A vein drummed in his temple. A hundred men could not keep her safe. His struggle for control failed. "Don't be a fool. You can't go. It's too dangerous. Send a messenger instead."
From the way her eyes narrowed and the set of her chin, he knew he'd made a mistake. For such a sweet-looking lass, she had a surprisingly formidable stubborn streak.
"It's already decided. And you, I'm afraid, have nothing to say about it."
Women should be meek and submissive, damn it. But here she stood toe-to-toe with him, not backing down one inch. He'd admire it, if he weren't so furious.
This time when she spun on her heel and flounced through the door, he didn't stop her.
Nothing to say about it. We'll see about that.
If Anna wouldn't see reason, perhaps her father would.
Bruce's men were roaming all over the area--raiding, reiving, interfering with the supply lines--doing whatever they could to cause chaos and spread fear in the heart of the enemy. War took place not just on the battlefield but in the mind.
A party of MacDougall guardsmen would be irresistible. Anna would have an arrow in her chest before they were close enough to realize their mistake.
It was the threat to his mission that was twisting him in knots, he told himself. Preventing this kind of alliance--keeping MacDougall alone--was why he was here.
But it wasn't the messages or alliance he was thinking about. All he could see was Anna lying in a pool of blood.
He had to turn Lorn from this foolish path.
And if he couldn't ...
There was no way in hell he'd let her go alone. If Anna took one step outside this castle, he was going to be right by her side. Where he could protect her and keep an eye on her.
He knew one thing for damned certain: There was no way in hell she was marrying Hugh Ross.
"Is something wrong, Annie? You seem upset."
Anna gazed over at her brother Alan, who'd come up to ride beside her.
After traveling the first part of the journey bybirlinnthis morning, the rest of the trip would be made on horseback. The sea route from Dunstaffnage to the village of Inverlochy by way of Loch Linnhe had taken less than a half-day, a journey that would have taken days by land.
She wished the rest of the trip would be so easy. Although three lochs and numerous rivers traversed Gleann Mor, the Great Glen, which bisected Scotland from Inverlochy at the head of Loch Linnhe to Inverness and the Moray Firth, the waterways were separated by enough land to make travel by ship infeasible. Instead, they would ride the roughly seventy-five-mile journey from Inverlochy to Nairn. With luck, they would arrive at Auldearn Castle just east of Nairn in four days. She was slowing them down, she knew, although it was a far more punishing pace then the leisurely one she was used to.
Ironically, they would travel along much the same route King Hood had followed last autumn as he cut a swath across the Highlands, taking the four principal castles along the way: the Comyn castles of Inverlochy and Urquhart, and the royal castles garrisoned by the English at Inverness and Nairn.
As the castles were still held by the rebels, they would be forced to find other, less perilous, accommodation on the way. To avoid Bruce's men, Anna suspected she would be seeing quite a bit of the forest.
It would be a welcome reprieve from the blazing sun. They'd been riding for a few hours, and though she wore a thin veil to protect her face, she was hot, sticky, and yes, as her brother had noticed, angry.
Furious, really.
The weather, however, was not to blame for her unusual black mood. That honor belonged to a certain interfering knight.
She'd refused to look athimall day. But that didn't mean she wasn't aware of exactly where he was: riding at the head of the party, scouting the road ahead for signs of trouble.
Trouble. That was an understatement. His presence on their journey would be nothing but.
"I'm fine," she assured her brother, managing a wan smile. "Tired and hot, but fine."
Alan gave her a deceptively lazy sidelong glance. "I thought it might have something to do with Campbell. You didn't seem very happy to hear he would be joining us."
Her brother was far too astute. A trait that would make him a good chief someday, but not one valued by a younger sister intent on keeping her thoughts to herself.
Despite her best effort not to react, her teeth gritted together. "It wasn't his place to interfere."
