The rain began pelting down. “Damn it,” he swore. She really needed a stable head; she was too emotional now. He had a feeling she always had knee-jerk reactions.
Gavin turned towards her clan’s direction. The rain was unusually cold and coming down hard. He couldn’t see if there were any tracks left behind, and so he made his horse run faster.
“Andie!” he yelled out, his voice deep. He kept going forward.
“Andie!” he yelled again, looking around. His hair was soaked and hanging long.
Why was he looking for her? Why didn’t he just let Bryce do this? He was never one to coddle women when they threw their tantrums.
He saw the horse tied to a trunk. Andie was sitting in front of the loch, still on his land, soaked. Her knees were brought up against her chest and she rested her chin on them. Rain kept its assault on them but she was oblivious to it. She stared at the loch unresponsively- as if it were an ordinary bright sunny day.
He approached her slowly. She was trembling violently again. Her clothes were tightly sticking to her body.
“Andie?” he asked, slowly.
“Leave me,” she whispered.
He sat next to her, undaunted. “Nay, I willna. Ye’ve come to me for help, and ‘tis what I’ll give. Yer father was an ally, and he would have never left any of mine in need.”
“Nay, my father wouldna have,” she said solemnly.
He stared out at the loch, too. The rain slowly simmered into a light drizzle. The fat pelts of droplets were now a fine mist.
“‘Tis too cold here for ye,” he said. Looking sideways at her, he wasn’t sure whether the droplets on her face were because of the rain or her tears.
“I wasna crying.”
He looked at her just like he did when Althor ‘read his mind.’
“Are ye a seer like Althor proclaims to be?” he said in a humorless laugh.
“Nay,” she said simply.
“We should travel back towards my castle now,” he said, and something tugged at him. His instincts prickled him. He immediately got up and swung around, sword unsheathed and in his hand. It was all done in one graceful movement. She inhaled sharply, taken aback at his power and speed.
“What is it?”
He gave her a look that told her to be quiet. His pale eyes were even paler now. She saw the lethal power within their depths. His muscles rippled under his bronzed skin. His stance was solid, legs braced apart. She was certain that his body increased its bulk. His shoulders were wide. His chest was expansive. His face had a murderous calm about it, waiting for the enemy to come to him rather than he go to the enemy. Aye, this was the legendary Dark Wolf.
Andie shuddered. He was a very formidable opponent, one she was glad to call an ally.
Leaves rustled, but the noise came from behind him.
Andie had her sword unsheathed and was approaching him. He tensed, thinking it was a trap.
From her.
His eyes grew doubtful and deadly.
“Maitland, ye really need to learn how to trust more,” she said, exasperated. She walked to his side and waited.
A tall red haired man appeared. Gavin kept his strong stance, while Andie sheathed her sword and walked to the stranger. Gavin grabbed her hand and pulled her back.
“Where are ye going?” he asked, not knowing whether Andie was friend or foe. Was she ensnaring him in a trap?
“This is Charlie, Gavin. Charlie, this is-”
“The Dark Wolf,” Charlie finished, nodding towards Gavin.
“What are ye doing here?” Andie asked, looking at him fretfully. She moved away from Gavin. “I thought ye were going to stay until I gathered more aid from the allies.”
“Our ranks have weakened, Andie,” Charlie said, still eyeing Gavin.
“How many remain,” she asked, anxiously.
“Just who ye see here, Andie,” he said pointing behind him.
It took her no longer than a few seconds to do a quick estimate.
“Fifty men remaining? No, Charlie, that’s impossible! We had over two hundred men! What happened?” Andie said, her voice fraught.
“We’re forty strong, now, Andie,” Charlie corrected.
Gavin still stood with his legs braced apart staring at Charlie, but sheathed his massive sword.
“How many soldiers did Alistair have when he began the rebellion?” Gavin asked.
“About fifty,” Andie said, unconcernedly, staring at Charlie.
Gavin thought about that for a minute. Only fifty men were able to overpower two hundred McBrides?
“Charlie, we’ve lost all those men? What about the women?”
Charlie looked away a second and turned his green eyes back to her.
“Some have been killed, Andie. His men violated some of them, beat others.”
“No! Charlie, no!” she said breathless, her hand covering her mouth. He had killed women! Rape was certain where her cousin was concerned, but murder?
“How did ye know to find her here?” Gavin asked, his eyes studying Charlie.
“I didna. I first thought ye dead,” Charlie said, looking at her, and continued saying, “but then I heard Alistair rambling about ye and knew ye had escaped. I saw Bryce before he left to find ye, and was relieved he was alive. He told me that ye were going to the McKendricks. I went there and the McKendrick told me he hadna seen ye.”
“He didna tell ye about Bryce being there before?” Andie asked.
Charlie shook his head no, his green eyes looking down for a moment, and then he looked back up at Andie. “Nay, he didna. But were I him, I wouldna have either.”
“Why do ye say that?”
“He knew ye were McBride’s daughter. He may have been suspicious having so many ask about ye. He knew Bryce but I’m nay sure we’d ever met. After seeing him, I went back to see how the men fared. I gathered them, and here I am now.”
Andie shivered, still drenched. She was thinking about everything, sadness in her eyes.
“Andie, we need to get back,” Gavin said, moving towards the horses. He untied Andie’s horse and did the same to his warhorse. He mounted his steed in one fluid motion and waited for Andie to do the same. It was a little difficult for her because she was soaked from the rain. Once Andie was mounted on her horse, she looked at Charlie curiously.
“Why did ye nay get horses, Charlie?”
Another in the crowd of men replied. “‘Twas a bloodbath, Andie. We needed to leave there while we still had this many men in our ranks.”
Andie nodded, sadly. “Thank ye, Peter.”
Gavin looked at the man closely, then he looked to all of them, and lastly to Charlie. He would have to make accommodations for them, for the time being.
“Let’s go,” Gavin said, moving ahead and all followed.
As Gavin rode, he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more going on than what was at the surface. Andie would probably criticize him for being untrusting. He had trusted the wrong person before and that mistake had nearly cost him everything- his son.
He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
Excerpt of The Highlander Who Saved Me, Maddie and Connor’s story
Prologue
The Highlands, Scotland, 1280
“Doona do anything rash, Connor,” Lady Miriam said, her hazel eyes shining with pooled tears. She swept back a wisp of gray-dusted, auburn hair. Her hands were ringing themselves dry. The mood in the room was somber and angry. Tension was thick and choking.
“Leave us, Miriam,” Malcolm said to his wife.
She hesitated, and continued to look at them. Malcolm walked over to her and reached his hand out. He touched her cheek, rested his palm against her shoulder, and nodded. She looked into his blue eyes. Her nod was slight when she turned to the door.
Once she was gone, he turned to his sons. Malcolm stared into the similar crystal blue eyes of his blood. Two of Malcolm’s sons looked like him. They were tall, broad shouldered, and blue-eyed. His youngest son
and daughter had hazel eyes like their mother. His sons were hot-tempered, although Connor had a shorter fuse than all of them. His sweet Katie, though, she couldn’t hurt a fly. This is what made the recent events so much bloody worse and unfair.
“Ye must behave rationally,” he directed his comment to his oldest son, Connor, and newly appointed laird after Malcolm stepped aside six months earlier. A tight chest had been the catalyst for his family begging him to slow down.
“Rationally? Not do anything rash? Are ye mad? Katherynne! Are ye forgetting what has been done to her?” Connor’s blue eyes flashed with indignation. His temper was barely concealed underneath a mask of thin control.
“Nay! But we must think this through, Connor. Ye canna barge over to them and kill them.”
“The hell I canna!”
His brothers nodded in the background. Their faces were hard and unyielding.
“Father, what has been done to our Katie is intolerable!” Iain, the second oldest son, said.
“Intolerable? ‘Tis putting it a bit mild, doona ye think, Iain? Our sister was violated. Her innocence was brutally taken! How she still lives is a miracle after the beating she took.” Connor paused, and said through clenched teeth, “They must pay dearly for it.”
“Ye canna go killing innocents, Connor,” Malcolm said.
“I would never kill innocents, nor violate innocents!” Connor responded instantly.
“We must think this through. Think of a plan to proceed,” Kiel said, the youngest son by four years.
“What do we know about them?” Iain asked, taking advantage that Connor was quiet.
Connor now stood with his back to them and arms crossed over his chest, staring into the fireplace. Everyone saw the tension in his stance.
“They live some distance beyond the border, son. Their name is Wynton. The father, William, is earl and he has three sons and a daughter, same as I do. His wife died decades back.”
“How is it that ye know so much, Father?” Kiel asked.
“When I was laird, I had made it a point of knowing my allies’ enemies, and Sir Wynton is a verra loathed enemy of the McLeans on the borders.”
“Why did they do this to Katherynne? What would they have to gain from deflowering a young maid and potentially beginning a feud with a clan?” Kirk asked, who was not only Malcolm’s nephew, but also Connor’s second-in-command.
“It is my mistake, Kirk. I should have never taken her there to visit Cassandra McLean on the border. Katie and Cassie are good friends, near the same age. I should have never…” Malcolm’s words faded.
Connor turned back to them.
“They hate the Scots, ‘tis my guess. A young lass like Katie means nothing to them.” Connor’s own words seemed to enrage him. “They will pay for this. Mark my words. I care not what I have to do or what has to be sacrificed,” Connor said vehemently, his shoulder-length black hair moving as his hand sliced through the air and pounded on the desk.
Everyone stared at him. His brothers, his father, and his men-at-arms silently watched Connor pace.
“We’ll make them hurt like they’ve hurt Katie and damn the consequences! How old is the girl and what is her name?” Connor asked.
“I’m not sure of her name but she’s near the same age as Katie. A year or two older, I’m thinking. Mayhap she’s about twenty-one summers, or so. The McLean kept a spy in the castle,” Malcolm responded, shrugging.
“That age and she has not taken a husband? She must be a fearful looking creature.” Connor remarked.
“I doona know anything else about them,” Malcolm said.
“What are ye thinking?” Kirk asked.
“The girl. That would be their weak point, as Katie is ours.”
“Ye canna be thinking of defiling an innocent, Connor!”
“Nay, Father. I have never taken an unwilling woman to bed. What I have in mind will hurt more. She will come willingly.”
“So what is yer intent, Connor?” Iain asked.
“I will rescue her from Scottish warriors who will be kidnapping her from her home. I will seduce and bed her. It would be a worse insult if she willingly came, rather than being forced. With any luck, she’ll fall in love and make the vengeance sweeter.”
“So we’re clear, the punishment is in bedding the lass? Are ye that horrible in bed?” Kiel asked, laughing along with the men in the room.
Connor’s lips straightened and his nostrils flared.
“Always so surly,” Kiel mumbled under his breath, taunting his oldest brother.
Connor gave him a bland look.
“The vengeance lies in making her fall in love with a Scottish blackguard, who throws her out after he tells her the truth. She’ll be destroyed, as much as our Katie is. The only difference is that I willna force the girl into my bed. Her lust will be her undoing.”
“Ye’ll have to woo her, Connor. That is something ye know nothing about, bachelor brother of mine,” Iain said laughing.
“I didna say I’d marry her.”
“Nay,” Iain said laughing, “so ye’ve said time and time again that ye’ll never marry. How do ye plan on wooing a lass when ye’re always in such a foul and disgruntled mood?”
Connor glared at Iain.
“We can also ransom her, making the plan more sound,” Connor said.
“Aye. Yes. That would be good, too.” An interested light gleamed in Iain’s eyes.
Malcolm shook his head, bringing them all back to the subject.
“What, Father? Ye doona agree?” Iain asked.
He shook his head again.
“Nay, not that. That is a sound plan. It is just, as a father, I know the hurt this would cause another father. I would spare the hurt brought on to the girl and family for the acts of some or one of them, but as the father of an innocent violated lass, I want blood.”
“And ye’ll have it,” Connor said, leveling a look into his father’s eyes.
“Why nay just go and declare war?” Bruce, the third-in-command, asked.
Malcolm shook his head slowly, a sad smile played on his face. He looked at Connor and knew Connor was the only one who understood.
“Because the killing of warriors is not enough. Because the ruin of one’s children is a greater blade to cut with than that of a sword’s,” Malcolm responded, finally allowing his own bloodlust to come forward.
“I’ll gather some trusted men and they’ll take her from Wynton’s castle. At a certain point, I will play her rescuer, her savior. From there, I’ll bring her back here to Keisealle. After the maid’s carnal ruin and shame, I’ll hunt the brother who did this, and kill him.”
“We doona know which brother did it,” Kiel said.
“I’ll hunt until I have him, and if the other brothers die, well ‘tis nay so horrible. The leaves doona fall far from the tree,” Connor responded. “The girl is probably just as awful as the rest of her family.”
“McLean said his soldiers saw a small number of men when they were looking for the girls,” Malcolm said.
“Why werena the guards with them?” Iain boomed loudly.
“They didna let anyone know they were leaving, and slipped passed the guards. They wanted privacy to chat as girls do,” Malcolm responded.
After a moment, Malcolm continued.
“Ye canna tell yer mother. She is heartbroken and impossible to console. She spends day and night with Katie, worried.”
“Nay, Mother willna find out about our plan. Outside of a few other men to take the girl, no one in the clan will know who the Wynton girl is. No one must know who she is. Does Mother know the name of those responsible?”
“No. Neither does Katie. I only know because the McLean told me he saw the eldest son on his land many times taunting the soldiers into a brawl. His men doona know either, but McLean is certain it was a Wynton. Cassie said she was being held back and would have been violated next, if it hadna been for the McLean warriors they heard nearing. They carried Katie to McLean’s castle,
and that was when McLean and I were first alerted. McLean was assembling men to begin the battle but I wanted to come here first,” Malcolm answered.
Connor shook his head.
“No battle. Yet. A day has passed and still, that is a day too long. Our plan would be more difficult to execute if anyone knew it was a Wynton who violated Katie, or if anyone recognizes this Wynton girl,” Connor said. “We doona want any meddlers.”
“Aye, agreed,” Kirk said.
Connor looked at all the men in the eyes before speaking.
“Let us detail the plan, and soon, the Wynton girl will be taken.”
An eye for an eye.
It wasn’t always a Highlander’s code, but it was Connor’s.
Chapter One
Skorthyne Castle, The Borders, England
One month later
“Come here…come here…we must be getting back!” Madeleine yelled, trying to get the hound back to the castle. The hound barked back a denial.
It was a frigid day. She had a gray woolen wrap covering her shoulders and head. Her gray woolen dress was smudged with dirt and was wet after the couple of attempts she made wrestling the beast. Her temper, she reminded herself, must be controlled. He was just a hound after all, and she, in a couple of years, would go to the abbey to serve her Lord.
It was a sin to let tempers flare.
“Ramsay, where are you?” She cupped her hands over her eyes. “There you are! Come here,” she ran after him and dove.
“Gotcha! Let’s go!”
The hound escaped her grasp again. She ran to him, lunged, and caught him.
“Honestly, you try even my patience, Ramsay!”
She swatted the hair that covered her eyes and turned around. Her breath faltered. There were five men standing there watching her. They were tall and wearing greenish-brown plaid. They melted into the scenery, which explained why she hadn’t seen them before now. Madeleine couldn’t discern any facial features in that one scant instant because mud was caked on their faces. It looked layers thick.
Forget Me Not, My Scottish Love (Heart of a Highlander Collection Book 3) Page 34