Passion and Plaid - Her Highland Hero (Scottish Historical Romance) (6 page)

Kenna sighed heavily. Lachlan took the hint.

“Ach, I’m sorry lass, I willna press anymore. I
know I’ve said too much already. But just know that whatever you do, your
secrets will be safe with me – with this town. We need you and Gavin and the
rest of them more than you can possibly know.”

“No,” Kenna replied. “After what I just watched in
that courtroom, I’ve got a right good idea of just how bad things are. But
Lachlan, just keep your head down, and
don’t tell anyone
. Do you
understand?”

“Anything you need, Miss Moore, anything at all.”

She thought for a minute, and when Lachlan made to
leave, she grabbed his shoulder. “I’m famished.”

A smile crept across his lips. Kenna knew his
sort. He really just wanted to help, but felt powerless. Even giving him a
small favor to do, she knew, would do wonders for him.

“As luck would have it, one of the few things
Lachlan knows is about food. C’mon lass, I know an inn with a fine array of
sausages and a big, round bartender not far from here.”

Even with his jovial grin, Kenna sensed the pain
behind his words. If there was any question in her mind about what was to be
done, it faded as she followed her new friend.

What
exactly to do, though, remained a
mystery.

E
dinburgh Road North

August 17, Just Before Dawn

––––––––

T
he sound of a horse’s hooves startled John awake.

His first move was to shield Lynne from whatever
it was that had crept up on them in the dark of night, and his second was to
yank the long knife from his boot and get to his feet.

“What’s wrong, John? Is someone there?” Lynne said
from behind him.

“Shh! Stay down.”

Looking over to their snuffed-out campfire,
Two-fingers counted the lumps. One for everyone – Ben, Olga, Elena, Rodrigo –
and then Lynne was behind him. So it wasn’t one of them. In the darkness of
night he couldn’t see much anything else. The moon was fat, round and silvery,
but the little clutch of trees they’d picked to set up camp meant that all it
did was cast shadows.

“Someone’s out there,” he said, tapping Ben on the
shoulder.

“Who?”

“Well, if I knew that, I would tell you. Keep
everyone here quiet; I’m going to go see if I can find them. I heard a horse,
then a sound like boots crunching into the leaves, but nothing since. Lynne’s awake
too and keeping her head down, right over there.” He pointed with a nod of his
head.

“Right. Be careful.”

“You don’t have to tell me that. Keep ‘em quiet.”

“Aye, if there’s trouble, yell.”

“You don’t have to tell me that either,” John said
with a grin in his voice. “Be right back.”

John had lived in shadows for years. Even before
he and Gavin met up, he spent most of his time darting in and out of places he
wasn’t supposed to be. It wasn’t for any real purpose – he had plenty of food,
and his parents were of modest means but certainly no worse off than many
others. He just loved going places and seeing things that most people didn’t
know existed. His favorite pastime was overhearing meaningless meetings, like
the time he spied on the Presbyter at his kirk for an entire afternoon and
learned the intimate details of how much it cost to have the plaster and
windows washed.

Crouching low, he moved silently in the direction
from where he heard the sound. He gripped the hilt of his knife with slow,
measured squeezes of his hand. In a clearing twenty yards or so ahead, he
thought he saw the shape of a horse. He leaned backwards against the trunk of
an ancient oak and tightened his gloves. With his trusty long dagger in one
hand, he pulled his short parrying dirk from his belt, balanced it carefully,
and resumed creeping forward.

He snapped his head around when a twig broke to
his left, but saw nothing. A breeze slid around him, followed by a soft whine
of wind moving through the leaves. As he crept near the edge of the trees, he
was able to make out that he was right about the horse. And more than that,
there was a man seated on the back of it.

Man and beast stood there, absolutely still. The
only sound, the only move they made was the horse shaking his head back and
forth every so often. Jets of steam came out of its nose when he neighed and
shook his head.

Another
snap
made John spin on his heel.

He looked left, then right, still seeing nothing.
The man and the horse were still there, still not moving.

Snap.

It was right behind him. He turned and stuck his
knife out in front, but when he struck, he hit air. The back of John’s neck
tingled the way it does when someone was watching from a distance. He wanted to
call out to the man on the horse and make him identify himself, but he kept
quiet.

Stop spooking yourself. There’s no ghosts in
these woods
. Another twig cracked to his left and he turned, this
time he caught a shadow moving just out of his line of sight and then he felt a
glove on the back of his neck, and then cold steel on his throat.

He froze.

“Drop your knives. Now.”

He did as he was told. Two thumps followed as his
daggers hit the forest floor.

“Don’t make a sound or every last one of them
dies.”

“R – right, alright. Who are you?”

Whoever had him by the neck snickered.

“Who are you, cruel bastard?”

“You were wrong,” said his captor.

“Wrong?”

“About the ghosts. One of them has you by the
balls.”

Gavin couldn’t help himself anymore; he slid his
knife back into his boot, and turned John around with his hands on his
shoulders. As soon as he did, he started laughing.

And then a fist shot out and caught him square on
the chin.

“Ow! What was that for then? Is that how you greet
your best friend?”

“You obnoxious bastard, you scared me half to
death. A shot in the chin is the least you deserve. God above, it’s good to see
you. I’ve been worried sick since the sheriff made an appearance in Edinburgh.
How’d he get away?”

“Ach, right to the point, aren’t you?”

“Aye, and here’s another. How did you find us?”

“As to the first, he lied to a stable boy when we
stayed at an inn. To the second, when Ben and Rodrigo drink, they both like to
talk very, very loud. The fire didn’t hurt either.”

John held him still for a second longer. “It’s
damn good to see you Gavin. And to see you’re alright. Kenna? Is she?”

“Aye, she’s well.” As Gavin answered, he got a
twinkle in his eye that was plain to see even in the shadowed forest. “We’ve
run against some trouble in Mornay’s Cleft. The mayor is...”

“Wait a tick,” John said, putting his hand on
Gavin’s shoulder. “The others will want to hear it too. Save it for them.”

“Right, but now you have to answer me a question.”

John cocked an eyebrow.

“Why are you out here? And with everyone along as
well?”

“We were going after you. We saw the sheriff and
feared the worst.”

“You’re good friends, you lot. The best a man
could ask for.”

“You are too, that’s why we were coming. But since
we had no idea where you were, we’ve a few days of supplies. Hungry?”

“Always. Lead the way,” Gavin said, walking after
his friend. “Whisky?”

“Are you offering?” John said. “Sure, I’ll take a
dram.”

Gavin laughed. “I don’t often think to pack
whiskey as the first thing when I’m on a short trip.”

“Oh right, of course. Aye we’ve got some. Go get your
horse and your effigy. I’ll go rouse the others.”

“John, one more thing. You’re the one who taught
me to make that sort of dummy. Shouldn’t you have recognized it?”

“Ghosts,” John said. “When you think you hear
ghosts moaning, it’s hard to think about much else.”

––––––––

“W
ell I’ll be damned,” Ben Black said as he slapped
Gavin on the shoulder hard enough to make him almost fall over. “If it ain’t
the prodigal son of Scotland hissel’! Wouldn’t you know it as soon as we go
lookin’ for him he shows up here!”

“Aye, I heard you laughing from about four miles
away, Ben,” Gavin said. “I thought I should probably come by and make sure you
hadn’t got yourself a family of lambs.”

Rodrigo snickered, John laughed, Lynne rolled her
eyes but smiled, and Ben stared right at Gavin and crinkled his forehead. “What
use would I have for lambs? Got no place to keep them.”

John pulled him aside and whispered in his ear.

“Oh! You right bastard, Gavin Macgregor!” Ben said
with a start.

Another round of laughter burst from the lot of
thieves and someone handed Gavin a little clay cup with the dram of whisky he’d
wanted so badly. First he sipped, then he quaffed the rest all at a go, and no
sooner than he did, another one appeared in his hand.

“It’s good to see all of you again. Feels like a
great deal longer than the two days it’s been.”

“Indeed,” Rodrigo said, clapping Gavin on the
back. “I do not think you have met Elena, my wife.”

“I was moments from asking after this beautiful
lady,” Gavin replied with his customary dashing manner. “A pleasure.”

“Oh! Yes! And pleasure from you, too,” Elena said
blushing.

“No, no,” said a thick German-accented voice from
beside Ben. “We say ‘A pleasure to meet you, too,’ Elena.”

Elena corrected herself but as she did, Olga
pushed past her much smaller friend and took Gavin’s hand, shaking vigorously.
“I have heard more about you than you probably want me to have heard.”

“Well, that’s...May I ask your ladyship’s name
before you take my arm off? We should get you a sword, or a hammer.”

A smile spread across Olga’s broad face. “Kenna,”
she said. “Kenna told me all about you and your courage and your...muscles, and
your...”

“Right, right, Olga, very good,” John cut in. “Gavin
is very tired and needs some-”

“I was about to say
your charming smile
,”
Olga interrupted right back.

“Ah, yes, Olga! Kenna told me so much about you.”

“I am! Will we be seeing Miss Kenna soon?”

“Oh aye, I think you will. She’s just up the road
in Mornay’s Cleft. She’s-”

“John, you are a child made man,” Lynne said,
reaching up to grab her lover’s ear and twist it. “We’ve all heard the name of
the town and laughed at it when we were young, and here you are, firmly out of
youth, giggling away.”

“I’m sorry!” John chortled. “I canna help it, the
town, cleft? Mornay’s? You couldna come up with a better name if you tried.”

“If you think the name is so funny, you’ll enjoy
that the inn where Kenna’s staying has a pair of lady’s legs on the sign. Seems
even the people living there canna get enough of the joke.” Gavin grinned. “Or
they know everyone else tells it, so the innkeep just went along.”

For a moment, everyone breathed, recovering from
the mixture of emotions and laughter that had gripped and shaken them since
Gavin returned. John fiddled with some kind of rod upon which was mounted a
mirror.

“What’s that ridiculous little toy?” Gavin said to
his friend.

“This isn’t any toy. You can use it to see around
corners, providing the light’s with you.” John replied.

“Dinna help you any when I caught you.”

“You’re a bright one, you know that? How’re you
going to use a mirror in the dark?” John asked.

“She – Miss Kenna – she alright?” Elena said,
cutting in.

“Is Miss Kenna alright, Elena, is how we say
that.” Olga corrected.

“Ah...aye, she is,” Gavin said, amused at the two
women. “She is. She’s staying behind to look around the town. There’s a bit of
a strange mayor at work there. He seems to have taken to overcharging the
people of the town a great deal. Causing some strain. Apparently the farmers –
or some of them anyway – are being pushed off their land, and then he buys it
up and is clear-cutting it to make some sort of plantation. There’s more to it,
and if you ask me, he aims to get everyone out of work and then put them to
working at his farm.”

“That being the case, why are you here?” Ben
asked. “And as to that, why is the sheriff free?”

“Ah, that. Aye, well, when we got to Mornay’s –
which is the name I’m using to prevent John from losing concentration – we took
a room at an inn and though I wanted to bring him inside with us, the innkeeper
insisted he’d be secure in the back. I left him in the care of a rather strong
stable boy, who was eager for the job. Must’ve been a good break from his
normal boredom, I suppose. But Alan, being Alan, promised him a huge sum of
money to be let free, which he’ll never play. The young man felt terrible, and
I canna blame him. The hundred Crowns the sheriff promised would have fed his
family for years.”

“And you had a sweet thing waiting for you inside,
ah?” John nudged him in the ribs. That time, even Lynne started laughing.

“Ach! That’s the truth of it. I was distracted! I
couldna think of anything but Kenna, of her smile, of that flaming, red hair
and those bright lips that I so love to kiss.”

“Do you hear this John? Do you?” Lynne said. “This
is how you talk to a woman. Best learn of it.” She gave him a squeeze and
giggled at his squirming.

“I think most men could learn something from the
way Mister Gavin talks. And how he looks, and those arms,” Olga said in a very
serious voice.

“R – right, right, thank you Olga,” Gavin said,
chuckling. “But there it is. I left the sheriff in the stables and when I went
to take him food the next morning and get the equipment ready for travel, he’d
gone.”

“If only he knew he’d never see the money,” Rodrigo
said with a sneer. “That lying bastard would do anything to save his own skin.”

“Aye,” Gavin said. “As I was riding here, I made
up my mind that the sheriff was going to pay his promised debt. Not sure how to
force him to do that, exactly, but something will occur to me. And that’s why
I’m here, too. I came to fetch him and drag him back north. We canna leave
Mornay’s Cl- Mornay’s yet.” He winked at John. “But it’s still my intention to
deliver the sheriff to Glasgow for trial when we can.”

“If it’s the sheriff you want, we can take you to
him,” Ben said. “He’s been on his best behavior. He’s in Edinburgh.”

“Aye, John told me you saw him.”

“For a fact, we did. He was pissed-drunk and
screaming at some tavern keeper,” Ben said.

“Sounds like Alan.” Gavin nodded. “Though all the
same, I’m not sure if we should. I mean if I should – go and get him.”

“The man must be made to answer for his crimes,
Gavin,” John said, his voice short. “Blood, sweat and tears we shed to stop him
the first time, we canna just let him go.”

“Aye, but I find myself wondering if it’s worth
it, or if he’s made such a laughingstock of himself that his own shame is good
enough.”

John clicked his teeth and Lynne scowled.

“You canna be serious, Gavin Macgregor,” she said.
“I can see in your eyes that you’re longing for your lady love, but just wait a
tick. You’ve spent your whole life without her, no?”

“Aye, I have, but-”