Highlander's Heart 0f Steel (Beasts 0f The Highlands Book 5)

by Alisa Adams

  “I have never felt this bad,” she said with a grumbling whimper. “Och, it hurts. What did those scunners hit me with? Och, I dinnae like me hands being tied! If they were free I’d grab me golf club lying over there and wallop them something fierce!” She tugged at the ropes on her wrists uselessly and then stopped and let out an angry and painful sigh.

  “’Tis why they tied our hands, mo chridhe,” Steil said with a small grin at her.

  “Our hands are tied,” Neely said, and looked down at her boots. “And our ankles. They must be vera afraid of us!”

  “Aye,” Steil chuckled. “They have tied us well and good. I’m not sure what they hit ye with, mo ghraidh, but try not to move yer head. It will help the pain.” He touched his shoulder gently against hers. “But it seems that Mr. Waddle is the father to the twins,” Steil said in a hushed voice as he nodded his head towards the front of the cave.

  Walter Waddle and his two sons were arguing quietly as they took furtive glances now and then at Neely and Steil.

  “I think they are talking aboot us,” Neely whispered back to Steil. Then she looked at him and bumped him with her shoulder. “Can ye untie your wrists?” she whispered as she leaned closer.

  “I have been trying. They are looser. Can ye turn slightly? They willnae be able to see if I work on yers,” Steil whispered back as he smiled into her eyes.

  “How can ye be smiling at a time like this?” she admonished him in a harsh whisper.

  Steil smiled even broader. “Turn just a bit, dinnae call attention to us.”

  Neely went very still and turned, ever so slightly, as if she was just stretching a little. She felt Steil’s fingers on her hands, and then down on her wrists. She felt him pulling and tugging on the ropes that bound her wrists tightly, until she felt them loosen. She started to bring her hands forward but Steil stopped her.

  “Nay! Keep them behind yer back with the rope on them, mo ghraidh, I know ’tis uncomfortable, but ye mustnae give it away that yer hands are untied. Just wait,” he said huskily.

  Neely made a frustrated sound but sat back with her hands tucked behind her. She looked at Steil.

  “I heard ye call me mo ghraidh,” she whispered with her breath held.

  “Did I?” Steil asked as he continued to work on the ropes of his own wrists.

  “Ye did and ye know it, ye gallus mon,” she said with a hopeful smile as she looked at his profile. He was watching Mr. Waddle and his sons while he worked at his own ropes.

  “Can I help ye with that?” Neely asked him as she leaned closer.

  “Nay, I almost have it,” he said with gritted teeth. “They’ll notice if I turn so ye can untie me. I dinnae want to endanger ye, mo ghraidh.”

  “Ye love me,” she declared with a grin. “Ye do.”

  “Neilina Eunson,” Steil sighed as his fingers pulled at the knots in the ropes on his wrists. They had tied his wrists tighter than they had Neely’s.

  “Aye?” she teased him.

  Walter Waddle came walking furiously towards them. “Ye are talking too much!” Walter Waddle said angrily. “Make ye wife stop her blethering. Now!”

  Neely looked up at Walter Waddle. “I was not blethering!” she insisted loudly, keeping Waddle’s attention on her while Steil worked faster on the ropes. “How dare ye! And ye let one of yer sons strike me, and ye hit me husband, the Lord of Brough!” She held his eyes with her own, glaring at him fiercely. “And while ye and I are talking,” she said with a grim smile, “where is me da? Ye ran with him, so I think ye know where he is.” She eyed Waddle with one brow raised.

  The twins barked out a laugh from the front of the cave.

  “What is so funny?” she demanded of them.

  They turned from her to look out of the cave.

  A man walked into the opening of the cave. He stopped, standing in the shadows as he looked at the twins. Neely knew that walk, knew the set of those shoulders and the shape of that head. Even in the dark shadows of the cave.

  “Da?” she called out in a sob.

  Her father’s head turned abruptly from the Waddle twins to his daughter.

  “Neely?” he called out with shock as he started running quickly towards her. “What is going on here?” he yelled. “Waddle? What have ye done to me daughter? And is that Lord Greysteil!” he said as he came closer to Neely and Steil.

  Walter Waddle and his sons did not answer him but instead turned and walked hastily out of the cave.

  Steil watched them go. His brows furrowed suspiciously as he watched them leaving the cave in such a hurry.

  Gilbert Eunson did not notice that Waddle and his twin sons were gone. He was too busy fussing over his daughter, pulling the loose ropes off her wrists and bending down to untie her ankles. He was rambling away about leaving her, and worrying about her, but then he said something about being afraid they were coming for him.

  Neely kept trying to ask him questions, but Gilbert had turned to untie the ropes around the ankles of Steil’s booted feet. Both Neely and her father were talking over the other and getting nowhere.

  “Who was coming for ye Da? And why would that make ye run away from a battle? I dinnae understand! Those soldiers who attacked Brough werenae there for ye, they were looking for the king's illegitimate son,” Neely said as her father kept on with his rushed explanation.

  “Nay, me daughter. ’Twas me they wanted. They knew aboot me whisky!” her father insisted.

  “But that cannae be,” Neely said in confusion.

  “Yer father has been operating an illegal still for quite some time, Neilina,” came Steil’s deep voice.

  Gilbert Eunson looked guiltily at his daughter.

  Neely stared at her father in doubt and fear. “Ye havenae,” she said firmly.

  “Aye, lass, ’tis sorry I am to say that Lord Greysteil is correct.” He dodged her eyes. “When they attacked Brough, I thought they were after me, so I ran. ’Twas a shameful thing I did, and a shameful thing I have been doing. Since yer mither died, I had to find a way to take care of ye, to put food on the table. Shameful, I know,” he ended in a whisper, as his eyes pleaded with her to forgive him, or understand. He was looking for any softness he could find within her heart.

  Neely’s eyes filled with tears. “Ye have been doing this since mither died? That long? ’Tis been years,” she whispered brokenly. She turned to Steil. “And ye knew this, all this time? Ye knew?”

  Steil could only look at her.

  Neely stepped away from Steil. Her arms were wrapped around her stomach, as if she was in pain.

  Steil’s attention was suddenly caught by movement at the front of the cave. He went rigid as the shadow of a man walked into the cave. It was not Waddle or either of his sons. Steil slowly rose to his feet.

  Neely felt Steil’s tension as he stood, his eyes on the figure at the front of the cave. She saw his face go wary, noticed the change in him. The readiness for whatever may come. A soldier through and through.

  Gilbert noticed Steil’s readiness as well. He turned to face the stranger who had just walked into the cave. The stranger stood in the shadows, out of the flickering golden light thrown by the few torches hanging on the walls.

  “Who are ye?” Gilbert asked carefully as he looked the man up and down. He could see enough to make out that the man’s clothes were English, and he was armed.

  The man slowly pulled a pistol from his waistband as he stepped into the light. “I am Captain John Porteous,” the man said importantly, as he held his pistol on them.

  “What do ye want here?” Gilbert demanded.

  “He is an exciseman, Mr. Eunson,” Steil said quietly, as he kept his eyes on the captain. He pulled at the ropes on his wrists, slowly, so as not to attract attention. His hands were still tied, though loosely, but not enough to pull his hands free yet. Gilbert Eunson had successfully managed to untie his ankles. He moved very slightly, trying to block Neely from the direction that the captain’s pistol was aimed.

  “A
gauger?” Gilbert said with dread.

  “That is correct sir,” the captain said to Gilbert. “I have received word of smuggling in this area, as well as the thievery of cattle and sheep.”

  “Neilina, come here, next to me,” Steil commanded under his breath.

  “What? Why? Me da— ” Neely started to say more but Steil cut her off.

  “The captain is here for yer father, Neilina,” Steil said in a low voice.

  Neely spun towards the captain and then to her father.

  “No! Me da was no part of this! He is nae a thief!” Neely said urgently to the captain with fear in her eyes.

  Gilbert Eunson stepped in front of Neely and Steil. “Ye want me, not them Captain Porteous.”

  “Nay!” Neely said loudly.

  “I’ll be the judge of that,” the captain spoke harshly over Neely’s objection.

  Gilbert stepped towards the captain. He turned slightly and pointed to Steil. “This is Lord Greysteil McKinnon,” Gilbert said, “and this is—”

  “This is my wife. Lady Neilina McKinnon,” Steil said in a deep and authoritative voice.

  The captain just raised an eyebrow and stared at the big Highlander, who held his hands calmly behind his back as if he was at a social gathering.

  Steil waited, but the captain did not respond. “I am Lord of Brough Castle. Laird Greysteil McKinnon,” he added.

  The captain smiled grimly. “Seems to me, sir, that you are no longer the lord of any castle or laird over any McKinnons. This land is barren of people this far north.”

  Neely gasped and shoved her way in front of Steil and her father. “’Tis an ancient title held by his family. The people will return to Brough and twill no longer be empty! It was yer Clearances that have wrought their leaving!”

  Steil growled and stepped forward, trying to push her behind his back again.

  Neely would have none of it.

  Gilbert stepped forward. “Tis me ye want.” He held his hands out placatingly to the captain. “Me daughter and her husband had naught to do with anything. I have a whisky distillery back there in thon cave, and have been trespassing here, on Lord McKinnon’s land.”

  “This is yer home too, Da!” Neely said with a cry as she lunged forward to her father.

  The captain’s booming voice stopped Neely. “I am aware that you have a still on the property Mr. Eunson. It has already been brought to my attention. You will have to answer for this and the thievery of the cattle and sheep. I assume you are selling them as well? The caves along the sea coast are perfect for drying the meat in the salty air I am told.” He raised his pistol at him. “Tis gaol for ye, Gilbert Eunson.”

  “Ye know me name?” Gilbert said with a note of surrender to his voice.

  “Yes, Mr. Eunson, I was told your name,” the captain said.

  “Nay!” screamed Neely.

  “I am so sorry, me daughter,” Gilbert said as he moved towards the captain with the utmost sorrow and dread on his face.

  Neely spun towards Steil. “Ye!” she said through her tears. “Ye alerted the excisemen! ’Twas ye that told them of me father. Ye gave them his name, dinnae ye? Ye said ye knew the lights seen in Brough were smugglers and ye said ye knew he had been doing this for a long time.” She railed at him as tears poured down her face. “Ye said ye couldnae promise he would not be arrested. Ye knew the exciseman was coming, for it was ye who turned him in! How could ye? Shame on me! How could I have ever loved such a mon as ye!”

  Neely looked between the two men she loved most in the world; both had broken her heart into pieces. She backed away from them, still holding her hands to her stomach as tears ran down her face.

  There was a noise at the front of the cave and Captain Porteous spun towards it. “You there! Step where I can see you! And mind you, I have a pistol!”

  The two twins stepped further into the cave from where they had been listening at the side of the entrance.

  Gilbert Eunson pointed to them. “If any cattle or sheep have been stolen, ’twas them that did the stealing!”

  One of the twins with the shorter hair stared aghast at Gilbert. “Only a little, we’ve been busy with our own idea to deliver the whisky south. Besides, twas ye thot said we were to gather them! That the people of Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands needed them.”

  His brother thwacked him in the head. “Wheesht, ye idjut!”

  “I told ye to gather the cattle and sheep left behind from the Clearances, in any of the empty villages or cottages,” Gilbert yelled as he stepped closer to them. “Ye fools! Delivering whisky south? What have ye been up to?”

  The brother with the longer hair shoved Gilbert, hard. Gilbert stumbled back, falling against Steil.

  Steil’s hands came around from his back to catch him. He had gotten out of his ropes but had not wanted the captain to be aware of this.

  Gilbert turned back to the twins. His face was red with anger as it glowed in the flickering torchlight that made eerie shadows on the walls of the cave. “If I am going to gaol so are ye two, and yer da. For I am sure he had a hand in all the stealing and smuggling whisky south. Where is Waddle?”

  The two brothers growled and charged at Gilbert. “Ye are a traitor Gilly!” one twin hollered.

  “And never paid us enough for all we did fer ye! It’s no wonder our da wanted to do our own smuggling,” the other twin yelled.

  Steil grabbed them as they came at Gilbert, smashing their heads together.

  Neely grabbed her golf club from where it lay on the cave floor. She hit them on their heads as they tried to stand back up after Steil had knocked their heads together. They both let out sharp howls of pain as they fell back onto their buttocks, holding their heads in pain and disbelief. They spun to look at Neely in shock.

  “You!” they said as one. “You and that stick of yers!”

  “Tis a golf club, not a stick,” Neely said slowly, with a grim smile at them.

  They slowly and carefully stood up, their eyes furtively moving back and forth between Neely and Steil. Finally, they turned to glare at Steil. They lowered their heads and attempted to charge once more.

  Neely let fly her golf club again and both men went down to the floor, one falling on top of the other. Before they could get back up, Steil put a foot on the twin on the top, pressing him down firmly and holding them both onto the floor.

  Captain Porteous raised his pistol at the men. “Hold!” he shouted in warning. “Enough! You!” He pointed his pistol at the big Highlander. “Whoever you are, stay right there!”

  Gilbert took a step in front of Steil. “I told ye, he is Lord of Brough, he has nothing to do with any of this!” He spread his arms wide, beseeching the captain, as he took a step towards him.

  “Stay where you are, I say! Stay where you are!” Captain John Porteous repeated when Gilbert kept coming closer. He raised his pistol.

  Steil took his foot off the twin and quickly stepped forward to grab Gilbert. “Dinnae be a fool Eunson!” he growled in fury.

  “Do not come any closer!” the captain shouted angrily with a hint of fear in his voice. He pointed his pistol at the huge, angry-looking Highlander. This one made him nervous. The man had the look of war and battles easily won, with death being a normal, casual, and oft needed solution.

  Steil turned a scowling face to the captain as the captain fired his pistol.

  Gilbert yelled and shoved Steil out of the way just as the lead bullet went flying past, burning his sleeve and the skin of his arm and reeling him sideways onto the ground.

  Neely screamed and dropped to her knees. She helped her father to sit up and worriedly checked over his arm. “Ye are bleeding Da. The bullet grazed ye, but still, I need to stop the bleeding!”

  Neely ripped her father’s sleeve and wound it around his arm, making a bandage, then she quickly tied it off over the wound. She looked up to see the twins gone. They had run out of the cave in the chaos. She also saw Steil and Captain Porteous talking quietly, near the front of
the cave.

  “Is there another way oot of here?” she whispered crossly to her father.

  Gilbert looked up at his daughter. “Aye, back beyond the whisky still, daughter.” He pointed behind him. “We should leave while yer husband is keeping the gauger busy.”

  Neely stood up; she was watching Steil and the captain angrily. “Dinnae call me yer daughter,” she said without even a glance at her father. She had eyes only for Steil. “And dinnae call him me husband.”

  Gilbert tried to stand. He did so slowly and painfully without the use of his other arm.

  He finally managed to get to his feet. He looked around the cave as he held his bandaged arm.

  The twins were gone.

  Neely was gone as well.

  16

  Gilbert listened to what Steil and the captain were talking about. He didn’t know whether to be angry or overjoyed.

  When Steil and the captain were finished talking, Steil walked towards Gilbert, his narrowed eyes scanning the cave. “Where is Neilina?” he demanded of Gilbert.

  “She went oot of the cave from the back, behind the whisky still. Probably heading up to the castle by now,” Gilbert answered.

  Steil frowned deeply. “Go after her, make sure she gets back to the castle and the others. I am gaunnie go after those twins and Waddle!” Steil paused in turning to leave. “Gilbert Eunson?” he called out. When Gilbert stopped and turned back to look at him questioningly, Steil said, “Thank ye for trying to block that bullet for me. I am glad ye are not hurt badly.”

  Gilbert ducked his head in embarrassment. “No thanks necessary. ’Tis me that owes ye all the thanks in the world!” With that Gilbert hurried out of the back way of the cave.

  Once Neely got out of the cave, she quickly made her way back up to the castle, crying the whole way. She did not go into the castle tower, but instead went to Mentieth’s paddock. She stood on the rock wall and called to him.

  The horse came trotting up to her, nickering softly at the sound of her voice.

  Neely threw her arms around Teeth’s neck and sobbed. She sobbed at the loss of her childhood vision of her father as her hero, sobbed at the loss of the only man she had ever loved betraying her by alerting the authorities about her father’s smuggling. Her heart was heavy as the tears clogged her vision and her sobs tightened her throat. The black horse stood still, letting her cling to him.