Free Bannockburn Binding (Beloved Bloody Time) by Tracy Cooper-Posey Page B

concerned. So she thrust feelings, images and ideas at Lee and hoped he would be able to sort through them all. But I can reach here, she added, showing Lee an image of the location she had in mind and how to reach it from the marker.
    I’ll be there. Lee’s mental presence withdrew.
    Rob cocked his head. “Your thoughts are elsewhere,” he accused her.
    “Actually they’re…well, can we take a walk, you know…?” She tried to look coy and embarrassed.
    “Ah…” He released her and got to his feet, giving her a glimpse of hard thighs and more that made her heart race. He tugged on the rope between them and helped her up.
    They walked out of the camp, stirring little interest. Robert MacKenzie’s hostage had long since become a fixture. Even having her hobbled to his wrist had faded as a sensation. Their daily strolls into the woods for private functions were just as routine.
    Tally looked for Leuwis as they moved through the camp and saw that he was feeding the horses. Rob had arranged for the man to earn his keep. On the occasions when Tally managed to glimpse him, he seemed well enough for a manservant at the beck and call of some of the toughest soldiers in the world. He was at least surviving and that was all she could arrange for now.
    They moved through the woods to the shallow ravine where Tally could have as much privacy as could be arranged with a man tied to her wrist. Even in this matter Rob remained adamant and the rope stayed in place.
    They were almost at the ravine when Lee stepped around the bole of one of the largest trees, onto the path before them.
    “Natalie,” he said simply. He was wearing the clothing of an upper class English lord.
    It happened too fast for Tally’s human senses to follow. There was a ring of steel, a flash of silvery brightness and a swish of steel passing through air. Lee seemed to sway back, then stepped sideways and threw his arm up.
    Two swords came clashing together right in front of her, locked almost at the hilts.
    “No! Rob, no,” Tally cried, trying to turn to explain, but the rope on her wrist wound around her hips and anchored her. “He is a friend!”
    Lee’s gaze took in the rope. “You said he was civilized, Tally. What civilized man tethers a woman like a goat?”
    She held up her free hand, trying to caution him. “You don’t understand all of it, Lee.”
    Rob pushed up behind her, lifting his sword blade up. “Ye’d be Christian, then?” he said to Lee. His arm settled around Tally’s waist, his hand claiming her hip.
    Lee’s gaze took in Rob’s possessive gesture. He lowered his sword and slid it back into his scabbard. “I would,” he said slowly. “It appears I’ve been the subject of conversation.”
    Tally bit her lip. This wasn’t how she had imagined this going. She hadn’t dreamed that Lee would be the one the Agency would send in the first place. What had Brenden been thinking?
    “Ye have, indeed,” Rob said. Tally heard him push his own sword back home. “I told Tally ye’d be the one to come for her.”
    “Did you?” Lee studied Rob thoughtfully. “Would it offend you if Tally and I spoke our own language for a moment or two? There are words we must use that don’t exist in Scots.”
    “Speak what ye must,” Rob replied. “But I warn ye, I know English well enough to understand what ye say.”
    Lee smiled. “I rather doubt it.” He pointed to the rope on Tally’s wrist. “The rope isn’t necessary any more—not while her manservant is back at the camp. I am here to negotiate her ransom. Would you consider removing it?”
    Tally glanced at Rob over her shoulder. He was frowning, suspicious.
    “Please, Rob,” she whispered. “I will not run away. Not now.”
    He sighed. “If I haven’t earned your trust by now, then I don’t deserve it,” he murmured back. He pulled his dirk from his belt and sliced through the knot. The rope tumbled to the ground and he untied the end around his own wrist and let it