“Who?” I was still reeling from his kiss.
“Och, lass, the men who want ye to die.”
“What?” I couldn’t believe it. Or rather, I didn’t want to believe it.
“Listen to me, lass,” Gavin said quickly. “I will create a diversion. When I do, ye need to run. Run like the hounds of hell are chasing ye.”
He grabbed my arms and dragged me down into the water with him.
I gasped.
The water felt like ice.
“Lass.”
He shook me and my head rattled on my shoulders as water lapped higher on my legs, nearly touching my thighs.
“I don’t want to go out there.
“Och, lass, I know. But we don’t have much choice in the matter. If we stay we will drown. I think we should take our chances with the men. Mayhap I can talk some sense into Shamus if he’s out there. He isn’t a bad man, just desperate.”
“That doesn’t sound very reassuring to me,” I told him. Desperate people make bad choices all the time. So, what was stopping him from making another bad choice and feeding me to some monster? He didn’t know me, and he certainly didn’t owe me anything. To him I was just another witch—even though I wasn’t. But how did one go about making someone from the past see that?
“It will be all right.”
Gavin took my freezing fingers into his own, squeezing them reassuringly.
♦
Muir and Callum climbed quickly over the rock-laden beach to the front of the cave along with Graham and Alec. They had barely escaped death. It was coming for them, or so Callum had thought when he woke to the God-awful noise of branches creaking in the early hours of the morning.
Feeling sick from too much drink he went to the door to relieve himself, and that is when he spotted the men…the ones he didn’t know, throwing ropes over the branches of the tree. Luckily, he had the wherewithal to pull Muir, as heavy as he was, off into a small room in the back.
Head pounding, he went back for Graham and then Alec, but after that, it was too risky to get the other men. Staying in the shadows, he waited for them to wake, holding his sword at the ready, while witnessing the foul deed Broderick was doing to the other men.
Och, he held his stomach. He was sure he going to be sick watching. Somehow, he had kept his food down. Broderick, the rotten traitor, pulled the last of the men from the hall; Callum then quickly roused Muir, Alec, and Graham. They were unsteady on their feet but Callum had spurred them along with dire warnings of what was to come if they didn’t move their arse’s a little faster.
“Muir, why is it so dark in here?” Callum asked, stumbling over the rocks blocking the entrance.
“Because it is dark.”
“I know it is dark,” Callum interjected. “Think ye would be a wee bit kinder since I saved your arse not too long ago.”
“Och, Callum, why do ye keep reminding me.” Muir clutched his stomach. Whatever drug Broderick had given them was working its way through his innards.
“Muir, stop bickering with Callum and get on with it,” Alec said in a harsh whisper.
“See Muir,” Callum said. “At least Alec is grateful to me.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t grateful…”
“Ye didn’t say ye were…”
“For the love of God, just be quiet,” Graham commanded.
“But…”
“He told ye to be quiet, Callum,” Muir added his two cents.
“Och, Muir, ye were talking as well,” Callum complained.
“Both of ye shut yer mouths before someone hears ye.” Alec pushed past them, holding the torch aloft inside the cave.
“Laird,” he called into the darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
LOCH MORAR, SCOTLAND
Sometime during the reign of King James
“Thank the blessed Saints above, they are alive!” Gavin made the sign of the cross over his chest.
I did too, just to be on the safe side.
Grabbing my hand, Gavin pulled me along through the rising tide towards the entrance where the men were waiting.
Once outside, Gavin stood off to my left, saying a few words to his men. I couldn’t hear due to the howling wind.
Bending over, I pulled off both of my shoes, shook the sand and debris that had gathered inside onto the ground. Shoving my shoes back on, I stood up again and that is when I noticed the four men running up the steep rocky incline that surrounded the cave and then disappeared over the other side. “Where are they going?” I asked when Gavin stepped up beside me once more.
“Ta see what we are up against and try to find some more weapons.” He slid the sword Callum gave him into the side of his belt and then shoved a short-handled knife down into his boot from Muir… the only weapons they had.
“Shouldn’t we be going with them?”
“Nay. We would only slow them down.” He lied. He didn’t bother telling the lass the truth that he was sending his remaining men on a fool’s errand knowing full well they wouldn’t be back in time. But that was fine by him. At least this way he could save four of his men, something he had failed to do with the others. He thought about Morgan and his stomach twisted. He had failed his friend and he would never forgive himself.
“I would not…” I started but then thought about how wet my clothing was and how he was right. “Well,” I said. “I get why I might slow them down,” I admitted. “But what about you?” I shivered as the wind picked up more strength and pushed against us.
He gave me a curious look. “Lass, I took quite a beating from Broderick and his men.” That was true enough, he thought, taking a shuddering breath.
“Laird…”
“Och, lass, I told ye not ta call me that,” he snapped. A pained expression crossed his face.
“Gavin, then,” I said, quickly, feeling terrible once again. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how he felt. Knowing what happened to his men. “What are we going to do?”
He stared off into the distance, and I could tell by the resolute expression on his handsome face that my time here was running short.
In the cave, Gavin told me of the mist and that he wanted me to leave. To go back home, where I belonged, he had said.
But what if I didn’t want to go home now? What if I wanted to stay? Sure, it hadn’t turned out to be the vacation I thought it would be, but there were definite perks to this timeframe too. There was no competition to speak of. At home, women were in abundance and it was hard enough to get a man and harder still, to keep them. I had learned that hard lesson many times over.
Needless to say, being here, where I was pretty much the only woman to speak of, I was rather enjoying the attention, not to mention the other perks of being in the past. Sure, I missed, sweatpants, movies and food, but on a whole, this wasn’t so bad.
And now I had to leave because of some stupid treasure that probably didn’t even exist. The men hanging from the tree pushed into my thoughts and I pushed them right back out. I couldn’t think of them right now or I would surely lose what little self-control I still had.
And even though I was putting up a brave front, I couldn’t stop myself from trembling. As I looked over at Gavin, I couldn’t help but notice how calm he seemed. It was not a good sign. It was as though he had resigned himself to his fate before the battle had even begun.
“See lass, the moon is full, just as I knew it would be.”
He reached out and wrapped his arm securely around my shoulders.
The full moon he spoke of was shining down on his face, illuminating his resolute expression with an eerie glow. I pressed my head against his shoulder as I tried to recall every time he had held me in his arms, every time he had kissed me, every time he laughed and how his eyes would alight. No matter how far I traveled, I didn’t think I would ever be able to forget him.
A deep sadness settled on me, squeezing against my chest and once again I had a hard time taking the slightest bit of air into my lungs. Wrapping m
y arms more securely around his waist…I waited for the inevitable to come.
♦
Gavin didn’t move much and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was in more pain then he let on. His expression was resolute as he stared off across the glassy surface of the Loch as the mist slowly crept closer.
Lifting his hand, he smoothed it over my hair and then kissed the top of my head. I snuggled deeper into his arms, coming to a decision. If the mist came for me, I was going to make sure he went with me. Now all I had to do was figure out how.
“Gavin…”
He looked down at me.
“You know I love you, right?”
“Aye, I can see that you do.”
His expression did not change but his body tensed against mine. A slow churn started in my belly, twisting, and clenching, waiting for him to say something back to me, but he stayed silent.
Gavin knew he should say something. Tell her he loved her too but he couldn’t bring himself to it. Not now at least. His mind chided him, if not now than when? He knew he may not get another opportunity but found himself not able to say the words aloud he had sworn he would never say to another, ever again.
The problem, as it always was, in matters such as this, his heart had other ideas and he found he may have to break the promise he made so long ago to another. As he looked down into the face of the woman who had become his friend, and then his lover, he realized that even though he did indeed love her, he may have to let her go, except even as he thought it, he didn’t want to. He didn’t think he could, so instead of saying anything, he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers for what would surely be the last time.
The kiss he gave her was meant to be gentle, sweet… a reminder of how he felt about her, to tell her without words. But he found that wasn’t enough. His kiss became more insistent. It was deeper, more urgent. He held onto her as though she was his lifeline, using all the pent up emotion he was feeling.
As I kissed him back, I had an awful feeling he was not kissing me because he was overcome with love for me as I was for him, but instead because this would be the last time.
CHAPTER THIRTY
LOCH MORAR, SCOTLAND
Sometime during the reign of King James
A darkened shadow slid over us and I knew our time had finally run out.
Gavin spun around so swiftly, I almost toppled to the ground. The sound of metal being unsheathed rang out in the air with chilling clarity.
“Lad, drop yer weapon,” a burly man called from the top of the hill.
“Get Muir’s dirk,” he said over his shoulder.
“What?”
“Lass, the knife in my boot,” he said.
“Oh.” I reached down and pulled out his knife. Standing back up, I pressed myself against his back. “Who is that?”
“A backstabbing, greedy wretch,” he scathed. Using his body, he blocked me against the men lined up on the hilltop. “Och, Shamus what have ye done?”
“Sorry lad, but ye know I need the coin for my family.”
“But at what cost?” he asked.
“Drop yer sword,” Broderick yelled.
Gavin tensed and tightened his hold on his sword. Ignoring Broderick, he lifted his arm. “Shamus, it does not have ta be this way.”
More men stepped forward, making a semi-circle. It was the two of us against them all.
There was nothing behind us but a body of water and the frigid wind pushing against our backs as though it was trying to make us fall prey to their attempts at butchering us for the monster tucked down deep inside the waters of the Loch.
Although, if truth were to be told, no one had yet to lay eyes on such a beast and I doubted at this juncture that we, or they, ever would. So why we or more accurately put, me, should be sacrificed for this ever elusive and what I considered to be an imaginary beast, was still beyond reason to me. But here we stood nonetheless, with a mere dirk in my hand and a broadsword in Gavin’s as he stood to defend me from my execution, or what I preferred to call it, my untimely demise, against the rest.
We would surely die, or at the very least, I would die, and for what? A treasure no one had ever laid eyes on that was hidden in a cave who knew where, with a creature that only had a thirst for young maidens, namely me, which I highly doubted would be the case.
I mean, come on.
Why in the world would the monster be interested in eating me?
Maybe, I could see being a decent candidate when I first arrived, I was plumper, but I had lost a good bit of weight since then. Now I was far from being a filling meal. Certainly, that fat man standing to the left of me that was a good head taller and much broader… surely he would be the better choice for the aforementioned creature/monster of the Loch to munch on. I said as much to Gavin, “Why don’t they feed that guy over there to the damn monster?”
Gavin cut his eyes in my direction, and then over to the man.
“He is not a maiden.”
“Well, if you want to get technical about it, neither am I. You saw to that yourself,” I whispered hotly. Of course, that wasn’t altogether true either since I was far from being a maiden, in the pure sense (as in virginal) long before I even came to this time but I opted not to mention that particular detail.
“Aye, I did see to that, many times,” he admonished proudly.
“Yes, you did,” I readily agreed and even though this was not the time nor the place, my body heated involuntarily at the thought of being with him, wrapped in his strong arms as he made love to me. Not once, or twice, but three times, in one night.
“Lass, pay attention.”
He angled his body in front of mine and my mind came back from yet another stirring recollection, which was too soon if you asked me. I mean, come on. If I was going to go, I at least wanted to be thinking of something pleasurable when it happened.
“Shamus, the lass is no longer a virgin,” Gavin called over the din.
“The monster won’t know.”
That did it.
“If the monster doesn’t know if I’m a virgin, why in the hell don’t you feed it the old tubby over there, in my stead?” I yelled, pointing a shaking finger at the aforementioned tubby man.
All eyes turned in the direction of the man I offered up.
“She makes a good argument, Shamus,” one of the men in the front said.
The man in question slunk back a few steps when he realized all eyes had turned on him.
“Lass, what are ye doing?” Gavin asked.
“I’m instilling a reasonable doubt.”
“This is no trial, lass.”
“Isn’t it?” I asked. “It sure seems that way to me.”
“They do no care, lass.”
If the truth were to be told, I didn’t either. I only wanted to get them thinking, confuse them, or at the very least draw their attention from us and in this instance, I had remarkably accomplished my feat. None of the men were actually looking at us any longer.
The mist that Gavin said would come, the one that could take me back to my time, was in fact, at this very instant, heading right for us, gaining momentum from the wind pushing it toward us from the Loch. Reaching over, I grabbed the back of Gavin’s shirt and tugged.
“Lass, what?”
He sounded annoyed which immediately irked me. Ignoring him, I angled my head and motioned behind us toward the water with a tilt of my chin.
Gavin’s eyes widened as he finally caught my meaning. Well, at least I hoped he did. I tightened my fingers around his shirt, about to pull him with me into the frigid water and swim to the mist if the need arose.
Although, if possible, I would prefer to take a pass on getting in the water again since I still remembered how cold it was. And if we did not get to the mist quickly we would surely die of hyperthermia before we even reached it. And I would rather not chance that.
An eerie sloshing noise cut through the din of the men, accompanied by a bubbling, gurgling sound. Every head that had been tu
rned in the other direction were instantly riveted on us, once again. I had somehow missed my opportunity to save us. I blew it. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid, Paige, I berated myself.
“Lass,” Gavin, whispered hotly.
“For God’s sake,” I snapped annoyed my pity-party was cut short. “What?”
“Do not make any hasty movements,” he warned in a breath of air.
Immediately shivers of dread cascaded down my spine.
The old tubby-two ton, I was offering up to be sacrificed only minutes before actually took off up the rock-laden incline moving much faster than I would have given him credit for. My mind finally registered what Gavin had said and all the men’s reactions in front of me only added credence to it.
Slowly, I turned, and looked up into the glowing eyes of the infamous monster of the Loch Morar, looming above us.
“Holy shhh…”
Gavin wrapped his arms around me.
“Do not look.”
It was too late for that. I had already seen the God-awful looking creature and now I couldn’t turn away. Its scaly snake like head listed to the side, and then swung back in the other direction, tracking the movement of the men running.
Like a whip cracking, the head snapped out above us, snatching three men in one fell swoop.
“See, I told you the monster wouldn’t care what it ate,” I told him, feeling like I was watching a movie, not actually about to be devoured by the monster I was commentating on like some kind of critic.
Part in terror and part in astonishment, I watched as the monster made quick work of the three men. A pair of feet dangled out from under the sharp teeth and then disappeared down into its long scaly throat.
Just as the gypsy/witch/legend said, submerged in the water, I could see the glimmering golden mouth of a cave behind the creature, which looked to be filled with a Kings treasure. Hell, if you asked me, it looked like Fort Knox.
Gavin pulled me closer, and pressed my head against his shoulder protectively with his free hand. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him back.
Lost in the Highlands, Volume One Page 14
