by Alisa Adams
Cat gasped. So they had been poisoning me even then! “You are evil!”
“I will kill you with my bare hands,” Caden growled.
Richerd looked back at Caden. “Oh, I dinnae think so.”
“Caden,” Cat whispered urgently as she nudged Eckle forwards.
Richerd looked faintly surprised as the big warhorse snaked its head towards him with its ears back and his teeth snapping. He reared up and walked a few more steps towards the man.
“Eckle! Stop that,” Cat hissed urgently at the horse. She glanced at Caden and made a motion with her head.
Caden nudged Iris forward as well. Iris let out a sharp ear-splitting braying but did as he asked.
“Dinnae come any closer!” Richerd screamed at them.
Richerd stared in terror at the horse with the horribly scarred face who kept trying to bite him. The horse was tilting his head oddly sideways, and Richerd got a glimpse of his other eye. It had a large, greying scar over the black fur that intersected that white clouded eye. Its nostrils were also scarred and ripped to the side. He had an ear that was ragged and torn as well. With his patchy mane and scarce tail, Richerd thought he looked like a horse that had returned from his grave on the battlefield. He had never seen a horse like this one. He could not look away as he dodged the big horse’s teeth once again.
Caden came slowly up beside Cat.
She smiled softly at him. “Do ye trust me?” she asked quietly.
Caden smiled questioningly.
“I love you!” Cat whispered urgently.
Before he could say anything she stuck her foot out and kicked Iris as hard as she could.
Iris brayed and leaped forward.
Straight over the cliff.
“Ye just sent him to his death!” Richerd shouted as he ran to the edge of the cliff and looked over.
He turned and glared at Catriona. His glare turned to a malicious smile. “How very convenient. Ye killed yer own husband. Vera wise, my dear, ’twas a kinder death than what I had planned for him.”
He took a step towards Cat, but she quickly lifted Eckle up into a rear and he backed away.
“Control that animal!” he screamed, “Or I will have him shot!”
“If you try to shoot my horse I will let him take a bite out of you before you can get a single shot off!” Cat said in a commanding voice.
Eckle obliged her by snapping his teeth as he snaked his head forward at Richerd.
Richerd moved quickly away, fumbling for his pistol.
It was the opening that Cat needed, and there was not much time before Richerd pulled the trigger.
She dug her heels into Eckle’s sides.
The brave old warhorse did as he was asked.
He leaped over the side of the cliff.
14
Cat wrapped her arms tightly around Eckle’s neck as she leaned her face to the side of it.
She remembered jumping off this cliff into the sea with Wolf when they were younger. It had seemed so high then, so dangerous. She never dreamed she would be diving off the cliff on the back of a horse.
They hit the water with an enormous splash as they went under. Cat felt Eckle’s big body heaving as his large hooves immediately started pawing towards the surface. She clung tightly, not daring to let go. She could have swum up and away to the surface, but she was not going to leave this wonderful horse.
They broke the surface and Cat gasped for air. Eckle strained his head up above the water and instantly started paddling through the sea. She grabbed his rope and changed his direction as she took a quick look around.
She immediately spotted Caden and the huge mule.
She did not dare yell to him for fear that Richerd would see them.
The cliff formed an overhang and she knew that they were partially under it. They could swim towards the curve of the cliffs. She knew they were shielded by the heavy woods above, out of the sight of the men on top of the cliff. Then they could make their way around that bend and into the bay and onto the shore of Sanside House.
“Eckle,” Cat crooned. “You are the bravest boy!” she said quietly as she swam on the side of the paddling horse. “That’s it. Keep your head up, you smart boy!”
A brisk wind picked up and the water darkened suddenly with shadows from the clouds racing in the sky above. A crack of thunder reverberated through the air and Cat looked up. Thick, dark clouds had formed and rain began to suddenly pelt down onto the water and on her face. It’s a typical day in the Highlands, Cat thought as she tried to see through the grey rain. She looked frantically around for Caden and Iris. She swam on, holding tightly to Eckle’s rope. She noticed the horse carried the rope in his mouth. At times she was pulling him along to steer him correctly, but most of the time the big horse was dragging her through the water.
Finally, they made their way around the bend of the cliff into the bay. Cat heard a braying noise and looked through the grey curtain of rain until she finally spotted Caden and Iris.
Iris was struggling and braying pitifully. She saw Caden trying to pull her along.
“Caden!” she called out as loudly as she dared. She urged Eckle to swim faster. The horse needed no urging when he saw Iris. “Caden! Are you injured? Is Iris injured?”
“Catriona!” Caden called back with relief as she came closer. “We are not injured, but Iris is terrified! Did Richerd hurt you?”
Cat wiped her curls out of her face as the rain poured down on them in grey sheets. “Nay, I am fine, and this is the bravest horse I know!”
Caden smiled at her through the pouring rain as he swam with the mule. “You are mad,” he said with a big grin as the rain poured down his face. He stroked powerfully through the water, helping the huge mule along. “We just dove off a cliff on a mule and a horse! Into the sea!”
“I could not think of any other solution but to jump and I could not leave Eckle or Iris, so they had to jump too!” she yelled over the rain and the splashing of the horse and mule as they paddled.
Iris let out a pitiful hee-haw as she paddled along. She was a very wet and unhappy mule.
“You must keep her head out of the water, Caden,” Cat said earnestly. “Watch out for her hooves! Stay to her side or get on her. You can whisper in her ear,” she said with a laugh.
“How can you laugh at a time like this?” Caden said as he swiped the rain off his face and looked at Cat with a crooked grin.
She smiled back at him. “Because I feel alive! Tired, but so alive!” she said as she tipped her face up to the rain and grinned as she let Eckle tow her along for a bit. Her skirts were heavy and cumbersome in the water and her legs kept getting tangled in them.
“They are not done with us, Catriona!” Caden shouted through the rain as he urged Iris on. He climbed up onto her back. He was able to hold her rope with enough tension to help her keep her head up out of the seawater. Once she figured that out, she swam in earnest.
“Richerd thinks I sent you to your death to spare you from him killing you.”
She looked over at her husband. His black hair hung wet and sleek down to his shoulders. His white shirt was soaked and clung to his body, showing his bronzed skin through the wet material. He was as at ease in the sea swimming with a mule in the pouring rain as he was anywhere else. Her heart swelled watching him coaxing the mule along through the water.
Cat tried to wipe the rain from her eyes. “Perhaps he thinks I chose to die with my husband,” Cat said back to him as she started swimming again beside Eckle.
“Catriona,” Caden turned and looked at her. He spoke in a low, fervent voice as he stilled on Iris’s back. He saw the stormy look in her eyes. “Never do that for me. You stay alive, my fierce heart.”
“I love you, Caden. As Kaithria says, we dinnae start a fight, we end it.” She gritted her teeth at the thought of Richerd killing Caden. She would not let that happen.
Caden stared at her with pride and love shining in his eyes, “Catriona, I could not stand it if
anything were to happen to you. Dinnae look for a fight, my fierce heart. That was a saying our mother taught us,” he said quietly as he turned and tried to see through the sheets of pouring rain. He was trying to find the shore of the bay. He saw nothing but grey rain and fog.
He looked back over at Cat where she was being pulled along by the old warhorse. Her face was wet and pale, but her lips were firm with determination. Her skirts billowed out behind her in the dark water as her legs paddled slowly. He knew she must be tiring. He slid off Iris’s back into the water to swim beside her. He put one arm around her waist and helped pull her along.“This fight has not ended, Catriona, but I do not want you in it. They will come to the house. We must think of a way to get you to safety,” he said in a low, urgent voice.
Cat swallowed. “I know they will come to the house, Caden. But I will not go quietly. I will fight to the end. With you. For you. As long as I live, I will always fight beside you.”
Caden looked at his wife. He tightened his arm around her waist as he swam along. This woman had come to rescue him where he had been tied up in the kiln. She had jumped down the well hole to get to him.
This woman, who at their first meeting had threatened to kill him, was now willing to die for him.
His throat closed with the feelings bursting within him. There was this tremendous welling of love and gratitude to have been given such a gift as Catriona. He did not think that he could ever love her more than he already did. But he knew that his love was only growing larger.
Stronger.
The couple swam together with their horses on either side of them, letting the gentle swells of the bay take them in closer and closer as the rain pelted down around them.
15
By the time they reached the shore, the rain was coming down harder and fog had moved in. They could barely see each other through it all.
Catriona was exhausted. She could not move her legs, and she could only barely move her arms. Caden stood up in the shallow water. He swept her up into his arms and carried her through the gentle waves through the driving rain and swirling fog.
Iris and Eckle trotted past them out of the small waves as soon as their hooves had hit the sandy bottom. They stopped and stood on the shore with their heads hanging low and their sides heaving. Iris’s ears were hanging low and off to either side of her head. She looked pitiful. Eckle gave a great shake of his body and then went back to hanging his neck low as he rested.
The rain was so thick that Caden could barely see Sanside House as he walked up the sandy slope carrying Cat out of the water. As soon as he reached the shore, he dropped to his knees with Cat in his arms as the rain continued to pour on them. He turned his head up to the sky as his chest heaved in great gulps of air. Cat’s head lolled against his shoulder and he felt a tremor go through her. He kissed the top of her hair and hugged her close.
“Catriona, my love, are you well?” he whispered gruffly as he tried to catch his breath.
“Aye,” she whispered. “We are out of the water but we are still getting wet,” she grumbled. “My skirts are so heavy. I need to take them off.” She pushed out of his arms and stood up, starting to push her dress off her shoulder.
“Catriona MacKay! What do you think you are doing?” roared a deep male voice.
Caden shot to his feet and stepped in front of Cat, pushing her behind his back.
He peered through the thick curtain of driving rain and the swirling mists.
He had heard one man’s voice.
He saw an army.
He pushed Cat further backward as he took a step back.
“Who are you and what is your business on this land?” Caden roared as his chest heaved with exhaustion.
“Who are you and what are you doing with my sister!” the man roared.
Cat pushed at Caden and hurriedly stepped around him. “Wolf!” she shouted.
The army of people stood at the line between the sand and the grass. They started walking towards them.
“’Tis my brother!” Cat said as she turned to Caden. She hugged Caden as she looked up into his exhausted face. “We will defeat Richerd now, you will see!”
“Get yer hands off my sister!” Wolf bellowed.
Cat turned around to look at her brother through the rain. “Caden is my husband,” Cat shouted happily to her brother.
“What?”
Caden swore he heard someone singing or humming in the rain.
“Swan, my love, ease yer mind and stop singing. I will not kill this man until I know more,” Wolf said calmly in a deep voice. “My word is truth,” he said in a low voice.
Wolf stalked down the beach to stand right in front of Caden. The two powerful Highlanders stood eye to eye.
Caden stood his ground as he faced the older warrior. He glanced behind him at the slender, lovely, red-headed woman watching them. She had a wolfhound that stood beside her. It was tall, almost reaching her waist.
Caden’s attention was brought back to the man in front of him.
“She gave her consent to marry ye willingly?” Wolf demanded of him in a deep growl.
Cat wedged herself between them. “Aye, Brother, I did. Now stop glaring at him. We need yer help!”
Wolf stared at Caden as he took a step back.
“Stand down, Wolfram!” came a high-pitched commanding voice.
Wolf groaned and turned towards the voice. He plastered a smile on his face. “I am happy to see ye, Agnes,” he said politely as he looked at the woman coming towards him. She was almost as tall as him. Her size never ceased to surprise him.
“No, you are not, but I thank you for the thought,” Aunt Agnes said. “Where is my nephew?”
“Keir is greeting his wife, I believe,” Wolf said with a wry grin and a nod of his head towards Kaithria and Keir who were wrapped in an embrace in each other’s arms.
Aunt Hextilda came shuffling down the beach to stand by Agnes. She batted Agnes on the arm. “Aggie! I told ye to wait for me, ye big giant!”
Agnes looked down at Hexy. “I cannot possibly walk that slow, Hextilda! But look, here is Catriona and Caden!”
Hexy eyed the young couple. “Ye look tired but thankfully ye are uninjured,” she declared.
“We are. We had a long swim in the rain,” Caden said as he pulled Cat towards him to enfold her in his arms. He ignored the growl that came from her brother.
Hexy turned to Wolf. “It took ye long enough! Ye missed the wedding,” she said as she eyed the big warrior.
“Ye didnae mention a wedding,” Wolf growled. “Only that there was trouble.” Wolf took a threatening step towards Caden. “Is he the trouble?”
Caden let go of Cat and took a step towards Wolf. “I love your sister, Laird MacKay. I would die for her. I vow this,” he said in a rough, heartfelt voice.
Aunt Hexy put a hand on each of their chests and pushed them farther apart. “That is enough, ye two.” She looked at the ground and shook her head, dislodging her hair bun over one eye. “This one vows he loves her and the other one’s word is truth,” she grumbled then looked at them. “Ye’ll have to learn to get along!” She peered up at Wolf MacKay. “I matched Catriona with him and ye can thank me later, Wolfram! Now then, did ye bring me girls?”
Wolf nodded. “They are speaking with their cousin, Lady Gillis,” he spoke without looking at Hexy. He kept his eyes trained on the black-haired warrior who looked at him without fear. Both men had rain pouring down their faces, but neither moved a muscle or even blinked the raindrops out of their eyes.
Aunt Hexy suddenly belted out, “Ross ladies!”
Caden and Wolf both turned to the tiny old woman who had yelled so loudly and with such authority in her voice.
“What?” Hexy cackled. “How do ye think I managed to raise these superior, warrior women? By being a weak, auld womon?”
Immediately, out of the fog, Caden saw Lady Gillis come walking down the beach. She was flanked by four women. Behind the women were massive, giant C
lydesdale horses ambling along behind their mistresses. The women had various weapons strapped to their backs. Each woman was strikingly beautiful in her own way.
Cat rushed forward to the smallest of the women. She had long, tightly curling blonde hair that fell to her waist. She grabbed Catriona up in a tight hug.
“Ina!” Cat cried out as she hugged her friend back. She pulled out of her hug and turned to grab Caden. “Remember Caden Keith? He is my husband as of this morning!” Cat said happily.
Ina looked at Caden and grinned. “Och, the prince of Morocco. I had a feeling the way Cat kept saying she wanted to kill ye. Passion is passion. Now if ye hurt her in any way I will be taking me dagger and slicing ye to tiny pieces and feeding each little piece to the crabs like a delicious morsel, and of course I shall share with the fishes too, they shall love to have a wee bite—”
“Oh dear,” said one of her sisters as Caden arched his brow at the small woman's threat and took a step toward her.
“Ina, stop,” another sister, Ceena, said firmly, and then in a blur, she turned to Caden with a dagger under his chin.
He looked down at her with narrowed eyes.
“Dinnae move,” she said. “Ina meant no harm. She just likes to tell her stories.” She glared at him. “Just in case, what is yer name?”
“I am Caden Zahrah Keith. Why?” he demanded of the ferocious sister who held a dagger to his chin.
“’Tis for yer grave marker,” she said with a crooked grin.
In a blur of speed, Caden took the dagger from her hand and put it under her chin. Just as fast Ceena pulled another dagger out of her corset belt and put this dagger back under his chin as she looked up at him with a wicked smile and a challenge in her eyes.
