A Protector in the Highlands

by Heather McCollum

  Despite being English, the Worthington family had done nothing to jeopardize or thieve away the Campbell stronghold. Evelyn would continue the Highland Roses School for ladies at Finlarig, but the castle was still the seat of the Campbells of Breadalbane parish and the village of Killin.

  “I will keep the castle ready for war,” Aiden said to Grey.

  “Lord,” Scarlet said, glancing at Evelyn. “It will be all parties and frivolity with Aiden Campbell in charge of defense.”

  Evelyn let a small chuckle slip before curling her lips inward to suppress more. Grey pulled Evelyn into his side. “Let us go then,” Grey said. “The quicker we give Charles his traitors and explain my parents’ innocence, the quicker we return.” Grey leaned in to kiss Evelyn on the mouth, the heat between them evident despite the months of wedded play.

  “I will ride your horse, Campbell,” Nathaniel said with one raised brow. “I have no desire to be enclosed with the two of you in the carriage.”

  “Nat,” Evelyn said.

  Grey produced a wicked grin, making Evelyn swat at his arm before he guided her to the carriage. He whispered something in her ear that made her smile up at him, the look on her face full of unabashed love. Scarlet had never been a jealous creature, but watching her sister and brother-in-law tugged at the annoying pocket of self-pity Scarlet tried not to notice within herself.

  She would miss her sister, but it would be nice not to have to announce herself about the castle to avoid walking into the kitchen or pantry or library to find them loving each other with passionate abandon. Even the noises the two made could inflame one’s body, which was something Scarlet had sworn never to let happen to her again. Maybe she should revisit the idea of joining a cloister. No men, no passion, and no leaving the grounds. It certainly had its merits.

  The carriage rolled out under the raised teeth of the gate. Nathaniel gave her one last tip of his head. Next to her, Aiden raised his arm to Hamish in the gate tower. The portcullis began to lower, the chains rattling as they released the iron bars to bite into the dirt below.

  Aiden stood next to her like an unmovable mountain. Had she ever been this close to the ornery Highlander? He’d been healing for months, but even when he was visiting Grey at the castle, he’d leave when she’d enter the room. “You are ordering the gates shut?” she asked.

  “Aye.” His brief answer was punctuated with a pivot on his heel to walk toward the keep. He nodded to the boy, who walked his horse toward the stables.

  She grabbed her skirt to follow quickly. “During the daytime?”

  “Aye,” he said, continuing on.

  “I have students coming.” She hurried, cutting through a cluster of chickens and making them squawk and dance about with their wings extended. Where had all these chickens come from, anyway?

  “Aye,” he answered a third time.

  “God’s teeth, Aiden Campbell. If you persist in giving one-word answers, make them informative words.”

  He spoke without looking back, his strides long and sure. “’Tis a precaution. Neighboring clans and the English north of us will have heard that the chief was leaving this morn.”

  Scarlet tried to keep up with the blasted man. “Stop running away from me.”

  Aiden halted on the second step to the keep, turning on his heel. His usual frown looked even more fierce. “I do not run away. From anything.”

  Scarlet climbed the steps, going two above him so she could look down into his face. She met his frown with her own. “How will my students come to class if the gate is shut? Will Hamish open it for them?”

  “Hamish will direct them to the door in the wall,” he said without shifting his gaze from her. The muted sun that filtered through the dense clouds shone on his face. His eyes were blue, a beautiful jewel-like blue, though they were usually squinted in coarse annoyance.

  She blinked, forcing her gaze to run across the thick granite wall that had just been fortified around the castle and bailey. “There’s a door in the wall? Don’t you think that the inhabitants of the castle should know about a door in the wall?”

  “Likely, ye were busy taking tea when Grey talked about it.” He climbed past her.

  She followed. “Aiden—”

  “’Tis to the right of the gate tower, disguised as a crack in the wall. It’s only the size of a bent-over man. Your students will have no trouble getting to their lessons on tea and contredanse steps.”

  Hmph. Frustrating man. “If you care to stop in for lessons, you will see that the ladies of the Highland Roses School learn much more than dancing and serving tea.” She walked briskly through the dark entryway into the great hall, trailing him to the large hearth where he squatted low to add several more logs to the fire. “They are schooled in art, music, embroidery, reading, writing, mathematical figures, and most importantly, how to skewer a man’s brain when one is intent on evil things.”

  “When one is intent on evil things?” He glanced over his shoulder, scratching one finger behind his ear. “The student or the man?”

  She cocked her head to the side. “It depends whether the man is an irritating, condescending, ornery fellow. The student might find herself daydreaming about using her hair spike on him just to cease his offensive ways.”

  Aiden’s face remained grim, but something in his eyes hinted at merriment. “Do ye often daydream about me, Lady Scarlet?” he asked.

  The edge of her lips turned up into something of a true smile. Perhaps there was humor buried within the Highlander. “If I answered that truthfully, you might be too frightened to help Kerrick with our defensive lessons in Grey’s place.”

  His mouth twisted, his brows lowering as he turned back to prod the logs with an iron poker.

  “Grey said that you would take his place,” Scarlet said. “’Tis too difficult for Kerrick alone to teach us.”

  With his head bent, his broad back to her, she could see the red lines of his scars peek above his collar, like fingers reaching to his scalp. Lord, how the man must have suffered with the burns. She stepped closer to view his side. “Are you still in pain? Perhaps that is why you are surly all the time?”

  His back straightened, his head snapping up to look at her. “Nay,” he said.

  “So, you are just churlish by nature? Or do you lie about the pain? Or perhaps, unbeknownst to me, I’ve caused you great insult?”

  “Aye,” he said and stood, turning so that he faced her.

  “Which one? And don’t you dare say aye or nay.”

  The side of his mouth edged upward. “Ye’ve taken away my two favorite words.” He crossed his arms over his chest, his legs braced apart as he stared directly into her eyes. “My sister would say that I’m churlish by nature. I am mostly recovered from pain. And you have done nothing to insult me except to be born in England and, I suppose, to daydream about skewering my brain.”

  She flapped her eyelashes and patted her chest as if the biggest relief had released her heart from an iron grip. “Thank the good Lord. I was beginning to think you couldn’t string together more than a couple of words.”

  He grunted and looked past her toward the entryway where two students from the village stood. Fiona wore braids looped to hang near her ears and nodded, making them swing forward. Martha waved, her large green eyes growing even wider at seeing Aiden.

  “See, they made it through the wall unscathed,” he said.

  “Hello,” Scarlet called. “Please go on up to the library and begin to write out your letters. I will find you shortly. Alana and Izzy may already be there.” The two girls walked shoulder to shoulder to the steps that wound up to the library on the second floor. One of them whispered while the other giggled.

  Scarlet took up the basket of china shards, setting it in a corner. After Evelyn had used her hair spike to save herself and then Grey from Philip Sotheby, Scarlet had decided that the daily defense class was an even higher priority than reading and ciphering. Perhaps if she’d known how to wield a sgian dubh at Whitehall
Palace, she wouldn’t still avoid dark corners and wake shaking from nightmares.

  She turned back toward Aiden and dusted her hands together. “Once you get settled, come up—”

  “Where shall I bed down at night?” Aiden asked, his gaze slicing to the steps the girls had taken and then back to Scarlet.

  “Bed down?” Scarlet asked, a smile curling her lips. “Like a horse?”

  His scowl returned. “Grey asked me to sleep in the castle,” he said. “What bed shall I use?”

  Scarlet indicated the steps. “The third and fourth floors have rooms with beds. You could always take the largest, since you’re…” She moved her hand to encompass his frame. “You’re so mountainous. It is Evelyn and Grey’s, last room on the right on the fourth floor. However, their exploits have likely soaked the walls with passion.” Could she possibly win a true smile from him? It was the most interesting challenge she’d had in months.

  She waited a beat, but his grim expression continued. Scarlet shrugged. “But it is big and roomy.”

  “I will find another bed,” he said, his voice gruff.

  Scarlet chuckled. “You are welcome to any of the other unoccupied rooms. Molly, Izzy, and Alana with her pack of wild pups sleep on the third floor, and I’m all the way to the left on the fourth.” She turned to the steps to join the girls at their lessons.

  Bang. The front door smacked against the stone wall, and Kerrick, Grey’s second-in-command after Aiden, jogged inside, his boyish smile gone. He scanned the room until he saw Aiden. “Menzies are at the gate.”

  Aiden slid his sword free.

  “Friend or foe?” Scarlet asked, running after him to the entryway. Grey had just left, and already swords were drawn.

  Aiden stopped at the top of the steps, and she caught his upper arm, immediately feeling the muscles through the linen. His bicep was solid, like a thick oak, bulging easily as he raised his arm.

  “Friend or foe?” she repeated.

  He looked down at her with a pinched brow. “Both.”

  Chapter Two

  Aiden heard the crunch of her quick steps behind him as he crossed the bailey. “Go inside, Scarlet,” he called over his shoulder, striding to the ladder leading up inside the gate tower.

  “You represent the castle and the Campbells,” she yelled back. “I represent the Highland Roses School and my brother’s interests.”

  Bloody hell. The Sassenach did not take orders well. The last thing he needed was for the young, cocky Menzies chief to see her. There’d be no getting rid of the man after he got a look at Scarlet’s glorious mane of auburn hair, creamy skin, and soft womanly curves.

  Aiden leaped up the ladder and headed to look over the wall of the gate tower.

  “And still no Grey Campbell,” Finlay Menzies called up. The chief of the Menzies was only a score in years and hadn’t yet filled out his muscle. Known for his cleverness and wit, he never seemed short of female attention. He’d brought six men with him, one of which held a white lamb before him on his horse.

  “Grey has gone to take the traitors’ heads south to King Charles at Whitehall. I am in charge while he is away. Name your business.”

  Behind Aiden, a muffled curse and the ruffle of petticoats heralded Scarlet up the ladder. He should have locked her inside the castle. If anything dangerous befell her while he was in charge, there’d be hell to pay from her sister, who was a force not unlike a hurricane when angered.

  “Grey came to Castle Menzies months ago and asked…” Finlay’s words trailed off as his gaze slid to Aiden’s side. “Well, hello?” he said, the question obvious in his voice. “And did Grey leave this lovely lass in charge of Finlarig as well?”

  “I am Lady Worthington, sister-in-law to Grey Campbell and the matron in charge of the Highland Roses School for ladies here at Finlarig.”

  The way Finlay smiled at her, like a cat with a cornered mouse, made Aiden want to shove her behind him. Aiden clutched the hilt of his sword.

  Finlay chuckled and shook his head. “I’d heard that Finlarig was changed into a school for lasses.” He looked pointedly at the iron-toothed portcullis. “Is the massive gate to keep the English out, or keep the lovely lasses, like Lady Worthington, in?”

  “State your business,” Aiden yelled down, annoyance edging his words.

  Finlay crossed his arms over his chest. “I also heard that the Englishman who took Finlarig is looking for sheep to start his own flock.” He indicated the lamb on the other horse. “I have fifteen sheep that I can’t feed this winter. Either we will have mutton stew until spring, or I can sell them to the Englishman.”

  “I represent my brother’s interests,” Scarlet said.

  Finlay clapped his hands together once. “Aye, good, then! Let us in, and ye can inspect this sweet lamb. It represents the flock.”

  Finlay only had a handful of men, and they didn’t have muskets, only swords. Aiden turned from the wall. “Hamish, raise the portcullis when I reach the ground.”

  Hamish moved to the coiled mechanism. Scarlet rushed to the ladder as Aiden climbed down. He looked up to see layers of skirts above him. Mo chreach. Her shapely legs showed above the edge of her boots, rising up into the darkness that shrouded the lass’s heat. He snapped his gaze level and shifted to avoid being kicked by her flailing boot as it sought the next rung.

  “Bloody useless skirts,” Scarlet murmured above him. She slapped her hands down on them to shove the puffed layers through the square-cut hole.

  He reached to grab her heel. “Ye’re going to fall. Probably knock me flat and break your bonny neck.” He held on tightly as she continued to tap in the air. “I will put it on the rung.” Aiden dodged the opposite foot, grabbing it to set it on the next rung. Down they went. Aiden kept his gaze straight ahead on the seam up the back of her leather boots. The breeze blew down through the hole past her, washing him with a flowery smell.

  “Dia mhath,” he whispered and jumped the rest of the way down. She was close enough to the ground now that if she fell, she wouldn’t hurt more than one of her trim ankles.

  Aiden heard the crank of the gate and turned to meet the Menzies, Kerrick coming up next to him. They drew their swords. Finlay Menzies flattened low over his horse’s neck to ride under the gate as it rose. He touched the point of one iron bar as it continued up. “Aye,” he called. “Thick enough to keep the lovely lasses inside.” He laughed at his own humor. Several of his men grinned, but they all remained quiet as they followed him inside.

  Finlay dismounted and signaled for the man with the lamb to do the same. “We have more than enough sheep for wool,” he said, walking forward. “And we lost some of our hay crop to fire when one of the farmers was using a torch to drive away a pack of wolves.”

  The man’s gaze slid to Scarlet as he continued. “I stopped by Balloch Castle yesterday, but your cousin, Donald Campbell, wasn’t interested,” Finlay said. “He reminded me that Grey was looking.”

  The man with the lamb set it down. It immediately began to hop about playfully, bleating. “As ye can see,” Finlay said, looking to Scarlet. “The lamb is flawless.”

  Scarlet bent down as the lamb butted against her skirts. “Of the fifteen, how many are lambs and ewes? And is a ram included?”

  “Five ewes, nine lambs, and one potent ram,” Finlay said. “’Tis a flock that is sure to grow. A great business opportunity.”

  “And they are all as healthy as this lamb?” she asked.

  “Aye, but ye must come to Castle Menzies to see them.”

  “I will come,” Aiden said.

  Finlay shrugged. “Do what ye like, Campbell, but if I’m taking the lady’s coin, she needs to inspect the flock. I won’t have the English harass me if they think I tricked one of their lords into giving coin for inferior stock.”

  “What of this one?” Scarlet asked, scratching its curly white rump before it leaped away to try to butt a chicken with its head. She smiled at its antics, not even bothering to hide the leaning of
her heart. Foolish woman.

  “’Tis a gift to ye, milady, if ye agree to come see the rest on the morrow,” Finlay said, a grin of triumph already on his face.

  “We will let ye know by messenger if we can come,” Aiden said.

  Finlay pursed his lips and shook his head. “Then I’ll be taking my dinner home with me.”

  “Dinner?” Scarlet’s head snapped up.

  Finlay laughed. “Just a name, but if ye worry, promise that I will see ye at Castle Menzies on the morrow, and the little lamb will remain with ye.”

  Blasted cod. The man’s tongue slipped out to wet his bottom lip as he watched Scarlet kneel before the prancing sheep. Aiden scowled, but apart from the appreciation, he saw no hint of trickery, though the man’s father had been a lying scoundrel. They would stop at Donald Campbell’s small castle on the way around the loch to the Menzies’ stronghold to verify that Finlay had stopped there first. If Finlay lied about that, then Aiden would count everything the man said as false.

  “Snowball will stay with us,” Scarlet said, straightening tall.

  Finlay smiled widely. “Dinner has a new name.” The Menzies behind him chuckled. Finlay’s gaze slanted to Aiden. “Then I have your word, Campbell? Ye will bring the lady around tomorrow to see her flock?”

  Aiden stared hard at the grinning chief. “Aye, on the morrow, but just to see the flock.”

  “Lo, but we will have a meal together,” Finlay said, and ignored Aiden’s shaking head. He looked back to Scarlet. “My sister will have returned from her time at Inverness. I would have her meet ye as she is in need of proper schooling.”

  “She is welcome at the Highland Roses School,” Scarlet said. She turned at the sound of the door to the keep opening.

  Bloody hell. Aiden cursed at the erupting chaos as Alana’s pack of puppies and the mother, a huge wolfhound, hurtled down the steps into the crowded bailey. Scarlet gasped, running for the lamb. Two groups of chickens scattered about the yard, squawking, wings flapping, as the dogs chased them. The mother wolfhound barked at the Menzies, her deep voice drowning out Alana’s reprimands.