by Paula Quinn
Captain Edward Asher was a resourceful man. If Davina was still alive, he had to find her before Gilles did. And the Admiral would find her… eventually. Finally exposed to the world, people were going to take notice of Davina Montgomery. They would question why a woman of such radiance was clothed in nun’s robes. Though she would never tell the world her secrets, she was kind and outgoing, and those who met her would remember her, mayhap enough to describe for Gilles, should he question them.
Edward had to find her. He had to warn her—and MacGregor if she was with him—that her enemies did not think her dead and were now, in fact, hunting her.
He couldn’t do that on foot, and since the stable as well as the Abbey had been burned to the ground, he had to find a horse and a stream to cleanse himself of the blood of battle before he went searching through towns and villages for her.
It didn’t take him long to find both when he came upon a small bothy nestled within a stand of trees. The well provided fresh water, and the steed tethered to the low front gate would provide speed. He washed quickly, filling the well’s bucket and dunking his head twice. He leaped upon the horse just as the door of the bothy swung open. The shouting man rushing through it gave Edward pause only long enough to slip the heavy ring from his left index finger and toss it to the tenant.
“Payment for your horse, good man.”
He was not worthy to wear the royal signet anyway. Everyone at the Abbey was dead. His men… the sisters. He prayed Davina would forgive him. He prayed for just one more chance to prove his devotion to her.
Chapter Nine
Rob leaned his shoulder against the doorway of the church. It was dark inside save for the soft amber glow of a few dozen tallow wax candles dancing along the polished pews. He didn’t need light to tell him Davina was here. Her whispered prayers echoed like harp strings beneath the cherubim-painted ceiling.
It had been three days since they’d arrived at Courlochcraig. Three days longer than Rob had meant to stay. The Reverend Mother had insisted he and his party depart the night they’d arrived, especially after two young novices caught sight of them and giggled all through supper. When Rob refused to go until he was certain they had not been followed, it was Will who’d argued with him first, insisting that if he was forced to stay in a convent for a prolonged amount of time, he could not be held responsible for any of the sisters’ broken vows. His warning nearly caused the Abbess to lose her composure, and Rob, the good graces of God.
Arguing with a Reverend Mother was a sin, to be sure, but Rob had made up his mind and only an act of God would change it. In the meantime, he promised to keep his cousin under control. The sisters, he’d told the Abbess, were her responsibility. She wasn’t pleased, but she had ceased arguing with him. She’d also refused to enlighten him about Davina, claiming she knew as little as he. When he asked how she recognized Davina when she saw her, the Abbess told him she had seen Davina once when she visited St. Christopher’s on retreat many years ago, and that the child was difficult to forget. As was the woman, Rob had thought silently and let the matter drop. He would get no answers, even if the Abbess knew them.
A movement along the church pews caught his eye now and he watched while Davina crossed herself and turned away from the altar.
He was becoming familiar with her habits. She prayed twice a day in the church, once in the morning with the other sisters, and after supper, alone. In between, she mended robes, tended the garden, chopped vegetables, and glanced at him often.
At first, Rob had tried to pretend he wasn’t watching her for any other purpose than to keep her in his line of vision should Colin or Finn call from the bell tower that horsemen were approaching. But after the first day, he could no longer deny that there were other, far more perilous reasons why he couldn’t keep his eyes off her. The way she drew in one corner of her lower lip, giving her full attention—or seeming to—to her sewing, made him long to feel those lips pressed to his. The way her gaze drifted off to another place, capturing the sunlight in vivid hues of blue and dazzling silver—despite the deep sadness that haunted them—drew him to move nearer, to look closer and find a way to comfort her. Her ethereal beauty mesmerized him, but it was the way she frequently sought him out, as if to convince herself that he had not left her, that tempted him to pull her into his arms and swear his life to her safety. She barely spoke to him in the evenings while she dressed his wound in the company of the other nuns. She did not smile when their eyes met across a table or a bed of geraniums. She had lost much, and soon she would lose him too. They both knew it. He could not remain here with her forever, though the thought was not an unpleasant one, and he would not jeopardize the lives of everyone at Camlochlin by bringing her there. Still, he could not bring himself to leave her yet. Not yet.
When Davina saw him in the doorway, she paused in her footsteps for a moment. Caught between shadows and light, she looked like a vision come to life from a dying man’s dreams. Rob swallowed, then pushed off the archway and waited for her to reach him.
“Do you fear for my safety even here?” she asked in that dulcet voice he was growing so accustomed to hearing. It wasn’t that she spoke often, but rather that she didn’t that made Rob incline his ear whenever she spoke to anyone.
“God has assigned me to the task.”
“So it would seem.” She tilted her head up and before he could guard himself against it, she smiled at him.
Rob was certain he heard the thrashing of his heart reverberating through the silence. He had the urge to pluck the thin veil that covered her silvery blond tresses from her head—a reminder that she belonged to another. One who knew all her secrets, all her fears, strengths, and desires. One she spoke to each day, and trusted beyond what she was willing to offer anyone else.
Before he could stop himself, he reached out and swept his fingers along her wrist. A forbidden touch, and more so here in her betrothed’s house.
She moved closer as if he had pulled her to him. “What do you pray for, Robert MacGregor?”
“My clan,” he told her and then, because he’d never had time to consider the woman he would choose to spend the rest of his days with until he met the one he could never have, he folded his hands behind his back and looked away. “And ye.”
“You have my thanks for that.” She continued to muddle his good senses when she laid her palm on his arm. “But even God does not expect you to remain here, forgetting your duties to your family.”
She was right, of course. He should leave her and return to his kin, where he belonged. “I have no’ fergotten my duties.” He returned his gaze to hers and marveled at the innocence in her eyes after all she had seen, and the strength in them to send away her only protection. “I am torn by them.”
“All the more reason to go,” she said, moving away to return to where he had found her.
Rob watched her sit and then followed her, slipping into the pew behind her. “Why did ye no’ leave St. Christopher’s when ye knew yer enemies were comin’?” He wanted the truth from her on this, at least.
She shrugged her shoulders beneath her robes. “We weren’t certain they were coming. The sisters would not have left, and I could not abandon them.”
Behind her, Rob moved forward slightly to inhale the sweet fragrance of her hair beneath her veil. “Does a wee lass raised in a convent have more courage than a man raised fer battle, then?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t mean to imply that!” She swung around and almost bumped noses with him before he shifted back. “I don’t doubt that you are courageous. But I am not your charge. There is no reason to put your life in jeopardy for me.”
There were more reasons than Rob cared to admit to her… or to himself. He leaned back instead and folded his arms across his chest. “My life is no’ in jeopardy, Davina. ’Tis likely that the men who wanted ye dead think ye perished in the fire. They will no’ look fer ye here.”
“Then why have you ordered both Colin and Finn to keep watch from the
bell tower, and why is Will stationed at the gate day and night?”
Rob bit down on his jaw, not liking how quickly she caught the contradiction and called him on it.
“’Tis my nature to be vigilant.”
“You’re brooding again.”
He shot her a dark glance. “Woman, I dinna’ brood.”
“Sulk?”
“Same thing,” he mumbled under his breath.
She shrugged, turning forward in her seat. “Pout, then.”
Rob stared at the back of her veiled head. Did she jest with him? If so, ’twas the first time he’d ever seen this side of her. He wasn’t certain he liked her teasing him, but it was far better than accusing him in earnest of being sour. When she slanted her gaze over her shoulder and flashed him a smile, he decided that he could live with some teasing.
“Is the Abbess aware that ye’re no’ as innocent as ye look?”
She turned to face him again with laughter in her eyes and held her finger to her mouth. “I’ll have penance for a se’nnight.”
“And ’twill be well deserved.”
Against the candlelight, her eyes gleamed with mischief, and her mouth was wide with a smile so bonnie Rob had no trouble understanding why God had chosen her as His own. What had caused this change in her? Had God heard her prayers and lifted her grief? Rob had thought he might never see her smile, never hear her laughter. But here it was, as unexpected as the summer rain and just as refreshing.
“Had I known how sensitive Highlanders were, I would have held my tongue.”
He smiled. “As sharp as it is, lass, I fear ’twould have cut through yer lips.”
Davina looked pleasantly surprised. Rob realized an instant later that it was part of the sting when she sweetly said, “You’re not as thick-skulled as I first thought.”
Narrowing his eyes on her, he shook his head. “Och, lass, ye’re as ruthless as Mairi.”
“Your sister,” Davina said, resting her arm on the back of the pew and giving him her full attention. “The one who cannot keep silent else she would have found a husband by now?”
Rob nodded, a bit surprised that she remembered their talk of Mairi so clearly. “She is venomous.”
“But you love her.”
“Aye, I love her.
Her smile turned wistful. “Tell me about your family,” she asked, tucking her hand under her chin and getting more comfortable for the tale.
An hour later Davina knew more about the MacGregors of Skye than they probably did. She enjoyed hearing about Maggie the most, which pleased Rob, since his aunt held a special place in his heart. When he told her how his father had saved his mother from the MacColls and then carried her home to Camlochlin, she sighed with delight, making Rob want to prove to her that he was as valiant as his sire.
“Those were dangerous times fer my parents. My mother is a Campbell, and—”
“A Campbell?” Davina cut him off, that wary glint returning to her eyes. “Then the Earl of Argyll is your kin. Why did you not tell me this sooner?”
“Because I dinna’ consider him kin,” Rob explained in a quiet voice. “My Uncle Robert was the eleventh Earl, but he was killed almost a decade ago by the Fergussons. He died childless and the title went to Archibald. I dinna’ know the exiled earl, nor do I want to. Ye have nothin’ to fear from me, Davina. I swear it.”
She nodded, but didn’t look entirely convinced. “But your uncle was a Protestant. All Campbells strongly oppose royal authority and legitimate succession—especially when succession to the throne involves a Catholic monarch.”
“And what does that have to do with ye?”
“Nothing,” she hastened to tell him. “It has nothing to do with me, save that I support my king and his beliefs. Your family does not support the Protestants, do they?”
“Nae,” Rob assured her, curious of her keen knowledge of things no other lass he knew would care one whit about. “We are Catholic.”
Her taut features relaxed a bit. “That is good to know.”
Why, he wanted to ask her? Why was it good to know? And what had driven her to learn so much about the workings of the kingdom—and the beliefs of the men who controlled it? Was it her faith, under the threat of becoming a crime, or her new king that fanned the passion in her eyes when she spoke of either one? But he did not ask. It no longer mattered to Rob why men were out to kill her, only that they were. He would make certain they did not succeed.
“You’re brooding again.”
He blinked, realizing when his brows relaxed that he was. Well, he had his reasons, and looking at her was one of them.
“’Tis God.”
She gave him a startled, questioning look, tilting her head to follow him as he rose to his feet. “What do you mean?”
Rob glanced at the huge cross at the altar, then at the veil covering her glorious mantle. “He has chosen a most pathetic man to look after ye.”
Chapter Ten
Rob stepped out of the church and into the Abbess. He knew by her rigid posture and cool regard that she was angry. He looked around for Will, suspecting that his cousin was the cause. Rob hadn’t missed the way the young novice Elaine had blushed and then granted Will her most radiant smile this morn while he was chopping wood.
“Robert MacGregor, I do not pretend to know or understand the Highland way of life, if your mothers do not bother with teaching their sons to…” Her sermon came to an abrupt halt when she spotted Davina exiting the dark church behind him. Her eyes went from wide with surprise to glacial when she slid them back to Rob. She sized him up from his dusty skins around his calves to his broad, plaid-draped shoulders, then pulled a small cloth from the folds of her sleeve and patted her cheek with it. “You do understand that she is a daughter of the Lord, do you not?”
“I assure ye, I do.” Rob couldn’t help but glare right back at her, though he knew he should be repentant for the thoughts which plagued him about Davina Montgomery.
“Mother”—Davina rushed forward to deny the Abbess’s obvious unspoken accusation—“we were merely speaking of…”
Colin’s shout from the bell tower put an end to the remainder of her words. “Rob, a rider approaches! I’m coming down!”
“Stay there!” Rob roared up at him.
The Abbess’s face went deathly pale as Rob drew his heavy claymore from its sheath. “Get inside,” he ordered over his shoulder to Davina. When he turned back to the Abbess, his tone warned her not to argue. “Ye, too.” From the corner of his eye he saw Will exiting the stable, securing his plaid around his waist. A moment later, Elaine emerged, adjusting her veil.
Thankfully, the Abbess didn’t see them. She was preoccupied with gaping at Rob and his sword. “You cannot mean to…. He may need aid.”
“Ye’ll no’ give him entry.”
“It is my service to God to do so,” she argued, taking a step back when he pulled Davina forward, toward the Abbey doors.
“No’ today,” Rob said, pushing Davina inside. He nodded to Will, already on his way toward the gate, bow and arrow in hand.
“No!” the Abbess shouted but then fell silent, her hands clutched at the cross dangling from her neck as Will cocked his bow, aimed, and let his arrow fly.
“Dear God, you killed him!” The Abbess sprang forward, searching the road beyond the gate for the dead visitor.
Knowing that Will had aimed at the rider’s feet and not his vital organs, Rob yanked her out of potential firing range and pushed her against the stone outer wall with him.
“Hold your fire!”
At the sound of the rider’s voice, startled but strong, Rob flashed a smile at the Reverend Mother. “I was taught to question a man before killin’ him. Most of the time.”
She blinked at him, relief and anger vying for preeminence within.
Rob didn’t wait to see which she would offer him. “State yer business here.” His voice boomed across the distance that separated them from their possible enemy.
“I come on the king’s business,” the rider shouted back. “I am Captain Edward Asher of the Sixth Cavalry Royal division.”
Impossible. Rob released the Abbess and took a cautious step away from the wall to get a better look at the man. Across the length of the gate, Will plucked another arrow from its quiver. Asher was dead. ’Twas a trap. Some of the Duke’s men from St. Christopher’s must have followed them here. For a brief moment Rob enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing he’d been correct to stay at the Abbey. But his brother was here, and so was Finn, waiting in the bell tower—at least, they’d better be. How many men were out there? Mayhap, he and Will could kill ten or so before the soldiers reached the gate. But Colin would not stay hidden for long.
Readying his claymore, Rob motioned to his cousin. They had to kill as many as they could before the lads arrived. He watched Will pull his bowstring and take aim. This time, Will would not intentionally miss. They had all been trained well, but no one could shoot as accurately or as quickly as Will.
A woman’s shout from behind him just before Will fired his arrow spun Rob on his heels. When he saw Davina running toward the iron gate, his blood ran cold. Whoever was outside could shoot through the bars and kill her without even getting close. Rob ran toward her, knowing that if the rider had a pistol or an arrow, he would never reach her in time.
“Edward!” she shouted again, ignoring Will to her left when he dropped his bow and lunged for her.
Rob reached her first and closing his arms around her, threw them both to the ground. Davina landed askew atop him. When she tried, unsuccessfully, to break free of his hold, she looked down at him, every misgiving she’d felt from the start clearly etched on her face.
“You lied to me.”
Rob opened his mouth to deny her charge, but another voice at the gate reached her ear first.
“Lady Montgomery! Thank God I have found you! MacGregor, is that you?”