Page 54 of Highlander's Runaway Seductress
He peeled his heavy eyes open and looked around the dimness.
He was not sure if it were morning or evening because the haze looked like both dawn and dusk. His arms were tied to an overhead limb of a tree, one of many in a clearing. He cast through his hazy memory, trying to figure out what had happened—all he remembered was waiting for Amelie to come back to the tavern, speaking with her and then making love to her.
Then his mind jumped, to feel blistering pain ricochet through his head, and lastly, Ben’s hateful blue eyes glaring at him. Ben, the man he had thought was his friend, had turned a traitor. He bit back a curse as he could not waste any time raging at Ben—he had to figure out how to escape wherever Ben had dumped him.
For an old man with a limp, Ben had somehow dragged him into the middle of nowhere and had incapacitated him by tying him up and removing his boots where he knew Damien stored a knife. At least he had not killed him, but the thought of being dead spurred off into something worse and Damien growing frantic. Ben was after Amelie and the money he would get for her.
He flexed his arms and found that the limbs were still growing numb. From the angle Ben had tied his arms, the blood was draining at a frightening pace. Despite the face it was cold with falling snow, he barely felt it. He twisted his wrists trying to induce more blood flow while moving his feet up and under him so he could stand.
It was slow going, but he managed to stand and eased the strain on his arms. He started to jump, to get his blood flowing again and to rip the trees limb off. Little by little the limb began to break, and just as night fell, it finally snapped off.
While freeing his hands and feet, Damien still had no inkling where he exactly he was. He had to be somewhere in Dolberry because Ben had to use Amelie to get what he wanted. He had to get back to the city, but he had no direction in where to turn.
Night was coming in and he raked a hand through his hair. How hard had Ben knocked him to keep him unconscious for the whole day to pass? Moreover, how long had he been unconscious for exactly. A day? Two?
If it was that long, and God forbid, even longer, how was Amelie dealing with his absence? One thing was clear, he had to get out of the cold and wait until dawn came to find his way out.
He foraged for some dry sticks and after finding some made a fire on the far side of the thickest tree and tried to huddle down. There was little wind in the forest, so his fire stayed bright and hissing, until morning.
He did not sleep a wink because most of his attention was on Amelie and the other part of him was seething, filled with a list of revengeful acts he was going to wreak upon Ben when he got his hands on him.
If ye dare hurt Amelie, I will kill ye, Ben, mark me words.
When dawn broke, Damien found what he hoped would be a tall tree and climbed it, trying his best to get some bearings. Staring over what looked like a sea of treetops, he spotted the castle far into the east.
How had Ben gotten him so far away from the town and in the middle of a woodland when the man could barely walk?
Mayhap he is fakin’ that as well.
With a bearing in mind, he grimly descended the tree and headed off toward the castle. His feet were cold, but they were hardened as most of his life he had not worn shoes, yet he knew he could not linger in the slush. He broke off a branch to use as a weapon in case he came across a wild animal and headed off east.
He walked until the sun’s position showed it was noon and paused to rest. Slumped against as tree, Damien swallowed over a dry throat and wished he could find a spring. It still struck him to the core that Ben had harbored deceit in his heart all this time.
I suppose he was usin’ me all me life, only coverin’ it up by pretendin’ to care about me.
Bitterness settled deep inside his heart and Damien scowled. Why was his trust always being broken? That everyone he had believed would not harm him had double-crossed him somehow. First his parents and now Ben…dourly he wondered if Amelie would join them.
Why am I even goin’ back to her? Maybe this is a sign that I should stay away.
His head gently pressed back on the tree behind him while his he battled exhaustion, anger, hunger, and uncertainty. Wouldn’t it be easier for him to give up? But then, the warm loving gaze Amelie had given him that night when they had made love, broke through the malaise of his doubts, and hurt.
If there was one thing he had to fight for, it was her, even in the chance that she would leave him too, but the many times Amelie had told him that she loved him was the one thing he held on to like a lifeline.
He managed to stand and strike off deeper into the woods because he had one thing to fight for. It was a chance that he would gain the love and acceptance he had been denied for all his life—and it all rested with Amelie.
* * *
It was snowing again, and Amelie, dressed in a thick tartan dress of her clan’s colors, standing at a large window, and gazing out worriedly at the town below.
Damien, where are ye?
A day and a half had passed since Ben had told her Damien would join them at the castle, but even now, there was no sign of him. She feared two things: first, that he had run off, back to Inverness or somewhere else out of fear that her father would reject him, or worse, he had been injured.
“Ye’re worried for him, arenae ye, lass?” her father said behind her.
“Aye,” Amelie replied. “I ken Damien, at first he wanted nothin’ more than to carry me here and get the reward, but he changed his mind. He told me that he only wanted to get me to ye because it was right. His parents left him as a child, faither, he kens what it feels to be alone.”
Colin came to stand by her. “Is he afraid of me?”
