Page 62 of Sins of the Highlander

“Aye,” Angus said. “Young Hamish Murray is the son of my sister and the only family I have left to my name, so the boy’s dear to me, ye ken.”

Rob was alone in the world, as far as Elspeth knew. His parents were gone, and his wife…Elspeth didn’t want to think long about her, lest the willowy, copper-haired Fiona pay her another visit through a vision. She wasn’t ready to open herself to some things yet.

“What happened with your nephew?” she asked.

“Seems wee Hamish got himself mixed up with a rough sort down on the border. A bunch of renegade Campbells mostly, and the whole lot were captured for raiding Sassenach farmsteads. O’ course, the English said there was raping and killing being done, but I ken my nephew. ’Tis no’ his way. ’Tweren’t more than cattle thieving. A fine Highland tradition, that.”

“Aye,” Elspeth agreed with a smile. Even her father had reived a herd or two in his day. “But if he’d been taken by the English, how did Rob save Hamish from hanging?”

“Och, Rob’s always been a canny sort,” Angus said, tapping his temple. “The night before the hanging, with folk pouring into town from all the countryside around, he went to the magistrate, dressed as a priest come to hear the last confessions of the accused.”

Elspeth blinked in surprise. Rob was many things, but priestly wasn’t one of them.

“Once he got into Hamish’s cell, he pulled a monk’s cassock out from under his robe for my nephew to put on, and a pair of shears. He shaved Hamish’s beard and gave my nephew a tonsure on the spot!

“Then he called the guard back and overpowered him. Rob took his keys and released all the other prisoners. Then as the Campbells made a run for it, Rob and Hamish followed them out of the gaol, calling out warnings of an escape to the local constables!

“While the English rounded up the others, Rob and Hamish walked right out the city gates. No one ever gives a second look to a man of God, ye ken. ’Specially not one with a freshly shiny nob like Hamish had! Rob said later that they might as well have stayed to see the hanging, but Hamish wanted to put the English border far behind him.”

“Understandable.”

“Rob rode that black demon, Falin, home, but he made Hamish walk all the way back to the Highlands, as penance for being daft enough to fall in with Campbells, he said!” Angus laughed. “The plan was madness, but it worked.”

“Madness,” Elspeth repeated. “Then he’s always been known as Mad Rob?”

Angus’s face sagged. “No, that was only after Fiona…och, ye ken what happened. He ran a bit wild after that.”

Elspeth had seen Rob’s blue eyes glinting with madness in the cave after he abducted her. He’d looked right through her when his hand circled her neck, and Elspeth suspected he’d heard voices in his head.

But Rob had been in his right mind ever since then. Perhaps his lunacy was the sort that came and went.

And once Angus and Fingal left them in Lochearnhead, perhaps it would return.

The thought didn’t trouble her as much as it ought. If Rob was touched by the malady again, Elspeth would be ready for it. This time, she realized, she was armed with something stronger than madness.

Love.

It surprised her a little when the word bubbled to the surface of her mind, but it didn’t scare her.

Love.

Not the “flutter in the belly” sort, though she had to admit her stomach did a jig whenever she looked at Rob MacLaren’s handsome face. No, she had the “clear to the bone, willing to do something about it” kind of love.

And if Rob’s madness returned, she was prepared to act.

***

Lochearnhead was a sleepy little village on the westernmost end of Loch Eireann. Night had fallen before Rob piloted the craft up to the wharf, but the moon hadn’t risen above the mountain called Ben Vorlich yet. The peak rose to the south, a sleek pyramid of granite with no trees spiking its top. A cap of snow glinted on its heights in the starlight.

“Ye surely canna mean to press on in the dark,” Angus said as he tied his boat securely to the dock. “Will ye stay on board this night, Rob?”

“No, I bespoke a room over the tavern for the past couple weeks because I wasna certain when we’d arrive,” he said as he gathered up his few possessions.

Elspeth was doing the same in the small cabin. Traveling light was easier if a man didn’t have a woman in tow. And if he didn’t care about her comfort. It made him feel even worse that Elspeth wasn’t the sort to complain. At least he could put a roof over her head and a hot meal in her belly this night.

“Paid in advance for the room,” Rob said. “It’d be a shame if we didna use it.”

Elspeth was saying good-bye to Fingal, and the deerhound responded with loud whines. Angus pulled Rob aside with a quick glance toward the cabin. “Have a care with the lass’s reputation.”