Page 36 of Hunted By the Hard Highlander

It was the same defeated tone that he had heard the night before. This uncharacteristic quiet, the way her fear seemed to silence her, was unacceptable. He did not have time to examine why every part of him, all the way down to his soul, screamed at him to protect her. He only knew that he would.

“Ye are safe with me, Aurora,” he said, shifting his hold to her hands. His palm engulfed hers. “I can promise ye that. If anyone dares touch ye or yer brother, they will find the shinin’ edge of me blade the last thing that they saw.”

Her breath hitched, her fingers twitching against his wrist. Then, a flush took over her face, starting at her hairline and reaching all the way down to her chest. Quietly, she admitted, “I want to believe ye, more than anything on this earth, Hendry.”

“Ye daenae have to believe me,” he told her, his tone leaving no room for argument. “I will prove it to ye. I will fight for ye and brother just as I said I would. And I willnae stop until I ken that ye are nay in danger any longer.”

“That is much more than anyone else would do for us,” she said, finally tearing her eyes away from him. “Even if this was part of the arrangement.”

“I daenae go back on me word or make promises that I daenae intend to keep, Aurora,” he said, squeezing her hand once before letting go. He stood, looking down at her and waiting for her to join him. “And it doesnae matter if this was part of the arrangement or nae. Ye will be Lady Anderson. And it is me duty to keep the Lady of the clan safe.”

Chapter Seventeen

“Isuggest ye start takin’ yer meals in the great hall,” Hendry said, standing at the threshold of Aurora’s chambers. “Ye will drive yerself mad if ye keep to yerself the way ye have been when ye are inside.”

“I ken,” Aurora said, glancing over her shoulder at where Hilda was helping Adair with a card game. She looked back at Hendry, opening her mouth before thinking better of it. Giving him a final nod, she disappeared inside, shutting the door behind her.

Hendry stood outside for a few seconds, listening to the way her voice mellowed out as she spoke to her brother. Despite how shaken she had been during their conversation and the walk through the castle, she had instantly pushed it all aside when faced with her brother.

I kent she was strong, but it is a different thing to see it happenin’.

After lingering for a beat too long, Hendry turned on his heel and went straight for his study. The rest of the castle was operating completely unaware of the discovery that had been made, and he was grateful. A frenzy of worried people would only make his job more difficult.

“I will be takin’ me next meal in me study,” he grunted at a maid as he passed.

He heard her enthusiastic reply as he reached his door. Slipping inside, he ran a hand over his face. When Aurora had revealed the truth of her family, of her uncle, he had known that they would come. Perhaps a bit foolishly, he had assumed that he would have more time before he was faced with this battle.

It could be anyone.

Even as the thought flitted through his mind, Hendry knew that it was naive to think that. He had received the letter from Laird MacGonagal so shortly after his engagement to Aurora had been announced that it would be foolish not to treat him as the threat. For Aurora’s sake, for Adair’s sake, he would treat this as the serious breach that it was.

Settling at his desk, Hendry pulled forward the missives that he had yet to read. Most of them were well-wishes on the engagement. One was another announcement of an upcoming handfasting from another Laird that must have been forced to find a wife under the Scottish Manager’s decree.

“O’Kingsley still hasnae responded,” he muttered, not bothering to conceal his frustration. He was alone in the room: the only thing listening to him was the crackling fire in the hearth. “I should have received word back from him by now.”

The first letter he had sent might have been compromised, he realized. Or, more troubling, the response could have been intercepted. He could not trust that Laird O’Kingsley had gotten his letter, and he had to operate under the assumption that the short note was now being used as enemy intelligence.

Resisting the urge to curse under his breath, Hendry pulled a piece of parchment in front of him. As he grabbed his quill, he decided that this letter must be sent by the sky. With the suspicious tracks around the lands, he would not risk Aurora’s safety, nor that of his messengers, by sending the missive in the traditional sense.

“One of the hawks in the aviary has made the trip to his lands and back several times before,” Hendry muttered, speaking his thoughts aloud. “If someone is trackin’ the information I send out, this will confirm it.”

Carefully, making it look as if the letter were truly intended for O’Kingsley, Hendry drew a careful blueprint that mimicked the secret passageways that ran through his castle. He marked places where traps were, though he intentionally did not include several. If his letters were being intercepted, he would know, and he would trap whoever was trying to extract information.

“And if it reaches O’Kingsley, he will ken that somethin’ isnae right at Castle Anderson,” Hendry said as he tucked the folded parchment into an envelope.

He took a few minutes to read through the stack of messages that had accumulated in the days prior. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It should have come as a relief that his allies and acquaintances were writing him as though things were normal, but the silence only heightened his awareness.

I willnae fail her.

Rising from his desk, Hendry took the letter and slipped out of his study. The corridor just outside was empty, and he was almost certain that word had spread through the members of the staff of the findings earlier today. Mrs. Duncan was not one for gossip, but that did not mean that another servant had not heard her sharing it. Or perhaps it had been the groom coming into the kitchens to share news of the men moving.

The reasons for the emptiness did not matter. It was all the better for him to think. He would need to finish his own investigations, as well as meet with his counsel.

He exited the castle without being stopped, seeing only one maid carrying a tray with tea through the hallways. If he could not hear the chatter happening behind doors and around corners, it might have been eerie. He might have taken it as an omen of things to come.

Now is nae the time to start believin’ in superstitions.

When he reached the aviary, the birds made indignant sounds. Half of them were asleep, their heads tucked beneath their wings as they waited for their next assignment. Several of them watched Hendry, their heads swiveling as he walked to the back of the dark structure.