The Hunter Read online

  “Of course, I didn’t see something.”

  “I only thought since you were watching—”

  “What are you talking about? I wasn’t watching you!”

  She blinked a few times in confusion, hoping she wasn’t overdoing it. “You weren’t? But I thought I saw you standing over there gazing in this direction.” She pointed to the area where she’d felt someone watching her.

  “You were mistaken.”

  “That is too bad. I was hoping you might have seen something.”

  “That isn’t possible, as there was nothing to see.” She tilted her head. “But I thought you were not watching.”

  His face flushed. “I wasn’t.”

  “Oh! Pardon me! I must have misunderstood.” She shrugged. “My French is not perfect.”

  “Where are you from?”

  “Sister Genna is from Italy, Father Simon,” Sister Winifred interceded on her behalf. “But she comes to us from the Sisters of St. Mary’s Priory at Coldstream.”

  His eyes lit up. “That’s in Berwick-upon-Tweed, is it not?” he said in perfect Italian.

  Janet nodded with a silent curse. Her heart raced even harder. She’d become fluent in the language, but she prayed she didn’t make any mistakes. “It is, Father. But I will be returning to Italy soon.”

  Very soon, she suspected. “Sister Genna” had probably just served her last mission. She would not take the chance in leading this man back to Berwick. She was going to have to change her identity again.

  “The Reverend Mother is going to be most displeased with me. The purse was worth a great deal of money.” She wrung her hands in despair.

  Sister Winifred moved to comfort her.

  Janet hoped that would be the end of it, but the man’s next words turned her blood to ice. “May I see the missive you removed from the purse at your waist and slid into the edge of your scapular?”

  Dunstaffnage Castle, Scotland, late autumn, 1310

  “What the hell do you mean you don’t know where she is?”

  Sutherland shot Ewen a glare, interrupting before the king—to whom the comment had been directed—could respond, and no doubt saving Ewen from a scathing set-down. “Janet hasn’t been seen since a week after Michaelmas. She left for a mission in Roxburgh and never returned.”

  But if Sutherland meant to calm him down, his comment only infuriated Ewen further. “October? Bloody hell, that was weeks ago. Why didn’t someone go after her right away?”

  Ewen had apparently forgotten that he was supposed to be not angering the king.

  “That’s exactly what I’d like to know,” Mary added, coming to stand beside him in front of the table opposite the king. If there was anyone in the room more outraged than he, it was Janet’s twin. From the moment Mary of Mar had learned of her sister’s survival (not long after Ewen discovered the truth), she’d hounded the king incessantly to bring her sister back. “I thought you said Janet was handling a few more things, and then you would call her back home?”

  If Robert the Bruce had a weakness, it was for the women in his life. His fondness for his former sister-in-law was evident by the contrite look on his face and the effort he took to mollify the obviously distraught female. He might chastise Ewen for speaking out of turn, but the pretty former Countess of Atholl and future Countess of Sutherland would enjoy far more leeway.

  “We were not concerned until recently.” He paused. “It isn’t uncommon for Janet to be delayed or take a couple of weeks longer than expected.”

  Ewen knew there was something he was leaving out.

  “But wouldn’t she find some way of letting you know?” Mary asked.

  Bruce looked decidedly uncomfortable. He may have even shifted in his chair. “We can’t check up on all the people we have working for us. It isn’t possible.”

  “You mean you let her out on her own without protection?” Mary accused, tears glistening in her eyes. “And Janet isn’t ‘people,’ she’s our sister.”

  Bruce appeared to wince. As Mary was doing such a good job, Ewen saw no reason to intervene. He simply stood to the side with his arms folded across his chest and watched the king squirm.

  Sutherland had taken his wife under his arm and was making some attempt to console her. “Of course, she is, love,” he murmured softly.

  Not long ago the display of affection would have made Ewen do a little squirming of his own, but in the past few weeks since he and Sutherland had returned to Dunstaffnage after Edward’s retreat to England for the winter, he’d grown used to such displays. He’d grown surprisingly close to Sutherland’s bride. The unusual ease he’d felt around Janet apparently extended to her sister. Actually, being around Lady Mary was easier. Despite their similarity in appearance, Sutherland’s wife didn’t set every one of his nerve-endings on edge, heat his blood, or make him harden like a lad at a Roman orgy.

  Once Mary had learned that he’d spent time with her sister, she’d asked him hundreds of questions about what he could remember. He was sure that was why every detail about Janet of Mar was so fresh in his mind even after all these months. Her sister had kept her that way.

  “I am sure there is nothing wrong,” the king said, but it sounded as if he was trying to assure himself as much as them. “But you don’t have to worry, Mary. I’m sending my best man after her. Hunter will find her.”

  Although an attempt had been made to keep the wives ignorant of the Highland Guardsmen’s identities, it had proved impossible. Of the men who were married, only MacLean’s wife was unaware of her husband’s role in the king’s secret army. But as his wife was a MacDowell that was hardly surprising. To Ewen’s knowledge, MacLean hadn’t seen his wife in years. If he hadn’t disavowed her formally, he’d done so de facto.

  Ewen was tempted to refuse. If he were smart, he probably would. But he couldn’t do that with Mary looking up at him. For a moment she looked so much like her sister, his chest ached. “Will you?”

  He nodded. “I will leave as soon as it can be arranged.”

  “Wonderful. I’m going with you,” Mary said.

  The four male occupants of the room went silent, showing varying degrees of alarm. Bruce had an “oh no” look on his face, Sutherland an “over my dead body” one, and Chief a “you’d better do something about this” look directed at Sutherland. Ewen supposed his was a combination of all three.

  It was Sutherland who made the first attempt to get his wife to see reason. “Now, Mary, you know how dangerous it would be for you to go to England. I’m sure the king will see fit to allow me to accompany Hunter—”

  “Don’t ‘now, Mary’ me! It’s just as dangerous for you to go to England as it is for me. Even more so with Felton recovered and looking for blood—your blood. Besides, a man and a woman traveling together will draw much less attention than you two.”

  Sutherland’s jaw was clenched so tight, Ewen was surprised he could still talk. “If you think I’m going to allow you to travel with Hunter alone—”

  Mary waved her hand dismissively. “Then come along if you must.”

  Apparently the lass had more of her sister in her than Ewen had realized. She may have tricked her husband into conceding the point, but Ewen wasn’t falling for it. “I will travel much faster alone, my lady. If you come, you will only make my job more difficult.”

  The blunt, matter-of-fact assessment (rather than worrying about her tender feelings) worked. Mary’s demeanor changed from bound and determined to chastised. “I did not think about that. I do not wish to be a burden.”

  “Then let me do my job. You can trust me—I will not let anything happen to your sister.”

  Mary nodded. Sutherland and Bruce eyed him as if he’d just accomplished some kind of miracle.

  In the end, it was decided that Sutherland and MacKay would accompany Ewen and MacLean in the event they came across any English patrols. The war might have come to a standstill while Edward retreated to the comfort of Berwick for the winter, but the hunt for the �€