Page 8 of Highlander Redeemed
She knew what was happening even though she could not hear their voices, and could barely make them out against the dark forest background. She knew Rowan and Jeanette were about to interrogate Duncan on what he had learned of Scotia’s activities this day. Doubt sprang alive in her, gnawing at her confidence and whispering betrayal in her heart. Rowan and Jeanette always got their way, and Duncan would be no match for the two of them if they really wanted to make him tell Scotia’s secrets. She knew better than to believe anyone would be on her side, an ally in her quest for vengeance. Even Duncan, the one person she could always depend upon to defend her, even when he was himself chiding her for whatever her latest debacle was, couldn’t stand up to the clan’s Guardians. She wouldn’t be surprised if, when the women were done with him, she ended up in shackles, taking away her freedom and leaving her helpless to defend herself or anyone else, on top of all the other losses she had suffered.
Scotia rose slowly and made her way out of the cave, slipping almost silently through the night-black shadows at the edge of the clearing and into the wood, heading carefully through the darkness for her cache of weapons, as if a beacon lit her way. Ifthey came for her with shackles, at least she’d be ready to defend herself, even if it meant fighting off those she loved.
She hadn’t made it far when a man jumped out of the wood not far in front of her. She stopped, tried to make out who it was in the near total lack of light, then took a few steps backward, the memory of just such an ambush with Myles fresh in her mind. At least this time there was no one else with her to be murdered.
She almost tripped over a thick dead branch. Quickly she caught her balance, then dropped her blanket and picked up the branch, brandishing it in front of her, though it was so heavy it wobbled in her grasp.
“Put that down, Scotia.”
The voice disoriented her for a moment. It wasn’t English, as her mind had been prepared for. ’Twas familiar.
“Put it down, Scotia. If I meant you harm, running and hiding would serve you far better than standing to fight with that. I can see we have a lot of training to do.”
“Duncan?”
“Of course.”
She threw down the branch, barely missing her toes when it bounced unexpectedly back toward her. She stomped down the barely there trail to where the man stood his ground.
“You told them, did you not?” It was both question and statement.
“I did not.”
She was ready to throw insults at him about his manhood, his integrity, his ... wait. “What?”
“I did not tell them of your secret, and instead I secured their promise not to demand to know where you are going when you leave the cave site, and also that they no longer send lads, or anyone other than me, to follow you.”
“And they agreed to that?” She tried to quash the hope that surged within her.
“They did.”
She took a step closer to him. “And you believe them?”
“I do,” he said without hesitation.
Scotia tried to understand what he’d done. He’d stood up to the Guardians and he’d gotten promises from them.
“You did not trust me to keep your secret, did you?” he said, and she could hear the disappointment in his voice.
She considered telling him she was only going for a walk, but he would know it for a lie, and she did not want to repay his good faith with anything less than her own. “I did not think you were strong enough to stand against both Rowan and Jeanette.”
“Then we have both learned something new of the other this day. Where were you going?” he asked.
“I thought they would throw me in shackles to keep me from my training.”
“So you meant to fetch your weapons and fight your own kin?”
When he said it like that she realized how shameful that would be. She did not want to fight her family. She wanted them to take her seriously, to respect her. Fighting them would never gain her that.
She rubbed her face with both hands, as if she could scrub the daft idea right out of her head. Where did these ideas come from? And why did she never question her own thoughts before she acted upon them?
“Scotia?”
“You will make me admit yet another mistake in judgment?”
“Nay, I only want you to recognize it so that the next time your fears and anger drive you to action, you might take a moment and think through the consequences, or talk to me so that I might help you see them, before you take action. Can you do that?”
She closed her eyes and sighed. “This is part of my training, aye?”
