by Lauren Smith
Adam settled back in the bed, resting his head upon the pillow as he watched the moonlight sweep over the room before the clouds covered it and drowned them in darkness.
* * *
I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternalspace,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day.
* * *
His heart had been cloaked in a starless sky, but Letty shone through the heavy clouds, burning away at his harsh need for revenge. He could not hold on to his anger and hate, not when this woman held love out to him.
Someday he would face a choice—her or his duty.
By the third day, Letty was thoroughly sick of being in a coach.
“May we stop and stretch our legs soon, Adam? I am going mad being trapped for so long in here.”
Adam nodded. He opened the coach window and told their driver to stop at the next inn which wasn’t far. They were traveling roads that were familiar to him now, and Letty was grateful that he knew what stops they would be coming to soon.
“It won’t be long. We’ll have an early dinner at the Crown and Thistle.”
Letty laid her head back on Adam’s shoulder. She replayed the previous night in her mind, a small, secret smile hovering about her lips. To discover that her husband was a romantic at heart,that poetry moved his soul as it did her own, was a true joy. But it was possible he wasn’t a man who enjoyed reading. Most rakes memorized bits of poetry to impress ladies; perhaps Adam knew only a few artful lines, rather than being a devoted reader.
“Adam, are you a great reader, or a man who prefers only sports and activities out-of-doors?” She considered herself rather balanced, enjoying the physical pleasures of riding, walking, and even fishing, though certainly not the part of baiting hooks. She also enjoyed reading books on a great number of subjects. She was not quite a bluestocking, at least compared to some of her friends.
“I enjoy both,” Adam answered. “You did not have a chance to spend much time in Chilgrave’s library, but when we return, I will show you.”
“I would like that.”
“We will be at Tyburn’s home this night, and he has a decent library as well.”
Letty lost herself in daydreams of the wild Scottish wilderness, of her and Adam riding across the heather-covered hills.
The coach stopped at the Crown and Thistle just after dark.
“Let’s go inside and have a bit to eat.” Adam instructed their driver to rest the horses. “We can stay an hour or so and then continue on our way.”
They entered the small inn and found most of the tables were full of men and women, a few eating and drinking despite the early hour.
“Wait here. Let me see if I can arrange a private dining room for us.” Most coaching inns had several rooms strictly for married couples dining alone, since gentle-born people usually did not sit down to dine amongst the lower classes. Letty honestly did not mind either way, but Adam had strode away so quickly that she could not call him back without drawing attention to herself. She already felt a bit on edge once they’d entered Scotland, knowing that the English were unwelcome, especially this far north. The last thing she wanted to do was draw the focus of a roomful of burly Scots.
Adam leaned against the bar and spoke with the innkeeper while Letty stayed put close to the door. The door opened, and several men came in. Pressed against the wall as she was, the men did not see her. They scanned the large taproom before their focus halted on one person—her husband.
Every muscle tensed as she feared they would turn and see her next. These men were here for her and Adam—they had to be. The group of men, seven in total, began to speak softly with English accents rather than Scottish. They chose one of the few empty tables left in the room. Adam turned and came toward her, surprisingly relaxed. Surely he wouldn’t be that calm if he had seen them.
“This way, my darling. There’s a room at the back for us.” He escorted her past the table of men, with his arm around her shoulders. Letty kept her chin steady, her eyes straight ahead. The second she and Adam were alone, she would tell him what she had seen. They entered a small room with a table and two chairs, which would have been cozy if it weren’t for their current circumstances.
“Adam—” she began.
He held a finger to his lips as he locked the door. “Yes, this will be lovely, a nice quiet dinner,” Adam said as if everything was fine, but he lifted one of the chairs and wedged it back under the latch. “I know you must be tired from all our travels,” Adam continued as he went to the window and eased it open. Then he motioned for her to come over.
“This way,” he whispered urgently, just as someone knocked loudly at the door to their room. “I’ll boost you. Get outside and wait for me.” Adam paused, a sudden fear in his eyes. “If we become separated, steal a horse and ride north on this road. It will take you straight to my uncle’s land.”
“No!” Letty’s eyes burned. She was not going to leave him. The door thudded as something hard collided with it from the other side. Adam braced himself against the chair that held the door shut.
“There’s no time to debate this. Go, now!” Adam hissed.
“I cannot leave you.” Something inside her, something black and full of despair, feared that she might lose him forever.
“I’m not asking. I am ordering. You swore to me in that meadow by Chilgrave that you would do what I said when it matters. This is one of those times. Now go!” He nodded at the window as the door rumbled behind him with another resounding impact.
“And leave you to die? I made a vow too, not to part with you until death.”
“And what if you are carrying a life within you, a life we created? You must put that life above mine. Do you understand?”
Letty’s hands went to her abdomen. She didn’t know if she was pregnant or not, but he was right—if there was even a chance, that life had to come above all else. It was a choice she had never imagined making—Adam or the child she might be carrying.
“Please,” Adam begged as another impact against the door shook him.
She rushed to him, kissing him fast and hard as she whispered, “I love you.” Then she dashed to the window and scrambled through it, dropping to the ground. Almost instantly, hands seized her, one clamping over her mouth.
“Got her!” someone snarled in triumph. Letty screamed against the gloved hand before she was shoved facedown into the earth and the weight of a body crushed her back.
“Bind her hands,” someone snapped.
She felt rope wrap around her wrists, but rather than struggle, Letty stopped fighting and went still. Her sudden lack of movement momentarily confused the men who’d grabbed her.
“You crushed her, you fool. We need information first.”
The weight holding her body down vanished. The sound of men scuffling behind her told her that now was the time to run. She surged to her feet and dashed for the stables a few yards away. The door was open, and she rushed inside.The coach driver was sitting up in a corner, eyes closed as he rested with their horses.
“Mr. Marin?” She seized his shoulder and tried to rouse him, but Mr. Marin’s head fell back, exposing that his throat had been slit from ear to ear. The dark-blue cloth of his coat had hidden the blood that now coated her hand. His body slumped sideways and fell to the ground with a thud. Letty tripped as she backed up a step and fell on her backside. She stared at the lifeless body. An innocent man had died because of her and Adam.
“Check the stables!” a voice growled from nearby.
Letty leapt to her feet and searched for a hiding place. She climbed up the ladder to the loft, even though she was sure they would check there. One of the flat beams stretched across the middle of the barn just above the loft space. She hoisted herself up and scoote
d along the massive beam. She was just small enough that if she tucked her dress and cloak tight about her and pinned her arms on either side, she might go unseen from below. She closed her eyes as sounds warned her that the men were searching for her.
“She has to be here. She has nowhere else to go,” one of the men said.
“She’s not.”
“Check the loft and every stall.”
Horses huffed and shifted in their stalls as the men tore through the stables. The ladder leading up to the loft creaked, and Letty held her breath. Her heart pounded loud enough in her ears that she almost couldn’t hear any other sound beyond it.
Keeping her balance on the beam, she dared not open her eyes, lest they see them glimmering in the dark from below. Hay rustled and boards groaned beneath the weight of a man just a few feet below her. She could smell him, a hint of gunpowder and sweat. Her nose tingled, threatening a sneeze.
“Come on down from there, Jordan. She ain’t there. We’ve got him. He’ll know where she ran off to.”
Relief swamped Letty at these words. Adam was still alive. And as long as he was, she wouldn’t give up. She had to get down and steal a horse to find Uncle Tyburn and his sons.
I will save you, Adam. Hold on.
The two men searched the stables once more before leaving. Letty stayed still, counting until she felt several minutes had passed before she dared to move. It was far more difficult getting down from the beam than it had been getting up, but she managed to land on a pile of hay with only a small thump. She waited again, ears straining for any sounds of men nearby. She searched the shadows but saw only horses poking their heads out of the stalls.
She chose a small horse, one that looked young and fast. She stroked her hand down its nose. It flared its nostrils and eyed her with defiance before tossing its head.
“You won’t let them catch us, will you?” she asked.
The beast, a dark-brown horse with a white stripe down the length of his nose, huffed as though offended by the question. Letty retrieved a bridle from the peg on his stall and fitted it to the horse. Then she slipped inside and saddled him.
She guided the horse out of the stall and mounted him. The stable door was still wide open, and she didn’t want to take a chance of being grabbed if she walked the horse out before getting on its back.
She leaned over the horse’s neck and whispered, “Run, my darling, run!” She kicked his flanks, and the horse shot through the door and barreled into the woods skirting the road.
13
“There she is!”
Letty hissed a curse that would have made Adam blush. She kicked her heels into her horse’s flanks and bent low over the beast. The road was close, and as soon as she reached it, she gave her horse more rein, allowing him to run even faster. The thunder of pursuing hooves behind her was like the rumble of a distant and terrifying storm. If they caught up with her, all would be lost.
Letty studied the road ahead, afraid that her horse would stumble and roll, but she couldn’t slow now, not for anything.
She chanced one look back and saw at least two men on massive horses behind her. Those brutes could keep up with her on an open road, but perhaps not in the woods. It would be a risk to stray from the path on terrain she wasn’t familiar with, but what choice did she have?
“Hyah!” She slapped the loose reins against the horse’s sides as she veered sharply toward the woods on the right of the road.
The dense Scottish forest offered a dark and dangerous path, but Letty and her horse were small and quick. They dodged clumps of thistle bushes and skirted heavy copses of trees. One of the riders got close, his horse heaving alongside hers. Letty’s horse turned and snapped at the bigger horse’s neck, the sound so vicious that it made an audible snap.
“You little—” The man reached for Letty’s arm, but his horse screamed and pulled away.
There was a crack as something struck her arm. Letty flinched but didn’t take her eyes off the wooded trail.
“Don’t slow,” she told the horse, hoping that somehow he could understand her.
The woods swallowed up the man behind her, but she didn’t slow, didn’t stop, didn’t look back. She sent out a prayer to any magic that might still linger in the woods that she needed help.
Show me the way to Tyburn’s land.
Moonlight seemed to illuminate the path ahead, and Letty swore it must be her terror and exhaustion blending into each other because she strangely trusted the light and let her horse follow it.
The woods eventually thinned and soon stopped altogether. Now it was only open land before her. In the distance, the mighty, dark shape of a mountain was black against the moonlit sky.
It’s Ben Nevis.
Between her and the mountain was a dark stone castle. The horse made it halfway down the drive to the castle before he slowed and stopped. His sides heaved, and foam frothed at his mouth as he struggled to catch his breath. Letty slid out of the saddle. Her numb legs threatened to give out beneath her. She leaned against the horse, tears streaming down her face.
“You did it, my darling thing—you did it.” She hugged his neck, soothing the beast until he began to calm.
“I must go on without you.” She kissed the stripe on his nose before she raised her skirts and ran toward the distant castle.
Her lungs burned, and her feet felt like shards of glass had pierced the bottoms of her boots, but she didn’t stop. She ran up the steps of the castle and pounded her fists against the door.
“Help!” she screamed. “I need help! Please!”
The door opened beneath her fists, and she tumbled inside.
“Ach, what the devil?” the man grumbled. “Some mad Sassenach screaming her bloody head off. Ye’ll be raising the dead next.”
Letty struggled to her feet, her eyes adjusting in the dim light.
“Please . . . my husband. Need Tyburn.”
The tall man with reddish-brown hair stared at her.“Ye need Tyburn?”
She nodded. “Adam . . . my husband . . . captured . . .” She was breathing faster now, and her head felt lighter. “Said to . . . find Tyburn . . .”
“Adam Beaumont is yer husband?” the man asked.
“Y—yes.” She wobbled, and the man caught her by the arm to steady her, causing her to screech as pain blossomed in her left arm.
“Christ, lass, ye are bleeding.” The man held up one of his hands. It was soaked in blood.
“Oh . . .” She slumped to the ground and lost consciousness.
Some time later, Letty became aware of voices arguing. She opened her eyes, finding three brooding Scotsmen peering down at her. The face in the middle had hair streaked with silver and more lines around his eyes and mouth.
“Uncle Tyburn?” she asked, her voice cracking.
“Aye, I’m Tyburn. Who are ye, lassie? Angus said ye mentioned my nephew, Adam.”
“He’s my husband.” She tried to sit up on the couch she lay on, and Tyburn pushed her back down.
“Husband?” Tyburn exchanged looks with his two sons. “What happened to ye? Ye are bleeding. Looks like a scratch, thank God.” He nodded at her arm. She glanced down in a daze to see that her gown’s sleeve had been cut off and her upper arm had been lightly bandaged.
“We were coming to you. Adam thought it would be safe, but they found us. Attacked us at the inn . . . Adam told me to escape. Dear God, we don’t have any time. They’ll kill him!”
“Who?” Tyburn demanded, a dark gleam in his silver eyes.
“We haven’t the time. We must go back and rescue him.” She started to rise.
“Ye are no’ going anywhere, lass,” Tyburn said. “Ye lost a bit of blood, and ye canna even stand on your feet.”
Something inside Letty began to burn, an inner fire that was too hot to control. “I’m going back, and you all are coming with me. Now get me my bloody horse!” she shouted.
The three men stared at her for the span of a heartbeat before they leapt i
nto action. The one named Angus rushed from the room, and the other two helped her to her feet.
“Which inn was it, now?” Tyburn asked as they walked toward the entryway.
“The Crown and Thistle. The men who took him were English. There were at least six of them, maybe more.”
The younger man, Baird, grinned. “It’s been a while since I’ve crushed a few Sassenach skulls—no offense intended, milady.” He offered her a charming, bashful smile after his rather bloody statement.
“None taken. That is precisely what I expect you to do.” She winced as they stopped on the stairs. Angus came riding into view with three horses behind him.
“Ye are certain ye can keep up?” Tyburn asked her. “There is no shame in staying here. Ye are injured. That was no mere scratch you took getting here. It looks like ye were shot, but the bullet grazed ye.”
She looked up into the older Scotsman’s face. “Adam sacrificed himself for me. When I left, he was still alive, and I will not leave him. Not after . . .” The most important words she had ever wanted to say turned into a sob, which she choked down. She straightened her shoulders. “We must ride—now.”
“I dinna know who ye are, lass, but I already like ye.” Tyburn gave her uninjured arm a gentle squeeze and helped her mount her horse. He was a large, fierce creature with a dusting of feathered hairs on his hooves.
“Is he fast?” she asked Angus.
“Aye, milady, fast and mean. Ye’ll be safe atop him. He’ll hold up a mite better than the one ye rode in on. That poor beast is resting in the stables.”
She didn’t care about being safe, only that he could rival the wind in speed. Tyburn and his sons leapt into motion, and she followed behind.
Please hold on, Adam. We’re coming.
Adam held the door as long as he could, but the moment Letty vanished over the windowsill, the intruders crashed through the door, busting the latch right off. He leapt for the window, but he was dragged back into the room. He allowed his body to go limp, and the men who held him stumbled with his sudden weight. For a brief second, he was free. He rolled up onto his feet and struck out at the nearest man with a punch that would have felled even the fearsome Lord Lonsdale. Adam spun to deal with the other man in a similar fashion, but he stopped short when he saw the pistol in the man’s hand.