Page 61 of Highlander’s Captive

“Aye,” Owen said.

“And I must have a plan of defense in case the MacDougalls or the English come.”

“Aye, brother.”

“So let me think of something. Go and get the horses ready. I’ll ride out with Hamish and a few men to find a mason and hire workmen to repair the damage. Ye will be my second-in-command, Owen.”

Owen nodded, suddenly serious. Craig hadn’t seen him like this in a while.

“When I’m out, or if I’m wounded or killed, ye must carry on the defense. Aye?”

Owen nodded.

“Ye dinna think ye can do it?” Craig said. “I think ye can. If I doubted ye, I wouldna have set ye the task. I trust ye the most out of everyone in this castle.”

Owen nodded and retreated from the room.

Watching the door, Craig wondered if he should have confided in Owen about the secret entrance.

No. If they were under attack, he would. But as good a warrior as Owen was, Craig saw the hesitation in his brother’s eyes. The signs of self-doubt on his face. He was experienced in battles but not in strategy.

Plus, his brother had always been a little reckless—Owen might get drunk and tell someone. So, as much as he trusted his brother, revealing this secret could wait.

Chapter 20

Three days later…

Amy inhaled clean, crisp air saturated with the scent of earthy moss and grass.

She and Craig stood looking out at the vast mountain range, the valleys far below, and the wind-worn rock faces and gray slopes covered in yellow-green and brown grass. Across the glen, dark clouds hung low on the tallest mountaintop—Ben Nevis Craig had called it. A patch of pinewoods darkened the slope of the mountain they were on, and silver-gray bushes grew nearby. Wind whistled along the slopes and rustled the grass.

It was freedom.

Open sky and nature whenever she looked.

But in all of the beauty and freedom around her, Craig was the best part. His handsome profile—straight nose, dark wavy hair, moss-colored eyes, wide mouth, and sensual lips surrounded by sexy stubble. The quilted cloak he wore only accentuated his tall frame, wide shoulders, and narrow hips. Amy’s insides buzzed, her pulse beating in her throat.

“This is a great place for a picnic, don’t you think?” she asked.

“Aye.” Craig put the blanket they had brought on the ground and the basket with food that Amy packed.

He held the plaid so that it wouldn’t blow away in the wind, until Amy could sit. They had left the horses down below by the creek to graze, before the trek became too steep.

Amy unpacked the basket: bread, oatcakes, cheese, butter, plums and apples still fresh from the recent harvest, and a bottle of wine. They had left the castle this morning in the peak of activity. After three days of searching, Craig and his men had come back with a mason they’d hired from another village down Loch Linnhe. Now it was a matter of getting enough rocks and stones. At the moment, scaffolds were being built under the careful supervision of the mason and Owen.

Craig had explained to Amy that it was a good time for him to leave Owen in charge for a day. He wanted to give his brother the chance to take responsibility while he was away.

“Thank ye, Amy,” Craig said. “For preparing this. I havna been in the mountains for a while because of the war and am glad to come back. I miss it.”

“Me, too,” she said. “Did you grow up somewhere around the mountains?”

“Aye, on Loch Awe. Didna ye ken where the Cambel clan seat was? Innis Chonnel Castle has belonged to yer clan about ten years now.”

Amy licked her lips and fiddled with the skirt of her dress. “Yes, well, I mean…I don’t know where you grew up.”

“Aye, I grew up there. Climbed rocks and fished in the loch and hunted.”

Craig bit into a piece of bread he’d just broken off.