"We need to get closer to the horses and when they have two of them harnessed for crossing the sea and are busy with the third one, we will grab the last two and run. We must be swift."
Emily nodded and then had an inspiration. "Laird?" she called.
He looked at her, his expression thoughtful.
"Cait and I need a moment of privacy."
His dark brow rose, the only indication he gave that he heard her.
She felt a blush climb her cheeks. "To, you know…"
Lachlan had to bite back a smile, which was a very different reaction for him. He wondered if he should tell the women he spoke Latin as well? Not yet.
Since he knew their plan was to try to steal horses, he wasn't concerned about allowing her the moment of privacy she asked for, but he did wonder what she thought it would gain her.
"Be quick," he barked.
She jumped, nodded and turned to hurry into the bushes. Cait was right behind her.
He listened to them as they left.
"He's awfully surly, isn't he?" the Englishwoman asked.
"He's laird," Cait replied.
"And that's his excuse for rudeness? I don't know why I'm surprised. It's your brother's as well."
Mention of her husband, the Sinclair laird, irritated him and Lachlan scowled.
"They're spirited lasses, aren't they?" Drustan asked from beside him.
"That is one way to put it," Lachlan growled.
"Cait called me a horse's backside."
"I heard."
Drustan laughed. "I'll have her apology tonight, along with other things."
Lachlan nodded. "Be gentle with her. She's carrying."
"The Balmorals don't hurt women."
"I know that."
"They don't bed other men's wives either."
A warning growl rumbled low in Lachlan's throat. "I know that as well. But if her husband has bedded her, I'll bury my claymore. She's too damn innocent."
"And that bothers you?"
"Yes," he bit out.
"Would it be easier to keep your hands off her if she weren't, do you think?"
Lachlan had no answer. He had never anticipated wanting an Englishwoman and would sooner tear out his own throat than bed another man's wife. But he wanted this purple-eyed spitfire… enough to make his body rigid with desire and his sex ache.
"I should have left her in the forest."
"You could still leave her. The Sinclair is probably only a couple of hours behind us."
"If that."
"So, leave her."
"I can't."
"Hell."
"My thoughts exactly."
"If you kill him, she would be a widow," Drustan said helpfully.
"I'm still not convinced she is a wife."
Chapter 4
"What's the matter?" Emily demanded of Cait.
All of a sudden, her friend looked ready to cry.
"I don't want him to kill my brother."
"Who?"
"Lachlan… the laird of the Balmorals."
"Why would he kill him?"
"To have you."
"Don't be ridiculous."
But Cait wasn't listening. She was like she had been earlier… intent on something Emily could get no glimmer of.
"What is it, Cait?"
But Cait just shook her head.
"Don't you think it is odd they did not send a guard with us?"
"We could never outdistance them and they know it."
"But if we hid… perhaps we could delay their departure until your brother caught up with us."
Cait's face leached of color. "I do not want that to happen."
"What? Why?"
"The Balmoral laird could kill Talorc. I'm not even sure that Drustan couldn't. It wouldn't be a given, but it is possible. I don't want to lose my brother."
"But won't there be a battle when we meet up with them with the horses?"
"I am hoping they won't follow once we get away. They will know their attempt at taking us has failed."
"I don't see Lachlan avoiding a fight."
Cait's eyes filled with tears. "I don't either."
Emily put her arm around her. "What do you want to do?"
"If we don't escape, my brother will come for us on the island. And there is an even greater chance he would be killed then."
Although the cranky laird's death would solve her own problems, Emily wasn't tempted in the least to wish for it. First, because it would be a terrible sin, but second because it would hurt her dear friend. "Then we must escape."
"Yes."
"But you do not wish to run and hide now?"
"Hiding would never work." Cait bit her lip. "They could find us no matter how good our concealment."
"You speak as if they are gods. They are merely men, Cait."
"No. They are not. They are more…" She made a sound of distress. "I wonder if they heard our plans, perhaps they can hear us even now…" Cait shook her head. "No, I think we are far enough away to be out of earshot. I don't hear them anymore. We did walk a good long distance."
"If we don't return soon, they are bound to come looking for us."
A pained expression came over Cait's features. "They already have. We must return now."
Emily nodded, unwilling to argue with her distraught friend. If she said the men were coming, she must have heard something. She'd certainly heard them before Emily had at the lake.
However, her pretense had not been all deception. "I still need a few moments of privacy."
Cait looked startled and then laughed jerkily. "Me, too. I've found pregnancy makes this aspect of life quite challenging at times."
Emily smiled, remembering other women having made the same complaint in her father's keep. Cait had returned to the clearing when Emily finished dealing with the pressing need of her bladder. Drustan was there with her.
He wasn't saying anything and Cait's eyes were filled with hopeless desperation.
Emily glared at the warrior.
He jerked slightly as if surprised by her hostility, which made her want to scream like a fishwife. Were all men in the Highlands so dense?
"What you are doing is wrong."
"Nay, lass. Retaliation is law among the clans. Right is on our side."
Cait spoke then, her eyes burning with anger. "Was it right to allow your clanswoman to hunt during a full moon away from Balmoral territory? She was not protected. She was in he—" Cait snapped her mouth shut and looked at Emily, then back at Drustan. "You know what I mean. You neglected to protect her and now you would punish me for your own weakness."
Drustan swelled with affront. "I did not neglect my sister's protection. Whatever lie your clansman told to justify his actions, she was not hunting off the island. Your clansman came to our territory and took her, just as I am taking you now. And it is not you who pays the price, but your brother in losing you and the babe in you from his pack."
Emily had never heard a clan referred to as a pack before, but now was not the time to ask about it. "Susannah is happily wed to a Sinclair. Surely that is all that matters," she said.
"The Sinclair should have asked permission on behalf of his clansman. He did not, which is a breach of clan law that my laird and I, as Susannah's brother, cannot tolerate."
Cait crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the Balmoral warrior. "Deny it all you like, but she was a lone wol—woman! She was fair game when Magnus came across her and she is happily wed. She loves Magnus and our clan has accepted her with open arms."
Emily tried not to wince at the reminder that she had not received such acceptance.
"Clan law must be satisfied," Drustan stubbornly maintained.
"Even if it means going to war?" Emily asked.
"Of course." The daft man looked like he couldn't understand her need to ask the question.