Forbidden Heart (Hearts of the Highlands #6) - Paula Quinn Page 0,97
she wanted to hear. “Untie me and I will show ye what bein’ chaste fer six years has done to me.” He’d already showed his wife, but Cecilia didn’t know that.
He saw her shiver. She attempted to climb atop him but he bent his legs. If he had to kick her into the hearth fire, he would.
“Untie me, Cecilia.”
She blinked and smiled. “You are like a sorcerer, Captain.” She patted her flush face.
“Cut me loose. If havin’ my body is what ye want, I will let ye do to me as ye will.”
She pressed her index finger to the dip in his hip.
He clenched his teeth, not wanting her to touch him. “Cecilia—”
“Shh. I’m cutting,” she whispered, leaning up over him and cutting his binds.
The instant his hands were free, he cupped them around her nape and smashed his forehead into hers, making her reel. “Next time, I will crack open yer skull. Now, tell me where my wife is.”
“Men!” she croaked out. They came running. The first reached him in an instant, before he had any time to plan an attack. It didn’t stop Galeren from snatching Cecilia’s knife and jamming it into his opponent. The one who killed Will. He looked into the man eyes and twisted the blade.
Galeren let the man go and took an instant to ready himself for more, then flung the bloody blade into the neck of the second man.
A third and fourth rushed toward them. Galeren fought them, ducking and stepping out of the way of their blades. He punched one and knocked him out, grabbed his sword and cut the last man down in two brutal swings.
Without pause, he rushed to his hose and boots and put them on.
Cecilia screamed in horror. Blood spurted from a deep gash in her throat, “Galeren!” she cried out. She’d been cut in the fighting.
He lifted her in his arms. She would be dead soon. There was nothing he could do. “Where did he take her, Cecilia. Where is she?”
“She is all…you…care about.” Cecilia managed, growing weaker.
“Aye. She is all. Tell me what I wish to know.”
Tears filled her eyes and they closed. “The steward…told me to meet him at Laggan.”
Galeren looked down at her and shook his head. “Ye shouldna have come here, Cecilia.”
She did not answer.
He took his plaid and Will’s sword and left.
He knew where Laggan was, but he didn’t believe John was on his way there. Especially at night. There were too many small rivers he would have to ride around. Like Morgann, John knew that Galeren could track him.
John wouldn’t take the chance of telling Cecilia where he was truly going. Any fool knew that she would tell Galeren if he persisted.
He took a lantern and tied it around his horse’s neck and then followed the tracks down the hill. Most went south, back toward Ayr. One set led north.
He would kill John if he had to. If John hurt her, Galeren would kill him.
Silene woke up in a strange forest, tied by her ankles to a tree by a small fire. Her jaw felt sore. He uncle had struck her.
She was supposed to pray for her enemies. She could not pray for her uncle yet.
“Ah, ye are awake.”
Her uncle’s voice. She closed her eyes again, not wanting to speak to him. Ever again. But she could not do that.
“This was foolish of you, Uncle. The captain was your loyal friend, and yet you allowed him to be killed.”
“Ye both betrayed me, Silene. I am the one who will never fergive. But Captain MacPherson isna dead,” he corrected. “I handed him over to his betrothed.”
“I am his wife!” she argued.
He slapped her hard in the face. “William of Lorn told Miss Birchet and I aboot yer blasphemous vows to my captain. They willna hold up fer long. I am bringin’ ye to Father Alphonsus. He will annul yer marriage and ye will speak yer vows. I have given ye another chance, Niece. Though ye dinna deserve it. Ye care more fer a cock than—”
“You disgust me.”
His gaze grew dark and Silene was afraid she’d gone too far. She was helpless tied to the tree.
“And ye think ye dinna disgust me?” he asked incredulously. “My dear, ye are nothin’ but a whore.”
She heard something in the forest, just beyond the tree line. Her uncle heard it, too.
He rose with his sword as dawn broke. He went to the tree line and peered inside, and then entered.