Page 1 of Stolen Highland Dreams (The Highlanders #9)

PROLOGUE

“ H e shouldna lead. We must act now.” “Aye, Lennox will give the signal.” “Be armed. Be ready.”

Her heart pounding, Lady Margery heard the whispered words of sedition in a room off the hallway, sounding gruff and masculine, before she headed down the curved stairs to reach the great hall to break her fast with her clansmen.

Or maybe they were just the usual complaints of clansmen unhappy with her da’s rule. The same kinds of rumors had abounded before her da took over from his da three years ago. Wanting to know who was speaking to whom, she headed toward the room where she suspected the voices had come from.

With her heart beating hard, she paused and listened near the doorway but didn’t hear anything else. She pulled her sgian dubh out from her boot, held her breath, and peeked into the room, but no one was there.

Still, she was worried that the men meant business, so she headed to her parents’ bedchamber to warn them. She knocked on their door, and her da answered.

At first, he smiled at her, then frowned. “Margery, what’s the matter?”

Her da could always sense when she was worried about something, maybe because of the deep frown creasing her brow.

“I overheard whispers in the hall about Uncle Lennox taking over the clan's rule.”

Lennox was angry that their da had told the clan that Coinneach would rule when he died. Lennox had stormed out of the great hall, furious. She would have been sent to her bedchamber without a meal if she'd done that.

“For years, people have been saying that, even when your grandfather became the clan chief,” her da reassured her. “I canna lead our people if I show fear because someone mentions overthrowing my rule.”

“At least…”—tears filled Margery's eyes—“at least carry your sword to the table.”

She was never weepy, so it annoyed her that it had come to this. But she couldn’t emphasize enough how worried she was about her da’s safety.

He hugged her and kissed her forehead. “I will make sure that some of my guards are armed.”

“Do you know which ones are loyal to your brother?” It wouldn’t do to arm the wrong ones!

“Aye. Dinna worry yourself about it.” Then her da frowned. “We have more of a concern coming up.”

His voice turned from cheerful and unworried to dark and concerned, making her even more anxious.

“MacAfee informed me that he and his men are visiting in two days.”

“Nay.” Would MacAfee never get the message that she didn’t want to marry him and her da had no intention of wedding her to him either?

“We’ll get through the meal with him just like we have all the rest,” her da assured her. “Your mother and I will be down to the great hall momentarily. See to your brother. He is always late.”

“Aye.” She rushed off to her brother’s bedchamber. When she reached the room, Finnegan was grumbling with a nanny about having his hair combed out.

At five years of age, Finnegan could be a handful.

“Go and meet us downstairs. I’ll take care of Finnegan and bring him to your table in a few minutes,” Margery told Millicent.

“Aye.” Millicent curtsied and hurried out of the bedchamber, appearing relieved she didn’t have to deal with Finnegan further.

Finnegan allowed Margery to comb his long blond hair out. “Why do you give Millicent such a hard time?”

“She is always in a rush and doesna take care to no’ pull on my hair. It hurts when she does it.” He looked up at Margery with his blue eyes wide. “Why are you here?”

“Da is tired of you coming to the morning meal late.” Then she set the comb on the table beside the bed. “Come, we must hurry. I need to grab something from my bedchamber.”

“Then we will be late, and you will be the reason, no’ me, and they will still think it is my fault.”

She smiled. “Then you shouldna be so late all the time.”

She rushed him to her bedchamber, grabbed her sword and sheath, and attached them to her belt.

Finnegan’s eyes were huge. He shook his head. “No one is supposed to be armed at the meals.”

“Aye. Come, we must hurry.”

“Da willna approve.”

She tucked it so that the folds of her gown hid it. “Better?”

“Aye, but I still know it’s there.”

She ruffled his long blond, curly hair and dashed down the stairs ahead of him while he pounded them behind her.

At fifteen, Margery sat at the head table with her parents while her Uncle Lennox and cousin Michael, two years older than her, sat on the other side of her da. Finnegan sat with his nanny at one of the lower tables.

Everyone was eating. She didn’t see anyone wearing swords. Not even her da. Which meant if someone tried to kill him or her mother, she would have to fight them off.

Uncle Lennox lifted his mug of ale and took a swig of it. Michael watched him as if waiting for his da to start the mutiny. Maybe Margery was being a bit paranoid. On the other hand, if she was right, maybe Lennox didn’t plan to take over the clan this morning. Maybe tonight or tomorrow…or the next day.

Her uncle set his mug on the table and said to the gathered clansmen and women, "I'm sure you know how our da wanted me to lead our people, but Coinneach twisted his arm to obtain the position."

How could Lennox lie about such a thing? Everyone was silent, their gazes turning from Lennox to her da to see how he would respond.

Everyone had been there when her grandad had told the clan the news. No one had forced her granddad to give up command of the clan to her da.

She couldn't believe it. She looked at her cousin, Michael, to see how he viewed it. He nodded. Ohmigoddess, he was in on this, as she should have suspected.

Her own da frowned at Lennox, and she hoped to every god that existed that her da had heeded her words and that his guards were armed in case the insurrection took place today.

Her dad opened his mouth to speak, but his brother continued, "Enough of our people feel the same way. Today is the day to change the present circumstances. All those who back me say aye!"

Several men did. Her heart was beating like crazy. She glanced at her mother, whose face had turned ice white.

This was treason. Her uncle had to be mad. But when his men pulled unsheathed swords, Margery knew it was no longer just talk. His men were ready to fight their own kin to put Lennox in power.

Margery glanced at Finnegan. He was watching her, not their uncle. Margery pulled out her sword, ready to kill anyone who tried to hurt her da or mother. Even her aunt and other uncle were sitting at the table and she was certain they sided with her da.

Her mother placed her hand on Margery's arm, indicating she didn't want her to fight any of the warriors, but she would to protect any of her kin who sided with her da.

Then Lennox rose from his seat, and she saw his sheathed sword. As soon as he pulled his sword out and turned his sword on her da, Margery yanked her sgian dubh out of her boot and bolted out of her seat. Her da was never armed at the table, and despite her warning, he wasn’t armed today.

At the lower tables, the men clashed with a few of Margery's kin. Margery targeted her uncle when he tried to stab her da. Margery swung her sword at Lennox's sword arm as hard as she could, cutting him before he could hurt her da. He cursed at her, dropping his sword, and she cut him in the side with her sgian dubh after that before he could reach for his.

Two of her da's soldiers rushed forth and grabbed Lennox, forcing him back against a wall. He would die at their hands if her da commanded it.

But her da loved his brother, and despite what Lennox had done, he wouldn't have him put to death. "You are forever banished from our territory, brother," her da said. "All of you who engaged in the uprising are also banished. Keep their weapons. They will take naught from here but the clothes on their backs."

Margery had mixed feelings about it. What if Lennox encouraged more people to follow his cause? Most of their clan members loved her da, but she suspected Lennox would have given his cohorts more power if they sided with him in the takeover and they’d managed it.

Margery was shaking when her mother took hold of her arm. Margery’s sword and sgian dubh dripped with her uncle’s blood. Margery didn't even realize she was shaking from the fight until her mother touched her. She couldn’t help but feel badly she’d had to cut her uncle, but she couldn’t have allowed him to hurt her da.

Their healer, Mina, had left the table she was sitting at to see to Margery’s uncle’s wound, but Marjorie’s da waved Mina away and she inclined her head in understanding.

Lennox, his son, Michael, and the rest of the men were roughly escorted out of the keep. Though Margery's cousin had not followed through to fight her kin, he’d held a sword in his hand, and a guard had quickly relieved him of it.

She couldn't believe it. He had always been her best friend. Maybe that was why he hadn’t used his sword against her when she cut his da. Yet he hadn't hinted at what would happen on this day. How could he side with his da against hers when her da had done no wrong?

Her da took her weapons from her hands and laid them on the table. Then he hugged her tight. “You saved my life. For that, I will be forever grateful.”

Her mother still looked pale, and Margery’s five-year-old brother’s eyes were still wide with shock.

Margery hoped her brother and mother didn’t think she was a monster. At least her da had praised her and wasn’t angry with her. How her friends would view her after this was another matter.

Worst of all, MacAfee would be here soon to cause more trouble.

Two days later, when things had settled down after Margery's uncle and his followers had mutinied and been banished from the lands, they heard that Laird MacAfee was arriving at Cairn Castle within the hour, and she knew what that meant. He was thirty while she was fifteen, yet he desperately wanted her for his wife. Her da had repeatedly said no, that she was too young.

He also didn't like the man, though MacAfee was powerful in his own right, commanding an army of sixty and having money and titles. But she hated the way he always leered at her as if he wanted her in his bed while she wanted to stay far away from him. She was glad her da said no to the marriage.

Then they sat down to dinner to celebrate the visit, though she knew her da only did it for appearance's sake, not because he wanted to celebrate the laird's visit.

MacAfee glanced in Margery's direction. "You know I want your daughter, and you canna deny I'm as good as a prospect as she'll ever have."

His words irked her. She wished someone else would want her that she wanted back!

Her da stood by his words and shook his head. "She is too young."

She knew her da meant, though he wouldn't say it—that she would never be his, no matter her age. She loved her da for it.

"Are you certain? Because I aim to take what I want." The threat in MacAfee’s voice startled her.

Despite not liking him, he had always been jovial about it. As if he knew he would have her when the time was right. But this time, he sounded like her da wouldn't dissuade him no matter what.

MacAfee drained his mug of ale and held it up for a refill. "All right. Later then. I know you will see this through when the time is right."

That night, when everyone was preparing to retire, the battle began. Margery had been rocking her baby cousin, Amelda, to sleep when she heard screams and swords clashing. Her aunt rushed into the room to take Amelda into her arms.

"Go, find your brother! Get him to safety!" her aunt cried out.

Her heart beating like crazy, Margery ran out of the bedchamber and headed for her brother's room. Before she reached it, she saw her mother lying on the floor in the hallway, bleeding from the chest, her sword in her hand. "Get the baby and your brother," she breathed out. "Save them."

Margery ran to her mother and placed her hands over her mother’s wound to try to stop the bleeding.

"Margery, go! They will kill you and all our kin. Go, now, while you can."

She heard cries of distress filling the castle; her mind was a blur as she couldn't think of what to do next. When her mom's eyes glazed over with the look of death, Margery was released from the momentary horror of indecision.

Tears filling her eyes, she ran off to her aunt's bedchamber and found her lying dead beside the bed. “Oh, goddess, no.” The baby was sound asleep in her cradle, or the brigand who had killed her mother might have eliminated her also.

Margery carefully lifted Amelda from her cradle, swaddled her, and tucked her into a bag to make carrying her on her back easier. She ran out of the room, grabbed her mother's sword, and sheathed it. Hot tears slid down her cheeks as she looked at her mother one last time, but fighting on the stairs alerted her that she and the baby were in peril.

She dove into her brother's bedchamber and found him hiding under the bed, holding onto a wooden sword he practiced with.

"Come, Finnegan, we must run." If they could reach her parents' chamber in time, they could escape through a trapdoor to the secret tunnels.

Furious with her brother for not complying with her command when they could be slaughtered at any moment, she dragged Finnegan out from under the bed. Then, with his hand in hers, she gripped his small hand tightly, not wanting to lose him for anything, and raced out into the hall.

No one was there, thank the gods, and they ran for their parents' chamber. Before they could reach it, they saw a man, one of their own, fighting one of MacAfee’s men.

She yanked Finnegan into their parents' bedchamber and shut the door, locking it. In there, they found their da dead. She tried to pull Finnegan away so he wouldn't see him, but he had already seen the carnage. She grabbed her da's sword and told Finnegan, “Go under the bed.”

She didn’t want to go first, fearing he would be too afraid to follow her. Slipping under it immediately, he seemed to prefer hiding under a bed. Then she joined him and pulled away the rug covering the trapdoor. She tugged on the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

Men raced toward the bedchamber.

"Help me, Finnegan!"

He tugged with all his five-year-old might, aiding her, and they pulled it open between them.

"Go ahead of me," she said.

"It's dark."

"We will die if we dinna go. I must shut the trapdoor. You canna do it alone."

"It will be even darker then."

"You can feel your way down the steps with your toes. Go! Before we all die!"

Then he finally, reluctantly, very slowly, moved down into the passageway. Once he had moved low enough on the steps so she could join him, she closed the trapdoor, and darkness engulfed them.

"Once we reach the bottom, I'll go first and hold your hand, but I canna pass you on the narrow steps. Just hug the wall and use your feet to guide you."

He moved so slowly that she kept running into him. She was afraid that someone would soon discover their secret entrance to the tunnels and find them.

"Move more quickly," she whispered.

They finally reached the bottom of the tunnel, and with one hand gripping her da's sword, she held Finnegan's hand with the other and moved as quickly as she could.

"How do you know the way?" he asked.

"Da showed me the way. We follow this straight until we come to a junction. Then we turn left. At another junction, we turn right, straight, and left again until we are outside and can enter the forest."

“Dinna let go of my hand. I willna remember all that you said.”

“I willna.”

When they finally reached the door to exit the tunnel, she and he tugged at the door until they opened it with a squeak. She cringed, hoping no one had heard it.

Thick brambles blocked the entrance, and she used her mother’s sword to hack away at some of the vegetation. Her mother would have frowned on her using her sword for such a task. However, she had to remind herself that her mother wanted her to take any measure to get herself and the others to safety.

Thank the gods, Amelda was sound asleep the whole time. If she had begun to cry, all would have been lost.

Near the stream, their blacksmith fought another warrior, but Tannon was wounded, his side bleeding, and he struggled against the other man’s attacks. She had thought leaving the castle would mean they were safe. But what a goose she was. This would be only the beginning of their fight to survive.

They had no shelter, clothes, or food, and with MacAfee killing everyone he could find—they were doomed.

"Stay here," she said, leaving Amelda cocooned in her pack with Finnegan.

The moon was full, and after the tunnel's darkness, it felt like light from torches filled the night sky.

She left her da's sword with Finnegan. It was so heavy that neither of them could swing it. She carried her mother's sword and ran to where the blacksmith fought the other warrior. Neither man, so busy trying to kill the other, saw her coming. She sliced MacAfee’s man's leg where her da had told her it would cause the most damage.

The man turned on her with an angry roar. For an instant, she knew he would kill her, and her brother and baby cousin would be next.

But the blacksmith struck the brigand with such a blow that he felled him in one fell swoop. The dead brigand fell like a massive oak on top of her, and she feared she had died.

The next thing she knew, the blacksmith, badly wounded, was trying to lift the dead man off her. Her brother had come to assist him.

"Lady Margery," the blacksmith said, pulling her out from under the Highland warrior.

She meant to thank him. She meant to grab Amelda and her brother, forge the stream with the blacksmith, and bind his wounds, but away from here, where the danger still existed. But the words would not come. The tears were gone. She felt numb.

She put the pack carrying Amelda on her back, held the blacksmith’s arm, and held her brother’s hand, and they began to cross the stream.

In the darkness, a small light shone on an old woman, their healer, as she came to help them across the stream. Mina.