Highland Heartbreakers

by Quinn, Paula

  She didn’t move. It wasn’t time.

  She surveyed the men, trying to determine who was the leader. It didn’t take long to find him once she spotted the priest keeping pace beside him.

  A priest. She almost huffed. She should shoot that Judas first for standing with the Scots.

  If she did, she was sure the man riding at his side would immediately fall into action.

  Patience, Aleysia. Let the traps do their work.

  She watched the one who had to be the leader. He rode at the head of the group. He was a big man, with straight, broad shoulders, clad in a gray cloak over his Highland plaid. His knees were bare and his hair was long and as dark as his Scottish soul. He exuded confidence in the subtle tilt of his shadowed chin, the straightening of his spine.

  For an instant, Aleysia forgot to breathe as he set his frost-filled eyes around the forest.

  Don’t look up, she prayed. She prayed also that her cloak, dyed to match the colors of the trees, was enough to conceal her if he did.

  He didn’t look up but as if sensing something were amiss, he paused his mount, stopping Aleysia’s heart. The priest stopped with him. Thankfully, some of his men continued onward.

  Her dagger was sharp. Just a few cuts and the first rope snapped. Aleysia smiled as it released a set of small swinging boulders with sticks sharpened at both ends tied together with rope.

  She quit smiling soon enough and almost lost her morning meal when the boulders met their marks and struck two riders in their heads. It was more brutal than she ever imagined and her determination faltered. But what she’d done was necessary. She hadn’t trained for four years just to go soft over death or killing when the time came. People were depending on her. She’d promised to bring them all back when it was safe again.

  The thought of her friends spurred her into action. She drew back her bow and let her arrow fly into the chaos below. She hit three men before the rest realized they were being fired upon. A shout went out and shields were raised.

  She took the moment of them not moving and hiding for cover to run across the thin planks she and her friends had hammered high amid the branches, connecting one tree to another.

  Cradled between two thick branches, she paused and squatted. She was ahead of them now, watching them making their way forward, slowly and cautiously.

  The leader held up one hand to slow his regiment and used the other to hold up his shield. She’d have to take him down but she didn’t have a clear shot yet. Just a bit closer. He was leading them. His eyes were on the ground and everything around it.

  He heard the cry of a horse as it stumbled over a hidden trap to his left. His face went dark in the filtered morning light as he turned to watch the rider launch forward from his saddle onto a bed of sharpened pikes placed in the ground.

  The men around him leaped back even while their leader ordered them to be still. Aleysia wanted to put an arrow into him but he protected himself well with his shield.

  She climbed away instead to another group of branches, where she had a clearer angle of which rope to cut. She picked one that freed a long, sharpened pike from another nearby tree. It swooped down and went straight through a man’s chest and carried him off his horse.

  “Nobody bloody move!” the leader shouted from his horse. “I will kill the next one of ye who disobeys my order! Off yer mounts! Fall in behind me! Slowly! Eyes open!”

  They all dismounted and moved into a straight line behind him, leading their horses at their sides, trusting their lives to their commander’s eyes.

  Aleysia waited while he led them closer to the set of traps—closer to her, until they were once again in range.

  She wanted them to believe they were the ones tripping the traps. It kept them from looking up. The leader was clever, making them dismount since most of the traps were set for the height of a mounted man. He would note if spiked boulders were flying about when his men walked in his footsteps. He’d start searching the trees.

  So she let the men pass beneath her without cutting any ropes. She readied her bow and nocked an arrow, though, while the last of the soldiers were led away.

  She took the last man and the soldier in front of him down quietly before anyone knew. Without waiting for them to discover that their comrades were dead, she followed the rest from her canopy as they reached the meadow of arrows. So named for the one hundred arrows nocked and ready to fly, ready for weeks. Was it months?

  Pity that all but one of the arrows would be wasted, as they were set out across the wide field. They were meant to kill many, but because all the men traveled in a single line behind their commander, only one arrow would matter—the first one—aimed at the first in line.

  The more she looked at him, the more convinced she became that he was the most dangerous, the most savagely alluring man she’d ever set eyes on. It was almost a shame that he had to die.

  She shook her head to clear it of any more thoughts or judgments about him. She wanted him to die. She wanted them all to die. They weren’t taking her home, her land.

  She snatched an arrow from the quiver over her back and raised her bow. She was tired of waiting. If she took away their leader, her traps would take care of the rest of them.

  She pulled back on the bowstring and watched him through one eye as he turned in her direction. Her fingers trembled for an instant before she released her arrow. It flew. He moved his head an instant before the arrow went through his eye.

  But not completely in time to avoid the metal tip grinding against his left cheekbone.

  Aleysia’s eyes opened wide. No! How could she miss?

  She went still as fury flashed across his icy blue gaze. He found her in the branches. Blood dripped down his cheek. He didn’t reach for his wound but slammed his shield to the ground and reached for his bow and arrow instead.

  She pulled another arrow from her quiver and nocked it but he was faster. His arrow flew…and so did Aleysia, through the trees, over planks and thick branches, on a path she’d traveled over many times before, until she was gone.

  Chapter Two

  “Did ye see that?” Cain didn’t wait for anyone to reply before he moved for the trees. Had his eyes deceived him? How could a man travel through the boughs with such agility and speed? Was this some sort of sorcery? No, the bastard was real and responsible for killing nine of his men—for almost killing him. He lifted his fingers to the blood on his face.

  Cain was going to catch him and kill him…slowly.

  “Cainnech, careful!” Father Timothy called out.

  “I think I hit him,” Cain called back. “Amish!” he shouted to his second in command. “Keep the men still.”

  He looked overhead at the web of branches. There didn’t appear to be anyone else. He needed to be certain, and to have a closer look at the assailant’s perch.

  Slinging his bow over his back, he reached the tree and used his axe to begin climbing.

  When he reached the desired branch, he pulled himself up and looked in the direction of where his arrow should have landed. He spotted it jutting from the trunk. Attached to it was a piece of cloth torn from the bastard’s cloak. He yanked the arrow free and replaced it in his quiver and then examined the cloth. It was dyed in the colors around him.

  Clever, he thought as he lifted his gaze for the first time to the branches around him. How many more of these enemies were there?

  He went still as his eyes began to focus on the ropes tied to branches. They were everywhere. Everywhere he looked. The bastard was cutting them as he and his men moved beneath him. If he hadn’t tried to kill Cain and missed, he would not have been spotted and fled.

  They never would have made it through the forest.

  His blood went cold. This was too elaborate. There had to be more than one person here. He squinted into the branches. Would he even see them? He barely saw the one who shot at him. He listened for any sounds of things moving in trees. There wasn’t any, not a single bird stirred. He should have b
een listening for such sounds or the lack of them earlier. Nine of his men might still be alive.

  He looked down at Father Timothy and shook his head. So much for an easy siege. According to the priest, Lismoor had no guard, no lord. It was the reason he’d volunteered Cain and his men to the king. Take Lismoor for the Bruce and then go to Whitton for some rest. This wasn’t supposed to be difficult.

  Now it was war.

  He climbed down to tell the others what he found. “The ropes must be cut to release the traps. With the bastard oot of the way, there shouldna be any more trouble.” He stopped for a moment to accept a small cloth from Father Timothy and pressed it to his bloody cheek. “I dinna think there are any more of them.”

  A low murmur rose from the men. Father Timothy spoke what they were all asking.

  “One person did all this? Cainnech look.” He stepped over something and called out to the men to stand behind the trees. When they did, he hacked at something in the deep grass and arrows flew. At least a hundred soared outward into the meadow.

  Cain paled. He knew it seemed impossible. “We’ll see,” he vowed. “Keep yer shields raised and yer eyes on the ground. I will meet up with ye all at the edge of the forest.” He turned again for the trees.

  “What do ye mean to do?” Father Timothy called out to him.

  “I mean to see where this leads. If it leads to a village or a castle, I mean to take it and draw the assailant oot.”

  “Cainnech, we dinna take villages,” the priest gently reminded.

  Cain stopped and turned back to him. Aye, Cain had sworn never to kill villagers. But the priest knew he had a black heart. It went along with the name, though Cain had never known the story of the murderous son of Adam and Eve until Father Timothy had read it to him when he was nine. “Father,” he said, his voice resonating with authority. “I will know who is responsible fer our men’s deaths.” He already knew who was responsible for their lives. He was. “And then I will put an end to his.”

  He didn’t wait another moment but climbed back up the tree and moved cautiously away.

  On his way around branches and planks, he surveyed the ropes and how they led through the intricate web of branches and leaves to the other side of the woods, where spiked boulders and long, sharp pikes hung waiting for release. The culprit may have been alone today, but he’d had help building all of this, planning it all as if they were expecting Cain and his men. How? Who was it? An English general he’d defeated in battle? Who lived in Rothbury?

  He would find out soon enough, he thought as he came to the edge of the forest. He stood in the branches and looked down at a village spilling over the strath and a small castle on a hill in the distance.

  He peered down at his men and then took one last look around for the culprit before he climbed down and joined the others.

  “I dinna know which way he went,” he told them, “but, mayhap, someone in the village knows.”

  Without waiting for anyone to object, he leaped onto his waiting mount, led to him by Father Timothy, who opened his mouth and then shut it again when Cain rode away.

  The villagers were going to help bury his men whether they wanted to or not. He’d kill any who refused, or refused to help him find the assailant. He didn’t care what Father Timothy believed about attacking villages, or that he quietly agreed.

  Someone was going to pay.

  He was the first to arrive in the village, the first to notice that something didn’t feel right.

  No one was here. Had the village been abandoned? Were the villagers hiding in the forest?

  They searched every house, narrowly avoiding a dozen more traps that were set off upon opening doors.

  “I should burn it all down,” he ground out when Father Timothy brought his horse close. “It may draw him oot.”

  “It might if there were people inside,” the priest remarked calmly. “But this place is deserted, Cainnech. It has likely been this way fer the last four years.”

  “Why d’ye say that?” Cain asked, his interest piqued. What did Father Timothy know?

  “Sir Giles d’Argentan,” the priest said, looking around.

  “Ye said he was dead,” Cain reminded him with a clip of annoyance in his voice.

  “He is. The Norman knight served under King Edward and gave up his life at Bannockburn rather than flee with the king.”

  “Aye,” Cain remarked. “I know the story of England’s hero. Are we certain of his death? Does he have brothers wantin’ to avenge him?”

  “Aye, we are sure. Commander Lamont’s regiment took him down. As far as his kin,” Father Timothy told him, “he has no brothers. I know little aboot him, but whoever is responsible fer what happened today knew we were comin’. He must have heard Duncan’s pipes last eve and planned his attack.”

  Cain his shook his head. “This took time to plan and put together.” He narrowed his eyes on the village. “There were people here and they helped. Fer that, they will now lose their homes.”

  “Cainnech.” The priest turned to him, his large, brown eyes, pleading—and filled with determination. “Ye have agreed to go to Whitton to pray fer yer sins. Will ye add more to them now?”

  Cain laughed softly to himself. How much more proof did Father Timothy need before he would admit the truth? “Yer God obviously doesna want to hear from me, Father.”

  “Ye are still alive, so I would disagree,” the priest replied quietly, turning back to the houses before them. “Dinna burn the village, Cainnech. Do this fer me. I ask little of ye.”

  Cain cast him his darkest scowl. The priest told the truth. He usually did what he wanted without asking. This time he did ask though—and for what? To save some abandoned dwellings to appease his God, who seemed bent on killing Cain?

  “Verra well,” Cain murmured, then gritted his teeth with disgust at his own heart and the softness in it for the old man beside him. “But ask no mercy from me when we catch this bastard.”

  He turned his horse to face his men. “To the castle!”

  They followed him to the fortress on the hill, its keep and high, seemingly deserted battlements set against the backdrop of darkening clouds.

  They approached the curtain wall slowly. If anyone were inside, they had to already know the Scots were here, yet Cain and his men met no opposition. There were no traps attached to the stone archways leading into the inner bailey, no guards patrolling the walls. Like the village, the castle appeared to be deserted.

  A few of his men muttered things about ghosts and crossed themselves. Even Father Timothy seemed uneasy.

  They climbed an outside staircase next to a short, stone walkway that led to the high, square keep. They came to a set of heavy doors and on Cain’s command, they burst through them and into the keep’s great hall. They immediately made formation, shields up, axes and short-swords held before them at the ready.

  Cain looked around. The walls were bare of tapestries. Tallow candles were impaled on tall, vertical spikes and held in loops secured to the walls. Bowls of oil lamps were suspended in rings and from stands, and a hearth was built against a hooded wall. None of it was lit. Dismantled trestle tables were stacked in the rushes.

  The fresh rushes.

  No ghosts here. Senses piqued, Cain broke up the men into four groups to search the entire castle, including the small towers, and secure it.

  “If anyone is found,” he commanded while Amish lit their torches, “bring them to me.”

  “D’ye mind if me and the men bring him back in more than one piece?” his second asked. The men behind him nodded and chimed in about what they wanted to do to the man who killed their comrades.

  “Bring anyone ye find to me alive and able to answer my questions,” Cain warned them. “If anyone ye find is guilty of killin’ our men, ye can all have him and bury him in as many pieces as ye like. Until I speak with them, ye will lay a hand on no one. Is that understood?”

  The men all nodded and had a look at their shields or around
at the bare walls—anywhere but at the raw strength in his gaze. They knew he would let justice be carried out for their fallen friends. He would face a ghost to do it.

  With nothing more to say, and even less time to lose, Cain set off toward the northern end of the keep with his group.

  If their forest assailant lived in this keep, chances were there would be a sign of him. Like the fresh rushes. He wanted to catch the bastard. Nothing would stop him.

  Rooms connected to other rooms through narrow archways and short stairwells. Each bed in every room they entered was nearly stripped bare. Dust had settled on empty chests and trunks and basins were dry. There was not a sign of anyone to be found.

  Save for the last chamber they entered. It was the main solar, where the lord of the castle usually slept. The quarters were divided by a wood partition into a bed chamber and a sitting room. The bed was one of the finest Cain had seen and certainly nothing he had ever slept in before. Carved wood with four posters, it was set high off the floor, with hangings draped from a frame suspended from the ceiling beams. Like the others, almost every linen and item of clothing was gone. But there was no dust on the furniture and atop a tall, polished wooden chest was a hair comb.

  Cain held it up and uncurled a long, dark hair from its alabaster teeth.

  He looked at the hair and held the comb up to his nose. The faint scent of some kind of flower filled his nostrils.

  “Father,” he said in a low voice and looked up from the hair. “Did d’Argentan have a sister?”

  Deep in the belly of the keep, in the dungeon where once were held enemies of the king, a small door concealed in the wall began to move. It had been moved many times before.

  A silver head peeped into the dungeon. “My lady?” Sir Richard whispered, exiting the small doorway. “My lady, where the hell are you?”

  Chapter Three

  Cain stood on the high battlement wall of Lismoor Castle, formerly owned by the d’Argentans. Now, it had been claimed by Cain for King Robert. He spread his gaze over the strath to the village drenched in the golden light of the setting sun. Was their enemy hiding in one of the houses? He should have burned them all down. He still might.