And worse, her father had never married the woman he had gone to see that night.

"But Blar, you know I love you. I'd be taking care of your bairns for you if you'd let me," Sila had begged her father outside their cottage one night three months after her mother's pa.s.sing.

"Sila, you're a good la.s.s, but I canna marry you now. Not after what has happened. Every time I look at you, all I can think of is the night she died. I should have been here with her, not out with you. The guilt of it is more than I can stand."

"Aye," Sila had wept. "You had no business with me. I never should have listened to you when you told me I meant something to you."

With that, Sila had run off into the darkness, and her father had come inside their small cottage.

He had glanced at Maggie standing in the shadows, and by his face she knew her father realized she had heard everything. He'd said nothing as he walked past her and went to his bed.

Like Braden, her father had been a good man, but a man nonetheless. And Maggie would rather die an old maid than be put in the position of either her mother or Sila.

Nay, she had dreamed of Braden the whole of her life, but it was time to let such foolish dreams go.

Braden belonged to the world, and she...

She belonged to herself.

Maggie looked wistfully to where Braden sat several yards away.

"Good night, my love," she whispered. "And good-bye."

That night, Maggie was tortured by dreams of Braden. Dreams of his sweet kisses. Of his arms holding her close.

I'll never leave you, little blossom. His sincere voice made her heart soar.

She dreamed of having a home with him, of having his wee ones running about.

And then her dreams turned more wicked. Turned to things Maggie had overheard her brothers discuss when they thought her asleep.

Aye, she could see Braden slipping her clothes from her, running his hand over her body as he kissed her until she lost all reason. She could feel his hands sliding over her bare skin, cupping her body as his lips toyed with the sensitive flesh of her neck.

"Braden," she whispered, her body on fire with a need she could barely understand.

She wanted him.

And then, from a distance, she heard the cruel laughter of the men in her village as they taunted the only boy who had ever noticed her.

I would have thought she was below even your standards, they had said to David.

Maggie jerked awake as that haunting laughter rang in her head.

Disoriented, she glanced about to find Braden and Sin talking in low whispers a few feet away. The smell of fresh-roasted hare greeted her.

Her hands trembling, Maggie tried to banish the memory of her dreams. The sound of the boys laughing at her the day David had helped her run an errand for Anghus.

Barely seven-and-ten, she had been so touched by David's kindness as he carried her heavy basket to Father Bede, but the other boys had mocked him for it.

You know, Davey, if nags are to your taste, I have one to sell ya.

Maggie covered her ears with her hands to blot the memory. At times like this, she wondered why she even cared whether or not her male tormentors perished under a MacDouglas sword. Most of the men around her age had earned that fate, given the misery they had heaped upon her over the years.

But as soon as the thought occurred to her, she felt shamed for it. They didn't deserve to die for their meanness, but in all honesty, she wouldn't mind seeing them taken out and thrashed for it.

And in that moment, she realized why she had always loved Braden so much. Out of all the men in the clan, he was the only one near her age who had never laughed at or mocked her.

Not once.

"Are you all right?" Braden asked as he looked past Sin to see her sitting up.

Maggie nodded as she let her hands fall away from her ears.

"Why did you let me sleep so late?" she asked, noting it was already midmorning.

"We decided you needed your rest," Braden said as he handed her a skin of watered-down ale.

"But we need to reach the MacDouglas as soon as possible."

"And so we shall," Braden a.s.sured her with a gentle, dimpled smile. "A couple of hours will make little difference."

For a minute, she thought of Lochlan and his predicament, until she remembered that Braden's mother would take care of it.

Still, once the women were free, they had little time to persuade the MacDouglas to peace.

In that moment, she wished she had brought horses. But then, three unknown "men" riding across MacDouglas land would have invited the kind of attention and confrontation she would rather avoid.

Especially since two of them were Braden and Sin.

There was no telling what either might do when confronted, and Maggie certainly didn't want to find out.

Braden handed her part of the hare. "Eat and wash, then we'll get started. We still have plenty of the day left to travel by."

Maggie nodded. She ate quickly, then took a few private minutes in the denseness of the forest to attend her needs before rejoining the men.

They had already put out the fire and had everything neatly stored in the packs. Maggie reached for hers, but Braden draped it over his shoulder.

She smiled. "I appreciate the thought, Braden, but should we come across others, I'm rather sure they would think it odd you carry my pack."

"She's right," Sin agreed. "It defeats the whole purpose of having her dressed as a boy."

"Very well," Braden said, but before he would let her have it back, he put half the contents into his own pack. "There's no need in you getting tired unnecessarily."

Maggie's heart pounded at his thoughtfulness. Aye, Braden was an easy man to love. Kind, considerate.

If only loyalty to women were one of his numerous virtues.

"Are you all right?" Braden asked as he handed her the pack. "You seem troubled."

Aye, troubled by a handsome man who haunts my dreams and my heart.

"I'm fine," she said, offering him a smile. "Just thinking of the task ahead." As well as the fact that when this was all over, she would return to her little cottage alone and he would be off...

She didn't finish the thought. She couldn't.

Sin gave her a knowing, sympathetic look, then led them through the forest toward MacDouglas lands.

They walked through the rest of the morning and well into the afternoon. Instead of stopping for a meal, they ate pieces of bread while they walked, and spoke very little as they kept mostly to the ancient forest.

It was midafternoon when a strange tingling sensation started on the back of Maggie's neck and ran over her scalp. An eerie shiver went through her.

It felt as though someone were watching them.

She turned her head to scan the dark trees and shrubs, but saw nothing. She heard nothing.

And yet...

At first the men appeared to notice nothing strange. Until she noted the tenseness of both their spines.

The way they both walked with one hand on their sword hilts.

Aye, they felt it too.

"Braden-"

"Stephen?" he asked, quickly cutting her off, and that more than anything else verified her suspicions.

They were being watched, and both he and Sin knew it.

"Never mind," she said, dropping her voice an octave.

Still, she saw and heard nothing.

It stretched on for so long that she had just begun to think her imagination was running amok. Until they topped a small rise in the forest. Just as they neared a giant yew tree, a figure casually stepped out from behind it.

He was a large, burly man, but not quite as tall as her escorts. His dank, dark hair hung limply about his beefy shoulders and his dirty beard obscured most of his face. He arched a bushy black brow as he narrowed one eye on them and leveled a sword toward Sin.

"Well, well," the burly man said evilly. "What have we here?"

"Looks like we got some little pigeons just right for a plucking," a man said from behind them.

Terrified, Maggie looked around as a total of ten men surrounded them. They were thieves, by the looks of them, and would be bent on G.o.d only knew what once they learned that the three of them carried little money.

Sin and Braden exchanged looks with each other that were a terrifying mixture of wry amus.e.m.e.nt and antic.i.p.ation. And that made her tremble from the inside out.

This was not good. Not good at all.

Chapter 9.

"Well, well," Sin said to Braden, mocking the leader's words and tone. "What have we here?"

"Looks like a pack of fools wanting to die," Braden said, a cold, deadly smile on his lips.

Maggie quickly crossed herself as she realized the situation was about to escalate into something she really didn't want to witness.

She just hoped they all survived it.

Tension sizzled so thick around them that she could nearly smell the raw, pungent odor of it. All the men were stiff and wary, their eyes darting over each other as they evaluated the mettle of their opponents.

Her stomach drew tight in fear.

The outlaw leader returned Braden's cold smile with one of his own. "Now,friend , there's no need for us to spill your blood or your guts. Give us your money and we'll leave you to peacefully go about your way."

"There's just one wee problem with that," Braden said, his voice ominously calm and patient, his greenish brown eyes menacing. "You're not my friend and I'm quite a bit fonder of my gold than I am of you. Now, given that, why would I want to turn my gold over to your clumsy hands?"

Maggie's panic rose.

The leader's face turned dour. "In that case..."

The others attacked so quickly, Maggie barely had time to duck the one beefy thief who came after her and hurl herself into the shrubs for protection.

Braden and Sin unsheathed their swords in unison and used them to drive back their attackers.

The big thief she had dodged moved to grab her, but didn't make it before Braden caught him by the scruff of his shirt and shoved him in the opposite direction into a rather large oak tree, where he rebounded with a resounding thud, then went sprawling atop the peat-covered ground.

Maggie sighed in relief, hoping no one else noticed her.

But an instant after that thought, she saw another thief inching toward Braden's unguarded back, the thief's sword raised to strike.

Panic swelled inside her. Braden was so occupied with the man before him, he didn't even notice the one at his back.

Her only thought to save Braden, Maggie scrambled from the bushes. She grabbed a large, leafy limb from the ground and used it to whack the thief against the back.

The leaves smacked his spine, neck and head, but didn't do anything other than make the big man angry.

He whirled on her with a vicious curse.

Too late, she realized her attack hadn't been very well planned or executed.

Awkwardly, she held the limb before her as she struggled to protect herself. The thief laughed cruelly as he whacked the leaves and wood almost playfully with his sword.

"Mother of saints preserve me!" she whispered, then bashed him in the head with the limb.