He tore his gaze from the brilliant blue sky and met her anxious stare.
Color rose high in her face. “Why can he have the castle? Why can we not fight?”
“Lass, they have over a hundred guards to the dozens we do. In no way would it be possible for us to defeat your uncle.”
Her brow furrowed, and her fingers pinched her lower lip, the way she did when she concentrated.
Abruptly, her hand fell away and her mouth curved into a sly smile. “Then perhaps there is a way to defeat him.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Wind fluttered Colin’s leine and pulled at the coarse black mane of his steed. Edzell Castle stood behind him, a powerful force in need of protection. His gaze scraped the large hill to the north. The enemy would show themselves at its peak. The uneven ground and dense forest wouldn’t allow Lindsay’s attack from any other location.
Naught met Colin’s stare, save a red sky threaded with veins of brilliant gold. A violent sunset for a violent night.
The flag rippled above the castle, the fierce boar’s head painted on its surface marking Edzell as his, and he would see it defended.
Two dozen guards stood immobile behind him, as were the ten archers who stood on the roof and ten more who hid in the forest behind enemy lines. Five additional soldiers waited in the distance at Edzell’s back, ready to set Brianna’s plan into action. All were prepared to take on the army outnumbering them at least two to one.
Everything was prepared. Gunpowder lay piled in neat stacks on the hill, obscured by leaves. The men hiding at Edzell had additional barrels of gunpowder that they would detonate.
The guards behind Colin were silent. They did not rock on their feet or fidget with their armor. The Edzell guards were now trained men. Warriors.
And they were ready.
Lindsay, however, had mercenaries. Men who accepted coin for their services. Loyalty easily bought could also be easily lost. And Colin would see them run like the cowards they were.
The sky began to darken.
No sooner had the sun hidden her face beneath the valley of the hills beyond than the slow, erratic march of an unorganized army appeared.
Darkness fell hard and fast over the surrounding area and shrouded evidence of Colin’s deceit. His heart pounded, and power jolted through his body, the way it always did before battle.
Lindsay’s men breached the hill at a speed that spoke of each individual man’s pace rather than the precision of an army.
Colin glanced from one side of the hill to the other, following the crowded, disjointed lines.
What they lacked in order, they made up for in numbers.
Lindsay had hired more men than Colin assumed. Over two hundred were visible, and perhaps more he could not see.
He did not flinch beneath the realization. His heart still beat strong, his body fired with the urge to fight, to win.
The guards behind him remained still.
Lindsay rode his great, thundering horse toward Colin with the indiscretion of a man not bred for war. Leadership did not propel him forward, arrogance did. He assumed the battle was already won before the first blade could be drawn.
Colin flicked his wrist, and his men roared around him in a savage cry of resistance. Their swords slapped against their targes, and the reverberations carried until the sound echoed off the surrounding hills.
Lindsay’s mercenaries followed their employer’s lead down the hill, some staggering on foot as they ran too quickly, others leaning forward on the few horses dotting their ranks. Any attempt at a battle cry was lost beneath the shouts of Edzell’s guards.
The air swirled with the sharp scent of battle.
Colin’s steed pawed the ground with restless anticipation.
Arrows streaked from the tops of Edzell’s turrets and sprang from the surrounding forest, whistling toward Lindsay’s soldiers with lethal accuracy. There was nowhere to hide, no cover to shield them from the deadly waves.
Lindsay’s men slowed.
The first flaming arrow was loosed. The blazing head sank into the ground near a pile of dried leaves.
Colin leaned forward in his saddle, his heart racing.
Lindsay’s men drew closer.
Doubt flitted through Colin’s mind for the briefest of moments.
Warmth washed behind him, and his peripheral vision caught the brilliant flare of light as one of the barrels exploded.
Boom! The pile of gunpowder on enemy lines burst into a ball of flames. His horse startled at the sound, but did not run.
Lindsay’s mercenaries hesitated.
Lindsay did not.
The two explosions were the first of a series of the discharged gunpowder. The sky flashed and glowed. Black haze descended the battlefield and acrid smoke seared Colin’s lungs.
The constant barrage of blasts behind him left his ears numb to any other sound.
If Brianna’s plan did not work, he and his men had made themselves vulnerable to slaughter.
• • •
Brianna pushed her nose into the crook of her elbow in an effort to breathe through the singed air. She was safely out of sight behind the large bush, even though the dry, choking coughs around her were close enough to catch her nerves. She strained through the smoldering fog in an effort to see what transpired on the battlefield.
Were Lindsay’s men retreating yet? Her ears throbbed from the explosions.
She’d counted four barrels that had discharged thus far, which meant only three remained. If the blasts weren’t enough to make her uncle’s men flee, all ran the risk of failure.
She could sit and idly watch no longer.
• • •
The battle cries of Lindsay’s soldiers had fallen quiet. A vile black cloud surrounded Colin and his men. His body was tight, ready for attack. A breeze swept through the valley and ripped back the curtain of smoke.
Several of the men around the middle of Lindsay’s hoard had turned and were running back up the hill.
They were fleeing.
Colin’s heart pounded. Several fleeing men usually turned into an army of fleeing men. Fear was contagious. It was no victory, but it was a damn good start.
Lindsay veered off to the side of his men and thrust his sword into the air in an age-old display of the onset of war. A handful of Lindsay’s guards charged toward Colin and his men.
Edzell’s guards were ready.
They’d been ready.
Boom!
Another explosion showered Lindsay’s soldiers with sprays of sparks and fire. More men in the back began to run.
A Lindsay mercenary leapt toward Colin’s horse with his blade swiping, a blow easily blocked. Colin’s sword slid into the soldier’s chest with almost no effort, and the man staggered to the ground.
Boom!
A barrel behind Colin detonated at the same time as another gunpowder pile up the hill. Chunks of dirt and grass rained down upon them.
“I told you, they have cannons!” A Lindsay guard shouted in the distance. “Flee!”
A man in padded armor beside Colin dropped his blade and ran.
That was all it took.
The other men who fought with Edzell’s men turned and sprinted from battle.
Boom!
An explosion followed them, and shouts of fear peppered the air. Lindsay’s force rushed over the hill with more haste than they’d descended.
Brianna’s plan had worked.
Colin turned to where Lindsay sat on his horse beside the castle, shouting toward his fleeing army, jowls quivering with outrage.
Lindsay was the last to turn and run.
Colin snapped the reins, and his horse leapt into a powerful run. Lindsay would not be allowed to escape, not while he still had Magda’s confession.
Brianna would never be safe until that parchment was destroyed.
• • •
Not a single enemy stood in sight as far as Brianna could see. Even her uncle raced for his own life.
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But her joy at their victory was short-lived.
Colin streaked across the battlefield in determined pursuit of those who had fled.
What was he doing?
She ran from the cover of the surrounding forest, toward the cluster of Edzell guards. Their bodies were still locked in an open-stance battle position.
Jonathan’s eyes went wide when he saw her. “My lady, you are not supposed to be here.”
“Where is Colin going?” she asked. “He’s running toward the mercenaries by himself. He can’t—”
But Jonathan wasn’t listening to her. His eyes were fixed on the hill, narrowed, determined. “Get in the castle now, my lady, and see the doors locked behind you.”
Brianna jerked her head to where he stared, and her body went numb.
No longer did the crest of the hill stand empty. A procession of soldiers on horseback rode forward in an organized line, directly toward Colin.
Chapter Fifty
Colin flattened his body against his steed’s muscular neck. The castle blurred past him, and the oncoming wind tore at his hair and clothes. Lindsay had gotten a head start, but he would not escape. He couldn’t.
A warning triggered in the back of Colin’s mind, but it was too late. Men on horseback rode over the top of the hill and descended toward Edzell. Toward him.
His body raged with power. He would kill every one of them before he allowed Lindsay to get away.
The flank of a large white horse blocked his path and forced his own steed to lurch to a stop. Colin’s body continued its forward momentum and slammed hard against the thick black mane. Had he not been leaning forward, he would have surely toppled over.
The owner of the white horse would pay for the offense with his life.
Colin righted himself and glared into a face mirroring his own. Ian, his twin brother, stared back at him, his mouth locked in a hard line.
For the first time, Colin recognized the Highland attire of the men on the hill, the white leines wind-pressed against massive bodies, the plaids swathed around their waists, the family and friends he had not seen in years.
Finally they had come. Alec had done his duty.
A man with stark white hair and a golden-dyed leine sat on a powerful black horse behind Ian’s white steed. Colin’s stomach slammed to the ground.
When he’d sought Ian’s help, he had not anticipated the appearance of their father.
“I canna let that man escape, Ian.” Colin pressed his knees into his horse’s sides in an effort to go around his brother, but Ian headed him off once more.
“If you sought the man in fine clothes, he collapsed on the other side of the hill.”
Colin paused. Surely Ian confused Lindsay with another man. Lindsay had never been wounded from what Colin had seen. “I must go see for myself.”
The glowing remnants from the fires reflected off his brother’s stern expression. “Aye, let’s go then.”
Ian clucked his tongue, and his horse cleared Colin’s path for him to gallop up over the hill. Colin didn’t wait to see if his brother followed, and he did not slow as he approached the dark-clad figure lying face up on the ground.
Lindsay’s horse was no longer visible, nor were his hired guards.
Colin slid from his saddle and crouched near the bloated body. Lindsay’s eyes stared at nothing. Though it was dark, no apparent wounds showed on the body, yet one of Lindsay’s fists clutched the fabric of his jacket, just over his heart. The man was dead.
Colin slipped wide buttons free of their closures and heard a satisfying crinkle. He skimmed the silk lining of the jacket, the body still warm to the touch.
Colin found the folded edge of the parchment and plucked it free. Hands shaking with anticipation, he ripped it open and revealed Magda’s scrolling handwriting.
Tension bled from his back, and his clenched jaw relaxed.
He had the confession.
Several piles of leaves around him still smoldered from the gunpowder explosions. Colin stalked to the nearest one. He would see himself forever rid of the letter.
He held the parchment to the embers of leaves and smoking earth. Flames snaked from the red glow and licked at the wrinkled page, devouring the offending material in a steady, golden-orange wave. He held on, watching its destruction until his fingertips blistered with heat. Only then did he set it to the ground and wait for the last corner to curl into a pile of useless ash.
The deed was done. Brianna was safe.
He turned to Ian and wrapped an arm around his brother’s neck. “It took ye damn long enough to get here.”
• • •
Distant shouts carried on the wind. Not frightened shouts, excited shouts. Brianna waited in the wide entrance of the castle, far enough away to fool Jonathan into thinking she was locked within the walls, but close enough to still hear what transpired.
Her palms were hot and slick against the cool stone wall behind her. The hollow thud of hooves trotting over soft ground became louder, closer.
There were no clashing swords, no oaths or angry words. No threat lingered from what she could hear or see.
Her pulse fluttered. She chanced a peek around the corner.
A group of men on horses stood beside Edzell’s guards.
Highlanders.
Her chest swelled with the sight of an auburn-haired warrior astride a white steed.
Colin.
All the joy and elation slid from her swollen heart and pooled in her belly like ice. That was not Colin’s horse.
She could no more stop her feet from flying over the grass toward her husband than she could stop the rapid beat of her heart. He sat too stiffly upon the saddle, his lips pursed to a sharp line. Something was wrong.
War was bitter and hard and uncertain. Men would not always return home. She knew that now.
Brianna’s steps quickened with a rush of apprehension.
“Brianna.” Colin’s voice sounded behind her, hard and angry.
She spun around and found her husband marching toward her, streaked with filth and sweat. His copper hair had been pulled loose from the leather thong and hung around his face.
He swooped her in his arms, his expression fierce in the wavering light of distant flames. “Ye werena supposed to be here.” Rage showed on his face, but it was desire that sparked in his gaze. His chest rose and fell with each deep breath hanging between them.
“My uncle, did he escape?” she asked.
“No, lass. I believe the excitement of battle was more than he could bear.”
She hated the flicker of sadness that rose within her, yet she could not quell the emotion. For all his cruelty, the man had been her uncle. The last surviving member of her family.
She glanced around to ensure none listened. “What about the confession?”
The surrounding soldiers carried on around them with deep conversations and elbow-nudging boasts. For all the people surrounding her and Colin, they were invisible in light of the excitement of victory.
“I burned the letter myself.” Colin cupped her jaw and tilted her head toward his. “It’s over, my love. Ye are safe.”
Warmth spread through her belly and pulsed low between her legs. She wanted to feel the softness of his lips and the rough scrape of his whiskers against her chin. Except…
She leaned back in his arms. “How can you be in two places?”
His teeth showed white against the soot staining his face. “I dinna think ye’ve met my twin brother, Ian.”
Brianna turned back to where the man dismounted from his white horse in a smooth, graceful movement. This was the brother who inherited the land and was most likely only minutes younger than Colin. No wonder the slight had been so difficult for Colin to bear. No wonder he had sought land on his own.
“And dinna think we arena talking about ye sneaking onto the battlefield later, because we will, aye?” She looked up at Colin and found his brow lifted with the same stern reproach as the twin she’d mistak
en for him.
He released his hold on her and kept one arm draped around her waist in a protective show of ownership and affection. “It’s time for ye to meet my family.”
Alec’s light blue gaze caught her attention from several feet away. He gave a deep nod in greeting. If her eyes did not deceive her, he might have even offered a slight smile. She peered harder at him and found his scowl returned.
“Alec was sent for your brother?” she surmised.
“Aye, I knew when I was going to be arrested that I wouldna get a fair trial. I also realized that after yer uncle finished with me, he’d seek to harm ye and our people. I sent for Alec to get my brother.” Colin’s gaze caressed her face. “To protect ye.”
Brianna’s lips parted with words that would not form. She knew Colin’s brother had been deemed more responsible. Having to seek Ian’s aid must have been a difficult decision.
And Colin did it for her.
He nodded toward a man with snow white hair and shoulders so wide she idly wondered if he could fit through a doorway. “I dinna know my father would come too.” The slight downward tug at his lips showed his displeasure. “It appears ye’ll get to meet him as well.”
Colin’s brother strode toward them. “Lady MacKinnon, it’s a pleasure to see ye finally.” He shot Colin a hard look. “After all this time.”
Colin nudged his brother. “I dinna want her seeing yer good looks and running off with ye.”
Ian smirked. He didn’t have Colin’s dimple. Nor the slight lines around his mouth that showed when Colin grinned.
The man with white hair stepped between the brothers. He clasped Colin’s arm with his own and gave an abrupt nod. “It’s good to see ye, lad.” He didn’t smile at his son, but the glimmer in his eye showed an affection Colin most likely would never recognize.
Brianna craned her head up to see him. Laird MacKinnon regarded her with the same green eyes as both his sons. “Colin’s done well to marry such a fine lass. I’ve heard many good things about ye, daughter.”
Daughter. Her heart lifted with the endearment. She offered her greatest curtsy and regretted wearing the guard’s clothes rather than a well-made gown. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you as well, Laird MacKinnon.”
Possession of a Highlander Page 27