Duncan sat on a rock, both feet on the ground. He was bent over his knees whittling at a stick with a sharp knife. He looked up at her, squinting against the sun at her back.
She and Duncan had reached an understanding these past weeks. She still disliked much of his bullishness, but she had seen something behind his gruff exterior that made her more tolerant of the man himself. Only a week ago, she had watched him literally give the shirt off his back to one of the drovers injured after a horse threw him. McBain had had to rip it up for bandages.
A breeze fluttered the red ash trees and dappled the ground briefly with light. “Why are you sitting here?”
Duncan braced both elbows on his knees and regarded her levelly for a moment. “I do no’ think you would rather I have interrupted you last night.”
“You have been here all night?”
“He’s been lookin’ for me. I suspect he’s thinkin’ many unflattering things about my character after seeing Hereford in Mawbray. Business with theBlack Dragon, ye ken. He did no’ trust me to go along with him.”
She had not known what business had taken Ruark from Stonehaven this past month. Then Ruark no longer owned his ship.
“Good men could have died because of you, Duncan,” Ruark said from a place behind her, cold deadliness in his voice. “Come here, Rose.” He held out a gloved hand to her. She walked over to him and took it.
Rose looked from Ruark to Duncan, and didn’t understand the danger she sensed. More than long-standing animosity that stretched farther back than merely the incidents of the past year vibrated the air between the two.
“Aye, she will stand at your side, lad,” Duncan said in amusement. “She is no white-knuckler pissin’ herself over a wee thing like fear. I’d wed the lass myself if she was no’ already mistress of Stonehaven.”
“Stay away from my wife and from Jamie. Stay away from Stonehaven.”
“Ruark,” Rose gasped.
Duncan held up a hand to stay her. “Leave off, lass.” His eyes remained on Ruark. “No matter what Hereford might have claimed or hinted, I did no’ kill your da, lad, though he deserved killin’ for the man he was.”
“And Kathleen’s husband? Did he deserve killing as well?”
Duncan rose to his feet and slid the knife into a sheathat his belt. He was a big man with large shoulders and hands. Dirt and dead leaves clung to his shoulder-length hair and worn plaid. “I would have done the deed had his horse no’ fallen and done the killin’ for me. Him leavin’ her and his youngest bairn bein’ just four. Procurator fiscal, principal public prosecutor, a regular limmer he was.” Duncan spat. “Your da sent me after him for stealing from him. He was no’ dead when I found him trapped beneath his horse, and gold in his saddlebags. He begged me to save him and told me what he’d been doin’ all these years for your da and for Hereford. Had a mistress in Carlisle he was swiven’. It took him a day to die in the cold with his injuries and trapped as he was beneath the horse. If he had no’ killed himself with his stupidity, I would have, for what he did to Kathleen.”
“Christ, Duncan . . .”
“You told everyone he was innocent,” Rose said.
“Aye,” he tossed out in defiance. “Kathleen loved the bloke. Why destroy that with the truth. I’ve no’ much honor left in me, and I’m no’ denying I’m guilty of plenty of sin in this life, but those bairn of his would have carried the stigma of their father’s crime to death.”
“And yet you kept the gold,” Ruark said.
“It stuck in your da’s crawl like a burr when I said I did no’ find any gold. That gold was supposed to have gone to Hereford to pay a debt caused when you took that cargo ship outside Rotterdam. They were to meet in Chesters in late spring. Aye, I learned then he and Hereford were partners.”
“A devout Scotsman who had devoted his life to protecting and dealing out justice for Stonehaven’s chieftain might also take exception to finding the earl of Roxburghe an English sympathizer and in league with Hereford. Ifone thought Hereford to blame for the laird’s betrayal of the precious Kerr honor, one would want revenge against Hereford. What better way to rally the family than Jamie’s capture in a bout of cattle lifting.”
“I’ll no’ deny my actions nearly started a war, lad. And I’ll no’ deny Jamie has had a bit of a hard time of it since his return. He is no’ you to be sure, a big strappin’ lad come home to take your da’s place with a bonny Sassenach wife like yourn to warm a man’s bed. But I would no’ ever harm the lad.”
A breeze fluttered the red ash trees and dappled the ground briefly with light. Ruark swore and looked away. “What should I do with you, Duncan?”
“I can find my own way, lad.”
His glance touched Rose then he strode past her to his horse. After he tightened the cinch on the saddle, he mounted and, swinging the gelding around, nodded to them both and rode away.
“Oh, Ruark. You cannot mean to let him—”
“Christ, Rose!” His voice cut across hers. “Do not defend him to me again.” He started to step around her.
She wrapped her arms around his waist and drew herself tight against him, to keep him from walking away from her. She wanted to hold on to him forever to protect him. After a moment, he wrapped his arms around her. Gradually, the heavy thump of his heart eased.
He pressed his cheek to her hair. “Duncan will be fine, Rose.”
“ ’Tis not for him I am worried.”
