Rob woke with a start, instinctively reaching for Da—vina. She wasn’t there. He bolted to his feet. His dream of a faceless Admiral snatching her from his arms was still fresh in his mind. He looked around the campsite for Asher, expecting Davina was with him. He wished it didn’t, but it boiled his blood to know that the captain had spent the last four years with her—knowing her secrets, knowing what made her laugh, what frightened her. How many times had he comforted her, held her in his arms, mayhap kissed her?

Thankfully, she wasn’t with the captain now, but Asher’s eyes were fixed on something to his right, just beyond the trees. Rob followed his gaze and soon found Davina standing with Will, his cousin’s bow and arrow poised in front of her face.

Rob watched as she widened her stance beneath her skirts. Skirts? Bloody hell! He glared at every man around him, wondering where and when she had discarded her robes for the shift and kirtle the Abbess had given him—and if any of the bastards had dared look at her while she did. None of them looked guilty, but they all had their eyes on her. He couldn’t find fault with that, not when she looked so damned bonnie in her new, close-fitting, womanly attire. Leaning his shoulder against a tree, he crossed his arms over his chest and joined the others watching her.

Her fingers were thin and graceful, winding around the shaft of Will’s arrow. Her shoulders, straight and relaxed as she pulled back on the bowstring. She closed one eye, aimed, and then fired.

Rob wasn’t surprised when the arrow struck Will’s makeshift target fifty paces away dead on. His shoulder bore testimony to her skill. The others cheered, and Will, rogue bastard that he was, whispered something in her ear that made her laughter spread across the glade.

Rob was considering the best way to skin his cousin alive when Davina turned, as if sensing him there, his hooded, burning eyes on her, and aimed her smile at him. Suddenly, nothing existed in the world but her.

“You sleep late,” she greeted him, curling her weapon under her arm and moving toward him.

Rob had to call upon every last shred of strength he possessed not to push off the tree and drag her into his arms. “I was awake most of the night.”

Her smile vanished as she reached him and tilted her face to his, wreaking havoc on his senses. “Not your shoulder, I hope.”

He shook his head but said nothing else while his gaze drifted over her features, settling on the full pout of her lips. He’d frightened her the first time he kissed her, and paid the price for it. But he longed to taste her again, not like some possessive, hot-tempered beast, but as a lover, tender and passionate.

When his gaze returned to hers, he found her searching his eyes as if she caught a glimpse of something kinder, softer, and wanted it as badly as he.

“Well done, my lady.” Asher appeared at Davina’s side, shattering what had just passed between them. “You are as deadly as you are beautiful.” The reverence in his smile faded when he turned it on Rob. “Do you not agree, MacGregor?”

Aye, Rob agreed, but he wasn’t about to drop flowery compliments at her feet every time she was in his presence the way Asher did. The man was a captain in the mightiest army in the world. Where was his pride, for hell’s sake?

Instead of answering the question—which he’d already surmised was not asked out of friendly curiosity—Rob unfolded his arms and pushed off the tree. “We need to go.”

Davina’s hand on his wrist stopped him. “Oh, but don’t you want to give it a try?”

“What?” Rob asked, taken aback for a moment that she would so boldly seek a compliment from him.

“The bow.” She held hers up to him. “I’d like to see if you are as good with it as you are with a blade.” Her smile widened into a grin. “It will be fun.”

Rob shook his head, thinking of a thousand different things he’d rather do with her for fun. “We have nae time fer pleasure. We have to keep movin’.” He looked over her shoulder rather than at the disappointment on her face. “Will, get rid of that target and let’s get this place cleaned up.”

He didn’t look back at Davina again as he strode away. ’Twas best not to, else he might end up like her captain, languishing after something that was forbidden. Hell, he’d had a hard enough time remembering that she was a novice of the Order when she was draped in His robes. Her soft curves, so delicately defined now in her kirtle… He stopped and turned back to where she was still standing with the captain.

“Where did ye change yer garment?”

She pointed to a thick stand of trees in the distance then looked down at herself. “It’s a bit snug. It must have belonged to one of the younger novices.”

He knew he was scowling but he couldn’t help himself, just as he couldn’t stop himself from thinking no lass in all the world ever looked so fine in something so plain.

“It looks… ye look bonnie in it.” He tightened his jaw to keep himself from smiling at her like some besotted, dimwitted fool. But he knew ’twas already too late.

The next few days were hell for Rob. More difficult than any raid or training time with his father had ever been. He ate little and slept less, battling with himself night and day against feelings that threatened to control him. He was happy that Davina had put aside her grief and was enjoying herself on their journey. Though she sometimes fell into a silence so deep he thought he could almost hear her thoughts, ’twas her laughter that filled the air, and his heart, while she practiced archery each morning with Will or tried to learn how to ride a horse on her own under Colin’s careful instruction. But despite his best efforts to prove to Davina that he too was good-natured, Rob found himself snapping at the others for minor offenses. The fact that he was trying to prove anything to her at all goaded his temper, but riding with her was the true cause of his foul mood. It wasn’t the feel of her pressed to his chest and clutched in his arms that did it, although he was certain that having her so near, as if she were his, helped to fan the flames.

It was Asher. The captain rode at their side constantly, usurping Finn’s place. At first, he pretended interest in the MacGregors, but soon his true purpose for rubbing stirrups with Rob became clear. He talked to Davina ceaselessly, preventing her from speaking overmuch to Rob, or him to her. At first, Rob told himself he didn’t mind. Davina and her captain were friends. They shared a past together. It meant nothing. He certainly wasn’t going to let some childish emotion cloud his reasoning. But Asher did nothing to hide the fact that he was in love with her. Da—vina knew it and cast all her smiles Asher’s way. She even laughed when he reminded her of a day two summers ago, when he had tried to shear one of St. Christopher’s sheep and the woolly beast bit him on the arse.

Rob wanted to punch him in the mouth. What kind of man couldn’t shear a damned sheep? It wasn’t any better when they stopped to eat or sleep. In fact, ’twas worse. Every step she took found Asher right behind her. Twice Rob had to block his path when she left to relieve herself. That had almost cost Rob his temper, but his resolve held firm… and he was damned proud of it.

When Asher didn’t have her ear, Finn usually did, and if the lad wasn’t so young, Rob would have worried most about the effect that particular male had on Davina. Twice Rob was sure he’d seen her wipe tears from her eyes while she stared at the lad, thinking she went unobserved.

Not so. Rob’s eyes were ever on her, taking in every gesture, every smile, every flawless curve that shaped her. He knew how she breathed because he lay awake at night watching her sleep, aching to hold her, kiss her, make her his own. She was crafted of stardust and secrets and he was lost. He knew it, and he didn’t like it.

Unfortunately, his brother Colin knew it, too, and did his best to reassure him not to fret about it, they all were a wee bit lost to her—a truth that only made Rob more irritable. Still, he hadn’t cracked any heads yet. He worked harder than he ever had in his life at harnessing his emotions. When he didn’t, bad things usually happened; like breaking Donald MacPherson’s arm after he shot Tristan with his arrow, or when he left Davina at Courlochcraig and then had to kill six men to get her out.

There was one bright light in his gloom, though. He was pleased to discover that Davina had indeed taken notice of his balanced temperament when they stopped for the night outside of Dumbarton.

He was sharing a word with Will after they made camp when she came up behind him. “You’ve been very patient with Edward.”

Rob wasn’t entirely happy to hear her bring up the captain—since it was the first time in days her guardian wasn’t stationed at her side—but he refused to behave like a sulking boy. “Why should I no’ be patient with him?”

She shrugged her shoulders and offered her usual smile to Finn when he sat across the fire. She hadn’t smiled at Rob in days. “I just thought that his not including you in our talks might have angered you.”

“Why should it?” Rob asked her, sparing her a brief, uninterested glance before he turned back to Will. He wasn’t completely certain that if he continued looking at her above the firelight he wouldn’t crack and confess to already having thought of a solution to Captain Asher.

“You might,” she said with a marked sting in her voice, “because it can seem a bit rude and you have been snarling about like a bear with a thorn in his paw.”

Rob turned to her, a smile of detached amusement narrowing his eyes. “Ye just told me how patient I’ve been.”

“I was being pleasant”—she smiled back at him to prove it—“with the hopes that it might rub off on you.”

Hell, the last thing he wanted to do was grin at her like some heart-struck lackwit, but he enjoyed her flashes of temper, even at the cost of Will chuckling at him. She had strength in her she wasn’t even aware of, passion he wanted to feed.

“I simply wanted you to know,” she said, trying to look as uninterested as he, “that Edward means no offense. He has been at my side for a long time and it’s difficult for him to just hand over my well-being to you—especially when you hold me as if…”

“As if what?” he prodded when she grew silent.

“As if I belonged to you.” She didn’t look anywhere near as angry as she tried to sound. “I don’t, in case you had forgotten.”

He hadn’t, and that was part of the trouble. He wanted her—God forgive him, and he was growing tired of fighting it.

With an oath on her lips she was sure would cost her a month of confession, Davina returned to the fire and took a seat across from Finn. She tried to keep her eyes on the hare roasting over the spit, but they kept flicking back to Rob. Saints, but the man was as rigid as an arrow. She knew how close Edward had come on several different occasions to getting swiped by the snarling bear. She’d felt the tightness of Rob’s muscles behind her whenever Edward commanded all her attention. Why was he trying to convince her that he was unfazed by it? On the other hand, what if she was wrong? What if he truly didn’t care one whit if Edward tossed her over his arm and kissed her senseless—the way Rob had at Courlochcraig? And, dear God, why couldn’t she get that out of her mind? Every blasted time she looked at his mouth, she wanted him to kiss her again. He didn’t. What if he didn’t like her and was just following some sense of duty? It would explain why he scowled at her whenever she caught his eye. She really shouldn’t have been cheeky with him. Whether he admitted it or not, he didn’t like Edward. If he didn’t like her either, there would be nothing to stop him from leaving both of them where they sat while he returned home. “Please God, don’t let him do it.”

“Don’t let who do what?” Edward appeared over her, holding a handful of red berries and wearing a tender smile that should have been soothing. It wasn’t. How could she tell him how just being near Rob made her feel safe and cared for without wounding Edward to his heart?

Rather than lie to him, she took the berries he offered and patted the ground beside her, inviting him to sit. When he did, she moved a bit closer so that the others could not hear her. “I would like you to try and get along better with Rob. He isn’t trying to take your place.”

Unlike Rob, who was as difficult to read as the Latin scrolls burnt to ashes, along with everything else at St. Christopher’s, Edward’s emotions played openly across his face.

“Can he take my place?”

“Of course he can’t, but he isn’t trying to, Edward.” She took his hand, trying to convince him. “I don’t think he even likes me.” He certainly didn’t look at her the way Edward did, with his whole heart exposed at her feet.

“He has gone out of his way for someone he doesn’t like. Wouldn’t you say?” Edward chuckled mirthlessly.

“Not really,” Davina told him with a soft sigh that she didn’t know she expelled. “He’s a noble man with a deep sense of duty to those around him. That’s all. Will told me that Rob is firstborn and will someday lead his clan. The task of protecting them will fall on his shoulders. He is merely doing what he has been taught to do—the same as I.”

“You sound disappointed that it is not more than that,” Edward said softly, looking away from her gaze.

“Edward, please don’t be a fool.” She hushed her voice when Colin and Finn glanced at her over the sizzling hare. “You know that my life is not my own.”

“Yes, I know it,” Edward whispered and glanced across the flames at Rob. “But does he?”

“He doesn’t know who I am, Edward,” she said following her friend’s gaze. “For whatever reason, I don’t think he cares.” She smiled, dipping her gaze to the flames. “It is odd, but it makes me feel as if I don’t care either.” And oh, how could she ever explain to Edward how wonderful it felt not to care? “I should tell him,” she said, looking up into her dearest friend’s eyes again. “He deserves to be told. I want to tell Finn that he is my cousin.”

“You cannot tell them the truth,” Edward warned her, shifting his gaze to Rob once again when the Highlander began to walk toward them. “Do you think he will still bring you to Skye knowing he might bring the entire realm down on his family’s name once again?”

There it was, her fear spoken aloud. She shook her head.

“He is right. Skye is most likely the only place safe for you, my lady,” Edward said quickly. “Remember who you are.”

Davina stared at him until the sting behind her eyes began to ache. Then she dipped her gaze to her lap. She didn’t want to remember. For once, she just wanted to be Davina, and not James of York’s true firstborn daughter and heir to the throne of the three kingdoms.