Taming the Wild Highlander 04 (7 page)

"
Do you wish to speak with me in private about the matter?" he asked, trying to sound gentle and encouraging. He thought he sounded much too warrior-like instead because if someone had attacked her, he would be dead by his hand.

Niall and Gunnolf watched
her closely, waiting for her answer.

"
Mayhap one of them will believe me when you willna," she said softly.

Well, that put him in his place.
"Then tell us what happened."

She didn
't. Instead, she stared at her flask of mead as if that would give her courage.

"
Lass, did someone make untoward advances?"

Her head snapped around, jaw dropping, eye
s widening, and her skin grew flushed. Either he'd hit on the truth of the matter, or he'd shocked the lady to the tips of her shoes.

"
Och, nay," she quickly said, refuting the whole awful notion. "'Tis my brothers who are in harm's way, and I must find them."

Her brothers. They had been on their way to see their cousin
McEwan from what James had said.

She rose from the chair and began pacing across the s
mall shieling, but away from him and his friends. Once she started speaking, she didn't stop. Pacing back and forth, her hands doing some of her talking, she was so animated and concerned for her brothers, he stood motionless, fascinated. His attention focused on the way she moved, the lyrical quality of her voice, the way her blue eyes flashed with worry, and then shifted with heartfelt eagerness. Her skirts moved around and between her legs as she walked, her actions mesmerizing.

"
Did you hear what I said?" she asked, suddenly stopping, facing Angus.

His gaze shifted from the outline of her breasts to her face, her
now narrowed cat-like eyes, and her pursed soft pink lips.

As if she
'd been speaking to Niall instead, he said, "Aye, you have some fae gifts."

Angus stared at Niall. What had the lass said?

Gunnolf finished his mead and stood. "'Tis obvious those are no' the only gifts the lass possesses." He smirked at Angus as if knowing he had missed the whole conversation.

Angus
wondered if Gunnolf had been watching him while Angus couldn't get his eyes off the lass.

"
So we take the lass back to her castle now, Angus?" Gunnolf asked.

"
My brothers are rotting away in a dungeon some place, and you dinna care?" Edana asked, her tongue sharp, but tears filled her eyes. A few spilled down her cheeks, and she brushed them angrily away.

Niall cleared his throat and glanced at Angus, his expression
beseeching him to take care of this before she dissolved into weeping fully. Gunnolf was the only man Angus knew that seemed immune to a woman's tears. If Angus knew more what the lass had said, he could respond, but he was afraid she'd weep even harder if he asked her to repeat her words all over again. Though this time he would pay attention.

"
If you knew where they were being held," Gunnolf said, "we could attempt to free them. But you dinna know that,
ja
?"

She looked at Angus, appealing
to him to be the word of reason, to say he would help her in her time of need. What had she said?

"
How do you know your brothers are incarcerated in a dungeon?" Angus asked.

She threw her hands heavenward.
"Were you no' even listening? And you thought to dismiss your friends and hear my plea alone?"

Mayhap he would have listened more astutely then. Or…
mayhap not. The woman was beguiling.

Niall sat up taller.
"She said she has a fae ability to speak with people who are close to her."

Angus raised his brows at Niall. Wasn
't that what they were all just doing? Speaking…to each other? How was that special?

"
In her head, Cousin," Niall said, sounding exasperated as if from a look he had discerned Angus had mistaken his words. "Not like what we are doing now."

Angus tried not to frown at the lass, but he wasn
't quite following the gist of the conversation.

"
I canna speak to my brothers," she said, sounding exasperated that Angus was not the only one who had missed what she had said.

Angus felt a wee bit vindicated.

"I can hear them calling out to me. Pleading with me to send help to free them."

At first, Angus hadn
't believed that his brother Malcolm's wife, Lady Anice, could see future events, but he'd witnessed enough of her visions that had come true, that he'd become a believer. And his brother Dougald's wife, he truly believed could commune with ghosts. So mayhap if they had special abilities, Edana had them also.

Yet, he still had a difficult time
imagining she could experience such a thing as
this.

"
Where were your brothers going when they were captured?" he asked, as if he thought the scenario might be true, not humoring her, but thinking they might check into the matter—after they left her with her father—to set her mind at ease.

The relief and thanks in
Edana's expression surprised him. No matter what was going on, she truly believed in what she had told them.

She quickly sat
down at the table again. "They were to return in a fortnight after seeing our McEwan cousin. But somewhere along the way, they crossed paths with someone who took them prisoner. I only know my brothers wouldna have done anything wrong to have deserved such treatment. They have to have been mistaken for some others."

"
I dinna understand how you can know this," Angus said.

Sounding vexed—though whether with him or w
ith herself, he wasn't certain—she let out her breath. "I…I dinna know how I can only capture some words and not others. Or how I can discern who has spoken them as if every thought had a voice of its own. But I know they were not said aloud. They were willed to me when the person in trouble thought them…breathed emotion into them…focused on the words and called out in distress. My brothers
are
in trouble."

Angus and his companions didn
't say a word. He wasn't sure what to believe.

She folded her arms and looked absolutely cross at him.
"Not even my brothers had wanted to trust in my abilities, even scoffed at them, although I suspect they did so in part to assure our clan that I am no' touched by the fae. That I am a great storyteller, naught more. Except for one thing. What I warn my clansmen of always is the truth and comes to pass. And no one can explain that away. For years though, I have kept my abilities to myself and attempted to help people without revealing how I knew they needed it. No' that they didn't suspect the truth."

She expelled her breath.
"But now, my own brothers are desperately seeking my help. At least I believe they are and not that they are just thinking the thoughts and I am receiving them not due to their own attempts to reach me."

"
Your da asked us to find you. Did you tell him what you had heard?" Angus asked.

"
He doesna like it when I discern things I couldna possibly know. And he ignores them for the most part. He worries about my revelations, but he doesna give into them. I had no intention of remaining at the keep while the clan believes my brothers will return in a fortnight when I know better. I will locate them on my own if I have to. The closer I am to where they are incarcerated, the better I can hear their pleas, and I will finally be able to isolate their location. Once I do, I can tell my father
exactly
where my brothers are being held prisoner, and then he can send men in to free them." She waited for Angus to agree or disagree.

W
hat bothered Angus most was that he was certain she had not talked to her father about this or he might have posted a guard to ensure she did not run off on her own.

"
You didna tell him what you had witnessed, did you, lass?"

She pulled her hands into her lap, tilted her chin up
, giving a haughty and stubborn look that was utterly appealing, and said, "He wasna interested in what I had to say."

He studied her—the determination in her expression, no hint of dishonesty. She wasn
't lying, yet something wasn't being said. He wasn't sure what, but he wanted to know.

"
You tried to talk to him."

"
Aye," she said quickly as if she didn't wish to discuss the matter further.

"
And he wouldna listen to you."

"
Nay."

Angus rubbed his chin, the stubble softer now. Then he folded his arms.
"You tried more than once? When he wouldna listen?"

"
He was more concerned about other matters," she said, dismissively.

"
Such as?"

Her face reddened. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Niall quickly glance at him.

Angus
knew
there was some other reason for her being out here alone. And he didn't like it. "Who were the men you were with?"

At that, she raised a brow.
"Are you serious?"

Aye, he was. Only mayhap he had not gotten the scenario right
this time either. "Your da will want to kill them when he learns who they were and that they took you beyond the keep without his permission."

Her face paled a bit.
"They…they know I speak the truth. They wanted to help me find my brothers as much as I did."

"
To earn your favor?" Angus asked, unable to curb the harshness in his voice. Neither of the men should have ever left the keep with the chief's daughter, except with his blessing. And he suspected one or both of the men were sweet on the lassie.

Her cheeks
blossomed with color again. He'd never seen a woman wear emotions on her face as much as she did.

"
Of course, no'!"

He didn
't believe her. He couldn't imagine any man not wanting the lass…well, except maybe because of her peculiarity. "And now because of their actions, you were alone and vulnerable. What if someone had come upon you and had wished you harm?"

"
I dinna worry about being alone. I have my sword—which I already used on a brigand—and I have my dirk. I had no choice. Not when my brothers need me."

Angus
stared at her in disbelief and snapped his jaw closed. How could she have survived an encounter with someone who wished ill of her? "Tell me, what manner of man did you dispatch with your sword?" He couldn't imagine unless the man was small, drunk, and half starved. And unarmed. Mayhap a green lad. He couldn't visualize her fighting with her wee sword either.

"
Similar to you in build," she said.

He didn
't believe it.

"
Of course I was taller, seated upon my horse."

Angus wanted to curse out loud. The woman could have gotten herself killed.
"And if there had been more of these big ruffians to attempt to stop you?"

"
More than the two might have given me difficulty," she agreed.

"
Two?" Angus said in disbelief.

Gunnolf grinned
. "She would make a good Viking bride."

She gave him an annoyed look.

Niall shook his head. "She doesna need a man to escort her.
She
can be the escort."

"
Did you injure them?" Angus asked, ignoring his friends' jests. His stomach knotted at the notion she could have been injured or killed.

"
Their pride, I warrant."

"
Then they are no' dead?" He knew she couldn't fight a man and take his life.

"
Nay."

"
Then they are still out there."

"
Aye, aye. Are you willing to help me?" she asked.

"
A dungeon," Niall said, skeptically. "You promise we willna end up in one, Angus, if we attempt to prove the lass's claim true and run into trouble of our own?"

She reache
d over and took Niall's hand and squeezed it. "Thank you. When do we ride out?"

When had Niall taken charge of their destiny?

"We will return you home and ask your da about the route your brothers took. We will see if there are any keeps along the way and verify that your brothers are not locked in any of them. When we find them, we will send word of them home."

She frowned at Angus
, and he could tell his plan was not agreeable to her. "I will go with you."

"
Nay, you willna, lass. Your place is home with your da."