Page 10 of A Healer for the Ruthless Highlander
“Aye.” Leana looked proud. The way she squared her shoulders, one would think she was trying to show him that she wasn’t afraid of him. “I never hold me tongue. If it bothers ye, ye can let me go. I’ll find me own way.”
“If I resented yer impertinence, lass, I would have gagged ye again.”
Leana seemed to be reading between the lines. Or so he thought. Her eyes were wide for a moment, her lips parted in shock.
She frowned slightly, and again there was that stubborn, adorable expression that made Kenneth realize he was enjoying his argument with the healer more than he had initially thought.
Unfortunately, he had little time to enjoy this minor discovery.
“Me Laird, look out!” one of his men shouted as he galloped back down the road.
An arrow flew toward them along with the warning, leaving Kenneth little time to react. He wrapped his arm around Leana and pulled her to his chest as she held back a gasp, while he held the reins with his other hand.
They narrowly dodged the arrow, but a second flew through the air and caused the horse to rear. Its forelegs soared through the air, while the screams of bandits chasing the men, trying to rob them, rang out in the air.
Leana screamed as well. She held on to Kenneth, for want of a better way to keep her balance, and buried her face in his beefy chest as he tried to control his horse.
But one of his men’s horses had galloped away, and the beast collided with his own in mid-flight. Leana and Kenneth fell off the horse, with her screaming in terror, clinging to his neck.
Time seemed to stop and speed up then, and Kenneth had only a moment to react—a moment to embrace Leana with all his might and twist their bodies so that he took the brunt of the impact.
His right hand closed around her slender hip, and his left hand tangled in her dark tresses as he held her close to his chest.
He heard her whimper, the neighing of horses, and the scream of one of his men just before his back hit the groundhard. And then the world went completely black for a moment.
Everything disappeared, leaving only the feel of Leana in his arms, her heart beating in tandem with his own for the first time.
“Me Laird!” his men shouted as they rushed toward him and Leana. “Me Laird, hold on!”
Their shouts echoed, but Leana paid them no attention. For a moment, she thought she was dying, for everyone seemed to have lost their senses.
She could only focus on the man who was still holding her as if her life was in danger, even though he was unconscious. Though perhapshislife was in danger now.
Another Leana, probably a more coherent one, would have turned away from the Laird and run. And it made perfect sense to do so. At last, she had a chance to escape.
Instead, she reached up and placed her hands on his shoulders, shaking him violently, almost desperately.
“Me Laird, come on, wake up. Ye must wake up,” she pleaded.
Perhaps it was her voice or the fact that one of the bandits was coming toward them—she would never know—but Kenneth opened his good eye as the bandit let out a war cry.
And then everything happened so quickly. It was as if the world had been blurred, for Leana did not understand what was happening. She only felt Kenneth grab her by the shoulders and pull her out of the bandit’s path with incredible delicacy and precision.
Then, he drew a dagger that was strapped to his belt. As the bandit lunged at him, he flipped him over and plunged the dagger into his stomach and then quickly into his chest, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.
The bandit held his breath for a moment, then let it out in a gasp, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as Kenneth stood up, the dagger still in his clenched fist.
By then, his expression had changed. It was almost frightening, yet beautiful. Leana watched him with morbid fascination,comparing him once again to a god of night and shadow, for the sight of him, with his fist bloodied and his hair falling over his shoulders, could have reminded her of nothing else.
“Stay behind me, nay matter what happens,” Kenneth ordered.
For the first time, Leana nodded, almost submissively.
She understood that she could not disobey this one order. Especially as more bandits ran toward them. It wasn’t just one or two of them, but a whole horde. Leana easily counted ten.
The disadvantage was obvious, but that did not seem to intimidate Kenneth. He swooped down on the first two in a series of complex and precise movements, landing a punch on one’s face while taking out the other with a thrust of his dagger. Meanwhile, a third bandit joined the group and tried to restrain him.
His men were busy fighting their own battles, so no one rushed to his aid, but he did not seem to need it.
