by Sky Winters
“That's beside the point,” he said. “We have to make them think we can't stand each other. It's all part of my plan.”
“How do you know I can’t stand you?” she teased. He laughed and winked at her.
She felt herself blushing and looked down at the ground.
“That's how,” he said. “Now quick, look like you're hungry.”
“I am hungry!”
“Great, you'll look the part then!”
She tried to repress her smile and did as he ordered. The guards walked past their cell, talking in low murmurs, glancing in at them. She took it as her cue to beg, and he took a bite of his dinner, a gloating grin on his face. When the guards were gone, he fed her a few bites until they returned, and they resumed their little game.
“Why should we hate each other?” Sadie asked softly as she chewed.
“Well, if the guards think we're miserable together, they'll keep us together and laugh about it. We'll have time to plan, and I think...”
A guard passed, and James said, “Bugger off!” loudly, taking another spoonful into his mouth and chewing pointedly. “Just because you're royalty doesn't mean I owe you the skin off me back!”
Even though he was joking, it stung a little to be spoken to like that, but as soon as the guards were out of earshot he gave her a wink that instantly made her feel better.
“Besides that, we can create a diversion. Get their attention, you know, so we can get out of here once and for all. Soon as I have the key, we're home free. Would you mind doing something a bit improper?”
“That depends,” she said, taking the big wooden spoon into her mouth. The spoon itself tasted old and moldy, but she tried to ignore it.
“I need you to flirt with the guards. The big one passing by in a bit, specifically. The best way to get away with something is to distract them. When their attention is elsewhere, as it surely will be if a lady such as yourself were to pay attention to one of them, little old me will be invisible. Once I get the keys, you'll see, I can get us out of here safely, no matter how many guards are out there. I just can't be stuck in here like a caged bear.” His features darkened, and he seemed lost in his own thoughts.
Sadie's mind wandered back to the castle tour, where she had seen a painting of a group of men fighting against three unbelievably large bears. She thought the artist had a love of exaggeration, but the unlikely possibility that it happened would probably have resulted in the group of men being massacred. James' voice broke through her thoughts, and she forgot about the painting.
“Can you do that, lass, or is it against your upbringing?” he said the last part as a tease, but she could tell that he would have respected her had it been the case.
“Sometimes you just must flirt with a terrible man to get yourself out of a dungeon,” she said with a shrug.
James laughed and gave her an approving nod. “It's all part of war, I'm afraid. And getting that man's mind on his trousers will be just the thing we need. We should wait until nightfall though. It's just the one lad for guard duty and it will make our jobs easier. No one will be watching him, and I can pretend to be asleep.”
“All right, James.”
James gave her a comforting smile, and she wondered if he liked the way his name rolled from her lips as much as she liked everything that brushed his.
They finished their meal, and he leaned back against the cold stone wall. “I expect my blanket back by nightfall!” he exclaimed loudly. “I didn't know I was bunked with such a wench.”
She was ready this time. “You call this a blanket, you rat? It's just a tattered bag. Get over yourself.”
They heard the guards cackling to themselves further down the corridor and smiled at each other. Now all they had to do was wait around for nightfall.
Chapter 5
Although it was fun to pretend they hated each other, it left Sadie feeling guilty. She had never spoken unkindly to anyone before, so she wasn't sure she would be any good at it. In the time they had alone, she told this to James and he grinned.
“Do you have someone in your life you can't stand?”
“I do,” she said, and told him all about her ex-husband and what he had done to her.
James' face grew dark as he listened. “You deserve better than that,” he said decidedly. “But I have an idea. And maybe this will help you feel better – just say to me what you wish you could say to him. Don't be afraid to hurt me, I'll just laugh about it. And maybe you'll be able to put it behind you, eh lass?”
“Are you sure?” Sadie asked. “I have a lot of angry thoughts about that little maggot.”
“All the better!” he exclaimed. “Give me your worst!”
He seemed eager enough, and delighted by the idea. It was hard to let him down. She wouldn't want to know what his bright face looked like when it had fallen into darkness. She was sure he was capable of fierceness.
“If you're sure. It might be weird at first. But all right, let's try that.”
Sadie didn't know she could enjoy thinking up so many insults, and the mock, wounded faces he gave her were hysterical. She had to hold in her laughter for fear of the guards catching on. Once, she even slipped up, and she had to cover it up by pretending that she was sobbing.
“Oh, I wish I never met you! Or Lord Lachlan, or anybody! Won't somebody get me out of here?!”
James nodded his approval, an impressed expression on his face. She grinned, laughing quietly to herself as a guard's voice echoed down the hall.
“Nobody here who's going to help you, wench. Now shut your mouth!”
James and Sadie vibrated with inaudible laughter, hiding their faces into the walls. If she knew the dungeon could be this fun, she would have pulled the knife on Lord Lachlan sooner.
***
Finally, night began to fall and the amount of shuffling through the corridors decreased. The voices stopped shouting, and the constant clanking became a soft shuffling and the gentle metal rattle of keys clamoring against each other. James gave her the signal, and she moved to the front of the cell, close to the bars where the guards would sit during the night time hours to keep an eye on things. Sadie and James were the two main prisoners, so instead of staying outside the cells of a drunkard or a raving madwoman, shouting slurs against the crown and Lord Lachlan, claiming they were cursing her and all deserved to die, the guard would surely perch there between his rounds.
James leaned against the wall, his head slumped down into his chest. He let it drop and breathed gently. If she didn't know better, she would have sworn his act was the real thing, and that somewhere he was off in his own head, perhaps dreaming about the future as she was dreaming of the past. She took the chance to study him in the torch light. Her eyes had adjusted to the dimness of the dungeon, and now he was illuminated to her enough that she could gaze upon him properly.
He was just as handsome as her first impression of him, and she allowed her gaze to secretly roam the gentle slopes of his muscles and the war paint that was beginning to peel off his torso. She longed to touch it, to help him peel and scrub it off himself, or at the least to have its texture under her fingertips, her palms against his warm chest. She tried not to think too much about that and simply shivered. He had taken his potato sack blanket back by force, though she knew he was acting. When she had asked him again why it would be helpful for the guards to think she hated him, he gave a soft laugh.
“Everyone hates me around here. It wouldn't be proper for us to be getting along. Do you think the guard would want his stallion in a Highlander lover? I'm here because I'm exactly the kind of man Lord Lachlan can't stand. I uphold my beliefs and protect my kind. I cause trouble in his kingdom. He captured me and kept me here, so he can execute me himself just before or right after he married you. Apparently, that's the only way he'd be able to get his rocks off on his wedding night.”
Another crude wink, and then he was back to tugging the blanket away from her and making himself a comfortable nest with it in
the corner, near the entrance where she had been instructed to whisper into the guard's ear. It didn't take long before the guard was outside, standing in front of the bars dutifully. She looked over at James, who seemed to be watching beneath his seemingly closed eyes. He gave her a reassuring nod.
She inhaled deeply, pressing her body against the bars and into the guard's back, exhaling gently into his ear. “I always thought I would experience the touch of a man before my death,” she whispered, moving her body gently up and kissing the back of the guard's neck gently.
He stiffened and said nothing, seeming to weigh his options.
“I'm going to die a virgin. I'll never get to find out about these feelings. If I should die a sinner, is it not possible to die having done God's most pleasurable sin?”
James had moved forward silently, reaching his hand tentatively through the bars toward the keys. He motioned to her hands, and she knew she was supposed to take it another step further, so he wouldn't think the movement of his keys suspicious. She could almost hear James smiling, trying not to laugh out loud. The guard was captivated, completely under her spell, and she wrapped her arms around him, touching his chest and trailing her hands down, hovering over his groin and bringing a soft groan to his lips.
“Please don't let me die empty,” she whispered.
It had been a long time since she considered her own physical attractiveness. Her ex-husband hadn't been keen on praising it or pointing it out, and somehow, she’d forgotten that it was a part of her identity. But the guard hadn't, and neither had James, who slipped the key off its ring and fled back to his corner with it.
“Hey! What's going on over there! Guards! Guards! This woman is being a succubus!” James shouted gleefully.
The guard stood quickly and pushed himself away from her, clearing his throat. “Mind yourself, miss!” the guard said sternly, then walked away quickly, no doubt to calm himself down.
They were left alone in the dungeon and James grinned, holding up the glimmering key ring. “Let's get ourselves out of here.”
Chapter 6
Sadie crept behind James as he crouched, his golden muscles rippling in the torch light. He paused suddenly, holding his hand back to stop her. After a moment, he motioned her to continue following. Her heart pounded nervously. She had begun to believe that whatever was happening was real, and whether it was a dream or not, she wanted to escape without having to face Lord Lachlan again.
“Listen, lass, what do you know about the layout of this place?” he asked under his breath. His whispers echoed hauntingly off the stone walls, and she thought back to the tour she had escaped from. What had it been like when she was roaming around with the tour group? It seemed like only hours ago, that the world was normal, and now here she was, sneaking around a dungeon with this handsome stranger. Fortunately, she had been through the dungeon first; it was a place of grotesque interest to most of the tourists, especially considering Lord Lachlan's bloody history and preferences.
“If we keep going, there's a staircase. It leads up into a closet...well, I'm not sure what that would be here. But back in my time it was a closet, with brooms and things like that. But it's close to a door coming in from the back. We met in front of the castle then went around to see the dungeon first.”
“Right, must make it easier to put captives in their place without disturbing his royal slumber,” James said bitterly.
He must have lost people close to him, people he had loved, Sadie realized suddenly. She had gotten used to his playful nature, but now, hearing the grim note in his voice, the plight of the Highlanders never seemed so real. These were real women and men, children, who had been terrorized. All because they wanted to defend their way of life from the crown. Whether he was just an actor or not, having this reality was disturbing and sad. She wished she could change the atrocities...
Then she realized that may be exactly what she was supposed to do. Whether she knew it or not, there was something unexplainable at work – magic maybe, or maybe just a deep dream in a haunting old castle. Either way, she was here, and there was no waking herself up out of it.
James continued creeping along the corridors, listening intently, with his muscular neck craned. They made it safely to the staircase, one that wound in a slow circle up to the next level. She nearly ran into him when he slowed to a stop. The nearness of his body quickened her heartbeat. She was sure he would hear it, but instead he turned to her and grinned.
“I smell fresh air. You did well, lass. Let's get out of here.”
Sadie couldn't smell anything but the fuel of the torches and the musky stones, but she trusted his rugged senses. It felt good to make him proud, and she smiled privately to herself as he turned back to the stairs ahead of him. They walked carefully up toward the closet, listening intently for any sound of movement.
When they reached the top of the staircase, the sound of voices echoed toward them. Suddenly, Sadie was weightless as James picked her up in his strong arms and ducked into the room that she remembered being a closet. He held her protectively close to his chest, curling himself so that he was in front of her with his eyes fixed on the door, ready and alert.
Being so close to him that she could practically feel his heartbeat made her nervous. She peered up at him, the chiseled features of his face, his eyes, narrow but beautiful. His mouth was full, for a man's, and he didn't have the same steroid-buff look of the men she saw at the gym. Rather, he was solid, almost meaty, as if he had earned every muscle in his body. She had never thought that the muscular look was particularly attractive, hence her ex-husband, but now that she was pinned in James' strong arms, forbidden curiosities of what else he might be capable of playing on her mind, she had a sudden change of heart.
He seemed to sense the shift in her energy and glanced down at her, a soft smile spreading on his lips, barely there before it was gone, and he was back to listening to the voices of the men as they neared, ultimately passing the closet and heading down the staircase. They were telling crude jokes about women, and she recognized one of the voices as the guard she had been ordered to seduce. When they were about halfway down the stairs, out of sight but not out of earshot, James lifted her again, apparently not trusting her to keep silent, and carried her out the open door of the castle. They were free.
Chapter 7
James ran swiftly with her in his arms. There was no way she would have been able to keep up with him. It was thrilling to be pressed into his chest as they ran, but she imagined she would have different feelings about it if it were any other man. Somehow though, she trusted him with her life, and they were running through the trees now.
Wait, trees? Last she remembered, there were no trees, just a huge grassy yard and a large parking lot. Since when was the castle surrounded by foliage? She didn't have time to pursue the thought before a sudden commotion met their ears. The guards had discovered their empty cell, and now they were on the rampage. The whole castle seemed suddenly alive with activity, and she heard the galloping of hooves as men mounted their horses after the fugitives.
What had seemed to be a romantic dream suddenly turned into a nightmare as James and Sadie were surrounded by a huge group of men. James couldn’t outrun the horses, not when they were being whipped and kicked. He stopped, setting Sadie down and pushing her gently behind his broad back.
“Well, now, looks like we've got company!” he said to her cheerfully. She was frightened, but his effort to keep her feeling calm made her feel a little bit better.
“Stuff your face!” the guard that Sadie had manipulated shouted. He was the most embarrassed and angry of all of them. The rest of them just looked predatory, excited for the hunt. “You have violated Lord Lachlan's orders, and for that you—” he leered at Sadie, “the both of you—must pay the price.”
“Lord Lachlan wants them brought back alive, so he can finish them himself,” one of the guards said dutifully.
“Well, Lord Lachlan should have put his knickers on and
come to join us for the hunt then,” the angry guard shouted. “Do your best to follow orders but show no mercy! The little wench is a Highlander lover; it's why she's down there in the first place. Don't you think Lord Lachlan figured that out?”
With that, the troops began to advance upon Sadie and James. An involuntary gasp of fright escaped her lips and she clenched James’ back. But he wasn't James anymore. She was surprised when her fingers gripped a handful of fur. She looked up in confusion as the man in front of her grew taller and taller still, until he towered above the group of men. The blood drained from her face as she realized that James had shape shifted into a huge black bear. He unleashed a mighty, earth-shattering roar, and she fell back onto the ground in shock. The roar spooked the horses, and they took off running. Many of the men were thrown from their steeds, while others hopped off just in time. Some were trapped on their horses as they bolted through the dark forest, cursing at their mounts but clinging for dear life.
They were left facing off with seven men, all of them panting in anticipation of the battle before them. Sadie's heart thudded in her ears as James, or the bear, rather, lunged into the group of men. He gave a swipe of his large paw, disarming most of them of their swords. Those left defenseless either scrambled to retrieve their swords or ran into the dark forest, back toward the castle. If they stayed on the frontlines, it was to their detriment. James showed no mercy and pounced at them, sinking his teeth into one as he batted still another with his fierce paw, craning his neck quickly to tear into another man who fumbled with his weapon.
