Page 59 of Kidnapped By her Highland Enemy
She frowned, “He is outside?”
“Aye, me lady,” the girl nodded and pushed in the door. “Go straight to the end and round the post there, that is where he is.”
Oddly, Maisie grew suspicious and while she followed the directions, the moment she rounded the post, she crouched and tugged out one of the daggers from her left cloth boot—and none too sooner.
Someone grabbed at her and she came up slashing. The blade drew blood from the man’s cheek and he stumbled back with a hiss. She made to attack, but he grabbed her hand and slammed her into a wall, blood dripping from his cheek, his dark eyes glowing with rage.
“Ye wee bitch,” he snarled, fixing a tight hold on her wrist and forcing the blade out of her hand. It tumbled to the ground as Maisie tried to lift her knee to slam it into his stomach, but he was pressed flush on her body.
His lips twisted into an evil smirk and he leaned in, eyes glittering. His breath reeked of stale liquor when he spat, “I wish he gave me time to have me fun with ye, but I have me orders.”
Maisie’s blood chilled when she understood,had me fun,and she tried her best not to shiver and show her fear. She lifted her lip, “Lucas will find ye and kill ye for this.”
A nasty smirk split the man’s face in half, “I doubt that, now—” he lifted his hand and fixed it around her throat, squeezing theair out of her lungs until she slipped into blackness, no matter how she clawed at his hands. “—ye are coming with me.”
The night before
Clan McKenna
The piercing howl of a ravenous wolf rent the air while an icy wind of an early winter buffeted Hector Forrest, the Laird of the small McKenna clan. Standing at a window in his keep, he trained his gaze north to where the Barclay Castle stood, had stood for over two centuries.
The forest between them was dark and menacing, and while Hector could not see it, he knew that the clan was celebrating another victory over the Gunns. Pivoting on his heel, Hector looked south to where the Gunn clan sat, nursing their wounds… and he smiled.
By midday the next day, his plan would be working. Barclay and his wife-to-be would have been abducted and carried off to a third location where they would unfortunately die.
This will put these clans at war at last and when they kill each other, I will take up what is left.
“About time ye were wrenched down a peg or two,” he muttered nastily. “The lot of ye, thinking ye are so high and mighty.”
“Muttering to yerself again?” his wife Gavina scowled as she came into the room, her way lit by the candle in her hand. “It’s past midnight, Hector, ye should be in bed.”
“Nay,” he replied. “I came here because I couldnae sleep. Ye ken travels robs sleep from me.”
She spat, “After five days cavorting with Gunn an’ Barclay ye’ve probably made a fool of yerself. What were ye doing there, begging for bread?”
“And have to sup their cold kindness?” Hector’s face twisted. “I’d rather starve.”
“Ye willnae be taking me or yer children with ye,” Gavina snapped shrewishly. “Ye are a Laird. Why are ye such a coward and so weak? Surely ye can do something!”
He slammed the cup “Would a weak laird manage to goad both clans to the point where they are at war with the other? Would a weak laird manage to get enough knowledge that me men will get that damned Barclay and his wife-to-be, that uppity Dunn wench, and take them to a place where they will die? Will a weak laird be able to take hold of the scattered clans when Dunn and the old Barclay do decide to kill each other? Hm?”
Davina stilled and she came forward, dark eyes glittering. “Have ye done that husband o’ mine? Truly?”
“When was the last time we had decorations on these walls, or good leather to make our boots? How long had it been since we have eaten fresh beef that hasn’t been salted and brined so fiercely it was as if we were eating rawhide?
“Never again shall we groan when the frost has taken the fields again or our ships have been wrecked out at sea. Never again shall it be a lean winter fo’ us while Gunn and Barclay have more than enough to throw away because, wife, they will be dead!”
21
Barclay Castle
Angus knocked on the chamber where Maisie stayed with Lucas—a fact that he tried his best not to truly think about— and called out, “Maisie, the priest is waiting for ye.”
When no answer came, he knocked again, louder this time. “Maisie?”
Again, she did not reply, and he grew concerned. Pushing the door, he grew alarmed when the door swung open, and the room held the heavy silence of being empty. It did not take him long to know that something was wrong—very wrong—and he hurried out the room and down to the wedding chamber where Cinead stood with the priest.
“She’s gone,” he said, prodding both men’s heads to dart up.
