Page 104 of Outlaw Ever After

Because Graham is going to lead them to the crab apple orchard, same as ye? Alex shrugged nonchalantly instead. “They’ll scare the game away in their wake and we’ll find naught.”

“Parties at the ready!” Aulay called. “The team who returns with a stag wins the Wild Hunt! Should both teams return full-handed, then the heavier weight will be the winner! Either way, the castle will eat plenty!”

And so would the villagers, for once more, the lady of Freuchie would take her village a portion when the castle went Souling on the morrow eve when she blessed them with soul cakes. Aulay raised the horn and blew.

Graham’s hunting party rode uphill toward the crab apple trees. Just as he’d suspected.

“’Tis logical though, is it nay?” Laird Maxwell argued, gesturing to Graham’s party. “To search for game among the crab apples? The fruit will have dropped by now, making the deer easy pickings.”

“Aye. We should go, too, and make haste,” said Ross to his other side. “Graham’s team kens it. MacGregor, as our captain, what do ye think?”

MacGregor’s eyes flitted between Alex and Ross, as Comyn villagers crowded around the field yelling at them to go hunt.

“I’m more interested in what ye think, Sir Alexander. Ye seem like ye’ve got an idea up yer sleeve, and it’s fair to say after ye swept the competition yesterday, ye’re fond of this place. We might want to give credence to yer thoughts.”

Aye. Crab apples were always a treat for deer, but he needed to win. And if he was to lead his team to victory, then Alex needed to lure his team down slope without making it seem as if he knew where he was going. Because he could almost guarantee that the seasoned deer would be at Freuchie’s best-kept secret.

He shrugged. “I’m nay much for hunting, but deer love the woodlands as much as they do a grove, aye? Beechnuts. We’ve as much a chance at losing as we do winning.” The others nodded at his reasoning. “What time did Aulay say we must return?”

He knew the answer already, but he had to plant the seed in someone else’s head.

“He did nay say at all,” Maxwell said.

The others nodded. “So, we could stay out all night, if we wanted,” Ross reasoned.

“We’ve got provisions enough,” Alex said. “We could always double back to the crab apples later. Dusk is a better time to find deer venturing into the open anyway.”

That bit of logic seemed to seal his men’s agreement.

He turned the reins. They rode toward the Tomvaich Wood along the deer path he’d taken Peigi upon the afternoon before. But instead of crossing the river, this time, he let them meander ahead.

“The lady was gone aye long last night,” Kendrew MacGregor said, drawing back beside him.

He prickled, to be so close to the man who was responsible for much of his pain.

Their horses squished along the soil, the snow having turned it to mud. “Word has it ye were the one behind her disappearance.”

“Escorted her to the village. Though the way in which ye and Seamus Grant twitter to each other like gossiping grandmithers, ye already ken that.”

MacGregor smirked at the jab. “Quite knowledgeable about Burning Sticks. The villagers seemed to welcome ye, too. And now this. How did ye ken to come this way to hunt?”

Alex watched the men ahead of them, unwitting of him herding them like sheep. “I ken nothing. Ye heard the party. They agreed this was a good idea, but as of yet, I’ve seen no quarry, so mayhap you shouldna credit me so easily.”

MacGregor shook a finger at him as he rocked in the saddle. “Nay… Ye made them think to come here.” Alex inhaled slowly as if the conversation were a bore. Usually if he let people talk uninhibited when they were seeking something, they talked themselves into their own corners. “Ye’re a skilled manipulator.”

“I prefer lawyer .”

“Nay much of a difference, me thinks. But I have ears in the Earl of Arran’s court. Mayhap they’ve heard of ye.”

Alex glanced sidelong. “Ye mean the monarch’s court?”

“The monarch needs a regent.”

“Makes it easy then to see it as a man’s playing field, aye? Opportunists exploiting power and solidifying their own instead? Tell me, what does yer brother, Bale, do for the crown again?” He quirked a brow. His arrow had struck true, if he were to judge by MacGregor’s jaw tightening.

“Which means it’s ever distressing that I’ve never heard of ye until recently. What be yer surname again? Mayhap ye’ve argued a case or two before my brother.”

Alex worked in contracts and monies in an entirely different administration. Nay litigations. But he did know of Bale. Fine, he’d give Kendrew an inch. He didn’t have to admit if it was an inch in the right direction or not.