Page 1 of Highlander's Runaway Seductress
Prologue
Dolberry Lairdship
Another agonized scream from the outside had Lady Evelina McDulah cuddling her baby girl to her heart and crouching down in a nook inside her and her husband’s chambers. She swallowed tightly and tried to stem the tears running down her face as she knew—sheknewall the carnage that was happing outside was because of her.
If only she had done what her parents had needed from her, marry Laird Selvach of Ascogg. The evil lowland Laird who had been raiding her parents’ lands in Northumberland, stealing everything and anything until her father had grown desperate enough to offer him anything that he wanted to stop the constant pillage: her hand in marriage had been the solution.
The week before her wedding had ripped her apart and when they had loaded her trunks into the back of the carriage, tears had flown down her face like a river. It had not stopped during the journey to the lowlands, a trip that made Evelina feel as if she were walking to her death. If the dreadful rumors about Liard Selvach were right, she probably was.
A brief respite had come when, in the woodland just below the castle, a wheel on her carriage had splintered forcing her to sit outside while her coachman scrambled to fix it. Perched on a rock she cried silently, knowing that her life was never going to be the same.
Yet salvation had come. A party of three men had broken into the clearing, but her attention had been drawn to one seated atop a grey stallion. A striking man with broad shoulders, a wide chest, and a fiercely handsome face, topped by thick brown hair, he had met her eyes with surprising tenderness.
From the surprised look on his face, he, nor his men, had expected to see them there, but that had not stopped him from coming down from his mount. He had knelt his powerful form at her feet, asking her what was wrong.
Through hiccups, she had told him her story; how she had no choice but to marry the Laird to stop him from destroying her family’s legacy, only to have Laird Dolberry, or Colin, as the stranger had asked her to call him, step in.
Yer nay goin’ to that man, lass,he had told her kindly.Ye will never last a day with him…ye’re comin’ with me.
Now, almost three year later, Selvach was attacking her highland home in revenge, cutting down Colin’s men as if they were chattel and bombarding Colin’s castle. Her poor baby was none the wiser about what was happening, but sat, solemn on her lap while Evelina held her tight.
She pressed her child harder into her chest and tried to sing the soothing lullaby that her baby loved, but the words would not come. The door to her rooms was pushed open and panic seized her heart in a vice-grip, fearing the marauders had found her.
“Mo chridhe,” Colin’s booming voice sent relief running through her. “Where are ye?”
“Here,” Evelina called out, her voice trembling and faint.
Her husband came in, his body fitted in leather armor as he was as much a warrior as his men were. He knelt before her, the hardness in his blue eyes softening. In his left hand, he held a broadsword but spun the blade away from her.
“Daenae ye worry, love, we’ll get through this,” he said, “ye’ll be safe.”
Colin’s thumb smoothed over her cheek, wiping the tears away, but guilt rested squarely on Evelina’s heart, “I brought this trouble to you,” she mourned, “I am sorry.”
Her kissed her fiercely, “Ye have nothin’ to be sorry about, love. Me men and I will deal with this, just stay here.” He then switched his attention to his child, cupping her softy rounded face, “Ye too, Poppet, ye’ll be safe.”
Standing, Colin gave Evelina a last assuring look before he slipped out of the nook and left the room.
“Hear that, Poppet?” she used Colin’s endearment for their child Amelie. “Your father says all will be well.”
“Mama…” Amelie said sweetly.
Feeling emboldened, Evelina rocked her child and started to sing, “I saw a fair maiden, sitting and sing, she lulled a little child a sweet lording. That very lord is He that made all things, of all lords He is Lord and King of all kings.”
Amelie’s eyes began to droop and just as she was about to drop to sleep, a splintering sound had her jerking up.
It sounded as if someone was hacking through the door with a hatchet. Evelina did not dare move and only hunkered down, twisting enough that her body would shield Amelie from any attacker.
Please don’t come in here, please don’t come and take my child.
A deafening crash had her jumping, and she knew, justknewthat she was going to be found. A wicked cackle had her bending, trying to make herself even smaller, but that did not stop a hand from grabbing onto her hair and yanking her up.
Shrieking, Evelina held Amelie tight while the ruffian dragged into the open. “Let go of me!”
“Ye should have thought about that before ye ran off with Dolberry,” the man sneered, “me Laird has nay mercy on wicked traitors like yerself. Do ye ken how long it took him to find ye? It cost ye yer parents’ lives.”
“What?” Evelina gasped, both from the pain in her head and the horror of knowing that her parents had been killed.
The man shoved her into the hold of another man. “What? Ye thought ye could just disappear and nay one would pay the price? I was there when me Laird dragged yer parents out of their house and saw as he gave yer mother to his men. He forced yer father to watch them have their fun with her, before he ran his blade through both o’ em.”
