She clung to him, knotting her fingers in his hair, then cradling his head against her breast, feeling his tongue against her hardening nipples, and she gave herself to his touch. She was very wet. Then the hardness of him was against her flesh and he was pushing inside her. He pressed up on his hands to look down at her, watching then catching her cries with his kisses and filling her with sensual fire.
―Ah, Rose,‖ he pressed his mouth into her hair. ―I do love ye so, lass.‖
Rose awakened late, which was not her usual custom. It had still been dark outside when she had awakened earlier to find Ruark sitting on the edge of the bed fully dressed. ―I have to go out, love,‖ he told her, pressing his lips to hers. ―I shall be back soon. Do not fret. Go back to sleep and dream of me.‖
She had walked to the window, wrapping her arms around herself for warmth as she watched him and a dozen other men ride out. ―That is the problem,‖ she said. ―I am always dreaming of you.‖
Then she crawled back beneath the covers, yet worried as she somehow managed to sleep away the rest of the morning, when she and McBain had their rounds to attend.
Rose splashed cold water over her face, brushed out her hair and plaited the length before Anaya arrived and helped her dress. The first big chill of September had arrived, and as Rose looked out her window, she saw a layer of frost on the ground. Grabbing her plaid wrap, she opened the door.
Colum sat on a chair, his arms and ankles crossed, his chin against his chest as if he were asleep—as if he had been there since Ruark left just before dawn. She gritted her teeth. She had promised her husband she would not contact the emissaries staying in the village. And he still put a guard on her. His lack of trust in her gnawed.
Rose saw that Colum was awake, pulled her shawl tighter about her shoulders and walked past him. He caught up with her at the stairs. ―Madam,‖ he complained. ― ‘Tis too early for jaunty exercise.‖
―Does he think I would seek out my father? Is he mad?‖
―Ruark trusts you fine, my lady. ‘Tis your father he does not trust. Ruark has gone to send away the emissaries.‖
Rose turned to face Colum. ―He told me he sank the Black Dragon.‖
Colum scraped a palm across his cheek. ―Went up like a Viking funeral pyre. A person could see the glow for miles.‖
―I know he didn‘t want my father to have the ship. But why . ‖
―He was retiring from the sea anyway,‖ Colum said philosophically and she glared at him in disbelief, unable to believe the man could joke.
She turned on her heel. Colum stepped in front of her. ―I am to keep you company today, madam.‖
―Is Stonehaven under threat?‖
―Your father is encamped twenty miles away. Nowhere near Stonehaven. However, I am still to keep you company.‖
Some of the tension left her shoulders. ―Still, if he is concerned enough to sic you on me, then I am concerned enough to make sure the boys stay in today.‖
Ever since Ruark had taught Jack to ride a horse, he and Jamie were off every morning to the falls.
Clouds had formed by the time she reached the stable yard fifteen minutes later. ―We were beginning to think you had forgotten us, dear,‖ Mrs. Simpson said. ―What is it?‖
―Have the boys been down this morning?‖
Rose walked past Mrs. Simpson into the stable and saw that both of their horses were gone. She clutched her shawl and walked back outside. ―How long have you been down here?
―Thirty minutes. You did say we would be leaving at eight.‖
Rose looked over her shoulder at McBain knobbing it down the hill like a pirate with a wooden shank. ―Tell McBain that we need to postpone today,‖ she said, and looked up at Colum.
―We need to fetch the two scoundrels back.‖
Before she knew what she was about, she was riding out of the stable on a feisty dun-colored mare. She knew the location of the falls, as she had gone there many times to collect plants for the herbal. But Ruark had warned the boys on more than one occasion not to go up there alone as ‘twas dangerous to swim in the waters beneath the falls. The two had become good friends but together they caused naught but mischief.
Colum rode beside her. Rose was not wearing a riding habit and the wind pulled the hair from its braid. She sat with her cloak and blue muslin skirts tucked beneath her legs and stout leather half-boots in the stirrups and kicked the mare to a run, leaping a low stone wall and scattering a flock of tits foraging around a stream. Water sprayed around her.
They galloped for three miles before reining the horses back to an easy lope. The sun emerged from behind the clouds. She spied the two horses walking free some distance from the wooded path leading up to the falls. Her heart suddenly pounding with heightened physical tension, she pulled up short. A puff of fog rose from the mare‘s nostrils.
― ‘Tis a goodly climb to the top, and cannot be done safely with a horse,‖ she said to Colum, as she tried to make sense of the apprehension that struck her like a heavy rock to her chest. ―The horses probably got loose from their reins.‖ One horse she recognized as the dragoon captain‘s horse Ruark had stolen the night he had pulled her from the river. The horse was Jack‘s favorite.
She started to ride forward, but Colum grabbed her arm. ―Those two lads know enough to hobble the horses, my lady.‖
Her mare danced sideways. Rose had to reach down to calm the horse. Her glance went to the pine trees that disappeared into the low-hanging misty sky. And she knew something was wrong.
Colum eased his sword from the scabbard, then they heard a slow ominous hiss. An arrow flew past. ―Go back now,‖ she heard him say. ―Go!‖
The first arrow missed them both, hissing past Rose‘s head. The second and third hit Colum directly in the ribs, another somewhere else, she could not see. Her horse reared up, saving her life as a fifth arrow struck the mare in the throat. The horse screamed and faltered and went down in a flurry of hooves. Rose hit the ground hard; searing pain exploded in her head, driving her momentarily into unconsciousness.
When she stirred and tried to push up on her elbow, she saw Colum unmoving a few yards away, blood pooling around his head. She called his name. She struggled to pull her leg from beneath the fallen mare. ―Colum!‖
A pair of heavy black boots appeared where she leaned her hand against the ground. She looked up.
Geddes Graham!
She had not seen him or thought about him since she had held a blade to his bollocks and demanded Jack‘s coin returned. He could not be here.
―Milady Countess,‖ he mocked as he squatted beside her, ―ye ain‘t so big now without my knife in yer hand, are ye?‖
She glared up at him through a tangle of hair. ―What have you done?!‖
Had Geddes killed the boys, too? Rage filled her and gave her strength.
From behind her, brutal hands dragged her to her feet. She cried out with the pain, then faced Geddes, that traitorous carnivore, with hissing fury, and kicked out at him, nearly striking him in the bollocks. Her foot hit his stomach instead.
―Bitch!‖ He backhanded her and split her lip. Only the rough hands gripping her kept her from falling.
Geddes gripped her hair, forcing her face back. ―Your dear da is payin‘ us to see ye delivered to him. He did no‘ tell us in what condition you had to be.‖
Rose tried to hang on to consciousness. Her swollen mouth stumbled to form her next words. ―Why would my father do this?‖
Geddes laughed. ― ‘Tain‘t you Hereford wants, my thorny Rose.‖
Chapter 24
Rose came awake in slow stages, aware of the rocking movement of the wagon, and felt sick and momentarily disoriented.
She turned on her side, attempted to see through the slats in the wagon, and saw that the sun had nearly set. A lazy twilight had settled over the sky. She saw two of Geddes‘s henchmen trailing the wagon on horseback.
Ruark would know she was gone by now. She fell back and let her eye
s adjust to the dark.
She lay atop smelly furs and blankets in a gaily painted trader wagon, filled with an assortment of wares. Pots and pans dangling from the roof clanked and rattled along with crockery, teacups. Nostrums and remedies jostled in their glass and tin containers, all neatly set in wooden brackets near the tailgate.
Though she was bound, Geddes had tied her hands in front of her this time, not at her back as he had all day yesterday, since she had worked up a few tears and pleaded for his mercy today. Geddes enjoyed her groveling. Bastard.
She was confident in her ability to outwit her captors, who seemed more nervous today and less attentive to her, and ignored her still tender and bruised mouth, now chafed with rope burns as she had gnawed through much of the knot. But in her exhaustion, her mind touched on Colum, and her throat tightened as she squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to think about him.
She was sure the boys had survived. Geddes had not bragged about finding anyone else at the falls, and he didn‘t have time to search, taking the extra horses instead.
Jack must have seen Geddes in time, she realized. Jack would know him and was smart enough to take Jamie and hide. Ruark would have already found the boys safe. She knew even now Ruark was coming after her.
Ruark had been correct when he‘d told her they were connected. She could feel his heartbeat inside her as he must feel hers.
Aye, he was coming for her.
Geddes Graham and her father would rue the day they had been born.
The clatter of dozens of horses alerted Rose. She knew Geddes sometimes left the group to scout ahead for a hidden place to camp. After a while, the wagon lumbered to a halt. She felt it dip, then heard footsteps in the dirt as someone walked to the tailgate. A bolt slid back on the thick wood, first on one side then the other. A creaking sounded. The door came down and the canvas covering slid back to reveal Lord Hereford. She could not sit straight for all the goods hanging above her. He took one look at her.
―Get her out of there,‖ she heard her father say to someone just out of her vision.
The mountebank appeared. She scooted, desperate to be free of the tomblike enclosure. He pulled until she could sit on the tailgate. A chill wind hit her. As the rough hemp on her ankles was hastily removed, she glanced briefly at the mottled magenta and amber-stained sky before focusing on the hand that helped her stand. The mountebank wore the same tatty loose-fitting frock, waistcoat, and greasy leggings she‘d seen him wearing in Castleton.
As she struggled for balance, she faced her father. He captured her chin between his thumb and his forefinger and tilted her face. ―Who struck her?‖
When no one answered, he dropped his hand and turned to face Geddes. Without warning, her father‘s arm swung in an arc and backhanded Geddes across the mouth. ―I don‘t care what you bloody do to the other women in your life, but this one is my daughter, and you will not lay a fucking hand on her again.‖
Geddes‘s lank brown hair hung in his eyes as he pressed the back of his hand to his bloody mouth. ―She ain‘t te be trusted,‖ he said.
―Of course, she isn‘t to be trusted! But I want Roxburghe cooperative. See that she is fed and cleaned up.‖
Geddes grabbed her arm. ―Why are you doing this?‖ she demanded of her father. ―Why did you go to all the trouble to send me my mother‘s things and ask to visit Stonehaven . ‖ His actions were so cold. So utterly . cold.
Hereford‘s gaze swung back around to her, his smile unpleasant. ―Roxburghe reneged on every agreement we made. A week ago, I received notice from his solicitor that he has made a legal claim upon Kirkland Park on your behalf. No one. I mean no one betrays me.‖
―Can he do that?‖ she whispered.
―Oh, aye. ‘Tis called blackmail. He can tell the world I am a pirate, I can tell the world he is a pirate. We can both produce proof against the other and most probably be hanged for it all. And he can face a tribunal for kidnapping and raping you.‖
―But you forced our marriage.‖
―No jury will deny a father‘s need to protect his daughter any way he can. And I will see it annulled.‖
More powerful at that moment even than despair was fury at her father as he turned on his booted heel and strode across the camp, where he conversed with two red-coated dragoons setting up a tent.
She shouted after him. ―It cannot be annulled!‖
Geddes tossed a blanket on the ground at her feet. His contemptuous gaze swept her tangled hair and crumpled clothing. ―Many pardons, m‘lady, that we cannot offer ye a more accommodating bedchamber. One I‘m sure you‘ve grown accustomed to these past months.‖
―My husband will come for me,‖ she said casually, as one might announce a change of weather. ―He will hunt the lot of you down. But you, Geddes Graham . he will take special pleasure in killing. And if he does not, I will!‖
She derived enormous satisfaction as she watched a momentary flash of doubt in his eyes.
―My father will not protect you. Let me go now and I will see that at least your life is spared.‖
Geddes sneered. ―If only I could, me thorny Rose. Lord Hereford and me . Let me just say we got us a special understanding.‖
Her eyes swept his swollen mouth. ―I can see how much that special understanding means to him.‖
Geddes walked away, leaving her to sit on a rock and absently rub her ankles where the ropes had burned into her skin.
The mountebank presented her with a bloated skin that looked as if it had been recently filled in the stream. ―We‘ve stopped fer the night, Miss Rose,‖ he said. ―So ye can rest now.‖
Rose numbly accepted the skin. Her hands remained bound and they trembled despite her best effort. As she drank, she looked over the rim at the mountebank. He had a face like a shaggy brown cow with large sad eyes and an underbite that made his lower jaw protrude. More so now with his emotions in his eyes. Wiping his greasy hands on his frock, he shifted from foot to foot.
―I‘ll bring a bowl and a rag fer ye to clean up.‖
She watched him rummage through the back of his precious wagon filled with nostrums, throwing items this way and that. The sun was almost gone for the day. Rose looked up at the indigo sky and could not help the path of her thoughts as she thought desperately of Ruark.
He was trying to get back Kirkland Park for her. He must know the effort would fail.
Her father stood across the camp outside a tent, directing men to the watch detail. She studied his harsh profile. She glanced briefly at Geddes‘s men as they unsaddled horses and prepared a small cooking fire.
She could see about three dozen men sprawled out over forty yards. A wood of trees sat to her right and at her back. In front of her, mist rose from a field stretching into the darkness that ended on a high ridge a half mile away.
Rolf returned with a ceramic bowl the size of a cocked hat. ―Why are you involved with Geddes and my father, Rolf?‖
―I travel. Know things, Miss Rose.‖ He looked away. ―I‘ve seen things, too. Things a man oughtn‘t see.‖
After he left her, Rose dipped the cloth in the water. The rag was fraught with some questionable sticky substance and she dropped it in the bowl without using it. Pulling experimentally at the bonds on her wrists, she looked toward the woods. Men walked the perimeter of the camp. Would she get far if she ran? Maybe. Dark was upon them. She threw one last glance at the clearing.
Standing and making a pretense of cleaning a spot on her ankle, she let the blood circulate in her feet. Then, with skirts lifted, she ran twenty yards and she was in the trees. Shouts followed her escape.
Fear seized her body and with it the sound of pursuing men crashing into the woods after her. She tripped when her skirts caught on a branch, then she ran head-on into a bear.
A huge beast. Or at least to her it seemed that way. She screamed and recoiled as two giant clawed hands clamped down on her shoulders to keep her from falling backward. She screamed. Her eyes swung upward past thickly furred a
rms and hit Duncan‘s face. He wore a bearskin cloak fastened at the neck with a wooden clasp.
Behind her, twenty men crashed into the clearing, some armed with dirks and daggers, others with pistols. Geddes was the last through the ranks, breathing hard as he found her. He thudded forward with murder in his eyes, was nearly upon her before he noticed the bear and stopped.
Duncan nudged her aside but kept a firm grasp on her arm. He looked casually among the group. ―Have I interrupted somethin‘, lads?‖
―Who be ye?‖ Geddes demanded.
―The name be Duncan Kerr,‖ he said slowly and deliberately. ―I‘ve come to offer my services to Hereford. I am Roxburghe‘s uncle.‖
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