Free Claimed by a Scottish Lord by Melody Thomas

why Hereford never declared his daughter dead. But upon Rose‘s marriage, everything goes to her husband. That man can be you, Ruark.

    ―You‘ve seen Rose. You‘ve met her. She is beautiful and vibrant. She would make a fine wife to any man worthy enough to hold on to her.‖

    Someone pounded on the door. Tucker nearly leapt away.

    Colum called from the other side and Ruark opened the door. ―The girl returned with your stallion a half hour ago,‖ Colum said. ―But no one can find her.‖

    Ruark‘s eyes narrowed on Tucker as he spoke to Colum. ―Is everyone else in the dining hall?‖ Ruark asked.

    ―Except for the boy, Jack.‖

    Ruark looked past Tucker to the window where the friar had been standing. Tucker had not moved, but Ruark recognized the truth on his round face. He had sent the boy to wait for Rose‘s return and warn her. How much time had Ruark given her by remaining here with Tucker?

    Ruark pulled on his gloves. ―If you see Hereford before I do, give him my regards.‖

    ―Sweet Mary, I‘m protecting my own.‖

    ―And I am trying to save mine.‖

    Ruark removed the key from the door as Tucker grasped his forearm. ―If you give her to Hereford, you commit an abomination against that girl. I am sorry I ever knew you.‖

    Tucker was not the first to utter those words. Ruark doubted he would be the last. ―I know.‖

    He stepped into the corridor and turned the key in the lock. The door was English oak. The good friar would not be getting out of this room anytime soon.

    Ruark turned on his heel. ―Unless Lady Roselyn plans to swim across the river, she went into the woods. She is familiar with this area. We are not.‖

    Colum kept pace with him. ―I think I might know someone who is equally familiar and will help.‖

    ―And who might that be?‖

    ―We met up with a rather talkative mountebank takin‘ a piss on the riverbank about fifteen minutes ago. He was drunk and rather affable in his desire to sell us his wares. He asked if we were bounty hunters. Seems Hereford put a rather sizable bounty on your head.‖

    That Hereford would put a bounty on his head was not news to Ruark.

    ―He said if we wanted to know about the goings-on around Castleton, for a coin or two, he could tell us anything.‖ Colum shrugged. ―What is a coin or two for a good cause? So I told him we were indeed bounty hunters and paid him. He said he‘d heard you‘d been to the abbey some weeks ago but not the why of it until he saw a rather fine stallion today, which he himself reported seeing ridden by a flame-haired hoyden he knew to be a thief and a blackmailer. He was quite pleased to offer an extra coin if we might by chance do away with her as well.‖

    ―Why is that do you suppose?‖ Ruark asked with interest as he reached the stairs.

    ―Seems she threatened to cut the bollocks off one of his best customers. Apparently, this hoyden was under the impression the mountebank had stolen a coin from a young boy living at the abbey, and if he did not hand over his profits to her the other man would be flayed. That flame-haired hoyden wouldn‘t by chance be your heiress, would she?‖

    “W ill Lord Roxburghe leave now that he has his horse?‖ Jack‘s question broke the silence.

    Rose leaned with her hand against the thick trunk of a dying oak. Her other hand on Jack‘s shoulder kept the boy from walking into the field. Behind her, a mile of towering conifers stood as barrier between her and the abbey. ―Aye, he will have no reason to stay. He has his horse.‖

    She didn‘t know if the words rang hollow to her ears because of the tension inside her or because they were true. Or for something else entirely.

    The realization that she had run away from the abbey like a long-eared hare and left Friar Tucker to Roxburghe grated on her like a hot rake. When Jack had met her at the stable, he had told her only that Lord Roxburghe was at the abbey for his horse and Friar Tucker had also arrived.