Forbidden Highlander (Highlander Trilogy 2)

Lucerne gasped and paled, Cree’s warning made all the more potent by his murderous scowl.

Dawn stepped around Cree so that both he and Lucerne was forced to look at her. She pointed to her lips and to his over and over, informing them that they most talk now.

Cree nodded, cast a hard glare on Lucerne, and shoved her away from him. “If you cannot be civil then take yourself to your quarters and remain there until you can,”

Lucerne tossed her chin up. “Me be civil? You are a barbarian who does not know the first thing about civility.”

“And you would do well to remember that.”

Lucerne flushed with anger, her skin blotching red. “I would give anything to prevent this marriage.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Cree said.

“Then you’ll be free to rut endlessly with your—”

“Demean Dawn again and I will see you put in the stocks. It will make a welcoming site for your parents’ arrival.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Do you wish to find out?”

Lucerne clamped her mouth shut and ran from the room.

Cree turned to Dawn. “What are you doing here and why aren’t you wearing a cloak?”

Dawn waved her hand as if dismissing his questions, then grabbed his hand, and dragged him toward his solar.

As they passed Sloan he said, “This looks interesting may I come along?”

If looks could harm, Sloan would be dead from the lethal glance Cree shot him.

“I will wait right here,” Sloan said backing away.

Once they stepped in the solar, Dawn’s hands started flying and Cree knew that he would never understand her. She was much too agitated and he grew worried.

“Wait,” he ordered and opened the door to yell, “Sloan.”

Sloan appeared in an instant.

“Go get Lila.”

Dawn shook her head and stormed past the two men. Her actions caught Cree by surprise and it took a moment for him and Sloan to catch up with her. By now Torr and Kirk had entered the Great Hall and seeing Dawn marching across the wide plank floor in determined strides had their eyes popping wide.

Torr stepped forward ready to protect Dawn but she brushed him away with a wave of her hand.

“What’s wrong?” Torr demanded as Cree nearly caught up with her.

“Nothing that concerns you,” Cree said and kept walking.

Kirk came up alongside him. “I disagree. Anything that has to do with Dawn concerns us.”

Cree ignored the man and his son and grabbed his cloak from the peg as he hurried out the wide wooden door. He caught Dawn as she reached the last step and draped his cloak over her shoulders, then took hold of her hand to walk alongside her.

“This must be important,” he said.

She nodded vigorously.

Villagers hurried out of their way while some stopped to whisper, but Dawn ignored them all and kept a quick pace. When they reached the cottage where Lila worked on the wool with the other women, Cree was quick to order the other women outside. They rushed into their cloaks and huddled a bit of a distance from the cottage to wait. He ordered Sloan to stand guard in front of the door and barred Torr and Kirk from joining them.

The two men could do little but protest, which Cree ignored.

When Cree closed the door, Dawn’s hands started flying. Lila talked as Dawn gestured. “She heard voices outside the boarded window and climbed on the bed to listen.” Lila was speechless for a moment as Dawn related the conversation she had heard.

“Tell me,” Cree ordered none too gently.

Lila told him about the exchange between the man and woman outside the window and Cree grew angrier with every word he heard.

Dawn stopped abruptly and shook her head, her hand going to her chest.

Cree was at her side immediately. “Are you all right?”

She shook her head.

“I’ll get Elsa,” he said with worry.

Dawn shook her head again and placed her hand to his chest, and then she gestured slowly. She explained to him that the man and woman intended to see him dead as well and she told him that she did not want to think of life without him.

Her slow gestures and her expression allowed him to easily understand her. He rested his brow to hers. “That is not going to happen. I will always be in your life. We are one you and I and nothing can tear us apart.”

His loving words sent a joyful tingle through her and she smiled.

He kissed her, a light teasing kiss and whispered, “I want you.”

It wasn’t a joyful shiver that ran through her this time; it was a shot of full blown passion and she shuddered from the strength of it.

Baby Thomas started crying then and they both turned to see a red-faced Lila scooping him up.

“You will say nothing of what was discussed here or what you saw,” Cree ordered.

Dawn responded before Lila could, her gestures slow enough for Cree to understand.