Wager with a Warrior - Emma Prince Page 0,24
guard. “I’d wager Mistress Annis has even kept it warm for ye. MacLeod and I will keep watch until ye return.”
The lad dipped his head to his lady, his face splitting with an eager grin at the prospect of a hot supper. In an instant, he’d shuffled past Gregor and down the stairs.
They were alone. Even standing a half dozen steps away, Gregor’s skin prickled with keen awareness.
“What are ye doing up here at this hour?”
“I wanted to make sure the men got home safely. Besides, I couldnae sleep.” She gave him a wry grin. “Dinnae tell her I said this, but Tessa is a kicker.”
He snorted. Like a fish on a hook, he found himself pulled toward her. His feet carried him closer even as a voice of warning told him to leave her be. He came to a halt beside her and forced himself to look out across the landscape.
But while his eyes were locked on the night-dark moors, the rest of his senses filled with her. Her skirts swished as she turned to follow his gaze over the battlements. Her scent, of heather and sweet night air, drifted around him like a gentle caress.
“Something happened tonight,” she murmured. “Tell me.”
He cast her a sideways glance. “How do ye ken tonight was any different than the last two?”
She arched a chestnut brow at him. Then to his shock, she reached out to where his hand rested on the crenelated stone. She lifted it in both of hers, holding it up before him. Heat raced over his skin where she touched him, making him stiffen.
“This.” She traced a finger over the smudge of soot on the back of his hand.
Gregor let out a breath. He’d poured water from his waterskin over his palms to get the soot off before they’d returned to the castle, but apparently he’d missed a spot.
Birdie waited for his explanation, her features expectant.
“We were on the southeast border, as before,” he said. “And as before, the Gunns didnae show themselves. But an hour after sunset, one of the men spotted smoke rising from the hills a league north of us.”
Birdie’s breath caught.
“No one was harmed,” he said quickly, answering her wordless question. “But when we arrived, the roof of Cam Morgan’s barn was on fire.”
She released his hand, her fists clenching at her sides in vexation. “Damn and blast,” she muttered, surprising him.
“Aye. Cam said he noticed the blaze almost immediately, which gave him time to get to his animals. When he’d led them all out safely, he saw a handful of men waving the Gunn plaid in the trees beyond his croft before they fled.”
Gregor shook his head in frustrated bewilderment. “They wanted him to see them. They could have slipped away while he’d been tending to the animals, but they waited until they were sure he’d noticed them.”
She pondered that, her brows pinched together. “What of Cam’s barn?” she asked after a moment.
“We arrived in time to douse the fire before it could spread to his croft, and even managed to save some of the barn’s thatching.” He rubbed his thumb over the soot smudge on the back of his hand, wiping it away. “After that, there was no point in staying out. My plan obviously didnae work.”
She pursed her lips, and his gaze snagged there.
“Mayhap if ye add Cam’s barn to yer map, a pattern to the attacks will become clear,” she offered.
“Nay, lass. Lamond was right. There is no pattern.”
“Then mayhap if ye left half of the men in the southeast, and had the other half ride along the border—”
“Birdie.”
She lifted her gaze to him, and he saw how troubled, and how tired, she was.
“It is late. We can think on a new strategy come morning. Or rather, Lamond and I will. Ye dinnae need to trouble yerself with any of this.”
She frowned at him. “Of course I do.”
“Oh? Was I mistaken in taking ye for the Laird’s daughter and no’ the Laird himself?”
When she narrowed her eyes in a fierce glare, he couldn’t help but smile.
“If ye are in fact a Laird, ye are certainly the bonniest one I’ve ever seen,” he continued, relishing the opportunity to tease her. “Though if all Lairds wore gowns as fetching as this one, mayhap they’d be bonnier. Then again, yer father couldnae carry this gown as well as ye do. Besides, blue isnae his color.”
She lifted a hand to swat him on the shoulder for his jesting, but he caught it lightly in