It was with great relief that the edge of the tree line appeared ahead of them. She could see the tower house now in the distance beyond. Almost there…
A sound behind her made her turn. About twenty yards away, a rider broke through the trees. Realizing she’d seen him, he stopped.
Cate stopped, too, paralyzed in horror. Terror spread a sheen of ice over her skin, freezing her limbs. She couldn’t move. For one heart-stopping moment, she thought it was the soldier from her nightmares, the man who’d killed her mother. He had the same dark hair, the same finely trimmed beard, the same Norman aquiline features…
But no. The haze of raw panic cleared. It wasn’t him. This man was younger. His build was not as thick. His face was not as outwardly handsome, his expression not as coldly arrogant. He wasn’t dressed in mail and the surcoat of an English soldier; rather he wore the leathercotunand plaid of a Highlander. But the resemblance was eerie.
Why was he following her?
A sudden frantic yapping in the opposite direction drew her gaze. She turned back toward the castle to see the pup and Pip rambling over the snow-covered landscape.
Pip laughed when he saw her. “I wondered what he was so excited about. The pup took off like an arrow, and I didn’t know where he was going.”
She was about to shout a warning to him not to come any farther, when she glanced back to the rider and realized he was gone.
“Did you eat my tart, Pip?” Eddie said angrily.
“What tart?” Pip came to a stop before her, breathing hard. Her expression must have made him forget Eddie’s odd question. “What’s wrong? Why is Eddie against the tree?” Cate looked down, not realizing she’d pushed Eddie behind her to protect him. “You look as pale as a ghost.”
“You didn’t see him?”
“Who?”
“The rider.”
Pip frowned. “I didn’t see anyone. Did he threaten you? We should tell John.”
Not Gregor. Pip’s instant dislike of Gregor seemed to have settled into permanence.
Cate thought for a minute, recalling the events without the terror. Had the rider threatened her? She’d thought he was following her, but he could have just been passing through the woods. He’d done nothing overt, except stare at her and have the misfortune of bearing a marked resemblance to the man who’d haunted her nights for five years.
She shook her head. “He didn’t do anything. He just startled me, that’s all.” She’d overreacted. Suddenly, feeling silly, she forced a smile on her lips. “It was probably just a messenger. The laird seems to have a new one every day.”
Pip gathered the pup, who’d begun to yap when Eddie started to “play” with him, ignoring the reference to Gregor. “Remember, he doesn’t like it when you pull his tail, Eddie. You have to be gentle with him if you want him to play with you.”
“I was bein’ gentle,” the little boy whinged.
Listening to Pip explain the finer points of dog care to Eddie as they walked back lightened her spirits considerably. She forgot about the rider and concentrated on the mismatched pair of foundlings who’d begun to sound like brothers.
It didn’t take Gregor long to regret his promise to train her. About thirty seconds, to be precise. He’d ordered Cate to attack him with a knife. She was surprisingly quick and moved without hesitation. Still, he’d had years of reacting to threats. He grabbed the hand holding the weapon and twisted her arm around her back, where the dagger clattered harmlessly to the ground.
The problem was that he was now wrapped around her, holding her from behind with his arm around her neck, and their bodies were touching in all the wrong places. As she struggled against the strain of her pinned arm and the chokehold around her neck, her taut backside rubbed against him in a way that his cock—the brainless idiot—mistook for erotic.
Unable to take any more, and not wanting to hurt her, he let her go.
She immediately turned on him, dark eyes shooting like the dagger she’d just dropped. “Why did you do that?”
He frowned, having no bloody idea why she was so furious. “Hell, did I hurt you? I didn’t mean to.”
“Of course you didn’t hurt me! You didn’t give me a chance to escape.”
She looked so outraged, he had to struggle not to smile. For once he didn’t mind seeing her all riled up. She’d been oddly quiet at the midday meal earlier, and he’d wondered if something was wrong. She’d looked…upset. Which had distracted him from his conversation with Aonghus, hisAm Marischal-tigheseneschal, whom he’d put in charge of sending out enquiries about the children, some of which had begun to yield results.
Then, as they walked to the practice yard, she hadn’t smiled or joked with him at all. She’d been oddly intense and focused. All business. Which was exactly how he should be acting, not like a lust-crazed lad who stiffened just from the feel of a lass pressed against him.
He cocked a brow. “I had one arm around your neck and the other was twisting your arm behind your back. Exactly how did you intend to escape?”
Her eyes narrowed, hearing his amusement. “I was thinking.”
