Page 34 of Highlander's Runaway Seductress
“Och,” Ben groused as he sat up and rubbed his back. “I’d pay through me teeth to get that soft bed in that tavern. This icy ground is hell and destruction on me back.”
Laughing, Amelie gave him her sympathy. “T’is not easy on us young ones either.”
“But ye can rebound easier,” Ben laughed. “Me old bones seem to get frozen with the unnatural angles I slept in.”
Damien strode back into the tiny clearing after hitching up the horse. “Daenae ye worry; we’ll find ye a good place with a bath soon.”
Ben hobbled off to the bushes, while Amelie packed up her things and wrapped her cloak around her. She dared to slide herself into Damien’s arms for a moment. He closed one arm around her and kissed her temple. “Are you all right?”
“Aye,” Amelie nodded, then pulled away. “Thank ye for last night.”
“Me pleasure,” Damien said, before pulling away and helping her up into the bed of the cart.
When Ben came back, he helped the older man into the cart as well and then they were off. They were on the way out of the village when Damien had to stop to check a wheel. A man with a pitchfork came to them, his face hard.
“Oi,” he yelled, stopping them. “Red-head, is yer name Ailsa?”
Amelie’s head snapped up, just as the man finished, “Ye need to leave here. We daenae take kindly to yer lot round here!”
Damien came around his face getting hard. “Pardon me? Her lot? What do ye mean?”
Another man had come up to the first, his face just as displeasured, and added. “A messenger came last night to warn us about a red-headed woman from the lowlands who seduces men. We daenae take kindly to adulterous women here, so ye better be off.”
“Aye,” the first snapped. “Ye’ll have yer place in hell, but nay one here will be joinin’ ye.”
Now, Amelie could see Damien was growing incensed. “Oi, keep yer insults to yerself. Ye have nay right to curse the lass that way. Whoever told ye those bags of lies is that—a liar.”
The man holding the pitchfork scowled. “And who are ye to say? Best ye get gone and never come back, or I promise ye, me and the men around here will nae have mercy.”
Flexing his fist as if he were going to fight, Damien stepped forward, the intent to defend Amelie with his fists clear on his face. “And what if we daenae decide to leave?”
“Then ye’ll be beaten and the scars will remind ye nay to come this way again,” the man with the pitchfork said, and an agreeing murmur came from the rest of the men.
Amelie, fearful for Damien’s life, stopped him. “Nay, Damien. Please daenae get in trouble. It’s fine, we’re on our way, anyway.”
Sneering, Damien turned away and mounted the horse. They rumbled away with a small crowd of seven people watching them go. It was only when they turned a few corners and had the village behind them, that Amelie allowed herself to breathe. Her eyes dipped to her lap where her hands lay, trembling.
“What in God’s name was that?” Ben asked, breaking the brittle silence between them.
“I daenae ken,” Damien replied tightly. “But something is wrong—very,verywrong. First the woman in the town behind us, then this. I daenae ken what is goin’ on.”
“H-He said Ailsa,” Amelie added, when she had swallowed past her shock. “The fake name ye only gave to Morgana—only her. She is the only one who kens that.”
Ben grimaced. “And now that ye do think she overheard us talkin’ about Dolberry—”
“—And the fact that she told me that she was the missin’ daughter—” Damien interjected.
“—do you think she sent someone to follow us to make trouble?” Ben ended.
With her eyes down on her lap, Amelie muttered. “From what I saw of that woman, I reckon anythin’ is possible.”
They were travelling down a lane that was hemmed in by trees whose thin, spindly branches were overarching and making a grim macabre tunnel for them to travel under. Amelie bit her lip and stared at her callused hands, while she tried to come to terms with the fact that someone was sabotaging her.
Ben’s winkled hand rested on hers and she looked up into the warm, watery eyes. “Daenae ye fret about it, Amelie; we are both here to protect ye.”
Touched by his kindness, Amelie smiled. “I ken, Ben. Thank ye. I am just a bit worried about what will be ahead of us. I mean, if this liar came to the village last night, they must have gone ahead, right to the other villages, to spread the same lies. What’s to say what more lies this person will tell, and what other danger will lie ahead?”
“We daenae ken,” Damien said menacingly. “But if they try to hurt ye, believe me lass, they will rue the day they decided to do so.”
