The Protector

by Allison Butler

Ewan lifted her into her saddle, his palms warm at her waist, but her flesh cooled the instant he let her go. Which signified nothing, she told herself, and forced her gaze to follow Ewan while he mounted.

  ‘I have had your weapon included with the requested supplies,’ her father said. Mairi swallowed and peered down at him. ‘You’ll likely not need it.’ He patted her knee. ‘But if you do, you must use it to protect yourself, Mairi.’ The last was spoken softly.

  Mairi nodded and said, ‘I will, Father,’ even as she prayed she wouldn’t have to. It wasn’t as if she would be hunting alone. She’d have two able-bodied men with her to see to any dangers they encountered.

  ‘Be safe.’ He stepped back and nodded at Ewan who drew his horse up beside hers. ‘Good hunting.’

  ‘I hope to return with a prize great enough to honour your table, Alastair.’ Ewan turned his horse toward the gate and Mairi followed; the third member of their small party fell in close behind.

  They crossed the drawbridge and rode to the left around Loch Gordon. They then crossed the burn that fed into the loch and headed for the northern part of the green wood. The forest continued down and sprawled to the west behind the castle, the whole still within the boundaries of Gordon lands.

  The hunting was always good and plentiful, but only due to her father’s strict rules. He allowed neighbouring clans, Ewan’s included, one day of hunting per year to replenish their meat supplies and all abided by his rules.

  Only twice that Mairi could recall had her father had to deal with unlawful hunting in his forest. Each time the guilty person was alone and both men had been more hungry than frightened when they’d been caught. Each time her father had welcomed them to his table where they’d eaten their fill and then had gifted them with supplies enough to last them for the next sennight.

  Her father was a generous man.

  He was also sad at times. And lonely. Everything he did was for the good of the clan, for his people. For her. So many reasons why she’d been so afraid of failing him. Precisely why she could not fail him now.

  Mairi looked across at Ewan riding beside her and silently vowed to give him her undivided attention. It was her chance to get to know him better and he deserved no less.

  She faced forward as they neared the forest’s outer line of trees and headed right toward a lone Scots pine that looked older than the rest and boasted uneven branches all around. Mairi drew her horse to a halt beneath the higher jutting limbs and Ewan was there beside her the moment she did.

  ‘We will tether our mounts here while we hunt,’ Ewan said, raising his hands to help her dismount.

  Mairi grasped his wide shoulders as he lifted her to the ground, but he paused in setting her down, and for a silent moment she looked into his blue eyes. Then she was on the ground and his large hands released her.

  She found her balance, but couldn’t be sure if Ewan’s shoulders were as broad as Duff’s. Their eyes were a different matter. Like comparing night to day. The blue of Ewan’s were like a midsummer day when the season had reached its peak. While Duff’s were like the heat from the flames of an open fire on a snow-laden winter’s night.

  Mairi blinked. What in God’s name was she doing? She was supposed to be concentrating entirely on Ewan Strachan, not comparing any part of him with her personal guard. Ewan was the youngest of her three suitors and he was strong. He was also pleasing to look upon. He should be her perfect distraction. She had to make him so.

  She ran her damp palms down the sides of her woollen gown and looked to where Ewan was securing their mounts to a low, sturdy branch. He untied his weapon from his saddle and hooked a sack over one of his broad shoulders. She could do this.

  ‘Your weapon, Lady Mairi.’

  The sound of Duff’s voice was like a break of sunshine above her head on a cloudy day. She ignored the small shiver that tickled her nape and turned to accept her bow and quiver of arrows. Not trusting her own voice, she nodded her thanks without looking at Duff. No. Without looking at her personal guard. The only way she must think of him. The only way she must see him.

  The curved wood of her bow felt strange in her hand after so long. She’d hoped to never have to hold it again, but on the day her father was recently attacked, the day she’d first met Duff, she’d wished she’d had it with her. Holding a weapon and putting it to use were two very different things. With a measured breath, she threaded her two arms through the strings attached to her quiver of arrows so it sat neatly in the centre of her back, and using the bow string, slung her weapon over one shoulder.

  Her guard said not a word, nor did she look in his direction, but he watched her, she knew. She could feel the warmth of his gaze.

  She swallowed and looked up as Ewan approached.

  ‘Ready?’ He only spoke one word but Mairi heard his excitement. She nodded and smiled. ‘Let the hunt begin.’

  They neared the line of trees that blotted out the sun.

  ‘I know this forest well and know where its creatures lurk,’ Ewan said. ‘Stay alert and stay behind me so I can protect you, Lady Mairi.’

  ‘Aye,’ she said softly. Mairi gripped her bow tighter and followed him into the green wood.

  Cool air touched the tip of her nose, her cheeks, and brushed across the backs of her bare hands. The musty smell of damp and the absence of sunlight filled her next breath and the sound of tiny scurrying feet over and under fallen leaves reached her ears.

  A combination of wide, round trunks and younger, slender trees surrounded them and they had to weave and dodge lower lying branches now and then. She stayed close behind Ewan as she’d been instructed and searched the shadowed woods around her. Despite her care, dead and ancient foliage crackled and crunched beneath her booted feet. She could see Ewan, but heard not a peep from behind, yet she knew her personal guard was near. His gaze still warmed her back.

  No more. Any heat she felt was likely due to her exertions and had naught to do with the feel of her personal guard’s eyes upon her.

  She scanned the nearby trees while she remembered the kinds of animals her father and his men had returned with to feed their people on previous hunts. Deer had been the most common prize and, due to the size of the animals, had satisfied many a hungry belly. The odd wild boar and stray wild ox had contributed to a meal or two and grouse had always been plentiful and filled many a pie. Salmon and trout from the loch and bovine from Gordon’s stock had kept her clansmen healthy and well fed.

  Ewan held up his hand to signal for her to stop. She halted and studied the shadowed trunks ahead to see if she could find the cause. Nothing moved and only a skittering sound in the distance broke the quiet.

  An ear-piercing squawk from overhead sent Mairi’s heart high in her throat. She ducked and then looked up to see what had caused her fright, but the culprit was concealed by the thick canopy above.

  ‘Just a bird, Lady Mairi.’

  Mairi straightened at Ewan’s reassuring words to find him standing near. Her personal guard directly behind her, standing nearer still. Her heartbeat fluttered in her chest, but she wasn’t sure if it was due to her sudden fright or because of her protector’s nearness.

  She focussed on her prospective suitor. ‘I’m fine, Ewan.’

  He searched her face. ‘Good.’ Satisfied with whatever he saw, he turned, and with his arrow nocked and at the ready, continued further into the forest.

  The deeper they went into the trees, the heavier the air became, as if it were something that could be measured by weight. It was also darker in places where no natural light penetrated the thick, leafy rooftop overhead.

  Ewan stopped, sighted, drew his elbow back and released.

  Although Mairi had halted when he had, she hadn’t seen what Ewan was aiming at. Aside from a small thump landing in the debris coating the green wood floor ahead, she didn’t know what he’d shot with his arrow.

  Ewan peered over his shoulder at her, a grin wreathing his face. He turned and with swift strides went to collect hi
s prize. Mairi followed. Ewan knelt and retrieved his arrow, wiping the blood and gore coating the tip across the side of his plaid. He then scooped up the creature and, holding it up by its fluffy red tail, dangled the dead squirrel before her.

  ‘First kill. Small, but a start.’ He spared her a grinning glance before studying his prize more closely. ‘And a perfect shot.’ He stuffed the now one-eyed animal into one of the sacks he carried over his shoulder.

  Mairi stared at the ground and spied a half shredded pine cone sprinkled with blood. Her stomach turned. She drew a deep breath and looked up and away from the squirrel’s last meal, willing the ill feeling in her belly to subside. The sight of a nest, all twigs and moss and grass, cradled between the forked-branch overhead set her stomach to churning once more.

  Cook viewed squirrel as a delicacy and would relish the chance to bake a pie, but the little creature wasn’t big enough to satisfy the appetite of the youngest Gordon child.

  ‘Food is necessary.’

  The words were spoken quiet and low, for her alone. A tiny patch of gooseflesh erupted down one side of her neck, the place where her personal guard’s breath had touched.

  She knew food was necessary. She just didn’t like to see where it came from before it was served to table. She lowered her chin and saw Ewan readying another arrow. Preparing to kill again. Aye, Ewan would kill another animal, but he was also providing food for her clansmen. People needed to eat to survive. She herself ate her share.

  With a few simple words her protector was helping her view the kill in a different light. The roiling in her stomach settled.

  How had he known she’d been feeling nauseous and needed the necessary reminder of something she already knew? She wanted to turn about and ask him. Instead, she half turned and softly said, ‘My thanks.’

  They resumed their slow trek through the woods and Ewan added another three more squirrels to one sack and several grouse to another, which he also slung over his shoulder.

  The trees began to thin in the direction they were heading and it wasn’t long before welcome sunlight bathed the ground ahead. They broke into a small clearing ringed by a circle of Scots pines and where a gentle breeze ruffled patches of long grass.

  ‘We will stop here for a short rest,’ Ewan said.

  He led them to a tree that looked like it toppled over years before Mairi was born. The roots had long since rotted and disappeared and the outer layer of bark crumbled at the slightest touch, revealing a smooth finish beneath.

  Ewan walked to the young pine near one end of the fallen tree and proceeded to hang the sacks from a branch in the shade.

  Mairi removed her bow from her shoulder and, after leaning it against the large log, started brushing away the loose bark. A tall shadow moved across hers. She knew who it was before he spoke. She could feel him.

  Why in God’s name didn’t she experience the same awareness with Ewan or with her other two suitors?

  ‘Allow me.’

  Her personal guard stepped forward and with a few swipes of one powerful hand, cleared the crumbling bark. He then tested the strength of the timber by pushing down upon it and, satisfied it was safe for her to sit on, placed a rug over the wood for her comfort.

  He straightened and Mairi quickly pretended to be preoccupied removing her quiver of arrows from her back, rather than being intrigued by the way his leather vest tapered, following the line of his wide shoulders down to his waist. She set the arrows down beside her bow and looked over to see what was keeping Ewan. It was easier to ignore her protector when she wasn’t alone with him and her wayward curiosity.

  Like her, Ewan was removing his quiver from his back, and set it down against the tree trunk near where she’d set hers. He wore a similar vest, but his was less worn than her personal guard’s. The two were of a height and build, though Ewan was a few summers older. But he didn’t wear the leather garment as well as Duff. And his arms beneath the linen shirt didn’t test the fabric quite as well, either.

  She looked up to find her suitor grinning down at her.

  ‘Have you looked your fill?’

  God above! Had her perusal been so obvious? Heat rushed into her cheeks, making her wish her hair was down to hide her face. Thank the saints he didn’t know what she’d been thinking while she’d been staring at him, else she was sure he wouldn’t be smiling at all.

  She ducked her head for a moment, then realised he’d given her the perfect opportunity to turn her focus to where it should be. Upon whom it should be focussed.

  ‘Forgive me. I did not mean to stare.’

  Ewan’s smile only grew. ‘My Lady Mairi. There is naught to forgive.’ He walked past her, and from the corner of her eye she saw him accept the sack Douglas had readied for their outing from her protector. Ewan reached inside, retrieved a skin of watered wine and offered it to her.

  Their fingers touched. Their eyes met briefly and Mairi held his gaze to see if Ewan showed any sign of it being more than a brush of bare skin. But it was only that, a touch. He set the sack down between his feet, sat on the fallen trunk beside her and peered about the small clearing.

  Mairi drank from the skin, the diluted wine sweet on her parched tongue. She passed it to Ewan and watched his throat ripple as he drank several full swallows. The whiskers darkening the underside of his chin added a pleasing masculine quality to his handsome appearance. When he’d finished, he made a deep sound of satisfaction before wiping his lips with the back of one hand.

  ‘I am pleased to learn we both favour the bow as our weapon, Lady Mairi.’ Ewan offered her the skin again. She shook her head and he returned it to the sack. ‘How often do you practise?’

  Mairi didn’t want to disappoint him so soon by admitting she hadn’t so much as held her bow in more than ten years. ‘I have many duties to see to, so I have little time left for practice.’

  ‘One should always make time to keep such a necessary skill sharp.’ He smiled at her. ‘I could help you hone your skills, Lady Mairi, and it could be a shared pastime.’

  If you marry me.

  He didn’t voice the words but they hung in the air anyway and Mairi held no great inclination to hone her skills for any type of weapon. ‘I appreciate your offer, Ewan,’ she said with a slight nod in acknowledgment.

  ‘My hunting accomplishments are well known within my clan. I was only nine summers when I made my first kill, in this very forest. My older brothers weren’t pleased.’ He slowly shook his head as if he were still in awe of his long-ago feat. ‘If it were possible, I would have carried my prize myself. But the beast was huge and it took four grown men to carry the deer to the keep. We ate well the following night.’ Self-satisfaction broadened his smile.

  Mairi changed the subject. ‘Are you close to your brothers?’

  A closed look fleetingly crossed his face. ‘Aside from myself, only Strachan’s laird lives at the keep. The others reside elsewhere.’ He threw her a quick glance. ‘Come,’ he stood, ‘all this talk of hunting makes me eager to find my next prize.’

  Mairi preferred to head back to Gordon Castle, but casting her gaze skyward she noted the sun’s high positioning and knew their day of hunting was only half over. She slipped her quiver onto her back and gathered her bow, wondering why his other brothers lived elsewhere.

  Had her observant protector noticed Ewan’s sudden change of topic? Now was not the time to ask and her personal guard wasn’t someone she should discuss it with.

  Mairi followed her suitor into the trees to the right and was again cooled by the forest’s dimming shade. They walked with careful steps for some time and Mairi was content to be left with her own thoughts. She might not like the actual hunting, but simply being outside among Mother Nature’s beauty left her with a feeling of freedom she hadn’t experienced since she’d last visited her secret glade.

  Small twigs snapping here and around heralded the tiny bodies scurrying under the brush and over the deadfall. Rain had been scarce of late, so the decaying
foliage beneath their feet was fairly dry and brittle.

  Mairi’s gaze drifted ahead to the man stalking the greenwood’s creatures, her senses shifted behind to the man watching her back. Did her personal guard like to hunt? She’d not seen him with a bow, only the menacing blade he wore sheathed at his back and the smaller one at his waist. How near did he have to get to his prey to take it down?

  Too close, she imagined. She gripped the wood of her bow tighter.

  Ewan stilled a few steps in front. Mairi stopped, and leaning to the right looked beyond him and through the bushes to see a pretty red deer lifting its head from a shallow pool. The deer cautiously searched the surrounding trees and foliage, its mouth moving as if it were savouring the taste of the water. Muscles flickered along the sides of its fur coat a moment before it lowered its head for another refreshing drink.

  Beautiful.

  Ewan’s elbow drew back toward her. Mairi’s heart tumbled from her chest into her belly. With her gaze fixed on the deer, she intentionally stumbled to her right, but then completely lost her balance.

  The deer’s pretty head jerked upright. Ewan’s loosed arrow pierced the earth where the deer’s head had been. A strong hand caught Mairi’s right elbow, another captured the curve on the left side of her waist. Warmth raced through the fabric of her gown and shift to her middle. Heat sizzled up and down the bare flesh of her arm.

  More than a touch.

  Her tilting world levelled just as the deer darted into the woods and Ewan nocked another arrow and gave chase. The peacefulness and soft sounds stolen by frightened, running hooves and determined, booted feet. Mairi prayed with all her might that the deer escaped Ewan unharmed. Her next thought was that she was now completely alone deep within the greenwood with her protector, the man she’d been trying so hard to pretend wasn’t here in the first place.

  ‘My Lady?’

  His use of her formal title helped to remind her of her position and his. Thank the stars he took his duty so seriously.

  ‘I am fine,’ she said. ‘I … lost my balance.’

  Two breaths passed before he said, ‘Have you found your balance now?’