Page 5 of Rebellion's Fire

Her heart thudded. Panic tried to batter its way up. “For a price. He will not pay. So, what gain could there be in holding me?”

Adam MacHeth smiled. Briefly, his eyes saw only her. “Annoying him.”

The sheer childishness of that took her breath away. “On the contrary, you’d be doing him a favor!”

“Oh no. Someone else has taken what is his. He’ll come after you.”

The wild, dark eyes left her at last. They’d come to the top of the rise that should have protected them from his sight. On the other side of the hill, a group of saddled horses of various sizes chomped contentedly on the coarse grass. One, a large, handsome grey, raised its head, sniffing the air, and immediately began to canter toward Christian and her companion.

Beyond the horses, the country of Ross spread out to the misty horizon, beyond which lay higher hills and Wester Ross. A large, untamed land stretching from coast to coast. Malcolm MacHeth’s land. Slamming him in prison for over twenty years hadn’t taken it from him. The man beside her now held it for him, as he held her…

Catching the horse by the bridle, Adam MacHeth turned it, stirrup facing her. “If you please.”

Although not quite the war horse favored by Norman knights, the grey was not a pony. It was not even a lady’s mount.

“If I please?” Incensed, she let the words spill out of her mouth before she could prevent them, but fortunately, they didn’t appear to anger the berserker. Instead, he actually smiled faintly, a disarming lightening of those troubled dark eyes.

She swallowed. “If I go with you, will you release my people unharmed?”

Stupid. They both knew, everyone knew, that she had no choice and certainly no way to enforce such a condition.

Adam MacHeth nodded once, still waiting for her to mount, as if blind to the impossibility of her ever reaching her foot so high unaided.

One of his men brushed past him, muttering something in his own tongue, clearly meaning to boost Christian into the saddle since his master was being so discourteous. Perversely, she chose to ignore him, and since there was at least a saddle on the beast, she leapt upward, catching the horse’s mane and the back of the saddle and hauling herself the rest of the way onto its back.

It was undignified and must have flashed an embarrassing amount of bare flesh as she threw her leg over—she could only hope the men were too stunned to notice. She was fairly well stunned herself—for just a moment, it had been fun. Then reality closed down once more.

Adam MacHeth landed behind her. His bloodstained arms, naked from the elbow down, thick, sinewy, and brown, closed in around her from either side, gathering in the reins, settling the protesting horse. She turned her head, watching his face.

But he looked neither at her nor the animal. His attention was on Henry, who had been dragged before them, looking alarmed but resigned.

“Go find your captain,” Adam mac Malcolm commanded. He smiled deliberately. “Tell him what happened here. Tell him Adam MacHeth has taken his lady.”

Add him to the list, William would snarl with contempt. She could almost hear him doing it. Such disrespect no longer hurt or even concerned her. Familiarity had seen to that. What bothered her more was the intention of her captor.

Leaving behind what was left of Christian’s household and possessions, he rode in silence at the head of his men, not even touching her with his enclosing arms. He didn’t need to; he had already declared that he had taken Lanson’s lady. And despite the instability that she feared amounted to insanity, she was sure he had picked his words carefully. To annoy William? Or because he actually intended rape?

The MacHeths were beyond the law of the king and the Church. Since their raiding began to be talked of two years ago, the sons of Malcolm MacHeth had made themselves infamous for violence and rapine throughout Scotland. Besides, on the fringes of the country, in the parts not under the full control of the King of Scots, barbarous irregular unions prevailed. What did a marriage before God matter if by ignoring it, you could annoy your enemy?

As she had done since setting out from Perth, she observed the country they passed through, although now, perhaps, her watching had an air of desperation because she had to know her enemy.

And so, she watched the people come out of their mud hovels to give Adam MacHeth oatcakes and eggs, not with fear but with acceptance. Some of the older people smiled at him. Some of the younger ones—the women—blushed if he looked at them. Christian supposed there couldn’t be much competition.

MacHeth…

Shutting out the wind, she said abruptly, “Where are we going?”

There was a pause, long enough to make her think he hadn’t heard or had chosen not to answer. “Home.”

Instinctively, she twisted round to look at him. His eyes were fixed straight ahead, open and gleaming in the lowering light, but she could have sworn they didn’t see the muddy track or the woods spreading out beneath the hill. The man was unequivocally scary. But she noticed something else. Even in his distracted state—to call it nothing worse—he moved when she did, shifting his arm and his leg and even his shoulder to avoid all possibility of physical contact. The truth hit her like a revelation.

He can’t bear to touch me…

She wanted to laugh. After all, it wasn’t an unusual response to her person, as her husband would have affirmed. Hastily facing front once more, she remembered Adam MacHeth’s reaction when he’d grabbed her at the camp. He’d dropped her wrist as if it was the business end of a branding iron. And he’d had no intention of helping her into this impossibly high saddle. For whatever reason, she was physically abhorrent to him. Perhaps he’d been listening to the men after all.

It might well save her from rape, she concluded judiciously—although there were still his men and at least one unknown brother to worry about. Either way, she wasn’t inclined to wait that long to learn her fate. Now she knew her own advantage. And by now, Henry would have got the women and his surviving men far enough away; perhaps they were already with William.

She waited until the ground sloped downward sharply on their left, falling away into thick wood. She’d never get a better chance.

---