Page 22 of To Win a Highlander’s Heart

A flicker of apprehension raced through Isolde. “It was never my intent to stay long.”

“Where will you go?” Fiona asked with concern in her voice.

Isolde shrugged. “Perhaps I’ll make my way to the mainland and head north. There are few English patrols the higher into the Highlands one gets, at least at present.”

Alastair’s gaze narrowed. “How would you know that?”

Isolde pressed her lips together as she looked about the table at all the curious gazes upon her. She should have guarded her thoughts and words more closely. Was it time to tell them the truth about herself? Lieutenant Collins had returned. If he stayed, then the MacLeods might very well need to know the intelligence she’d gathered in her two short months as a spy for the English crown.

She faced Orrick. It would be easier if she talked to him as she let the others in on her secret. “You asked about my life after leaving my brother’s castle. I’ve lived a complicated life from that time until now.”

She shuddered as she thought back to that day. “I left my home in a hurry, distraught and with so much emotion I didn’t know that I’d wandered into a trap set by the English until it was too late. They captured me and held me prisoner. Lieutenant Collins—”

“Lieutenant Collins? The Englishman who was here earlier?” Alastair asked.

Isolde nodded. “He trained me to spy against my own people by using my feminine wiles to get men to talk to me.”

“He forced himself on you.” Orrick swore under his breath.

Isolde shook her head. “He tried, but my sgian-dubh helped remind him to keep his distance.”

Orrick’s shoulders relaxed slightly as he waited expectantly for her to continue.

“For the first two weeks, during the day the English had me roaming the isle in an effort to obtain information on clan movements. They wanted to know of clan alliances and discord.”

“Why did you tell them anything?” Alastair demanded.

She turned towards him and met his heated gaze. “Because they threatened the life of my brother, over and over. Not just to label him a Jacobite, but a traitor. John might have given up on me, but I would have done anything to protect him from those men. Since the reports I gave them contained little if any real information, I kept doing as they asked.” Isolde swallowed roughly, returning her gaze to Orrick. “After they failed to gain any important information, they began to push me to betray my own people by reporting on activities and conversations within their households. As soon as my reports led to the imprisonment of the chief of Clan MacTavish, I fought for my escape.”

“How did you manage that?” Orrick prompted.

“One night, a year or so ago, I turned my training on the Englishmen of the twenty-ninth regiment. Several of the men had gone to bed early that night, leaving only six of us in the dining tent. I encouraged the five men present to drink more than they should have. I flirted with them in the way they’d taught me, until I could get each of them away from the group. Once in their tents, I rendered them senseless, gagged them, then tied their wrists and ankles. One by one I picked them off until it was only me and Lieutenant Collins.”

She swallowed roughly, but forced herself to continue. “Lieutenant Collins must have realised what I was doing because upon my return to the dining tent, he grabbed my arm and threw me to the ground. As he kicked me, accusing me of betrayal, I fell back on my warrior training and retaliated with a kick that slammed into his knee. When he regained his balance he attacked me again and again as I tried to defend myself. I was dizzy and bleeding when he came at me with both of his fists aimed at my head. That was when I reached for my sgian-dubh and stabbed him in the neck.”

Isolde closed her eyes as she remembered the look of horror on the lieutenant’s face as he reared back. Blood sprayed from his throat onto her dress before his eyes rolled back and he slumped forward onto her. She had been unable to hold back a scream as she’d struggled to free herself from his motionless body. “Until today, I thought he was dead. That I had killed him.”

She opened her eyes and met Orrick’s sympathetic gaze. “Lieutenant Collins is not a forgiving man. If he finds out you are sheltering me, he will attack with every resource available to him.”

Orrick frowned. “You let my brothers and me worry about Lieutenant Collins and the English. Your goal right now is to regain your strength and the use of your bow arm.”

Farther down the table, the youngest MacLeod brother, Callum, leaned forward with a grin. “Besides, we have the Fairy Flag on our side should things get out of hand with the English.”

“We’ll not be using the Fairy Flag to fight the English,” Alastair countered, wiping the grin from his brother’s youthful face.

“I’d like to help find a solution,” Isolde said.

“My brothers and I can deal with this.” Alastair crossed his arms over his chest.

Isolde straightened. “I’ve admitted to being a spy for the enemy. I left that behind.”

Alastair’s eyes narrowed. “How can we be certain of that?”

Orrick’s frown deepened. “We all know what that is like. We’ve all left behind pieces of our past we did not like.”

“I meant no offence,” Alastair said, turning his heated gaze on Orrick. “But do we really know this woman? At least enough to let her help us?”

Isolde bristled. “Just because I am female doesn’t mean I cannot help find a resolution to this problem.”