Page 41 of Highlander’s Haunted Past

Kenna’s gaze fell to the floor before he had the chance to sneer.

“Thank goodness ye are here! I just found Lady Kenna hiding these letters. I stepped out of the room fer only a second! Bring her to the Queen, have her rooms searched! I can hardly believe it.”

“Aye. None of us can.” Rob hissed. “Kenna, are ye all right?”

What?

Her eyes raced upward to find Rob’s. His sword was still raised, his face still horrifically morphed with anger, but it wasn’t pointed at her. It was pointed at Sutherland. Lockhart wasn’t looking at her either. He was also staring, open-mouthed and pale, at Sutherland.

“Kenna?” Rob stole a few glances in her direction.

“I—I’m fine.”

“Laird Fraser! I ken this news may come as a shock to ye, but I’ll have ye sheath yer sword this instant!”

“Ach, Sutherland, I canna do that,” Rob replied. “Not ‘til Laird Lockhart and I take ye into our custody.”

“Excuse me?” Sutherland was audacious enough to sound offended. “She is the one ye ought to be taking into custody. Did ye not hear what I found her to be doing?”

“We heard yer accusation, Sutherland,” Lockhart chimed in. “But we also heard yer confession.”

“W-what?” A nervous stammer cracked through Sutherland’s confident resolve.

Lockhart raised his finger and slowly pointed across the room, to the still-open window. A breeze finally passed by, gently rippling one of the red curtains as it slipped through the room.

Sutherland laughed, a low and throaty chortle. “Only Lady Kenna would open a window without first asking the permission of her host.”

“Aye, she can be quite the handful. Now, step forward, Laird Sutherland,” Rob said, a venomous sneer on his face.

Sutherland glowered at them. “Fine, but I’ll have ye ken that this will not be such a simple affair.”

Sutherland’s hands closed on the table in front of him and flipped it upward, sending parchment and candles flying through the air.

Rob and Lockhart jumped back as a spray of hot wax rained down upon them while Sutherland rushed to Kenna, grabbing her with an unexpected strength while he pulled his new dagger from his belt.

“Stay back! Drop yer sword,” Sutherland shouted, shoving her in front of him while the blade of his dagger hovered above the soft skin of her neck.

Rob’s face softened, letting a hint of fear slip past his warrior’s glare. He dropped his sword to the floor with a clamor.

“Let her go, Sutherland. No matter what ye do to the lass, yer game is lost. Ye canna get all three of us, and it only takes one to tell the Queen.”

“Kenna, dear, remember what I said about that back door? Let’s go,” Sutherland whispered as he started to shuffle back, using his blade to coax Kenna to come along with him.

As the knife touched her skin, she felt a soft prick that confirmed her worst fears. The rumors were false; Sutherland’s wife had not ordered him to hold only dull blades.

“Laird Fraser, ye stay there. Ye would hate to make me nervous. My hands shake when I’m nervous.”

“Are we to go like this all the way back to the Earl of Huntly? A brilliant strategy.”

“No, lass, I would never walk such a long journey. There is a stable in the back that ye’ll escort me to while ye husband…” Sutherland raised his voice a bit as he continued, “… stays right where he is.”

Rob, true to form, scoffed and took one brazen step forward, covering all the ground in one footfall that Sutherland had managed to put between them with a dozen small shuffles.

“I told ye to stay put!”

“Aye, ye did, but ye are a liar, so I wasn’t sure ye meant it.”

“I’ll kill her.”