Except for her recent visit with William Lamberton, the Bishop of St. Andrews, it was the only direct information she’d had about her mother since she left. Her father’s hatred for the “traitorous whore” who’d betrayed him had made the subject a closed one.
What was he doing here? Was it some kind of message?
Her heart started to pound frantically.
Joan knew what she had to do. Without another glance into the crowd, she lifted her chin and tossed back her head with all the disdain of the heir of Buchan.
Lifting her slippered foot, she place it atop the flower where it had fallen from her hand and dug the silken pedals into the dirt with her tiny heel. “It’s nothing,” she said to her guardian. “Nothing that means anything anymore.”
Her mother was dead to her. She’d chosen her path, just as Joan had chosen hers.
But when she heard a soft cry in the crowd, her eyes went not to the handsome warrior, or to the terrifying one, but to the lad in between.
A chill tingled across her skin. There was something odd about him…
For a moment her heart died in a flash of absolute dread. But she forced herself to calm. Forced her lungs to fill and empty with air.
It couldn’t be.
Feeling as if she’d just seen a ghost, Joan repressed a shiver and turned back to her guardian.
Lachlan was so furious he couldn’t see straight. Seeing Bella in the crowd had been bad enough, but when she reached for that flower and he realized what she was going to do…
His heart stopped beating. Bloody hell, he wasn’t going to kill her, she was going to kill him!
And she just might succeed if he couldn’t think of a way to get them out of this. Fast.
He caught up to her a few seconds after Seton. If there was anyone he was more furious with than Bella, it was Dragon.
No one in the Highland Guard had taken longer to earn Lachlan’s respect than the young Englishman. It wasn’t because he suspected Seton had been chosen because of his illustrious brother; it was his attitude. Seton’s rigid adherence to rules and the knightly code put him at odds with the pirate style of warfare employed by the Highland Guard. Half the time he walked around like he had a pike up his arse, something Lachlan didn’t stop pointing out.
But Dragon’s skill with the blade and stealth complemented Lachlan’s skills, and they often ended up on missions together. Lachlan had thought he could rely on him, but he should have known better.
Snagging Bella’s wrist, he hauled her up against him. Feeling her against his body, knowing she was safe if only for a moment, took just enough edge off his anger to stop him from doing all the things he wanted to do to her.
But when this was over…
He looked at Seton over the top of her cap. To his credit, the young knight met his gaze unflinchingly. His grim expression, however, told Lachlan that he knew there would be hell to pay for this.
After nearly three years of working together in situations where one errant sound could be the difference between life and death, they knew how to communicate in silence. A nod of his head and dart of his eyes told Seton what he wanted him to do.
Seeing that the younger man understood, Lachlan let her go. But it wasn’t easy. Every primitive instinct clamored to hold on to her and…just hold on.
He had to stop himself from not catching her back to him when Despenser noticed what had drawn Lady Joan’s attention.
Damn it, this wasn’t good. Not good at all.
So much for remaining unnoticed. It seemed as though every pair of eyes in the retinue was turned in their direction. And in at least one pair he saw recognition.
He held his breath as the color slid from Lady Joan’s pale face. Their eyes met for one long heartbeat.
Would she call him out? Identify him as a rebel and send him to his death?
She turned away. He breathed a ragged sigh of relief, thinking that the reports of her allegiance to the English must be wrong. But when she crushed the rose under her heel, he reconsidered.Damn. Her disavowal of her mother couldn’t be any plainer.
Ah, hell. His gaze shot to Bella. Seton was slowly easing her through the crowd, but it wasn’t fast enough. They’d managed to move only a few feet away. Any hope that she hadn’t seen the crushed rose or heard her daughter’s words fled the instant he saw her stricken expression.
He caught only a glimpse of her face in profile before Dragon pulled her away, but it was enough.
