Page 26 of The Forest Bride

“Or you. Sit still,” he insisted as she twisted again. “Explain why you were dressed as a lad and then assaulted a local lord and a sheriff, none of which is in your favor. Be still, I say. Here. Put this on.” He snatched the black cap and yanked it over her head. “That hair is bright as fire and will surely give us away.”

She tugged it down, cramming her hair messily into the cap, but a few tendrils hung down. When she looked up at him, her eyes, in the ferny surroundings, were green glinting with amber. He stared.

God, she was beautiful, he thought, distracted. Even with blood on her cheek, tear tracks down her face, a scattering of freckles; moss-green eyes and straight dark brows lowered in a glower; and thorns and flowers in her hair, she was the fey creature he remembered.

“I did not assault him,” she said.

“You damned well did, my lady. Why do you want me to arrest him?”

“He did something evil.” She glanced through the bushes toward the hill. “Are they gone?”

“Wait.” He paused a beat. “I think so. You stirred up quite a kerfuffle. Is your friend part of this scheme too? The lad in the foot race. I saw you with him.”

“Just a friend. No scheme. Menteith did an evil deed and must be stopped.”

“Some might agree with you, but we cannot punish the man without evidence of this evil deed. Have you stolen any livestock recently?”

“What? Of course not. You must listen to me.”

“I can hardly wait. Go back to why you shot him.”

“It was accidental.”

“I saw your skill. You could have bested me and taken the prize.”

“I want that prize. Do you have the brooch?”

“I left it with Menteith. It is hardly important. Tell me why you shot him. I saw you do it, so you cannot deny it.”

“I did not mean to. I only wanted the brooch. Is he badly hurt?”

“He thinks so. But he is not going anywhere for a while.”

“Good.” She grimaced, trying to wrest herself free. “You can arrest him.”

“Sit still,” he whispered. Far off, he heard the crush of twigs underfoot. When the sound died, he loosened his hold a bit. “Why do you want me to arrest him?”

“He abducted a girl.”

“What—” He shook his head, bewildered. “What proof do you have?”

“I know he did. There is my proof.”

“Huh. Where is this girl?”

“If I knew, I would not be here.”

“Ah.” This was odd. He thought of the incident along the road, the young girl taken in the ambush, Menteith’s men escorting her to her family. And Lennox was looking for a girl too. What connected them? “Abduction is a serious charge. Until I can determine what happened, I will keep you in custody.”

She paused. “Prison?”

“Somewhere Menteith cannot reach you would be good.”

“But—shh!” She tapped his arm. “Someone is coming!”

He stilled. Footsteps crushed closer. Duncan parted juniper and fern and peered out. “It is fine. He is not a Dunbarton man.”

She looked, then tensed in his arms. “The sheriff of Stirling!”