Read Online Tangled (Handfasting) by Becca St. John - Free Book Online

play the game in his chamber.  Temptation and caution tangled in the
game they played with each other but he had won, if sharing a bed was the
prize.  He still played the price of caution, furthered by watching her slip,
naked, from the bed.
    Temptation.
    Soon,
he would make her his wife but first he had to find out who was working against
the clan.  
    William
caught up with him at the bottom of the castle steps. "Is it Naill and Sim
do you think?”
     “Aye,
and none too soon."  He had been waiting for them too long already.
    "This
is the first you’ve heard of them since they set off?”
    Talorc
nodded. Sim, their best tracker, along with Naill, who was a wily fighter,
pursued the men who attacked Maggie on the road to Glen Toric.
    "I
thought we might have lost them.”  Talorc admitted with a deep sigh. “I was
about to send you and Bruce out to look for them." 
    Bruce
strode into the courtyard as the two weary riders came into sight. Their horses
lathered and steaming, the men looked no better. They greeted with familiar
grunts, nods, and slaps to the back. The only words spoken were swift and short.
"Ayes" in response to Talorc's, "You're fairing well?" and
then Niall's, "Your handfasted still stands?”
    "She’s
a harder noggin than that.” he gave a curt nod. “But let's get inside. You men
have words to give us."
    "That
we do, laird," Sim shook his head, "and not good ones either." 
    The
riders handed their horses off to a lad, as the five men headed for the keep. By
the time they reached the fire, a pitcher of ale and a plate of cheese had been
set out on a table. The bustle of the great hall quieted, cognizant of the riders’
importance, though none left.  People milled about in small groups, whispering
and waiting to hear what was found.
    Sim
did not so much sit as collapse at the table, his head bowed low. Niall stood
to the fire, hands out. "They know our lands, laird." Curt and to the
point, he didn't look up with the telling. "They led us straight into our
own lands, quick as you please. You would have thought they knew the way better
than we did."
    "They
ne'r tried to hide their tracks. Bold as you please, they were. They took us
through MacKay land, then turned, like they were going to go to Gunn territory.
So we followed."
    "Could
you name them?"
    Niall
turned around, used his knife to cut a hunk of cheese. "They’re not Gunns,
Laird, for they went into Gunn land and played some mischief. We don’t know
what for sure, but, well . . ."
    "They
disappeared."  Sim finished. "I lost the track because I was
distracted, see, by the Gunns, or true Gunns, if you will."  He shook his
head slowly. "It doesn't make a wee bit of sense, does it?  These men
played a trick on the Gunns and then the Gunns retaliated against us."
    Talorc
held up his hand. "It makes sense, alright. It’s the first thing to make
sense in these past few years, why the Gunns have been picking fights.”  He
caught the eye of each of his men as he admitted. “We’ve not been dealing with the
Gunns. They’re not the ones who have been playing us false. It’s renegades set
on causing trouble.”
    Such
a simple thought.
    Naill
and Sim looked to each other. “But there are so many of them, all together.”
    “They’ve
no honor,” Bruce spit at the ground, “despicable is what they are, too depraved
to live with another.  How could they band?”  Bruce argued
    “Aye,”
Talorc explained, “their crimes may be inconceivable to us, so despicable we
cast them out.  But I wonder if they don’t boast among each other.  Hearts of
thieves.”  
    Naill
shook his head, “They had naught to lose, but they’ve always been too busy
fighting amongst themselves to be any sizeable threat.”
     That
they banded together to cause mischief, was a fearsome thought.  Bold thought
of the altars, of the way they tried to get Maggie and scanned the room to see
that she was there, that she was safe.
    The
danger made too much sense.