Robley threw his head back and laughed. Galen grinned.
“It is no’ all the same to me. Let us be off,” he commanded. Malcolm waited until Hugh was out of range and leaned close to whisper. “What happened in the wood?”
“You pulled my braid. I bit your lip,” she whispered back. “Did you forget already?”
“How could I?” He snorted and rubbed his injured lip. “I meant this morn.”
“I believe Hugh hid in the forest and watched me bathe, but I can’t prove it.”
“Why did you no’ call out?”
“I didn’t know he was there until he stepped out of hiding, and he did nothing to harm me. Besides, who should I have called? You?” Alethia twisted around to frown at him. “You used brute force and tied my wrists.”
“’Tis different.”
“Since I don’t know any of you, I don’t see a difference.” She shrugged. “If I had called out, I might’ve ended up in more trouble than I was already in.”
“MacKintosh men dinna harm women.” Her words stung his sense of honor and his pride. “We protect and cherish them.”
“Ha! After you tie them up and haul them off against their will, do you mean?”
“You have a sharp tongue.”
“Oh yeah? Well, you smell like your horse.”
Malcolm wanted to tear his hair and laugh all at the same time. He was beginning to understand why she’d been left behind.
They’d ridden for hours since their all-too-brief break. The muscles in Alethia’s thighs screamed for mercy, and she’d lost all feeling in her butt ages ago. Probably a good thing.
How much longer would she have to spend on the back of a smelly horse sitting way too close to Alpha-Jerk? Just as that thought filled her head, they came to a stop on the crest of a hill. Below them, a village nestled on the shore of a lake. In the middle of the lake sat an island with a formidable castle built on the edge of a cliff. Alethia stared openmouthed.
Fields of ripening crops turned the surrounding valley into a patchwork quilt of greens and golds. Horned, shaggy cattle dotted the hills, joined by sheep, stout ponies, and larger horses like the ones they rode.
“Lock Moigh!” Malcolm shouted at the top of lungs.
She flinched and covered her ears, just as his men echoed the shout, and two warning blasts from a horn in the village rent the air. A dozen warriors on horseback streaked out from between the cottages, swords drawn, heading at breakneck speed straight for them. No!
She cringed at the sound of swords being pulled from their scabbards around her, and a bloodcurdling shout pierced the air. A battle cry? Malcolm kicked his horse into a dead run down the hill to meet the enemy. Her gut turned over, and her heart made a leap for safety up her throat. Clinging to the horse’s mane for all she was worth, Alethia shut her eyes tight.
I’m gonna die!
CHAPTER THREE
Alethia intended to meet her death bravely with her eyes wide open like her ancestors would’ve done, but try as she might, neither eyelid would budge. No doubt Malcolm’s enemies would run their swords right through her to get to him. And if by some miracle they both survived, she planned to kill him herself with her bare hands.
Swords clashed and men shouted as they came together. She held her breath and waited for the blow that would end her pitifully short life. Laughter penetrated the cloud of fear surrounding her.
Laughter?
Alethia opened her eyes. The swordplay ended in friendly greetings and backslapping. All the fear and anxiety coursing through her morphed into red-hot anger. She wanted off the damn horse, and she wanted to be far, far away from the barbarian who had so carelessly caused the near explosion of her heart in her chest. Now.
Malcolm slid his claymore back into its scabbard and put his arm around her waist. She flung it off, swung her leg over the saddle and slid off the horse, collapsing to the ground in an undignified heap of velvet and silk brocade. Forcing herself to stand, she formed a fist and slugged Alpha-Jerk in the thigh with all the might she could muster. “You could’ve put me down before you charged down the hill, you moron!”
She walked away on shaky legs, falling to her knees in the grass a short distance away. She couldn’t catch her breath, and stars danced before her eyes. Twice now she’d believed she was going to die, and that was two times too many in her opinion. Her mind reeled with everything that had happened. This was not a safe place to be, and more than anything, she wanted to go home.
Baffled, Malcolm rubbed his thigh and watched Lady Alethia fall to her knees in the grass.
“Our guest believed you were riding into battle using her as your shield.” Liam rode up beside him. “She does no’ know this is our home and must have been frightened out of her wits.”