Page 66 of Seductive Scot
Something banged in the antechamber, and she prayed it was the door. She nearly cried out with relief when Reikart loomed in the doorway, icy contempt on his face.
“Did you just ask my wife to lie down on your bed?” he demanded, stalking toward Algien.
“What?” The man’s expression went from baffled to terrified as Reikart stopped in front of him, murderous rage twisting his face.
“My wife,” he bit out, drawing his fist back so quickly it was a blur. It connected with its target. The baron leaned forward, clutching his nose. Reikart grabbed Algien by the shoulders and drove his knee up into the man’s face. The baron fell backward onto the bed he’d just demanded she lie on, blood streaming out of his nose and from his lip.
“Consider this a warning,” Reikart snarled, looming over the baron who had curled into a ball. “If you ever touch my wife again, I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”
“My lord,” a young feminine voice called, and then a blond girl appeared. “If you wish to escape with your wife, you better make haste.”
Reikart took Deirdre by the hand, and she lifted her other hand. “I have it,” she said, holding the cross out to him.
“I can’t believe it,” Reikart said, grasping the cross.
“Ye can go now.” Deirdre’s heart twisted in agony, but she needed him to know this and if she didn’t say it now, she feared she’d become afraid to let him go, change her mind, and settle.
Reikart opened his mouth as if he was going to reply, but the young girl said again, “You must hurry! I know these guards. They walk the east wing often, and you destroyed the baron’s door! Take the corridor to the other end. Tell the guard there that Elizabeth says to let you pass. Then follow the stairs to the courtyard. If you’re lucky, it will still be crowded with people watching the fighting. I’d take the woods if I were you. A body can get lost in there.”
Reikart gripped Deirdre’s hand as he shoved the cross in the waistband of his braies. “What are you going to do?” he asked the girl.
“I’ll ensure he doesn’t go after you,” she answered, and all three of them looked to the baron, who was still moaning and huddled in a ball. “You need time to escape.”
“Who are ye?” Deirdre blurted.
Reikart leaned toward Deirdre, pushed her hair back, making her shiver, and whispered in her ear, “That’s the future queen of Scotland.”
“Elizabeth,” said the girl, and then she withdrew a small dagger and waved it at them. “Go now. The baron would not dare lay a finger on me. My godfather is the king of England, after all.”
Deirdre turned toward the door, but Reikart hesitated. “I have to tell her something.”
“Then do it quickly,” Deirdre replied, eyeing the door.
Reikart went to the young girl, leaned down, and cupped his hand at her ear. Whatever he said, the girl’s eyes widened considerably, and she nodded.
“What did ye say to her?” Deirdre asked as they made their way down the hall as Elizabeth had instructed.
Reikart glanced down toward her, and her heart squeezed with love and then sadness that she might lose him. “I told her that one day she will meet a man named Robert the Bruce who is exactly the sort of good man she questioned even existed earlier.”
“The Bruce’s young grandson?” she whispered, as they walked toward the guards at the end of the passage.
“Yeah,” Reikart said, squeezing her hand. “He’ll be king one day. I told Elizabeth to trust in him.”
As they stopped at the guards and Reikart told them what Elizabeth had said, Deirdre realized that she hadn’t had a chance to even have long talks with Reikart about things he might know about the future. She wanted that chance. But only if he wanted it, too.
After they retrieved their horses from the stables, they departed the castle and quickly made their way to the woods. Alastair was waiting for them exactly where he said he’d be. Reikart gave his uncle a recap of what had occurred and showed him the cross.
Reikart looked to Deirdre, overwhelmed by the feeling that he was at a pivotal moment, that she was pulling away from him, but there was no time and no privacy to talk to her. They set a hard pace, which Reikart welcomed because the minute they stopped at nightfall to make camp, he would finally get the chance to tell her how he felt.
When they stopped, he fairly tugged Deirdre off the horse and barked at Alastair to give them time alone.
“What’s vexing ye?” Deirdre asked breathlessly as he led her away from Alastair and to a secluded spot, surrounded by trees where he was certain Alastair could not see or hear them. “Reikart,” Deirdre said, tugging back on him.
He turned toward her, saw the worry glistening in her eyes, and all he could think was that he wanted to spend the rest of his life ensuring she was safe and happy, and all his days discovering new things about her. He stepped closer to her, inhaling her scent of heather, and slid one hand to the small of her back while cupping her cheek with his other hand. “I want to tell you something.”
Damn, it was harder to open up than he’d thought it was going to be.
She pushed away from him and stepped back, crossing her arms over her chest. “I want to tell ye something, too. I free ye,” she said. The tremor in her voice made his gut twist. “I’m nae going to travel through time with ye, without…without… It’s just I need—” Her cheeks flushed the loveliest shade.
