The Highlander's Enchantment Read online

  Chapter 6

  They’d come over the hill, while the fair maidens dressed in white had rolled amongst the heather, their shifts dewy and clinging to their forms like a second skin.

  When Edan and his men were spotted chaos ensued. Women and men started to run.

  One lass among them all had stood out as she boldly faced Edan and his men, the sleek darkness of her hair striking against her white night rail and sun-kissed skin. It was enough to cause Edan to hold his breath. What woman simply stared, spine straight, shoulders squared, looking prepared for battle when an army advanced on her?

  Had she been stunned or ready to cut him down?

  Saints, but he’d probably never know, and yet he couldn’t get her out of his mind. Even now as he tilted his head toward the top of the twenty-foot wall, taking in the men who glared down at him, images of his approach flashed in his mind.

  Every last one of them had scrambled over the bridge, and the gates had been closed tight, the resounding thud of a heavy wooden bar being put into place echoing in the stillness of the dawn air.

  Up on the wall, men pointed their arrows toward Edan and his men, the sun glinting off the tips of sharpened steel. Truth be told, he was grateful they’d opted not to shoot before finding out why he was there.

  “Show me Liam Sutherland,” Edan demanded once more.

  At last, his demand was met by the familiar, yet not well-known, face of Liam peering over the wall down at him.

  “How dare ye advance on my castle,” Liam roared, narrowing his eyes. “Who the hell are ye? What the hell are ye doing here? And why in bloody hell are ye asking about Blair the Not So Fair?”

  Edan had to force himself not to smile. Liam was making it hard not to like him. He had to remember this man may have caused the demise of his brother and might be holding a woman captive. Though seeing how freely the sprites just danced and rolled in the fields had Edan growing ever more skeptical about this last bit.

  “I see ye dinna recognize me, though ye’ve not cause to remember me other than we served the king at Stirling together until ye took your place here. I am Edan Rose, recently named laird of my clan. I’ve a number of matters to discuss with ye, Sutherland.”

  Liam waited a moment before saying, “And how do ye bloody well know my sister’s name? And by what reason would ye have cause to insult her?”

  That gave Edan pause, and he frowned. Blair existed. And she was his…sister? And insult her? Perhaps by calling her plain?

  Whatever the cause might have been, it was obvious the missive could not be taken seriously. Or at least, the likelihood was very slim. Edan gritted his teeth. What kind of game was someone playing? Edan didna believe in coincidences, and the fact that he’d been lured here at all under two suspicious accusations was making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. However, no matter the circumstances, or how false they may be, Edan needed to talk them over with Liam to be certain, one way or another.

  “We can address the issues shouting over the wall, or ye could invite me in,” Edan said, his voice strained. “I didna come to war with ye.” Unless ye give me cause.

  “Ye think I’d invite ye in after the way ye arrived? How do I know I can trust ye?”

  Edan grinned, trying to break some of the tension. “Ye’ve no cause to distrust me or my clan.” Unless ye murdered my brother.

  “Rose ye claimed?” Liam’s face bunched in confusion. “I’ve got no dispute with Clan Rose.”

  Annoyance simmered low in Edan’s gut, and he tried to tamp it down. “Have ye heard of my brother, Connor Rose?”

  Liam’s face was blank over the wall and Edan’s neck was going stiff from staring the twenty feet up at him and trying to decipher his emotions. “I’m afraid I didna know him personally.”

  “He died.” The words dripped painfully from Edan’s tongue, and he watched for any change in Liam’s stance, but there was only sorrow.

  “I’m verra sorry for your loss, but I dinna know what that has to do with me or my clan.”

  “This is nae your clan,” Edan baited, aiming to see if he could make Liam break. Such a statement would be enough to send some men to battle. What kind of man was Liam Sutherland?

  Liam frowned now and let out a growl, his chest visibly puffing even from this distance. “Nae my clan?” he bellowed. “I suggest ye take your army and shove off, Edan Rose, else I tell my archers they’re free to let loose a few arrows.”

  “I like your conviction.” Edan was impressed.

  “Is that it, ye’ve come to lay siege to the castle? To take your piece? The king granted me the title and the lands. I earned it by my loyalty and my duty. If ye’re who ye say ye are, then ye should be following the king’s edict, unless ye’ve become a traitor to your country.”

  Edan kept himself calm as he replied, knowing he’d goaded just this reaction from the man. In any other situation, he might have been angry. “I’ve fought for the king since I was a wee lad, Sutherland. This”—he pointed at the long scar on his face—“I received saving the king’s life. And trust me when I say, I dinna need a piece of your land or your title. I’ve lands and a title of my own. Lands and a title that should have belonged to my brother, but he was cut short of his life. Which is the second reason for my being here.”

  Liam was quiet for a moment, the anger slipping from his face to hide behind a blank slate. “Tell me straight, Laird Rose, and let us not continue to bandy words. Why are ye here?”

  “Again, I request we speak face-to-face, instead of shouting over the walls. Once more, I give ye my word I’ve not come to bring war to your feet.” He chuckled. “If I had, would ye nay see more of my men?” There was no need to tell Sutherland he and his men could take on a vast army with their low numbers.

  Liam pondered his choice for a moment. “All right. Only ye, though, and divest yourself of your weapons.”

  “Ye think I’d enter your castle alone and without a way to defend myself?” Edan chuckled. “Come now, I’m nae a fool.”

  “Ye came here. I didna invite ye.”

  “Aye, but the matter of my visit makes it imperative I’ve a way to protect myself.”

  “Then we must speak as we are, for I’ll not leave the safety of my walls, and ye’ll not enter what ye think is the danger of mine.”

  Liam was correct. They were at an impasse; neither of them trusting the other, and with cause.

  “Agree. Tell your archers to lower their bows and have your men turn their backs. I’ll have mine do the same to give us the illusion of privacy.”

  If Liam thought the request was off, he didn’t say so. He nodded to his men, giving the order. The arrows were lowered, and his men obliged their laird and turned their backs on Edan and his men. At the same time, Edan made good on his word.

  “Your backs,” he ordered, and his men shifted their horses backward, issuing more than a few grumbles of their own.

  This move was a show of trust on both their parts, however slight. For at any moment, one or the other could have his men turn and fire shots and their leader would not be protected. And the men would be unprepared. They were in essence, lowering their defenses.

  “Now, we are alone,” Edan said with a subtle laugh, which Liam returned. “And I’ll get straight to the point. My brother, Connor, was murdered a little more than a month ago. And I’ve four prisoners who swear they did the deed on your orders.” He purposefully left out the means by which his brother’s life was taken, so he could see if Liam would make a mistake.

  Liam looked stricken now, brows firmly drawn together, lips pressed. When he did speak, it was through bared teeth. “I’m no murderer, and I dinna like the insinuation of such.”

  “And yet ye stand accused.”

  “By ye and your mysterious prisoners. What makes ye think they tell the truth if they were the ones who carried out the murder?”

  Edan grimaced. “I didna take them at their word at first, which is why I didna come sooner. It is only recently
I felt it imperative I seek ye out.”

  “What changed your mind?”

  “The missive in the bottle.”

  “What missive?”

  “From Blair.”

  By now, Edan had memorized its contents, and so he recited it to Liam. “If ye’re reading this, then ye’ve received my urgent message. Come and save me from the chains that bind my soul… I fear without ye I shall perish at the hands of a most unjust captor. Fate has made ye my one and only knight. Ye’ll find me at Castle Ross. I am called Blair the Not So Fair, and it is almost spring.”

  As he spoke, Liam’s face grew darker and darker with rage at each word. “Is this some kind of jest? Do ye seek to insult me, Rose? I think ’tis time ye left, afore I have my men shoot a hundred arrows into ye.”

  “Allow me to speak with her,” Edan said.

  Liam laughed at that. “Ye’ve stormed my castle on the words of murdering outlaws and a mysterious letter my sister would have never written. Ye’ve risked your life and that of your men on falsehoods.”

  Now it was Edan’s turn to grow angry. A slow burning started in his chest. This was why he’d asked the elders to speak with him. This was why he was certain he was not cut out to be laird. And this was why he knew he was not worthy, that though his men stood with their backs to him, they would hear all that Sutherland said, with his mocking tone, showing how very much a fool Edan was.

  “If the lass wrote falsehoods that have brought an army to your gates, should ye not speak with her about it?” Edan said.

  “I’ll not subject her to such, especially not at the request of a stranger. She’s an innocent, and ye play a dangerous game.”

  “All the same, it was her name. Who would have written the missive in her name, if she’d not penned it herself? Why in the span of a month has your name, and the deeds ye may have done, touched my ears? Even if false, Sutherland, ye must admit the coincidence is nay a coincidence at all.”

  Liam’s frown deepened. “We will settle this easily, Laird Rose, and then ye’ll get the hell off my lands.”

  “How do ye propose that?”

  “Let me see the missive.”

  Edan gritted his teeth. If he let Liam have the missive, he could destroy it, and if he didn’t then they would never know the truth.

  He would have to risk losing this piece of evidence in order to gain answers, which he was willing to do in order to put this fiasco to rest.

  “And what of the accusation of murder?”

  “I dinna know your brother, nor would I have had any cause to murder him. I’m an honorable man, Rose. I dinna go about plotting the murders of men.”

  “There is a rumor going about that ye wish to control the Moray Firth, that the garnering of Ross lands was only the start.”

  Liam shook his head and chuckled. “Ye know I’m just a soldier like ye, Edan. I was not born to be a laird. I earned it. And this land I was granted, this title, it was not easy to take. Why would I risk that? Why would I risk my family, my clan, my king’s trust?” He shook his head. “Would ye?”

  “Nay,” Edan said gruffly, finding it irritating that Liam was pointing out ways in which they were similar when he’d come here to face down a possible enemy. To bring his brother’s murderer to justice. He was coming up empty, because as much as he wanted to have found the man responsible, he believed Liam.

  “The bastards who came to your castle, who rot in your dungeon, are no men of mine. We face our foes; we dinna cower behind walls. If they claim to be Ross men, then they are deserters, for all the men who’ve pledge allegiance to me remain behind these walls. Ye have my word as a loyal subject of King Robert the Bruce.”

  Edan drew in a long breath, most of the last vestiges of his suspicion shattered. “I believe ye wouldna, for I wouldna. But that doesna discount that these men, and possibly others, are trying to name ye as a traitor and murderer. I’ll agree to show ye the missive.”

  Liam nodded to one of his men and said something Edan couldn’t hear. Then he turned back to him. “We are going to open our gates, raise our portcullis partway and lower our bridge. One of my men is going to come out to retrieve the missive. Dinna approach. Dinna have any of your men turn around and dinna attack my man, else an arrow will pierce your heart faster than ye can draw breath.”

  “Aye, ye have my word.”

  “Good.” Liam waved his hand, and moments later, Edan could hear the creaking of the pulleys as the bridge was lowered and the portcullis raised only halfway.

  He scanned the wall, taking in the number of guards and the arrows pointed directly at his heart. Trusting that none of the archers’ arms would get tired and accidentally let an arrow fly, Edan fixed his gaze on the single man walking over the bridge toward him.

  Perhaps the same age as Liam, with hair the color of fire, the man made quick work of the bridge with long strides. When he reached Liam’s mount, he nodded.

  “I’ll bring it back to ye,” he said.

  Edan acknowledged the man and handed him the bottle that held the missive.

  The warrior eyed the bottle and winged a brow. “What’s with the bottle?”

  “How it arrived.” Edan didn’t give him any further information than that.

  The man bobbed his head and as soon as he was back beneath the portcullis and it had been lowered, so too were the arrows pointed at Edan’s heart.

  The minutes ticked by for what felt like hours. He wanted to turn around and ask Raibert what he thought of the way things were evolving, but he didn’t want to endanger his men by one of them turning to look at him as he spoke. So instead, he took the time to scan the castle tower, noting it was perhaps five or six stories high with thin arrow-slitted windows and crenellations on top that housed one—nay, two—guards.

  Liam shifted on the ramparts and waved the bottle in the air to show he’d received it, and Edan waited patiently as he uncorked it and dumped the small missive into his hand.

  He stared down at the parchment for longer than it took to read it, which told Edan he was reading it over and over just as he had. And it told him something else—Liam recognized the hand.

  At last, Liam muttered something to his men, and then called over the wall. “I invite ye in, Laird Rose, along with your men. We’ll dine in the great hall. I trust ye’ve not had a chance yet to break your fast?”

  “Not yet,” Edan said with a curt nod. “We thank ye for your hospitality.”

  Liam grunted down at him. “Ye’ve Blair the Not So Truthful to thank for that.” The words were perhaps not meant for Edan to hear, as they were muttered, but Edan heard them all the same as they floated down to him from the ramparts.

  So it was as he suspected, and the lass had indeed written the missive.

  The creaking of the pulleys was heard once more, and Edan directed his men to approach with caution.

  “Are ye certain we can trust him?” Raibert said. “’Haps ’tis is a trap, just like the one the men laid for your brother.”

  “We’ll be cautious, but I suspect if ’tis were a trap, he’d not allow all of us to enter his walls fully armed. He’s extending his trust to us as well, for he doesna know with certainty we will nay attack once we cross the bridge.”

  “True enough.” Raibert glanced up at the ramparts, and the men whose bows a moment ago had been knocked and ready to kill but were now slung docilely over their shoulders. ”Ye think his sister wrote the missive?”

  “Aye.”

  “Why?”

  Edan shook his head. “I didna have sisters, so I dinna know.”

  “I had sisters,” Raibert said, “but I never paid enough attention to know if they did anything so reckless.”

  Reckless, aye, ’twas. But if Liam’s sister was a wee lass, there could be some measure of forgiveness, nay?

  The bailey was lined with warriors, some in Sutherland colors and others wearing the Ross plaid. Liam crossed toward them dressed in both—a plaid that looked to have been fashioned out of both colors, w
ith Sutherland pleated around his hips and Ross colors swung over his shoulder.

  Edan dismounted and handed his reins wearily to a wee stable lad who stared at his scar with terror. Liam approached, arm outstretched, and Edan didn’t hesitate to grip the extended offer and show of respect. The man’s grip was strong, and they held on to one another longer than necessary as if to show just how strong they both were.

  “Welcome to Castle Ross,” Liam said, his tone as ironic as his words, since the day before, Edan had considered challenging Liam to a fight until he’d come to his senses and realized questioning him would be more appropriate.

  Liam handed Edan the bottle with the missive inside. His face was blank, eyes hard. “I believe this belongs to ye, Laird Rose. Though if ye burned it and forgot about it, I’d be in your debt.”

  “I take it ye recognized the hand.”

  Liam gave a curt nod. “Aye.”

  “Then consider my visit one of neutrality, as I intend to see it returned to the rightful owner. Allow her the chance to explain and perhaps burn it herself.”

  “I’ll not allow ye to harm her, and the Earl of Sutherland, our father, would likely deny ye the chance to greet her.”

  Edan frowned. “I’ve never harmed a woman in my life. And if ye deny me the chance to meet her, allow me to at least lay eyes on the woman who believes herself not so fair and yet worthy of rescue.”

  Liam grunted. “I’ll think about it. And what of your previous accusation?”

  “On hold for now.”

  Liam’s eye twitched, and Edan was certain the man was not happy with that. He wouldn’t be either. He’d not said he thought Liam responsible, but he hadn’t said he didn’t think so, either. And that had to sting a little, especially after Liam had offered him and his men a place at his table.

  “I mean no offense, Sutherland,” Edan said, extending an air of camaraderie. “I hope ye understand my position. If it were your brother…”

  “I’d be the same way.” Liam shook his head and swung out his arm, showing Edan the way inside. “As much as it pains me to have such an accusation thrust at me, I fully understand your reservations, and I do intend to help ye get to the bottom of it. Let us go inside.”