Fear seized her body and with it the sound of pursuing men crashing into the woods after her. She tripped when her skirts caught on a branch, then she ran head-on into a bear.
A huge beast. Or at least to her it seemed that way. She screamed and recoiled as two giant clawed hands clamped down on her shoulders to keep her from falling backward. She screamed. Her eyes swung upward past thickly furred arms and hit Duncan’s face. He wore a bearskin cloak fastened at the neck with a wooden clasp.
Behind her, twenty men crashed into the clearing, some armed with dirks and daggers, others with pistols. Geddes was the last through the ranks, breathing hard as he found her. He thudded forward with murder in his eyes, was nearly upon her before he noticed the bear and stopped.
Duncan nudged her aside but kept a firm grasp on her arm. He looked casually among the group. “Have I interrupted somethin’, lads?”
“Who be ye?” Geddes demanded.
“The namebeDuncan Kerr,” he said slowly and deliberately. “I’ve come to offer my services to Hereford. I am Roxburghe’s uncle.”
Rose could not breathe.
Then another voice said, “I had heard you were no longer living at Stonehaven.” The group parted for Lord Hereford.
“Then ye are aware, my nephew holds no high regard for me, me bein’ accused of murdererin’ my own brother and all.” He spat. “Though I do no’ mind the credit. But a man who kills his own brother so he can be laird canno’ be trusted no’ to murder the two who stands in his way.” He let the words land against Rose like a blow. “I am no longer welcome at Stonehaven.”
Geddes laughed. “Youkilled your brother?”
Hereford peered with interest at Duncan. “Geddes here might take insult to your boast, Duncan. Mightn’t you, Geddes?”
Duncan’s eyes narrowed on Geddes. “I did no’ say I killed my brother. I said Ruark thinks I did. Though I would have if he were no’ already dead when I arrived.”
Hereford glared at Geddes. “Check him for weapons. Go.”
Duncan let Rose loose. She stumbled backward as he blatantly opened his arms for anyone brave enough to approach and lay his hands on him.
Geddes finally stepped forward for the task. He removed a knife, two pistols, a sword, and a dirk, handing each off to a man behind him. “Why are you here, Duncan?” Hereford asked when it finally looked as if he was clean of weapons.
“I came to do ye a favor, your lordship. I came to warn ye to prepare to fight or leave. Ruark knows where ye are.”
Rose watched her father’s expression change. “None of my spotters have signaled. How many men?”
“A hundred.”
Hereford laughed. “Isthatall he could muster?”
“A hundred men ...” Geddes said worriedly.
“Are you an idiot, Graham?” Hereford said. “Roxburghe isn’t going to let those men ride down that hill with their weapons blazing. We haveher. Why would you tell me this?” Hereford asked Duncan.
“I have no loyalty to Ruark.” Duncan’s teeth shone white in his beard. “But I do want Stonehaven and all thatbelongs there. When this is over ... when ye have Ruark ... you’ll give me this one as my prize.”
“Nay!” Rose whispered. “How can you do this?”
“Because he is no’ deservin’ of ye, lass.”
And she truly believed Duncan. “And you are?”
“Aye, that I am.”
“Bastard!” Rose flung herself at him, pounding his chest with her bound hands. “I believed in you! I ... I believed ... you were decent.”
Duncan ducked the blows against him. She struck him, and much to the amusement of all landed a double-fisted blow against his chin before he could wrestle her body around and hold her against his chest, one big arm over her shoulder. He laughed. “Need I say more? The lass is in love with me.”
“Duncan’s in place,” Ruark said as he handed the glass to Angus.
He swung Loki around and faced the horseman. Strung out for a mile in the meadow behind him, four hundred Kerr men were amassing along the ridge. They wore no flashy accoutrements to catch the moonlight, and they had ridden the last pair of miles silent and under the cover of darkness. Dark like the mist.
