"Back to Doone!" he cried. "We must get back to Doone!"
He prayed that Elizabeth knew the way back, that she could follow the trail that led back down to the glen. For a few blessed moments, Reade thought they would be able to do just that, and then out of the dawn gloom came more men, almost a round dozen, and they were surrounded. The men had their swords drawn, and Elizabeth had no choice but to pull Finnian back or be run through.
For a few long seconds, the only sound was the panting of the horses, and Reade drew his own sword. There was a part of him that wanted nothing more than to howl and to charge into the fray, no matter how disastrous it might have been. The only thing that held him back was that Elizabeth would be left in the midst of it all, and he could not allow that.
"Well, niece. You have led us on a pretty chase, have you not?"
Reade bared his teeth as the Earl of Sussex came forward, mounted on a long-legged Arabian. He looked like he belonged in London at court rather than in the Highlands of Scotland, and the look of satisfaction on his face made Reade want to spit.
"You have no call to stop us," Reade growled.
"Be silent, MacTaggart. You took my niece from me. There will be consequences for that."
He looked at Elizabeth, and the look of sheer possessiveness on his face made Reade's skin crawl.
"It is time for you to return to my side."
To Reade's surprise, Elizabeth spoke up.
"As what? As your niece? As your wife? As your convenient dead body?"
There was a rustling around the circle of men, and Reade could tell that for all they were hardened mercenaries, there were some things that made even them uneasy. An elderly man who wanted to marry his niece or perhaps kill her was apparently enough to unsettle them, and Reade used the unease to edge his horse a little closer to Sussex.
"You are speaking like a crazed woman. What has this Scotsman told you? He has whispered poison into your ear."
"Was that your plan, Uncle? Poison, or would you have had me killed on MacTaggart land? Whatever it took to get your war started again?"
The dark look that crossed Sussex's face made Elizabeth flinch, enough that Finnian danced to one side... or no, Reade realized. She was moving so that her uncle's gaze and the gaze of his men, stayed on her. Sussex's side was almost entirely to Reade's approach now, and he told himself to stay slow, to proceed with every caution.
"You are still addled from your parents' death..."
"What was your plan?" asked Elizabeth, her voice a clarion call. She was twitching her skirts now like a girl who was afraid and fidgeting. It made Finnian toss his head and snort, keeping all the attention her.
"Were you going to stab me? Where would you dump my body, or would you drag it back to London to parade in front of the people who want more war with Scotland?"
"You ruddy little whore, do not speak to me like that!"
Sussex's voice was so furious that it even made some of his allies fall back, and at that moment, Elizabeth freed what she had been reaching for this entire time, that is, the jewels she kept in a bag tied around her waist.
"Here!" she shouted. "If I'm to be a corpse, I don't need this any longer, do I?"
Reade, intent on his goal, looked up in shock as she spilled the bag on the road, scattering the contents as widely as she could.
For one blazingly clear moment, he saw a glimmer of gems and gold in the air, and then the group of mercenaries exploded in chaos as they dove for the riches. Reade had guessed that one of the rubies from the gems would be enough to set up a man for a year, and the mercenaries seemed to agree.
Sussex howled, barking orders at his men, but when they were lost to the tumble for greed, he lunged ahead at Elizabeth himself.
"Reade! Get back to Doone!"
To Reade's horror, Elizabeth wheeled Finnian back up the road, and with a sinking heart, he realized that she meant to lead her uncle away. She fled back up the road, her uncle in hot pursuit, and with a curse, Reade turned his mare to follow them.
Elizabeth, I will tan your hide for pulling such a stunt, whenever I catch you. Please, please let me catch you...
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chapter 42
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Elizabeth tore up the mountain path, heedless of the branches that tore at her face and hair, only knowing that she needed to keep going, no matter what. She had to lead her uncle away. She had to make sure that her uncle was led off of MacTaggart lands.
There's a chance he may not kill me. If I agree to marry him, if I agree to do exactly as he says, perhaps I will have a chance. There is no chance for Reade.
She had seen Reade's death in her uncle's eyes, and there was nothing else she could do. She had to distract her uncle, get him away so that Reade could get away.
She knew, however, that there was no escape for her on her own. Finnian was never meant for the sprinting she had already put him through, and his sides heaved like a bellows. His heart might be great enough that she could run him into the ground, but that she refused to do, not when he had served her so well and so faithfully.
Before she could decide how much farther she needed to get, however, Finnian came to a dead stop, and Elizabeth stared at the steep ravine right below his feet.
“Good boy,” she murmured, “Good boy!” If he hadn't stopped, they would have both tumbled down the rocky side.
A moment later, however, her uncle appeared by her side, his face as red as the devil's and a wild look in his eyes.
“You little bitch, you may have spoiled everything.”
“I hope I have,” Elizabeth said, her breathing hoarse and harsh. “The MacTaggarts are good people, and they do not need a war dragged to their home and then dropped on their doorstep because you want Scotland and England to be at war.”
“There would be no war if they bent a knee to England,” her uncle retorted. “And you know nothing about the matters of state. You have nothing to say about it, and after I am done, you will never say anything again.”
She thought that he was coming closer to seize Finnian's reins, but before she could stop him, he had drawn close to her and simply pulled her from the saddle, letting her fall to the ground. Elizabeth managed to right herself at the last moment so that she did not end up sprawling on her face, but she cried out as her ankle twisted underneath her.
“Uncle!”
“I think my men are going to find you in a short while,” he said, pulling his horse back slightly. “I think they will find your poor despoiled body at the bottom of this very ravine, where you were trying to flee the damned MacTaggart horde. You were on the road to Leister Castle, your kinfolk, seeking safety, and then you were simply killed, too reckless and headstrong to be a good hostage. Aidan MacTaggart and his brother did you in, and all over England, they will remember that the Scots are not to be trusted, are less than human in their brutality.”
Elizabeth could see with a sickening degree of certainty that it would work. The war between England and Scotland felt like a powder keg, something that could go off at any time, and all it would take was an instigator like her uncle, and the leverage of her own death.
“Do not do this,” she whispered, and he shook his head. The worst part was that he was not altogether cruel. There was some part of him, she could see, that was sorry, but it was the way a hunts master would be sorry for the death of a dog. Some deaths were inevitable, and some simply had to be allowed to happen.
He drove her back toward the ravine, and if she wanted to miss his horse's hard hooves, she went. She felt her knees turn to jelly, but every time she tried to run, he was there, pushing her forward.
He's enjoying this. He's enjoying playing with me, like a cat would a mouse!
Eventually, though, her uncle grew weary of his game, and he smiled at her.
“Farewell, niece. You should have married me when you had the chance.”
Elizabeth's breath caught in her throat, not
because of her uncle's threat but because of the man who rode up behind him. He was as silent as the summer mist, and the look on his face was murderous. Elizabeth had to bite her tongue to keep from calling out his name, and then Reade came on her uncle's blind side, reaching for him even as her uncle leaned forward.
Reade's hand lashed out, slamming her uncle in the shoulder. The blow was so unexpected that her uncle turned in the saddle, losing his seat.
For a moment, for a single mad and breathtaking moment, she thought that Reade was going to right him, but then Reade simply grabbed him by the shoulder and finished the work the blow had started. With one fluid motion, Reade pulled her uncle out of his saddle, and with the next, flung him shrieking over the edge of the cliff.
Elizabeth covered her ears against her uncle's fall, and then Reade was there, pulling her from the edge, dragging her into his arms.
“Thank heaven, lass, I thought you were dead for sure.”
“No,” Elizabeth managed. “But my uncle...”
She knew that if she didn't look for him now, she would have bad dreams about him for the rest of her life. She would always be looking behind her, no matter what she did. The girl she was when she first left Blaken Keep couldn't have done it, but for better or for worse, that girl was long gone. She was someone else now, and with Reade's hand covering hers, taking a deep breath, she stepped to the edge of the cliff and looked over.
Elizabeth was surprised by how small the Earl of Sussex's body looked at the bottom of the drop. He was terribly still, and she guessed if she were closer, she might be sick. From a distance, however, she knew finally and at once he was dead, and she let out a long and shaky breath. When Reade tugged her gently back from the edge, she went, burying her face against his chest.
“I should feel something more than I do. He was my uncle, related to me by blood...”
“He was a man who tried to harm you in so many different ways. You don't owe him your tears, Elizabeth.”
Perhaps she didn't, but there was still something empty in her, some strange space of guilt and fear and finally, a terrible, terrible relief. Elizabeth quietly accepted it as the price that she needed to pay for being free of her uncle's manipulative plans, and in the end, it was a small price overall.
“What happens now?” she asked. “Everything's different. An English lord has been killed on Scottish soil, everything's changed...”
“Nothing's changed,” Reade said, and she looked up in surprise at his clear and certain voice. “At least not for you. I am keeping my promise to you. I am taking you to Leister Castle.”
A pang went through Elizabeth. For a moment, for a single and gleaming moment, she had thought that she would be allowed to return to Doone Castle and to the life that she had been living before, the one she'd shared with the MacTaggart clan and most importantly of all, with Reade.
“But...”
“You're right. Everything has changed. Sussex is dead, but we are all still alive. Aidan will do what is necessary for the good of the clan, and I don't know what that means for you. The only safe place for you, the only truly safe place... is at Leister Castle. With your cousin.”
“Reade...”
There was something shut off about Reade now, something that seemed terribly far away. She reached for him, but he shook his head. That rejection, small as it was, stung her to the core, and she drew back.
Why are things always so complicated? When are we simply allowed to... to be who we need to be?
Of course, she didn't say any of that. They got back on their mounts, and then they began the ride through the mountains, to the west, to Leister Castle and to what waited for her there.
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chapter 43
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A part of Reade wanted nothing more than to take Elizabeth and lead her straight up into the North, to go so far into the biting wind that they would come to what felt like the very edge of the world. He had been up to the northern seas once, and even farther. There was snow that never melted and lights that danced mysteriously in the ceiling of the sky.
He knew, though, that that was selfish. Elizabeth needed to be with her own people, and he had made her a promise that he would take her to them.
As much as he wanted to tarry, as much as he wanted to keep her and to simply abide with her, he knew that doing anything like that would be a dereliction of his own honor and his duty to her.
Throughout that day, he pushed them hard, taking them through the torturous paths that led through the mountains. He could feel her flagging behind him more than once, but she never said a word. When he turned back to look at her, she looked away quickly. There was no telling what she was thinking, but she did not speak, and neither did he.
He wondered if she would ever forgive him for what had happened to her. He had lied to her, betrayed her, led her into a world that was not hers, and in the end, she had lost everything.
He may have deserved every curse that she had to heap upon him, but he was grateful that she forbore.
The journey to Leister Castle could not be accomplished in a day, even with such stalwart horses as Finnian and his own mare. When night fell, they stopped to make camp as they had so often, but there was something different that night. Reade watched as Elizabeth gathered the wood, testing each branch to make sure that it was dry and not green, but he did not tease her about it as he might have before.
They ate from the dried meat he had brought from the MacTaggart stores, and something about sitting there with her made him remember their escape.
"Your jewels."
"What?"
"The jewelry that you carried with you. All the way from London. You dumped it on the road."
"I did, yes."
"I'm sorry you had to do that."
To Reade's surprise, a small smile whisked across Elizabeth's face.
"Yes, so am I. But I think my mother would be pleased I put them to such good use. She loved them well, but she always knew what they might buy and what the real value behind them was."
"Were they all you had of her?"
Elizabeth looked at him, and in the bright light of the fire they had built together, her eyes had never seemed livelier, more full of their own mysterious power.
"No, not at all. The jewels were... nice, I suppose. Rare and precious, certainly. But in the end, they were only tokens of my mother. She was a brave and beautiful woman who loved her entire family so very, very much. She lives in my heart, always, just like my brother and my father. She will always live there, and that is nothing that can ever be taken away from me."
Something about her soft words touched Reade's heart. It seemed as if he would never be done learning the depths of this one English girl who had turned everything around.
"Lass..."
"You live there, too."
Elizabeth refused to look at him when she said that, but she gave Reade her hand when he took it. She felt cold to him, and he brought her fingers to his lips, kissing her fingertips gently.
"It's the truth, Reade. I will never forget you."
Reade's heart felt as if it was too full, as if any moment, any word might pull it apart. Instead, he pulled Elizabeth close to him, wrapping him under her cloak so they could share his warmth, and he started to kiss her.
He thought she might resist, now that she was so close to her kinfolk, but instead, she latched her fingers into the fabric of his shirt, clinging to him and offering her mouth up to him with a wild abandon. Reade had intended the kiss to be a kind of farewell, something soft and gentle, but she refused to have that.
Between one moment and the next, she was straddling his legs, her arms around his shoulders, and she was kissing him as if the world would end if she stopped.
Reade groaned, because this was exactly what he had wanted, what he had thought he wanted with her from the beginning, but he was wrong because there was so much more. He could kiss her until the sky fel
l in, and it wouldn't be enough. He could live with her every day until the very end and still wonder why he felt cheated of more.
"Elizabeth, Heaven above, but you are all I want..."
She whimpered her agreement and with a bravery that seemed so unique to her, she pressed the very tip of her tongue along the seam of his lips, wanting to explore him as he had explored her so often. He knew she could feel the response that brought in his body, how hard she made him, but instead of pulling away, she only pressed closer. As he drew gently on her tongue, making her whimper a little, he could feel his resistance and reserve draining away like the sands in an hourglass.
With a groan, Reade pulled back, looking up into her face. He had no idea how in the world he resisted her, but he knew he had to.
"Elizabeth, we can't do this. We cannot. My control will only last so long."
She paused, licking her lips in a way that could drive a statue insane.
"Why should it last at all? Reade... Reade, I don't want to leave you. Or to lose you."
"You never will. But you know that this cannot happen, don't you?"
Elizabeth trembled, and he knew what he had suspected before. Elizabeth was not thinking of the future, any more than the soldiers did after a battle. They were alive, and that was the only thing that mattered.
With care, Reade eased her off his lap, missing her warmth almost immediately.
"Reade... Reade, I know we need to go to Leister, I know you need to be with your clan. But... this cannot be the end."
"It won't be," he promised her. "We will never end, and what we feel for each other will never end. No matter what happens, no matter how much time or distance separates us, we will never be apart. Not in our hearts. Not where it matters."
At some point, they managed to lie down and sleep. At least, Elizabeth did, and Reade did his best to ignore the silent tears that slipped down her face. he was exhausted to the very marrow, but still, he fought off sleep. All he knew was that this was the last time he would hold Elizabeth in his arms, and he had to remember every part of it.
Claimed By The Highlander (The Highlands Warring Clan Mactaggarts Book 1) Page 20
