Page 49 of The Veiled Wish of a Highland Bride

Archibald saw Mia shiver. Her struggling was more frantic now, kicking against the long-haired man that held her.

Soon, Dallas had grabbed her again, holding her arms firmly down and turning her around to back him as he pressed a sharp blade to her neck.

“If ye move or try to struggle, I will slit yer throat faster than ye can say,nae,” Dallas hissed, his voice tainted with murderous intent, indicating that he meant every word.

His men were all standing around him, some wore an expression of guilt that Archie didn't understand, others cheered him on and laughed at his smug jokes. He looked more closely at the men, or a particular scrawny-looking man who seemingly had been trying to keep away to hide his face from Archie.

He squinted in the darkness and looked more closely at him.

It was Laird MacLean.

The very same red-haired Laird that had been on the hunting expedition and had been acting so suspiciously when Archie chose to have a few words with him. He must have been a spy at Murray castle.

How much had he heard? What did he know? Did he find out about the escape plan for Bonnie Prince Charlie? Archibald's fury was even more pronounced now as he internalized the weight of the betrayal, not just against him but against the whole of Scotland. He bared his teeth with the gag still in his mouth at the man whose attention he had now caught.

But the sound of Mia's scream brought his attention back to the matter at hand. The sharp edge of the dirk was still pressed against her neck, a small lime of blood now trickling down to her collarbone.

“Nae so feisty anymore, are ye now?” his brother said.

Dallas was so evidently deriving pleasure from all this—Mia’s agony, Archie’s fury. His stomach turned as he saw how terrified she was. He struggled some more against the bindings, hoping that it would magically snap, but nothing happened.

Until suddenly his luck turned, and a woman jumped out from the shadows with a blade in her hands.

CHAPTERTWENTY

“Get yer filthy hands off my daughter!”

The voice came out thunderously, shocking every single person that stood there.

Daughter?

Mia was even more shocked than she had been when Dallas went on a rant about how he had taken Archibald's lover away from him. What did this strange woman mean by ‘daughter’?

Dallas rolled his eyes. “Och, here we go again.” He pressed Mia closer to himself until each part of her was flush with his body. “It seems ye're quite popular, Lady Murray.”

Mia was repulsed. She could feel his groin against her rump as he held her tighter, presumably so that she could not get away. But a part of her was convinced he was deriving some warped pleasure from having her so close. He rubbed her against him, causing Mia to squirm, doing her best to get away from him.

The woman stood there, teeth bared like a she-wolf trying to protect her cub, her blade ready to strike Dallas dead. Just then, the gentle moonlight fell on her face, revealing a face that bore something familiar.

This woman, how could she think Mia was her daughter? Unless…

“Mother?” Mia whispered.

She recognized her. It was this woman that had helped her get back into the castle after her night out with Archibald, the very day she had saved him. Mia vaguely remembered that the woman had asked her so many questions on that day during their ride to the keep. She had found it odd but chose to answer because she felt so much gratitude towards her for helping her out.

For Mia, the mother she remembered had blond hair just like hers and had sunken eyes and cheeks from years of drinking away her sorrows. This woman, however, was confident, strong, a little bigger too.

So how couldshebe her mother?

“Aye, my daughter,” the woman said. She looked as though she had tears in her eyes. “Ever since I ran into ye on that very day weeks ago, my heart has nae been at rest, Mia. I doubted myself, I tried to tell myself it was nae true. That it was naeye,but I kent. I kent, Mia. I felt it in my heart that it was ye. I had to talk to ye, my bairn. I just had to. So I followed ye. I followed ye all around trying to garner the courage to tell ye the truth for what happened so many years ago—"

“I really should just slit this little whore's throat. Ye have theaudacityto use my grounds for a family reunion?” Dallas laughed, but he was furious now.

His men had wanted to attack in the course of Maeve's speech, but he had held them back with a gentle wave of his hand. He had wanted to know the story too. Perhaps he wanted something he could use against them.

“But go on. Goon. I would never deprive a mother and her daughter of their last words together,” he said with mock sincerity. “I ken for a fact that I would like to ken my truth before I die. So, aye, speak on, woman.”

His smirk was back, and he seemed to loosen his grip around Mia a little. She wondered if she could use this as a moment to escape. But her aching heart stopped her.

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