Page 10 of Awoken
“Ye can lower the blade, milady,” The man’s companion rumbled. “We mean ye no harm.”
“Aye … so why don’t ye put away yer dirks?”
The two men shared looks, before they both did as bid. The dark-haired man then moved toward her, arms raised. “As ye can see, I’m unarmed now.”
Leanna’s fingers flexed around the handle of the dirk. She knew this man had saved her life, yet something felt ‘wrong’ about this rescue. As she studied his face, she realized that she’d seen the man somewhere before—however, the context eluded her.
“What’s yer name?” she asked, still holding her weapon aloft.
The warrior paused, his head inclining as a smile curved his lips once more.
Mother Mary save me, he is handsome.The thought rose unbidden. It was true though; this close, the chiseled lines of the man’s face drew clear in the gloaming. He possessed moody good looks: a firm, well defined jaw shadowed in stubble, with a slight cleft in the chin, and dark eyebrows winging above penetrating midnight blue eyes. A mane of wavy black hair that fell just short of the shoulders framed his face.
“Ross Campbell at yer service,” he replied. “And my companion here is Carr Broderick.”
Leanna went still as she suddenly realized where she’d seen him in the past. “I remember ye,” she murmured. “Ye were at the MacKinnon and MacDonald clan gathering two years ago.”
That comment wiped the arrogant smile off his face. “I was,” he admitted, wary now.
Leanna’s pulse accelerated as she finally placed him. “Ye stood at Duncan MacKinnon’s side … ye serve him.”
“I do … please lower that blade, milady.”
Leanna backed up farther, heart hammering now. “What do ye want with me?”
Ross Campbell heaved a sigh. She could see he was tiring of her defiance, yet Leanna didn’t care. Her instincts were on alert now; it seemed that there had been more than just a band of outlaws tracking their progress south.
“If ye keep waving that dirk around, ye will only risk injury to yerself,” he said lowering his tone as if talking to a frightened filly. He took a cautious step toward her, and then another. “Put it down. Ye are coming with us now.”
“Get away from me,” Leanna snarled. Terror pulsed through her. She swiped the blade between them, warning him off. “I’m more than capable of defending myself, and I’m certainly not going anywhere with ye.”
She didn’t know what these two warriors had in mind, but any men who served MacKinnon weren’t friends of hers.
Ross Campbell moved then—so swiftly that Leanna barely registered it. One moment he’d been standing a few yards distant, the next he was right before her. He caught her wrist in an iron grip.
Leanna cried out, struggling against him. “Unhand me!”
“Take her knife, Carr,” Campbell instructed coolly. “And bind her wrists.” The big blond man stepped close and wrested the dirk from Leanna’s clutching fingers. She gave a wail as he did so—that weapon was the only thing she had left. The only thing between her and capture.
They took her north, away from the pine clearing strewn with bodies, and into the heart of the mountains. Night had settled over the world, a waxing half-moon rising into the inky sky, when the party of three stopped in a rocky gorge and made camp for the night.
Fighting nausea, Leanna tried to get down off her grey pony—not an easy task when her hands were bound. However, she didn’t want either of her captors touching her.
She was halfway down, when she realized the ground was rushing up to meet her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t put out her hands to break her fall.
Leanna cried out—and then a pair of strong arms fastened around her, catching her.
“Easy there.” Campbell set her down upon the ground. “Ye will do yerself an injury if ye aren’t careful.”
“Bastard,” she snarled. His touch wasn’t rough, yet it made her clench her jaw all the same. “If ye hadn’t bound my hands, I could have dismounted without yer help.”
Campbell huffed a soft laugh. “Nice try, milady. But we can’t take any chances with MacKinnon’s prize, can we?”
Leanna made a choking sound in the back of her throat as fury gripped her. “Loathsome worm! Ye will burn in hell for this!”
Campbell merely raised a dark eyebrow in reply, whereas behind him, Broderick barked a laugh. “Looks like MacKinnon’s fallen for a feisty one.”
Broderick set a small fire going while Campbell saw to the horses. Meanwhile, Leanna sat in stony silence on a rock a few feet away.
