that. Does she know?”
“Aye, she says she is happy here and loves Emily and Dan. Have you more questions or should I tell you what else I think about?”
Marti Talbott's Highlander Series 1 (Anna, Rachel & Charlet) Page 12