Page 2 of Claimed
But here they were, seated in the clan-chief’s solar, a pale winter sun filtering in through the open window while a fire roared in the hearth—healthy, content, and in love.
It was no good. Try as she might to deny it, Drew envied them.
She forced herself to take a bite of bannock and chewed it with grim determination. She’d been hungry when she’d taken a seat at the table, yet her appetite had vanished.
A dry crumb stuck in her throat then, and she coughed. Reaching for a cup of milk, she attempted to wash it down.
However, the crumb had irritated the back of her throat, and she suffered a coughing fit.
Eyes watering, Drew shifted her attention once more to her companions. Coira and Craeg were laughing over something one of them had just said. She may as well have been invisible. Would they have noticed if she’d choked to death in front of them?
With a huff, Drew pushed herself up from the table.
Aye, she should have stayed abed. This morning wasn’t improving.
Drew strode from the solar and nearly collided with the man standing guard outside.
“Good morning, Lady Drew.” Broad-shouldered and well-built with close-cropped blond hair, Carr Broderick stepped to one side to avoid Drew, his grey-blue gaze settling upon her. “Is something amiss?”
“No, Broderick,” she snapped. “I just need to get outside and stretch my legs. I’m going mad cooped up in here.”
Days of freezing, stormy weather had prevented her from taking her daily strolls, but in her present mood, she’d not be thwarted.
Drew strode along the hallway, heading back to her bed-chamber to fetch her fur cloak.
Broderick fell in step behind her.
Irritation surged, and Drew clenched her jaw.Damn the man. He followed her around like a hound. When Craeg had taken control of Dunan, Broderick had stepped down from his former role as Captain of the Dunan Guard to become her personal guard.
Wherever she went, there was Broderick a few paces back—her second shadow.
The urge to tell the man to go away rose within Drew, yet she swallowed it. The warrior was impervious to her sharp tongue. He’d made it clear months earlier that there were still plenty of folk—both within the broch, and in the village and lands surrounding it—who bitterly resented Duncan MacKinnon.
They saw her as his supporter, and according to Broderick, many folk still wished to have their revenge. Drew had scoffed at his concerns, yet she’d been unable to get him to cease shadowing her.
Doing her best to ignore her guard, she threw open the door to her bed-chamber and stalked inside.
Outdoors, the winter wind gusted across the bailey, tugging at Drew’s cloak and slapping her exposed cheeks. She squinted up at the sky; it was filled with racing clouds, many of which were leaden and ominous.
“We shouldn’t go far, Lady Drew,” Broderick murmured behind her. “Rain is on its way.”
“A few turns around the kirk yard won’t hurt,” she replied. Not waiting for his reply, she headed left, circuiting the base of the broch toward the South Gate. The guards there greeted her before allowing Drew and her guard to pass through into the windswept kirk yard beyond.
Drew entered the wide yard studded with mossy gravestones, just as thunder rumbled across the sky. Halting, she viewed the dark sky with a jaundiced eye.
“We should really go inside, milady,” Broderick said, stopping at her side. “It’s going to pelt down in a moment.”
Drew cast him a sharp look. “Ye go back, if a little rain bothers ye, Broderick,” she snapped. “But I’m going for a walk.”
With that, she picked up her skirts and strode down the path.
Drew had just turned off the gravel, intent on weaving her way through the gravestones, when she stepped upon something slippery.
There wasn’t even time to cry out in alarm. Her feet flew out from under her, and she fell, arms cartwheeling—straight into Carr Broderick’s waiting embrace.
It was like hitting a wall. Drew’s breath gusted out of her as his brawny arms fastened about her torso. A heartbeat later, he set her upon her feet.
Shaken, Drew looked down to see that she’d stepped into an enormous cow pat.
