Shipwrecked

by Jenna Stone

  “She’s no witch!” Murdock challenged Arbor, his voice authoritative as he faced the crowd. “Get you all home, there’s nothing else too see tonight,” he warned the crowd, who stood fast. “Untie her,” he said sternly, daring Arbor to defy his order.

  “You can’t be serious, Murdock?” Jonathan questioned, panicking at Murdock’s sudden change in demeanor. Although the Colonel was his superior, he had paid him handsomely to acquire Anna’s betrothal, and he expected this alliance to hold fast.

  “I said untie her…that’s an order!” Murdock snarled, hatred for Jonathan boiling up in his veins. Murdock had been enchanted by Arbor’s riches and his ruthless desire to make his way up the ranks of the military through whatever means possible; honest or not.

  Murdock was suddenly ashamed that he had been so misled by Arbor, and now saw him for what he really was…a cowardly power hungry man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.

  Relenting, Jonathan untied Anna harshly, being rough with the ropes that encircled her hands, causing her to wince as the rough sisal sliced her wrists.

  “Treat her like a lady,” Murdock hissed, refusing to accept Jonathan’s petty mistreatment of the innocent woman.

  Anna stood next to the tree wrists and ankles now unbound, completely frozen in front of the crowd. Despite Murdock’s insistence, not a soul had moved; this spectacle was simply too good not to watch.

  Anna had prepared herself to die bound to that tree, to burn before this crowd for sins that she had not committed, and now that she was free, the shock of her escape left her dumbfounded.

  Murdock stepped towards her, and extended his hand. Cautiously, she took it, unsure of what had caused his sudden change of heart, and believing that he had some other trick up his sleeve. With his head held regally, Murdock led Anna away from the silent crowd, his soul feeling just a little bit lighter.

  ***

  “Rowan!” Anna screamed as she bolted through the door of Murdock’s town home and saw her husband splayed out on the settee. He was still unconscious, his face gray and ashen, and beads of sweat dotted his brow.

  Kneeling down next to Rowan, Anna ran her hand over his forehead, terrified to discover that the first grips of a fever had already taken hold. Her fingers slid down his neck and felt his pulse, steady and strong, giving her a glimmer of hope.

  “I’m here now, I think we’re alright,” she whispered in his ear, glancing nervously over her shoulder at Murdock, who stood in the doorway.

  “We need a Doctor…look what you’ve done to him!” Anna ranted; glaring heavily at Murdock before turning her eyes back to Rowan’s mutilated back.

  His flesh rose in angry welts next to the lashings of where the whip had split his skin. The blood was beginning to clot now, crusting to the skin that had not been brutalized by Murdock’s whip. When Anna looked at Rowan’s back, she felt an anger unlike anything that she had ever experienced rise up within her.

  She stood abruptly, and marched over to Murdock. She slapped him hard, right across the face, causing him to recoil from the force of her unexpected blow.

  “May you burn in Hell, Meriwether Murdock,” she said, full of hatred before she used her other hand to slap the other side of his face with all of the strength that she could muster.

  ***

  “I thought I’d lost you,” Rowan’s voice croaked into the pitch blackness of the bedroom, startling Anna awake from the chair in which she slept next to his bed.

  She nearly pounced on him, being so happy to hear his voice.

  “You’re awake!” she exclaimed, joy evident in her voice. “I thought I’d lost you!”

  “It would take a lot more than that,” Rowan chuckled, and then groaned in the same breath; even Anna’s slight weight on the bed had jostled his back, shooting fire through his nerves. He in took a swift breath, clenching his teeth to hold onto consciousness, fighting the pain with every thread in his being.

  “Oh, love, I’m sorry,” Anna said, realizing that her hasty action had caused her husband’s pain. She jumped up from the bed in an effort to make things better, but her quick movement elicited another groan of pain from Rowan. Tears stained her cheeks as she watched Rowan struggle in the darkness, fighting the unbearable pain.

  He exhaled slowly, driving the stars that threatened to send him back into unconsciousness out of his line of vision. Collecting himself and being very careful not to move he began shakily, “There’s nothing that I want more than tae hold ye, tae hear how it is that we are both alive right now, but I canna bear for ye tae…” his words trailed off with the effort that it took to fight for consciousness.

  “I won’t touch you, Rowan,” Anna whispered, tears still streaming down her face. There was nothing that she wanted to do more than to hold him, to run her fingers over every inch of his body, to make sure that he was really going to be alright. She wanted to kiss him, to assure herself that he was really in front of her, whole and alive.

  More than anything, she wanted to make love to her husband, but she knew that that was impossible.

  “Don’t talk, love…you need to rest,” she whispered.

  “What happened?” he asked, jaw clenched with the effort of fighting his pain. His last memory was seeing Anna crying, tied to the tree with a look of horror on her face as she watched Murdock whip him.

  “All that matters is that we’re alive…Murdock stepped in,” Anna said cautiously, not wanting to burden Rowan further with the memories of Mairi that would surface when she explained the whole truth of what had happened. “I think that having to face you again is what changed his heart. I think that he had pushed what he had done to Mairi into the back of his mind, hidden it away, and that seeing you, facing you was what gnawed at his conscious.”

  Rowan smirked slightly, surprising Anna with his reaction.

  “Mayhap she intervened,” he whispered, glancing swiftly heavenward and sending a silent prayer up to Mairi.

  “Maybe she did,” Anna whispered, patting Rowan’s leg gently.

  “Murdock plans tae let us go then?” Rowan asked, green eyes searching her face in the darkness.

  “Yes, we’re safe,” she whispered, a slight smile lighting her face at the truth that rung in her words. “We can go home,” she whispered, her voice breaking with the joy of her statement.

  “Aye?”

  “Yes, we can go home now…as soon as you’re up to it,” Anna said, smiling down at her husband, aching to touch him, to brush the strand of hair that had fallen in his face away, to kiss his lips so that she knew he was really alive.

  “Kiss me,” Rowan whispered as if reading Anna’s mind. “Verra softly, so that I…”

  Anna knelt beside his bed, and leaning forward ever so cautiously, she traced a single finger across his jaw line, savoring the feeling of his warm flesh against her skin. His skin shown silvery in the darkness, and his eyes were cloudy from the medicine that the Doctor had administered for pain.

  Broken and bleeding, he had never been more beautiful to Anna. She pressed her lips carefully against his and felt a glorious light spread within her body. Her pulse hammered in her veins and she fought the nearly irresistible desire to enclose Rowan in her arms.

  “I love you,” she whispered against his lips, before she gently touched her lips to his, feather light in her touch, being careful not to unsettle his wounds.

  “I love ye too, Anna,” he whispered, lips hovering just above hers.

  His words tore at her heart, and she smiled against his lips. Oh how she loved him.

  The door to the bedroom flew open, startling them both. Rowan let out a muffled cry, pain shooting through his veins as he flinched, jostling his wounds.

  Quinn and Malcolm burst into the room, breathing heavily from the exertion of bounding up the stairs two at a time.

  “Ye could have knocked!” Rowan winced as her scolded his brothers.

  “Jesus, Rowan!” Look at ye…what happened?” Quinn asked as he closed the distance bet
ween them.

  “Anna!” Malcolm beamed as he rushed into the room and pulled his sister-in-law into an enormous bear hug. “Oh my God! We’ve been sae worrit… we couldna find ye and…”

  “We’re fine now, it’s alright Malcolm,” Anna said, giggling as she wriggled out of his crushing embrace. She held him at arms length now and reached up to brush his disheveled hair out of his face.

  “We were just sae worrit, and we thought they might have brought ye back here,” he explained, breathing returning to normal as he collected himself.

  Anna reached up and kissed Malcolm on the cheek, then squeezed his arms in reassurance. His genuine concern for her warmed her heart.

  “We’re fine now, really,” she went on, stressing her words as her heart swelled with love for her new family.

  “We’ll explain everything on the way home,” Rowan interjected as he slowly and painfully pushed himself up from the bed.

  “Rowan!” You shouldn’t move…don’t get up!” Anna scolded, brushing past Malcolm and rushing to her husband’s side.

  Rowan put out a hand in an effort to stop her. She heeded his warning and stopped in her tracks, stopping just short of touching him.

  His eyes were closed in concentration as he fought to remain standing and not black out. “I canna stay here another minute,” he greeted through clenched teeth, steadying himself by holding onto the post of the bed. “Let’s go home, Anna,” he whispered, opening his eyes and holding her concerned gaze.

  Understanding the look of torment in his eyes, the utter need to be away from Murdock and leave this chapter of their lives behind, Anna nodded in agreement and carefully took Rowan’s hand.

  “Let’s go home,” she whispered approvingly, smiling up at her brave husband.

  Home.

  Oh how sweet it sounded. Home with Rowan, home with the Murray brothers.

  They were together now, together forever. And together, they would make their way in this brave New World.