Daniel’s eyes quickly scanned the small cottage, making sure no one else lurked in the shadows. Then he turned his gaze on the large man who stood shielding Rona and another woman. Protectively. He nearly growled.
Keeping his eyes on the man in case he made any moves, he answered Rona.
“I should be asking you the same question, lass.” Though his blood pounded through his veins, he kept his voice icy calm.
“Did you follow me?”
“Aye, I did.” He wasn’t going to apologize this time. Not when her secrecy was potentially putting Loch Doon and the entire Scottish cause in jeopardy.
Rona pushed past the man shielding her, her face transformed into a mask of fury.
“How dare you? How dare you violate my privacy like this! I told you that I wanted to keep this secret, and instead you followed me?”
Something about her unbridled rage snapped his icy resolve.
“How dare I, Rona? I am charged by the King of Scotland to protect Loch Doon. If your actions threaten the castle or Scotland in any way—”
“You think I’m some sort of spy?” she shrieked. “First you accuse me of cuckolding you, and now you think I work for the English?”
“What am I supposed to think?” he bellowed back. “You slink and lie and disappear, you are seen with this man alone in the woods, and then this morning you sneak out of my bed before dawn to—”
“Ahem,” the man behind Rona coughed loudly. “Forgive me, my lord. I don’t think we’ve been introduced. I am Ian Ferguson, and this is my wife Mairi.” The man gave a little bow, and the woman bobbed a curtsy.
A long and strained silence stretched inside the cottage. Daniel slowly felt his rage draining from him. He would have laughed at the ridiculousness of the whole situation if he weren’t still so ill at ease.
Rona, too, seemed to be getting a handle on her temper. She was panting in anger, but her hands were slowly unclenching at her sides.
“Ian and Mairi are my friends, Daniel. My Scottish friends,” she said finally. “This is where I’ve been coming when I disappear. In fact, I’ve been coming here almost the entire three years my father and I have lived at Loch Doon.”
She seemed suddenly exhausted, for she crumpled into the wooden chair behind her, no longer looking at him. The two peasants, Mairi and Ian, still stood, looking back and forth between the two of them.
As calmly as possible, Daniel closed the cottage door. “And why do you come here, Rona?”
Rona glanced up at the other woman, who gave her a little nod of encouragement. Despite Mairi’s gentle gesture, Rona sank her head into her hands.
“I come here to fly Bhreaca, my peregrine falcon.”
Daniel’s mind, usually so quick and calculating, ground to a halt.
“You…your…what?”
Absently, he took a seat on the stool Ian offered.
“You see, my lord, I taught Rona how to hawk,” Ian said. “The tradition has been in my family for generations, though we have never lent our skills to the noblemen who like to keep falcons.”
His brain began to work again, though it felt like his thoughts were moving slower than honey. “But isn’t that—”
“Illegal,” Rona finished for him. She still cradled her head in her hands, her shoulders slumped forward in abject surrender.
“Would you like some tea, my lord?” Mairi said softly, a sad smile on her kind face.
“Aye, please, madam,” Daniel replied. For some reason he found the short, dark-haired woman soothing. He turned back to Ian.
“How did your family come into the tradition of falconry?”
“I’m not sure, my lord. All I know is that we’ve done it for as long as anyone can remember. But we don’t do it for wealth or show,” Ian added quickly. “We only keep birds to hunt and put food on the table.”
Daniel nodded absently. “I have heard of some Kings on the Continent who keep more than one hundred white gyrfalcons, just to display their wealth and power.”
Ian smiled ruefully. “And what good is one hundred white gyrfalcons when one is all a reasonable man can use?”
“Ian, don’t jest,” Rona said desperately.
But Ian turned back to Daniel. “You see, my lord, I myself am the keeper of a white gyrfalcon named Fionna. Rona has only been trying to protect us.”
This was too much. Daniel was doing his best to keep up, but his jaw slackened. “You have a white gyrfalcon?”
“Aye, my lord, and I took her from the wild and trained her myself.”
Despite the damning words, Ian held his head up with a note of pride.
“Ian, don’t!” Rona leapt to her feet, but this time, fear rather than anger transformed her face.
“It’s all right, Rona,” Ian said to her, patting her paternally on the shoulder. “You wanted to tell him. Well, now he knows.”
Daniel thought back to the lessons on falconry he had given Will, his young cousin and ward. Actually, he hadn’t taught him anything about falconry personally. Daniel’s uncle William kept a master falconer, as most Lairds did, for hunting excursions. Falconers, like the falcons themselves, were kept by powerful men so that it remained a sign of elite status to possess trained birds of prey.
If Daniel was remembering right, it was not only illegal to fly birds above one’s station, but it was also illegal to take falcons from the wild and train them unless the falconer was sanctioned by the King himself. It was all a tightly controlled tradition. And punishable by pain of dismemberment or even death.
“The punishment for flying a bird above your status is to have your eyes taken out,” Daniel said slowly, looking back and forth between Rona and Ian. “And the punishment for taking a bird from the wild is to have one or both of your hands cut off.”
“Please, Daniel,” Rona whispered, taking a step toward him. Tears shimmered in those strikingly blue eyes.
“This is the secret you’ve been keeping from me. You’ve been protecting yourself and your friends because you fly falcons,” he said levelly.
She tried to lower her eyes, but he placed a finger under her chin, tilting her head back to meet his gaze. He made her watch as he intentionally softened his face.
“It’s all right, lass,” he said quietly. “Bloody hell, I thought—well, I thought it was a lot worse.”
He let out a shaky laugh, and she looked at him in disbelief. This he could handle. If she’d been disloyal to either him or their King…but she wasn’t. In fact, the more her actions sank in, Daniel realized that she was very loyal to and protective of those she cared for.
“What do you mean, it’s all right?” she said as first one tear and then another slipped free from her eyes. “Ian and Mairi and I—we could be in real trouble.”
“Not if I don’t tell anyone.”
Her eyes widened, and he suddenly felt like he was being swallowed whole into their blue depths.
“Why would you do that?”
“Because you are my wife!” He breathed a half-sigh of relief, half-chuckle at her befuddled expression. He glanced over her shoulder at Mairi, who was moving about the kitchen preparing tea, and saw that the other woman hid a smile behind her hand.
“And because I am not just the keeper of Loch Doon. I am a husband now, and that means that I must support and protect you.”
“But if you know, you’ll be held accountable along with us if anyone finds out about this,” she said, eying him warily. Apparently she still wasn’t convinced that he could stand behind her in this matter.
“We’ll deal with that when or if it comes up,” he said calmly. “But as it stands, I am the keeper of the King of Scotland’s ancestral castle and lands. He personally appointed me, so I operate on his behalf and in his name. That’s security enough for now.”
Rona exhaled a long breath.
“Even though this should be Scottish land, we’ve lived under English rule here in the Lowlands for so long that King Edward’s laws are often observed and feared. It
’s…it’s still hard to believe in the Bruce’s power to free us from England’s rule.”
Daniel felt his face darken slightly. “Aye, but hopefully that will be changing soon.”
He wouldn’t say more in front of Ian and Mairi, but eventually he wanted to tell Rona about the second part of his mission in the Lowlands. He’d secured Loch Doon and married her, but he still needed to recapture Dunbraes and oust the English—and Raef Warren especially—once and for all.
He’d have to wait to tell her until he could be sure that she would be safe with the information, though. If an information leak had sprung from the castle, as he suspected, Rona could be in danger if she knew too much.
He set aside these dark thoughts for the time being. Just then Mairi set a mug of tea in front of him, and then passed around mugs to Ian and Rona.
“Why don’t you tell me more about all of this,” he said, locking eyes with Rona. “Who is Bhreaca?”
HIGHLANDER’S RECKONING
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Rona watched Daniel’s face closely as she led him to the side of the cottage where the mews were tucked under an extended section of the thatched roof. His eyes lighted first on Bhreaca, who cocked her head at them.
Then Fionna came into view, and despite his normally unreadable features, she noticed his eyes widening slightly. She didn’t blame him. Fionna was enormous and as white as snow. She could hardly wait to witness his reaction to seeing the two birds in flight.
She slid on the leather gauntlet she kept at the cottage as she opened the door to the mews. Once Rona had her hand outstretched inside the mews, Bhreaca fluffed her feathers and hopped over, perching on Rona’s forearm.
Rona drew out the bird and closed the mews door.
“This is Bhreaca.”
Daniel extended his hand slowly toward the falcon and stroked the mottled feathers on her chest.
“Bhreaca means speckled. Like you.” He lifted his hand from Bhreaca’s feathers to brush one finger across Rona’s cheekbone, where her smattering of freckles were splayed. She felt her face heat under his light touch. Lowering her eyes, she nodded.
“She and I have much in common.”
Daniel remained silent, but he let the finger that brushed her cheek trace down to her jawline. Despite the fact that they had made love last night, this touch felt more intimate somehow. It seemed as though he could see straight into her heart at that moment.
Just then, Ian approached the mews and retrieved Fionna onto his gauntleted wrist.
“Shall we let them fly?” he said with a warm smile.
The three of them strode toward a clearing in the woods nearby. Daniel was quiet and watchful, but he didn’t seem angry or suspicious anymore. He’d listened as Ian explained how he’d learned about falconry from his family, then to how they’d met Rona wandering aimlessly in the woods not long after she and her family had moved to Loch Doon.
It was strange to hear Ian tell her story. The way he told it, she was a fiery yet unfocused girl of seventeen when she had first stumbled into their woods. She was decisive and stubborn but didn’t have an outlet for her energies back at the castle. So he and Mairi had taken her under their proverbial wing.
She was a natural at training their newly rescued peregrine falcon, Ian told Daniel. The bird had fallen from its nest at too early an age, but was willful and resisted Ian’s efforts with her. Rona, on the other hand, seemed to know instinctively when to give the falcon freedom and when to keep her close using jesses, lures, and of course the skills Ian taught her.
All the while Ian had woven the story, Daniel kept shooting unreadable looks at her. Even now, as they reached the clearing, he remained quiet but observant.
Rona bent her knees slightly then quickly shot up, boosting Bhreaca into the air. Fionna followed a moment later. Though she normally loved to watch the two birds pumping their powerful wings as they gained the air, this time she glanced at Daniel’s face out of the corner of her eye.
He followed the birds with a look of awed respect. While the falcons grew smaller as they put more distance between themselves and the ground, Daniel finally spoke.
“I’ve never understood how the falconer knows the bird will come back.”
“He doesn’t,” Ian said with a soft smile, still gazing up at the sky.
Daniel raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“Some say the relationship between falcon and falconer is merely for survival. The bird comes back because it knows it has guaranteed food and shelter from the falconer. But I think it’s more than that.”
Rona smiled. She’d heard this speech from Ian before.
“I think that over time, the bird and the falconer build trust in one another. The falcon trusts that the falconer will let her fly, let her hunt, let her do all the things that she naturally must do as a bird of prey. And the falconer must come to trust that when he lets the bird free, she will choose to come back to him of her own free will. It takes time and training, but if the bond is made properly, then both the falcon and the falconer have a certain kind of freedom in that trust.”
She felt Daniel’s eyes on her, and again she was met with his unreadable blue-gray stare.
“How interesting,” he said.
They spent the entire day in the woods, flying the birds, talking, and eventually retiring to the cottage. Mairi had a bubbling caldron of stew waiting when they returned, and the four of them shared a simple but hearty meal together around the small wooden table in the cottage.
The early darkness of winter had already settled around the cottage as Rona and Daniel rose from the table to make their way back to Loch Doon. Daniel exchanged a firm forearm grasp with Ian, and then bent over Mairi’s hand gallantly, sending her into a pleased flutter.
Rona was acutely aware of Daniel’s presence as they walked back toward the village in the dark. She could hardly make sense of all that had transpired since last night. They had fought, made love for the first time—the thought sent a strange warmth into her belly—she’d snuck away, he’d followed her, and her secret had been revealed.
To her shock, he didn’t even seem worried about the fact that she was breaking the law. Would he seek to end her forays to the Fergusons’ cottage? Would he finally trust her now?
“Did you really think me a spy for the English?” she blurted out, ending the silence that stretched between them. She suddenly realized the fact that he’d followed her still stung.
To her surprise, he made a noise that sounded close to rueful mirth.
“I don’t know what I was thinking. I was so angry and confused by your actions that I think I went a little mad. You seem to have that effect on me.”
She looked over at him, but shadows concealed his face.
“My brother gave his life to the Bruce and his cause. My father serves the same King you do. And I have pledged my fealty to you,” she said quietly.
He halted abruptly and turned to face her. A sliver of moonlight filtered through the branches overhead, illuminating him. His eyes appeared almost black as they bore into her.
“Rona, I won’t doubt you again,” he said seriously. He took her hands in his and gave them a little squeeze.
“And your fears about being cuckolded? Are those laid to rest once and for all?”
She had to know with certainty that he would believe her, despite the fact that she’d already proven herself to him.
“Aye,” he replied, then dropped one of her hands to rake his fingers through his dark hair. “Bloody hell. I’ve been acting like a fool. You’ve sworn your allegiance, you’ve given me your innocence, and now I know that you only kept your secret to protect those you care about. I should have trusted you.”
“But I didn’t trust you either!” she replied in his defense. “I’ve kept you at a distance and lied and evaded you. I gave you reason to doubt me, and I doubted you, too.”
A weary grin spread across Daniel’s features. “We make quite the pair, don’t we, wife?”
She felt herself softening toward him, as she had last night. “As you said before, we are both new at being husband and wife. We’re still learning.”
“Perhaps we can practice together,” he said suggestively.
The grin slipped from his face, to be replaced by a look of hunger. His eyes slid to her lips, and she unconsciously licked them. Her stomach pinched in anticipation, recognizing the desire in his eyes. He leaned into her, his lips descending toward hers.
The nearby whinny of a horse had them both snapping their heads up. One of Daniel’s hands still held hers, but his other lowered to the sword belted to his hip.
The sound of voices drifted to them.
English voices.
Before Rona could react, Daniel scooped her into his arms and moved on silent, lightning-fast feet through the dark woods. He slid like a moonbeam across the forest floor, somehow not making a sound.
He reached a thick copse of pine trees and set her down, then gently nudged her forward.
As quietly as she could, she pushed past boughs and branches until she was in the middle of the clump of trees. There wasn’t an opening to speak of, so she simply knelt between the needled branches and held her breath.
She thought Daniel would follow her in, but instead he remained outside the copse. She could just make him out through the boughs as he silently drew his sword. She almost hissed at him to take cover with her inside the clump of trees, but the voices drew nearer.
“…seen the baker’s daughter lately? I’d take a taste of that tart.”
“The one at Loch Doon or Dunbraes?”
“Either—both!”
“Hmph. You couldn’t manage to land either!”
“And why not? I got Lucy into the barn not so long ago, didn’t I?”
As the two Englishmen moved slowly in their direction, Rona caught glimpses of them in the dappled moonlight. They were on horseback, and their chainmail hauberks glinted. Neither one wore a helm or carried a shield, indicating that they weren’t planning an attack. Were they English scouts?
Rona knew from what her father had told her that the nearest castle to Loch Doon, Dunbraes, was held by an English Lord named Raef Warren. Her father had paid the man a tax for protection, which kept the English at bay and away from Loch Doon. But she’d heard occasional rumors from villagers that the English still lurked nearby, watching.
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