“Alan.”
“Aye, ye wee bitch. They promised ye to me, and I shall have ye.” He slowed his horse and allowed Mairghread’s frightened steed to catch up. He reached out and grabbed her around the waist and yanked her onto his horse. Once she was in his lap, he released her waist and grabbed a handful of her hair. He wrenched it back, and she squealed.
“That is a sound I will get used to as I plow ye morning, noon, and night.” He grunted near her ear. He released her hair, and his hand travelled down to grab one of her firm breasts. She was certain she would be ill. An entirely different sort of fear settled into her stomach as they approached the woods. He squeezed hard over and over, and when his thumb found her nipple underneath the fabric of her gown, he pinched mercilessly. She leaned forward and sank her teeth into his arm. She tasted blood before her head snapped back from him pulling her hair again. “I will kill ye once I am bored of tupping ye. Perhaps I will kill ye while I tup ye. I might just strangle the life out of ye.”
“Ye may well do that, but yer brother will kill ye for even considering touching me let alone what ye might get away with.”
“Ma brother has to find me first.” He laughed into her ear as his hand slid down the front of her gown and grasped her mound. He tried to dig is fingers in, but the many folds of her gown kept him from succeeding. Mairghread was not sure if she wanted to die now or die trying to kill him herself.
Chapter Sixteen
T
ristan roared with rage. He had recognized the three men. He was convinced the one on the brown mare was his stepbrother without seeing his face. The other two were guardsmen he thought were loyal to him. He gave chase as fast as his stallion could carry him. They had only a small head start as he and Mairghread had not gotten that far from the gate when she asked for the guards. How had she kenned? How could she have possibly predicted this unless she kenned it was to come? Has she been playing me for a fool? Nay! Nay! Nay!
Tristan’s mind began to run away from him as his thoughts raced into dangerous ground. He watched as Mairghread struggled against her captor, and he was both shocked and proud when she plunged the knife into the man’s neck. But in the next moment, his heart nearly stopped as he watched the man almost drag her from the saddle as he fell. He spurred his horse just as Alan turned around. Tristan had a clear view of Alan’s face now. He would kill him. His heart almost beat out of his chest as Alan grabbed Mairghread. It was no consolation to know who had her. He did not trust Alan not to abuse her or kill her.
Tristan was only vaguely aware of the men riding alongside him and behind him. Mairghread’s brothers had been in the practice yard when the cry went up. They ran to the stables and grabbed their horses without saddling them. All four rode bareback as though they had been born on a horse. A score of guardsmen were following behind as they had taken the time to saddle their horses. Twenty-five men chased after Alan, Mairghread, and the traitorous guardsman. Once the posse reached the woods, they fanned out as the entered. It was the only way for so many horses to make their way through the densely packed undergrowth and not fall too far behind. After almost an hour of slow progress, Tristan raised his fist, and all the men came to an abrupt stop. He strained to hear any sounds not from nature. He listened for the sound of hooves, the sound of labored breathing, cries, or voices, but there was nothing. Not even the birds chirped, or the squirrels ran. It was deathly silent.
The men looked at each other. Where could two horses go and not make any noise at all? Tristan dismounted and scanned the forest floor. The other men did the same as they looked for any evidence of tracks or disturbance. They inched along as they all tried to determine the best route to follow. It seemed like an eternity to Tristan, but it had to be less than another half an hour before a bird call carried on the wind. It was quiet and muffled. The four brothers moved as one as they left their mounts behind and stalked towards the bird call’s direction. Tristan recognized it, too. Mairghread taught him all the bird calls she and her brothers used when they were children and the men continued to use. The call that they all recognized was a warning of danger.
Alexander gave a responding call, but nothing came back. They continued to move forward and were creeping along when another call came, but it seemed to come from behind them, almost in the direction they came from. Tristan and the Sinclair men looked at each other and shook their heads. They turned back to that direction and looked at the men they had left behind them. Many were looking around just as baffled by the sound. A third call came from the left and then the sound of splashing. Tristan pointed, and all the men surged forward. Some still on horseback and others leading their horses on foot.
~~~
The cold water began to weigh down Mairghread and her skirts. She lifted them to her knees as she tried to make her way through the narrow river. The recent rains had made the river swell, and the current was faster than it appeared. Alan and the remaining man with him separated shortly after entering the woods. The other man took both horses with him as Alan forced Mairghread to proceed on foot. She had managed to make two bird calls before Alan slammed his fist into her eye. She also caught two responding calls but coming from different directions. One sounded like Alexander, but the other was not quite a match. She wondered if it was Alan’s man trying to throw off the search party. She stifled a scream after Alan punched her as she was certain screaming would only incite him to more violence. She would keep making bird calls if she could, but she would not outright defy Alan for fear her life would be forfeit right then and there. Mairghread did not trust him for a second to keep her safe, and she believed that as much as he desired her, he would have no qualms killing her if she became too much of a problem.
Mairghread tried to keep up with Alan’s longer stride, but the weight of her dress was slowing her down, and her legs were not long enough to tread through the fast current. She stumbled over a rock and began to fall forwards. The current caught her and pulled her loose from Alan’s grip. As she fought to roll over onto her back and float, she spotted moss growing on the trunk of a tree on the bank. As she floated past, she got her bearings and whistled again trying to tell the searchers to move east. This time she whistled over and over as she tried to keep her head above water. Her dress was proving to be an even greater threat than Alan. If she did not lose the weight of her gown, she would be unable to prevent herself from drowning. It scared her to stand upright to test the depth for fear the heavy fabric would pull her under. She sensed that while the river was not terribly deep, it was still deeper than her own height. She reached down to the waist of her gown, searching for the dirk she kept hidden in the folds of the gown. Mairghread slid it free and began cutting the laces on the front of her gown. It terrified her that she would inadvertently stab herself, but she had little choice. She focused on placing her knife carefully under the strings and sawed through them. She was so intent on her purpose that she did not see the large tree limb sticking into the water until her feet jammed into it. She howled as the jarring sensation rattled through her bones. She grabbed onto the tree branch and pulled herself into the vee of two branches. She was able to wedge herself in and stay despite the swift current. She continued sawing through the laces of her dress until they gave way. She tried to shrug out of the wet material, but it was attached to her like a second skin. Mairghread whimpered in frustration. She reached down to just above her knees and stabbed her knife into the material. It gave way and the knife almost traveled through the material into her leg. She cut through the fabric as far to one side as she could reach and then cut along the other side. Once she managed this, she tucked the knife back into its sheath and reached for the fabric that was now dangling around her legs. She pulled her legs through the large hole she had made and tried to rip away the cloth to be free of its cumbersome length, but she struggled do it in the water. She whistled again as she looked around. The rushing water around her head kept her from being able to hear anything else. She wondered if anyone had hear
d her whistle.
The answer to her question came in the way of a most unwelcome response.
“Ye hoped ye were free. I see ye have done some altering to yer gown. All the easier for me to get between ye thighs, mo chaileag.”
She was not his sweet anything. She glared at him as he approached the river bank across from her. He began to move down the embankment. When his feet hit the water, he paused.
“Come to me now, and I willna punish ye over much. Make me come for ye, and I will beat ye within an inch of yer life.” He held out his hand to her and wiggled his fingers. She looked at his fingers and then at the flowing river. She took no time at all to consider her options: go to him and the hell he offered, attempt to swim away, or drown trying to escape. The only one she was not willing to consider was the first. She released her hold of the tree and pushed off. She ducked under the branch and began to swim away. A hard tug snagged her dress, and she struggled to break free. She feared he had been quicker than her and gotten a hold of her gown. As she twisted to break free, she realized it was the tree that held onto her gown. In what seemed like a cruel twist of fate, the tree that had allowed her the chance to free herself of her gown was now what held her gown captive. She was becoming fed up of being held against her will. She grabbed onto the farthest part of the submerged tree limb within her reach and pulled herself towards it as she kicked as hard as her legs allowed. Suddenly, she shot through the water and almost hit her head on the tree limb as the fabric gave way. She felt lighter, and her legs were free to kick. She swam with the current as it pushed her further downstream, staying under water for as long as her breath lasted, but her lungs screamed at her to come up for air. She surfaced and gulped as much air as her burning lungs could stand. Mairghread looked around her. There was no one in sight. Not even Alan.
She looked and tried to judge just how far she traveled under water. She recognized nothing on either side of the river. She floated on her back again as she looked in the direction from which she had come, but there was no sign of Alan anywhere. She whistled once again, but she was no longer sure which direction the river flowed. When nothing stirred, she rolled back onto her stomach and swam to the shore. She pulled herself from the river and lay panting on the shore. I shall close ma eyes for just a moment to catch ma breath. The world went black around her.
Chapter Seventeen
“T
hat call means she is to the east.” Callum called out. He switched directions, and the search party followed him. It was leading them to the sounds of a fast-moving river. As they approached the bank, two sets of footprints were visible. One was large and sunken far into the mud, and the other was smaller and sat higher in the mud.
“It is them.” Alexander looked across the river and then plunged in without another word. He made short work of crossing the churning water and climbed onto the far bank. “There is only one set of prints over here.”
Tristan scanned the far bank and the land further past it. There was nothing and no one there. He looked down the river and thought he saw something in the water. It looked to be brown and floating on the surface. His heart lurched as he worried it might be hair.
“There! Down river! There!” He pointed and ran along the river bank towards what was becoming very clearly hair. Short hair. Alexander moved parallel to the group, and they all stopped short when they spotted a man floating face down in the river. Alexander jumped back into the river and waded over to the man. He grabbed the man’s shoulders and turned him over. Alan’s face starred back up at them with open and unseeing eyes. Alexander pulled him to the bank where everyone else waited.
“He couldnae swim even though I tried to teach him several times. Why would he have entered the river in such a deep spot kenning he couldnae swim?” Tristan’s eyes searched the shoreline on both sides for some hint where Mairghread might be. Alan would not have intentionally let her get that far. Perhaps he had entered the water to go after her. Tristan began to fear the current had swept away Mairghread. As he began to turn back towards his men to tell them to fan out along the river, he noticed something stuck on the tree limb further down the river. He moved towards it and recognized the fabric caught on the tree. He waded into the river and pulled the material free.
Tristan waded out of the river and returned to the Sinclair brothers who were staring down at Alan’s dead body with varying degrees of hate and loathing. Tristan examined the material. It had once been the skirt of Mairghread’s kirtle. Something tore part of it cleanly away, but something else made a jagged tear in another part. Tristan knew Mairghread kept more than one knife on her, so the one lodged in the dead guardsman was not her only weapon. She must have cut away her gown, so she could swim free.
He whistled, and Thunder emerged from the forest. His faithful steed had not been easy to train as a colt, but the horse now responded like an extension of himself. He mounted his horse and held out the fabric.
“She’s torn off her skirts to make it possible to swim away. She must be further downstream. Angus and Seamus strap Alan to a horse and ride double. We take him to his mother.” He kicked the sides of his horse and took off as the others mounted up behind him and followed.
On horseback, they made quick progress along the riverbank. Tristan came across a spot where something had disturbed the mud. He dismounted and looked around. Mairghread left her arisaid behind when she fell from her horse outside the gates, and now she had only part of her kirtle left. Tristan began to worry she would become ill with little clothing and being soaking wet. His urgency to find her that boarded on hysteria. He forced himself to slow down and breathe as he looked at the mud. Magnus came alongside him. He furrowed his brow as he looked down and took a tentative step forward. He gazed at the mud and squatted down for a closer examination.
“Notice the pattern in the mud. It shows where someone was lying down, but then someone or something dragged them up the embankment. The imprint of the body is the right size for Mairghread, but who would have dragged her away?”
All the men began to scan the surrounding area. There were small booted footprints at the top of the rise and two other sets, one larger and one the same size as the booted footprints except the second set of smaller ones was not made by boots but bare feet. However, all three sets seemed to just disappear once they were at the top of the riverbank. There were no more to guide the search party.
“Barefoot? No one lives around here that I ken of. Why would anyone be barefoot? We havenae had any reports of any lawless men in these parts. Is it possible that Mairghread lost her boots in the river? I think it is. We are almost on the boundary with MacDonnell lands.”
“MacDonnell? Isnae that where ye sent Alan and Lady Beatris?” Callum asked.
“Aye, Lady Beatris was the auld MacDonnell laird’s wife and distant cousin before marrying ma father. She grew up on those lands and still has kin there.”
“That may explain where Alan was trying to take Mairghread, but that doesnae explain where she is now or who took her.” Magnus commented.
“We ride to the MacDonnell keep. I dinna look forward to telling Beatris that her son is dead, but they may help us search for Mairghread. We keep an eye open for her or anyone who might ken where she was taken.”
Chapter Eighteen
H
er head pounded like the inside of a church bell. Bile rose in the back of her throat, and she began to gag. As her mind cleared, she realized there was a wad of material shoved in her mouth. Mairghread cracked her eyes open, but the sunlight made them sting. She looked out from under her eyelashes to check her surroundings. There was not much to observe, but what she did glimpse disoriented her. She was in a chamber, but not one she recognized. Mairghread stilled and listened to determine if she was alone. She did not hear anyone moving around but sensed she was not alone.
“Ye can cease pretending to be asleep. I ken ye’re awake now.”
Mairghread once again recognized the voice and wanted to scream an
d thrash about. She realized not only was she gagged, but someone had bound her to the bed. They had tied her wrists and ankles to the posts of the bed. With her kirtle torn away, she panicked that she was on display for anyone walking by. She breathed once more when the sheet brushed her legs.
Sorcha looked down at her. The sneer of victory on the scorned woman’s face told Mairghread all she needed to. Alan and Sorcha plotted to have her kidnapped, and even though Alan was nowhere in sight, Sorcha was there to make Mairghread even more miserable.
“Ye thought ye’d gotten away from Alan. Ye thought ye’d gained yer freedom. The eejit may nsr have been able to hold on to ye, but I willna let ye go till I am done with ye.”
Heroes of Honor: Historical Romance Collection Page 87