their nighttime run, and now the bastards were here.
Toran walked closer to her. “I have my orders from your second-in-command,” he murmured.
Jenny snapped to attention and then turned to speak to someone else in her room. “Annie? Fiona? Would ye show Archie to my mother’s chamber? I need a moment alone with Toran.”
He leaned a shoulder casually against the corridor wall even when he felt anything but. The healer he’d met at the croft passed him, followed by the woman he’d seen sneaking into the castle weeks ago. That one flashed him a teasing smile.
The two women hurried down the corridor with Archie. As soon as they’d cleared the stairwell at the end, Jenny grabbed the front of his shirt, dragged him into her chamber, and shoved him up against the wall.
“Ye’re strong,” he teased.
“What are ye doing?” She glowered at him.
“Boyd will recognize myself and Archie. We thought it best our duties be to the ladies inside.” He didn’t tell her about Simon, not just yet.
“I dinna mean what are ye literally doing. I mean what are ye doing?” She waved her hands between them. “This. Coming to find me. Ye’re a distraction, Toran. There are redcoats here at Cnàmhan Broch right now, and instead of helping, I’m in here with ye.”
“Ye canna help. He’ll recognize ye.” He narrowed his eyes. “With all due respect, Mistress J, ye’re not going out there. I saw what happened to ye at the croft. I was there when he chased us over the moonlit moors. The man wants ye, and then he wants ye dead.”
“Why did ye no’ say anything about Boyd before?”
“I thought it was no’ my place to ask. If ye were willing to share it, ye would have.”
“I thank ye for no’ saying anything.” She crossed her arms in front of her. “What makes ye think he willna recognize Dirk?”
“Dirk wasna at the croft. And he was well ahead of ye when they spotted us outside the tavern.”
“And Boyd would know ye and Archie because of your arrest?”
“Aye.” He gritted his teeth. Boyd knew him for a hell of a lot more. Now was the time to tell her about his past, and he was still unable to find the right words. Especially since Jenny’s temper was high enough that she’d likely run him through before even asking questions.
Jenny backed away from him, going to her window to peer out from behind the curtain.
“Boyd is like Cumberland’s own spawn,” she murmured.
“Aye.” He drew closer, leaning on the opposite side of the window frame. “Your prince has arrived on Scottish soil.”
She flicked her gaze toward him. “How do ye know?”
“I listen too, Jenny.”
She grunted. “I suppose that makes sense, given your background.”
He stiffened.
“If my uncle were a great spy and renowned double-dealer, I’d have picked up a thing or two as well.”
Toran winced. “My lady—”
“Jenny,” she corrected.
“I have need to tell ye something.” It was now or face her blade.
“They are here.” She pressed her face to the window, and he did the same. Now was definitely not the time to hope for her understanding. Later. When Boyd had gone, he’d sit her down and confess all.
The men on the wall called down to the visitors, the echo of their voices like a dusting on the wind. Jenny unlatched the window and let it swing open a little, the wind blowing in gently over his fingers where they rested on the casement.
“Open the gates in the name of the king,” Boyd shouted.
“We’ve paid our taxes and committed no crime. Our laird, Hamish Mackintosh, serves King George at Stirling,” Dirk called down.
With each word, Jenny’s brow wrinkled deeper. The men would try as they might to shove the dragoons off, but Boyd wanted in.
Boyd drew his pistol and pointed it at Dirk, up on the wall. “I said open up.”
Jenny shivered beside Toran, and he wanted to pull her close, to hug her against his body and hold onto her until all of this was over. To tell her there was nothing to worry about and that the redcoats would soon leave them be. But how could he promise something he was unsure of?
“I willna let him hurt ye,” he whispered. That much he would make certain of with every last breath in his body.
Jenny looked incredulous. “I am no’ worried for myself.”
“I know, but I am.”
She didn’t look at him, her eyes wide and fixed on the gate slowly being opened. Her brother had thought the use of a gate