Page 2 of Highlander's Caged Rose
She thought she had enough coin to last for a few months, but she had not had time to count the silver, so she could not be sure. With no aim and no direction in mind, all she could do was move forward and hope for the best.
Perhaps she could get a job as a governess, she thought. She was reasonably intelligent and could speak French and Italian fluently. Yet, she had no real experience of dealing with children, and could produce no references.
Maybe she could work as a lady’s companion, then. She knew it would not be a very exciting life, but then, beggars could not be choosers. At least she would be out of danger, especially if she travelled southwards to the busy, bustling cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. She was sure there would be more opportunities there, although she had always lived in the quiet of the countryside, and it would be a challenge.
The realisation that she was finally free of the vile man hit her. Moira began to feel a little happier, and started to make some plans. She was not stupid, she knew, but she was not too proud to take work as a tavern wench or a chambermaid if the worst came to the worst. At least she would have enough to eat.
Suddenly, Moira felt a prickling at the back of her neck. It was a feeling she had experienced many times in her life; a forewarning that she was in imminent danger from something or someone. She had never ignored it, and she did not know either, but spurred her horse into a canter to escape the invisible threat.
However, despite the moonlight, the road was hard to follow in the dark, and she could see only a few yards ahead. It was this that enabled the bandits who were waiting for her to spring out from the darkness and surround her.
Moira could barely see them, but she could certainly hear them as they circled her. As the host of thugs surrounded her, shouting filthy obscenities, terror took over her.
She felt greedy hands reaching out for her and batted them away, at the same time turning her horse in a circle to confuse them.
However, she was outnumbered.
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“Come on, lads!” The voice of one of the men, presumably the ringleader, rang out gleefully above the din of horses’ hooves striking the earth and the cries of triumph from the other men. “What a beauty we have here! Get her!”
One of them stretched out and grabbed the reins of Moira’s horse, but she reached into the pocket of her dress to grab a small knife she had stashed there at the last minute before she left. She swiped it sideways and slashed the man’s hand, causing him to scream in pain. His horse reared in panic and almost collided with Moira’s, but she managed to dodge him at the last possible second.
However, in doing so, she rammed the side of another bandit’s mount. He reached over and knocked the knife out of her hand, then grabbed her hand and tried to haul her towards him. The pull was so strong that she felt as if her arm was being wrenched out of its socket. Moira felt herself slipping out of the saddle and pushed back as hard as she could, knowing that if she fell onto the ground, she was in danger of being trampled to death.
Yet however hard she tried, the man was too strong, and Moira felt herself slipping inexorably towards the earth. Then, just as she had given up hope, a shout came ringing out of the darkness and more horses rode into the fray.
Moira’s heart sank, and she let go of the reins and fell onto the ground. The last thing she remembered was the sight and sound of dozens of hooves drumming around her, making the ground shake.
She had stopped caring, though. She was going to die, and there was nothing she could do about it. She closed her eyes and rolled into a ball, then waited for the end to come.
Alerted by the screams of a woman who was obviously in great distress, Finn Morrison, Captain of the Guard at Baltyre Castle, urged his stallion into a gallop and rode with his nightly patrol towards the sound.
Just then, his Laird, Niall McPhee, came galloping up behind them and paused for a split second behind Finn’s shoulder, but when he saw the woman falling from her mount, fury flared up inside him like a raging fire.
He despised men who terrorised women, and now he plunged into the fray, causing the bandits to scatter into a disorganised mess. Niall rode a great black stallion called Logie who had a fiery temper and was now rearing up and using his great hooves to knock the bandits off their mounts.
He and Niall made a terrifying team. Niall had a very long reach and a huge broadsword which he wielded to great effect, stabbing it viciously, slashing it sideways, causing some men to fall off while trying to avoid it. There, they were either trampled by the horses or severely dealt with by the rest of the guards.
Niall drove the point of his sword into one of the bandits’ shoulders, and the man screamed, but somehow managed to ride away. Niall would have followed him, but was distracted by a blow to the back of his arm. Without thinking, he slashed his sword backwards and was rewarded by an ear-splitting scream before the bandit fell from his mount, blood spurting from his neck.
The patrol managed to capture a few of them, but most escaped, and Finn made a resolution then and there to get rid of the scourge of their terror once and for all as soon as he could.
Now, however, there was another matter to attend to, something much more urgent. The woman on the ground was moaning in pain. Niall dismounted, then instructed one of his men to tie a piece of rope above a wound on her knee as a tourniquet. After they helped her onto his horse, they proceeded to ride back to Baltyre.
The young woman had lapsed into unconsciousness and was limp and lifeless in his grasp. He could dimly see her fine features, but after the ordeal she had gone through, her clothes were torn and tattered, and she was covered from head to foot in mud.
By the time they reached the castle, he was beginning to fear she wouldn’t make it. However, just as they reached the gates, her eyelids fluttered open. She looked around in panic and found herself in the arms of a stranger on the back of a horse that was not her own.
“Where am I?” she asked fearfully.
On every side, there were heavily armed mounted men, each one of them menacing and terrible. “Take my coin, take my jewels!” she cried desperately. “But please don’t hurt me! I will not tell anyone what happened here. You have my word, just let me go!”
She thought that the bandits had captured her, and she was being taken to their headquarters. For a moment, Niall imagined what would have happened to her there.
“Don’t worry,” Niall said reassuringly, feeling infinitely sorry for her. “We are not bandits. We scared them away. I am taking you to Baltyre Castle, and you will come to no harm from anyone there. I will take you to our healer as soon as we are inside.”
The woman looked unsure whether to believe him or not. Perhaps she was thinking this was another ploy to fool her into trusting him, while she was genuinely being carried to safety. Yet even if she was being carried into danger, there was nothing she could do about it.
