Page 21 of In the Highlander's Bed

When she was finished, she went over to the stream, taking off the tartan he’d given her as she walked. The pattern was a deep blue and green, with a bloodred line running through the plaid. She set it aside and knelt to wash her hands and face in the clear, frigid water. She’d grown up washing in cold water and theoutdoors, but this time she discovered, to her surprise, that she didn’t like it.

England was taming her.

She sat back on her moccasined heels and assessed her surroundings, something she would have done immediately back home.

A crow called. Beside her moccasins, Constance saw deer tracks. All was peaceful here. She closed her eyes, listening not just to the water in the stream bed running over rocks, but the sounds beyond. To her left a leaf fell and there was a scurry of movement. It was a squirrel digging an acorn.

There was another sound—a whisper. She strained her ears and realized Gordon was speaking to someone.

Constance opened her eyes, wondering what it was he didn’t want her to overhear.

Now could have been a moment to escape, but she was curious. Gordon’s low, soothing voice eased a tightness in her shoulder blades. It drew her to him as easily as a siren’s song lured a sailor.

Gathering his tartan around her shoulders, she followed the edge of the stream a few yards before she caught sight of Gordon alone. He’d removed his jacket and was kneeling in front of a brush’s maze of winter bare branches thatformed a cage where a frightened bird was trapped.

He was trying to calm the bird. That was the whispering she’d heard. She doubted if he’d be successful. The poor creature was so frantic it couldn’t notice that Gordon had broken some of the branches to give it a path to freedom.

The bird was a blue-gray dove, a fat one.

Constance waited, admiring Gordon’s patience. Not many men had that…or, at least, not the men she’d known in her life.

The dove finally realized it didn’t need to be afraid. It halted its panicked fluttering, eyeing Gordon warily.

“Go on,” he crooned.

“She doesn’t trust you,” Constance whispered.

His piercing green eyes met hers. “I’llwin,” he promised.

At that moment the peace was broken by the sound of a horse coming through the woods toward them. “Gordon, we’re hungry,” Thomas complained just as the dove realized there was a way out of the maze. It shot through the hole Gordon had broken for it.

“What’s that?” Thomas asked. “A bird? Catch it! That’ll be our breakfast.”

The dove had been injured. It didn’t fly well, and Gordon could have knocked it down beforeit managed to fly up to the safer branches of a tall pine.

“You don’t want that bird,” Gordon told Thomas.

“I like dove,” Thomas insisted. “I’d like anything to fill my belly at this point.”

“And I like seeing it have another chance,” Gordon said. “You’ve got oat cakes in your kit. Eat that.”

Thomas eyed the bird sitting on the tree branch over their heads. “I could shoot it through the head.” He reached for the pistol in the belt at his waist. “It would be an easy kill.”

“No,” Gordon said. He didn’t elaborate. He didn’t need to. One word was enough.

The giant stared at him. Constance sensed the man ached to challenge Gordon. The giant had brute strength over Gordon…but he lacked Lachlan’s quiet confidence.

Thomas drew his hand away from his weapon and took up his reins. “Damn bird’s not worth the shot.”

“That’s what I said,” Gordon answered.

There was the rustle of damp leaves. A beat later the other two, Robbie and Brian, rode through the woods to join them. “Thomas, have you found Gordon?” Robbie was saying as he approached.

“Aye, I did,” Thomas answered easily. “Caught him freeing a bird. I wanted to eat it, but he’s a soft heart. Wouldn’t let me touch it.”

Robbie and Brian both nodded, smiling. “You never know which way Gordon will go,” Brian answered.

Constance thought those words true. And she’d seen the look in Thomas’s eye. He didn’t think Gordon soft, and it bothered him. She’d witnessed numerous of these standoffs among trappers and frontiersmen. Sometimes they were over ridiculous matters, and she’d learned they had more to do with one man’s need to assert himself than who was right or wrong.