Duncan broke rank. His shirt, damp from the mist that clung to the summer air, shaped the weight and height of the man as tall as Ruark himself.
“Did I no’ tell ye he would come this way?” someone in the group called. “And with our prize in hand, too.”
A ripple of bawdry laughter ran through the ranks as Duncan guided his gray horse through the long grass and scrub and stopped a few feet in front of Ruark. “Our spotters saw the pair of ye come across the glen hours ago.”
Duncan shifted his gaze to Rose, who was pressing against Ruark as if that would shield her from the man’s perusal. Duncan leaned into the saddle and grinned. “LadyRoselyn. You’re a comely lass for a bluidy Lancaster.”
“I need a second horse, Duncan,” Ruark said. HeneededRose off his lap. He needed his hands free.
Duncan motioned to someone behind him. Jason had been with Ruark and his men at the abbey. Jason must have ridden through the night to get here before him.
“You were no’ at the rendezvous point last night, nephew. Jason and the others returned this afternoon with your red stallion and some concern that ye went missing over yonder falls.”
“As you can see, I did not.”
A moment later, Ruark dismounted and put Rose on the back of a bay gelding behind the younger man.
Ruark lowered his voice and asked the lad, “Where is Colum?”
“He sent us back with the stallion yesterday.” Jason also lowered his voice as his gaze found Duncan some paces away speaking to another. “Duncan intended to ride across the border tonight. If we had not seen you ...” Jason’s voice trailed but he didn’t have to tell Ruark anything more.
For a moment, he felt fury, but then boxed the anger as his gaze found Rose. Though her green eyes were bright and her shoulders held high, she looked weary and frightened, surrounded as she was by men who would need little provocation to harm Hereford’s daughter.
Ruark mounted and reined the horse around until they were thigh to thigh, his fingers fisting around the reins as if that would keep him from touching her, for he recognized only too well the warring faction separating her future from his.
He also recognized that though they might still be adversaries, they had never been enemies.
“We will reach Stonehaven after nightfall,” he told her.
His impassive glance took in Jason. Then with a nudgeof his heels, he lunged past Rose to take his place at the head of his men, leaving her horse to fall into place in the middle of the group.
Whatever else he may have thought, leaving her with Jason, he took no chance she would escape him again.
Stonehaven appeared in the mist-shrouded horizon as the amber-rippled clouds faded to crimson in the western sky. With two tower houses that flanked a baronial hall of gray stone and blue slates, the magnificent house commanded a view of the countryside.
That the place was vast was Rose’s first astounded impression. From a dozen chimneys, white wood smoke unfurled into the chilled air. Mullioned casements embellished the structure, the sinking sun touching the myriad of windows and turning the panes amber. A circular carriage sweep joined the road near the front hall, a breathtaking parkland and pine forest at the back. The house was grand and as ostentatious as the oldest baronial estates, an unexpected contrast to the borderland chieftain himself.
She found herself looking for Roxburghe. They had not spoken since he left to ride at the head of his men. One of his men had given him a cloak and with the exception of his height, he looked much like the unshaven bedraggled dozens who surrounded him. She had glimpsed him once as he laughed over something his uncle said, but she had looked away when he glanced over to find her watching him.
Duncan rode beside him now. She had not liked the way his uncle had looked at her in the glade. There had been no gentleness or kindness in his hazel eyes, and the humor briefly glimpsed in his manner had been rooted in something dark and angry. She would not want to be alonein the same room with him, a born-and-bred Scotsman and inherently dangerous to the English.
The troop soon divided and Roxburghe rode with a dozen others into an embellished stone courtyard away from the main entrance of the estate. Within minutes retainers poured outside to meet the heavily armed men. Roxburghe dismounted as two grooms rushed to take the reins of his horse, and after that, she lost him among the confusion and noise as a dozen barking dogs joined in the chorus of male voices.
The man with whom she’d ridden helped her dismount. Barely able to stand, she clasped the edges of the cloak tightly against her as she looked around and awaited instruction. Men were still mounted, armed with swords in their belts, all laughing and in high spirits, and casting her an occasional glance that caused a stab of apprehension in her chest.
“I am to bring you inside, Lady Roselyn,” the young man she had ridden with said after speaking to a servant. “If ye can no’ walk ...?”
The thought that anyone would put his hands on her brought her up. “I can walk. You are Jason, correct?” she asked, remembering the name Roxburghe had called him.
“Aye, mum. Lord Roxburghe’s third cousin on our grandfather’s side.” He executed a brief bow. “This way if ye will, my lady. We are to go through another less-used entrance.”
She might be a guest, but she was an unwelcome one.
Once inside, Rose felt the warmth of the entrance hall. She swept her gaze over the tall archway and wood beams that braced the weight of the ceiling and saw it magnificently decorated with flags and the Roxburghe coat of arms, which, ironically, was the mythical beastChimera, a fire-breathing dragon with the head of a lioness and the tail of a serpent. The room was a three-story half-timbered hall with lead windows. Flemish tapestries covered the stone walls. A stairway carved from heavy oak led to a second level where a forest of horns, antlers, and stuffed boars’ heads glared back at her from amid the aged weaponry on the walls.
Someone came up to Jason and told her he was to take her to the dining hall. “But his lordship told me to take her to her quarters ...”
“Duncan said to bring her ...”
