Did he?
He’d followed her. It became an agony and a reassurance.
After days of hard journeying, they reached Rannoch Moor, where they were to meet not only Earl Randolph’s troops but those from much of Western Scotland. Campbells from Argyll, MacLeods from the islands, and MacDonalds from a wealth of places, all loyal hearts sworn to King David and willing to fight for Scotland’s freedom,waiting to be collected.
Many other troops were there before them. Indeed, the Murtray warriors, who had seemed so many on the move, now appeared a mere drop in a vast bucket as they trickled in. Much confusion reigned, and Murtray’s men stood staring about stupidly as if dazed, like people coming out of darkness to broad daylight.
Da sent Robran forward to find instructions as to how they would be disposed. Katrin noticed that Reagan moved forward also. It took an inordinate amount of time before anyone returned. Katrin was left to see her da settled and to move back among the men, who had all gone down to sit where they stood, without direction.
She thus, after working diligently to avoid him, came upon Finlay face to face.
He was one of the few marchers still on his feet, still in the act of unloading his pack from his back, when she came upon him. He looked around and their eyes met.
Everything within Katrin’s body leaped. She could explain it no other way. Emotions swamped her, relief that he had managed the journey and looked well. A deep and fervent level of longing for his presence, for the scent of him. For his smile. And aye, desire. A desire not of the flesh so much as the soul.
A hundred things she might say to him. Fully half of them fluttered through her mind. Instead, she nodded at the harp. “How is Brada standing the journey? Is she all right?”
“Aye.” He gave her his rare smile, the one that warmed her so wondrously. “She is used to bouncing along on my back o’er track and brae.”
All too much like the tale he had told of Adair and the defiant, determined Bradana at loose in the wilds of Scotland—called Alba then—with her deerhound at her side. Love had been enough for them.
Or had that also been more than mere love?
In that moment, standing facing Finlay there upon the breast of the land, her heart yearned to inhabit the tale. She wanted to be bold and fearless, to be Bradana to his Adair, the man she adored. Only, the way Finlay told it, Bradana had not been entirely fearless. More than anything else, she had feared losing the man she loved and had attempted more than once to sacrifice herself for his sake.
Katrin’s mind stuttered there and tried to shut down. Concern flickered in Finlay’s eyes.
“Katrin. Wha’ is it?”
Katrin. The sound of his voice, the music of it flitting into her ear while she lay in his arms. As he became one with her.Bradana.
She shook her head. Most definitely, she was not all right. Something grave and terrible moved in her life. This was no time for it.
She stepped up to him, close enough that she could see the freckles marking his skin, golden in the autumn light.
“Be safe,” she whispered, and never had she uttered so heartfelt a plea.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Reagan and Robrancame back together and told Da that Earl Randolph wanted to see him. Randolph had summoned all the chiefs to the center of the swarm where flew his standard, a banner of red showing three cushions.
Katrin brushed Da down as best she could, ridding him of as much trail dust as possible, straightening his bonnet, and repinning the plaid at his shoulder. New lines had appeared in his face, and to her eyes, he appeared exhausted.
“Go wi’ him,” she bade Robran, and watched the two men move off together.
Not till she turned back did she realize Reagan still occupied the place at her side.
“Where are we to camp?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Where we stand. There are no facilities for so many men, and we will not be here long. As soon as all the clans arrive, we will be movin’ on.”
Katrin glanced around at the rough, barren hillside and prayed rain would not come. So far they had been fortunate in that regard, enduring little more than brief showers warded off by the men’s plaids. In the west of Scotland in autumn, that could not possibly last.
She turned her gaze back to Reagan. “So many men to move south. It defies imagining.” Surely, surely the English would not have a force to match them? Da said the English king spent his men on the war in France.
This must all be over soon.
Reagan gave her a crooked smile. “Sorry ye came, yet?”
