Page 94 of Dark Seduction
Claire was thrilled. She grasped one of his reins. “What changed your mind?”
His gaze held hers. “Dinna think so hard, Claire. I go back to Dunroch and ’tis the best way. I never said I wouldn’t make part of the journey with ye.” He turned his mount away.
Claire looked around for her mount. She knew exactly who she was riding through the pass with. Royce joined her, leading the brown gelding. “Mount up, Lady Claire.”
Claire took Saint Will’s reins and swung into the saddle, finding the wood stirrups. When she looked up, Aidan was handing her a revolver.
Claire grinned, briefly forgetting all about being in a situation in which she had no say and no control. “You didn’t forget! Is it loaded?”
“If ye mean does it have six round pellets inside, aye, it does,” he said with a grin of his own.
Claire would have kissed his cheek if she wasn’t astride and if Malcolm hadn’t been so jealous yesterday. “Thank you. Not just for the dagger and the gun, but for everything.”
“I canna refuse a beautiful woman,” he said, smiling.
Claire glanced across the troops and saw Malcolm watching her. She hoped he was reading her mind now. “That is obvious,” Claire said. She leaned closer. “Be nice to Isabel. She’s very young for your shenanigans.”
His eyes widened. “Claire, she kens the way o’ the world.”
Claire thought it sad that she probably did at such a young age. She wasn’t sure why she hoped to save Isabel from the broken heart that would be her fate, but she did. She moved her horse toward Malcolm, tucking the revolver carefully in her belt. Claire came abreast of him, uncertain. “Are you waiting for me?”
“Aye.” He gestured that they should follow the men trotting under the raised portcullis and through the middle ward. A moment later, Claire was riding across the first drawbridge with Malcolm. The sky was turning pale blue, the sun shining faintly yellow as it crept over the still waters of the loch. To the north, Ben More and the lower, adjacent peaks remained shrouded in shadow and mist. As Royce and the first few men trotted onto the marshland, two does and a magnificent buck with huge antlers leaped out of the forest and across the road. Claire smiled at Malcolm. So much had happened since that terrible battle with Moray and she missed him.
He met her gaze. His eyes were unguarded, almost soft.
“Are you eavesdropping?”
“Will ye shout?”
She almost laughed. “No.”
“’Tis called lurking, Claire, and with ye, I dinna have t’ even try to hear ye. Ye think so loud.”
Her heart raced as they passed through the raised portcullis. “Then you know that I miss moments like this one.”
His jaw flexed and his lashes lowered over his eyes.
“The rising sun, the crisp, clean air, the towering mountains, the scent of wood and pine…and you, here with me, like this.”
“I canna change the past. ’Tis nay allowed.”
“Malcolm.”
“Aye,” he said slowly, looking up at her. “I heard ye. But I willna say I miss the pleasant times. Dinna push me, lass. The affairs o’ the court weigh on me mind now.” He added, “’Tis where Moray has gone.”
“Tell me what you are thinking,” she said softly. “Do you have a plan for Moray?”
He gave her a look she could not decipher.
“Where does Moray fit in?” Claire asked. “He controls the royal armies. The king must depend upon him heavily.”
“Aye, he does. But he controls Moray, Claire, not the other way. James be clever, ambitious and devout. An’ ye can say a prayer o’ thanks to any god ye choose that the king be so faithful.”
Claire got his drift. James’s religious beliefs were keeping him out of Moray’s clutches. That was a relief. “How devout is James? Is he fanatical? Is that what it takes to make a soul secure?”
“Ye think I should pray.”
She wet her lips. “It can’t hurt.” And she started to think about the prayer she’d been saying when Malcolm had been dying on the ramparts. She hadn’t memorized that verse, but it had come pouring out of her.
