Page 44 of Return to Clan Sinclair
Now to rescue Ceana.
He hadn’t thought to tell the Irish to enter the house quietly, thinking they’d use their common sense and do so. But the duke and his brothers began screaming like banshees the minute they were inside. He could hear them from here.
But by the time he got to the stairs, the three men were in the middle of a melee, fighting three strangers.
He jumped off the staircase, entering the fray, hoping one of the men he punched was Henderson.
Somebody slugged the duke, but other than stumbling backward a few feet, he didn’t howl or whine, merely reciprocated with a decent uppercut.
“Which one is Henderson?” the duke asked.
They should have asked Virginia what the man looked like, but he’d been in such a hurry he hadn’t thought about it.
One of the burly men with a bloody lip and what looked to be a broken nose pointed to a room at the end of the hall.
“He’s in there,” he said. “If it’s Henderson you want.”
Ceana was awakened by two things: the sound of yelling and a slap on her face.
She didn’t know who was yelling, but Paul Henderson was slapping her.
“Get up,” he said. “Now.”
Groggily, she raised herself on one elbow, staring up at him.
“What did you give me?” Why weren’t her lips cooperating? How very odd it was taking so long to form words.
He jerked her to a sitting position and then, before she could tell him her stomach was suddenly very upset, he was pulling her to the other side of the room, one arm around her waist, the other encircling her neck.
She kept blinking but the room was still spinning.
Something was very wrong and it was centered on the shouting from the corridor.
The door opened and Bruce stood there, his shirt torn and his lip bloody. She’d never seen a more welcome sight in her life. Her knees sagged in relief.
“Are you Sinclair?” Henderson asked, dragging her backward.
“No,” Bruce said, moving toward them. “But you might say I’m acting in his stead. Release her. I’ve not the patience to ask twice.”
The second door opened soundlessly to Ceana’s left. She glanced to the side to find the giant standing there. Did Bruce see him? Did she need to warn him?
“I think not. It’s Virginia I want.”
“You’re a fool to try to bargain now. We’ve subdued your men and you’re outnumbered.”
She struggled in Henderson’s grip. His arm tightened painfully around her neck until she could barely breathe. He really needed to release her before she was sick.
The giant swung back his arm. Suddenly, Henderson crumpled to the floor.
She almost joined him, but Bruce was there holding her upright as the room spun around her.
She was shaking like a newborn colt, holding onto Bruce as she stared at the man who’d both kidnapped her from Drumvagen and saved her. In his hand was a large iron skillet.
“Why?”
“Did you mean what you said about giving me money?” he asked.
There was something to be said for a mercenary man. They were so much easier to understand. Evidently, the giant decided to cut his losses.
