Page 122 of Promised to the Forbidden Laird

The envoy bowed. This time, the gesture held greater care.

When he turned, his gaze passed once more over the joined banners above the high table. Roy understood then that the visit had never been intended to prevent the wedding. It had been intended to test where doubt might still take root.

The doors closed behind the MacAulay party. Voices returned gradually, lower than before. Men gathered in small groups instead of resuming their places, and uncertainty moved among them with the quiet persistence of smoke finding cracks in stone.

Donaldina stood beside Roy, outwardly composed. Only he saw the tension in her hand. He placed his fingers lightly against hers, hidden within the folds of her skirt. She did not turn, but her hand opened beneath his.

Cormac had begun his assault without raising a single blade, and somewhere beyond Dun Ard, he was already counting who had listened.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

The first shared patrol left Dun Ard beneath a sky the color of old iron. MacIver red moved beside MacNicol green along the outer road, the two colors bright against wet stone and winter-bare earth. Donaldina watched the men form ranks in the courtyard while mist drifted through the open gate and settled coldly upon her cheeks.

Only a fortnight before, such an arrangement might have ended in argument before the first order was given. Now MacNicol archers stood beneath a MacIver captain, while two of Roy’s younger warriors waited for instruction from Malcolm near the eastern wall.

There were glances, certainly. Old rivalries did not vanish merely because banners had been hung at equal height. Yet the men checked one another’s weapons, exchanged route markers, and moved into position without open complaint.

Roy stood at the center of it all. He carried no helmet, though his sword remained at his side and a dark cloak hung heavily from his shoulders. A wooden board rested against one forearm, covered with guard rotations and marks Donaldina could not decipher from where she stood.

“MacNicol men ken the cliff paths,” he told the assembled captains. “MacIver men ken the inland approaches. Nae patrol is tae be formed entirely from one clan.”

One of the older warriors frowned. “Ye expect trouble from within the ranks?”

“I expect men tae learn the ground from one another before trouble arrives.”

The warrior considered that, then nodded. Donaldina felt a small stirring of approval. Roy did not command unity by pretending difference no longer existed. He placed those differences side by side and made them useful.

When the patrols began moving, he crossed the courtyard toward her.

“Ye neednae accompany me,” he urged.

Donaldina drew her cloak more closely about herself. “That sounds remarkably like an instruction.”

“It was an observation.”

“Then ye may observe me accompanying ye.”

He almost smiled, then turned toward the gate. “Keep up.”

They walked the perimeter together. The air beyond the walls carried salt from the sea and the damp scent of pine from the northern woodland. Roy stopped often, questioning sentries, testing the distance between posts and altering the timing of rotations where the western wall could not be seen clearly from the gatehouse.

Donaldina followed the movement of men between the towers. The shared command worked more smoothly than she expected. A MacIver captain corrected the spacing of the archers without insulting them. Malcolm shifted two guards toward the lower cliff path after Roy pointed out that a man approaching beneath the rocks might remain hidden until he reached the wall.

No one argued over whose authority mattered more. For the first time, Dun Ard’s defenses did not resemble two forces enduring one another. They resembled one.

Roy paused beside the outer watch platform and looked toward the treeline. The forest stood dark beyond the open ground, its branches moving in restless waves beneath the wind.

“Another pair here after nightfall,” he told the guard. “One facing north. One watching the road.”

Donaldina glanced toward him. “Ye expect an attack before the wedding?”

“I expect Cormac tae enjoy uncertainty.”

Roy made another mark upon the board. The admission should have unsettled her. Instead, his calmness steadied something within her. He did not dismiss the danger, nor did he allow it to grow larger out of fear. He measured it as he measured distance between towers, finding where it might enter and placing men there before it did.

They reached the north wall shortly before midday. Below them, mixed patrols crossed the open ground in pairs. A MacNicol warrior pointed toward a narrow cut between the hills, explaining something to the MacIver beside him. The other man listened rather than pretending knowledge he did not possess.

Donaldina rested one hand upon the cold parapet.