“My uncle means little to me.” She offered him a slight pat on the arm to ease his obvious concern. “But I fear he would punish Robert for befriending you.”
He severed their gaze and straightened, moving his body further away from hers. “Nae more talkin’.”
Kate’s nostrils flared as she inwardly scolded herself for fancying him to be anything more than an obstinate worm. She prayed the man didn’t have a wife waiting for him in Skye. Poor wretched thing she must be if he did. “Though I owe you my life, I find you immensely dislikable.”
He arched an eyebrow at her and gave her a measuring look. “Come, Campbell,” he challenged with a slow, rapier smirk. “Be the first of yer ilk braw enough to tell me what I’ve done to provoke yer scorn.”
“Your kin,” she accused without hesitation, “murdered my father and left my brother and me orphaned to a man who did not want us.”
The laird’s hard expression faltered, but his voice was firm, his gaze steady on hers. “’Twasna I who killed him.”
Kate nodded. “I’m thankful for that.”
Jamie watched them curiously from a few feet away, momentarily distracted from his examination of a particular patch of powder-blue blossoms. The lass was bonny, aright. Fer a Campbell, that is. But did she think she could make his laird like her by staring up at him with that trusting look in her eyes? He reined in a bit closer. “You willna make him like ye. His mind’s made up. He hates ye,” he said.
Callum would have whacked the young warrior right off his horse, but he could not tear his eyes away from Katherine Campbell—a discomfiting condition he’d suffered from more than once since first laying eyes on her. He dipped his gaze from her large coal eyes to the luscious contours of her clenched mouth. Hell, he didn’t know which was more dangerous of the two. Fortunately for him, she turned away, her spine stiff.
“Then my enemy and I have something in common,” she replied coolly.
Callum shifted uneasily, wanting to say something. But what? Could he deny Jamie’s charge—or her own? They were enemies, her name as hated as his was worthless.
He bent forward slightly and inhaled the scent of her hair. He shouldn’t want her. But he did. And every time he looked at her, each time her body yielded against him, he wanted her more.
Her braw spirit tempted him with unbidden images of her in his bed, just as fiery. She could wield a sword, that much was evident by the throbbing in his thigh, but hell, her tongue was even sharper. Twice he was torn between grinning at her saucy mouth and kissing the belligerence off her lips.
He was daft. She was a Campbell, and he could not wait to be rid of her.
Chapter Six
THEY RODE THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT without stopping and traveled alongside the still waters of Loch Leven the next afternoon. They passed grand mountain ranges whose summits were hidden by swirling clouds and vast verdant fields where grouse basked beneath the sun. Kate took in every detail of the new landscape around her. With such raw splendor surrounding her, her awareness of the man behind her intensified. The sleek strength of his arms around her waist. The knotted steel of his thighs beneath her. Had these MacGregors somehow convinced Robert not to kill them? She simply could not believe her brother would consort with MacGregors. Had they come to Glen Orchy to kill her uncle? Why had they protected her? Had Robert asked them to do it? Had he somehow discovered his uncle’s true intentions for her? And why would he risk his life by trusting MacGregors?
Dear God, had her brother betrayed them? Nae! She would never believe it. She pushed the thought out of her mind and replaced it with a dozen others. There were so many questions, and she was too sleepy to think on them all now. She leaned against the chieftain’s chest, mindful of her sore shoulder, yawned, and made a mental note to question him about it more later.
Callum’s muscles flexed involuntarily when her body sank into him. The lass was bone weary, and he didn’t fancy the notion of her sleeping on him again. They would have to stop. Sleeping outdoors anywhere but in Skye was unwise, but he would rather travel a few more leagues north, into friendlier territory. There were some who knew him by sight and would risk all for a chance to take his head. ’Twas not safe to stop, but more dangerous was the pleasure he took from her ease with him, the softness of her curves, the scent of peat lacing her feathery curls when they blew across his face. He shifted back, separating himself from her.
He reined in his mount at the crest of a windswept ridge and scanned the dense patches of pine nestled in the glen below. “We’ll stop there fer the night.”
Stopping beside him, Graham studied his profile with concern creasing his brow. “Ye look pained. Yer wound needs closing.”
The only sign that Callum had heard him was the tightening of his jaw. His commander was correct. His leg was stiff, and every time the lass in his lap inhaled, it felt like she was digging a dagger into his flesh. The slice had to be closed before fever set in. He’d had many injuries put to the fire in the past, but the mind simply could not prepare for the brand.
When they reached the trees, Callum set Kate down first and then glared at her after a painful dismount.
“I apologized for wounding you!” she charged, though he hadn’t said a word. His brows dipped over his eyes, but she didn’t shrink away from his blackest scowl. “You should have called out! I didn’t know you had come to aid me.”
He peered down at her for a moment, looking like he wanted to say something. But then he turned without a word and snatched Angus’s pouch from the warrior’s lips.
“We need a fire,” he called out to Jamie and limped away.
Callum stopped when he reached a tall pine, leaned his back against it, and tipped the pouch of brew to his mouth. When he spotted the lass storming toward him, he raised his eyes to the heavens.
“Why did you not have your friend’s wife tend to your leg?” She reached for the hem of his plaid to take a peek at his thigh. He swatted her hand away.
“Get some rest, Katherine. I willna—”
“It’s Kate.”
He stared at her with eyes a heart-stopping shade of stormy blue, then took another swig of whiskey.
