Page 89 of Enchantment of a Highlander

“Is it what?” Alec prompted.

“Scary.” Duncan looked up at him with the same wide-eyed innocence as so many men he’d led into war. “Is battle scary?”

Savage shouts pulled their attention to the courtyard once more. A man below whipped his dulled practice blade toward another and his opponent knelt in defeat.

“Battle makes yer heart pound and yer blood burn hot, but ye canna let it scare ye.” Alec put his hand on the boy’s back, all sharp bones and thin muscle. “Battle can threaten to overwhelm ye with the sounds of men shouting and the pleas of those dying. The first stink of blood will make yer heart go wild. Many men are no strong enough to stomach it and give in to their fear.” Alec patted Duncan’s back and braced his hands on the rough stone wall in front of his waist.

“What happens to the men who give in to their fear?”

Alec looked at the boy to ensure he understood the severity of the response. “They die. If ye want to survive, ye dinna give in to the fear.”

Alec sighed beneath the yoke of his memories. He’d seen too many men die, led too many battles. His world had finally slowed down and he was ready to settle into a life with Celia.

“I’ll never be afraid,” Duncan said. “I’ll survive every battle and fight with bravery like ye.”

A soldier approached from the stairs to the right. “Then ye’ll survive to fight another day, lad.” Alec put his hand around the boy’s shoulders. They’d become broader than he remembered. “Ye need to get to the keep now, aye? I need to speak with Niall.”

Duncan squeezed a quick hug around Alec’s waist and ran down the stairs with a sharp nod to Niall.

Alec grimaced as he watched the boy go.

Wynda had been spending too much damn time with him. She’d make him soft.

Niall approached Alec with an impassive expression. Threads of silver in his hair glinted in the sunlight.

“I hadn’t expected to see ye back from Aros Castle so soon,” Alec said. Perhaps the warrior’s return meant MacDougall had ceased his murderous trials.

Niall considered Alec for a moment. “I dinna go.”

Alec’s eyes met the aging warrior’s and a low, simmering flame licked to life within him. “What?”

Niall kept his pale green eyes fixed on Alec. “I. Dinna. Go.”

“Why?” Alec demanded.

“Ye said we dinna have to do anything we dinna agree with.” Niall lifted his shoulders in a careless shrug. “I dinna think ye could spare any men and so I dinna go.”

Alec stared with disbelief, his hand balled in a fist. “Where do ye get the authority to make such decisions without informing me? Without notifying me of yer refusal to follow a simple command?”

“Do ye have any idea how dangerous it is to be aiding the accused witches in a time like this?” Niall hissed. “If he knows we have a witch here, he might torture me. Kill me.”

He stopped and pressed his lips together.

He’d said too much and they both knew it.

Wind lashed around them and filled the heaviness of their silence with the steady flapping of their kilts.

“Ye may go,” Alec said through his teeth.

Niall turned and left the way he’d come.

Alec’s stomach drew tight around the bitterness of his disappointment.

Niall hadn’t gone to MacDougall’s territory not because he didn’t agree with the task.

He didn’t go because he was scared.

The warrior had lost his edge, and with it, Alec knew he’d lost his force of men.