A Soldier's Salvation (Highland Heartbeats Book 7)(32)

Quinn cleared his throat, his cheeks flushing a deeper shade than the heat already reddened them. “Pleasantly,” he replied, eyes cutting in Caitlin’s direction.

“Ah. I see. I hope you didn’t impoverish yourself,” he jeered. “Or, if you did, that the money was well-spent.”

Caitlin looked around, clearly confused, and Rodric chuckled at his friends’ discomfort. No matter who they were or what they were capable of, they were gentlemen when it came to conducting themselves in front of ladies. While their new companion might not have strictly been a lady by birth, she was hardly the sort the three of them had spent their evening with.

The close-built cottages and other buildings of the village began to spread out, spaced further apart the closer they came to the surrounding woods. He could sense Caitlin’s relief—her posture changed as she started to relax.

“Is there anywhere we could stop?” she murmured, keeping her voice low out of more than self-preservation.

From the way she blushed, Rodric understood the meaning of her question.

“Aye. Once we’re far enough into the woods,” he promised. Not that he looked forward to being alone with his friends, with her out of earshot. He could just imagine the time they’d have at his expense.

Once they reached the cover of thick-leafed birch and ash trees, the day cooled considerably. The sweat which had only just rolled down his neck felt pleasant once they reached near-darkness. Even so, he would’ve paid a fair amount of silver for the privilege of a bath in a cool stream.

The thought only brought back the memory of the night before, of her body in the moonlight. The water running down her arms and shoulders, light hair like a curtain falling over her back. That slim waist, waiting for his hands to grasp it…

“Here,” Brice decided, and good thing. If he’d been allowed the chance to pursue his dark fantasies, there might have been a rather embarrassing situation ahead of him.

Caitlin tossed him her reins without saying a word, sliding from the mare’s back before hurrying off to a cluster of bushes some distance away.

The moment she was gone, the three of them whirled on him.

“She’s the McAllister lass then, isn’t she?” Brice asked. “I knew this wouldn’t be as easily done as you promised.”

Rodric held up both hands, still holding two sets of reins. “We’re escorting her to her cousin’s, and the entire ride from the lass’s home to the village took little more than half the day.”

“What about meeting with your brother, as Jake requested?” Quinn asked, keeping one eye at all times on the bushes in case she reappeared.

“I already have, and, as luck would have it, she is the reason for the feud.”

“She is?” Brice chuckled. “Allow me to guess. She’s on the run from him.”

“You’re far better at guessing than I am,” Rodric admitted. “He wants revenge, needless to say. She merely wants to get away from him. The thought of being wed to my brother is… well, worth running away from, even if it means never being at ease.”

“She’s the reason for the feud, and yet you’re helping her hide? Is this what you’re telling us?” Fergus looked around as though to confirm what he suspected. “Even though this only makes the situation worse for the Duncans?”

When spoken in those words, Rodric saw the full measure of how foolhardy the entire endeavor was. He was, in essence, going directly against what Jake had requested of him.

“What would you have me do? Bind and gag the lass? Drag her to my brother’s bed?”

“These are the choices which must be made sometimes, when something larger is at stake,” Brice reasoned. “We do not always have to enjoy making these choices. We might even hate it. But they must be made, nonetheless.”

“I served alongside you,” Rodric reminded him. “I know about difficult choices and how the greater good must be kept in mind.”

“And yet, here we are.” The two of them held each other’s gaze for a long, breathless beat, before Brice averted his eyes.

“How can I make you all see?” he asked, looking around. “I cannot allow the lass to be sold into marriage to my brother. We’ve known each other since we were children, and it would be too cruel. Besides, I know my brother. I know it would not be as easy as allowing the feud to fade away upon the lass’s return. He’s too stubborn for that. If anything, he would continue this insanity just to spite me.”

“You asked him to end it, then.”

“Of course, I did,” he hissed in response to Quinn’s statement. “I told him why I’d come and asked that not turn personal troubles into something much larger. If anything, this was more reason than before for him to stay the course. I should have known he would refuse just to spite me.”

“What do you think Jake will say to this?”

“I think he’ll have no choice but to accept it. When I tell him how vicious Alan was when speaking of the lass, how he…” Rodric closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath to calm himself. “When I tell him how my brother threatened to make me witness to the bedding, he might understand the nature of the marriage.”

Brice growled under his breath but hadn’t the chance to respond before Caitlin returned. The looks on the faces of the others told him they understood, at least somewhat—and when Jake heard, and Phillip too, they would also understand.