Ree grabbed the saber protruding from her victim’s guts and withdrew it as the body collapsed away from her. She wheeled around and faced the last man standing. Now that they confronted each other one on one, the man wasn’t showing as much enthusiasm to engage her. Ree chuckled through her bloody teeth and advanced on him.
At that moment, a shout caught her attention. She looked away for a fraction of a second to see the Gunns charging through the castle door. Ree’s blood ran cold. Now that the enemy was inside the castle, they might get to the upstairs rooms where all the women and children of Clan MacNeill hid.
A ragged voice called across the island, “Ree!”
Ree’s head whipped around just in time to see a large man lunge at her with his weapon raised to strike. She dropped to a knee and crossed her saber and dirk to catch the blow. The man’s great strength buckled her arms in an instant. He bent over her and snarled in her face, crushing her to the ground.
All at once, a disgusting crunch vibrated through his frame. His eyes popped open, and he stared down at Ree in shock. Then his legs gave out, and he slumped over on top of her. He would have pinned her under his weight, but something pushed him aside.
Ree found herself staring up at Ned. He slid his weapon out of the dead man’s back and kicked the body away.
Ned seized Ree’s hand and hauled her to her feet. “Ye all right, lassie?”
Ree laughed, but she didn’t have time to celebrate before another raft of Gunns streamed around the corner to attack the pair. Ned and Ree turned back to back. “Head for the castle!” he called over his shoulder. “Get inside!”
“We can’t,” Ree hollered back. “The castle’s full of them.”
“Get inside!” he bellowed. “It’s our only chance.”
Ree didn’t understand his thinking, but she didn’t have to. She trusted him, so she battled her way through the sea of bodies toward the castle door. Ned’s saber clashed and rang behind her. He never felt so good as when she’d pressed with her back against his in the midst of life-threatening danger. She could always count on him. She would never lose that assurance.
They got halfway to the door when a rush of Gunns came cascading out through the door. They ran for their ship with dozens of MacNeills chasing behind them.
A victorious shout echoed over the island. The MacNeills pursued them to their ship and cut down as many as they could catch. Ned and Ree joined the charge.
The Gunns scrambled on board their ship, some fifty left behind on the island as the vessel hoisted sail and retreated into the channel. She took up her old position in the middle of the channel and the remaining men dove into the ocean and swam for it. Some gained the ship’s sides to be hoisted aboard by their shipmates. Others sank beneath the waves and disappeared.
Hamish MacNeill stood bloodied and panting on the shore surrounded by his men. He watched his enemies withdraw and raised his weapon on high. He roared his victory to the skies, and all his Clansmen joined the cheer. They laughed and jeered and shouted taunts and rude phrases across the water.
Ree’s joy burst her heart wide open. She was one of these victors now. She and Ned had won the battle along with their comrades. No one could ever take that away from her. When she beheld the shining besmirched faces of the Highlanders around her, she knew for the first time since the accident that she was whole.
Her leg hadn’t stopped her from fighting to defend this place. It didn’t slow her down. In fact, it helped her. Ned was right. It was an asset rather than a liability. She wasn’t a disgusting cripple, nor was she destined to live the rest of her life a nun. She was whole and human and strong and resourceful. She would have to be to get Ned Lewis to love her.
She turned to gaze at him, and those words rang through her being. She loved him. She would always love him. She was part of his tribe, and they would solve this mystery of the Cipher’s Kiss together.
Ned met her gaze, threw his arm around her neck, and kissed her. She tasted sweat and blood on his lips, and she saw the same mystical realization in his eyes. He understood. Neither of them had to explain anything to the other ever again.
“Come, lass. Let’s help the others clean up,” Ned said with a faint smile.
Ree wanted to stay longer, gazing into his ice-blue eyes, but there were wounded to attend to as well as the ladies and children to comfort.
Side by side, they entered the fray, helping the MacNeills as they set to work cleaning up the mess. They heaved their enemies’ bodies into the sea. Their own dead they lined up in the castle halls for burial once they could transport them in peace to Barra. The wounded gathered in the dining room. The women came downstairs and nursed them and bandaged their wounds.
When things were calmer, Ree found herself a clean dress. Now that she was a battled warrior, she buckled on her saber with a sense of pride as if she’d earned the right. She’d proven herself worthy in battle and could be relied upon to give her all and fight to the death. The saber felt like the embodiment of her inner warrior.
She looked around for Rosalynn, but she was nowhere to be seen. How the old lady got away in the fight, Ree never found out, and no one spoke of her. Ree missed her, even if she was an infiltrator for the Gunns. Ree liked her in the short time she knew her.
Ree took a seat by the fire while she reflected on the day’s events. Finding the stones, Rosalynn’s betrayal and the subsequent the attack on the castle. Aches and pains began worming through her body as the adrenaline rush subsided. She stared at the dancing flames of the fire, in her mind seeing Ned’s eyes. She thanked her lucky stars nothing happened to him during the battle. It could’ve been so much worse. They had to be careful. Had to be more wary of who to trust, who to confide in.
Toward evening, three women moved through the castle handing out food to everyone. They gave Ree a bowl of soup and a hunk of bread, and she found a quiet corner by the fireplace to eat it.
In the middle of her meal, Ned entered the room. He sat down next to her and sipped his own soup out of his bowl. “I’ve been looking for ye.”
“Here I am,” she replied with a loving smile, so pleased to see him. “Is everything secure?”
“For the moment. Hamish and the others are preparing for another assault.”
“Another assault?” Ree exclaimed. “Didn’t the Gunns get enough the first time?”
“They’re waiting out there in the stream for another shipload of their people to come. When that happens, they’ll attack. We’ve lost a good number of men. The castle cannae stand another assault.”
“What can we do?”
Ned lowered his voice to a confidential whisper. “We can stop the attack before it starts. Ye can stop it, lass.”
“Me!” she whispered back. “What can I do to stop it?”
“They’re here for ye, lass,” he replied. “They’re here to take ye away from me. I dinnae ken where Malcolm is, if he’s on that ship out there, or if he’s on Barra somewhere. It doesnae matter. The Gunns have one purpose in attacking this castle, and that’s to capture ye. Rosalynn proved that.”
Ree stared into the fire. “What do you want me to do?”
“Ye must turn yerself over to them. Ye must throw yerself on Malcolm’s mercy.”
“You can’t be serious!” she cried. “Do you know what he’ll do to me if he catches me? We would never see each other again.”
Ned took her hand. “Me beloved lassie, think for a moment. Ye said yerself ye had to go back to yer own world. Malcolm is the one who’ll send ye back. Ye must tell him what we found out at the stones. Ye must tell him nobody can make the Cipher’s Kiss in this time, and that he’ll have to send ye back to do the job he gave ye to track it down. Ye must convince him one way or the other. He’ll send ye back, and the Gunns will break off this attack. It’s the only way.”
“I don’t want to leave,” she told him. “I want to stay with you.”
“Ye’ll be with me in a few hours, and we’ll be together forever after
that. Ye must trust to that.”
“What if they don’t break off the attack?” she asked. “They know you’re here. They won’t quit until they kill you, even if it means wiping out all the MacNeills in the process.”
“They’ll no’ kill me, lass. I can promise ye that.”
She pressed his hand to her cheek. “Don’t make me go. Don’t make me leave you.”
He shook his head. “Ye’re the one who said ye had to,” he said, his eyes stern. “Now the time has come. Would ye stay and endanger all these lives for no good reason?”
She couldn’t contain all the emotion welling up inside her. How could she leave him? How could she stand the heartbreak of saying good-bye? She might never see him again. If he died, either in this battle or somewhere else in the next three hundred years, she would never meet him. He would be gone out of her life for good.
She fell on her knees in front of him and laid her head in his lap. She never loved him more than right now, now that she was losing him.
He stroked her hair in the warm firelight, but they both knew what they had to do. They made peace with it, for better or for worse.
Chapter 29
Ned waited inside the castle door. He eased the door back an inch to peer out before he closed it again. Voices rose and fell behind his back in the dining room where women tended the wounded. They came from every room where the men of Clan MacNeill organized their strategy for the next wave of assault.
Footsteps tripped down the stairs behind him. He turned around to see Ree descending to meet him. She wore a thick woolen shawl over her dress. He couldn’t see any weapon, but he knew she was armed.
She nodded to him.
Without a word, he pulled the door open and they slipped together into the night. He closed the door behind them, and blackness enveloped them.
Ned groped for Ree’s hand in the dark and guided her down to the shore where a dinghy waited for them. She climbed aboard without a word and took her place while he shoved off. He rowed into the channel. Lights shone from every window in the castle behind them and from every porthole in the ship’s sides in front of them. Lanterns hung from the rigging, and men’s voices rippled across the water to Ned’s ears. The undulating sea slapped against the dinghy’s sides, and his oars dripped every time he lifted them out of the water. The craft glided over the surface and the golden sheen of lantern light cast across the channel.
He stopped halfway across and shipped the oars. He moved over to sit on the thwart next to Ree, and he took her hand. “This is it, lass,” he breathed. “Ye can see the ladder against the side. Do ye think ye can climb it?”
“I’ll manage it,” she whispered back. “You don’t have to worry about me. It’s you I’m worried about.”
“Ye dinnae have to worry about me, either.”
“What if something happens to you?” she asked. “What if you get killed in the assault?”
“I’ll no’ be in the assault, because I’m no going back to the castle. I’ll slip over to Barra after I drop ye off and I’ll make me way up to Lewis. The men will come back there one of these days, and I’ll meet up with the Prometheus.”
She rested her head on his shoulder, and he held her close. He didn’t want to let her go, either, but time was short. He kept glancing over his shoulder, knowing the Gunns might see him at any second.
Their sole salvation rested on Ree getting on board the ship alone and finding her way to Malcolm. Once the fighting men realized who she was, they would take her straight to the head man himself, then all bets were off.
Ned sent up a silent prayer that Malcolm would treat her gently after their confrontation in Aberdeen. If anything happened to her, he would know who to hold responsible.
He took the book out of his sporran and slipped it into her hands. “Ye take this. Ye’ve more use for it where ye’re going than I do here. It might get damaged or destroyed if I kept it. Ye can keep it safe and take it where it’s most needed. Ye can study it and work out the potion.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “I don’t feel right taking it.”
“Ye’re an alchemist, lass. Ye can decipher these pages better than I can. If ye want to return it to me, do it in yer own time.”
She tucked the book inside her bodice, then grabbed hold of his shirtfront and locked eyes with him.
The lantern light glistened on her blue eyes, and her sweet breath caught in her throat. She was all his for the next few moments. He had to appreciate her as never before. He cupped her chin and raised her face to kiss her.
She whispered into his mouth, “I love you, Ned.”
He almost burst into tears when she said it. He gathered her in his arms, sat her on his lap, and smothered those words with his kisses. He could never get enough of her. The dinghy swayed under them, but he didn’t care. He could stay out here with her all night. He didn’t care if the Gunns killed him here and now, so long as he died with her in his arms. He could let go of the Cipher’s Kiss. He could let go of life itself when he held her like this.
She sank back in his embrace. Her lips swam with his, and their tongues danced in a blissful river of warmth.
He couldn’t keep his hands off her. He ran his hand under her shawl and stroked her breasts though her dress. She heaved in his grasp. Her body simmered with buried desire. He only had to release it.
He tossed back her skirts, and his hand touched her bare thigh underneath. She wasn’t wearing any underclothes, and his fingers crept up her delicate inner passage to the moist heaven inside. She spread her legs to welcome him, sighing against his lips.
He wanted to fall into that fragrant garden up to his neck, but he couldn’t exactly do that in an open boat. He swiveled her around to face him and yanked his kilt out of the way. She sat down on him, and he slid into her depths.
“Now, lass,” he whispered, “ye must keep absolutely silent.”
Her gaping hot mouth closed around his ear, and she panted into him. She rocked on his lap, and the steady rhythm rocked the boat in the water. Ned gripped her hips in iron fists and steered her down deep on his pulsating shaft. He sank his teeth into her neck, and she gasped. He hooked one beefy arm around her waist and guided her back and forth to match his strokes. Her breath rasped in his ear, but she made no sound, not even a squeak.
How long could she go on before she broke down screaming? Could she really do this without alerting the whole world to what they were doing? Ned didn’t care. He had her one last time before he gave her up, possibly forever. No one would stop him now.
Her golden nectar flowed around his root as he stirred her honey pot to overflowing. She bit his ear so hard he would have cried out himself, but she slipped her tongue into his mouth to silence him.
He muffled her panting gasps with kisses, sweeping his tongue through her mouth to taste every inch of her. He crushed her breasts in his hands and bit her nipples through her dress. He tormented her in every way possible, but she remained perfectly quiet.
All of a sudden, her head collapsed on his shoulder. Her breath wheezed, and a gush of hot fluid washed around his shaft. Her body convulsed in his hands, and she twitched all over. He knew her well enough to know when she succumbed to her passion, and that release set off a chain reaction in him.
He pounded up into her and brought her down hard on his shaft. He couldn’t hold himself back. He erupted inside her. He had to bury his mouth against her neck to silence the screams threatening to break out of his very soul.
Little by little, their rocking beat slowed. The ocean’s gentle undulations rocked them with no further effort from Ned and Ree. He held her close and caressed his cheek against her neck.
She didn’t resist when he lifted her head to kiss her. She slumped in his hands in utter relaxation. That beautiful blissful contentment permeated her whole being. When would he see her like this again? When would he taste the majestic sweetness of her kiss in the ecstasy of fulfillment?
He would never forget this ni
ght as long as he lived. He would cherish it through the centuries until he held her in his arms again.
When he let her go, she sank back down on his shoulder. She didn’t move, but she didn’t try to stop him when he slipped out from under her and sat her down on the thwart. He arranged her skirts over her knees and rewrapped her shawl around her shoulders. Her hair shadowed her face. He couldn’t leave her like this, bereft and drunk on desire. He couldn’t tear his hands away from her now.
He bent down and lifted her skirts one more time. He kissed her leg, just above the straps holding her false leg in place. Her fingers closed in his hair, and she stroked down to his neck.
He bit an inch higher, and another inch. He nibbled his way up her leg to the foaming cauldron between her legs. She guided him in, and he submerged in that intoxicating morass of delirious delights.
She leaned back to give him room, and her hand on his neck followed his movements. She opened her being to him and moved with him, bucking her delicious fruit against his mouth at every greedy bite.
Her head lolled back, and she breathed deep lungfuls of the sea air. Her hand clenched around his head, and she shoved him in harder. Her mysteries ignited his passion all over again. His manhood swelled until it throbbed again in aching need.
He broke away from her grip and yanked her across the thwart toward him. He seized her legs and pulled her around his hips. He plunged into that molten caldera to his hilt.
Ree bit her lip to stop herself from crying out. She braced her arms behind her. Ned’s steady thumps knocked through the boat. She quivered in his hands, and he felt himself rising to another climax when footsteps banged across the ship’s deck.
Pirates of the Angui (Cipher's Kiss Book 1): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 21