Highland Rake (8 page)

Curious glances were cast his way, the speculation already on whether or not something more would come of this. But his men had to also wonder what a mess they could be in if James was angered at Dougald for bringing the lass to Craigly Castle.

When the sky turned various hues of lavender streaked with pink as the sun began to set, Niall drew his horse closer to Dougald's and said in a low voice, though he was careful to speak words that would not cause any trouble for them if the lass was only feigning sleep, "You know what James might do about this matter, do you no', cousin?"

Dougald didn't want to ponder what James might decide. James had to do whatever was best for the good of the clan. Options were too numerous to consider. Dougald didn't want to waste his time attempting to sort out and guess at what his brother might decide.

Dougald shook his head, not about to be drawn into a conversation concerning the matter. Not when there was not much he could do about it anyway.

Before the sun disappeared behind the mountains, Dougald said, "'Tis time we make camp. Here."

They had ridden out early in the morn three days ago, just looking for thieves or the like to apprehend, feeling their oats, unable to sit still at the keep while things had settled down since James had wed his wife, Lady Eilis.

Dougald had been thinking about returning to see how Malcolm and his Lady Anice were faring, seeing if they had more trouble there where they might need his sword arm. Now he couldn't leave. Not until this issue with the Cameron lass was resolved.

He handed the sleeping lass down to Niall, then dismounted. A lad led Dougald's horse away to join the others, tying them together in a group.

Niall waited while Dougald rolled out another plaid of his, then motioned to it. "She can sleep there."

Some of the men had gone off to hunt. Some were gathering kindling for the fire. Others were tending to the horses. A couple were standing watch. No one had to be told what to do. Everyone knew their duty.

"Watch her," Dougald said to one of his men, then joined Niall and strolled away from the camp with him so they could speak privately.

"I believe she is who she says she is," Niall said, "so why did you send Gunnolf back to look for the shepherdess?"

"To see for ourselves if what she said about the shepherdess and her involvement with one of our clansmen was true."

"What are you thinking, Cousin?" Niall asked. "That Lady Alana didna tell the truth?"

"I am no' sure. What if the wench isna carrying a babe? What if this is all some elaborate scheme to cause difficulties between James and the Cameron? 'Twould not be the first time that a clan chief created such a ruse. Why was she alone? When she saw me coming down the hill, she didna run away, like any lass from another clan might have done."

"Aye, Dougald. But remember when Lady Alana came across the border to aid our kinsman? Delivering Kyle's babe when the mother and son would have perished? Kyle's wife had lost two bairns already, and our healer was too ill to travel far that day."

Deep in thought, Dougald rubbed his whiskery chin and thought he probably looked a bit like a barbarian to the lass, then folded his arms across his chest. "How did the lass know about Kyle's bairn?"

"Kyle told me he had ridden across the border in search of her as soon as he had learned that our healer was too ill and that Lady Alana was visiting the shepherdess. He begged the lass to help his wife. You have been away these past several months so you might no' have learned about it, but the word has reached our clan as to how the lady is a well-respected healer among her people. Even our own healer wishes to speak with her and share techniques someday."

"I see." That might have accounted for the other fragrant herbs he'd smelled on her, very pleasing.

"If you dinna trust the lass, think you we should have attempted to find Rob MacNeill first and let her go on her way?"

Now
that
Dougald couldn't have done. Not only because he would have feared for her safety if she'd been traveling alone at night, but because damn his hide, he'd caught her, and he really didn't wish to let her go. Not that he wanted to keep her, permanently, he kept reminding himself. She didn't even like him.

"Do you know how long it might have taken us to find the right Rob MacNeill? With us being near the border and remaining there for too long, a battle might have ensued. If she had spoken the truth about who she is and the Cameron had learned she was with us and come after us, she could have been injured or killed in the fighting."

"Aye."

Dougald looked back in the direction of the camp. "Mayhap, though, the Cameron knew that Rob MacNeill was a common enough name. What if the Cameron shepherdess isna carrying a child? Or if she is, 'tis no' one of ours? What if—"

"Lady Alana isna Lady Alana?" Niall asked, arching a brow.

"'Tis entirely possible. That is why I decided to place her squarely in James's lap. He's the laird. She crossed the border, and he can decide her fate."

"His lap," Niall said, his smile returned, the connotation that she had not been placed in the laird's lap but Dougald's own for the long ride here.

"'Tis too bad she is a Cameron wench," Dougald said, acknowledging that despite his feelings that he should not be interested in such a woman, he
was
a bit intrigued.

He motioned for them to return to camp.

They would eat, get a few hours of sleep, and ride again with all haste for the MacNeill stronghold, and James's quick resolution in the matter concerning the lass.

Then he and Gunnolf would be off on a new adventure. One that would have all to do with fighting battle-hardened men for a good cause, while leaving the lassies—and the trouble that always seemed to get him into—alone.

James MacNeill snuggled in bed with his bonny lass, Eilis, unable to believe she was now carrying his child, though as many times as he'd bedded her since they had wed, the news shouldn't have been all that surprising.

They'd made love and she was sound asleep, he only drifting off, when someone opened the door to his chamber. He was instantly out of bed, sword in hand, until he saw his advisor with a lad of six and ten, Tavis, who had ridden with Dougald to inspect their lands for trouble.

If the lad had returned this quickly and was the one wishing to speak with him near the crack of dawn, something was amiss.

James threw on his plaid and belted it, then joined the men in the corridor, shutting the door behind him. "What has happened?" He envisioned Dougald and Gunnolf in a dark dank dungeon again, needing his rescue.

The boy looked done in, having ridden long and hard to get to the castle that quickly. He swayed on his feet, his face dirty, his eyes bleary.

Eanruig's black hair hung about his shoulders, a shadow of a beard clinging to his hard jawline and his blue eyes narrowed with worry as he clasped his arm around the lad's shoulders to hold him upright.

James said, "Get him some ale and something to eat, would you?"

"Aye, that I will do." Eanruig hurried off to the stairs.

James sat the boy down on a bench and again asked, "Tavis, look at me. What has happened to Dougald and the others?"

"He bade me come as quickly as I could, my laird. I rode to the village to exchange horses, just as you taught me when word needed to be sent quickly."

"Aye, aye, but what of our men?"

"'Tis the lass they have with them that is the trouble." Tavis yawned, dark circles shaded the skin beneath his green eyes.

"A woman?" James would have laughed, knowing Dougald and the way he was always getting way over his head when it came to women. But the boy looked too worried to make light of it. "What woman?"

"The Cameron lass she said she was."

"Cameron lass?" James wasn't following the gist of the trouble.

"Aye.
The
Cameron lass. The niece of the Cameron himself."

James's mouth gaped for a moment. "Lady Alana?"

"Aye." The boy nodded vigorously, the mop of red curls covering his head shaking violently, shedding dirt from the long ride.

Eanruig rejoined them, mug in hand and a chunk of brown bread in the other and gave them to the lad.

"What is the trouble?" Eanruig asked James.

"Seems Dougald has captured the Cameron's niece."

Eanruig's eyes widened.

"Aye," James said on a heavy sigh. He looked at the boy as he greedily drank of the ale. "He took her hostage, I presume? She was trespassing on our lands?"

"Aye, my laird. She was indeed. Near Fairen's lands where he grazes his sheep. But he wasn't grazing his sheep, and instead she was spying on Dougald and the other men while they were bathing in a loch.
Naked
."

As if there was some other way to bathe in a loch. James raised his brows. "Indeed. And you?" The lad looked like he hadn't bathed in months. Smelled like it, too.

"I was the guard. And I spied her first."

"Aye, good thing, too."

Tavis frowned up at James as if he had something really bad to tell. "Dougald took off after her without the rest of us to watch his back. The men said he shouldna have run off after her all alone like that. Gunnolf said Dougald wanted her for his own. Niall said he wanted the fae."

"The fae?" James asked, surprised.

"Aye. That was what they called her. She looked like the fae with the white clouds and blue sky behind her, while she was wearing blue like the sky."

The fae.
James recalled rumors that some said Lady Alana was of the fae, that her father saw her home after he had been murdered. He'd heard Lady Anice, Malcolm's wife, had the fae ability to see into the future. Dougald had been worried about Malcolm's safety, should the woman turn out to be a witch.

James didn't believe in the superstitions of his people or of those of other clans'. As a young girl, Alana had obviously been distraught to see her da and the others in her clan murdered in front of her. James could imagine Alana envisioning her father was with her, ensuring she made it home all right, when in reality she had been in shock, too scared to know what really had happened.

"What was she doing on our lands? Did she say?" James asked the lad.

Tavis put the half empty mug and partially eaten chunk of bread down on the bench, then rubbed his eyes. "Looking for Rob MacNeill."

"Rob MacNeill? There are at least a dozen or more men named such in our clan." Why would the Cameron lass be looking for one of James's distant kin? Or he may have been a man who had sworn allegiance to the clan and taken their name.

"Aye, that was what your brother said."

"Which one was she looking for and why?"

"She said Rob was the father of one of her kinswomen's bairns. She wanted him to know of it. She said he was a sheepherder."

James cursed under his breath, annoyed one of his men could be so foolhardy, risking his own neck for what? "Where is Dougald now?"

"He and the rest of our men and the lady are on their way here."

James closed his eyes for a brief moment, then opened them and said, "Tavis, get your rest, lad. You have done well."

Clutching the mug of ale and the chunk of bread again in his tight grip, Tavis nodded, then stumbled off toward the hall where he would take a pallet with others sleeping there.

"What will you do?" Eanruig asked, sounding like he wasn't even sure how to advise him in this matter, when he usually had no trouble speaking his mind.

"Return the lass home with great speed and take care of the matter of Rob MacNeill and the Cameron wench, who is carrying his bairn."

"Rumors are rampant that the Cameron is making arrangements with another clan to wed his niece off to their clan," Eanruig warned.

James frowned at him.
He
hadn't heard any of the rumors. "Which clan?"

Eanruig shook his head. "'Tis a guarded secret, which is why I have no' come to you with the news prior to this. Those who say he is in negotiations say he threatens death to any should we hear of it before he officially releases the word."

James let out his breath in a huff. "One of our enemies then, no doubt."

"Aye."

"'Tis fortunate she is on her way here then." James was coming up with a much different plan for the lass.

"How so? Will you blackmail the Cameron into giving up the negotiations for the safe return of his niece?"

"And once he had her back, he would wed her to whichever clan he decides on? Nay, if the lass is who she says she is, Dougald will wed her."

Eanruig offered a rueful smile. "He may no' like the idea."

James waved his advisor's concern away. "Dougald loves all the lassies. He has taken it upon himself to bring her to us. Seems only fair, he should have every right to claim her." James clapped his advisor on the back. "Ready a contingent of men to meet Dougald in the event the Cameron learns of this and attempts to pursue them across our lands."