Page 27 of Intrigued By A Highlander (Highland Revenge Trilogy #2)

CHAPTER 27

D ru dismissed the servants, letting them know she didn’t need them. She then found her way to the kitchen, sweet talked the cook into giving her some bread and cheese to take with her while she walked through the village.

In no time, she was strolling cautiously through the village, the cool autumn air crisp against her skin. Her curiosity drew her deeper among the cottages, where she spotted a familiar face—Mara, a woman she’d spoken with briefly during a previous passing.

Mara looked up from her task, her brow wrinkling. “Dru, is that you?”

Dru smiled warmly, joining her. “It is.”

She returned the smile. “I almost didn’t recognize you all cleaned up.”

“Aye,” she said, offering no reason. “How fares the clan these days? It seems… changed.”

“Aye, changed indeed,” Mara replied softly, glancing around to ensure no one overheard. “Lord Torrance, he’s different now. Still quick-tempered and harsh when angered, but he’s seen to the repairs of our homes and stocked our supplies for winter. It has everyone whispering.”

Dru leaned closer, intrigued. “Whispering about what?”

Mara’s eyes darted nervously before answering quietly, “Some wonder if he plans to winter here, and why he hasn’t returned home to his wife, Esme. His actions puzzle us all.”

Dru considered this carefully, but her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by shouting. She turned quickly as did Mara, her eyes going wide with fright at the sight of a young lad, barely five years, in the grip of a large, rough-handed warrior who shook him violently.

“Penn!” Mara cried, running toward him.

Dru followed, realizing the lad was Mara’s son.

“Please, Elden, he didn’t mean anything,” Mara pleaded.

“He’s annoying, always asking questions, always getting in the way,” Elden said, giving him another good shake.

The lad paled, and his small arms stretched out in desperation to his mother.

“I’ll keep him out of your way. Please just let him go. He’s just curious, that’s all,” Mara begged.

“A good beating will knock the curiosity out of him,” Elden said with a sneer and raised his large hand.

“Only a coward would pick on a small child who doesn’t have the strength to fight back,” Dru called out for all to hear.

Gasps were heard and people stopped their chores to stare.

Elden tossed the lad aside and Mara rushed to grab him and hurry him away, though not far enough that she couldn’t see what might happen to Dru.

“You’re the one who needs a beating for calling me a coward,” Elden threatened.

Dru laughed. “You’d have to catch me first and you’re too big and fat to be able to do that. And you’re ugly too.” She wrinkled her nose. “And good, Lord, do you stink. Did you shite yourself?” He didn’t really stink, not much, but at least it kept him distracted from the lad.

Laughter was heard.

Elden’s face blossomed bright red, his chest heaved, and he snorted like an angry bull about to charge. “I’m going to beat you senseless.”

“What are you waiting for?” she challenged, dancing backward as she waved him on.

Elden snorted again as he charged at her, but she was prepared. She swung her cloak off and threw it over his head as he got near.

He fumbled as he tried to pull it off but only made it worse and lost his balance, falling to the ground and bouncing when he hit it.

Cheers erupted and Elden pulled the cloak off his face just as Dru took a bow.

“I’m going to kill you,” Elden said through gritted teeth.

The crowd went silent, and no one dared move.

Elden scrambled to his feet and pulled a dagger from his boot, but again Dru was prepared.

She had spied a bubbling cauldron not far from her and she ran towards it.

Elden sneered and went after her. “You can’t get away from me.”

When Dru reached the cauldron, she grabbed one of the wood bowls nearby and dunked it in the cauldron to scoop up whatever bubbled. She turned just as Eldon reached her and threw it at his hand.

He screamed, dropping the dagger.

Dru backed away from him. “You should be grateful I didn’t throw it in your face and leave you uglier than you already are.”

Laughter was heard again.

Elden grew even more furious when he saw that his fellow warriors were joining in the laughter.

“Why are you just standing there? Grab her!” Elden shouted.

Dru let out a hardy laugh. “You prove your cowardice by demanding help and against who—a wee bit of a lass.”

The other warriors stepped back, one calling out, “She’s right, Elden. You shouldn’t need help against the likes of her.”

“My hand is injured,” Elden cried out.

“You’ve got another hand,” a warrior called out with laughter.

Dru realized how bad this could turn out if she continued to humiliate him and she had enough people hunting her. She didn’t need another one.

“What do you say we call a truce, and you have the healer look at your hand?” she offered.

“I don’t surrender,” Elden argued.

“Clean your ears out. TRUCE. I said TRUCE,” she shouted at him as if he were deaf. “And your word that you leave the lad alone.”

“He’s the one who bothers me with endless questions.”

She shook her head. “How he could think you have all the answers is beyond me.”

Elden looked ready to argue again and stopped, wrinkling his brow as he rested his burned hand against his chest. “That lad is a bright one, seeking wisdom from me.”

Dru took a chance and stepped towards Elden. “Yet you chase him. Shake him. Frighten him.”

Mara was suddenly at Dru’s side, handing over her cloak while her son clung to her leg. She looked nervously at Elden. “The healer is tending to someone. I can see to your hand if you’d allow me to.”

Dru admired Mara’s courage to make friends with him to keep her son safe.

“Best not let Penn ask him anything,” Dru warned, looking at Elden.

“Hold your tongue, woman, Penn can ask me anything he wants,” Elden said and looked down at the small lad and smiled. He raised his head after the lad returned his smile. “And you’re lucky I’ve agreed to the truce, or I would have given you a good beating.”

A commanding, powerful voice cut through the air. “If you had touched my wife, it would have been the last thing you ever did, Elden. And that would be a shame, the man who once saved your life ending it.”

Elden turned and stared wide-eyed. “Knox. I didn’t know, I swear. I didn’t know she was your wife. I never touched her. She kept me at bay. Burned my hand. Called me a coward.”

Knox turned to his wife. She was grinning. He flicked his finger at her. “Come here.”

Dru scooted past Elden, who stepped back to avoid her getting too close.

Brack hurried toward them. “What is going on here?” His glance caught Eldon’s burned hand. “What happened? Who did that to you? I will see him punished.”

Knox grabbed his wife’s arm when she went to step forward and claim the deed.

“A mishap that’s all,” Elden was quick to say. “Mara was about to tend to it for me.”

“Then go and be done with it,” Brack ordered. “And the rest of you get back to your chores.” He turned to Knox and pointed to a sole cottage sitting at the edge of the woods. “That one is for travelers. You can stay there until Torrance returns and there will be no interfering with village matters while you’re here.”

His warning was stern, but it didn’t deter Knox from issuing his own caution. “Then don’t give me a reason to.”

Brack tried to find a response, his mouth opened ready, but words failed him. He watched Knox and Dru walk toward the cottage thinking at least Knox would be no match for Torrance when he returned.

“What about be careful, do you not understand, wife?” Knox demanded once he closed the cottage door behind him.

Dru ignored his question on purpose and asked, “You saved Elden’s life?”

“That doesn’t work with me,” he said, shaking his head.

“What doesn’t work with you? Was it during battle you saved him?”

Knox grabbed his wife by the waist, lifted her off her feet to set her down on the table in the confined space, then he braced his hands on either side of her. “You will not avoid my questions.”

She went to kiss him, and he turned his head away.

“And you will not distract me.” He watched her eyes shift over his shoulder. “And there will be no pleasure in that bed tonight if you don’t explain and right now.”

“Oh, all right,” she said, capitulating. “Elden was about to give Mara’s son a beating simply for being curious, so I had no choice but to step in. I called him a coward, told him he was fat and ugly and that he stunk. Then I asked if he shite himself. I told him he could never catch me, and I threw whatever was bubbling in the cauldron on his hand to make him drop his dagger. He shouted for help to other warriors, and I may have said something about how he proved himself a coward needing help against a wee bit of a lass. The wise person that I am, realized things could turn badly if I continued to humiliate him, so I offered a truce.”

He shook his head. “Could turn more badly than they already were?” He shrugged. “How did you get yourself into that much trouble in so little time? Wait,” he said before she could answer. “I forgot my wife’s penchant to save everyone while worrying her husband senseless.”

She tapped his chest with one finger. “Have I changed since we wed?”

He looked at her oddly. “Nay.”

“Then why should this surprise or upset you?”

“That’s easy to answer. Because when we first met you were nothing more than an annoying waif but now—now you’re my wife, the woman I love deeply. The woman I can’t bear to see harmed. The woman who should consider her husband before creating or charging into a foolish situation that could end badly. Could end with him losing her.”

She rested her hand against his chest and pressed her brow to his. “I understand. I truly do and I know how frustrating that must be for you, but—” She raised her head and looked into his eyes, eyes that flicked with worry, annoyance, and love. “I don’t know how to walk away when I see another suffer senselessly.”

He kissed her gently, her soft response reminding him of her soft heart. “We need to have many sons.”

She shook her head confused. “Why?”

“Because we’re bound to have a daughter just like you and I want her to have an army of warriors around her, so I have help keeping her safe.”

Dru smiled. “That sounds like a good plan.”

Her stomach grumbled.

“Didn’t you eat?” he asked concerned.

“A bit of bread and cheese.”

He lifted her off the table. “Let’s get you more food.”

The air felt colder to Dru when they stepped outside, the clouds overhead promising rain or would they get a hint of an early snow tonight?

“I feel a touch of snow in the air,” Knox said, their arms hooked snugly.

“I thought the same myself and I am glad we will have a roof over our head tonight and a warm bed to sleep in.”

“I forgot to ask if you learned anything helpful before getting yourself into trouble,” he said.

“Mara told me that everyone wonders if Lord Torrance intends to spend the winter here since he had repairs made to the village and the food sheds stocked. Otherwise, why would he make such changes? She says he’s still quick-tempered and harsh when angered and that his actions puzzle the lot of them.”

“He’s not a man who trusts easily or speaks openly about his plans. He never told Brack that he sent a dozen men to escort me here,” Knox explained.

“I wonder why the mystery and why summon you when you have yet to complete your mission. Unless…”

Knox knew her thought. “You think he may have found a woman he believes is Autumn.”

“It’s possible.” She didn’t like to think that but… “What if a desperate woman, looking to improve her lot, approached him and claimed to be Autumn?”

“It’s a reasonable thought and even more reasonable… do we let the lie stand? Would it hurt to let her have a better life?”

“But would she?” Dru argued. “What if she is wed to a brutal man? And what of those who want her dead?”

“And what if she only exists in our minds?” he said with a chuckle.

“We can do nothing but wait and see what Lord Torrance says on his return here,” Dru said and smiled as they neared the kitchen. “I’m starving.”

The cook was generous with them, and they returned to the cottage to enjoy a filling meal and when they finished, they both spied the bed at the same time and tumbled into it eager to make love.

The sudden sound of a horn blaring had them rushing out of bed and Knox rushing for his sword. The sound was one that alerted the village to an unknown troop’s approach.

“You run and hide if fighting breaks out,” Knox ordered her. “And please, wife, do not fight me on this.”

“I will hide,” she promised, though she did not let him know she would also watch and be there for him in case he needed help.

They stepped outside and joined the others waiting to see who arrived.