The cloud of dust swirled around him as Ramsey pulled his stallion to a stop and leapt from his back, running into the inn and calling for his brothers. “Logan! Alec! I need ye!”
He found them surrounded by women—not uncommon—and they both jumped up when he burst in, shooing aside the disappointed lasses. “Ramsey,” Logan said hopefully. “Time to go?”
“Archer has taken Sabrina!”
His brothers rushed out to the stables as he told them what he knew.
“And de Montfort let her go?” Alec asked again as he saddled his horse. “Without any struggle? Just going to let the man continue on…intact and alive?”
Logan was already seated on his horse.
“I doubt he’ll be alive long, Alec,” he said, and nodded toward Ramsey.
Ramsey stared ahead, down the road that led to Sabrina. His jaw was set in a line that resembled the hard edges of granite. His dark eyes were fierce and unblinking.
“Let’s go,” he finally said, and the Munro clan set out toward Blackhaven.
“We kill any man who tries to stop us,” Ramsey said, driving his mount on ever-faster. “Spare any women or children. But if a man is armed, we must assume he is an enemy.”
They stopped at a crossroad to let a caravan pass.
“I don’t understand,” Alec said. “She was here last night. Here, in Treadwell. I thought for certain…”
“Ye thought wrong,” Ramsey snapped, though he wanted to throttle himself. He’d pushed her aside, let her think he’d used her for sport. Who knew how Archer had come upon her?
The man would not have sought her out in the keep. He must have found her outside…
She fled to get away from me.
Ramsey bit his lip so hard he tasted blood. “I’m a fool,” he said, urging his horse forward.
“We know,” Logan replied.
“We’ve always known,” Alec added. “But will ye continue to be a fool, or will ye be strong for her now, when she needs ye?”
In answer, Ramsey spurred his horse on faster.
* * *
Sabrina stared miserably at the fire. She sat alone in the large hall in Archer’s keep, tied to a massive oak chair. She’d attempted to flee three times already and had received a beating each time she resisted. The metallic taste in her mouth reminded her that she’d never stop fighting the man. Until she drew her last breath, she would make every attempt to escape.
Thoughts of what her life would be like had crept over her and she pushed them away just as quickly as they’d formed. Ramsey’s face appeared in her mind and she clung to it with all her might, lest she ever forget it. Nearly a day had passed already, and she wondered if he’d taken his new bride back to his clan in the Highlands. What sort of laird would Ramsey be? What sort of husband? A wonderful one, most likely, she thought sadly.
Did he know she’d been taken? Did Ramsey Munro bat an eyelash at the thought that she’d been mercilessly placed as a pawn in Archer’s dangerous game?
She doubted it. Most likely, he’d charmed his new lady to his chambers and was still fast asleep from a night of passion and wine. Her eyes welled up at the thought of Ramsey with another.
She could not think of any marriage to Lord Archer that did not end in heartache and sorrow. She felt she was dying already just to imagine it—of lying beneath him at night, of bearing him children, of living in the cold, joyless Blackhaven.
This is not what I wanted from life.
What had she wanted, though? She had carried her torch for Ramsey for so long, she’d never really managed to dream of another life. He had always figured into her future somehow, though how he appeared in it tended to vary.
But he had always been there.
Now, though…
Now he does not want me, and does not care, anyway.
She closed her eyes, holding back fresh tears. She had loved him for so many years, and had thought he loved her—and maybe he did, in his way, but that love had flown out the window when she’d given him her body.
How fickle you are, love, how cruel and cold indeed…
Sabrina closed her eyes and wished herself far, far away from English soil. She’d never known heartache like she had here—from losing her parents to bandits on the road to London, to the fever that took her younger brother Gavin at just four summers old. She made a promise to herself that if she managed to escape the clutches of Lord Archer, Sabrina would leave England. Perhaps journey to France and find her mother’s family? There had to be an aunt or uncle that could use an extra hand during the long winters.
The sound of rushing footfalls jerked her eyes from the flames and to Archer, who was running toward the keep’s main entrance at the front of the hall. Sabrina twisted in her chair to see what was happening.
“Don’t you move,” he snarled at Sabrina as he passed. “Don’t think I won’t hesitate to slit your throat if your uncle is foolish enough to attempt a daring rescue. You’ll both be dead before I see that happen.”
Two of Archer’s guards met him at the doorway.
“De Montfort has sent an emissary to speak with you, milord.”
Archer chuckled, relaxing and leaning against the gray stone walls.
“If he thinks he can bargain his way out of this, he’s mistaken,” he said, rubbing the wiry black and grey goatee that grew from his chin. “But show the poor fool in and maybe we can at least glean some entertainment from his groveling.”
Sabrina took the opportunity to slide her hands free from the ties she’d loosened earlier. In their haste, the guards hadn’t tightened them thoroughly, and Sabrina’s small wrists easily passed through the loops after a few moments’ tugging.
Long seconds passed in silence while they all waited on the emissary’s arrival. Sabrina wondered if her uncle had foolishly entreated the Sheriff of Treadwell and offered himself in her stead, though she doubted it. Sabrina knew too well that hundreds of people depended on the Earl de Montfort for survival and Ernald was smart enough not to issue a death sentence to them all to spare his niece from a bad marriage.
She turned and peered over the high back of the chair and watched as her uncle’s man came in through the shadows the afternoon sun cast on the giant doorframe.
“Speak on behalf of your master and be quick about it,” Archer said as the man came into the light.
“I have no master. And I’ve come for the girl.”
Sabrina froze, unable to believe what she was hearing. She’d know the deep treble and smooth bass of that voice anywhere.
Ramsey.
Archer and his men chuckled.
“I’ve got a proclamation from the Sheriff himself granting me the power to go through with this,” Archer sneered. “English law says I can take collateral on the debt I’m owed. You’d best get off my property if you value your life, Scot.”
Sabrina’s heart hammered in her chest when Ramsey’s eyes locked with hers. His were dark and lucid, despite the ferocity in them now. A savage look crossed his face and he looked back at Archer.
“Funny thing about English law—Scots don’t give a rat’s arse about it,” Ramsey said. “And we don’t take risks we don’t have the balls to follow through with.”
A commotion outside began, though Sabrina could not see it. The clanking of sword upon sword could be heard, and the noise soon spilled into the great hall. Two large men, nearly the same size as Ramsey, walked side by side and came to stand behind him.
It took a moment, but Sabrina finally recognized Logan and Alec. Despite everything, she smiled. The gangly teenagers she remembered from five years ago were now grown men, nearly as handsome as their older brother. She could not help the smile that spread across her face at seeing them again, and when Logan cast a sideway glance at her and winked, Sabrina nearly cried.
While Logan and Alec held the remaining soldiers against the wall, Ramsey and Archer squared off—sword to sword and face to face.
“You’re not worthy of Sabrina,” Ramsey sai
d through gritted teeth. “No one in this god-forsaken country is worthy of her.”
“Says a bloody backwater Scot,” Archer hissed. “You’re lower than the dung on the bottom of my boots. I’ll be a hero for killing a Highlander.”
As Archer spoke, he moved backwards and towards the chair Sabrina watched from.
Ramsey spoke as the men circled each other.
“Sabrina, I want you to move as he does,” he said. “Do not let him near you—he is coward enough to use you as a shield.”
Wordlessly, she got up from the chair and moved around the edge of the large wooden table as Archer circled from the other side. The men moved around in a deadly dance of predator and prey—though Sabrina hoped with all her might that Ramsey was predator in this moment.
Sabrina cleared the side of the table once Archer was behind it and stood in the center of the hall.
“Go to my brothers,” Ramsey said.
Sabrina obeyed and ran to Alec, who put a protective arm around her shoulder. Her eyes were fixed upon Ramsey, and she did not breathe as the showdown continued.
In what looked like desperation to her, Archer kicked over the table that separated him from Ramsey. His ploy backfired, however. Instead of being distracted, Ramsey took the opportunity to jump over the table and bring his claymore down across Archer’s shoulder before the Englishman had a chance to take his boot off the toppled furniture.
Seconds later, Archer’s lifeless body collapsed to the floor in a heap.
Alec and Logan turned to the two remaining guards with their swords drawn.
The men took one look at Archer, and then at each other, before dropping their swords to the ground.
“Wise,” was all Logan said.
Ramsey cleared the space between him and Sabrina in three long strides, grasping her face with his large hands.
“Lass, are ye hurt?” he whispered, searching her for further injury. “Christ, what did the man do to ye?”
“Why are you here?” she said through choking tears. If she had to lose the man again, it would be more than she could bear in a day’s time. “You should have left me here.”
“Why would ye say that?”
“I can’t stand by and watch you marry someone else, Ramsey Munro,” she said in a quaking voice. “I’ve loved you from the moment I met you and you’ve done nothing but break my heart since you returned. You acted like you didn’t know me. Like I was nothing to you. Like we were never best friends who shared everything.”
“I had to. I canna marry ye no matter how much I want to. And trust me, there’s no other woman in this world for me than Sabrina de Montfort,” he said. “But ye deserve a life here, lass. Safety. Peace. Life in the Highlands is no place for ye, as much as I want ye by my side. Even if I could stay here in England to be with ye, I’m an outlaw now. I have to go back to my clan.”
“I’m going with you.” Sabrina folded her arms across her chest stubbornly. “And don’t you tell me no, Ramsey. As God as my witness, I will follow you back to Scotland on foot if I have to. My uncle doesn’t need me here. He needs me married and happy with a family of my own—wherever that may be.”
She reached up, pressing her palm to the back of his hand. “I want it to be with you, wherever you go.”
Ramsey ran his thumb along Sabrina’s cheek, caressing her. He blew out a long breath and finally smiled. The tears that were ready to spring forth rolled down her cheeks and Ramsey wiped them away with the pad of his thumb.
She watched the war of emotions taking place within him and prayed Ramsey Munro was making the right choice. Sabrina prayed Ramsey Munro was finally listening to his heart.
“Don’t cry,” he finally said. “I couldna have left without ye, foolish lass. I would have come back for ye eventually and thrown ye over my shoulder all the way back home.”
Sabrina opened her mouth to speak, but Ramsey pulled her lips to his and claimed her mouth with a heated, exploratory kiss. Unaware of time or place, Sabrina would have kept the kiss going forever, had Ramsey not stopped it abruptly.
“Now let’s go before I end up in chains or worse…yer gown ends up in a torn mess on the floor.”
***
Laird and Lady Munro were married twice that month. Once by the Newgate priest who had performed the vows for Sabrina’s parents twenty-four years earlier, and two months later by the man who had married Ramsey’s parents.
The first wedding was a quiet affair, attended only by immediate family members. Ernald had wished to throw a great feast befitting a lady of Sabrina’s status, but the hard truth of the matter remained: she was marrying a Highlander, and tongues were already wagging in dismay or outright hostility.
The priest, a warm, nearsighted old man, approached Sabrina in her chambers before the ceremony. “My lady, if I may have a moment?”
“Of course.” She signaled to Isabel, who immediately moved aside so the priest might speak “May I offer you some wine?”
“Oh, I’ll be but a moment. I wished to tell you I remembered marrying your mother and father all those years ago. Fine young people they were, him a strapping lad, she a comely lass. Fitting, it is, that I marry their lovely daughter this day.”
He must have married hundreds of couples over the last twenty and more years; how could he remember her parents? Still, it was a lovely gesture. “I thank you for that, sir.”
“Your mother said something to your father after I married them, after they exchanged rings and a kiss,” he went on. “She said, ‘I hope she has your eyes.’”
Sabrina didn’t need to voice her astonishment; Isabel gasped loudly from the other side of the room. “When my lady was born, her mother exclaimed over her eyes! She was so pleased she had m’lord’s green eyes...”
The priest bobbed his head. “Then I’m well pleased to hear it. I thought it might bring you a bit of joy to know it.”
The ceremony itself was brief, but pleasant. The priest spoke the sacred words, bound them together before their families and God, and asked that they exchange a kiss.
Ramsey’s mouth was warm and firm against hers, his tongue sliding briefly between her lips. “More where that came from,” he whispered when the priest turned away. “Much more.”
She wrapped her arms around him, still not entirely certain this had really happened. Had she just married Ramsey Munro?
He kissed her again, and she knew she had.
***
The journey to Munro land was a long one, and Sabrina passed much of the time by torturing Ramsey’s younger brothers. They had not changed overly much, and she quickly fell into old habits with them.
She had always wanted brothers. Now she had two.
Granted, they seemed to have their own agendas.“When can we expect bairns, Sabrina? We need nephews to train.” Alec bluntly asked as they road north one warm afternoon. “We’ll need to replenish the men yer husband is sending back to assist your uncle.”
She blushed. They always provided good-natured ribbing when she and Ramsey retired for the evening.
“Soon, I suppose,” Sabrina said, half-expecting another ribald joke at her expense. The lads looked at each other, exchanged smiles, but spared her any additional teasing.
That was all right; she could tease them, too. Sabrina hid a grin and raised her voice so Ramsey could hear her. “But first I plan on finding a wife for Logan. He frowns too much, and I suspect he needs a companion.”
Logan reddened and shot a look of protest to Ramsey, who rode beside Sabrina.
“’Tis true, Logan,” Ramsey said. “She wishes to see ye wed. And I’m told it’s best to let a lady see to this business.”
Logan paled, while Alec nearly toppled off his horse as he doubled over in laughter.
“You’re already learning,” Sabrina said approvingly.
“Learning?” Ramsey snorted. “There’s no arguing with ye, lass. I knew that the day I met ye.”
“I can only imagine what their children will be like,” Log
an muttered, barely audible over Alec’s laughter. “Stubborn wee folk, all of them.”
Sabrina reached out to pat his arm reassuringly. “Don’t worry, little brother. I’ll find you a fine wife before you need to worry about nieces and nephews.”
“I’m relieved,” Logan said darkly.
“She’ll be busy for months,” Alec said between breaths. “The lasses are all scared of Logan and his foul temper.”
“Doona laugh too hard, Alec,” Ramsey said. “She’s mentioned plans for seeing ye wed as well.”
The laughter immediately died, and Alec’s expression abruptly shifted from jovial to nearly terrified. This did make Ramsey laugh, and he and his lady wife spent the next hour trading jests and basking in their shared mirth.
The Munro Clan Highlander Collection (The Munro Clan Highlander Romances) Page 5