Page 5 of To Win a Highlander’s Heart

She remained motionless as she returned the man’s piercing gaze. Her brother had suffered enough at her hands today.

“I mean you no harm,” he said, holding his palms out towards her.

She lifted her bound hands. “These lashings at my wrists say otherwise.”

He arched a brow as he came towards her. “If you promise to behave yourself, I will release you.” He pulled a dagger from his belt but hesitated until she nodded her consent.

With a single cut, he released her. “I am Lieutenant Cornelius Collins from one of the companies that make up the twenty-ninth regiment.” He offered her a bow. “My men and I have been charged with obtaining information about Laird Nicolson and other rebel lairds in this area.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

He studied her, not as a man eyed a woman but in judgement of her dedication, her intentions. “Much, if you are as clever as you are brave. You tried to take on eight of my men with one bow. I find that interesting. And since we saw you running from the direction of Scorrybreac Castle, I’d venture to guess you are somehow associated with the laird and his clan.”

She swallowed roughly. She could not reveal the nature of her association or the banishment she’d been dealt without making herself even more vulnerable to the lieutenant and his men.

“Nothing to say?” Lieutenant Collins frowned. “You are in a precarious situation as a female out of your castle alone, with no one to protect you.”

Isolde bristled at the unveiled threat. “I can protect myself.”

“I’m counting on that.” Lieutenant Collins’s lips pulled up into a cunning smile. “I need someone like you on my side.”

Isolde narrowed her gaze on the Englishman. Anything he wanted her to do could not be good for the Scots. “What do you mean?”

“You will spy on your countrymen for me. Inform me of their allegiances and their movements.”

On edge already, she flinched. “Why would I do such a thing?”

Lieutenant Collins’s features hardened as he turned his dagger towards her. “Because if you don’t, I will arrest your brother, Laird Nicolson, for crimes against the crown.”

“He’s done nothing of the sort. I will testify on his behalf that he’s been a loyal servant to the crown.”

“And who will the English courts believe, the sister of a man with Jacobite ties, or one of their own military officers?” His smile turned cruel.

If this man knew she was John’s sister, then the English had been spying on the Nicolson clan. Isolde drew a tense breath, let it go between parted lips. The lieutenant meant what he said. Did she really have any choice?

For the first time that day Isolde saw that her brother’s plan to marry her off might have had merit. At least she would have been safe even if it was with Ewen MacPhee. Isolde looked at the lieutenant’s large, powerful hands and the lethal dagger in them. She met his amber gaze. “What would you have me do?”

She had no choice but to cooperate. Yet she would not send her countrymen to their deaths in this game of espionage. There had to be another way, and eventually she would find it.

Chapter Two

Isle of Skye, Scotland

Friday, November 16th, 1742

Orrick MacLeod rode his horse away from Dunvegan Castle to the east, towards the flat-topped peaks of Healabhal Beag and Healabhal Mór, known to those on the isle as MacLeod’s Tables. The chill morning air brushed against his cheeks as he pushed his horse into a faster gait. The cold last night and the chill this morning meant it was imperative that he find the little girl who’d gone missing after the MacQueens raided the village of Orbost the day before.

When the MacLeods arrived at the village after receiving word that the village was under attack, they were too late to drive the attackers away. They’d already done their damage to the small village on the outskirts of MacLeod territory. It was another strike from the clans who supported the MacDonalds that signalled another escalation of the battle between the MacDonalds and the MacLeods.

Alastair, the MacLeod clan leader and Orrick’s brother, had tried desperately to negotiate peace between the MacDonalds and the MacLeods and their allied clans. The Scots had far more pressing matters to contend with now that English regiments patrolled the Highlands. But with each clan attack on the villages nearby, any kind of peace agreement between the clans seemed more unlikely. Eventually the antagonism between the MacDonalds and the MacLeods would become a full-out war. The thought sent a shiver of fear down Orrick’s spine. To win such a conflict would take every warrior the MacLeods had in their army.

There had been a time when all three of the MacLeod triplets had fought in battles alongside their father. They were a fighting force feared amongst not only the other isle clans but also the English. But when their father had sustained a head wound years ago and he’d transformed from a fair man to a brutal warrior overnight, Orrick and his brothers had refused to fight alongside their father. Then when he’d murdered their mother, the triplets had left Dunvegan and their father behind.

Tormod and Orrick had gone to the West Indies, seeking to earn their fortunes so they might have independence from their father. While Tormod had embraced the experience, Orrick had discovered that the senseless loss of life ate away at his soul. He had killed so many men who were fathers and brothers, all in the name of British expansion. And when he could fight for domination over the oppressed no longer, he and Tormod had switched sides, fighting instead for Spain.

But even that failed to help. They were still taking the lives of men who were only fighting because they were ordered to do so by their commanders. With each day and each battle, it became harder and harder for Orrick to lift his sword, until instead of fighting, he found a way to help those who were being slaughtered and enslaved. Orrick had only been back at Dunvegan for six months, and he’d not been able to lift his weapon even to help fight against the MacDonalds, their clan’s enemy.

Orrick forced back the memories of the West Indies and his inability to be the warrior he was once. Today, all his thoughts and all his skills had to be focused on finding the lost child.