by Leigh, Lori
Men slept on the hillside, covered in their tartans. William signaled his men, and they advanced over the ridge. Twenty warriors made their way up to him. They heard the signal from their men informing them Daniel and Evan were in position. Bloodthirsty anticipation drove them on to victory. This battle would decide the winner in the game. Adrenaline flowed in their veins as they moved as a shadow of ancient warriors.
It was at this moment that William felt the thrill of adventure. Time stood still, and he was certain the ghosts of his ancestors stood beside him. The hair on his arms stood up, and his breath frosted in billowed clouds. He finally understood what his brothers felt when they went into battle. It was a challenge, yet something much stronger—something he struggled to identify.
And then he knew. It was his destiny.
William signaled the warriors to stop, and they looked at him with confusion on their faces. He looked around him, sensing something was missing. In an instant, he knew—they were walking into a trap. The men who were sleeping on the ground didn’t make any noise. All was too quiet.
William signaled for them to retreat and regroup.
“It’s a trap,” Evan said quietly to Daniel who also noticed William making a hasty retreat.
William ran back to his horse and rode swiftly back to Daniel and Evan. His warriors followed.
“Alex!” William shouted as he rode past at a gallop, Daniel and Evan understood and mustered their warriors to follow. William signaled to break into three sections with Daniel and Evan leading the other two forces. They had left Alex undefended, and he would be vulnerable with only twenty warriors with him.
So this was the Prince’s plan, William thought. The man was being even more clever than usual. They had underestimated him.
The warriors galloped back toward the Laird’s cottage. Gideon’s men stayed the advance of the Prince’s men who had been left at their camp and then rode hard and fast to catch up to the warriors that protected their Laird, and ultimately, Melissa.
***
Robert and Iain returned just before the first light of dawn. The horses were stabled near their launch pad. The two of them had partied through the night in London and were ready for a little rest. They rode quietly in the predawn hour.
The guards at the gate to the camp were missing. Something was wrong. Robert reached over and grabbed hold of Iain to get his attention and then signaled for him to ride up to the cottage to see if Alex and Melissa were still there.
They could make out a band of warriors coming over the ridge toward them and had already guessed their army was out in the hills. The camp was almost completely deserted, except for a few men in the hospital tent that roused quickly and informed Robert of the battle plans for the day. Robert and Iain silently rode up to the cottage.
Chapter Nineteen
Melissa was sound asleep when a hand covered her mouth, and she wildly struggled in the dark. It took a few moments for her to understand it was Iain who had a hand over her mouth, and he was whispering for her to be quiet. They were under attack and had only a few moments to get her to safety before the Prince’s men would descend on the camp and take her hostage. Iain put a finger to his lips to quiet her and handed her a wrapper to cover her naked body.
Melissa was terrified. Iain turned around to look out the window while she put the wrapper on. “Where are you taking me?”
“To safety,” Iain whispered, pulling her into the water closet where he opened the window, lifted her into his arms, and out to Robert who waited with their horses. Iain had just eased through the window to join them when they heard the first sounds of warriors in the camp. Robert tossed Melissa onto a horse and instructed Iain to take her to the other cottage by the glen.
Iain reached around her to take the reins. Robert remained at the camp to direct a defense. He was hung-over and in a dark mood when the Prince’s men advanced into the camp.
Iain and Melissa rode through the woods. They moved slowly, uncertain if they would find any more of the Prince’s men and stayed in the shadows as much as possible. The cottage was being watched with a scout on the ridge, Iain pointed out for Melissa, and they moved silently along the edge of the woods.
The trees were thick and brush hid them from view, but from out of the darkness, the hilt of a sword crashed against Iain’s temple. He didn’t see it coming and crumbled unconscious against Melissa.
Melissa felt him sag against her back and then noticed there were two men in the woods who tried to reach out and grab the reins of the horse. She screamed and kicked the horse into moving away from the men, while she held onto Iain.
He was dead weight against her back, and she nearly lost him when the horse bolted into a run. The dawn finally glowed pink on the horizon, and she could see where they were going—just as she could see the pursuit of the two men who had knocked Iain out.
Melissa kicked the horse harder, and let it run while she held on to Iain. The robe fell off one shoulder. She heard Iain groan and yelled at him to hold on to her. His arms circled her waist and held on while she directed the horse.
Iain was dazed and couldn’t get his eyes to focus. He held onto Melissa and then noticed they were being chased. “I canna tell if there are two men or four riding after us. I’m seeing double of everything, and I’m going tae puke!”
His hand was wrapped around the hilt of his sword, and she pried it away, holding onto it one hand and the reins with the other.
The warriors galloped alongside them, and Melissa brought the sword down against the warrior’s blade. It was just enough of a shock to him that he dropped back.
“Hold on,” Melissa called out and kicked the horse harder. They gained some distance from the warriors, but it wouldn’t take them long to catch up. She struggled to direct the horse that rapidly tired with both their weight.
They reached the edge of a ridge, and Iain began to slide over the side of the horse. Melissa didn’t have the strength to hold on for him, and he wasn’t letting go of her. She dropped the sword as they fell to the ground and rolled over the edge of the cliff.
His dead weight pulled them down, and they slid ten feet to a rocky ledge before they finally came to a stop. Melissa landed on top of Iain who had been knocked out cold when they fell. He took the brunt of the fall against his shoulder.
Their horse had continued on, and Melissa hoped the Prince’s men wouldn’t come looking for them. She tugged Iain back against the overhang so they couldn’t be spotted from the ridge and covered him with her body. The gray wool wrapper she wore made them appear like a shadow.
She heard the men ride past them and breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t long before the sound of their return was muted by the thunder of an army moving past on the ridge. Melissa didn’t know if it was Alex’s warriors or the Prince’s, so she decided to play it safe and wait until she could get Iain awake before trying to climb up the cliff.
She worried about the cut on his forehead and couldn’t seem to wake him, no matter how hard she slapped his face. She could tell he had been out drinking for the aroma of beer clung to his shirt. She didn’t know if he had passed out from the beer or from the injury to his head.
Melissa moved away from Iain and sat up on the ledge to get her bearings and then wished she hadn’t. How they had managed to find the only ledge within twenty feet in both directions was beyond her comprehension. It was a miracle they hadn’t fallen down into the valley below. Her fear of heights overwhelmed her, and her head spun when she looked down. It was a long drop to the rocky bottom of the cliff.
Iain groaned, and blood oozed out of the side of his mouth. He was seriously injured and needed immediate medical attention. She tried again to wake him, knowing she would need his help to get them off the cliff, but he didn’t respond to her touch.
She wished she had any means of communication with Alex or any one of his warriors. She scanned the side of the cliff, seeing there wasn’t any way that she could climb up and over the ledge. They we
re stuck until someone came along who could pull them out.
Every moment she waited for the sound of passing horses became an eternity. Melissa worried about Iain, who didn’t move and what would happen if the Prince’s men caught her with nothing on but a wrapper? She was terrified and angry. There was no way she could help either one of them.
***
William, Daniel, Evan, and two hundred warriors descended on the Valley of Tears. They had named that valley as such when their father had a lethal heart attack there eighteen years ago. It was a suitable setting to meet the Prince’s warriors. They weren’t expecting to find the entire Laird’s camp coming over the ridge to meet them with the Prince’s men scattered out of formation.
William directed Daniel to take the right flank and Evan to take the left. The two groups split off and met the Prince’s warriors in the middle of the valley. The Prince’s men had Alex and his small band of twenty warriors surrounded. At the heart of it stood Alex and Prince George locked in furious sword slinging, arm crunching, steel clanging battle. Neither one of them would back down. Alex was relieved to see William. The troops quickly had the battle under control.
Prince George stepped back to catch his breath. “How about we agree to a secondary challenge? If we can catch the Laird—the game is finally won?” He ran his hand over his brow and waited for the answer to his challenge.
Alex gave him a moment to recover and considered the challenge. It would certainly put an end to the game that year if they could catch the Laird. The thought rolled around in his head and then Daniel’s many lectures came to mind.
“Your challenge,” Alex restated for him. “Is, if ye can catch the Laird, ye win the game?” He was a stickler for details.
The Prince nodded, still gasping for breath. “What’s the timeline?”
“Ye must catch the Laird before the final battle.”
The Prince agreed and conceded the battle.
They were completely surrounded by the Laird’s forces. The Prince’s warriors were already calling surrender and moved back to the ridge. Prince George mounted his horse.
“I agree tae the challenge,” Laird Alex G. MacKenna, proclaimed and then grinned. “Ye won’t catch the Laird, George.”
Prince George smiled in return. “We’ll see.” He rode back to the ridge with his men and then disappeared down into the valley below.
Gideon and his band of twenty warriors had raided the Prince’s camp before departing. They engaged the Prince’s retreating men on their way to the Valley of Tears and won fifty points. Their mild mannered doctor had just kicked a warrior down when they noticed Robert riding up at a furious pace.
Robert stopped beside Alex and quickly explained the raid from the Prince’s men.
“I secured the camp. Iain escaped with Melissa. The horse they were riding returned, and I tracked them to the ridge,” Robert said in a worried voice. “The Prince’s men who attacked them said they knocked Iain out, and the horse took off at a run. They couldn’t catch up to Iain and Melissa so didn’t know they had been lost.”
Alex ran to his horse with the warriors following. It was short ride to the ridge but every moment seemed like an eternity for Alex. “Spread out,” he yelled.
A little way down from where Alex was standing someone yelled they found fresh blood and a sword on the rocks.
Melissa had heard the horses and decided to yell, even if it was the Prince’s men. They needed help for Iain right away. She screamed as loudly as she could, “help!”
“Melissa,” Alex yelled back, standing at the edge where they had gone over. He could see her on the ledge.
Daniel and Evan brought ropes and tied one end to a tree to rappel down the side of the cliff.
“Alex! Iain got hurt. We need Gideon right away.”
“He’s here,” Alex called.
Alex and Gideon went over the side of the cliff and moments later were standing on the ledge with Melissa. She quickly hugged Alex but then rushed to tell them Iain was injured and had blood coming out of his mouth.
“Has he been able to speak at all?” Gideon asked and checked Iain’s head.
“He moaned several times but hasn’t said anything. He took the brunt of the fall against his shoulder, and I fell on top of him.”
Alex looked over the side of the cliff and was relieved they had managed to stop on the ledge. The fall to the bottom of the cliff would have been perhaps mortal injury to either one of them. Melissa appeared shaken but unharmed—unlike his brother.
Alex made up his mind that he wouldn’t put her through another night like this one. She had been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night, tossed on a horse to escape capture, and then fell over a cliff.
He held her close when the warriors pulled them up. She had refused to leave Iain, but Gideon convinced her they needed the space to get Iain off the ledge.
“He’s got a broken rib.” Gideon tried not to upset her further. It had been a trying night for her, too. He listened to Iain’s breathing to find out if the rib had punctured his lung. Gideon and Daniel brought him up carefully. Robert had ridden on to prepare the helicopter for launch, and Iain would be checked out at hospital.
Melissa stood next to Alex and watched them haul Iain up the cliff. She ran over to him, and he looked up at her and managed a weak smile. “You’re going to be all right, Iain,” she said and kissed his cheek. “Gideon will take care of you now.”
Iain groaned, still seeing double. “Would both of you please kiss me again?”
They were ready to put him on the back of Gideon’s horse. Melissa leaned down and gave Iain a quick kiss on the lips. “Take care of him, Gideon,” she said softly, brushing a dark curl from Iain’s forehead.
He had a gin, even with a pounding headache.
“We’ll have him back in the saddle before ye know it,” Gideon promised.
She didn’t realize all the warriors were watching her every move and suddenly felt very self-conscious about standing there in Alex’s wrapper.
William, Evan, and the warriors were taking note. They admired and respected the wee lass who didn’t think about her safety or comfort and insisted they take care of Iain. She was distraught, thinking Iain had been seriously injured. They had all had a concussion or two in the past few years and were a little envious of the kiss Iain got.
James and Jonathan, their Marine cousins, were standing beside Evan.
“We’re going tae have tae quit fighting so well,” Jonathan noted.
“So we can be injured,” James said wistfully.
“Don’t worry,” Evan said. “We can give ye a broken leg. Now that ought tae get ye a hug and a kiss.”
Alex shook his head and laughed softly. “Now, see what you’ve started,” he gently reprimanded his lovely lady and hugged her tightly to his side.
“I wonder what I could get for a missing leg,” Jonathan asked Evan seriously. They debated the issue all the way back to the camp and had decided they would have to stick with concussions. A missing body part wasn’t the preferred method of getting the lady’s attention. However, in dire circumstances, it could be held out as an emergency option.
Melissa didn’t hear a word of the conversation. Evan had lifted her up to Alex’s lap, and she put her arm around him, pressing her cheek against his warm chest. She could hear his heartbeat, and the sound was a soothing relief.
“How did the battle go today?” she asked Alex.
William rode behind them and spoke up. “We won!”
Alex smiled. “William earned the right to brag. It was his fast thinking that saved the battle and protected me from capture. The Prince almost had me, too. We were outnumbered, but William figured out it was a trap and they rode back in time to turn the battle back on the Prince.”
Melissa smiled up at him and tightened her grip on Alex’s waist. She didn’t want to break down and cry in front of the warriors and struggled to gain control of the emotional riptide that suddenly had tears stingin
g her eyes. Alex held her tightly in his arms to still her tremble, and she felt safe, for the moment.
***
Robert dropped Gideon, Iain, and Daniel off at hospital and picked up a guest of his own. Agotha was waiting for him and took a seat in the helicopter. He smiled and picked up her hand to give her fingertips a kiss. Moments later, the helicopter was air born and they headed for the glen where they could have a few hours of privacy. He had personally repaired that cottage and prepared for a long lovely afternoon there with his lady.
Agotha put on a headset so they could talk while they flew. “Robert, I talked to Rebecca. Who is the woman with Alex?”
Robert smiled a flash of straight white teeth. “She’s an American tourist who stumbled into the opening battle. Alex took one look at her and fell in love.”
Agotha wasn’t about to give up on this subject. “Is this Yank in love with Alex?” She had promised Rebecca she would find out what she could from Robert.
Robert landed outside the tiny cottage and shut the helicopter down. He walked around and lifted Agotha into his arms.
“Yes, my darling. Ye can tell Rebecca that Melissa is a verra fine lady and very much in love with Alex. You’d like her, Agotha. She cares about all of us, and there is a light in her eyes when she looks at Alex.” He knew Agotha and Rebecca were close friends.
Robert wrapped his arms around his beautiful Agotha. She had been on his mind a lot lately, and he missed her during the past few weeks. Her dark brown hair filtered through his fingers. He loved to touch her. She was very loving when she wasn’t kicking his arse in battle.
He grinned and ran his hands over her back. She was agile and strong enough to hold a sword against a man, yet a lady in every respect when they spent precious intimate hours together.
They had discovered a raging passion between them one day when she had given him a private lesson. She had knocked him down to the ground, and he had kissed her playfully. One thing had led to another, and they had spent their first night together making love under the stars at the glen.