Maya Banks - In Bed with a Highlander

“I should make you chase them,” she called. “You’re supposed to be guarding me.”

“Guarding, not herding children,” came Caelen’s terse reply.

“I think we should attack him,” Mairin muttered.

“Oh, let’s do!” Crispen whispered.

“Aye, aye!” the children surrounding them chanted.

Mairin smiled as the evil thought coalesced. The image of the warrior on the ground begging for mercy would be a sight to behold.

“All right,” she whispered back. “But we must be stealthy about it.”

“Like warriors!” Robbie exclaimed.

“Aye, like warriors. Like your fathers,” she added.

The boys puffed out their chests, but the few girls who had assembled looked disgruntled.

“What about us, Mairin?” Gretchen, a girl of eight years, asked. “Girls can be warriors, too.”

“Nay, they can’t!” Crispen said in an appalled voice. “Fighting is for men. Girls are to be protected. My papa said so.”

The looks in the girls’ eyes were murderous, so to prevent a civil war among the children, Mairin gathered them all close. “Aye, girls can be warriors, too, Gretchen. Here’s what we must do.”

The huddled together and she whispered her instructions.

The boys weren’t happy with their role in the attack. The girls were delighted with theirs. After a quick recounting of their instructions, the girls broke away and skipped toward the keep. As soon as they were past Caelen, they halted and turned back to sneak up on him from behind. Caelen was too distracted by the crowd of rowdy boys approaching him from the front.

He looked suspiciously at Crispen and then over his head to Mairin. She smiled innocently and waited.

Caelen never knew what hit him. Screaming like banshees, the girls hit him from behind. They leapt on Caelen’s back and swarmed over him like a horde of locusts.

Shouting his surprise, Caelen went down amid a tangle of arms and legs and squeals of delight. The boys, not to be outdone, added their own war cries and leapt onto the pile.

After his initial surprise and much hollering and shouting, Caelen took his attack with grace. He laughed and wrestled with the children but was finally forced to cry mercy when the girls pinned him to the ground and demanded he surrender.

Caelen threw his arms up and laughingly offered his surrender. Mairin was astounded by the change in the warrior. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him smile, much less laugh with obvious enjoyment as he tussled with the children. She stared at the goings-on with an open mouth, shaking her head at how good Caelen was with the children. She’d imagined that she’d have to step in rather quickly to defend them against his anger.

The girls were quick to cry victory while the boys protested that they had been the ones to gain Caelen’s acquiescence.

“Caelen, Crispen said girls can’t be warriors, that ’tis the boys’ duty to be warriors and protect the girls,” Gretcen said in disgust. “But Mairin said that girls can be warriors, too. Who has the right of it?”

Caelen chuckled. “Crispen is right in that ’tis a warrior’s duty to protect his lady and those weaker. However, your mistress makes a very good case for a woman warrior. She may have us all begging for mercy before the month is out.”

“I think you speak the truth, brother.”

Mairin whirled around to see Ewan and his commanders standing a short distance away, looking in amusement at Caelen’s sound defeat at the children’s hands.

She swallowed nervously, sure she was about to be handed another stern lecture about her duties, but Ewan walked forward to pick up one of the children and give him a sound dusting off.

Gretchen beamed at Mairin as she sat on Caelen’s broad chest. “I want to be a warrior like our laird. Why, I beat up Robbie just last week.”

“Did not!” Robbie roared.

“Did so.”

To Mairin’s horror, Robbie flew at Gretchen, toppling her from Caelen’s chest. She needn’t have worried, however. The lass obviously hadn’t boasted in vain. She flipped Robbie over and was soon straddling him and holding his arms to the ground.

Mairin sighed and went to prevent an all-out war between the girls and the boys. Ewan got there at the same time she did and reached for Robbie as she bent over to pluck Gretchen off the struggling boy.

Pain seared through her side, and then to her shock, an arrow hit the ground right beside the children and embedded deeply into the soil. Why, it had passed just between her and Ewan!

She stared aghast, appalled at how close it had come to hitting one of the children. She whirled around to locate the offending archer but found herself toppled to the ground as Caelen dove over her.

“Leave off!” she exclaimed, as she beat at Caelen’s shoulder. “What on earth are you doing? See to the children.”

“Quiet!” he barked. “Ewan is seeing to the children’s safety.”

“This is inexcusable!” Mairin exclaimed. “How could they be so careless? The children could have been killed!”

Caelen covered her mouth and slowly moved his body from hers. He looked around and Mairin could see only Ewan with his arms full of children, as he, too, surveyed the area with sharp eyes. Gannon and Cormac each had a position over the remaining children and they lay still, awaiting their laird’s command.

Ewan cursed, and Mairin frowned at him for uttering blasphemies in front of the children. It was another thing she’d take up with him at first opportunity.

Ewan raised his head and bellowed an order. Soon the area swarmed with his men. The children were hustled back toward the kp under heavy guard, as Ewan stood and looked down at Mairin.

Caelen picked himself up from the ground and he and Ewan reached a hand down to slip under her arms. She was hoisted to her feet and she slapped at her skirts, shaking the dust off in a cloud.

Before one of them could do so, she reached down and yanked the arrow from the ground. Then she slapped it against Ewan’s chest, her fright giving way to fury.

“How could your men be so careless? They could have killed one of the children!”

CHAPTER 18

Ewan was every bit as furious over the incident as his wife, but he wasn’t about to allow her to chastise him in front of his men.

“You will be silent.”

Her eyes widened and she took a step back. Good, she was finally realizing her place. But then her eyes narrowed and she scowled ferociously at him.

“I won’t be silent,” she said in a low voice. “You must have a safe place for the children to play and run free. It won’t do for them to be this close to the courtyard if your men can’t control their aim.”

He took the arrow from her and examined the markings on it. Then he looked up at her again. “Until I know who is responsible, you will cease insulting my men, and me, by thinking we would allow such a thing to happen. You may return to the keep to see to the children. Cormac will escort you.”

Hurt flashed in her eyes, but she whirled around and hurried away, her skirts swinging in her haste.

He turned to Gannon, furious over the mishap. “You will find the man who shot this arrow and you’ll bring him to me. Not only could he have killed a child, he could have killed my wife.”

His fingers curled into a fist at the memory of how close the arrow had come to Mairin and himself. Though the arrow hadn’t struck high enough to have done serious damage to himself, to a lass Mairin’s size, it would have been deadly.

His gaze dropped to the ground where Mairin had stood just moments ago. He frowned and dropped to his knee, touching the soil with his fingers. His throat closed in and his heart began to pound. Blood darkened the dirt right next to her footprints. As he followed Mairin’s path away, he saw more drops.