Highland Ruse: Mercenary Maidens - Book Two

by Martin, Madeline

  The blade of the sword pressed to the black silk ribbon tied to Sylvi’s throat, so close it brought the thin silk down just enough to reveal the ragged pink skin of a raw scar.

  It wasn’t until she saw the reminder of what Sylvi had been through that Delilah realized what she’d said, what she’d done. The pulse at Sylvi’s throat leapt hard and fast.

  Delilah lowered the blade.

  Sylvi took a long, slow breath in and then carefully hissed it free. Sweat shone at her brow. Delilah knew it was not from their exertion.

  Three years ago, Sylvi would have had Delilah on the ground and bleeding for having touched her neck. After being the sole survivor of her family’s massacre, Sylvi was tender about the reminder. The scar along her neck where someone tried to have her join them in death wasn’t without its own level of sensitivity.

  Sylvi regarded Delilah with her cold, pale stare. “I would do anything to save them. Even if it meant leaving on my own.” She threw down the staff. It landed silently on a cloth bag lying against the side of the castle wall.

  Delilah staggered back. She’d been so upset over Kaid declining to leave early, she hadn’t even considered the option of going alone. Perhaps because she didn’t want to leave without Kaid.

  Not again.

  And yet, if it would save Claire…

  Sylvi looked beyond Delilah’s shoulder. “But before you decide to go out on your own, you may want to see what he says about that.” With a smirk, Sylvi strolled out of the shadows, toward the castle.

  Delilah winced inwardly. She knew who was behind her before she turned. Yet still she allowed herself to spin on her heel and peer into the darkness for the familiarity of his face.

  True to her suspicions, it was Kaid.

  And she couldn’t help but wonder exactly how much of their conversation he’d overheard.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “Were ye considering leaving without me?” Kaid asked.

  Delilah stared at him for a moment and took in how the moonlight fell behind him, leaving a white glow surrounding his broad shoulders. He was strong, powerful, handsome.

  She was still angry with him.

  “How long have you been standing there?” The demanding tone might have sounded a bit petulant, but at that point, she was so frustrated, so wounded, she didn’t care.

  “Long enough to hear Sylvi’s suggestion and familiar enough with ye to recognize the expression on yer face.” He strode forward, confident as always.

  A cold breeze blew off Loch Assynt and carried his scent toward her. She wanted to close her eyes and remember all the caresses, all the love.

  Instead she kept her eyes open and her wits about her.

  He bent and grabbed the staff Sylvi had dropped. “Will ye spar with me?” he asked.

  Delilah lifted her brows.

  He knocked the tip of the staff against the sword, which she’d let dip to the ground. The weapons connected with a hollow clunk.

  “I won’t go easy on you,” she warned.

  Kaid watched her earnestly with his vivid blue gaze. “I wouldna expect anything less.”

  Delilah put space between them. “Which weapon do you want?” She indicated Sylvi’s impressive stash.

  Kaid considered the staff in his hands before releasing it and letting it whack onto the hard ground. “No weapons.”

  Delilah tossed her sword to the pile of weapons. “Very well.”

  “I canna have ye killing me out of anger.” His jest came out flat.

  Delilah crouched low. “I don’t need a weapon to kill you.”

  Before he could reply, she leapt toward him and punched with her left fist.

  Blocked.

  Then her right.

  Blocked.

  And threw up her left arm to stop a blow he attempted to land.

  Kaid reached forward and caught her around the waist. “I understand ye’re angry with me.” He spoke into her ear, and the delicate hairs at the back of her neck stirred.

  Delilah suppressed the urge to give in to a delicious shiver. “I am.” Her elbow came back and caught him in the ribs.

  He released her, and she spun around. Her skirt swirled about her legs before twisting back the other direction and swinging against her ankles.

  “Angry enough to leave for Edirdovar?” He moved to grab her waist once more.

  This time she ducked low and met him halfway into his attack. She gripped his hips and tried to sweep his feet from under him. To no avail. The man stayed stubbornly upright.

  She rose and met his gaze. “Angry enough to leave without you.”

  He took advantage of her moment of self-righteousness by grabbing her shoulders and knocking her knees forward so they gave. He’d done to her exactly what she’d intended to do to him.

  No sooner had Delilah’s back hit the ground than Kaid was on top of her, his arms braced on either side of her head. Though she was already warm from their sparring, she found the additional heat he provided rather pleasant.

  Even if she didn’t want to.

  “Ye think I dinna love Claire.” The solemn way he searched her gaze told her how much of what she’d said wounded him.

  “She could die, Kaid.” Tears pricked Delilah’s eyes again, threatening a new wash of tears. “I’ll never forgive myself if she dies, alone and with no one to comfort her.”

  The image rose in her mind of Claire in that massive castle, in the dungeon, cold and alone and waiting for death. No, waiting for Delilah to save her from an awful fate.

  Waiting as Delilah did not come. As Delilah failed her.

  Kaid eased off her and pulled her to a sitting position. He did not resume their battle. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and held her.

  “She has no one to comfort her,” Delilah said against the solid strength of his chest.

  “They have her for a reason, lass.” Kaid spoke against the top of her head and pressed a kiss to her hair. “They willna kill her. They wouldna take a child just to kill her. Rhona knows we love the lass and means to use her to their advantage.”

  Delilah shook her head. His words were little comfort.

  Kaid eased Delilah away and captured her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “I love that lass as if she were our own flesh and blood,” he said. “And I love ye as if ye were my wife.”

  Delilah drank deep a long inhale of air. The coolness of it eased some of the fire burning within her.

  “When we return from Edirdovar with Claire safely with us once more, I want us to take her on as our own.” He rubbed her shoulders. The firm touch of his palms skimming her skin was reassuring. “And I want ye to be my wife.”

  “Your wife?” she asked dumbly.

  He gave her the warm, affectionate smile she loved. “Aye, my wife. I love ye, Delilah. Ye helped bring the MacLeods to safety. I want ye to be there with me to enjoy it.”

  His words were the most beautiful ones she’d ever heard in all her life. She’d found someone who made her feel special, important, so much more than just another mouth to feed. Joy lit through her, and she wondered how she could have been so angry only moments ago.

  “I would love to be your wife,” she said softly. “And nothing would bring me greater joy than having Claire as our own child.”

  “Then when this is done, both shall come to be.” Kaid caressed her cheek. “I love ye, my beautiful Delilah.”

  “And I love you, Kaid.” Delilah’s soul nearly burst at the pleasure of voicing the words she’d locked for too long in her heart.

  Sylvi had been wrong about Kaid. He was a good man, an honest one who would not lie about matters of the heart.

  And yet something still niggled at the border of her conscience. Their life together would begin when the war ended.

  But what if the war did not end in their favor?

  • • •

  While the preparation for their departure made Kaid’s night a long one, his clan had managed to leave the following morning and tra
vel an uneventful two and a half days to Killearnan.

  With every warrior they could spare, the party was too large to travel with haste. They’d stopped far enough on the outskirts of the town so as not to not draw any unwanted attention.

  Together Kaid and Delilah began the trek toward an unnamed inn in the village. Donnan and Leasa were supposed to meet them there. Kaid’s heart thumped a little harder at the prospect of their discovery.

  “Do you think they found many of the MacKenzies?” Delilah asked.

  Kaid kept his gaze fixed on the inn. “I was wondering as much myself.”

  Delilah leaned forward in her saddle. “Do you see their horses tied somewhere else?”

  Kaid looked toward the same open stable as she. No horses but Sylvi’s and Percy’s. He glanced around the surrounding area to no avail. “I don’t.”

  Delilah settled back in her saddle with the same resigned silence she’d maintained for most of the trip. She smiled when she caught him staring at her and tried to pretend all was well. Kaid knew better.

  The silence pressed in on them the closer they drew to the inn.

  “Torra seems to be traveling better.” Kaid was as desperate to break the quiet as he was to not think of what the empty inn meant.

  Delilah nodded in agreement. “She’s not hugging her body to her horse as she did leaving here last.”

  “Has she been well?” Kaid asked.

  There was a pause before Delilah answered. “She’s scared.”

  Kaid nodded. “Will she still be able to continue on?”

  They stopped their horses and swung down from them. “She will.” There was enough confidence in her tone to ease Kaid’s worry.

  At least until she cast him an anxious look before they pushed through the wooden door of the inn. Sylvi and Percy were waiting for them along with the strange woman he’d met before, the one with the diamond winking between her brows. Isabel, he believed her name was. Several bags lay packed and ready at their sides.

  “Where are Donnan and Leasa?” he asked.

  “They came only once.” Isabel gave him an apologetic shrug. “They were thus far unsuccessful.”

  Kaid tried to quash the rising swell of disappointment.

  Attacking a defensible castle. Without a massive army behind him, it would be all the more difficult.

  “Are we to wait for them?” Delilah asked.

  “No.” Kaid replied at the same time Sylvi shook her head. “MacKenzie already knows we’re coming. The longer we wait, the more time he has to prepare.”

  “Do you have enough men?” Isabel asked Kaid.

  He wished he could give them an answer which would set their mind at ease, but he could not.

  “Without the additional men we assumed we’d have,” he confessed, “we dinna have as many as MacKenzie. But his are paid men, and paid men are easy to drive from battle. There is only so much coin one is willing to stake their lives on.”

  Delilah stepped to his side, her back proud and straight. “Even without the MacKenzies, I will still fight.”

  Sylvi secured a sword belt around her hips. “Liv is still within the walls of the keep. I will no more let her remain in the hell you endured than I will allow you to go into battle without me at your side.”

  She took her place beside Delilah and put a hand on her shoulder.

  Isabel gave a grin that could only be described as feral, with sharp white teeth behind the brilliant red of her lips. “I cannot stand the thought of a man like MacKenzie having control of a woman like Elizabeth. I will fight.”

  Percy remained with her head bowed beneath the hood of her cloak. She never took it off except when she was in the room with Torra, Kaid noticed.

  “I will go, but will remain in the back.” She slowly hefted a bag and a curious clacking sounded from its depths. “I have already risked being seen by so many.”

  They were a curious lot of women, but a brave one—he’d give them that.

  After buying the innkeeper’s silence with considerable coin, the five of them headed once more to where the MacLeods were camped.

  Kaid was quiet on the short ride there, his mood depressed. While his men were only slightly more numerous than what he estimated MacKenzie had, they were not nearly enough to take a castle. His heart hammered with the threat of the familiar fear he thought he’d finally left behind.

  The MacLeods had lost so much. So many had been killed.

  So many more would be killed.

  And it would be at his lead again.

  He’d failed them once before.

  Would he fail them again?

  Something brushed his leg. He glanced up and found Delilah at his side.

  “We will win,” she said quietly. “And we will save Claire.”

  He nodded. They would need to win. They would not let Claire down.

  He could not let anyone down.

  Those words repeated in his mind until the beat of his heart steadied to match the rhythm of his chant.

  “What is that?” Sylvi pointed in the distance to where Kaid had left his people camped.

  Before Kaid could reply, he saw she was not indicating the MacLeods, but a mass of men on horseback racing toward the camp at incredible speed.

  Was MacKenzie ambushing them before they could even get to Edirdovar?

  As if sensing the urgency, Kaid’s horse charged forward. “Go,” he bellowed into the rush of wind.

  The women quickened their pace. Though they rode with enough speed to give the wind chase, still they were not quick enough.

  The large riding party met his people before he could arrive to do anything to prevent it.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  It was not a battle waiting for Kaid, and for that he was thankful.

  The men, all dressed in the earthy green tartan of the MacKenzie and surrounding clans, were off their horses by the time Kaid and the women arrived.

  “Is this the MacLeod clan?” a tall man with red hair asked.

  Kaid stood at the head of his people, his body tense. “It is.”

  “And ye have our rightful laird?” the man asked.

  Kaid turned over his shoulder to find Torra watching. “Aye,” Kaid answered. “We do. And we mean to help her into her rightful place. Is it yer intention to offer yer allegiance?”

  The man bowed his head. “Aye, all of us mean to see her take her proper place as laird once more.”

  Kaid beckoned Torra toward him with a subtle nod. She drew a deep breath and approached with measured steps until she stood before the man.

  He immediately dropped to his knees in the lush grass, as did the hundreds of men behind him.

  It was a sight to behold, so many highlanders bent on reverent knee before the laird too long denied to them. Kaid’s heart swelled for Torra, and for the people she would lead.

  But there was more than just pride in his chest.

  There was hope.

  He looked down beside him, where Delilah watched with tears shimmering in her eyes.

  And there was love.

  He held her waist and together they watched the red-haired man lift his head.

  “Yer father, the former laird of the MacKenzies, was a good man,” the man said. “He raised ye with a good heart. When he died and ye disappeared, we thought ye’d been killed.”

  “I’m sorry.” Torra placed a hand under his chin.

  “I’m only sorry for the ten years we spent without ye.” The man’s voice carried with the force of his passion, and Kaid knew he spoke for all to hear. “The ten years of murder, rape, and theft brought on by a man no’ deserving of the title of laird. I, Callum MacKenzie, will fight until my final breath to see ye restored as the rightful laird of the MacKenzies.”

  He took her hand in his and pressed a fierce kiss to her knuckles.

  The MacLeods’ applause behind Kaid thundered through his soul. They too felt hope and victory singing through their veins.

  Though the process took time, Kai
d waited until every man had sworn fealty to Torra. By the time they were done, the sun had begun to sink into the jagged distant hills behind them and left the afternoon light rich with red and golden orange.

  It glinted behind Torra, framing her in the same gilded light as the painted figures he’d seen of the Virgin Mary, as if God himself ordained her as laird to her people.

  “I think it best we battle at night,” Delilah said. “The longer we stay here, the more likely Seumas MacKenzie will find us. After all, they did.”

  She nodded toward the MacKenzie clan.

  Callum looked in their direction, having obviously overheard them. “Aye, we heard from other travelers which way ye’d passed. If the bastard has any spies about, they most likely know already.”

  Kaid nodded. “They willna expect us during the night.” His chest swelled with pride at Delilah being his. Not just his lover now, but soon to be his wife. Surely there was no finer wife to be had. No woman more talented, more intelligent, more exquisitely beautiful.

  Two riders appeared in the distance, coming from the direction of the inn.

  “The man and woman who found ye,” Kaid said to Callum. “Where are they?”

  “They were going to the inn to meet ye,” Callum replied. “Have ye gone by already?”

  “Aye, but they werena there.” Kaid pointed toward the riders. “But it looks as though they’re still arriving in time for the fun.”

  Within several minutes the two riders arrived together. The first slipped from his horse easily and managed to catch the second when she tumbled from hers.

  Aye, definitely Donnan and Leasa.

  “Start preparing yer men for battle,” Kaid said to Callum. “We ride out within the hour, before we lose the last of the light.”

  “Ready?” Delilah asked.

  “Aye,” Kaid replied. “It’s time to put Torra back in power.” He caught her hands in his. “And we’ll save our Claire.”

  • • •

  Many lives were at stake, but it was the image of a child which sent energy flaring through Delilah, powerful enough to guarantee victory no matter the foe.