Julie Garwood - [3 Book Box Set]

by Gentle Warrior:Honor's Splendour:Lion's Lady

  Duncan had just mounted his horse. He had thought to please his wife by joining her and carrying her back. He heard the shout, then goaded his horse into a full gallop. His bellow of rage could be heard throughout the fortress. Men ran to their horses to follow their lord.

  Madelyne knew she didn’t have time to run. A half circle of almost twenty men slowly came from their hiding places behind the trees. She knew, too, that the watchman and the archers wouldn’t be able to see them until they reached the crest.

  She wasn’t given any choice. Madelyne reached for one of her arrows, adjusted the indented edge to her bow, and took careful aim.

  She recognized the man closest to her. He was one of the three who had testified to Louddon’s lies. She knew then that Louddon was close by.

  The knowledge made her more furious than frightened. She shot the arrow and was reaching for another before the enemy fell to the ground.

  Duncan didn’t climb the crest. He rode around the base of the hill, motioning for the others to take the opposite side. He thought to cut off the enemy by placing himself between them and his wife.

  Within bare minutes Duncan’s soldiers were engaged in battle with the enemy. Madelyne dropped her bow and turned, thinking to help Anthony. The vassal had rolled halfway down the hill but was standing now and slowly making his way back up to her.

  “Madelyne, get down,” Anthony suddenly shouted.

  She heard his order, started to do as he commanded, when she was grabbed from behind. Madelyne screamed as she turned, and came face-to-face with Louddon.

  He had a crazed look in his eyes. His grip was excruciating. Madelyne stomped her foot down on his, causing him to change balance. Remembering Duncan’s lessons in defense, she slammed her knee into his groin. Louddon went crashing to the ground, pulling Madelyne with him.

  She rolled to her side just as Louddon staggered to his knees. He hit Madelyne with his fist, his aim right below her jaw. The pain proved too intense to endure. Madelyne fainted.

  Louddon jumped to his feet when Madelyne went limp. He looked to the bottom of the hill, saw his men running away. They deserted him, trying to escape Duncan’s wrath.

  Louddon knew then he couldn’t get away from Duncan this time. “You’ll watch me kill her,” he screamed.

  Duncan was on foot now. He started running up the hill. Louddon knew he had only seconds left. He frantically searched the ground for his knife. He would plunge it into Madelyne’s heart before Duncan could stop him.

  Louddon shouted with obscene laughter when he spotted his dagger on top of a pile of garbage. He knelt down and reached for his weapon.

  He made the mistake of touching the food.

  Louddon’s hand rested on the handle of his dagger. He was turning, when a low growl stopped him. The sound intensified until it was earthshaking.

  Duncan also heard the sound. He saw Louddon throw up his hands in front of his face. And then a streak of brown lightning leapt at his throat.

  Louddon fell backward, strangling to death on his own blood.

  Duncan motioned to his men to stand where they were. He kept his gaze on the mighty wolf as he slowly reached for his bow and arrow. The wolf stood over Louddon. The animal’s teeth were bared and a low, threatening growl permeated the stillness.

  Duncan prayed Madelyne wouldn’t wake up. He started forward so he could gain a clear shot at the beast.

  The wolf suddenly moved to stand over Madelyne. Duncan stopped breathing.

  Her scent must have been familiar to the animal, Duncan decided, for the wolf quickly ended his curiosity and went back to the food. Duncan watched the wolf take the bone between his teeth, turn again, and disappear down the other side of the hill.

  Duncan threw down his bow and arrow as he ran to his wife. Madelyne was just waking up when he knelt down beside her. He gently lifted her into his arms.

  She rubbed her jaw, testing her injury. She was able to move it, yet thought it throbbed enough to make her think it should be broken. She realized then that Louddon was there.

  “Are they gone?” she asked Duncan. She was squeezed so tightly against his chest, she could barely whisper her question.

  “Louddon’s dead.”

  Madelyne closed her eyes and said a prayer for his soul. She didn’t think it would do him much good, but she said it all the same.

  “Is Anthony all right? We must see to his injury, Duncan,” Madelyne said, trying to struggle out of her husband’s hold. “He’s wearing an arrow in his shoulder.”

  Duncan stopped shaking. Madelyne was deliberately talking without pause. She knew he needed a few minutes to recover. When he eased up on his hold, Madelyne smiled at him. “Now is it over?” she asked.

  “It is over,” Duncan said. “Your wolf saved your life.”

  “I know you did, love, you will always protect me,” Madelyne answered.

  “Madelyne, you misunderstand,” Duncan said, frowning. “Your wolf killed Louddon.”

  Madelyne shook her head. How like her husband to become fanciful in her moment of fear. She knew he teased her just to lighten her worry.

  “Are you strong enough to stand?” Duncan asked. “Do you feel—”

  “I am fine. We are fine,” she amended. She patted her stomach for emphasis. “I can’t feel her yet, Duncan, but I know she’s safe.”

  When Duncan helped her to her feet, she tried to look at Louddon. Duncan moved in front of her, effectively blocking her view. “You needn’t look at him, Madelyne, it would only distress you,” he told her. Louddon’s throat had been shredded by the wolf’s jaws. It was not a sight Madelyne would soon forget if she saw it, Duncan decided.

  Anthony came to stand with them. He looked more incredulous than pained.

  “Anthony, your shoulder—”

  “’Tis only a flesh wound,” Anthony said. “Baroness, you shot one of them right through his heart,” he stammered.

  Duncan didn’t believe him. “It was her arrow?”

  “It was.”

  Both men turned to stare at Madelyne. They looked quite astonished. Madelyne was a little irritated by their lack of faith in her ability. For a fleeting second she thought she just might keep silent. The truth, however, won out. “I was aiming for his foot.”

  Both Duncan and Anthony thoroughly enjoyed her admission. Duncan lifted Madelyne into his arms and began to walk down the hill.

  “The wolf saved your life,” he told her once again, thinking to explain the full truth.

  “I know, dear.”

  He gave up. He’d have to explain it all to her later, when her mind wasn’t so stubbornly set on believing he was her savior. “You’ll never feed the beast again, Madelyne. I’ll see the duty done. The wolf deserves to live an easy life now. He has earned it.”

  “Will you stop teasing me, Duncan?” Madelyne announced, clearly exasperated. “I’ve been through an ordeal.”

  Duncan smiled. Such a bossy bit of goods she was, and such a delight. He rubbed his chin against the top of her head while he listened to her complain about her new bruise.

  Baron Wexton was eager to get Madelyne home, as eager, he thought, as Odysseus must have been to get home to his wife.

  The future belonged to them. Madelyne liked to call him her wolf, but he was only a man, yet a man more powerful than the magical Odysseus.

  For though Duncan was a mere mortal, flawed as well, he’d accomplished a daring feat. Aye, he’d captured an angel. And she belonged to him.

  POCKET BOOKS

  PROUDLY PRESENTS

  Mercy

  JULIE GARWOOD

  Now available in paperback

  from Pocket Books

  The following is a preview of

  Mercy….

  Theo Buchanan couldn’t seem to shake the virus. He knew he was running a fever because every bone in his body ached and he had chills. He refused to acknowledge that he was ill, though; he was just a little off-kilter, that was all. He could tough it out. Besides, he was
sure he was over the worst of it. The god-awful stitch in his side had subsided into a dull throbbing, and he was positive that it meant he was on the mend. If it was the same bug that had infected most of the staff back in his Boston office, then it was one of those twenty-four-hour things, and he should be feeling as good as new by tomorrow morning. Except, the throbbing in his side had been going on for a couple of days now.

  He decided to blame his brother, Dylan, for that ache. He’d really nailed Theo during a family football game on their parents’ lawn at Nathan’s Bay. Yeah, the pulled muscle was Dylan’s fault, but Theo figured that if he continued to ignore it, the pain would eventually go away.

  Damn, he was feeling like an old man these days, and he wasn’t even thirty-three yet.

  He didn’t think he was contagious, and he had too much to do to go to bed and sweat the fever out of his body. He’d flown from Boston to New Orleans to speak at a law symposium on organized crime and to receive recognition he didn’t believe he deserved for simply doing his job.

  Tonight was the first of three black-tie affairs. He’d promised to attend a fund-raiser, and he couldn’t back out. Dinner was going to be prepared by five of the top chefs in the city, but the gourmet food was going to be wasted on him. The thought of swallowing anything, even water, made his stomach lurch. He hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday afternoon.

  He sure as certain wasn’t up to pointless chitchat tonight. He tucked the room key into his pocket and was reaching for the doorknob, when the phone rang.

  It was his brother Nick calling to check in.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I’m walking out the door,” Theo answered. “Where are you calling from? Boston or Holy Oaks?”

  “Boston,” Nick answered. “I helped Laurant close the lake house and then we drove back home together.”

  “Is she staying with you until the wedding?”

  “Are you kidding? Tommy would send me straight to hell.”

  Theo laughed. “I guess having a priest for a future brother-in-law does put a crimp in your sex life.”

  “Five more weeks and I’m gonna be a married man. Hard to believe, isn’t it?”

  “It’s hard to believe any woman would have you.”

  “Laurant’s nearsighted. I told her I was good-looking and she believed me. She’s staying with Mom and Dad until we all head back to Iowa for the wedding. What are you doing tonight?”

  “I’ve got a fund-raiser I have to go to,” he answered. “So what do you want?”

  “I just thought I’d call and say hello.”

  “No, you didn’t. You want something. What is it? Come on, Nick. I’m gonna be late.”

  “Theo, you’ve got to learn to slow down. You can’t keep running for the rest of your life. I know what you’re doing. You think that if you bury yourself in work, you won’t think about Rebecca. It’s been four years since she died, but you—”

  Theo cut him off. “I like my life, and I’m not in the mood to talk about Rebecca.”

  “You’re a workaholic.”

  “Did you call to lecture me?”

  “No, Laurant’s been bugging me to call you.”

  “Is she there? Let me talk to her,” he said. He sat down on the side of the bed and realized he was feeling better. Nick’s fiancée had that effect on all the Buchanan brothers. She made everyone feel good.

  “She isn’t here. She went out with Jordan, and you know our sister. God only knows what time they’ll get home. Anyway, I promised Laurant that I’d track you down and ask …”

  “What?”

  “She wanted me to ask you but I figure I didn’t need to,” he said. “It’s understood.”

  Theo held his patience. “What’s understood?”

  “You’re gonna be my best man in the wedding.”

  “What about Noah?”

  “He’s in the wedding, of course, but I’m expecting you to be best man. I figured you already knew that, but Laurant thought I should ask you anyway.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, what?”

  Theo smiled. “Yeah, okay.”

  His brother was a man of few words. “Okay, good. Have you given your speech yet?”

  “No, that’s not until tomorrow night.”

  “When do you get your trophy?”

  “It’s a plaque, and I get it right before I give my speech.”

  “So if you blow it and put all those armed officers to sleep, they can’t take the trophy back, can they?”

  “I’m hanging up.”

  “Hey, Theo? For once, stop thinking about work. See the sights. Get laid. You know, have a good time. Hey, I know … why don’t you give Noah a call. He’s in Biloxi for a couple of months for a training conference. He could drive over to New Orleans, and the two of you could have some fun.”

  If anyone knew how to have fun, it was Noah Clayborne. The FBI agent had become a close friend of the family after working on several assignments with Nick and then later assisting Theo with his investigations as a federal attorney for the Justice Department. He was a good man, but he had a wicked sense of fun, and Theo wasn’t sure he could survive a night out with Noah just now.

  “Okay, maybe,” he answered.

  Theo hung up the phone, stood, and quickly doubled over from the pain that radiated through his right side. It had started in his belly, but it had moved down, and, damn, but it stung. The muscle he’d pulled felt like it was on fire.

  A stupid football injury wasn’t going to keep him down. Muttering to himself, he grabbed his cell phone from the charger, put it into his breast pocket with his reading glasses, slipped his gun into his belt holster, and left the room. By the time he reached the lobby, the pain had receded and he was feeling almost human again. That, of course, only reinforced his own personal golden rule. Ignore the pain and it would go away. Besides, a Buchanan could tough anything out.

  It was a night to remember.

  Michelle had never attended such an extravagant affair before, and as she stood on the steps overlooking the hotel ballroom, she felt like Alice about to fall through the looking glass into Wonderland.

  There were flowers everywhere, beautiful spring flowers in sculptured urns on the marble floors and in crystal vases on all the white linen tablecloths. In the very center of the ballroom, beneath a magnificent crystal chandelier, was a cluster of giant hothouse-nurtured magnolia trees in full bloom. Their heavenly fragrance filled the air.

  Waiters moved smoothly through the crowd carrying silver trays with fluted champagne glasses while others rushed from table to table lighting long, white tapered candles.

  Mary Ann Winters, a friend since childhood days, stood by Michelle’s side taking it all in.

  “I’m out of my element here,” Michelle whispered. “I feel like an awkward teenager.”

  “You don’t look like one,” Mary Ann said. “I might as well be invisible. I swear every man is staring at you.”

  “No, they’re staring at my obscenely tight dress. How could anything look so plain and ordinary on a hanger and so—”

  “So devastatingly sexy on you? It clings in all the right places. Face it, you’ve got a killer figure.”

  “I should never have spent so much money on a dress.”

  “For heaven’s sake, Michelle, it’s an Armani … and you got it for a song, I might add.”

  Michelle self-consciously brushed her hand down the side of the soft fabric. She thought about how much she’d paid for the dress and decided she would have to wear it at least twenty times to make it cost-effective. She wondered if other women did that—rationalized a frivolous expense to appease the guilt. There were so many more important things she could have used the money for, and when, in heaven’s name, was she ever going to have another opportunity to wear this beautiful dress again? Not in Bowen, she thought. Not in a million years.

  “What was I thinking? I never should have let you talk me into buying this dress.”

  Mary A
nn impatiently brushed a strand of white blond hair back over her shoulder. “Don’t you dare start in complaining about the cost again. You never spend any money on yourself. I’ll bet it’s the first really gorgeous dress you’ve ever owned, isn’t it? You’re absolutely beautiful tonight. Promise me you’ll stop worrying and enjoy yourself.”

  Michelle nodded. “You’re right. I’ll stop worrying.”

  “Good. Now let’s go mingle. There’s hors d’oeuvres and champagne out in the courtyard, and we’ve got to eat at least a thousand dollars’ worth each. That’s what the tickets cost. I’ll meet you there.”

  Her friend had just gone down the stairs, when Dr. Cooper spotted Michelle and motioned for her to join him. He was the chief of surgery at Brethren Hospital, where she had been moonlighting the past month. Cooper was usually reserved, but the champagne had rid him of his inhibitions, and he was quite affectionate. And effervescent. He kept telling her how happy he was that she was using the tickets he’d given her and how pretty she looked all dressed up. Michelle thought that if Dr. Cooper got any happier, he was going to pass out in the soup.

  A few minutes later, Cooper’s wife joined them with another older couple in tow. Michelle used the opportunity to sneak away. She walked around into the adjacent hallway with the bank of elevators.

  And that’s when she noticed him. He was leaning against a pillar, hunched over, tilted protectively to one side. The man was tall, broad-shouldered, well built, like an athlete, she thought. But there was a sickly gray pallor to his complexion, and as she walked toward him, she saw him grimace and grab his stomach.

  He was definitely in trouble. She touched his arm to get his attention just as the elevator doors opened. He staggered upright and looked down at her. His gray eyes were glazed with pain.

  “Do you need help?”

  He answered her by throwing up all over her.

  She couldn’t get out of the way because he’d grabbed hold of her arm. His knees buckled then and she knew he was going to go down. She wrapped her arms around his waist and tried to ease him to the floor, but he lurched forward at the same time, taking her with him.