“I suspect someone is organizing the outlaws into a mercenary army. No doubt they are going to whoever is in charge of them to seek fresh orders.”
“What will you do when we catch up to them?”
“Find out who gives out the orders.”
“And then?”
He shook his head. “Too early to say. For now it is enough for us to hunt them.”
“What if we don’t find them?”
“We will.”
“You sound very sure.”
“I am. Now you must rest. We will need to be away at first light if we are to catch them.”
She felt his hand moving away from her, replaced by an overwhelming sense of loss. She tried her best to ignore it but the sense of loneliness only increased as she lay on her side, trying to get comfortable on the paltry remains of an old straw mattress.
Gavin threw another log on the fire before slumping down in front of the door, sitting with his back against it.
“You intend to sleep like that?” she asked, glancing up at him.
“This way no one may enter without me knowing about it.”
She lay down again, feeling his eyes on her. The voices in her head came back with a vengeance. Go over there and kiss him. Invite him to join you. Tell him to sleep beside you. Tell him you are cold. Kiss him. Tell him to kiss you. Imagine what it feels like to have his lips on yours. That could happen if you tell him how you feel. Do it. Tell him.
“Goodnight,” she said quietly.
“Sleep well, lass,” he replied.
She didn’t.
The next morning she was up first. She had woken up several times in the night and by morning she was exhausted.
She sat up, planning to go look for the key. The first gray light of dawn was enough for her to see that Gavin still sat with his back to the door. How was she supposed to get out without disturbing him?
She looked at him closely, at once feeling the surge of warmth she’d felt the night before. Why did he have to be so handsome? It wasn’t fair. This was going to be hard enough as it was.
Think about the damage to your family, she told herself, trying to harden her thoughts. What mattered was that Gavin, handsome or not, had ruined her family for generations.
Think of the coldness of your parents, the fact that your family had it all but then lost it, all because of that man murdering your ancestor in cold blood. Go find the key. Stop swooning over him like a lovestruck teenager.
She groaned.
He opened his eyes, instantly alert. For a moment they stared at each other but then almost at once she looked away, ashamed to have been caught staring at him.
“We overslept,” he said, cursing loudly. “Come, we must be on our way.”
He was on his feet and pulling open the door a moment later. She joined him outside, the blanket still wrapped around her shoulders. Dew covered the grass by the broch but it wasn’t that which caught her eye.
To her left something was sticking out of the ground. While Gavin untied the horse she quickly knelt down and sighed with relief. It was the key.
“Thank you,” she said quietly, raising her eyes to the heavens.
She grabbed the key and then went to shove it in her pocket only to remember she was no longer wearing her jeans, she was in the dress the clan had given her. Gavin turned and waved her over.
The key weighed heavy in her fist as she approached him and before she could say anything he had taken hold of her hands.
