Master of the Highlands

Lily rushed to Robert where he lay limp in the leaves, his stomach rising and falling as he pulled each breath in with a wheezing effort. A look of serenity hid what must ’ve been tremendous suffering, and gave his face the calm innocence of a child’s.

“Robbie, I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “There was a song … I knew you were in danger. ” He looked at her quizzically, and she continued, “I could have warned you … should’ve warned you. ”

“Och, hush …” Robert coughed, and a small trickle of blood pooled at the corner of his mouth, proof that the redcoat bullet had pierced his lung. Robert ’s tranquil blue eyes studied Lily where she knelt, cradling his cheek in her hand. “ Hush, lass. This is how I ’d have it.” A trembling smile warmed his face.

He coughed again, face red with effort. Lily wiped the blood from his cheek, anguish twisting her features. “It truly is alright, lass. ” Robert smiled. “I believe it’s why I’m here, why the maze brought me. I couldn ’t protect my own brother”—Robert looked away, a tear slowly spilling down his cheek—“but I could protect our laird. ”

He turned and fixed an intent gaze on Lily. “Dear Ewen. He loves you, you know. Tell him ”… , he added in a tight whisper, “tell him I proved myself worthy of the clan. ”

Goose bumps shivered up Lily’s arms upon hearing words that so eerily echoed the lyrics of Gram’s lullaby.

“I will Robert. ” Lily’s chin quivered, but her voice was strong and clear. “He loves you too; everyone will know the hero you are.”

She stroked her fingers through his sweat- dampened hair, and sang.

“He was a fey lad and not so old

With hair spun from rings of gold.

Upon Letterfinlay soil he did land,

Claiming he came from a future grand.

A MacMartin lad who knew no fear,

Clan Cameron took and held him dear.

“A sidhe lad

In red and green plaid

And charming to behold.

“One day tragedy learnt his name

In a skirmish with men in coats of flame.

To protect the laird whom he called his brother,

He gave a gift he could give no other.

On a bonny hill the lad met his ruin,

When he took a bullet meant for Sir Ewen.

“A sidhe lad

In red and green plaid

Died before he was old.

“The fearsome laird and his hounds did forgive

Any trespasses the fey lad did give.

For known as but a lettered young man,

He proved himself worthy of clan.

Honored is he until this day,

For a most precious price he did pay.

“Lochaber lasses still grieve for the lad,

A MacMartin hero in Cameron plaid. ”

A shudder coursed through Robert, and his features became at ease, limbs heavy and body still, as he seemed to reach a point beyond pain. He licked his lips, and he looked at Lily for one last time, eyes roving avidly over her face as if he would memorize her. He whispered, “Thank you. ”

A last breath sighed from his body, and Lily laid her hand gently on his cheek, awed by the peace that smoothed his features, and the knowing smile that curved the edges of his lips.

It was then that she heard Finn trying to rouse himself, and his agonized whimpers shattered the last shred of nerves holding Lily together. She wept mutely, and the throbbing pain in her belly swelled into a grief that suffused her, dulled her mind, making her body sluggish, reluctant to move or draw breath.

A flicker of movement brought Lily to her senses and terror skewered her, as she realized it had been a mistake to put Lauchlan at her back.

She rose slowly, unable to face the MacKintosh, and watched with horror the shadows that played on the forest floor. Lauchlan loomed behind her, his silhouette black in the late afternoon light. Lily stood, frozen, staring at the approaching shadow. Thoughts hurtled through her mind, yet she was powerless to seize on a single strategy for escaping this man one more time. She watched as the shadow enveloped her head, and a deafening crack reverberated through every muscle in her body until she became that darkness.

Chapter 30

Sensations slowly pierced her consciousness. Gentle murmuring and the light touch of fingers on her brow. Water with the bitter cold taste of a Highland lake soothing her parched lips. The reassuring smells of musk and leather. Something licking her hand.

Lily’s eyes opened with a start. She gasped and promptly shut them again. Pain thrummed through her head with a keen-edged agony that made her jaw clench and her eyes tear. She needed to surface more slowly. Hesitantly, she opened her eyes again. White specks crackled and danced across her vision in stark contrast to the muted twilight. The dark blur overhead resolved into Ewen. He smiled down at her, and relief flooded over Lily. That smile unraveled the knot of anxiety and fear that she had felt like a suffocating pressure on her chest.

“Ewen, ” she whispered, smiling back at him. Lily glanced down and laughed at the sight of Finn studiously licking her hand. “ Oh … my head. ” The throbbing in her skull cut her laughter short. She was relieved to see the dog alive. Although his gray fur was matted black with blood, he seemed undaunted and preoccupied only with the soaking of Lily’s extremities.

“There you are, Lil ’. You came back to me. ” The evening’s half light gilded Ewen’s cheeks, lighting the tracks of recently shed tears.

Laughing, he abruptly bent down to kiss her eyes, her cheeks, her mouth. “What am I to do with you? I keep finding you knocked insensible. ”

“Lauchlan?” Panic shattered the contentment on Lily ’s face.

“Where is he? Did you kill him?”

A forbidding look unknown to her darkened Ewen’s brow.

“Nay, lass. The MacKintosh is gone from here. ”

He turned her head and carefully arranged her hair, its paleness now the dun color of dirt and blood. Ewen sucked in a breath. “Och, Lil ’, he gave quite the clout to your head before turning tail through the woods. ”

The laird sat erect, his mind withdrawing for a moment to a more pragmatic place. “There was much blood spilled. Yont those trees” Ewen nodded behind him “the leaves are — — soaked through. It looks like someone struck a dire blow to the MacKintosh.” His eyes turned back to Lily and he added gravely, “You’re lucky he left you for dead, lass. ”

“Yes. ” Lily’s voice was tight with sorrow. “I know. It was Robert who injured him. He stabbed him, near his neck. ”

“Ah. ” Ewen nodded. “The MacKintosh would’ve fled before the blood loss came too dear. ”

“Robert. ” Lily’s voice cracked with anguish. “He saved me. ”

A sob choked her. “Robbie is dead, Ewen.”

“Quiet yourself, Lil’. I know. I saw young Robbie. Donald is away to take him back to the keep. ”

“Donald?” Hope momentarily brightened her voice.

“Donald’s alive?”

“Aye, the old man is harder to kill than that. His head is even harder than yours, lass, if such like is possible. ”

“But Lauchlan said …”

“Och, I ’m sure I ken what the MacKintosh said. I say my uncle ’s a hoary old Highlander who’s been left for dead more times than I can recall. ’Tis Lauchlan who’ll be wanting to watch his health. Donald won’t rest until he ’s seen young Robbie avenged. He ’s raving with anger at himself for letting the MacKintosh best him. I dare say it won’t happen twice. ”

“I’m sorry.” Grief smothered Lily’s voice, barely discernable above the rustling trees. “I ’m so sorry, I feel like it’s my fault, like …”

“My Lil ’ ” Ewen took h er face in his hands. “I ken how you feel. ” Fury rippled through his voice. “I ken where the fault lies, and it’s not with you, nor me. ” Serenity quieted his features, pride clear in his eyes. “Our Robbie is a hero. You say the lad saved you, but I tell you true, the lad saved us both.”

“He said…” Lily faltered as fresh tears threatened to fall.

“Tell me, lass. ”

“He was …it was like he was happy at the end. At peace. He said it’s why he was sent back. ” Conviction bolstered her.

“To save you.”

Lily absentmindedly rubbed the dirt from her hands, a faraway look in her eyes. “I just wonder …” She met Ewen ’s intent gaze, and finished, “I wonder why I was sent. I mean, if Robert was originally a MacMartin, and my Gram was a MacMartin” Lily let out a humorless laugh “that would — — make us distant relatives, right? Is that why we were both chosen?”

“Och, Lil’ ” Ewen said tenderly, “I know why it was you, were sent back. ” Lily’s eyes studied him silently for the answer. He continued, “You ’ve saved my life too, aye? And that’s why you went through the maze. ” He took her hands in his. “You were sent back for me. ”

“What is that?” Lily’s voice cracked as the laird retrieved a folded paper from his sporran. Even as she asked, Lily knew it was the star chart.

“This, lass?” Ewen spread the paper between them, the lines and points faded gray in the dying light. “This is everything and nothing, my love. And I ’d destroy it if you’d let me. ”

Lily studied the chart. A series of patterns drawn on a ragged slip of paper, and the only thing with the power to take her back. Without it, she would never see San Francisco again. No more modern medicine. Never again pizza or movies or hot showers. If there was a chance she could ever mend ways with her mother, it lay with this single pie ce of paper. She considered it, the memory of those lines and points burning in her fingers.

And then her eyes shifted slightly, considering the hands that held the chart. Ewen’s hands, strong, male, bearing scars, and soiled with the day, with horse and leather and dirt. Lily felt something in her soul shatter at the thought of never seeing this man again. Never feeling these hands on her body. Never again hearing the deep burr of his voice. She would have seen the last of his rare and wonderful smiles. Would never again see him magnificent in tartan and sword, brave and honor-bound. ns class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">