“Mayhap they ken that, if they push too hard, they will sign their own death warrants.”
“I suspicion that is just what they think.”
“Then I think ye must needs do more than just irritate the mon as ye have been doing.”
“Ye dinnae ken anything about what we have been doing here.”
“Ye ride out to stop the mon from killing someone and to harass him and Agnes with thieving, aye?”
Katerina had the strong urge to hit Lucas with something very heavy. He had just reduced all their efforts to what sounded like a child’s game. She knew they were simply holding steady, simply staying alive and saving a few people here and there, but there was little else they could do until she got proof of Agnes and Ranald’s crimes.
“I need to prove that Agnes and Ranald are guilty of more than simply making life miserable for everyone. I need to prove they have blood on their hands. ’Tis no easy thing to do. At best I may yet catch them at something that will bestir the council to act.”
“Ye need to push harder. Ye strike and run and he chases. Ye need to make the mon bleed.”
Out of the corner of her eye she could see William nodding in agreement. “He could easily make us bleed,” she said. “’Tis something I must consider every step of the way.”
“There is that risk. Howbeit, unless ye push him hard and unrelentingly, he willnae make that mistake ye are waiting for. Ye need to lessen the number of men he has at his command and in a way that makes fewer and fewer men want to stand with him. Ye need to set him and Agnes against each other, e’en if it is only by making her openly question his competency. Ye need to corner the beast. Ye need to push his back hard against a wall and keep a blade at his throat.”
“Until he impales himself on it?”
“Aye.”
“How clever of ye. Weel, while ye make your fine plans, I believe I will make up a list of the supplies we need and go fetch them.”
“From where?”
“Why, straight from the lair of the beast. Where else?”
Lucas heard the word fool as clearly as if Katerina shouted it.
Chapter Four
“I dinnae believe I asked ye to accompany me.”
Lucas lifted his gaze from watching Katerina’s hips sway as she walked and almost smiled. The lad’s clothes she wore could not disguise her almost voluptuous curves. She might be small in stature, almost a foot shorter than his six feet plus, but she was all woman. He had resented the desire he still felt for her at first but no longer. Any man would desire Katerina. It was only a man’s natural inclination he suffered from, he told himself firmly. Perhaps if he ceased accusing her of trying to kill him, they could revisit that passion they had shared for far too brief a time. He would, of course, make sure she was not armed when they indulged themselves.
“Ye cannae go into the lion’s den alone,” he said, “and William has to wait for the others to return.” He thought about how Ranald was searching for the reivers, searching hard enough to keep the rest of Katerina’s men from seeking the shelter of the caves. “Are ye sure this is a good time to go into the keep and steal some food?”
“Ranald would ne’er think to look for us right inside the keep.”
“But if someone sees—” He barely stopped himself from walking into her when she abruptly stopped and whirled around to glare at him.
“Listen, Sir Murray, I and my men have done fine without your aid for a year.” Katerina knew she was spitting her words out from between tightly gritted teeth, but there was no chance that she could conceal her anger from him this time. “We thank ye for deciding to join with us, to contribute your great strength and fighting skills, but I dinnae believe any of us declared ye the leader of us all. So, mayhap ye could keep your opinions to yourself.”
Lucas had the inane thought that Katerina was lovely when she was angry, and then quickly shook it out of his head. “Ye havenae won, have ye?”
“We havenae lost, either.”
“And ye are content to let this battle continue to drag on like this? To continue to nip at Ranald and flee his retribution until ye destroy Dunlochan?”
Katerina desperately wanted to hit him—repeatedly. Instead of her anger causing the man to back down, he pummeled her with hard questions. Worse, his questions revealed that he could clearly see all that was wrong with the fight she was locked into. It was destroying Dunlochan. A quick, decisive win was desperately needed, but she could not see any way to get one, not without causing far more bloodshed than she could stomach. She ruefully admitted to herself that, if Lucas gave her that much-needed decisive victory, a part of her would be eternally grateful. Another part of her, one ruled quite firmly by her pride, would undoubtedly want to inflict some severe, painful injury upon him.
“We are doing our best to stop Ranald from destroying Dunlochan and benefiting from it.” She turned away from him and started on her way again. “When this fight is over he and Agnes will have nothing, mayhap not e’en their lives, but I will hold Dunlochan and my men will still be alive.”
“’Tis admirable that ye dinnae wish the men who fight with ye to suffer or die, but no battle can be completely bloodless. Nay, not if it is to be won.”
That was a hard cold truth she had no wish to study too closely. The men who rode with her were her people, her kinsmen, and her friends. Several times, as she had tended to wounds received during a raid, she had seriously considered giving it all up. The burden of keeping her men alive and trying to rid Dunlochan of men like Ranald often grew so heavy Katerina felt crushed by it. The only thing that kept her struggling onward was the certainty that Agnes and Ranald would never let her rest. They would never trust her to simply accept her meager inheritance, accept all her losses, or accept their attempt to kill her. They would never believe that she would simply live peacefully on the little piece of land and the small cottage her father had left to the loser in the battle for the rule over Dunlochan. They would kill her and anyone foolish enough to stand with her.
And why that thought should suddenly make her so afraid for Lucas, Katerina did not know. The man did not deserve her concern. He was obviously one of those men who believed that, if anything went wrong in his life, it had to be the fault of some woman. She was surprised she had not seen that in him until now, but suspected his fine looks and her desire for him had hidden a lot of his faults from her.
“I fully intend to win this battle, Sir Murray, and without turning the land red with the blood of my kinsmen or friends,” she said, once she was sure he would not hear any of her own lack of confidence in her voice. “Mayhap we have just been testing Ranald’s strengths and the skill of his hirelings ere we make our final strike against him.”
Lucas snorted, his disbelief clear to hear in the rude sound. He could tell by the way Katerina clenched her small hands into tight, white-knuckled fists that she was furious, but when she just continued to walk, he decided it was safe to ignore her anger. It was undoubtedly foolish of him to join Katerina’s small army, but since he was now part of it, he was eager for the battle to be won. Katerina was very skilled at slapping Ranald swiftly and sharply, but she had yet to succeed in knocking the man down. Her men had to be as eager to put an end to the battle as he was, yet Lucas suspected few complained openly, so the plans never changed. It was past time they did so.
What angered him at the moment was what fed his eagerness to get Katerina to heed him and start fighting Ranald, really fighting the man. Lucas’s own deep need to make Ranald pay for beating him and trying to kill him was definitely part of his eagerness, but not all of it. He had to face