A Highlander's Home (2 page)

Chapter 2

             
Robbie
MacGregor
glanced at his brother
, wondering
if his collision with the woman had
addled
his wits
more than he had originally thought
.  He shook his head and pondered the dilemma
in which
they were now finding themselves.  The presence of this strange woman was already proving to be quite
disastrous
.

             
“So,” he began, trying to get his brooding brother’s attention. 

He cleared his throat twice, but still no response.

“Well?” he said, louder.

             
Blue eyes the color of the sky on a clear day met his. 

“Well what?” came the growl
.

             
Robbie
gestured toward the dirty, skinny, blonde tied to the saddle on the horse behind them.  “Well
…
that
.”

             
Leith, still frowning, barely threw a glance her way and met Robbie’s gaze.  “
She
is my intended wife.”  When Robbie continued to stare as if he was daft, Leith sighed and s
aid slowly, “S
he is Lady Brighton.”

             
That confused not only Robbie but Raine as well, making them both stare at him.  Robbie was frowning so deeply, his normally well arched brows became as one, while Raine’s face portrayed the horror and obvious distaste of being considered as one Lady Brighton.

             
She had to put a stop to this before it got
any further
out of hand.

“Um, excuse me,
”
she ventured.
 
Their attention was elsewhere
. 

             
Ignoring her, they continued their conversation.

Robbie asked, “How do you know she is the Lady?  She is not supposed to arrive for another month at least.” 

Looking ahead and staring over the grassy hills, he
said bluntly
, “Besides, no Lady would be dressed like…like…” he sniffed with disgust, “like that, looking
like
a man in those trews, all covered in dirt.  And not smelling anything like roses
as women should
.”

             
He had ventured too
far.
Realizing she was had
no chance of
escaping
these men, feeling slightly grateful to the man with ebony hair for saving her from
his
crazed
cousin
, she still was not going to let them
say that she was stinky.

“Excuse me!”

             
Two pairs of blue eyes flicked her way. 

She licked her lips and said haughtily,
“I do
not
smell.”

             
Leith gave her
a half smile.  “Lass, ye
smell so bad even the horse beneath
ye
is anxious be rid of
ye
.” 

And with that he kicked his horse into a gallop, leaving her open mouthed with a smirking
red-haired
Robbie.

             
Finally by himself for a bit, Leith took a breath and tried to relax.  He stretched his shoulders and twisted this way and that, trying to ease the kinks in his large frame.  If someone would have told him that this morning, he would have met his future bride while he was knocked flat on his back
as she tried to escape his mad cousin
, he would have thought they were daft.  He glanced over his shoulder just to confirm that she was really there. 

             
His cousin, Alisdair, would not let this go easily.  He did not take being thwarted lightly.  Truly, the only reason he had left with his group of brigands was because Leith was the chosen laird of his clan and
Alisdair knew they had crossed the borders into MacGregor land. 
Leith sighed again.  Alisdair would cause trouble over this.
 
He wo
uld have to be pacified.

             
For now he would have to deal with his future wife.  And deal with her he would, sternly.  What would the clan think when they found out she dressed like a man, smelled like a horse, and had more dirt covering her than the small army of children who ran rampant through the vi
llage?

             
He had a myriad of questions to ask of her.  What was she doing in the middle of a field on Alisdair’s land?  And did she say she had been naked?  Where was her father?  Why was she not being escorted like a proper lady on her way to be married?

             
Although h
is marriage had been arranged
and agreed upon
, he
had not had
much interest in it at the time
.  As long as she could breed sons and run his household satisfactorily, he would be content to carry on as he always had before with little or no interruption
from his normal routine.

             
Glancing over his shoulder once more, he wondered at the prospect of returning to that normalcy.

             
Behind him, Robbie surveyed his sister-in-law to be.  She did not look like much.  He could not quite tell how rounded her hips might be since she was riding, but he was not impressed and did not expect many nieces and nephews from her.  He sniffed.  Hmm, he thought, just Leith’s luck to be saddled with a skinny, dirty, --

His thoughts were rudely interrupted
when she reached out and kicked him.  “And what do ye think ye are doing?” he growled as he rubbed his shin.

             
She frowned and said through clenched teeth, “Stop staring at me like I am a brood mare.” 

He sniffed at her again,
and
decided that his brother can deal with this dirty little minx.  He left her and rode to catch up with Leith.
  Raine watched him ride away and catch up to the darker one
.
She
silently curs
ed
her luck.  She
had managed to escape the blood
thirsty ruffians, which was a good thing she thought, but then ended up as someone else’s fiancé, which was not so good.

She sighed and bit the inside of her lip as it began to tremble.
She just wanted to go home.

             
S
he rubbed
her dirty hand across her eyes, only to realize she had just put more dirt in them than she was wiping out.  With her arm raised, she got a large dose of her own smell
an
d grimaced.  Good grief.  They were right. S
he offended her own nostrils
.

She stole a glance around her.  The countryside was a brilliant green, a lushness she had never quite seen before.  A few large trees dotted the land and added to the picturesque beauty of the place.  The hills cut a jagged edge through the
clear
blue sky that was unobstructed and seemed to go on forever.  A blue that was quite similar to the eyes belonging to the man she had so ungraciously landed atop of a short while ago.

             
She grimaced as she remembered her
flight to freedom.  She had never meant to steal those clothes or cause any trouble.  After all, stealing clothes was nothing compared to walking around naked in the middle of a group of renegades, wasn’t it?  She tried to push away the picture that formed in her mind as she remembered her harsh arrival to this seemingly beautiful place.

             
The sky, so blue, so clear had suddenly darkened.  Raine glanced at her watch.  Half past five.  Professor Whittaker should have been here by now.  She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  Professor was a short, petite man with wild white hair.  He reminded her of Einstein with his passion for learning and hair that looked like he had gotten a bolt of electricity run throu
gh him at one time.
 

             
But where was he?  He had been very vague when he had asked her to meet him after class.  They were both histo
ry professors at the University.
He had mentioned that he had discovered some “interesting” facts about the stone ruins that had been discovered in an old crop field miles out of town.  To the
professor, that
meant that he had enough information to fill a book.  Raine scanned the street from her seat in the coffee shop where she waited for him.  It was not like him to be late – for anything.

             
The sky darkened still and was threatening to discard its contents and wash away anything that was not nailed down. 
She dialed his phone,
but no answer.  Five more minutes and she would leave, trying to get home before the storm hit.

             
Her mind wandered to the stones in that ancient field.  The town she taught in was small with one purpose, to farm. 
A person could drive for miles and not see a soul for all the open range.  Land was abundant here, but the weather was not so kind. For the better part of the year, the land was covered
in white, powdery snow freezing the ground, making farming near impossible.  There were acres of unexplored land here. 

             
Then someone had discovered the stones.  These archaic,
craggily
, rugged stones
that had been
hidden for centuries
in the open fields, left alone, forgotten.
 
             

             
She
left a few dollars on the counter,
and pulled her collar up a little higher.  The wind had picked up and carried a chill.  Odd.  It was spring.  .