Page 61 of Hunting for a Highlander (Highland Brides 8)

The priest noted the way Dwyn sneered at his suggestion that they were eager to wed, and frowned slightly. “Is aught amiss, Lady Innes?”

“Nay, Father Machar,” Brodie said for her. “Go ahead. Let’s get this done so we can celebrate this blessed union.”

Father Machar gave him a repressive look and said solemnly, “I asked Lady Innes.”

“It’s Lady Buchanan, Father,” Dwyn corrected him gently when the priest turned to her, and then announced, “I married Geordie Buchanan a month past.” She managed not to flinch as all hell broke out around her.

Chapter 16

“We shall have to keep ye guarded until we locate and capture the bastard,” Aulay announced. “I’ll—”

“Or,” Geordie interrupted, “we could use me as bait.”

“Brother,” Aulay began with a frown.

“He has Dwyn,” Geordie said sharply. “And the bastard’s clever. We had men searching Buchanan for weeks after the attack at the waterfall and he managed somehow to stay hidden in the woods between here and there all that time, evading all of our men.”

Aulay’s eyebrows rose at the suggestion. “What makes ye think that?”

“Well, how the hell else did he ken to attack us there today?” he asked pointedly.

“That is a good point,” Aulay murmured thoughtfully.

Geordie was silent, his own mind mulling over what he’d just said. It was hard to believe that the Buchanan soldiers had missed a small group of men hiding in the Buchanan woods, let alone a larger one the size Katie had mentioned. Yet how else could they have known to be there today unless they’d been there all along? But if they’d been there all along, why hadn’t they attacked him and Dwyn on the way to the waterfall? Why wait to attack them on the way back? And why kill Simon? He shook his head. None of it made sense.

“Ye’re shaking yer head,” Aulay said quietly. “Like me, ye’ve suddenly realized something is no’ adding up.”

“Aye.” Geordie sighed the word, and raised a hand to run it through his hair, but paused as he recalled the linen bandages wrapping his head and the wound beneath them. Letting his hand drop, he scowled and said, “There is no way Buchanan soldiers would miss even one man on a horse in the woods, let alone a large group.”

“Nay,” Aulay agreed solemnly.

“So they were no’ there all this time?” James Innes asked with a frown.

“Nay,” Aulay assured him, and then glanced back to Geordie expectantly.

“Which means they were only there at that time because they knew I’d taken Dwyn to the waterfall and would be traveling that path to return,” Geordie reasoned. “They’d no’ be likely to risk getting that close to the keep otherwise.”

“Aye, they must have kenned ye had taken her there or were going to take her there and set themselves in the woods along the path, ready to ride out and stop ye when ye rode past,” Aulay suggested. Geordie didn’t comment, but something still wasn’t right.

“And they mistook the maid and yer second for Geordie and me Dwyn and attacked and killed the wrong man,” James reasoned.

Geordie shook his head at once. “Katie has dark hair, and Simon fair. They could no’ have been mistaken for Dwyn and me. We are the opposite. She is fair and I am dark.”

“Oh, aye,” James Innes said with realization. “Then why kill the man?”

“That is the wonder,” Geordie murmured, going back over matters in his head, before glancing to Aulay and asking, “Ye said Katie and Simon left directly behind Dwyn and me?”

“That’s what the men on the wall said,” Aulay assured him. “Katie was seen coming out o’ the keep behind ye and Dwyn, and she and Simon rode out five or mayhap ten minutes after ye and Dwyn did, but no more.”

“So, she fetched him for the ride,” he said thoughtfully, and then glanced toward the window as the sound of the men on the wall shouting greetings, and the thunder of horses on the bridge, came through the window.

Aulay walked to the window to peer out. The angle he was at allowed Geordie to see the way his eyebrows rose and the smile that pulled briefly at his lips before disappearing. Turning back, he announced, “Saidh and Greer, Dougall and Murine, Niels and Edith, and Conran, Evina and her cousin, Gavin MacLeod, are riding across the bridge with their escorts. The MacKays and Sinclairs are with them.”

Geordie knew they were returning for the wedding. He hadn’t expected them to come to Buchanan first. Meeting them at Innes would have shortened the journey for them, but he said, “Ye should go greet them and tell them what’s about.”

Aulay nodded and headed for the door, but as he reached for the handle, Geordie added, “Ask Katie to bring up water and a clean linen for me. I would wash Simon’s blood off me. Make sure ’tis Katie.”

Aulay’s hand dropped from the handle without opening the door and he turned to Geordie, one eyebrow raised.

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