Page 100 of Taming the Highland Misfits
Seeing that he was not going to escape, Alex opened the door. “Make it quick,” he ordered.
16
Freya and the Laird arrived back at Kilkenrigg Castle just after noon, and Freya was ravenously hungry, the fresh air having given her quite the appetite. She dismounted from her horse, Lance, kissed her father, and was about to go to the dining room to eat her midday meal when she spotted a familiar horse in the stable.
“Jack!” she cried excitedly, realizing that if Jack was here, then Alex must be too. She walked up to the big horse, who was being brushed by one of the grooms, and rubbed his velvet nose, then stroked his mane. He nodded his head at her in greeting while chewing vigorously at the hay in his manger. Nothing was going to interrupt his lunch!
“Where is Master Alex?” she asked the stable boy.
“He was here a wee bit earlier, Mistress,” the young man answered. “I think he went outside tae practice wi’ the lads.”
“Thank you, John.” Freya smiled at him and walked a few steps towards the main entrance, then she picked up her skirts and ran, too impatient to worry about her dignity. Men and boys were allowed to run–why should she not?
She burst out of the main entrance and ran to the paved area where the guards practiced their martial skills. Boxing, wrestling, sword fighting, even archery was taught and learned there, and Freya often spent hours watching the men in fascination. They punched, kicked, wrestled and knocked each other down with every appearance of enjoying themselves. It was beyond Freya’s comprehension.
She had once asked Mhairi about it when she was only sixteen. “Why do they like hurting each other, Mhairi? They really look as if they get pleasure out of all that punching.”
Mhairi had laughed. “I dinnae know, hen,” she answered. “That is just the way they are made, an’ there is naethin’ we can dae about it. Mind you, if I had tae fight off a wild beast, I would rather have a proper man at my side than a woman! They might be hard tae understand, but can ye imagine a world without them?”
No, Freya thought, she could not, and neither did she want to. She walked around the edge of the field and saw Bearnard, who was standing watching a wrestling match between two heavily muscled men, one of them Alex. She went to stand beside him and they watched the two combatants fighting for dominance.
“Who is going to win?” she asked her brother.
Bearnard gave a short laugh and looked at her as if she were a little mad. “Alex, of course,” he answered, as if there was absolutely no doubt about it. “One of these days I hope to be just as good as he is.”
Freya smiled at her brother fondly. His hero worship for Alex was clear for everyone to see, and always had been. In fact, many of the men felt the same way, but their masculine pride would not allow them to show it. Bearnard was still young and a little näive, but Freya loved his innocence and hoped he would not lose it too soon.
For a moment, it looked as though Alex was going to be beaten, since his opponent had him pinned to the ground. However, Alex raised his knee and managed to push the other man away, then twisted his body to the side and unbalanced him. In a second, their positions were reversed and Alex had straddled his opponent and was pressing him into the ground. The other man’s face was screwed up in agony, but he was simply not strong enough to escape from Alex’s hold, and in another moment it was over.
Alex stood up, then extended a hand to help his opponent up, then they hugged quickly, patting each other’s backs with every appearance of good humour. It was incomprehensible, and she shook her head, laughing in mild astonishment.
She checked to make sure that there was no one in her way before crossing to Alex, who had said goodbye to his erstwhile opponent and was now dusting himself off.
All Alex wanted now was to lie down and rest for a long while. Indeed, he had wanted the same thing ever since he arrived back, but after speaking to Patterson, he felt a little unsettled. When walking past the men who were practicing, he had been challenged by one of them to a wrestling bout and had felt honour-bound to accept. Now he was beyond exhausted, but when he looked up and saw Freya he froze, then turned and strode away to where two other men were wrestling.
She thought that perhaps he had not seen her, but he had looked her straight in the eye before turning away, so it could not have been that which had made him treat her with such discourtesy.
“Alex!” she called, and was just about to take off after him when Bearnard clutched at her arm, stopping her in her tracks.
“I don’t think now is a good time to speak to him, Freya,” he said, frowning. “He will not welcome being interrupted, especially by you. Think of it. Everyone knows you are engaged to be married, but a man does not want to be seen to be at his fiancée’s beck and call. He will see it as demeaning if you drag him away from his men.”
“Damn!” Freya stamped her foot in frustration. She had so many questions for him. Why had he come back so soon? Why would he not even greet her? What had she done? Heedless of Bearnard’s advice, she marched across to where Alex was standing talking to one of his men. In fact, he was not just talking, but almost shouting, and the guard he was talking to, although he was standing his ground and looking him in the eye, looked puzzled and a little scared.
Freya saw red. She grabbed Alex’s arm, but she had forgotten that she was dealing with a man who had been trained since boyhood to defend himself till it was second nature.
As soon as he felt the touch on his arm, Alex whipped around with a growl, and his elbow had almost made contact with Freya’s ribs before he realised who she was. He pulled back abruptly, but his face was thunderous as he glared at her with naked hostility for a moment. However, his expression cleared after a few seconds, although he still did not look glad to see her.
“I’m sorry, Freya,” he said grimly. “You startled me.”
“No matter, I am not hurt,” she said with a smile that quickly turned into a frown. “I heard you were back, but I did not expect you so soon. Is there a problem I need to know about?”
“No, none at all,” he replied shortly. “Now, if you will excuse me, I must go.” He walked away from her, barking orders at some of his men as he went.
He was not his usual self at all, she thought as she watched him brush off some questions the men asked him and walk away as they tried to speak to them. He did not seem to care that they were looking at him in consternation, or that some were even making rude gestures at him behind his back.
All of this hardened Freya’s resolve. Hewouldtalk to her, because she would make it impossible for him not to. She had never been gifted with a surfeit of patience, but she had plenty of stubbornness, so she waited. She waited with her arms crossed, her feet planted wide apart, her eyes fixed on Alex to the exclusion of all else, the picture of determination.
If Alex was aware of her, he gave no sign and merely carried on drilling the men. However, the weather was closing in again, and when the first drops of rain began to fall, Alex declared the training session finished.
