Rage seared through Rob’s blood and was finally unleashed with a groan that nearly brought him to his knees. As if in a dream from which he could not awaken, he watched the king pull Davina toward the door he’d been blocking only a few moments ago. She turned, tugging on the fingers that held her, and looked at him for the last time.

Rob woke, and with a roar that brought a dozen En—glish soldiers and Highlanders alike to the solar, he leaped for the king.

His father tried to stop him and both men nearly careened to the floor. Rob met Colin’s horrified gaze as he bounded back to his feet, then followed it downward to the two gleaming swords pointed at his throat.

“Tell yer men to lower their weapons against my brother,” Colin shouted. “Ye gave me yer word.”

Rob barely heard him and lifted his arm to swipe the swords out of his way. His wife’s cry stopped him.

“Please, please, Rob. You cannot die.”

“I am dead if he takes ye from me,” Rob told her across the length of the blades, desperation hardening his face and softening his voice.

“MacGregor,” the king warned Rob on a low snarl. “I could take your head right now for this.”

“Oh, Father, please, don’t let this happen.” Davina closed her tearstained eyes and prayed from the depths of her soul.

“Daughter,” the king answered, thinking she was speaking to him. “I understand that you feel indebted to this man for—”

“No, no,” she argued through her tears. “It is more than that. Please, do not harm him. I forgave you for leaving me, but I will never forgive you if you kill him.”

Her father’s stern expression collapsed at her vow and he looked, for a moment, like he might be ill. He raised his hand to her cheek and a small, sorrowful sound escaped him when she moved her face away. “Give me a year. One year to know the daughter I’ve not known for over four and twenty. Let me give you all that I have never been able to give you before, and if after that time you are still unhappy, we will discuss a different path for you.”

When she nodded her agreement, Rob moved against the tips of the blades until two trickles of blood broke the surface. “Davina, dinna’ agree to this, ye are my—”

“Rob!” Davina held up her trembling hand to silence him before he sealed both their fates. “I have decided. You will let me go.”

“Nae!” Rob’s eyes darkened on the guards keeping him still. He was going to crack their skulls in half and then step over their dead bodies and kill anyone else who stood in his way. But the instant he moved, Jamie and his brothers threw their bodies into his and held him with the aid of his father.

“I let you live today, Robert MacGregor,” King James said, motioning for his guards to lower their weapons. “My debt to you is paid. If you come after her, I will have no choice but to have you shot.”

“Please, don’t,” Davina mouthed silently to her husband as the king hastened her away.

“Son, she does this fer ye,” Callum hushed, grasping Rob from behind. “She wants ye to live.”

“Rob, fergive me,” Colin implored. “I will make this—” His apology was cut short by Rob flinging them all off him.

They all rushed for the door to stop him from going after her. Angus slammed it shut and whirled on his heel to further block the exit, should Rob try to kick the wooden one down. But Rob did not bother. She left. Nae, she chose to leave, just as he had feared. In an instant he had been changed, defeated, broken in two. He turned his back on the men watching him, went to a chair, and fell into it without another word.

He didn’t hear the door open again. He didn’t care who came in or went out. She was gone. That was all he knew.

It wasn’t until sometime later, when Maggie pushed open the door and told them that Colin had gone after the king, vowing to make things right, that Rob left the solar with his father, and a whole new fear descended on him.

“Ye lied to me.” Colin reined his frothing mount to a halt after stopping the king’s troupe just beyond the braes of Bla Bheinn. It hadn’t taken him long to catch up with them, for the king and his men had not pushed their mounts to their limits over the steep hills and muddy terrain as Colin had. He was angry and he wanted answers. If he had to ride all the way back to England to get them, he would. He was aware of the king’s soldiers moving to surround him, quick to protect their liege lord. Colin gave them only half his attention. If they wanted a fight, he would give them one, but first he would have his say. “Ye gave me yer word.”

James raised his hand, signaling his men to back down. “And I have kept it. Your family remains unharmed.”

“Unharmed?” Colin seethed, glaring at the man he had begun to like, even respect. “Ye might as well have cut oot my brother’s heart!”

A sound, like a soft moan, drew his attention to Davina, saddled on a spotted gelding a few feet away. When he met her bloodshot gaze, he looked away. He should have known she loved Rob. He should have recognized it in the tender way she looked at his brother while they traveled back to Skye. The way she rested against his chest, a trace of pure contentment curling her mouth. Hell, what had he done?

“I have no control over your brother’s heart, Colin.”

“Aye, ye do,” Colin argued. “Ye are the law, are ye no’? Ye didna’ have to take her away. What should it matter if a Royal loves a commoner?”

The king offered him a rueful smile. “You are young, and have much to learn.”

“Aboot love?” Colin asked and then nodded, “Aye. Mayhap, I do. I brought ye here because I was foolish and believed that ye loved yer daughter. But what kind of faither could ignore his bairn’s tears? Can ye no’ see that she loves him? Nae, ye canna’ see it because ye dinna’ know her, and as long as yer laws come before her, ye never will.”

“I’ve given you too much leave to speak to me as you will, Colin MacGregor. I…”

Colin wasn’t listening. Someone moved slowly on his mount to Colin’s right, and when he saw who it was, his eyes blazed like fiery jewels beneath the afternoon sun. “Och, hell, what is he doin’ here?”

“Captain Asher belongs in England with—”

“He belongs on a noose! Ye rip yer daughter from the arms of the man who would have given his life to protect her and coddle the man who told Gilles where to find her at the Abbey?”

“What are you saying?” The king’s face went taut with anger, and he turned toward Asher. “Is this true?”

“Aye, ’tis,” Colin said before the captain could. “He admitted it to her. Everyone in Camlochlin knows it.”

“I’ll have you flayed alive.”

“Father, no!” Davina kicked her horse forward, coming to Asher’s defense.

“Silence!” the king commanded without looking at her, and it seemed even the birds in the air obeyed.

In that moment of startling stillness, another sound could be heard in the distance, and everyone, save for Colin and Davina’s captain, turned to the group of riders approaching from Camlochlin’s deep vale.

Because Colin and Asher were the only two looking at Davina, they alone saw the blinding flash of sunlight coming from beyond a rocky crest to her right. Colin scowled, not knowing right away what had caused his momentary blindness, or why Asher took off like a cannonball headed straight for Rob’s wife.

A shot rang out, echoing through the braes, just as the captain leaped from his saddle and crashed into Davina, knocking them both to the ground.

Everywhere around Colin, men were shouting and taking cover. Davina was screaming, trying to free herself of the dead weight on top of her. They were under attack, and she was the target.

Scraping his sword from its scabbard, Colin moved to go to her but Rob flew past him on his stallion, bounded from his saddle, and hauled Asher’s body off her.

“Get her behind the braes!” Colin heard his brother shout to Will as a small horde of more men appeared from where they had lain in wait for the king’s troupe to pass. Some of them brandished pistols and made a quick end to four of the king’s soldiers before the battle even began.

Colin hated pistols. Even more, he hated men who used them to try to kill bonnie lasses who would likely plead for their souls before God after they slew her.

Thanks to that first flash of light, he knew where the bastard who fired at Davina had been hiding. He’d watched as the coward left his cover to fight alongside his comrades, and with a smile as cold and merciless as a Highland winter night, Colin slipped from his saddle and ran straight for him. He did not stop or slow his pace but twirled his deadly blade in his hand, making it dance at his command. Spotting him, his enemy hurried to empty more powder and another ball into his weapon, but he fumbled, growing more frantic as Colin sprinted closer.

“I feel ’tis only fair to tell ye,” Colin warned, about to fall upon him. “I’m no’ opposed to killin’ unarmed men.”

The man looked up from his impotent pistol and then closed his eyes an instant before Colin separated him from his head.

After that, Colin turned his bloodstained face toward the next shooter and smiled.

*   *   *

Rob watched Will disappear on his horse with Davina beyond the shadow of Bla Bheinn. When he was certain they were safe, he ripped his sword free of its long scabbard and turned to enter the combat coming to life around him. He looked down in time to see Asher’s eyes open. The captain had received a fatal wound and was about to die, but the terror widening his gaze was not for himself.

With shots ringing out around them, Rob dragged the captain over a small incline and hunkered down beside him. Whatever sins Edward Asher had committed in the past, he loved Davina now and had given his life to save her. Rob owed him much. “She’s safe, Captain,” he told him. “Ye saved her life yet again.”

Edward genuinely smiled at him for the first time and a trickle of blood seeped from between his lips. “Gilles,” he rasped.

“Aye, I know,” Rob said, growing serious. “I promise ’twill be my blade that kills him, but ye must describe him to me.”

Drawing his last breath, Edward told him. “Dark hair… cold eyes.”

Rob rose to his feet when there was nothing else he could do for Davina’s friend. He was ready to find Gilles and kill as many of these Dutch bastards as he could on the way.

“Formation!” He heard a man’s frenzied command behind him. “Get the king back to the castle!”

Rob turned to see seven English soldiers surrounding the king, ready to flee. “Nae!” he shouted, his voice overriding the others. “’Tis too open. Ye’ll all be shot doun before ye reach safety.” He moved forward, and though he was on foot and the soldier on horseback, the soldier moved back. “Go there”—his steady gaze met the king’s—“beyond that hill. ’Tis deeper than this one and they canna’ fire aroond it.” The king nodded. “Wait there until we stop their pistols.”

“Then you best hurry,” King James told him, angling his head around Rob’s shoulder. “Your brother is attempting to stop them all without any aid.”

Rob turned, and together with the king, watched his youngest brother hack his way through three more shooters and emerge unscathed. Hell, he was reckless and—Rob noted with pride—terrifying.

“Go!” He wheeled on the king’s men. “Remember to wait.”

From a carefully guarded position behind one of the many rocky hillsides that dotted the open terrain, King James watched Robert MacGregor with something akin to stunned disbelief marking his features. The Highlander had gone from a tactical commander to a savage warrior with the first arc of his blade. He’d gained his horse and rode straight into the fray, slashing torsos and severing limbs with speed, power, and precision, ensuring that one swipe served its purpose—to get him to the next man quicker. James wanted Rob in his army, and his brother with him. But he wanted something else even more, something for her.

He looked toward Bla Bheinn, knowing where his daughter was safely hidden, and knowing whom to thank for it. He knew also that Gilles—may God have no mercy on the blackheart’s soul—was behind this attack. James wanted him alive for the Wheel, but where in blazes was he?

*   *   *

Rob knew the fight had tipped in their favor. Even without the English at their sides, the MacGregors would not lose this day to their enemies. Most of Gilles’s men lay strewn on the ground, a good number of them, by his blade. The only shooting being done was from the English and the king was on his way back to the castle. The battle was almost at an end and Rob still had not found Gilles. None of the men he had killed fit Asher’s description. Their eyes were terror stricken, not cold. Where the hell was the bastard? Could he be dead already? Rob hoped not. He whirled his horse around to find his next opponent and came face to face with one.

“Wait!” the man shouted out as Rob lifted his blade. “There is something I must tell you before you slay me!”

“Ye dinna’ have much time,” Rob promised, circling him, his blade outstretched and ready.

“I am the Admiral’s captain, Maarten Hendrickson. You must go to the castle now. Go to the king and his daughter.”

Rob glanced into the vale leading to Camlochlin and to the king’s small troupe in the distance. He knew Davina wasn’t with them. Will would not have moved her until the battle was over.

“Gilles is among them,” Captain Hendrickson told him, stilling Rob’s heart. “He took a coat from the body of an English and joined the king’s party at the rear when they…”

A shot rang out close to Rob’s ear. So close, in fact, that he went momentarily deaf. A few feet away from him, Gilles’s captain slipped from his horse, blood and smoke issuing from a hole in his chest. Rob turned as the Dutchman fell to the ground, and looked up the hillside at his brother waving a cloud of smoke out of his face. Colin smiled at him through the fog, lifted the smoking barrel of a pistol to his lips, and blew. Rob was gone before his brother shoved his new weapon into his belt.