“Oh.” Magda looked away, tears stinging her eyes.
James glanced around quickly, then, grabbing her arm, whisked her just within cover of the trees.
Hands on Magda’s waist, he pushed her back up against a tree, his touch gentle as he slowly rubbed his hands up her side, thumbs grazing along the sides of her breasts, then stroking up her arms until he held her hands overhead. Pine filled the air, a green, astringent scent that cut like memories of another time. The tree was an ancient, magnificent thing, and Magda felt her hair catch in the deep furrows of its bark, thick and silvery brown in the morning light.
James eased close, then dipped his head to take a sudden kiss that stole Magda’s breath, his mouth on hers snuffing all else out, filling her senses with the taste and smell of him. The freshness of woods on skin, a faint tang of sweat, and an amber, musky scent that clung lightly to him like a whisper of sex in the dark.
The sound of men calling his name echoed through the trees, and James pulled away reluctantly.
“Dawn has come and gone,” he murmured, voice ragged. “It will happen fast now.” James brought his hands down to cup her face and kissed Magda tenderly on each corner of her mouth, then lay one, chaste and lingering, full on her lips.
“You’ll not fear for me. I will return to you unharmed, this very night. I swear it. How could I quit such a precious gift bestowed by the Fates?” A smile lit his features for just a moment, then he was once again somber.
James tugged a strip of blue silk from beneath his chest armor, the bit of hem he’d snatched from her dress just two days prior. He took the talisman and held it to his lips, eyes not wavering from hers.
“I will come back to you,” he whispered, and disappeared through the trees.
Chapter 15
“Tom, my good man!” James boomed, his arms outstretched. “Come, come! I’ve set aside a dram of the good brandy.”
Hopping up from his seat by a small bonfire, James ducked into his tent for his flask.
“A moment, James . . .” Tom hesitated.
Peeking back through the canvas flaps, James feigned astonishment. “Such dire spirits! Don’t you know we’ve won the battle? I understand you fancy yourself more spy than soldier, but even you can’t have missed that we’ve more men left standing than our opponent has, aye?” He laughed heartily, then added, “As my emissary, perhaps you’d be so kind as to root out a fine set of clubs. I’d give the links at the Royal Aberdeen a try before returning to Montrose.”
“James,” Tom said again, with more surety. “We’ll not be playing any golf.”
“What madness is this?” James asked broadly.
The grin on his face slowly dissolved into bewilderment then concern. “What is it, man? Has something happened to Magda?”
“No, no, it’s naught to do with the lass. As far as I know, she remains under Napier’s watchful eye.” Tom scrubbed a hand over his forehead. “It’s Aberdeen, James. They’ve razed it.”
James stared blankly, so Tom continued. “After the bridge fell, Leslie and his men disappeared. You’d gone off to salute the Camerons; soldiers were going every which way. It was mayhem all about, James.” Tom pitched his voice as if to offer consolation, earnestly trying to convince his friend of something. “You can’t have accounted for every man.”
“Just tell it,” James said through clenched teeth. “What is it you’re telling me?”
“The general and Campbell, and some of their men . . . They’ve laid waste to Aberdeen, James. Thievery, mostly. But there was some, well . . . Leslie’s men are savages, many of them.”
“Och, hell.” James dropped to the ground, legs crossed, cradling his head in his hands. “The accursed Campbell. Napier warned me, aye? Warned of men drunk on newfound power.” He ran his hands over his face and through his hair. “I need to make it right. I’ll not abide barbarism. Releasing a pack of wolves on my own country was never my intention.”
He rose solidly to his feet. “I must go, have an audience with the king himself, make him listen to reason. The fall of his supporters in Aberdeen should have captured Charles’s attention.” James paced a few steps, and then turned to face his friend. “I started this madness, Tom, and now I will finish it.”
“But there’s more,” Tom said quietly. “The king and his Catholic wife have divided more than just Scotland. Parliament has risen against him. Charles has fled London and set up a military court in Oxford.”
James was silent for a moment, then said, his voice steady, “Then it’s to Oxford we go. Now.”
“You’re mad.”
“I’ve been told as much.”
“I cannot come with you this time, James.”
Silence hung between the two men. Just the slow popping of the dwindling fire filled the late-afternoon air.
“Aye, I’ve anticipated this day.”
