Page 93 of Sins of the Highlander

Chapter 32

The second day on the road, light snow began to fall. The wet flakes didn’t stick, but they turned the paths into a churning morass of mud. Elspeth and her father rode at the head of the Stewart column, but their pace was slowed by those at their heels. She was surprised when Lord Drummond picked his way around the Stewart fighting men to catch up to them.

“Since Lady Stewart is still awaiting us at my stronghold, I assume ye’ll be going there to collect her before ye return to your own land,” Lachlan said, pointedly ignoring Elspeth as if she wasn’t riding alongside her father.

That was fine with her. She hoped never to speak to the man again.

“No doubt she’ll be thrilled to see the Lady Elspeth safe and sound,” he continued.

Elspeth didn’t meet his gaze, but she watched him from the corner of her eye as if he were a hound she wasn’t sure was quite safe.

“We’ll no’ be imposing on your hospitality longer than necessary, Drummond,” her father said.

“Ye’re welcome to stay under my roof as long as you like, of course, but frankly, I’m thinking your men would welcome returning to their own hearths as soon as may be,” Lachlan said. “The way divides just up ahead, and if they take the right fork, your fighting men can be on Stewart land in another day’s ride and by their own fires in two.”

“I am aware of it,” Stewart said stonily.

Lachlan looked pointedly at the leaden sky. “The air smells of snow.”

Elspeth’s father nodded.

Lachlan bid them a pleasant good day and turned back to join his own force. Once he was gone, Elspeth’s father called his second in command to join them. He gave orders for his men to turn aside and make for Stewart land at the coming fork in the road.

“Pick a contingent of ten to remain with us as a guard, and lead the rest home,” her father said. “Winter’s hard upon us. I would not have my men away from their women and children when the snow flies in earnest.”

Once the man left to do his laird’s bidding, Elspeth screwed up her courage.

“Father, ye know I’d not question your judgment, but I have to wonder if it’s wise for us to be so few when we must return to Lord Drummond’s stronghold.”

“Whether or no’ our clans are bound by a marriage, the man is still our neighbor. We must find a way to live in peace with him,” he said softly so as not to be overheard by any other ears. “Besides, if his intentions are ill, Lord Drummond has just reminded me that he holds my wife.”

Elspeth gasped. She hadn’t considered that. If Drummond was still intent on wedding her, threatening her mother was one thing that would make her yield.

“But if his intentions are good, he was asking me not to flood his keep with my men. They might be trapped there by heavy snows for a long while and so deplete his larder,” her father said. “No man wishes to admit baldly that he canna support so many mouths. By turning my men aside, I save Drummond’s dignity and earn his gratitude.”

“Is every conversation such a chess game between the pair of ye?”

“More often than not,” he admitted. “It comes with leadership. Ye never really know when a man’s ‘yea’ means ‘yea.’”

Rob MacLaren was as much a Scottish laird as Drummond or her father, but she had yet to see him engage in such crafty plans that someone had to decipher what his words meant. Even his abduction of her was straightforward, his goal of single combat with Drummond the stated outcome from the beginning.

An uncomplicated man with a boatload of stubbornness might be trying at times, but his lack of guile was restful to her spirit.

Her chest ached from missing him so. She wondered what he’d done when he realized she was gone. He was probably furious that she’d used the secret passage. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t come after her. Of course, it would be folly in the extreme to brave two armies to reach her, but part of her wished he’d try it.

Surely he’d come for her at her father’s stronghold.

Unless he believed she’d left him because she still intended to wed Lord Drummond. Her heart sank with hopelessness.

“Sometimes, ye must give a man trust in order for him to behave in a trustworthy manner,” her father said, interrupting her despairing thoughts. “I withdrew from the MacLaren field without his leave. Ye have spurned Drummond as husband, and yet he’s behaved with courtesy toward us both. I can afford to give the man a sop now.”

They plodded on side by side. The horses’ hooves made such loud sucking noises in the mud Elspeth almost missed her father’s soft “I hope.”

***

Elspeth enjoyed a tearful reunion with her mother, but their joy was short lived. Before they could speak ten words to each other, there was a scuffle and a clash of blades outside their door. Drummond and a dozen armed men broke into their guest chamber. Elspeth’s father’s sword was out of its scabbard in a blink.

“What is the meaning of this outrage?” he demanded.