“What is happening?” Vonda asked again. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Marra simply looked confused. “Why was mum screamin’?”
Jamie knew he couldn’t very well tell her he’d seen a man pulling their mother away. “Quiet,” he whispered harshly. “I need to think.”
I need to get to mum. I need to help her.
’Twas then he remembered the dirk in his belt. His mother had left it with him before she went back up the hill to collect his sisters.
“I need ye to stay here,” he told her. “I think mum needs help with the cart.”
Vonda didn’t believe him, not for a moment. “Mum got hurt. That’s why she screamed. I want to help her!”
“Wheesht!” Jamie’s tone was harsh. “Ye can help mum by keepin’ Marra and John quiet.”
“Are we playin’ hide and find?” Marra asked with wide eyes.
“Aye, we are,” Jamie told her. “I need ye to be as quiet as a mouse, aye?”
Vonda shook her head, about to voice her protest. Jamie stopped her with a fierce glare. “Stay here and keep them quiet.”
He didn’t wait for her to argue further.
Fury erupted, nearly blinding Graham, just moments before the instinct to protect kicked in.
He had just made it to the top of a hill when he caught sight of a man creeping up behind Leelah. There were two large hills between them.
There had been no time to call out a warning, for the stranger was upon her, grabbing her and pulling her away.
Dropping the lead rope that kept the horses and donkey together, he kicked the flanks of his horse and went after them at a full run.
Leelah was kicking and screaming, fighting with all her might against the tight hold. She wasn’t going to go easily or without a fight.
Graham’s heart pounded ferociously against his chest as he raced down one hill and up the other. Keep fighting, lass! Keep fighting!
As he climbed the second hill, he lost sight of Leelah and her attacker. His heart did not beat until he saw her again. The fool—who was unaware he was about to die—was pulling Leelah along the backside of the hill, heading for a thicket of small trees and bushes.
Like a bolt of lightning, Graham tore across the hillside. Off his horse before it even stopped and a few short strides later, he was plunging his dirk into the stranger’s neck. A rapid heartbeat later, the man let loose his grip on Leelah before falling to the ground dead.
Leelah hadn’t heard Graham’s approach, let alone seen him kill the man. She was unable to hear anything other than the blood rushing in her ears and the sounds of her own screams.
All she knew was the man had let go so abruptly that she fell to her hands and knees. All she could think to do was scurry away as fast as she could.
Her feet and knees caught on her skirts, stopping her forward progression. Falling face first into the grass, out of breath, soaked with sweat, she tried crawling away. Please protect my babes! She prayed silently, fervently, and repeatedly. Please, God, do nae let my babes see me die this way!
As she fought to get to her feet, large hands touched her waist, pulling her upward.
“Nay!” she cried, clawing at the hands that held her. “Leave me be! Let me go!”
“Wheesht lass,” came a familiar voice. “Wheesht.”
Gentle arms pulled her against a hard chest as he whispered comforting words.
Graham?
Tenderly, he turned her around so she could see his face. Relief washed over her as she collapsed in his arms, burying her face into his chest. Clinging to him, she struggled to speak. Between sobs, she said, “Where did he go? He was going to hurt me. Where are my babes?”
“He will nae hurt ye or anyone else again,” Graham said as he ran a hand down her long tresses.
Leelah took in a deep breath in an attempt to calm her frayed nerves. It had been a mistake to look down. Just a few steps away was her attacker. Face down in the grass, blood pooling from a gaping wound in his neck. “Ye killed him?”
Graham wanted to say, Of course I killed him. He tried to hurt ye. Instead, he said, “Come, let us away and find yer children.”
“But ye killed him,” she murmured.
Did ye think I would ask him kindly to let ye go? “Aye, he be dead.”
It took some gentle nudging, but he finally managed to get her moving away from her deceased attacker. “Ye killed him,” she repeated.
“We have already established that,” Graham said as he led her to his horse.
With great care, he lifted her into the saddle before taking the reins. His hands still shook with fury for the man who had tried to hurt an innocent woman.
For the first time in a decade, he felt every bit the honorable Highlander he’d been raised to be. ’Twas the oddest of sensations, to feel those old, dormant-too-long feelings. The need to protect had been instant, immediate, and without question. It had been as simple as breathing.
“Who is—was he?” Leelah whispered.
“I did nae take the time to ask,” Graham replied as he pulled himself up behind her.
When he turned his horse to leave, Leelah asked, “Are ye just goin’ to leave him there? Should we nae bury him?”
“Do ye think he would have shown ye the same respect had I nae been here?
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she shivered. “What if he has friends?”
Graham felt her shiver, heard the quiver in her voice. “I say we do nae stay long enough to find out.”
Tapping the flanks of his horse, he took Leelah back to her children.
By the time Jamie made his way out of the forest and to the top of the hill, his mother was coming up the other side. On horseback and with the man from the inn.
Puzzled, he stopped running long enough to try to shake some clarity into his head. This was not his imagination playing tricks on him.
“Mum?” he whispered her name as they drew nearer.
Leelah slid down from the horse and wrapped her son in her arms. “Och! Jamie!”
“I saw the man,” he began before she stopped him.
“It is all right now,” she murmured as she held him tightly.
Jamie could feel her tremble. Tears threatened as a knot lodged in his throat. “Is he gone?” Jamie asked, his voice cracking on unshed tears.
Graham didn’t give Leelah time to respond to the lad’s question. “Aye, and he will nae hurt anyone else.”
“Why are ye here?” Jamie asked.
Leelah had been so grateful to see Graham she hadn’t thought to ask him that particular question.
From atop his steed, Graham replied, “I changed me mind.”
“About helping us?” Leelah asked, simply for clarification. “But why?”
Graham shrugged his shoulders as if the why of it wasn’t important.
“No matter yer reasons, I am verra glad ye’re here,” Leelah said. Later, after the children were asleep, she would take the time to thank Graham and ask him again just why he had changed his mind.
5
Time was of the essence. They needed to be away from this place and quickly. After returning Leelah to her children, Graham went back to retrieve the horses and donkey. Thankfully, they had not wondered far from where he’d left them.
With the animals in tow, Graham went back to the forest where he had left Leelah and her children. “We need to hurry,” he told her. Apparently, the donkey was of an entirely different mindset. No sooner had the words left Graham’s mouth than the donkey curled its legs under him and sat down in the cool grass.
No matter how hard Graham tried to pull the animal to his feet, the beast refused. He brayed and voiced his protests quite vociferously.
“Bloody hell,” Graham groused, glowering at the stubborn animal. Were there not four terrified children staring at him, he would have been tempted to smack the beast on his rear end and curse its bloody head off.
The animal chortled once and turned his head away as if it were insulted by Graham�
�s colorful remark.
“We do nae have time for this,” Graham bit out.
Leelah, understanding the importance of the need to flee as quickly as possible, did something she wasn’t sure she should do: she offered Graham her assistance. “Mayhap I could try?”
If she had learned anything in the past year, ’twas to keep her mouth closed. Men never liked to be told there were doing a thing incorrectly or that there might in fact be a better way. It didn’t matter if they were about to lose a hand or foot to an axe, you remained silent. The consequences to offering any assistance could be detrimental to one’s own good health.
Graham threw his hands and the rope in the air in defeat. “If ye can get that stubborn animal to stand, I will eat me boot.”
Leelah quashed the urge to smile. One wrong move, one wrong thing said, and Graham might be tempted to leave them all behind.
Taking the rope in a shaky hand, Leelah said, “Up with ye, ye handsome devil.”
Graham could have sworn the animal smiled at her compliment. A moment later, he was on his feet, nuzzling Leelah’s open palm.
Vonda giggled, but Leelah silenced her with a look Graham knew all too well. His own mother had looked at him that way on more than one occasion when he was growing up. ’Twas the look that said, be quiet lest I skelp yer hide.
Stunned into muteness, Graham made quick work of attaching the cart to the harness on the donkey, removed the packs from its back and tucked them carefully into the cart. With that task done, he turned to face Leelah and her children.
“Leelah, ye will ride with the bairn,” he said, nodding toward the child in Jamie’s arms. “Jamie, ye and yer sister Wanda—”
“My name is Vonda,” the little girl corrected him with a roll of her eyes.
“Vonda.” Graham resisted the urge to roll his own eyes. “Jamie and Vonda will ride together. I will take the other one with me.”
“Her name is Marra,” Vonda told him with a look of consternation. Graham firmly believed that if the child rolled her eyes any harder, they would fall out of their sockets.
“Marra,” he said as politely as he could muster. “Marra shall ride with me.”
“You dunnae want to do that,” Vonda said as she rocked back and forth on her heels. “She does nae like men.”
Graham thought that the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. Lasses of all ages adored him.
Before Leelah could confirm Vonda’s declaration, Graham was lifting the little one up to set her atop his mount.
Banshees were quieter and screamed with less length and intensity than the four-year-old.
Graham set her back on her feet as if he were dropping a hot coal. He immediately proceeded to back away slowly. The child did not stop screaming until she was safely in her mother’s arms.
“I told ye so,” Vonda said with a smile. “She does nae like men.”
At the rate they were traveling, Graham reckoned ’twould be Christmastide before they reached Hay lands. It was only June.
Snails moved with more speed and finesse.
None of Leelah’s children had ever sat atop a horse before. “We use horses for workin’,” she informed him ever so politely. “Nae for riding.”
While Graham believed that to be a thorough disgrace and lack in upbringing, he kept the opinion to himself. When he could take no more of the slow pace, he called the procession to a halt.
With a lead rope in one hand, Graham approached Jamie’s mount as cautiously as if he were trying to sneak up on a sleeping bear. Little Marra was riding with her brother, and the last thing Graham wanted was to hear more of those ear-piercing screams.
As soon as Graham returned to his saddle, Vonda resumed prattling on. “I think I like riding’,” she told him. “I sat atop our ox once. His name was George. He did nae like me bein’ on his back.”
Never had he met anyone who talked as much as this child. He did his best to ignore her, to drown out her young voice by pretending he was anywhere but here. The hold of a Spanish ship, mayhap? A cold, dark dungeon in an English prison? Being eaten alive by a rabid cat-o’mountain? All were preferable to here.
Graham led the way through a wide-open glen, with Jamie and Marra close behind. Leelah brought up the rear, leading the cantankerous donkey she had affectionately named Daniel, after her beloved brother. Graham had better names to call the beast but didn’t think they were appropriate to use in earshot of small children.
On and on Vonda prattled. After a time, Graham began to make silent deals with God or the devil—he cared not which of them answered. Please, make this child shut up.
But what Vonda said next broke through his silent prayers, bringing him to the here and now.
“And that is why she does nae like men,” Vonda said. “Because of Uncle Gerold.”
Glancing to make certain Leelah could not hear, Graham bent and whispered conspiratorially into the lass’s ear. “What about your Uncle Gerold? Why is it the bairn does nae like men?”
“I told ye already, her name is Marra, and she is not a bairn. She’s a wean.”
Gritting his teeth, Graham took in a deep, steadying breath. Interrogating prisoners of war had to be easier than getting a straight answer from this child.
“I beg yer pardon, lass,” he said. “But tell me again. Why is Marra afraid of men?”
“Because of Uncle Gerold,” she replied with a tone that said she thought Graham was an idiot.
Before he could ask his next question, Leelah was calling out to him. “Graham, we need to stop. John needs a fresh nappy.”
Dirty nappies waited for no man.
Graham no longer worried over whether or not the man he’d killed earlier that day had friends or cohorts in crime. If he had, the criminals would have sought their revenge by now. Or mayhap the band of thieves had witnessed the hell Graham was currently going through and decided ’twas a fate worse than death.
The bairn, John, seemed to cry non-stop. Leelah explained the child was ‘gettin’ his back teeth’, whatever that meant. Jamie cowered whenever Graham got near him, Marra held a continuous expression of I’ll scream again if ye so much as look at me, and Vonda? Vonda chattered more than a group of auld women at a Christening.
Graham’s head pounded. He hadn’t had a drop of ale or whisky all day.
He found a small clearing near the edge of a copse of trees and declared they’d make camp here. Leelah and Jamie looked absolutely relieved.
While Graham erected the small tent, Leelah tended to her offspring.
On the off chance they were being followed, Graham announced there would be no fire.
“But I be awfully cold,” Vonda told him with sad eyes, adding a shiver for good measure.
“Ye will be warm in the tent,” Graham told her.
“But what about supper?” She asked, looking forlorn.
“We have bannocks, berries, and some cheese,” Graham explained.
“I want stew,” Vonda said.
Thankfully, Leelah came to Graham’s rescue. “We will have stew soon enough, Vonda. Remember, we must be thankful for what we do have.” The babe was happily suckling at Leelah’s breast. Out of respect, Graham averted his eyes to his boots. Secretly, he was envious.
“But why can’t we have a fire?”
“’Twill attract wolves,” Graham interjected. He was passing out food from his satchel and gave the little girl a bannock and a hunk of cheese.
“I prefer red berries over the blue,” she said.
Ignoring her, Graham turned his attention to the eldest of Leelah’s children. “Jamie, come with me. We need to bed down the horses.”
The boy’s eyes grew as wide as trenchers.
Graham was too tired, too frustrated, and far too sober to inquire as to why the boy seemed so deathly afraid.
Jamie glanced at his mother. ’Twas only after Leelah smiled and gave a slight nod that the boy complied.
“We will nae be able to camp long,” Graham explained to the
boy as he removed the saddle from his horse.
“Because of the man ye killed?” Jamie whispered.
Graham paused briefly before removing the blanket from the horse’s back. “Put this on that bush.”
“Do ye think others follow us?” Jamie asked.
Graham didn’t want to worry the boy, but he didn’t want to lie to him either. “’Tis possible, but I think they would have made themselves known by now.”
Jamie nodded and draped the heavy blanket over the bush.
Not another word was spoken as they took care of the horses. The donkey brayed loudly, apparently upset he was the last to be looked after. “Ye are an ugly beast,” Graham told the animal as he removed the handcart. “I dunnae care what Leelah says.”
With a snort, the animal looked away as if he were king turning his eyes away from retched creatures.
Graham moved the handcart off to the side. When next he looked up, Leelah was standing next to her son. “Be there a creek or loch nearby, do ye think?”
“Possibly,” Graham replied. “But we do nae have time to be bathin’, lass.”
“I need to wash nappies,” she replied, doing her best to mask her frustration.
Nappies.
Aye, this journey was going to be the death of him.
Leelah was done in. Exhausted almost to the point of tears. The blisters on her hands stung and there wasn’t a bone in her body that didn’t hurt. The children were not faring much better.
Graham had covered the floor of the tent with thick blankets and warm furs, and the children were asleep before Leelah had finished tucking them in. As much as she wanted to crawl under those warm furs and sleep for a week, there was an important conversation she needed to have with Graham.
He was rolling a blanket on the ground near the entrance to the tent.
“Graham,” she whispered his name in the dark. “I need to speak with you.”
With Love from the Highlands : A Highlander Love Story Duet, One Page 21
