Page 119 of A Highland Bride Disciplined

Her arms tightened around the bundle. “Aye. To see her grow. To let her ken us.”

He blinked, baffled. Then, with a slow curl of his lips, he asked, “Seeher? What are ye on about?”

Scarlett frowned the confusion plain across her brow as she angled the child away from Roderick, putting herself in between them. “Aye,her. Elise. Yer daughter.”

For a heartbeat, silence reigned. Then his smile snapped away. His face hardened like granite, eyes narrowing.

“Her?” he spat. He turned his gaze sharply to Kian. “Ye risked yer men, yer keep, all this —” he gestured wide, at the walls, the bows, the warriors lining the stones, “for auseless daughter?”

Gasps rippled through the courtyard. Tam’s hand twitched toward his sword. Out of the corner of his eye, Hamish closed the distance. Campbell growled low, audible even from the wall.

Scarlett froze, blood draining from her face. She clutched Elise close, as if her body could shield the bairn from the man’s venom.

Kian’s jaw locked. His eyes, dark and dangerous, fixed on Roderick. The tension in him was palpable, like a storm straining against the sky.

Scarlett could hardly breathe. The worduselessrang in her skull. Elise squirmed, sensing the change in the air, a fretful cry spilling from her lips.

And in that moment Scarlett knew —This was nae a faither’s relief. This was nae a man’s love.Whatever she’d told herself, whatever guilt she’d carried… it meant nothing to Roderick Hendry.

Nothing at all.

The insult hit him like a blade to the gut.Useless daughter.

Kian saw red.

His fists clenched at his sides, the pulse hammering in his temples louder than the stirrings of the men on the walls. Roderick’s voice carried through the courtyard, a snake’s hiss dressed in silk, but Kian barely heard the words. His gaze fixed on Scarlett and Elise. His wife rigid with shock, the bairn crying against her chest.

Then Roderick moved, and Kian caught it instantly. The bastard’s hand slipped to the hilt of his sword, and his body angled — not at him, but at Scarlett. At the babe.

“Scarlett!” Kian’s roar ripped through the courtyard as he closed the distance between them metal clashing loudly against metal as their blades collided. “Hamish! Now!”

Hamish was already moving, his face a thundercloud. “Come, lass,” he urged, pulling Scarlett toward the keep. Campbell flanked her, his own hand on his blade, his eyes promising carnage to anyone who dared follow.

Scarlett clutched Elise tighter, stumbling back but refusing to release her. Kian locked eyes with her for one breath, one desperate heartbeat. She was terrified, but she nodded once, fierce as ever, and ran.

The instant the door slammed shut behind her, and Campbell stood guarding the door, Kian turned.

Roderick was laughing. Dismounting his horse, spinning his sword at his side, the metal glinting in the torchlight. Kian’s men shifted, some raising blades, others looking uncertain, their earlier bravado faltering.

Kian drew his own steel in one smooth motion, his voice a growl. “Ye dare raise steel against the Lady of Crawford? Against a bairn?”

Roderick sneered, circling. “She tricked me. That whore birthed me a daughter. Worthless. I would’ve drowned her at birth if I were there.”

Kian’s rage boiled over. “Then it’s a mercy she never called ye faither.”

Kian lunged. Steel rang sharp in the night air.

The courtyard exploded into chaos — raging shouts, the crash of metal, the scrape of boots on stone. Tam barked orders, arrows already cleaving a path through Roderick’s men who approached on horseback.

Campbell’s men roared to the east, sending more scrambling than striking in the shadow of the wood. Behind him, Campbell roared, hurling himself into the fray of McTavish men who had made it inside the courtyard, Hamish was beside him, both men swinging like they were avenging spirits.

But for Kian, there was only Roderick.

Every strike was fueled by fury, every parry by the image of Scarlett shielding Elise. Roderick was fast, faster than Kian expected, but sloppy. Rage made him reckless.

“Ye think ye’re better than me?” Roderick spat, their blades locked. “She was mine. That maid belonged to me. I bedded her where I pleased, when I pleased. And I gave her the peace she asked for.”

Kian’s chest constricted. “What?”