Highland Escape - Cathy MacRae Page 0,95
surface of consciousness where her body awaited. She found herself deeper than she realized, frightened at how far she had gone. Somehow she knew she wasn’t far from the place of no returning.
The strange sensation repeated, this time followed by a sputtering sound.
“Ah, she finally awakens.”
The voice was closer, and the strange sensation she now realized was someone splashing water on her. Immediately, a burning sensation shot from her head to her toes. Anna struggled to open her eyes, gain her bearings, to understand what had happened, but her body refused to obey her.
“Hello, my pet. Welcome to yer new home.”
Squinting, Anna attempted to see the speaker in the semi-darkness, tried to make sense of his words as pain threatened to pull her back to unconsciousness. She hissed at the intensity of it, a throbbing stab of hundreds of needles. Was she on fire? She looked for evidence of flames but saw none. Surely she’d been captured and brought to the Earl of Northumberland’s castle, but the man in front of her was neither the earl nor his son. His long red hair held streaks of gray. His face suggested he would be a few years older than her father. More importantly, she recognized he spoke Gaelic, not English.
“New home?” Her weak, slurred words sounded foreign to her ears.
“Aye, my pet. Ye are finally home. Soon we shall be wed.” His voice held eagerness—his eyes, madness.
Something about his statement proved more than her mind could process, and Anna slipped back into the silky darkness.
“Ye great idiot! I wanted her brought back unharmed, not brained! Tis already been two days. At this rate, ’twill be a sennight before she is well enough to stand on her own to make her vows!”
Shrinking at his laird’s anger, the man held up his hands in an effort to pacify his chief. “She had already killed two men, m’laird. I dinnae want anyone to run her through in revenge. Ne’er had to knock a lass cold before. I dinnae know ’ow hard to hit her.”
’Twas true enough. This hellcat killed two of the men he’d sent to fetch her, and had killed others before. Stories about the lass hadn’t been exaggerated. His plans, however, required her to be awake with enough of her wits about her to respond to the priest, with no time to wait for her to convalesce. Even now men searched for her—of this, he was certain.
Once the vows were spoken and the marriage consummated, he didn’t care who knew. He only needed to keep her away from MacGregor until then.
The pain in Anna’s head demanded attention. Darkness gave way to muted light that pierced her eyes. Remembering the struggle at the loch, details of her abduction came trickling back. With Herculean effort, she pushed herself upright. She gently probed the side of her head, seeking the source of pain, and encountered a three-inch gash on her temple, the rough, puckered skin poorly sewn shut.
No salve had been applied. By the smell and looks of this hole they’d locked her in, infection seemed imminent. Slowly, she glanced around, blinking to get her eyes working correctly, fatigue and pain sapping her strength. The cell she sat in was one of many. With thick iron bars separating each, they were little more than cages. Her movement must have alerted a guard, as activity sounded outside the door.
A foul-smelling, unkempt man wearing a short sword and set of keys slid a loaf of bread under a slot in the bars. He placed a tall ewer of water through the bars and grunted at her. She didn’t move or react, but watched him saunter out the door. Drawing on inner strength, she reached for the bread.
The hard bread had spots of gray and green mold. Not knowing the day, Anna could not recall the last time she put anything in her mouth. Even the look of moldy bread awakened a hungry beast threatening to claw its way out of her belly. She picked away the mold, broke the loaf and inspected it for worms or weevils. Finding none, she forced herself to eat. Sniffing the water before she tasted it, she took a long drink and washed down the stale bread.
After an hour or so passed, the outer door opened again. The older man she’d seen before strode in. This time, two armed guards accompanied him.
“Are ye awake for certain now, my dear?” His grin revealed a mouthful of brown, crooked teeth