Page 16 of Highland Treasure (Highland Brides 9)

Rory’s eyebrows rose at the admission. “M’lady, I canno’ imagine anyone thinking fer a moment that ye’re weak. The verra fact that ye’ve sat a horse fer the better part o’ the last two days with yer back and side as black bruised as yer face fair boggles me mind. I’ve tended grown men, warriors, who did naught but lay about and moan for days after suffering less damage than was done to ye. Ye’re no’ weak,” he assured her.

“Her back and side are as badly damaged too?” Alick asked with dismay. While they’d all heard her tell of the beating she’d taken, Rory recalled then that only he, Tom and Simon had seen the damage done, and then they’d only seen part of it. He suspected that black bruising that covered her back and side ran down over her buttocks and at least the upper backs of her legs too. Perhaps even her shins.

“Aye,” he sighed, and then turned back to Elysande and paused at the narrow-eyed gaze she was giving him.

“So you did come upon me in the woods earlier than you let me think,” she accused quietly.

“Er . . .” Rory muttered, his gaze shifting to Tom and Simon, who were looking about as dismayed as he felt. And he was feeling like a boy caught sneaking a peek at the maids at their bath. Any minute he expected his mother to come box his ears.

“And you saw me naked.”

Rory shifted his eyes quickly back to her with alarm. “Half-naked. Ye still had yer breeks on,” he pointed out.

“Breeks?” she asked with bewilderment.

“We call them breeches,” Tom explained to Rory, and then told Elysande, “And it is not his fault that he saw you, m’lady. We were all quite concerned when you were gone so long from camp, and the three of us set off together to look for you. Me, Simon and Lord Buchanan.”

“It was too much to hope you’d leave me out of it, wasn’t it?” Simon muttered under his breath with disgust.

“Well, you were there too,” Tom pointed out with exasperation.

“Aye, but she didn’t know that,” Simon countered.

A small burst of laughter broke up their bickering and they all turned to peer at Elysande. Rory was surprised to see her eyes dancing with amusement.

“’Tis fine,” she told her men at once. “I am not angry, Simon. I suspected you may have arrived sooner than you let it be known anyway. I was just teasing.”

The soldiers looked relieved, and then Tom assured her, “All we saw was your back, m’lady, and God’s truth I was so focused on the bruising ’twas all I saw.”

When Elysande merely nodded and began to eat again, the rest of them continued eating as well, and it wasn’t until everyone had finished before anyone said anything more. This time it was Tom who asked, “How long should it take us to get to Sinclair?”

“Better than two weeks,” Rory said.

“Two weeks?” Elysande asked with dismay.

“Aye,” he said slowly when she continued to stare at him with horror. “Sinclair is nearly as far north as ye can go in Scotland. We have to cross the whole o’ it to get there, and after two days’ travel we are no’ even out o’ England yet.” He paused briefly, and then added, “We could do it more quickly had we each a spare horse to switch to halfway through the day, but as we do no’, ’twill take better than two weeks to get there,” he explained, this time stressing the “better than” part.

“And that is only do we no’ end up snowed in here or somewhere else until the spring,” Alick added.

“Nay! We cannot be snowed in here or anywhere else. The spring will be too late to warn him. I must—” She stopped talking suddenly and snapped her mouth closed. Rory cast a questioning glance at Tom and Simon, but the two men looked as bewildered as he was by her upset.

His gaze slid sharply back to Elysande when she stood abruptly.

“I need to think. I mean, sleep,” she muttered, and left the table. They all watched silently as she turned away and hurried from the room. But the moment she disappeared down the hall, Tom and Simon stood to follow.

“Who do you think she was talking about when she said spring would be too late to warn him?” Alick asked.

“And what does she need to warn whoever it is of?” Donnghail asked.

“I’m thinking it has something to do with what that de Buci bastard was looking for,” Conn said slowly.

Rory glanced at him sharply. “Ye think she knew what de Buci was after the whole time and allowed her mother—”

“Nay,” Conn interrupted, shaking his head firmly. “No daughter would see her mother beaten and not give whatever she must to save her. Neither do I think her mother could ha’e stood by and watched her beaten without speaking up either.”

Rory relaxed back on the bench at those words, relieved that Conn thought that way, because he did too. There was no way he would believe that Elysande or her mother had known what de Buci was after.

“But,” Conn added now, “’tis possible the bastard said something during those times he tried to rouse Lady Elysande’s mother when she was feigning sleep. Or perhaps the guard in the dungeon said something to Elysande that gave away what the man was looking for.”

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