Reckoning (Book 4 of Lost Highlander series) by Cassidy Cayman Page A

dismounted and let his horse graze on whatever it could find.
    He watched them cavorting in the clearing, filling a basket with wild roses, never going more than a few seconds without touching each other’s hand or grabbing a quick kiss. As much as he wanted to wallow and hold onto his bitterness, their stolen happiness was infectious and he found himself relaxing in the last rays of the late afternoon sun.
    When they started getting a little too frisky, he turned away, wondering if he should put a stop to it, but sick and tired of being the villain. Someone should be allowed a little happiness. He took a piece of bread he’d pilfered from the table when Bella wasn’t looking and walked further into the woods, thinking he’d rest against a tree for a while and enjoy his hopefully poison-free bread.
    It was a cool evening, but not yet bitter cold like he knew it could be. Even more so in the far north at his own land. It had been a long while since he’d seen the place, or his aunt’s farm, and he started to fall back into his dour mood.
    He heard a rustling off to his left and ignored it. The Glens sent hunters nearly every day and they didn’t want for fresh game, or any kind of food for that matter. If he were home, he might have investigated, glad to have a rabbit or pheasant, but his heart wasn’t in for a chase at the moment.
    When the man slipped up behind him and held a knife at his throat, he felt foolish for not considering the noise might be something other than a wild beastie.
    “Ye heathen scum, Ferguson,” the man hissed. “How are ye so debauched that ye would share your wife with another?”
    Bugger it, the man must have seen Bella and Pietro together, and today was likely not the first time. This man probably saw something on one of Bella’s daily rides and had been following them, looking for a reason to strike.
     His embarrassment at having been caught unawares fed the fire of the suppressed rage he’d felt the last few days. Living at the castle was like living in a huge, opulent cage, every eye on him, most of them wishing him harm. He couldn’t eat what he wanted, he had to sleep on the floor, his men were in constant danger, and he missed Piper.
    He wanted to kick himself for suggesting this imbecilic outing so they could have their liaison, all so he might not have to listen to Bella cry herself to sleep one more night. He was sick and bloody tired and just wanted a good night’s rest.
    So when the armed simpleton pressed his blade against Lachlan’s throat, he didn’t even think about dying. He merely wrenched the man’s arm down and heaved his elbow hard into his side. Twisting his arm around behind his back, he shoved him face first into the hard packed ground. He placed a boot on the man’s back and looked in all directions for anyone else.
    “Are ye alone?” he asked, leaning his weight onto him.
    “Yes,” he choked out. “But my brother knows where I’ve gone. He knows what I suspected. Everyone will know what ye’ve made our lady Bella into.”
    Lachlan reached down and pulled him up by his shirt, ramming him into the trunk of a tree and looking into his eyes. “And what is that?” he asked in a conversational tone, knowing this would scare the wee snake more than yelling at him would.
    “A-a whore,” he said, with much less confidence. “A- a Ferguson.”
    Lachlan’s eye twitched to hear his name spewed with much more venom than the rude thing he’d called Bella. This man had meant to cut his throat, and would have succeeded had he been stronger. Lachlan decided Piper would forgive him, hauled back his fist and slammed it into the man’s face.
    The cause of the commotion showed themselves, rustling through the brush and laughing as if they hadn’t a care in the world. Keeping his hand firmly on the now freely bleeding man, he turned and scowled at them as they came into the clearing.
    Bella gasped and dropped Pietro’s hand. “What’s happened?” she