“But milord-” the soldier she vomited on, protested.
“Not another word, for if we do ride, she’ll ride with ye!” The soldier kept his mouth quiet. The remainder of the men stared at Maddie.
She hoped this would give Connor sufficient time. If not, she wouldn’t be needing to fake her tears anymore.
*****
“Katie is no where to be found. Neither is Maddie!” Connor turned around and yelled. His heart was in his throat.
“Let’s search over here,” Kiel said.
“This is verra far off of the path to the castle,” Connor said.
They stopped, hearing a noise.
“Over there,” Iain said pointing.
They all strode towards the sound.
“Who is that?” Iain asked, squinting. They were yards away from the movement in the grass.
“Oh, no!” Kiel said and sprinted over to the moving body. They followed Kiel towards the person.
“Katie! Katie, are ye alright,” Kiel said kneeling next to her.
Katie had dragged herself the whole distance. She was sweating and panting from both exertion and pain. Her face was tight and red. Her dress was torn and muddied.
“Connor! She’s gone!” Katie was coughing because of her horribly dry throat.
“What do ye mean, Katie?” Connor asked as he felt the world close in on him.
“Henry. That man took her. When she escaped from his grasp and ran, he took me instead. When she saw he had me, she took my place! She sacrificed herself for me. Then a soldier wanted me, too, and he and two others chased me. When I ran, I injured my ankle,” she said in frustrated tears. She continued to speak through clenched teeth, “I couldn’t get here fast enough, Connor! Damn my ankle! Who knows where they are now!”
“Where did they go, Katie?” Panic almost immobilized him. Nay, it wasn’t panic, but fear bordering on terror. He didn’t want to think what Binouix would do to her.
“That way,” she said pointing through the trees. “That’s where I saw them before I started running.”
“Kiel, carry Katie inside and get mother. Run and warn Hugh to stand in command. Bring with ye more warriors,” Connor ordered.
“Where are ye going, Connor?” Iain asked, looking at Connor heading towards the castle.
“I’m going to get a bigger sword.”
*****
“Do ye hear that?”
“Aye, it’s coming from over there,” the other man said.
They slowly moved forward.
“It’s her, Athyn. Some English soldiers have her!”
“Let’s wait here until the moment presents itself,” Athyn whispered.
“And then what?”
“We’ll grab her back and ransom her.”
“What if Ram comes looking for her?”
Athyn thought about it for awhile.
“If that occurs, we’ll consider the situation again. Until then, we proceed as planned.”
*****
“Calm down, Connor! Ye canna think clearly when ye’re like this.” Iain tried to calm his older brother down, but Connor was beyond listening. The tension and fury emanating from Connor was unlike anything he’d ever seen before from him.
Connor looked at Iain. Night had fallen and only the moonlight lit their path.
“If something happened to her, I doona know what I’ll do!” Connor said tightly.
Kiel motioned for them to stop talking and listen. They were already off Ramsay land and in Menzies territory. The men crept up and saw the English soldiers.
A few seconds later, they saw Maddie. She was on the ground, pleading.
*****
“I can’t go on, Henry!”
“You’ve been like this for hours, Madeleine,” Henry said coldly and impatiently. His top lip curled and his eyebrows scrunched over his eyes.
Maddie felt his animosity and anger, and made the mistake of looking up at him. He saw something more present in her eyes.
“You’ve been feigning it, haven’t you!”
She started coughing again. “Nay! I’m in pain!”
“Liar!” he hurriedly stalked over to her, bended down, and grabbed her by the throat. He lifted her up in the air and pushed her back until she thudded against the tree trunk. She let out a groan of pain as the back of her head made impact with the tree again. His hand still held her by the throat, suspending her inches off the ground. She struggled to breathe.
Chapter Seventeen
“Wait,” Iain said, grabbing Connor’s shoulder.
“Let me go!” Connor rasped out. “He dies!”
“Hold still,” Iain whispered, and they watched for interminable seconds.
Maddie went to kick Henry in the middle but he blocked her attempt.
“I’d rather you kill me than take me anywhere. I won’t be taken,” she said and spat at Henry.
He looked at her as he wiped his face.
“That’s the first suggestion that you’ve made today that has merit,” Henry said, grabbing her by the dress and pushing her down on the ground.
“Did that bastard Ramsay have his way with you? Did you give him your maidenhead? ‘Tis time I show you a real man,” he said, lowering himself on her.
“He is a real man and looking around now, I don’t see another!”
“I will break you, Madeleine,” he said, his voice shaking with conviction. “I will break that damn spirit. I own you!” he yelled, and slapped her.
“Never! You’ll never own me!” she bellowed.
The point of a sword rested on Henry’s throat suddenly.
“Touch her again, and ye’ll die sooner than I had planned,” Connor growled. He grabbed Henry’s coat and dragged him up. He punched him in the face and tossed him to the side with a flick of the wrist.
“Connor!” Maddie exclaimed in relief.
He gently picked her up off the ground and kissed her head.
“Kiel, guard her with yer life,” Connor said, looking at his prey who was crawling away.
“Ye’ll have to give her to me. I’m taking her, Connor,” Athyn said coming forward.
Connor sighed. Was nothing easy?
“I was taking her away!” Henry barked. “She was ransomed. I bought her. She’s mine!”
“Over my dead body,” Connor raged.
Maddie looked at all three leaders in confusion. Her head hurt and her anger was increasing by the minute.
“Who ransomed me?”
Her eyes scanned everyone and landed on Connor.
“I’m ransoming her!” Athyn shouted. Maddie’s eyes went to him.
“Is there anyone else who’s hiding who wants to ransom or purchase me, too?” she asked flippantly.
They ignored her.
“Her father sold her to me. He does not want her!”
“But another does,” Athyn said, more under his breath than aloud. Connor looked over Athyn questioningly but Athyn wasn’t paying attention to him.
“Sold me?” Maddie screamed hoarsely. This was shear absurdity! “Am I a commodity now?” She was shaking. Maddie laughed out of irony.
Connor signaled to his men.
“Lady Madeleine is coming with me!” Connor snapped furiously.
Henry gave the sign and his men stepped forth.
“I’m purchased by one, with an attempted ransom by another…”
“Ye were ransomed, Madeleine, by the bastard laird-” Binouix began but Connor cut him off with a well-timed battle cry before Binouix could reveal his secret.
The battle broke out.
Swords clashed and grinded. The noise was awful to Maddie’s ears. The crudeness of the sounds of the swords rivaled that of men groaning and screaming. Blood was spilled everywhere. Three of Henry’s men attacked Connor at the same time. Maddie bit on her lip to stop from screaming out.
“Kiel, do something, please! Help him,” she sobbed.
He looked at her as if she grew another head. “Nay, Maddie. The three men will
need help not Ram. He’s vicious, especially when they take what is his.”
“Ram? Why do ye call him that? And what did they take that was his?” she asked, hiccupping from crying.
“In battle, ‘tis something we all call him because of the brutal warrior that he becomes. And ye.”
“And me what?”
“They took ye, Maddie. Ye belong to him.”
Maddie started to shake her head. Connor roared just as she was going to give him a sarcastic retort. Her attention turned back to the fight and the three men lay fallen on the ground. More rushed forward and Connor smirked, his eyes glinting with hatred. She had never seen him like this. He truly did look like a different person.
“The Englishmen were overpowered anyway, but Athyn’s men joined Ram and made it easier,” Kiel explained.
“Overpowered? Ye’re not making any sense. There is more than twice the number of Englishmen than Scotsmen.”
“Aye,” Kiel laughed. “‘Tis a fair fight.”
Maddie didn’t understand. Well, the Scots were gigantic next to Henry’s men. Maddie grabbed Kiel’s arm and moaned. Her head was spinning viciously out of control. She started hedging backwards trying to find her balance.
“What’s wrong, Maddie?”
“My head is spinning, Kiel. I can’t stand up…” Kiel held her as she sunk down on the ground. She closed her eyes, only intending to do so briefly.
“Damn it! Binouix is getting away!” Connor started after him but Athyn stayed him.
“Ye willna reach him, Ram. They’re retreating.”
Connor shook his head in frustration. The battle was over and Connor looked at Athyn. He called the man over to speak with him. During the brief conversation, they agreed to a truce. Athyn agreed not to try to kidnap Maddie and ransom her. The relationship between Connor and Athyn was an old and complicated one. Iain stood by listening to the two, and just when Iain was going to ask Athyn who would pay him a ransom for Maddie, Kiel yelled to him.
Connor looked over and his worry for Maddie consumed him. He let out a shout. He ran over to Maddie and got down beside her.
“Maddie, sweeting, can ye hear me?” No answer. “Kiel, what happened?”
“She was fine one moment, talking to me. The next instance, she needed to sit down. She closed her eyes, saying that she was tired. She said her head was spinning”
Connor picked up her head gently. The back of her head was sticky.
“She has head wounds. Damn it!”
Connor stood and picked her up off the ground. He cradled her gently against him.
“Let’s go!” Connor said, effectively dismissing everyone except the woman in his arms.
She was the woman, who in a short while, had not only come to mean the world to him, but had become his world.
Chapter Eighteen
“Marriage?” she whispered to herself.
She was at the window, leaning out. She had heard commotion outside and rose from the bed to the window to see what it was. Then she heard the two warriors talking down below. It wasn’t a sin to eavesdrop, she told herself. Nay, she wasn’t eavesdropping anyways; she was just hanging out of the window for some fresh air.
It had been a couple of days since her abduction and return, and she nearly had all her strength back. Esther had said that her wound didn’t look too bad, but that she needed to rest.
“Aye. This castle is bustling with activity preparing for the wedding,” the other warrior said.
Who was getting married? Say the name, she silently urged.
The warrior on the left started laughing. “Aye. It is hard to imagine him married. He swore to never marry!”
The warrior on the right laughed as well.
Maddie’s heart sank. No! It couldn’t be. She was hearing wrong!
“The laird getting married,” the warrior on the right said, shaking his head. “‘Twas not a phrase that anyone thought they’d ever say or hear.”
“Aye. Lady Miriam and Sir Malcolm werena too surprised. They said that it had been a matter of time, I heard from Hugh. They were verra pleased. Everyone is pleased. ‘Tis a shame that Lady Madeleine has been ill. She surely would be helping in the preparations,” the other warrior said.
“Aye. She’s in for a fair surprise when she is up and about.” They laughed at this comment.
How vulgar they were! She stuck her tongue out at them and turned around into her room again. Maddie was completely devastated.
Married? Her Connor was marrying. Hadn’t he said he never wanted to marry?
It had been a matter of time? Had Connor known this woman long? But he’d kissed her! Twice! Passionately, too, she added angrily.
What did this woman have that she didn’t?
Maddie sunk down in the bed. Hot tears sprang out from her eyes and down her face. She was losing him.
You never had him, the voice in her head said cruelly.
Her head started pounding. What will I do?
They were a family and she couldn’t stay here anymore. Stop deluding yourself, Maddie. You need to leave, especially now that Connor was getting married.
She covered her ears with her hands in an effort to control the questions swarming in her head.
One stuck out from all the rest.
Where would she go? She didn’t want to go back to her father. He would probably send her to Henry.
The convent.
It was her only answer.
Maddie cried into the pillow. She had felt sad when she found out the truth about her father, but this, this was devastating her. She could barely breathe. Worse, no one had come in to tell her!
How little she mattered to everyone.
Maddie gave into her sinful self-pity. Damn the sin to hell! How foolish had she been to entertain the idea that Connor might one day change his ways and have a life with her.
Foolish, foolish girl!
She pounded her fists into the pillow.
Oh, how she had missed him! She hadn’t seen him since that day when he’d rescued her from Henry. Now, she knew why.
He was with her, whoever she was.
She wished she had a mother to talk to about this, and to offer guidance.
How alone she had been all her life! Alone. Sadly, she would continue to be alone.
Forever.
*****
“Tell us more about Wynton,” Connor asked.
He was sitting in a cottage facing the McLean spy. The old man had gray in his hair. He was tall and had some muscular build. The ex-spy had blue eyes that were now losing their brilliance with age. He spoke with an odd mixture of Scots and English accents. The man had an English cadence, but had a bit of a Scottish flare to his speech.
“Tell us, Arthur,” Iain asked. He had accompanied Connor to speak with the spy.
“Wynton was a jealous man. Still is, I’m thinking. His wife, Anne, was abducted by Laird Douglas Menzies’ men. Although Wynton was possessive and jealous, he took time to answer the ransom. He had his three sons by that time,” Arthur said pausing.
“He took his time answering the ransom?” Iain asked incredulously.
Arthur nodded.
“Aye. His sweet time. Sounds odd, but I suppose not if ye knew him better. He had his lovers. Anne was held for a long while, and well, it seemed that she fell in love with Laird Menzies. When Wynton finally answered the ransom, I went with other men to pick her up. It took one hell of a great effort to take her from Menzies. She didna seem like she wanted to go and Menzies didna want her to. He said that he had withdrawn the ransom. Canna say that I blame the lass. Wynton treated her poorly, and showed their sons to do the same. ”
“Withdrawn the ransom?” It was Connor who asked, with wide eyes.
“Aye,” Arthur said. “If we showed up without her, our heads would’ve been on sticks, so we forced her to leave. Started a battle we did, but we escaped with Anne. She didna say a word on the return ride to England. She changed when she returned. It was as if she wa
s a different person. Eight months after her return, Lady Madeleine was born.”
“Maddie is Menzies’ daughter?” Connor asked shocked. “That’s why Athyn wanted to ransom her. That’s who he wanted to ransom her to. How would he have known?”
Arthur listened as Connor explained Athyn’s attempted abduction.
“Yes, she is his daughter. Wynton knew it, although Menzies never knew that Anne was expecting. I’m willing to wager that he still doesna know he has a daughter. It was a bad night when she was born. Anne was having difficulty with her delivery. When Lady Madeleine came, Anne spent a short while with her and passed. I heard from the midwife that Anne was elated to have a daughter, and a daughter, she admitted in front of the midwife, with a man she had finally found to love. The midwife found that comment funny, but I knew better.”
“Unbelievable. So then Wynton knew and made Maddie’s life hell,” Connor snapped.
“Aye, that he did. He resented her from the day she was born. He was glad to be rid of Anne. She had been bothersome to him, in his words, since she had returned. Not that he was a saint, of course. He knew the baby she carried wasna his and he tormented Anne with threats of what he would do to the baby once born.”
Arthur paused to take a drink of water. Connor and Iain both shook their heads. Poor Maddie.
“Lady Madeleine only grew to confirm Wynton’s suspicions. She had dark black hair and yellow eyes like her father. She looked nothing like Wynton but her face looked much like Anne’s. It made it worse that visitors kept pointing that out to Wynton. It grated on him like stone on stone. To get his vengeance on Anne, God rest her soul, he made the young girl suffer. I heard him say once that in death, Anne would still see what he was doing.”
Connor and Iain nodded for him to continue.
“When she learned how to speak, she was a gabber. She wouldna give anyone a moment of silence,” Arthur said laughing. Connor and Iain joined in.
“She hasna changed, Arthur,” Connor said smirking.
Connor noticed that Arthur’s eyes lit up when he spoke about Maddie.
The Highlander Who Saved Me (Heart of a Highlander Collection Book 2) Page 13