Claiming the Highlander

by Kinley MacGregor

  At first she wasn’t sure what had awakened her until she realized Sin was just behind them.

  He stooped and gently nudged Braden awake.

  Maggie quickly closed her eyes and feigned sleep.

  “Your watch, little brother,” Sin whispered softly.

  She felt Braden stiffen as he came awake and wondered if their position shocked him as much as it had her.

  Carefully, he extracted himself from her, and to her amazement, he placed a folded plaid beneath her head to cushion it from the ground. The tenderness of the gesture touched her deeply.

  The two men stood over her and she felt the stares of both. Uncomfortable with their attention, she started to say something, but for some reason she couldn’t bring herself to betray the fact that she was no longer sleeping.

  “I canna believe she cut her hair off.” Braden whispered.

  “She is definitely unusual.”

  “Aye. I’ve never met another woman like her.”

  “Many would call her mannish.”

  Braden snorted. “And I’d call them fools. There’s nothing mannish about her.”

  Sin didn’t respond, but Maggie could hear him making a pallet on the other side of the fire.

  After a few minutes, someone placed another plaid over her. Maggie slit her eyes open to see Braden rising to stand in front of her pallet. He leaned over and brushed his hand gently through her hair, then pulled the plaid up to her chin.

  His kindness touched her so deeply that for a moment she could barely breathe.

  “Are you going to take the post or continue to coddle her, Braden?”

  Braden turned to look at his brother. “She could use a little coddling, I think.”

  And with that Braden left her.

  Once they were alone and Braden was positioned away from them, Sin spoke to her. “I know you’re awake.”

  Maggie fluttered her eyes open to meet his black gaze over the fire. “I suppose Braden knew as well.”

  “Nay, he’d never have spoken so freely of you had he known.”

  She frowned. “Then how did you know?”

  “Intuition, observation,” Sin said quietly. “Things I had to cultivate to survive. Braden isn’t nearly as suspicious as I am.”

  His words confused her. What had made him say such?

  “And are you suspicious of me?”

  His hard look froze her all the way to her toes. “Woman, I’m suspicious of anyone who acts altruistically. I’ve only known a handful of people in my entire life who were actually kind. The vast majority of people only help others when they know it’ll benefit them in some manner.”

  Even more confused than before, she lifted her head to stare at him. “You think I want something from Braden?”

  “I know you do.”

  “And that is?”

  “You want him.”

  Shocked by his words, Maggie opened her mouth to argue.

  “Don’t deny it,” he said, cutting her words off before she could even begin. “I can see it in your eyes every time you look at him.”

  Maggie glanced to where Braden sat on the edge of the forest and wondered if her feelings were as clear to him. Inside, she hoped Braden wasn’t so astute. For if he knew how she felt, that meant he had been deliberately ignoring her feelings all these years, and that cut her all the way to her soul.

  “I admit I fancy him,” she said reluctantly, “but that doesn’t mean I want him. A person may fancy a snake is beautiful, but only a fool would try and claim one.”

  Sin arched a brow at her. “So, that’s it, then.”

  Her head began to ache from trying to figure out Sin’s mind and cryptic comments. “What?”

  “You’re afraid of Braden.”

  “Aye,” she admitted. “I’m not a fool. Braden isn’t the type of man who would stay by a woman’s side. He’d take me, then be off frolicking with the first lass who turned his head. I’ve no desire to be my mother, to cry alone in my bed while the man I love is out for the night with another.”

  Sin propped his head against his arm. “You ask for a lot in this day and age, milady. Most women accept the fact that men will forever prowl.”

  “I am not most women.”

  He smiled at her and nodded. “That you are not. Now you’d best be getting back to sleep.”

  Maggie closed her eyes. But what she saw in the darkness of her eyelids disturbed her greatly. She had two clear memories of her mother. One of her mother holding her tight to her chest and singing to her. The other was of a quiet summer’s night after her mother had taken ill.

  Maggie had been trying to sleep that night too, but her mother’s crying had awakened her. Scared of the noise, she had crept from her bed to where a hanging cloth separated her bed from her parents’. Her mother had been weeping in the arms of Maggie’s aunt.

  “How could he be with her while I lay dying?” her mother had cried, her voice filled with such agony that it haunted Maggie to this day. “The least he could do is wait until I’m in the ground.”

  “I know,” her aunt had soothed. “Men will be men. You know that.”

  Her mother had died just a few hours later. Alone in her bed, waiting for her husband to come home to her.

  And worse, her father had never married the woman he had gone to see that night.

  “But Blar, you know I love you. I’d be taking care of your bairns for you if you’d let me,” Sila had begged her father outside their cottage one night three months after her mother’s passing.

  “Sila, you’re a good lass, but I canna marry you now. Not after what has happened. Every time I look at you, all I can think of is the night she died. I should have been here with her, not out with you. The guilt of it is more than I can stand.”

  “Aye,” Sila had wept. “You had no business with me. I never should have listened to you when you told me I meant something to you.”

  With that, Sila had run off into the darkness, and her father had come inside their small cottage.

  He had glanced at Maggie standing in the shadows, and by his face she knew her father realized she had heard everything. He’d said nothing as he walked past her and went to his bed.

  Like Braden, her father had been a good man, but a man nonetheless. And Maggie would rather die an old maid than be put in the position of either her mother or Sila.

  Nay, she had dreamed of Braden the whole of her life, but it was time to let such foolish dreams go. Braden belonged to the world, and she…

  She belonged to herself.

  Maggie looked wistfully to where Braden sat several yards away.

  “Good night, my love,” she whispered. “And good-bye.”

  That night, Maggie was tortured by dreams of Braden. Dreams of his sweet kisses. Of his arms holding her close.

  I’ll never leave you, little blossom. His sincere voice made her heart soar.

  She dreamed of having a home with him, of having his wee ones running about.

  And then her dreams turned more wicked. Turned to things Maggie had overheard her brothers discuss when they thought her asleep.

  Aye, she could see Braden slipping her clothes from her, running his hand over her body as he kissed her until she lost all reason. She could feel his hands sliding over her bare skin, cupping her body as his lips toyed with the sensitive flesh of her neck.

  “Braden,” she whispered, her body on fire with a need she could barely understand.

  She wanted him.

  And then, from a distance, she heard the cruel laughter of the men in her village as they taunted the only boy who had ever noticed her.

  I would have thought she was below even your standards, they had said to David.

  Maggie jerked awake as that haunting laughter rang in her head.

  Disoriented, she glanced about to find Braden and Sin talking in low whispers a few feet away. The smell of fresh-roasted hare greeted her.

  Her hands trembling, Maggie tried to banish the memory of her dreams. The s
ound of the boys laughing at her the day David had helped her run an errand for Anghus.

  Barely seven-and-ten, she had been so touched by David’s kindness as he carried her heavy basket to Father Bede, but the other boys had mocked him for it.

  You know, Davey, if nags are to your taste, I have one to sell ya.

  Maggie covered her ears with her hands to blot the memory. At times like this, she wondered why she even cared whether or not her male tormentors perished under a MacDouglas sword. Most of the men around her age had earned that fate, given the misery they had heaped upon her over the years.

  But as soon as the thought occurred to her, she felt shamed for it. They didn’t deserve to die for their meanness, but in all honesty, she wouldn’t mind seeing them taken out and thrashed for it.

  And in that moment, she realized why she had always loved Braden so much. Out of all the men in the clan, he was the only one near her age who had never laughed at or mocked her.

  Not once.

  “Are you all right?” Braden asked as he looked past Sin to see her sitting up.

  Maggie nodded as she let her hands fall away from her ears.

  “Why did you let me sleep so late?” she asked, noting it was already midmorning.

  “We decided you needed your rest,” Braden said as he handed her a skin of watered-down ale.

  “But we need to reach the MacDouglas as soon as possible.”

  “And so we shall,” Braden assured her with a gentle, dimpled smile. “A couple of hours will make little difference.”

  For a minute, she thought of Lochlan and his predicament, until she remembered that Braden’s mother would take care of it.

  Still, once the women were free, they had little time to persuade the MacDouglas to peace.

  In that moment, she wished she had brought horses. But then, three unknown “men” riding across MacDouglas land would have invited the kind of attention and confrontation she would rather avoid. Especially since two of them were Braden and Sin.

  There was no telling what either might do when confronted, and Maggie certainly didn’t want to find out.

  Braden handed her part of the hare. “Eat and wash, then we’ll get started. We still have plenty of the day left to travel by.”

  Maggie nodded. She ate quickly, then took a few private minutes in the denseness of the forest to attend her needs before rejoining the men.

  They had already put out the fire and had everything neatly stored in the packs. Maggie reached for hers, but Braden draped it over his shoulder.

  She smiled. “I appreciate the thought, Braden, but should we come across others, I’m rather sure they would think it odd you carry my pack.”

  “She’s right,” Sin agreed. “It defeats the whole purpose of having her dressed as a boy.”

  “Very well,” Braden said, but before he would let her have it back, he put half the contents into his own pack. “There’s no need in you getting tired unnecessarily.”

  Maggie’s heart pounded at his thoughtfulness. Aye, Braden was an easy man to love. Kind, considerate. If only loyalty to women were one of his numerous virtues.

  “Are you all right?” Braden asked as he handed her the pack. “You seem troubled.”

  Aye, troubled by a handsome man who haunts my dreams and my heart.

  “I’m fine,” she said, offering him a smile. “Just thinking of the task ahead.” As well as the fact that when this was all over, she would return to her little cottage alone and he would be off…

  She didn’t finish the thought. She couldn’t.

  Sin gave her a knowing, sympathetic look, then led them through the forest toward MacDouglas lands.

  They walked through the rest of the morning and well into the afternoon. Instead of stopping for a meal, they ate pieces of bread while they walked, and spoke very little as they kept mostly to the ancient forest.

  It was midafternoon when a strange tingling sensation started on the back of Maggie’s neck and ran over her scalp. An eerie shiver went through her.

  It felt as though someone were watching them.

  She turned her head to scan the dark trees and shrubs, but saw nothing. She heard nothing.

  And yet…

  At first the men appeared to notice nothing strange. Until she noted the tenseness of both their spines. The way they both walked with one hand on their sword hilts.

  Aye, they felt it too.

  “Braden—”

  “Stephen?” he asked, quickly cutting her off, and that more than anything else verified her suspicions. They were being watched, and both he and Sin knew it.

  “Never mind,” she said, dropping her voice an octave.

  Still, she saw and heard nothing.

  It stretched on for so long that she had just begun to think her imagination was running amok. Until they topped a small rise in the forest. Just as they neared a giant yew tree, a figure casually stepped out from behind it.

  He was a large, burly man, but not quite as tall as her escorts. His dank, dark hair hung limply about his beefy shoulders and his dirty beard obscured most of his face. He arched a bushy black brow as he narrowed one eye on them and leveled a sword toward Sin.

  “Well, well,” the burly man said evilly. “What have we here?”

  “Looks like we got some little pigeons just right for a plucking,” a man said from behind them.

  Terrified, Maggie looked around as a total of ten men surrounded them. They were thieves, by the looks of them, and would be bent on God only knew what once they learned that the three of them carried little money.

  Sin and Braden exchanged looks with each other that were a terrifying mixture of wry amusement and anticipation. And that made her tremble from the inside out.

  This was not good. Not good at all.

  Chapter 9

  “Well, well,” Sin said to Braden, mocking the leader’s words and tone. “What have we here?”

  “Looks like a pack of fools wanting to die,” Braden said, a cold, deadly smile on his lips.

  Maggie quickly crossed herself as she realized the situation was about to escalate into something she really didn’t want to witness.

  She just hoped they all survived it.

  Tension sizzled so thick around them that she could nearly smell the raw, pungent odor of it. All the men were stiff and wary, their eyes darting over each other as they evaluated the mettle of their opponents.

  Her stomach drew tight in fear.

  The outlaw leader returned Braden’s cold smile with one of his own. “Now, friend, there’s no need for us to spill your blood or your guts. Give us your money and we’ll leave you to peacefully go about your way.”

  “There’s just one wee problem with that,” Braden said, his voice ominously calm and patient, his greenish brown eyes menacing. “You’re not my friend and I’m quite a bit fonder of my gold than I am of you. Now, given that, why would I want to turn my gold over to your clumsy hands?”

  Maggie’s panic rose.

  The leader’s face turned dour. “In that case…”

  The others attacked so quickly, Maggie barely had time to duck the one beefy thief who came after her and hurl herself into the shrubs for protection.

  Braden and Sin unsheathed their swords in unison and used them to drive back their attackers.

  The big thief she had dodged moved to grab her, but didn’t make it before Braden caught him by the scruff of his shirt and shoved him in the opposite direction into a rather large oak tree, where he rebounded with a resounding thud, then went sprawling atop the peat-covered ground.

  Maggie sighed in relief, hoping no one else noticed her.

  But an instant after that thought, she saw another thief inching toward Braden’s unguarded back, the thief’s sword raised to strike.

  Panic swelled inside her. Braden was so occupied with the man before him, he didn’t even notice the one at his back.

  Her only thought to save Braden, Maggie scrambled from the bushes. She grabbed a large,
leafy limb from the ground and used it to whack the thief against the back.

  The leaves smacked his spine, neck and head, but didn’t do anything other than make the big man angry. He whirled on her with a vicious curse.

  Too late, she realized her attack hadn’t been very well planned or executed.

  Awkwardly, she held the limb before her as she struggled to protect herself. The thief laughed cruelly as he whacked the leaves and wood almost playfully with his sword.

  “Mother of saints preserve me!” she whispered, then bashed him in the head with the limb.

  He staggered for only an instant, then his face darkened in rage. “You’ll die for that.”

  “The devil you say,” Braden growled as he grabbed the thief and spun him about to face him.

  Braden sent him spiraling to the ground with one backhanded blow. She barely had time to thank him before another man attacked.

  Maggie watched in awe as the brothers made short work of the men without actually killing any of them. But there were wounds aplenty and many a swollen noggin as the thieves fell like rotten apples on the ground, then lay moaning and holding their bruised limbs and aching heads.

  Maggie still clutched her tree limb, too afraid to let it go until the thieves were gone.

  Braden cornered the leader against a yew tree and held his sword just below the man’s chin. His hand steady, Braden’s fierce look would have quelled the devil himself and it sent a raw shiver over Maggie.

  “Now, then, friend,” Braden said, “do I have to kill you, or will you go on about your business and leave us in peace?”

  Sin clucked his tongue as he glanced longingly at the men on the ground around him. “Oh, come now, can’t I please kill one of them? How about the large one with only three teeth, or maybe the short one here with bad breath?”

  Braden gave a mocking half laugh at Sin’s pleading tone, but his eyes never left the thief before him. “Should I let him have his fun?”

  The leader shook his head. “Nay, we’ll be going, if it’s all the same to you.”

  Braden took a step back and lowered his sword.

  With a speed that amazed her, the highwaymen gathered themselves and vanished into the trees.