Page 3 of Kilted Hate

Lowering his voice, he continued. “Stick to the plan. Find out what you can discover, and then report back to me. I hate the man as much as you do, but his death will not be helpful. Not yet, at any rate.”

After the meal, Katherine retired to her room. Not only was she exhausted from all the travelling they had already done, but she would have to rise before the sun tomorrow to continue her journey. There was still quite a way to go before she reached Dunvegan Castle. The place she would, in two weeks, be forced to call her home.

And yet, as tired as she was, sleep did not come easily. Her mind punished her with thoughts of what her future held. There were, of course, arranged marriages in England too, but it was usual, in those cases that the betrothed were introduced at some point before the ceremony.

Katherine, on the other hand, had no idea about the man she was about to marry. Well, she knew something about him. She knew he was a vicious Viking laird who took great pleasure in slaughtering Englishmen. His hatred of her kinsmen hardly filled her with confidence. What if he took a notion to rid himself of her at some point?

You must keep your knife on your person at all times. Even when you sleep.

Knowing how precarious and delicate the situation was between the warring countries, she had every intention of doing so. Once inside those castle walls, she would be on her own. There would be no army nearby to save her. Yes, she would have guards with her, but ten soldiers were hardly a match for an entire clan. Especially one as powerful as the MacLeods.

The following morning, at first light, Katherine readied herself for her journey and made her way downstairs. The men had secured horses, as Reginald had directed the day before, and she found her brother standing beside the only horse that didn’t have a rider, clearly waiting for her.

After helping her onto the beast, Reginald looked up at her. “Remember what I told you. Find out all that you can. We will get our revenge, sister.”

Katherine nodded, and after a brief and cold farewell, she and the group of soldiers that would accompany her, began their journey.

While she and Reginald were not in any way close, there was one thing uniting them. Probably the only thing, for they could both agree that they hated the man she was to marry. The king, in his wisdom, had decreed that she not just wed any Scottish nobleman, but Laird Domhnall MacLeod.

The same man who had slaughtered her father in battle.

CHAPTER TWO

Somewhere in the MacLeod lands…

Pressing against the rough bark of the tree, most of his huge muscular frame hidden behind it, Domhnall MacLeod pulled the string of his bow up to the corner of his mouth. He took a long breath in and aimed. With his eye on the prize, he released his breath at the same time he released his arrow, but in that very second, the hairy boar jolted and ran.

“Damn it.”

“Och, that’s the third time ye’ve missed it,” Kai crowed with laughter. “I think ye’re losing yer touch, brother.”

“Aye,” Magnus agreed. “Or maybe the beast can smell ye a mile away. When’s the last time ye had a bath?”

With his long dark brown wavy hair now matted to his head after hunting all day, Domhnall wondered if Magnus might havea point, but he snarled at his brothers, and with lightning speed, he was suddenly at their sides.

“Hey, dinnae be using yer gift on me, or I’ll force ye tae cry,” Kai said, readying to defend himself.

He was far slenderer than his brothers, and stood no chance against Domhnall, but he was a fine fighter all the same.

“He will too,” Magnus nodded.

“Get out of me head, Magnus,” Kai snarled playfully.

They rarely used the gifts they had been endowed with at birth on each other, but the threat to do so was always fun. While Domhnall, the oldest of the brothers, had lightning speed and the strength of ten men, Kai, the youngest, could coerce emotions, and Magnus had always been able to hear people’s thoughts, which had completely freaked him out as a child.

Domhnall smirked at the two of them. “Both o’ ye need tae grow up.”

“Hey, we’re nae the ones who cannae kill the boar,” Kai quipped back.

“Maybe I’ll bring ye home for the roast instead,” Domhnall shot back.

“Aye, I’d like to see ye try.”

The three brothers had been out hunting all morning, but to no avail. Each time Domhnall had managed to get anywhere close to a prey, the damned beasts had escaped him. Maybe Kai, the youngest of the three, was right. Maybe he was losing his touch.

Or maybe, ye’re distracted and have other things on yer mind.

There was that, too.

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