Highland Heartbreakers Read online

  “Where is Si—my grandfather?” She held the cup at an angle, letting a drop spill. “Bring him to me or I will let this cup fall.”

  The commander stormed toward her in two giant steps. He seemed bigger suddenly, infinitely more deadly than she could imagine. His lips were tight, his nostrils flared.

  She backed away but he kept coming.

  “Ye make demands while this lad’s life hangs by a thread?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. He didn’t try to grab the cup before she made good on her threat. He simply stared her down with a glare that made her kneecaps weak beneath her. “If ye dinna feed that antidote to William before yer next breath, ye willna see daylight!”

  She was surprised the walls of the chamber didn’t crumble around them at the force of his voice. That her blood didn’t freeze from his frigid glare.

  She believed him. He would kill her. She should have stabbed him when she had the chance. She’d panicked. She’d hesitated. And now, she had to save one of them.

  She brushed past the commander without another word—and with all the strength she could muster to move at all—and went to the bedside.

  She looked down at the victim of her poison. William. He was quite beautiful in his slumber, with lush black lashes resting against his pale skin.

  “He needs to be roused so he can swallow the mixture,” she said, keeping her gaze on William, rather than look at his commander again.

  “Cainnech,” the priest said, “hold him up and I’ll try to rouse him.”

  The brutish commander pushed past her and moved to the head of the bed.

  Climbing into the bed, he sat behind the lad and fit his arms gently beneath William’s arms. He sat the young man up, leaning William’s back against his chest.

  Father Timothy came to sit at the edge and began trying to rouse him.

  When William’s lids fluttered open, Aleysia stepped forward and held the cup to his lips. “Drink this,” she said.

  He looked up at her with dark gray, glassy eyes and smiled. “Julianna.”

  Aleysia glanced at the commander behind him and noted the slight change in his expression. Compassion warmed his gaze, but just for a moment, before he tightened his jaw and pushed it away.

  But he did care—at least about William. He wouldn’t have threatened to kill her if he didn’t. It piqued her curiosity about the lad. What was it about him that pricked the commander’s heart? Who was Julianna?

  He is young…innocent of bloodshed. A servant.

  “Aye, William,” she said softening her voice. “You must drink this now.”

  He pressed his lips to the cup and drank a little then started to drift off again.

  Aleysia placed her fingers to his cheek. “Come now, William, drink this for me.”

  He drank more, slowly, but finally the mixture was gone.

  “Now what?” the commander asked her over William’s head.

  “We should see an improvement before dawn.”

  Cain moved away from William and laid him back down so he could rest properly. He stood up and walked around the bed, passing her without a word, and went to stand with the red-haired Amish.

  “I’m goin’ to speak with Richard the steward. Stay ootside the room. She is not to step oot of it. If she tries to leave, kill her.”

  “Aye, Commander,” Amish said.

  Aleysia shot them both a murderous look.

  The bastard commander closed the gap between them in two strides. “I will bring yer grandfather back to have a brief word with ye. But if ye try to escape before we return, ye will both die. D’ye understand me, lady?”

  She thought about where two knives were hidden in this room and how she’d like to fetch them and ram them into his guts. “What if I do escape and come and kill you?”

  He looked as if he wanted to smile. But he didn’t. Instead, he let his gaze slip down her body, pausing at her feminine curves beneath her breeches and léine.

  She felt her face begin to grow flushed, but he didn’t see.

  He started to leave, but then stopped and flicked his gaze between her and Father Timothy.

  He pointed to the priest. “Come with me.”

  Father Timothy didn’t argue. They both knew how dangerous she was.

  He obviously cared about the priest. She doubted it was her soul he was trying to protect when he commanded Father Timothy to follow him.

  She watched them depart, leaving Amish to guard the door. What could she do now but wait? Richard’s life depended on her remaining where she was.

  She looked down at William. A bit of color had returned to his face. A good sign—for the other side, at least.

  She left his side and went to fetch her hidden knives. She took one and hid it carefully in her bodice.

  This time, she wouldn’t hesitate.

  Chapter Seven

  Cain sat atop one of the trestle tables, his boots on the chair in front of him in the great hall. He lifted his cup to his lips and waited for Amish to arrive with Miss d’Argentan.

  “If you have harmed her—” the old knight began.

  “She has not been harmed,” Father Timothy assured him.

  “Yet,” Cain added, setting down his cup. “Yer Miss d’Argentan has boldly confessed to everythin’ and has much to answer fer.”

  “How many did she…?”

  “Nine, and one more who clings to life.” Cain felt his anger rising. “Pray that he lives,” he ground out through clenched teeth.

  “Did she act alone in her crimes against the king?” Father Timothy asked him.

  The knight lifted his chin and bristled in his chair. “He is not her king or mine.”

  Rebellion. It was what got people killed—proven by the deaths of thousands so far. This English knight knew it and he didn’t seem to care. He was loyal until death to Edward and to Miss d’Argentan. He had even come up with an elaborate tale about the nonexistent Lord de Bar to protect her. A quality Cain couldn’t help but admire.

  “Nonetheless, she is our enemy, as are ye,” Cain told him.

  The knight looked away.

  “How did she do it?” Cain asked him.

  “She practiced every day for the last four years.”

  Dedication. Another trait Cain admired.

  “What drives her?” he asked. He expected the answer to be hatred over the death of her brother. He understood hatred. It killed him when he was a child.

  “Fear drives her. And loyalty.”

  Cain leaned forward and inclined his head to the knight. “Fear of what?” But he already knew the answer. “Us.”

  Sir Richard nodded. “From the moment she learned of her brother’s death, she was fired up with this maddening need to prepare for the day when the Scots showed up at Lismoor. She swore to never surrender the castle or the land to her brother’s enemy.”

  “Who helped her?” Cain asked.

  “Everyone,” Richard told him and reached for Father Timothy’s cup instead of the one Cain had given him.

  Cain watched with a smile lifting one corner of his lips. The knight didn’t trust him. Good.

  “I had helped make some of the weapons, as had my brothers. Everyone who lived here, as well as all the villagers helped in the building of the traps and the walkways. But that was all any of us did. She insisted from the beginning that the war was hers and hers alone. When news had come of the siege on Berwick, she sent everyone away to ensure none were harmed.”

  “How could she have hoped to defeat us on her own?” Father Timothy asked after a sip from Sir Richard’s cup.

  “She could have done it,” Cain admitted in a quiet voice. “The traps were everywhere I looked. We likely wouldna have made it oot of the forest alive. She is brave.”

  “She is headstrong,” her knight added, unwittingly sharing a slight smile with Cain.

  Cain’s eyes caught sight of her entering the hall with his second.

  Hell, she was pleasing to Cain’s eyes. This lissome lass in her breeches
and boots had rained havoc down on his men. She was doing the same to his senses. How could he think her so alluring after all she had done? She’d tried to kill him! More than once! All he had to do was tell his men the truth and he would be done with her.

  Her wide, worried eyes found her knight and she hurried forward.

  “Sir Richard!” she cried reaching them. “What have they done to you?”

  “Never mind me, my lady!” he said, taking her hands in his. “Have you been harmed in any way?”

  “The beast still lives,” she said, slipping her frosty, green gaze to Cain. “If he had touched me, his innards would be spilled in the rushes.”

  Cain found himself aching to smile at her.

  Her eyes shone with a fire that had been fanned for four years. He remembered being filled with the same passion. He knew what it did to the soul when the fire was extinguished and the heart lay abandoned in an empty shell, dead and yet alive.

  What did he care what happened to her heart? Or her body if his men discovered the truth? She was his enemy. He would allow her some time with her guard and then lock her up someplace she couldn’t escape.

  “Release him!” she demanded. “He has done nothing!”

  Cain guzzled down the rest of his whisky, then looked at her. “Prove yer claim and I’ll release him.”

  Her lips tightened as she drew in a deep breath readying for a fight. His bemused gaze dipped to her hands balling into fists. “How am I supposed to prove my claim?”

  He shrugged his shoulders and looked into his empty cup. “That is yer dilemma, not mine.”

  “It will not be a dilemma once you are dead.”

  “Commander.” Amish stepped forward. He’d heard the lass’ threat. Cain didn’t want him hearing anything more. What had changed? He had been ready to give her to his men just a short while ago. She’d lost her home. He understood the pain of that. He’d lost his, as well. He’d lost more than that.

  “Take the steward away,” he told his second.

  “What? No!” The lass grabbed hold of the knight’s arm when Amish began to lead him off, and turned to glare at Cain. “I have barely had time to say a word to him!”

  Cain pushed aside the urge to give in, the temptation to drag her into his arms, to his bed. He had to keep in mind the heavy blow she alone had dealt his men. He wouldn’t betray them by bedding the wench who took them from the earth. “Mayhap, ye should have spent less time flappin’ yer tongue at me.” He flicked a warning glance to his second. “What is he still doin’ here?”

  Amish yanked Richard by the arm and Father Timothy hurried to stop her from going after them.

  “He willna be harmed, my lady,” Cain heard the priest tell her.

  She fastened her eyes on her friend as he was pulled away and then turned her gaze on Cain.

  “Back away from me, Priest,” she warned without taking her eyes off Cain.

  He raised his brow and quirked his mouth when she produced a dagger from somewhere in her bodice.

  “Ye think to fight me, lady?” he asked, pushing off the table.

  “I think to kill you, Highlander,” she replied, holding her dagger out before her.

  Father Timothy moved forward. “Miss d’Argentan—”

  Cain held up his hand to quiet him, then crooked the same hand at her, motioning her to come forward. “Let me see just how determined ye are.”

  He expected her to rush at him swinging. Instead, she flipped her dagger in her hand, caught it by the end of the blade, and flung it at him.

  He had just an instant to move out of the way and another to regain his balance. Their eyes met, locked in a moment of surprise, stubborn determination, and trying to guess what the other would do next.

  Her gaze slipped to the left. Cain strode forward, and then took off after her when she sprinted toward a candle stand along the eastern wall. She reached it before him, grasped for something attached to the stand, and produced yet another dagger.

  “Stay back!” she warned, then swiped the blade at him when he kept coming.

  “Ye canna win,” he told her while he fought the urge to pity her, to admire the hell out of her for thinking to hide daggers everywhere.

  Hell, he didn’t know what to do with her. Nothing about her was harmless. She had knives planted everywhere, hidden keys, poison wine and grain, and traps all over the damned forest. She deserved the worst punishment. But he didn’t want to see her suffer.

  “Even if ye somehow kill me,” he said in a softer voice than he’d planned to use, “ye still have to get past the rest of my men. Give me the knife, lady.”

  He reached out for it and she swiped again. He caught her wrist easily and pulled her hard against him. He looked into her eyes, momentarily mesmerized by her extraordinary power of will, glowing like a flame from within. “That will be enough of tryin’ to kill me.”

  Pressed to him, her breath felt warm against his chin, her body, soft and unyielding. “I have not even begun to fight you.”

  Part of him looked forward to it.

  “Ye tempt me to toss ye to the wolves.” He plucked the dagger from her fingers and wondered how many more there were hidden about.

  “’Twould be better than spending another moment with you,” she insisted, struggling to break free. “Now, let me go!”

  He held fast, doing his best to ignore the desire to dip his face into her inky hair and take in her scent. She wasn’t his. He didn’t want her to be. There was no place in his life for affection, especially not for a dangerous enemy. But he couldn’t help his fascination with her. She was intelligent, independent, and passionate. Even if her passion was to hate him. She’d feared losing her home to the Scots, and she had. He couldn’t do anything about it without defying his king.

  With a measure of reluctance, he released her. He watched her back away and, for a fleeting, mad moment, he wanted to pull her back. He ground his jaw. This had to stop. He should not spend any more time with her. Yet, if she continued to be a threat to him, he would have to keep her close.

  “If I say I believe ye aboot yer knight, will ye quit tryin’ to kill me?”

  She quirked a skeptical brow at him. “Will you set Sir Richard free?”

  He drew an inward sigh. What the hell was wrong with him? Why was he about to promise the knight’s safety? He turned to Father Timothy with a look of uncertainty he hadn’t felt in years. The priest offered him a gentle smile in return.

  “I suspect he willna go far withoot ye,” Cain finally answered her, “so he will be confined to the keep.”

  She looked as if she might argue, but then thought better of it.

  Cain breathed.

  “We have a bargain then, lady.”

  Her hesitation when he tried to escort her out of the hall made him close his eyes and clench his jaw.

  “What about my castle and land?” Her smoky voice rolled across his ears like a sorceress’ whisper.

  She was either the most courageous lass he’d ever met, or the most foolish.

  “They now belong to King Robert.” He opened his eyes but looked away. “I have already written to him and had the missive sent today. There is nothin’ I can do now.”

  “Then we do not have a bargain,” she said, furthering his misery.

  “Verra well then. Come.” He took her by the elbow and pulled her back to her chamber, where William lay sleeping or dead in her bed.

  Cain hurried to the bed, dragging Miss d’Argentan behind him. Father Timothy reached the bed at the same time, and leaned down to listen to William’s chest.

  The priest looked up and breathed out. “He lives and his color has returned.”

  Cain’s shoulders relaxed from around his ears. He let his prisoner go and bolted the door.

  “Why do you both care so strongly for him?” she asked.

  Cain tugged at his léine. “I told ye. He is innocent. He is—”

  “What are you doing?”

  Cain turned to her after he pul
led the léine over his head. “I am goin’ to get some sleep. I suggest ye do the same.”

  “Here?” she asked incredulously.

  “Would ye prefer I put ye back in the dungeon, alone with at least five guards? Ye have proven yerself a clever opponent, but I think five men are enough to keep ye where I put ye.”

  She bit her lip. His gaze dipped there. “Father Timothy will move the partition and sleep in that chair. Aye, Father?” he asked the priest as Father Timothy added more wood to the hearth.

  “Aye, Son.”

  “Ye have nothin’ to fear from me,” Cain told her.

  She cut her glance to the priest, and then returned it to the long, smooth muscles of the commander’s bare arms. “I do not trust either of you. Where will you sleep?”

  Cain pointed to the floor in front of the door.

  Her gaze on him darkened. “You mean to use your body to keep me here?”

  He nodded, staring into her eyes. Images of lying naked in bed with her flashed across his thoughts. He pushed them away. She was his enemy. She had killed his men—had almost killed William.

  He let his gaze slip from hers and settled it on the lad in her bed.

  “Where am I to sleep?” she asked without waiting for his reply to her first question.

  He yanked off his boot. “Anywhere ye want. In bed beside William. In Father Timothy’s lap. I dinna care.” He pulled off the other boot and turned away from her. “I am goin’ to sleep.”

  He expected her to fight back, threaten to kill him in his sleep. He would have told her she wouldn’t be the first to try it.

  But she remained silent as he sat on the floor and propped himself against the door. He almost smiled with relief and closed his eyes.

  They opened a moment later when she sat on the floor beside him.

  Hell.

  Chapter Eight

  “What are ye doin’, lady?”

  “I am going to sleep.”

  “Here?”

  “Would you prefer I stay awake and tell you what I think of you?”

  Aleysia was glad when Father Timothy blew out all the candles. She thought that in the dim light of the hearth fire, she could ignore the raw sensuality the commander exuded and get some sleep.