by Donna Grant
"Nay. Laird Wallace likes to give his men a little of the herb every month. To keep them healthy.” The last part she said in a deep voice mimicking Wallace himself.
Frang looked up and smiled at her. “As a healer I would have thought you'd find his words nonsense."
"Though I learned everything I know from Brigit, she died before I could fully complete my training. Before I did any healing I had to learn every herb and its main uses to memory. So, while I may not know every use for an herb, I know which can kill a man."
Frang regarded her silently, wondering how much he could tell her. If he could trust her. “Some say that there is magic in some herbs."
"An old wives’ tale."
Though she said it in jest, he saw the wariness in her gaze. She was hiding something. And she didn't trust him. Not that he blamed her. She didn't know him. He'd have to remedy that. His first thought was to pull her against him and claim her lips in a kiss that left her breathless and her body craving him as much as he yearned for her. His hunger for her had grown into something he was having a difficult time controlling.
And the fact was, he didn't want to control it. He wanted to release his desire for her and let it consume them both.
Frang shook his head to clear it and focused. He couldn't kiss her to gain her trust, though it was an alternative he wished he could take. Nay, he'd have to prove he was trustworthy first.
"I found some,” he called out as he spotted the linden. He knelt and began to pick the delicate flowers as Kenna rushed to his side.
She squatted beside him and held out her basket for him to put the flowers in. “Don't take them all,” she cautioned.
After he had picked half the flowers, they rose and began walking through the forest once more.
"How much more do you need?” He eyed her full basket.
She shrugged. “As much as I can find. I don't like having to come out here every day, and since I wasn't able to find any yesterday I need to make up several days’ worth."
"Does Wallace have so many men then?"
She cast him an anxious glance. “He likes to keep them stocked."
"They won't do anyone any good if they're wilted.” He knew he pushed her, but he had to know the truth.
She stopped and turned to face him, her amber eyes hard and accusing. “Are you saying I'm a liar?"
"Nay. I'm asking you to tell me what the linden is really for."
She gave a bark of laughter. “I did."
"Then either you've lied about knowing herbs or you've lied about what the Wallace wants them for."
Her eyes grew round with indignation. “How dare you."
Frang closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them Kenna had walked away. He hurried to catch up with her. He reached out and grasped her arm, but she yanked it away from him and quickened her steps.
"Kenna. Stop and let me explain.” But she wasn't listening.
He lengthened his strides and took her arm again. This time when she jerked her arm away she sent her basket flying and the herbs spilling onto the ground.
"Nay,” she cried as she looked to the herbs.
But Frang wasn't about to pay attention to anything but her. He pushed her against a tree. The words he had been about to say were lost as he gazed into her amber eyes. Her breasts were pressed against his chest and he felt every one of her soft curves, making his body explode with desire. His rod throbbed with need.
Frang's eyes lowered to her lips that he had dreamed of kissing, lips that were just breaths from him. He found his head lowering to hers as everything faded away but her.
A falcon screamed overhead, breaking the spell Frang had been under. He lifted his head and took a steadying breath before he tried to speak.
"I have my reasons for asking those questions. I know you don't trust me, and I don't blame you, but the fact is I know herbs. From what you've told me, Wallace is using them for other than what he's said."
Her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared as rage ran through her. “I'm surprised you haven't accused me of being an accomplice."
"Are you?"
"Get your hands off of me,” she screeched as she struggled against him.
Frang held her with both arms, then had to use his body to keep her from kicking him in the groin. Her fighting him only reminded him how desperately he needed a female.
His body responded to hers instantly. She must have felt his rod pressed into her stomach for she quit moving and glared at him.
"What do you want?"
He released her and backed away. “I told you. I want to know the real reason you're bringing linden to your laird."
She didn't answer him as she fell to her knees and began to gently pick up the scattered herbs.
"Kenna."
She shook her head. “Don't. I thought you were someone different, someone who wasn't trying to steal my supposed secrets or accuse me of being a witch."
Frang stilled. “Someone has tried to steal your secrets?"
An impatient breath left her lips as she rose to her feet, basket in hand. “I don't have any secrets. Healing isn't for everyone, it's a gift. Yet, some would think otherwise. Someone went through my cottage a fortnight ago and ransacked my entire backroom. I've been trying to fill the herbs I've lost."
"Jesu,” Frang exclaimed as he raked a hand through his hair. He met her gaze. “And the witch part?"
She visibly shivered, telling him it bothered her even now to talk about it. “About a month back someone grabbed me from behind as I was walking to my cottage. He asked me about specific herbs and their uses, then told me he knew I used magic and he'd see me burned as a witch."
Frang began to pace as his mind worked over her words. “You didn't see the man?"
"Nay. It was at night and I was so scared that as soon as he released me I ran inside the cottage."
"The right thing to do,” he said.
Kenna watched as Frang paced in front of her. His sky blue eyes held more worry than she had ever seen. She still wasn't sure why she had told him of the incidents. She hadn't even gone to her laird about it. For one, because she knew Wallace would insist she move within the castle walls, and she refused to leave her cottage. And two, because she liked the forest surrounding her.
"What herbs did the man ask you about?"
She hesitated. She had hoped he wouldn't ask. “Linden and Wolf's Bane."
He stopped and stared at her. “Poisons."
"Aye."
"Do you often have them in your collection?"
"I do. Though they are poisons, they can also be used to heal in very small doses."
He ran a hand down his face as he sighed. “I have an inkling that the attack yesterday wasn't by chance."
"I had the same thought."
His blue eyes narrowed on her. “You weren't going to tell me any of this where you?"
"Why should I? You are a stranger passing through. This isn't your problem."
"It is now. I would not be the man I am if I left without ensuring you are safe."
She snorted and turned back to the cottage. “Frang, there are dangers around every corner. You cannot protect me from everything."
"True, but I can protect you from whoever is trying to hurt you."
They walked silently back to the cottage. She wondered how long he would wait before he again asked her about the linden and its use at the castle.
She had a decision to make. Tell him the truth. Or lie again.
Chapter Seven
Nearly a week had passed since the confrontation in the forest, but it was all Kenna had thought about. Frang had not asked her again about the herbs, though she knew he wanted to. Instead, he spent his days fixing the various and assorted problems in and around her cottage.
She still hadn't determined whether to tell him the truth or lie once again about the herbs and their use. It made it even more difficult to decide since she couldn't get the image of him pressed against her out of her mind.
The more she thought about it, the more she found it difficult to concentrate on anything else.
She tied together a string of sage to hang to dry as she found herself wondering what it would be like to kiss Frang. Every night as he lay near her, she thought of him. Each day that he stayed with her, she found herself growing more attached to him.
A chilling thought for someone who was always alone.
A thought that should have kept her mindful of her future. Yet, one look into his beautiful sky blue eyes and she was lost. Lost as a leaf on the wind.
How she wished Brigit was still around to talk to. The old healer would have known what to say, which direction to lead her. Now, Kenna was left floundering on her own.
"Kenna?"
Her head jerked up to find Frang at the entrance to her backroom. “Something wrong?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing,” he said as he leaned casually against the doorway. “You look troubled."
She shrugged and reached above her to hang the herbs. Her gaze quickly returned to Frang to find him watching her. “Tell me something of your past,” she begged.
"What would you like to know?"
"Something few people know."
"Like what? What my childhood was like? What I really thought of my parents?"
She shook her head and slowly came around the table until she was only a few steps from him. “Something secret."
His eyes searched hers. One heartbeat. Two. Three. “I've seen Druids."
She couldn't have been more shocked if he said he was king. “Truly?"
His lips turned up in a smile. “Aye. ‘Tis true. Druids still exist and practise in Scotland."
"If they are caught, they'll be burned."
"They won't be caught."
He sounded so sure of himself that she wanted to believe, needed to believe. If there were other Druids, maybe she could search them out and finish the training Brigit had begun.
"Where?” she suddenly asked. The desperation to know their whereabouts was strong, overriding everything else.
"You want to know their location?"
She nodded, trying to keep her excitement minimal.
"Why?” He pushed off the doorway and took a step towards her. “So you can find them and release their location to others who can kill them?"
"Nay,” Kenna tried to say but his words drowned hers.
He took another step bringing his body within breaths of hers. “Why, Kenna? Give me one good reason why I should put them in danger?"
She looked into his eyes and wanted desperately to tell him the truth. Instead, she told him half of it. “I've heard of Druids from Brigit. She spoke highly of them. I didn't think there were any more in Scotland."
He tilted towards her causing her to lean back over the table. His lips hovered over hers and his eyes darkened. For the briefest of moments she thought he might kiss her.
"Nay,” he said softly. “If you want to see them, I will take you to them, but I won't give you their location."
She blinked. “You'll take me."
He nodded and straightened. But his gaze never left hers. “Do you want to go?"
Of course she wanted to go, but that meant she'd have to leave her clan, the only place she had ever known. She wasn't the adventurous sort.
Frang saw the exhilaration die in her eyes. When she had asked for a secret, for a moment he had contemplated telling her his biggest one of all.
"I cannot leave my clan.” Her voice was low and held a note of sorrow. She turned her back to him.
Frang raked his gaze over her slender form. He could still feel her warm breath on his neck as he leaned over her, still see the wanting in her amber eyes as her lips parted slightly. It would have been so easy to bend his head and capture her plump lips with his own.
"Think on it,” he said.
He left the cottage and walked into the forest. There wasn't much left for him to repair, which left him no reason to stay. Yet, he knew he had to. It was his Druid sense that told him to stay, to stay until Kenna was out of danger.
There was no doubt in his mind she was in imminent danger. He just wished he knew who it was from.
Since their argument while gathering herbs, Frang had not broached the subject again, hoping she would learn to trust him. But trust wasn't an easy thing to learn. When she had asked for a secret, he'd known it was the perfect opportunity for him to show her he was a man to be trusted.
He would do what he had to do to earn her trust, all the while praying he managed to keep her alive in the meantime.
The sound of laughter made him turn towards the cottage. He spotted her leaning out the window of her workroom as she laughed at the antics of two birds. As soon as the birds flew off she tilted her head to the side and got a faraway look in her eyes.
She was dreaming of something, and he couldn't help but wonder if it was him. Did she feel the same need as he? Did she not sense the desire between them, discern the heady passion?
Frang groaned and turned away from her. He had to find some release. It had been too long since he had found a woman. Maybe his need was leading him to believe there was something between him and Kenna when there really wasn't.
And the only way to discover that was for him to find another woman.
Immediately.
He spun back around to the cottage and called out for Kenna. She met him at the door, her gaze guarded and worried. “You told me today was market day, aye?"
She nodded.
"I'm going to market.” Her face dropped and he realised she thought he was leaving. He was almost angry enough to let her believe that. “Is there anything you need?"
A relieved smiled pulled at her lips. “Nay. When will you return?"
Her last words had come out quickly, breathlessly. As if she feared being alone again. He understood that fear all too well.
"Maybe tonight. Most likely tomorrow."
"I see."
"Nay, you don't,” he corrected her. “You'll know when I leave, lass. Ken?"
She smiled though it didn't reach her eyes. “I ken. Be safe. Wallace's soldiers can be belligerent at times."
"'Tis they that should worry about me.” He bent and grasped his sword he had leant against the cottage in case of emergencies. He pushed his arm through the strap then pulled the leather over his head until the sword rested in the valley of his back.
"You have the dagger?” he asked.
She touched her leg. “'Tis strapped to my thigh, just as you told me. It's within easy reach."
Nothing had happened while he had been with her, but the steady stream of her clansmen seeking cures for their ailments left little time for anyone to bother her.
With a small nod, he turned on his heel and started for the road that would lead him to the castle.
Kenna watched Frang walk away with a sense of dread. He had told her he would return, but she hadn't been able to discern if he was lying or not. When he had first stated he was headed to the castle, she had thought he was leaving. For good. And the panic that set in caused her to think about Frang and what he had come to mean to her in a very short time. It almost wasn't fair that she had come to crave his gaze on her, to hear his deep voice as he spoke to her or that she loved his company during mealtimes.
Slowly, Kenna turned and entered the cottage. She shut the door behind her and leaned against it. She would be alone again. Suddenly, her cottage was silent and empty, as if all the life had left with Frang.
How easily she had come to accept Frang in her little world. How readily she had welcomed his presence as if h
e had always belonged there. It let her know just how lonely she had become. So lonely in fact, that she'd welcomed a stranger into her home when she hadn't allowed any of her clansmen.
If she moved to the castle as the Wallace wanted, at least she wouldn't be alone as she was now. At least she would have people around her at all times.
You don't have to be alone to be lonely, Kenna.
She cursed her conscious. A healer she wanted to be, but she never intended to grow old with no husband or children by her side. Besides, after the two attacks and someone rummaging through her herbs, her laird would see her safe inside the castle walls eventually. She could only hold him off for so long.
Chapter Eight
Frang stepped through the gates of Wallace castle and let his gaze wander. It wasn't a large castle, but it was well defended. Guards stood atop the battlements, their eyes searching the horizon for an enemy. More guards stood in the gatehouse, and two more stood on either side of the gate.
The castle itself consisted of a rectangular fortress enclosed by two lines of walls that formed the inner and outer bailey. The inner bailey housed a tower at each corner and a large gatehouse in the middle of the west front.
His gaze shifted as he looked for the postern door he knew was somewhere near leading to the outer bailey. He found it to his left as he spotted two women walking through it. It was valuable knowledge if he needed to leave in a hurry.
As he slowly made his way towards the postern door, Frang noted the chapel near the southeast tower. The well stood just to the right of the chapel with the entrance to the castle on the left of the chapel.
With it being market day, vendors lined the bailey hawking their wares as men and women bargained for their needs. It would be a great day to do some looking around the castle without being noticed.
But he wasn't there for that.
A woman walked into his line of vision and gave him an appreciative onceover before she winked. Now that, that was what he'd come for. Despite the fact he wanted Kenna with a ferocity that frightened him, he could relieve his ache with another woman.