Part 23 (1/2)

”No' with a chair, love,” Rob a.s.sured her, then scowled when he realized he'd forgotten his mead.

”Will is bleeding,” she pointed out regrettably and sank into her chair. ”Oh, Rob!” She tugged on his plaid without taking her eyes off the melee. ”Seamus MacDonnell just hit Will from behind. Look out!” She bolted back to her feet and screamed in Will's direction and then turned on her husband. ”Robert MacGregor, do something! He is your closest friend!”

Davina had no idea that Rob would have shamed Will if he moved to protect him against men who were too drunk to do any real harm. As it turned out though, Rob didn't need to do a thing. A cry from the battlements stilled them all.

Chapter Thirty-four.

Callum was the first to reach the castle doors, with Rob close behind him. It wasn't every day that the MacGregors had visitors, and while most who came here were usually from neighboring clans, no one had forgotten Davina's father... or Admiral Gilles.

”Finn,” Rob ordered as the lad caught up with him, ”bring Davina to my mother!”

”She went to the chapel.”

Before Rob could reply, his father pulled on the doors, stepped outside, and shouted up to his patrolling guards. ”Which way?”

”From the hills, m' laird. Aboot thirty riders. Too far yet to see who they are.”

Rob felt his heart crash and splinter at his feet. Unless Gilles had recruited more men on his journey, it had to be the king.

”Banners?” he pushed past his father and called to the guards.

”Dinna' see any.”

”Load the cannons!” Callum roared and spun around to the men watching him from the doors. ”Alert everyone. Prepare fer the worst.”

Rob turned to Will and without a word spoken between them, his bloodied and bruised friend nodded and set off toward the chapel.

”Uncle,” he said to Jamie next. ”Find Asher and bring him to us. If Admiral Gilles is among those men, the captain will know his face.”

”And if 'tis the king,” Brodie reminded Rob somberly, ”Asher could identify yer wife.”

”And 'twill be the last thing he ever does,” Rob growled and caught the heavy claymore Angus tossed him.

”Laird,” a guard shouted from above. ”A Highlander leads them. M' thinks 'tis Colin!”

Rob felt as if someone had just shot him through the heart. Colin. Nae, it couldn't be. And if it was, then whoever was with him had likely forced him to bring them here. But even as Rob told himself that his brother would never betray him to the king, he knew that Colin could not be controlled by royalty, sword, or pistol. If Colin did not want to be here, he would have died at the hands of their enemies rather than lead them to Camlochlin.

The lethal scowl on his father's face as he searched the hills told Rob that Callum knew it too.

”If he brought the king's men here-”

”We dinna' know who travels with him yet, Robert, or if 'tis even him,” was all his father had to say on the matter.

They waited, armed and ready while the castle came alive with shouts behind them. Rob could hear the heavy cannon wheels grinding across the battlements above, where more of his kin waited with arrows c.o.c.ked and ready to fly.

”'Tis Colin,” Rob's father said and raised his hand to halt the archers.

A wave of panic washed over Rob such as he had never felt before. Why was his brother here? What had he done? If he'd told the king that his daughter was here, would he point her out as well? Sick to his stomach, Rob looked toward the chapel's outside entrance. They weren't going to take her from him.

”It's the king.”

Everyone's eyes turned to Asher exiting the castle with Jamie. ”He travels without his banner, but his regal bearing is difficult to conceal.”

”He's correct,” Callum told them, his sharp eyes fastened on the large troupe coming over the hills only a few hundred feet away now. The lead rider was in fact his son. The man beside him pushed back his hood to reveal a somewhat pale, yet familiar face as his eyes scanned the battlements, and then the men beneath them.

”Stand doun!” Callum roared to the guards and then waited while the riders grew closer. ”Shyt,” he groaned and then turned to his son. ”Remember, I beg ye, what we spoke of. Dinna' tell him ye wed her, Robert.”

Asher was the first to fall to his knee when the king reached them. Callum followed, keeping his stormy gaze on his youngest son as he leaped from his saddle.

”Faither, I-”

But Callum raised his palm to quiet him as the rest of his men knelt behind him, following his example.

When Rob was the only one still standing, the king glanced at Colin. ”Your brother, I presume?”

Colin nodded and met Rob's murderous gaze. ”I told only him, Rob. No one else knows.”

Rob's fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword. If Colin was not his brother, he would have run him through then and there and to h.e.l.l with the king.

”Where is she?”

Rob cut his dark gaze to the king when he spoke. Rob hated him, hated him for leaving her, for sentencing her to a life without her family, for never bothering to see her.

A thread of hope emerged from the gloom. Elaine. Davina was Elaine.

”She isna' here,” Rob said, giving Colin a warning look that said if he contradicted him, he would regret it. ”It has all been a-”

But the king was not listening to him. His eyes had settled on someone behind Rob, and his face... his face told Rob who it was without having to look.

”Daughter.” The king barely breathed the word, as if what he was seeing could not be real. His eyes gleamed with tears as he slowly dismounted. ”You have changed little since last I saw you.”

G.o.d, nae.

Now Rob did turn to her and found tears streaming down her face. Instinctively, he reached his hand to hers to comfort her, but she dropped to her knees and dipped her head.

”Arise, Davina.” The king reached for her, paused as if she might flee, and then gently pulled her up by the shoulders.

Everyone around Rob ceased to exist-everyone but Davina. He could not move. He could not breathe as he watched her set her s.h.i.+mmering eyes on her father for the first time. Everything in him wanted to s.n.a.t.c.h her away from the man reaching his fingers to her face. But she closed her eyes, as if the moment she had dreamed about for so long had finally come, and only his touch would prove it real.

Losing Davina suddenly became more real for Rob than ever before. This was what she wanted. What she had always wanted. Her father. He took a step toward her, but Callum's hand on his arm stopped him.

”You will never know how sorry I am for not being in your life.”

The king's softly spoken words were like daggers to Rob's heart. If any other father had uttered them to his wife, Rob would have rejoiced for her, knowing how desperately she needed to hear them. But this father had the power to take her away-and as Davina covered her face in her hands and wept, Rob doubted she would resist.

That is, until she lowered her hands and looked at him with her whole heart in her eyes.