Highland Ruse: Mercenary Maidens - Book Two

by Martin, Madeline

  Guilt squeezed at Kaid’s chest like a vise.

  Despite the man she’d been sent to marry and the entitlement of her upbringing, she was a good person.

  And he was the monster who would see her exploited.

  • • •

  Delilah waited for the crash outside.

  It was her first tactic of many to prolong their arrival at Edirdovar Castle—or wherever it was Kaid sought to take them.

  She sat in the jostling coach, awaiting a hearty bang to interrupt the cheerful pitch of Donnan’s whistling coming from the driver’s seat. Poor Leasa had finally quieted at her side, though she continued to offer stricken apologies periodically regardless of how often Delilah tried to tell her they were unnecessary.

  Leasa had a large heart and a brave soul. She’d thought Kaid had meant Delilah harm and sought to intervene, to save Delilah. Her actions had been so heartbreakingly selfless. And if Kaid truly had meant to cause Delilah harm, it would doubtless have been Leasa who would have been injured.

  The Highlander was gazing out the window once more. Delilah appreciated that he seemed to be affording them a modicum of privacy.

  Her foot jiggled beneath the concealment of her skirts in anticipation. She’d loosened the luggage ties on the coach prior to climbing back in, but she’d had only a moment to complete the task.

  Had she loosened them enough?

  A horrifying thought struck her.

  What if the luggage had come loose and fallen silently onto the trail? She hadn’t intended for their items to be lost, only for a diversion to be created, one where she could insist they search for the scattered items to buy at least an hour of time.

  After all, several occurrences of stolen hours would add up to a considerable sum.

  But if they lost their bags, they lost everything. Aside from just the fine clothing Lord Seymour had provided her with to resemble Elizabeth, she would also have no more of the tonics or specialized gear Percy had crafted.

  Percy was one of other women in Sylvi’s employ, but she didn’t go out on missions like Delilah. Her role was actually more important as she created tools for them to use—poisons, healing teas, tools to open locks and conceal weapons.

  Losing her inventions would make accomplishing the assignment difficult. Not impossible, of course, but with Delilah’s first solo mission at stake, she did not want difficult.

  Leasa turned to Delilah with a slight frown on her lips. “I’m so sorry for—”

  A great shudder jolted the coach and something clattered behind them. Donnan’s whistled tune cut off abruptly.

  Delilah’s foot stilled and her heartbeat came a little faster with her victory.

  The coach drew to a hard stop which jerked both her and Leasa forward. The maid gave a cry of surprise and grasped Delilah in an iron grip.

  But Kaid didn’t notice them. He already had his blade unsheathed, his brilliant blue gaze sharp on the forest outside the small window. He leapt from his seat and burst through the door with an agility he hadn’t appeared capable of. But he didn’t leave the front of the partially open coach door. He stood there like a sentry.

  He might be a man who kidnapped women, but he was obviously trying to ensure they were protected.

  Donnan appeared at his side. “It’s no’ an attack. The ties came loose and the lot of their bags scattered all over the trail.”

  “That’s fine,” Kaid said with a shrug. “We’ll reload and continue on our way.”

  “I dinna think it’ll be as easy as all that,” Donnan said, switching to Gaelic, a language Delilah knew well from her training at Kindrochit Castle.

  Donnan nodded to the foliage lining the trail. “I think some of them fell into the stream.”

  Delilah cast a discreet glance to the other side of the window where the road dropped off into a downhill slope and ended in a rushing stream.

  Her excitement waned. She’d wanted a distraction, yes, but she hadn’t wanted to see her items destroyed.

  This needed to be handled, and quickly.

  She knocked on the partially open door, letting the obnoxious rapping continue until Kaid slid his gaze toward her with poorly concealed annoyance. “What is going on?” she asked. “What did he say about our bags?”

  His chest swelled and relaxed with a sigh before he replied, “It would appear they werena well secured and came loose.”

  Delilah gave him a shocked frown. “Are they lost?”

  He shook his head. “Donnan is gathering them now.”

  “No.” Delilah shoved up from her seat with all the indignation of a noblewoman whose modesty was to be preserved. “I’ll not have a man handling my undergarments if any contents were loosed.”

  Leasa started to rise, but Delilah shook her head. “You’ve taken a bad tumble, Leasa. Stay here. I can gather my own things.”

  A shocked expression filled Leasa’s face. “My lady, that isn’t necessary, I—”

  Delilah shook her head to still her maid and pulled open the door. Kaid filled the exit with his large frame, blocking her exit. “Sit down.”

  She ignored the request and pushed forward, an awkward attempt with him so thoroughly in the way. “I assure you, it is entirely necessary.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest, and she did likewise.

  His eyes narrowed, and she narrowed hers as well.

  It was like playing a mirror game with one of her younger siblings back home.

  She lifted her chin as high as she dared in the hopes it might give her more height and tried to stretch her back, as if she could make herself taller by sheer will alone.

  “Ye’re pretty stubborn to be an English woman.” He spoke in a wry tone. “Are ye sure ye’re no’ a Scot?”

  “Maybe if I start to kidnap women I would be,” she countered. But instead of more verbal parrying, Kaid smirked and stepped back.

  He uncrossed his arms and called for Donnan before returning his attention back to her. “Fine, help yerself to a walk through all the mud. I’ll have Donnan stay with Leasa so I can ensure ye dinna run away.”

  Delilah was about to protest, to insist the more affable Scotsman be her guard. But now was not the time to feign an escape attempt. She glanced behind her to where Leasa sat in the coach, watching them. Leasa would be better off with Donnan’s carefree company.

  Donnan appeared, and Kaid issued a rapid set of orders in Gaelic for him to remain with Leasa at all costs.

  With that, Delilah and Kaid set off in stark silence to gather the belongings that Donnan had not yet been able to locate.

  When the remaining bags were found, Delilah’s fears were realized. The bags had indeed ruptured upon impact with the ground and propelled their contents across the trail and into the running stream.

  The refreshing breeze swept against Delilah’s skin and made her realize just how stuffy the coach was becoming. It’d already been a compact space with her and Leasa, but Kaid’s massive body seemed to leave no room to even breathe properly.

  Of course the lack of proper breathing might be due to the incredibly tight corset she’d been laced into.

  Rather than wheeze out her air, she held her breath and bent to flick her sark from the forest floor. Kaid had assisted with gathering outer garments and various other items, but had left anything appearing to be an undergarment for her. It was a kindness she could not help but appreciate.

  Granted, she hadn’t been abducted before, but she would imagine most men in Kaid’s position would not be so accommodating.

  When they’d collected most of the items from the muddy trail, they made their way down the sloping hill to the rushing stream where countless items had been strewn, some in the mud, some in the water.

  Directly beside the stream, Delilah found her steel-boned corset. She lifted the heavy garment with great relief. Save several leaves plastered to the pale brocade silk, the fabric was not wet, which meant the steel had remained dry and would not rust.

  While it was heavy, th
e strategic placement of steel boning on the inside rendered her torso slash-proof. A discomfort she was willing to endure. If only the blasted corset she wore now served any purpose for the extent of its squeezing torture.

  Something white caught her eye in the stream, and her heart went heavy. There, almost entirely submerged in the deepest part of the water, was the bag containing their extra food.

  Chapter Four

  Night was the most dangerous.

  Kaid glanced outside where the trees had grown shadowed and the gray light of dusk dampened the summer sky. They would need to stop soon.

  While he knew the women would prefer they stop at a village to restore their food supply and have a comfortable place to sleep, Kaid could not risk the exposure.

  While there were no villages nearby to threaten discovery, wandering men could be just as dangerous.

  The maid had long since fallen asleep on her mistress’s shoulder, but Elizabeth had remained awake, her gaze alert. Her hand, he noticed, had continued to hold her maid’s, even after the other woman had long since faded into sleep.

  The coach rocked hard to the right and then teetered to the left.

  Leasa bounced forward and then knocked back, smacking her head on the wooden wall. Her eyes flew open, and she clapped her palm over the injury.

  Elizabeth shot him an accusatory glare, as if he had personally rocked the coach.

  “We’re going off the path to set up camp for the night,” Kaid explained.

  Elizabeth turned Leasa’s face to the side and examined what was most likely a large knot on the woman’s scalp. “It would have been nice to have had some form of warning.”

  The coach swayed and bounced in earnest now, and they all braced themselves in the small cabin, their bodies stiffly jerking and fighting the momentum. Ages seemed to pass before they finally rolled to a stop.

  Leasa bolted out of her seat and lurched toward the door with her hand over her mouth.

  Kaid jumped up to stop her, but she moved more quickly than he. She stumbled out of the coach, fell to her knees and retched.

  “Does yer maid ever actually care for ye?” he asked Elizabeth sardonically.

  She threw him a dark look and rose from her seat.

  But Donnan beat her to her maid’s side. He bent over her and offered a square of linen. The wet sound of her blowing her nose soon followed.

  Kaid disembarked from the coach and aided Elizabeth onto the soggy ground. The evening summer air graced his skin with a chilled breeze. Donnan’s murmured voice hummed quietly as he spoke to Leasa in gentle tones.

  Elizabeth watched the two as well. “That was kind of him to help.”

  The gentleness with which she spoke and the softness in her brown gaze as she regarded Donnan and Leasa made a flicker of jealousy prickle through Kaid.

  He’d received little more than the sharp side of her tongue when he knew she was capable of far more. No sooner had the thought entered his mind, he steeled himself against the absurdity of it. She was his captive.

  In the end, she was his bargaining tool to return to MacKenzie for peace. She would be married, and he would never see her again.

  “We’ll eat after we set up camp.” His voice came out gruff with his determination.

  If she noticed it, she did not chastise him for it. Perhaps she was as tired as he.

  “We have no food,” she reminded him. “Our main stores were ruined when our bags fell from the coach.”

  “We’ll make do.” Though he tried to sound optimistic, there wasn’t enough food for all of them. The scant amount of meat remaining wouldn’t be enough to fill any of them.

  He surveyed the area, letting his gaze skim over the tree line, straining his vision against the darkening sky until he saw several puffs of smoke in the distance. A town or a village, far enough away not to be a threat, but close enough that they would arrive by midmorning.

  Once he and Donnan had set up camp and Leasa appeared recovered enough to not lose what she ate, Kaid distributed the remaining food.

  Elizabeth accepted the meager hunk of salted ham with a quiet note of thanks. It wasn’t until they began to eat that she regarded him with a shrewd glint in her eye. “Where’s your food?”

  “We already ate,” Donnan answered.

  She nodded to Kaid. “He didn’t. Only you did.”

  Donnan slid a questioning gaze to Kaid, who offered a nonchalant shrug in reply.

  In truth, he’d given Donnan his quarter of the share and hadn’t expected the women to notice he hadn’t given himself one. Apparently Lady Elizabeth was more observant than he’d given her credit for.

  “What will you eat?” Her voice was gentle.

  Kaid shrugged off her question. “A warrior isna worth his weight if he canna take a bit of hunger for a night.”

  She tore her piece of ham and held out half to him. The meat was a deep, roasted pink, charred along the sides. Its briny scent made his mouth water.

  “Take this,” she said. “Please.”

  A part of him, a larger part than he cared to admit, wanted to snatch the hunk of meat from her palm and devour it. But, he reminded himself, Lady Elizabeth was not used to hunger. The piece she had was already too meager to see her sufficiently filled.

  “I’m fine,” he answered and strode away before she could offer again. Before his resolve could crumble.

  When he was far enough away from them, he drew a slender vial from the pouch at his waist. The clear liquid within rolled against the glass like a fat droplet of rain.

  There was only enough left for tonight. Maybe tomorrow as well, if he was conservative with his dose.

  His fingers shook at the prospect of having so little remaining.

  The women were not the only ones who lost several items when the bags came loose. The bag he’d packed had spilled its contents, and the remaining vials the seer had given him had been lost. He’d looked for his stock with barely contained madness, but to no avail.

  This was his last.

  Perhaps he ought to try one night without it. To sleep without the blanket of valerian root to pull over his mind.

  He clenched his teeth. The images would flood his mind at all attempts to sleep and keep him in wakeful horror. His muscles went tight in anticipation.

  The bodies.

  The empty stares.

  The blood.

  He pulled the stopper from the bottle. Carefully. Carefully.

  His fingers were clumsy, too large for so tiny a bottle, and shaking with an overwhelming anticipation.

  He touched the vial to his lips and let a slight amount of the bitter liquid wet his tongue.

  He needed this. The sleep. The escape.

  Kaid shoved the stopper into the vial and pushed hard to ensure it was in there deep enough to keep the contents from leaking.

  “Why are you doing this?” Lady Elizabeth’s voice sounded from behind him.

  He slipped the vial into the pouch at his waist before turning to face her. But it was not accusation on her face. It was sincerity.

  “You and Donnan both, you seem kind. But you’re committing an egregious, heinous crime.”

  His soul chilled at her delicate claim, hating the truth behind her words.

  She shook her head. “I’ve been trying to think why you could possibly do this and can come up with no morally sound answer.”

  A warmth started in the base of his neck and pulsed slowly through his body. The valerian root was beginning to take effect. Soon he would be numb. Soon even the burden of his guilt would be assuaged.

  “There are more people at stake in this than Donnan and me.” Perhaps it was more than he should have said, but he wanted her to understand, to not judge him so harshly. Not when she was affording him her kindness.

  She cast a glance behind her to where Donnan and Leasa were chatting by the glow of the fire. “If you let us go, we won’t tell anyone.” Her heavily lashed brown eyes searched his. “You’re a good man, Kaid. Please don’t
do this.”

  Even the numbing blanket of the valerian root could not stop the ache from spiking in his chest. “We need rest,” he said. “We have a long day tomorrow.”

  She studied him for a long moment, her face blank, then finally turned away. For that he was grateful.

  He wished he could return the lasses to the road and walk away as if no wrongdoing had ever occurred.

  But he was not a man with the luxury of options.

  • • •

  Delilah’s inability to sleep was due more to the discomfort of her mind than that of the thin cushion upon which she tried to sleep.

  She envied the men their freedom, under the stars with the cool earth beneath their backs. The walls of the cabin were becoming too familiar, too close, as if they were pressing against her and choking the air from her chest. At least she’d taken off the blasted corset.

  The sound of Leasa’s even breathing came from the opposite bench. Delilah was glad the other woman slept after the taxing stress of what had transpired since their quiet ride through the forest that afternoon.

  Had it truly been only one day when it felt another lifetime ago?

  Delilah rolled onto her back to get more comfortable. The coach squeaked and rocked with the simple movement. She suppressed a sigh and tilted her head back on the cushion to stare out through the top of the narrow window where the sky was alight with countless stars.

  London never had so many stars. The skies of Scotland seemed vaster and more open. She’d been in the country for almost four years and still loved the wildness of it all. For as much as she’d dreamt of London’s court as a girl, she truly did not miss it as a woman.

  A low groan came from outside.

  She froze and locked her breath in her chest, fearful the simple act might keep her from hearing something important.

  The groan came again, louder this time, followed by the incoherent mumbling of a man’s deep voice.

  Kaid?

  The voice cried out.

  Was someone hurt?

  Delilah sat carefully upright to keep from making the coach move too much. The glow of the firelight momentarily blocked her vision before she made out the shadowed form of a man lying near it on the ground. His head thrashed from side to side and a low growling sound emerged from his throat.