Highland Warrior, McCollum, Heather [carter reed .TXT] 📗

had remained. Together, they’d stitched Kára up and saved her from fever. “You and Aunt Hilda.”

Amma shook her head. “We are too old to start over in another land.”

“Ridiculous. You are obviously young enough to climb down a rope into a well,” she said, indicating the way into her den. “You can surely travel to Scotia.”

Amma smiled at her, pausing over a long moment. “Well, perhaps, but Hilda is staying.”

“Robert will steal her back.”

“That might be what she has in mind,” Amma said and then waved off the comment.

“What will she do?”

“I will speak no further on it,” Amma said with tight lips and a tilt to her chin that told Kára there was no use in arguing with her. “Eat up, child. I have white paste to wipe you with, and we must collect things to lie with you in the grave.”

Kára exhaled. “Will this work, Amma?”

Her grandmother sat down next to her on the bed and patted her knee. “’Tis an unexpected plan, wild in fact. And Joshua has made contact with the men in Robert’s holding who are loyal to him. They will help with the act.”

Kára shook her head. “I still cannot believe the Horseman of War is sacrificing himself for our people. You know, Joshua has never lost a battle in his entire life. And he is now planning to do so to keep our people safe.”

Amma smiled, the wrinkles around her eyes turning into deep grooves. “Our people?” She huffed a small chuckle. “Child, the man, warrior from God or human made, is sacrificing for you. We but reap the benefit.” Her weathered hand came to Kára’s cheek. “He wants to bring you to his home, to meet his brothers and sister, his aunt. He wants you to live with him there, surrounded by his clan. Otherwise, he would merely escort you there and leave you, set out on his own as the powerful Horseman of War he has always been.” She shook her head. “Nay, he surrenders himself today so he can give you a life with him, and the Hillside people benefit.” She leveled her eyes with Kára’s. “You have succeeded in saving your people, Kára Flett, daughter of King Zaire, by winning over the heart of the fiercest warrior on earth.”

I give myself to ye. His words in the darkness resonated through her body, making her heart pick up a rapid dance. Without sight, last night seemed like a dream, a dream full of every other detail. Their entire beings mingling with a mix of scents, sensations, and sounds. But now she wanted to see him, to stare into his eyes. Was there commitment in his eyes, an everlasting loyalty? Love?

Amma stood, pulling her gingerly from the bed. “Now sit, eat, and I will whiten your skin. After all, you will be several days dead. Geir found a half-eaten seal washed up on the beach. He will hide it under you in case anyone comes close enough to smell death.”

“Is the ground frozen?” she asked.

“Calder built a fire with peat to burn through the day and night up at the chapel over your gravesite next to Zaire, Astrid, and Eydis. It will be thawed enough for a shallow grave, which is what we want anyway.”

Kára nodded and took a bite of the barley bread with butter, her mind a tangle of the wild staging they were going to enact. “I thought the Horseman was invincible,” she murmured, thinking of the sacrifice Joshua was about to make. “That he would never show weakness or crumble.”

Amma sat down opposite her, propping her elbows there. She leaned forward as if to impart a great secret. “No one is invincible to love. It is what makes us vulnerable and strong at the same time, doing things we never thought possible.”

Kára’s gaze snapped up to Amma’s. “Do you…?” Kára wet her lips between shallow breaths. “Do you think he could love me?”

Amma smiled softly. “The Horseman of War? No. Joshua Sinclair? Aye.” She clasped Kára’s hand. “What he does today, he does for you.”

Kára shook her head. “He plays out this trick to protect his clan from King James.”

Amma leaned forward. “He has already broken his oath to them in writing. He could leave Orkney and strike out alone in Scotland, yet he wants you and your people to live in safety and the protection of his clan.”

“He could just be an honorable man,” Kára whispered.

“He wants to bring you home,” she said, sitting straight. “You both must survive this day.”

Kára’s chest squeezed as she thought about the risky details of their deception. Aye, they would live or die together—today.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“All warfare is based on deception.”

Sun Tzu – The Art of War

“It is an inch at most,” Calder said, shaking his head.

Joshua looked out across the moor that stretched down toward the Earl’s Palace. “An extra inch of flesh can save a man,” he said, glancing down to his tunic where the inch-thick bladder of chicken blood was strapped underneath around his ribs.

“It better save you,” Osk said behind them. “Or Kára will chop us up for letting you die, for real.”

“If Patrick Stuart cuts deeper and draws my own blood, too, so be it,” Joshua said, ignoring Osk. He could not think of Kára right now, or he might lose his concentration. Everything about the next steps in this farce must be concise. He looked to Calder. “Make sure ye carry me out of there before a Stuart can check my pulse.” He could hold his breath for long minutes, having built up his lung capacity with constant training, but there would be no stopping his heart from feeding his body with blood.

“I doubt they will go anywhere near you,” Calder said, pointing to the blackened tips of Joshua’s fingers and the realistic shading and lightening that Hilda had painted on Joshua’s neck to make part of it look swollen. “Remember to cough and act like you are getting tired when fighting.”

“Will those loyal