Highland Avenger

by Hannah Howell

  What had she allowed him to do to her? Arianna began to think that the scars his cruel words had left ran far, far deeper than she had believed. It was embarrassing to realize how much she had let him say to her without retribution, and how much of it she had taken to heart. She should have been stronger than that, should have believed more strongly in her own worth. What frightened her was that, if she did not hold a strong belief in her own worth, how would she find the strength to rid herself of Claud’s poison?

  Even worse, if she did not believe in her own worth, how could she hold fast to a man like Sir Brian MacFingal? And she admitted to herself that she did want to hold on to him, tightly. For a moment she feared she was letting her first taste of passion trick her into thinking there was more to what she felt for him than lust, and then she shook that doubt aside. What she felt for the man had been born from the moment she had opened her eyes on that beach and looked into his. Everything that had happened since then had only strengthened it.

  “So much for keeping my distance and allowing this to be no more than a simple affair,” she whispered angrily as she finished relieving herself and then began to wash up.

  “Are ye all right?” asked Brian.

  “Aye, just talking to myself. I will be ready in a few moments.”

  Brian frowned at the screen. He had not been able to understand what she had said but the anger behind the words had been clear. Anger was not what he wanted her to be feeling after they had made love. Before he could ask her what she was angered by, a loud banging came at the door.

  “Frenchmen, Sir Brian,” said Molly the moment he opened the door.

  “At the inn?” He moved to pack their things, already planning how to slip away.

  “Will be soon. My youngest lad came to tell me they were asking for a good inn to stay at and had been directed here.”

  “Ye have a back way out of here?”

  “I do, and I have already told the lads to have your horses readied and waiting for ye behind the stables.” She glanced at Arianna as she ran out from behind the screen still lacing up her gown. “This is about more than ye taking some lass for a wee bit of pleasure, isnae it?”

  “A lot more, but I havenae the time to tell ye. ’Tis life or death, hers and two wee laddies. I would suggest that ye keep those burly lads of yours close and armed. This isnae some group of simple travelers.”

  “That be what my lad said as he wasnae sure we would be wanting them staying here. Come with me. I will show ye the best way to slip out of here.”

  Brian grabbed a pale Arianna by the hand, cast a last longing look at the bed, and followed Molly. He had hoped they could rest for a little while. He had also hoped to savor Arianna’s passion in the comfort of a bed a few more times, if only to make it very clear to her that she was not only desirable, she also satisfied him.

  In truth, she satisfied him in ways he had never felt before. Not only did she stir his desire to heights it had never reached in another woman’s arms, she left him far more sated than any other had, too. Brian knew it was going to be very hard to let that go.

  As they slipped through the back garden of the inn and to the rear of the stables, Brian could hear the voices of Amiel’s men. The stable boys were clearly trying to delay the men, holding them outside the stable with a long, torturous bargaining over the cost of caring for so many horses. He was tempted to go and see what he might learn, but one look at the fear on Arianna’s face had him pushing that idea aside. He could not take the risk when she was so close to her enemies.

  He kissed Molly on the cheek and then lifted Arianna up into the saddle as he said, “I thank ye, Molly. Best ye get back inside the inn to greet your new guests.”

  “Aye. Dinnae worry. If ye can slip out of town without them seeing ye, ye should be safe for a while. Sent one of my lads to tell a few maids that there was a party of rich Frenchmen here. I am thinking those men will soon be too busy to come a-hunting ye and the lass.”

  Brian chuckled and began to lead Arianna on a winding route that kept them sheltered by the buildings. As long as he and Arianna could get away without any of Amiel’s men catching sight of them, they would have time to put some distance between themselves and their pursuers. He was a little surprised they had stopped for a rest when it was so early in the day. It was an action that confirmed his fear that Amiel knew where he was headed, was not tracking them as much as hoping to get between them and where they needed to go. The man was treating it all more like a journey to visit someone than the hunt it really was.

  When the line of buildings ran out, Brian paused, leaning over the neck of his mount to look up and down the street. They would be in the open for a while and he needed to make certain none of Amiel’s men were on the watch for them. What he saw made him grin.

  At least eight women, dressed in all the finery a poor whore could afford, were gathered near the stables, flaunting their wares. The men who had not yet entered the inn were all watching the women, some already making their choices clear. Brian just wished the women would get the men inside the inn quickly.

  “Are they watching for us?” asked Arianna.

  “Nay. They are watching the women Molly sent her son to fetch. A bonnie little flock of birds. I but wait to see if they can get all the men to go inside the inn. If they dinnae do so soon, we shall have to take our chances and go that last distance to the trees anyway.”

  “I ne’er would have thought of such a thing as a distraction. Especially not when ’tis barely the middle of the day.”

  “Time doesnae matter to a hungry mon, lass.” He grinned when she made a soft sound of disgust. “I but keep wondering why Amiel has stopped so early in the day.”

  “He probably just wants a good meal and a bath. Now that he kens who ye are and where ye may be going, he thinks he can take this journey at a leisurely pace. Amiel ne’er liked to do anything that appeared to be work.”

  “Ah, one of those men who craves the title but expects everyone else to do the work that comes with the privilege. It looks as if the lasses have finally convinced the men that they will get better service inside the inn. I suspicion Molly told her lad to ask the ladies to do that.”

  “Why would she have to ask? Where else would they be able to service the men?”

  “In the stable, in the stable yard, in the alley, or near anywhere else where they might stand, sit, or lie.” He glanced at her blush-reddened face and grinned. “I think ye have been verra sheltered, love.” He looked back toward the men. “The last of them has been dragged inside. Best we move. I would love to just gallop out of here but there may yet be one sharp-eyed fellow amongst Amiel’s men, and two people galloping out of town would draw attention.”

  The next few minutes were the longest Arianna had ever suffered through, at least since she had been in the water clinging to a keg. She sat tensely on her mount, expecting a cry of discovery to go up every step of the way. By the time they reached the shelter of the trees, she ached from sitting so stiffly in her saddle. She gritted her teeth when Brian began to kick his mount into a faster speed, and followed his lead. Galloping over the countryside was not what she had planned to do today but she would endure.

  She prayed those women kept Amiel and his men very busy but did not suffer for doing so. If Amiel even thought he had been tricked, he could turn vicious, and attack the women, Molly, and her sons. It would be a sad way to reward Molly for all her help.

  The thought of those women made her recall what Brian had said about where the women could entertain the men. Arianna began to realize that, although her kinswomen had hid nothing about the ways of men and women in marriage, she had been allowed little other knowledge. She had known that her brothers and male cousins went into the village to dally with the maids, but the few times she had thought on it, she had envisioned rooms and beds as the places where the dallying occurred. It was obvious that she still had a lot to learn about the world.

  It was late in the day before Brian allow
ed them to stop for a rest. He had wanted to use the hours Amiel and his men might spend at the inn to get as far away from the man as possible. It would be better if the man decided to stay the night at Molly’s inn but Brian knew he could not count on that. Amiel could have simply stopped for a meal or an ale before planning to continue on. There was only one thing Brian could be sure of and that was that Amiel would get no useful information from anyone at Molly’s. Even if the woman did not have some affection for his clan or Sigimor’s, she would never betray regular paying customers.

  He watered the horses and then took out the small sack of food Molly had stuck in his pack before joining Arianna where she had collapsed on the ground beneath a tree. “Nay much farther, love, and ye will be able to rest for more than a night.”

  “In a true bed?”

  “Aye, in a true bed. And ye can have yourself another bath without worrying about leaving some of the heated water for me.”

  “I would like to sleep, just sleep, for a few days.” She sat up straighter and began to eat the food he had placed in her lap. “S’truth, I have badly wished to do that since I first kenned that my lads were in danger on Tillet’s ship and began keeping a close watch on them.”

  “Ye can get some sleep at Dubheidland although I am nay sure it can be several days’ worth.”

  “Are ye certain your cousin willnae object to our staying there, especially when we are bringing this trouble with us? This isnae his fight.”

  “Lucette wants to kill two bairns simply to fill his purse. Trust me in this, Sigimor will want the mon dead for that alone.”

  Arianna nodded. She recognized such a man. Her kinsmen would feel the same. It would not even matter if the man were an ally or an enemy, simply that he meant to hurt children because of greed. She had heard a few odd tales about the laird of Dubheidland, ones told her kin by her cousin Alanna and then told to her in what few letters she had received from her family. At least the Lucettes had allowed her to receive those letters, she thought bitterly, wondering if they had read them all and then destroyed ones they didn’t like, just as they had done with the ones she had tried to send those she loved.

  Then she tensed. “Brian, I think I have an idea on how Amiel kens where we might go, how he might not need but a whisper of our passing to ken who we might try to get help from.”

  “I suspect it is because he has the coin to loosen a few tongues. I fear there are many in this part of the country who ken us weel, the MacFingals and the Camerons.”

  “Do ye recall how we thought the Lucettes read the letters I wanted to send to my kin, destroying any they thought were too critical of them?” Arianna could tell by the dark look growing on Brian’s face that he was already seeing what she just had. “What if they also read all the ones my kin sent to me, if only to be certain they destroyed any they believed could cause some trouble for them? Ones that might ask me to come home for some reason or ones asking when they might visit me. Or they looked for information on my family, mayhap to find a way to get some more money from them.”

  “And thus they would ken every place ye had kin or allies, or nearly so. That is, if the ones who wrote to ye would speak of such things, tell ye what tales they have heard of concerning other kin and allies.”

  “Ye mean they would gossip.” She grinned briefly. “’Tis what it is. And, aye, near all my kin love to tell tales. That is another reason your name and the Camerons seemed so familiar to me. The MacEnroys, as weel.” She sighed. “My family wished me to ken where everyone was and so ’tis verra possible that whoever read my letters has learned it, too. A lot of information about my clan and all we are allied with was in those letters. Amiel was always around and, as Claud’s affair with Marie Anne continued, the elder Lucettes became more and more disgusted with their heir. If Amiel began to aid them in keeping a close eye upon what news passed between me and my kin, then ...”

  “Amiel learned about us all and but needed a few clever judgments as to who ye were with.”

  She rested her head against the rough trunk of the tree. “I suppose Amiel could have a cunning that I ne’er noticed before.”

  Brian nodded and finished his food as he thought over the possibility that the men hunting for Arianna and the boys had come with knowledge of the places she would try to run to. If Amiel had had a plan to murder his brother for a long time, it made sense that the man would learn all he could about his brother’s wife. Yet Brian did not think Amiel had plotted against his brother for that long. The man he had watched in the inn did not have that sort of patience. That meant that Amiel had simply taken advantage of information already collected on Arianna and the Murrays.

  The reason for the collection of such information on allies was varied and none of them revealing anything laudable about the family Arianna had married into. None of the reasons mattered at the moment, either. All that was important was that Amiel and the DeVeaux knew too much. He and Arianna could evade the men pursuing them, but never fully shake free of them.

  “Ye are verra quiet,” she said, watching him closely. “I am sorry. None of us saw any reason to be verra cautious.”

  He took her hand in his and kissed her palm. “Ye have naught to apologize for. The Lucettes are allies and ye all thought the family of your husband would be safe. Why wouldnae ye be free in what ye said to each other?”

  “In a way I can understand why they carefully watched what I said to my family, mayhap e’en why they watched what my kin said to me. Yet, why make a record of it all as I begin to think they did? What need would they have had to keep such information at hand?”

  “They may nay have had any true plan for its use, just a wee thought that it might be useful at some time. Whatever plan they had doesnae matter now. ’Tis Amiel’s knowledge of it all that we must consider now.”

  “We cannae lose him. I suspicion your kinsmen cannae lose the ones after them, either.”

  Brian wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. “My kinsmen will be fine. They may ne’er lose the ones on their trail, but they can and will evade and outrun them. As can we. My kin have something we dinnae have as weel, something that gives them an advantage.”

  “Oh, aye? And what would that be?”

  “More men.”

  “Ah, true. Would it help if we hired more men? I can afford it. Weel, once I am back with my clan and can get some coin in my hands, I can.”

  “I did think on that, but nay. We are verra close to Dubheidland. Best if we continue as we have. I still believe we have a better chance of slipping round these bastards if we are alone. I will be rid of the third horse once we reach Sigimor, though. I dinnae believe it fools anyone any longer.”

  “If they can send word to each other and ken all else we think they do, then nay, it doesnae fool them at all. They ken where the boys are being taken by now.”

  She shivered, and the way Brian held her a little tighter only slightly warmed the chill of fear. It was a fear that ran too deep to be banished. With each passing day, each new scrap of information on their enemies, her need to see Michel and Adelar grew until it was a sharp ache inside her. It was not just because she missed them, which she did, but a need to see with her own eyes that they were safe. She also needed to see that Scarglas could keep them safe. Although she trusted in Brian’s word on that, her heart needed the proof her own eyes would give her.

  “Dinnae worry so, love.” Brian brushed a kiss over her mouth and stood up.

  “Easier to say than to do,” she muttered as she took hold of the hand he held out to her and let him tug her to her feet and into his arms. “’Tis hard for many to understand considering who Michel and Adelar are, but they are my boys.”

  “Ye had the raising of them, fostered them in many ways.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and then led her over to the horses. “Ye also have a heart too good to hold the wrongs their parents did to ye against them. It will nay be long now before ye are with them again, a sennight at most. There
may e’en be word about them waiting at Dubheidland.”

  Arianna prayed there was. It would be enough for her to calm her fears about the boys for a while. Her arms ached to hold them, but if she knew for certain that they were safely behind the walls of Scarglas, she could endure their absence for a few days more.

  Chapter 8

  “Wait here, lass.”

  Arianna frowned at Brian as they both dismounted. “What do ye plan to do?”

  “Slip into that wee village ahead and find someone to take word to your kinsmen,” he replied.

  “Ye think that must be done now?”

  “Aye. There are ten men after us, lass. Ten. If they have sent an equal number in all three directions we tried to lead them in, then we have a small army running about the country hunting those lads of yours.” He winced when she paled and wished he had held to his decision to keep that information from her.

  She gasped and grasped him by the arms. “Michel and Adelar?”

  “Are better protected than we are and, ye must trust me in this, lass, my family kens weel how to sneak about and hide themselves and anything of value they have, including other people. I can promise ye that verra soon after my kin rode away from that beach those lads wouldnae have been recognizable e’en to you and a plan was already made to hide them if the need arose. And do ye ken what else my kin can do verra weel?”

  “What?” Arianna desperately wanted to believe him if only to push back the fear that was now making her thoughts scatter and her heart pound. “What can they do?”

  “Fight.” He kissed her on the forehead. “We survived for years surrounded by enemies, which my fither was verra skilled at making. Some of those enemies were verra determined to see us all dead. They failed. As my fither liked to say, he may nay have been the best of fithers and was a worse husband, but he had done a fine job of teaching his lads how to survive. And he did. We are all verra, verra good at it.”