Page 1 of Scot of Desire
PROLOGUE
Clan Mackintosh, Highlands, 1682
16 Years Earlier
“Run!” Alec bellowed the word.
Bran ran as fast as his legs would carry him. Only thirteen, he was still the tallest out of all his brothers, even Alec, who was a year older than him. Bran’s legs covered the grounds of the castle fast. He darted from the open lawn, across the furrows and ridges in the earth, toward the outer battlements of the castle and a crown of trees that banked along the edges of the grounds. He launched towards the furthest tree.
Scurrying around the back, he scrambled up the open trunk. Rotten and aging, there was a perfect cavity inside, allowing him to clamber up to a great height and hide from the world.
Nay one ever finds me here.
Panting to catch his breath, Bran flattened his back to the bark and listened for the sounds of anyone nearby. At a distance across the lawn, he could hear Alec counting.
“Forty-five… forty-six… forty-seven…”
They didn’t have long left before Alec would start to search for them all.
Bran brushed his short blond hair back from his forehead and peered around the edge of the trunk, his fingers clutching the bark so tightly that the grains dirtied the palm of his hand.
Across the grounds, he caught brief glimpses of everyone playing their game.
His other two brothers, Dunn and Evander, were currently arguing over who got to hide in the stable this time. Dunn, the youngest with his twin Catreena, found himself unceremoniously tipped out of the stables by Evander, who was already surprisingly strong, despite being one year younger than Bran. Unfortunately for Evander, however, Dunn was so quick on his feet that he dived back into the stable before Evander could tackle him again.
Bran chuckled and looked away, searching elsewhere.
His sister, Catreena, easy to spot with her nearly white hair gleaming in the sunshine was currently trying to hide down bythe loch that met the castle battlements. Her hiding place was somewhat given away by the much older Tad, walking past her.
Tad, heir to the lairdship of Clan MacBean, was one of the Mackintosh brothers’ closest friends. If he was not visiting them at this castle, then they were invariably visiting him and playing hide and seek in the wild grounds of his father’s castle. He was the oldest of them all by far, Bran’s senior by seven years, yet he always spent time with them. Bran suspected that Tad played along just to keep an eye on them all and make sure they didn’t end up in too much trouble.
Now, Tad chuckled dismissively at Catreena’s failure to hide convincingly and ran on somewhere else, disappearing expertly behind a nearby wall.
Then a squeak caught Bran’s attention.
He looked around, knowing that whimper well. He’d heard it many times before when they played hide and seek, or when Ilyssa knew she would be caught for bending the rules, as she so often liked to do. Angling his head the other way, he caught sight of her.
Ilyssa, Tad’s younger sister, and Catreena’s dearest friend, was never very good at this game.
She did not have his strength to climb trees and had merely placed herself behind the nearest trunk to him. She was breathing heavily, her dark hair half flung across her face. Fiveyears his junior, she looked small and petite against the tree, rather vulnerable.
Something ached in Bran’s chest as he looked at her.
“Sixty-two, sixty-three, sixty-four.” Alec’s counting was getting faster and faster, showing he was impatient to start searching for them all.
Bran shook his head as he looked at Ilyssa. In her hiding place, she would be caught in seconds.
Och, every time she’s caught first. Every time!
Ilyssa clearly knew this too, for she sank down onto her haunches behind the tree, pulling at the skirt of her gown that had become frayed in all their games and running across the land.
“Psst,” Bran hissed. She didn’t look up at first, breathing too heavily, clearly lost to her fears of being found first. He didn’t blame her. Today, they had agreed that whoever was found first would have to face a dare – they would have to steal bannocks from the kitchen. Ilyssa, who had already been in trouble with both of their fathers that morning for causing a ruckus at the breakfast table by throwing her food, clearly did not want to face getting in trouble twice in a single day. “Psst!” Bran hissed louder.
Ilyssa looked up now. Her dark eyes were wide, glistening in fear.
Bran pressed a finger to his lips and winked at her, then dived back down into the crevice of the tree where he was hiding.
“I’m coming!” Alec’s voice suddenly bellowed across the land.
