Once Upon a Highland Christmas (Highland Warriors Book 3)
Page 15
Apparently feeling the same, Colin stepped back a few paces and whipped out his sword, thrusting it high. “Forget the MacDonald wench and her jackal blood. We could” – he made a flourish with the blade – “have done with yon mummery in the old way! Cut down the Lowland bastards and toss them into a loch. We then block every entry into the glen, keep silent, and no one need know they even reached us.”
He grinned wickedly, sliced a ringing arc in the cold afternoon air.
James strode forward and grabbed his wrist, stopping his foolery. “The old way ne’er included murdering innocents. The workmen” – he jerked a glance at them – “are naught but lackeys. Their blood on our hands would forever stain our honor. Sir Walter’s blood, much as I’d love to spill it, would bring a King’s army into the glen. No matter what we did, they’d come. Even if every clan in the Highlands rose with us against them, their number alone would defeat us.
“And” – he released Colin’s arm, nodding grimly when his cousin sheathed the blade – “King Robert would then do more than scatter us. He’d put us to the horn, outlawing us so that we’d lose no’ just our land but our very name. A fire and sword edict passed quicker than you can blink. That, he would do!”
Colin scowled, flushing red. “Damnation!”
“Aye,” James agreed, his own face flaming. “We are damned whate’er. So we do what is left to us. We keep our pride and honor and prove what hard fighters we are. With God’s good grace, we shall be victorious.”
Colin’s chin came up, his eyes glinting. “Perhaps He will bless us now.” He flashed a wicked grin and strode for the door arch. “I’m off to the hall to see if God in his greatness might cause Sir Walter to choke on a fish bone. I shall pray on the way.”
James’ lips twitched. On another day, he would have thrown back his head and laughed. As it was, he watched Colin hasten into the stair tower without another word. Only when his young cousin’s footsteps faded did he glance at the heavens and mutter a prayer of his own.
Then he whipped around to toss another glower at Lady Catriona, even though she couldn’t see him.
He snorted when he saw her.
She’d edged even closer to one of the viewing platforms, her glare pinned on the workmen. James shuddered just looking at her. He almost felt sorry for the men flamed by her scorching stare. Deepest blue yet piercing as the sun, her eyes could burn holes in a man if he didn’t take care.
James knew it well, much to his annoyance.
Fortunately, their paths didn’t cross often, but each time they’d had the displeasure, he’d regretted it for days.
Just now, with the wind blowing her skirts and her hair whipping about her face, he almost felt an odd kinship with her. There was something about the challenging tilt of her chin and the blaze in her eyes that – for one crazy mad moment – made her not a MacDonald but every Highland woman who’d ever walked the hills.
Almost, he was proud of her.
But almost was just that – something that hovered just short of being.
He let his gaze sweep over her one last time, glad that it was so. Catriona MacDonald was the last woman he wished to admire.
Blotting her from his mind, he strode to another part of the battlements, choosing a corner where the sight of her wouldn’t spoil his view. Then he braced himself and stared past the fighting ground to the hills beyond, deep blue and silent against the sky. Directly across from him, a sparkling rock-strewn cataract plunged down a narrow gorge cut deep into one of the hills. It was the same vista he enjoyed from his bedchamber window. The sight – as always – took his breath and made his heart squeeze. This day, the falls’ beauty also quenched any last shred of sympathy he might have felt for the MacDonald she-wolf.
In Cameron hands since distant times, the glen was his birthright and his joy. Cloud shadows drifted across its length, the gentle play of light and dark bleeding his soul. His eyes misted at the well-loved scene, his throat thickening. He’d always believed his children would one day love the glen with equal fierceness. That they’d carry on tradition, bound to the land and appreciating their heritage, teaching their own offspring to do the same.
Now…
He wrenched his gaze from the glen, fury whipping through him like a flame to tinder. He should’ve known better than to come up here. But Colin had wanted to see the workmen’s progress. And, truth be told, brisk winds always blew across the ramparts and he’d relished a few moments in the cold, clean air before courtesy demanded he join Sir Walter and his ravenous friends in the hall.
The man’s lofty airs and barely-veiled insults were more than any man should have to tolerate within his own walls. And watching Lindsay and his henchmen eat their way through Castle Haven’s larders – with neither the MacDonalds nor the Mackintoshes helping with the costs – was as galling as it was enlightening.
No matter how the trial of combat ended, the other two clans of the glen would never change their colors.
Most especially the MacDonalds.
The she-wolf’s presence on the field vouched for their obstinacy. Just as her flay-a-man stares proved they had a touch of the devil in them.
It was a taint that might serve them well when they soon found themselves in hell.
James’ pulse quickened imagining them there.
It was a fine thought.
A well met fate that sent a surge of satisfaction shooting through him. He could see them landing on Hades’ hottest hob or in a deep, icy pit where they could languish for eons, pondering their treacheries.
They deserved no better.
Pity was so many Camerons would be joining them.
About the Author
“Sue-Ellen Welfonder brings legends and love to life.” – Fresh Fiction
USA Today bestselling author Sue-Ellen Welfonder won Romantic Times Best Historical Romance Award for her debut title, Devil in a Kilt. Many of her books have been RT Award nominees, and have received RT Top Picks and K.I.S.S. Hero Awards. She is thrilled to be a winner of InD’Tale’s RONE Award. Her favorite reader compliment is that her stories transport them to medieval Scotland, the setting of most of her books. She is also known for her strong heroines, Alpha heroes, and weaving Highland magic and humor into her tales.
Sue-Ellen also writes as Allie Mackay, penning contemporary paranormals, mostly set in the Scottish Highlands.
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Also by Sue-Ellen Welfonder
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Highland Magic: A Collection of Magical Love Across the Ages mybook.to/HighlandMagicBoxset
Highland Warriors Trilogy
Sins of a Highland Devil mybook.to/SinsofaHighlandDevil
Temptation of a Highland Scoundrel mybook.to/HighlandScoundrel
Seduction of a Highland Warrior (coming soon)
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Once Upon a Highland Christmas (series-related holiday novella)
Highland Knights Romances
Knight in Her Bed: mybook.to/KnightInHerBed
Master of the Highlands: mybook.to/MasteroftheHighlands
Wedding for a Knight: mybook.to/WeddingforaKnight
Return to Kintail Sc
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Winter Fire: mybook.to/WinterFire
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Only for a Knight: mybook.to/OnlyforaKnight
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The Laird of Lyongate Hall: mybook.to/TheLairdofLyongateHall
Short Stories
The Seventh Sister: mybook.to/TheSeventhSister
Falling in Time: mybook.to/FallinginTime
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Collywobbles for Christmas (included in Meows & Mistletoe, a Cat’s Paw Cove holiday anthology)
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Ravenscraig Legacy Series
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