Page 59 of Rebellion's Fire

He shrugged. “Impulse. I spent a summer up here with Earl Malcolm when we were young. Before Stracathro. I wanted to see if I could find some of the places I’d been with him. Wish I hadn’t bothered,” he added, rubbing his head. “Your natives hit first and don’t bother with the questioning.”

“They probably took you for a king’s spy. They know all the noblemen of Ross, and you’ll have stood out like a sore thumb. Especially in the middle of the night.”

“Probably?You mean you didn’t catch them? Why, then, do I still have my weapons and my purse?”

“They ran off when I shouted. There were only the two of us, and I chose to look to your wounds rather than pursue the culprits. They must be better trained than I’d imagined,” Cailean added—slyly, Fergus thought, “if they managed to track you and take you unawares.”

“Ah well, I was distracted,” Fergus said with as much dignity as he could muster.

Cailean grinned. “The girl?”

With relief, Fergus saw that Cailean didn’t know, that he hadn’t been following him and seen who his captive was. What’s more, his way out had been handed to him on a platter. He grinned back and nudged Cailean before struggling to his feet. “You’ve guessed. I’m not as old as you think. Though maybe I should stick to one task at a time!”

Cailean threw himself onto his own horse. “I know the Lady of Ross and the young lords would want me to apologize on their behalf for what occurred,” he said formally. Then he grinned again. “And we’ll look out for your girl on the way. She’ll have taken cover when the idiots attacked you.”

“Then they didn’t take her?” Fergus said. Another surge of doubt assailed him. He wasn’t sure he was buying Cailean’s story and yet there was no way he could doubt him publicly without admitting his own crime. Damn it. Either the fates or the MacHeths had tied him in knots.

Chapter Sixteen

In the shelteringlee of a hill, Adam MacHeth halted his horse and dismounted.

“We’ll camp here,” he announced, leading the animal a few steps toward a tree to which he could tether him.

“Can’t we just keep going?” Christian said. “I’m sure I didn’t come so very far with Fergus.”

“Far enough,” Adam said with odd grimness. Having tied the horse, he straightened and reached for Christian.

She caught at his hands on her waist. “I would rather go home.”

“I need to sleep,” he said as if that settled the matter.

She supposed it did. But as he drew her inexorably down from the horse, she couldn’t help demanding shrewishly, “Why? Aren’t you tough enough to last a few hours beyond your normal bedtime?”

“Not when I didn’t sleep the night before either,” he replied without rancor.

Having set her on the ground, his hands loosened, but she caught at his arms with both of hers. “My people will believe you abducted me. Again. They won’t believe some nonsense about a high-born stranger wanting me to marry his son.”

“By people, you mean your husband.”

“He’ll add it to the other folly,” she said impatiently. “But there are more concerns now. I…” She trailed off, trying to look away from his unblinking gaze and failing. “I thought I was becoming their lady,” she said in a rush. “I need respect.”

He was silent a moment. Then, “You have respect. Your husband’s opinion does not weigh with them. Besides…” a smile flickered across his face in the moonlight and vanished, “spending the night with me will not damage you in Ross.”

She wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, but since her whole body flushed with heat, she released his arms and pushed past him. “I need to be home. The fire could have damaged the hall.”

“I believe the hall is saved.” He bent, heaving some brush and bracken off a hillock, which turned out to be made of firewood. This was clearly an oft-used camping ground. Adam bent and lifted a pile of wood, carrying it a few paces before setting it down and building a fire with quick, familiar efficiency.

“It wasn’t you, was it?” she said. “You didn’t fire the castle.”

He shook his head, concentrating still on the firewood. “Fergus did that. Partly, I suppose, he imagined he was doing us a favor. And perhaps showing us that he could so easily do what we’d failed to. And partly, he wanted to draw you out and abduct you in the confusion.”

Without meaning to, Christian moved nearer. “That’s what I don’t understand. Who does he imagine I am?”

Adam took the tinderbox and flint from the bag at his belt. A cloud had drifted over the moon, and she could barely make him out. Patches of lighter and darker black hung together. When he’d abducted her three months ago, it had been in daylight. Maybe because she’d come to no harm then, she wasn’t remotely afraid of him now in the dark.

I should be. I should be very afraid.

A sudden spark of light, the quick flare of a flame, caused her to jerk backward. Although she’d known what he was doing, she must have been more affected than she’d realized by the fire scare at the hall.

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