The Raven's Moon by Susan King Page B

She shifted her infant nephew in her arms, and sat on the bench beside Christie. "I had no weapon. And he had given me his word."
    "Listen close to a Border promise next time." Christie passed a bit of oatcake to the hound resting under the table. "Gone back to Blackdrummond Tower. And now what!"
    "Do not fret at Mairi," Jennet said. "I'm grateful to you both for risking your lives for Iain's sake. So far, Simon has had no word from the council."
    "That we know about," Christie amended, his mouth full. "Is there any roast mutton left?"
    "You ate the last of it," Jennet said. She looked at Mairi. "'Tis an amazement to me that you took down the Black Laird at all, from what is said about that one."
    "He was not so hard to take down," Christie said, licking his fingers.
    "Rowan Scott is bonny, braw man, as I recall," Jennet said.
    "What does bonny matter?" Christie asked. "He's free now, and knows who the Lincraig riders are. He'll take us down. He's laird and March deputy. If he says so we'll be tried and hanged."
    "I hoped he would help us free Iain, since his brother is involved too," Mairi said. "But he said me nay."
    "There's no love lost between Alec and Rowan Scott," Jennet said. "That may be why he refused you."
    "Why so?" Mairi asked. The babe squirmed restlessly in her arms, and she shushed him gently.
    Jennet wiped crumbs from the table. "There was some betrayal between them, and Rowan went to an English prison." She shrugged. "A reiving crime, March treason. There was some word o' murder."
    Mairi rubbed Robin's warm little back while he settled against her shoulder, and she wondered what had happened between the brothers. She knew little of Alec Scott except that he was handsome and a bold reiver, and trouble followed him. But she knew the grandparents at Blackdrummond, too, and they were good and kind.
    This Rowan Scott was a complicated man, like his brother, she thought. She wanted naught to do with him now—but even thinking of him made her cheeks go hot.
    "If Blackdrummond will not help his brother, who would blame him," Christie said, and slipped another bit of oatcake to Bluebell, who looked up at him with pleading eyes. "You great greedy lass."
    "Mairi, did you ask Simon when we can see Iain?" Jennet asked.
    "He said it would be soon," Mairi answered evasively as she handed the sleepy infant back to his mother. She did not want to tell Jennet what Simon had said.
    "I hope so," Jennet said wistfully. "He has not even seen his son yet." She walked over to lay the child in his cradle, then picked up a shawl to drape it over her head and shoulders. "Mairi, will you watch the bairn for me? He'll sleep for a bit. I need to take the sheep to the far hill to graze."
    "I'll come wi' you," Christie said, as he accompanied his sister from the house.
    Mairi went to the open door as they left the yard. Nearby, Rowan Scott's bay horse, tethered, grazed on sweet grass. The sun was warm, and a soft autumn breeze blew gently past.
    Bluebell, padding to the doorway, barked abruptly. Mairi glanced around and caught her breath.
    A horse cantered toward the house. The rider's black hair whipped out in the wind. Mairi knew that raven hair. She had smoothed it with her own hands.
    "Easy, Bluebell," Mairi murmured. "He will not harm us." But suddenly she was not entirely certain of that.
    But her usually keen intuition seemed to have lost its usual clarity. She hoped Scott was only here to fetch his things and his horse. But he could arrest her. Not, she hoped, with the babe asleep here—he could not do that. Or perhaps, she thought suddenly, he had decided to help her after all.
    Inside, Robin awoke, crying out, and Mairi ducked inside to scoop up the child. Returning to the door, she stepped into the sunlight.
    Rowan Scott halted his horse at the edge of the yard. Somehow his eyes were as piercing from there as if he stood a handspan away. She walked toward him.
    * * *
    He could have watched her endlessly. She moved with such