Devil of the Highlands Page 0,86

rather than just the two as he slipped from his horse and entered the keep, but all his thoughts scattered when he spotted Fergus seated at the great hall trestle tables alone.

"Where is Tavis?" he asked, his gaze sliding toward the chairs by the fire in search of his wife. When he didn't see her there, he frowned, and added, "Where is me wife?"

"Tavis is helping Mildrede cart dirty rushes out to be disposed of," Fergus answered slowly. "And yer wife is in the solar."

"By herself? Yer supposed to be guarding her," Cullen snapped.

"Aye, but she said she did not want us standing about getting in her way, and we can see the solar door from here," Fergus pointed out. "No one could get past us down here to trouble her."

Cullen scowled at the words, his head swiveling toward the bit of landing visible from here and the only door one could see from below. The solar door. His heart leapt into his throat when he saw that it was ablaze.

"Evelinde!" The name tore from his throat in a roar of agony as he bounded up the steps two at a time. Cullen recognized the fear and pain in his own voice but hardly heeded it. His ears, his mind, his whole body was straining for some answering call from his wife to tell him she yet lived. However, it brought him little relief when he heard her answering call as he reached the landing. Her voice had come from the solar, and now he knew for certain that he had something to fear.

Cullen charged to the door, then came to an abrupt halt as he found himself confronted with a wall of flame. It was as if someone had built a giant bonfire right in the doorway. The flames were nearly as tall as he, and what he could see of the room was full of smoke.

"Water!" he roared, turning on Fergus as the man reached his side.

The soldier turned away at once to charge back down the stairs. Cullen glanced back to the room, his heart twisting as he saw a dark shape he thought was his wife, bent over and coughing by the window. She could die in there from the smoke ere Fergus managed to return with water.

Cullen ground his teeth together and backed away from the door a few steps.

"I'm coming, wife. Get out of the way," he roared.

Cullen heard her shout something in response, but was already running forward, charging the flames. He would not lose Evelinde. He could not lose her. He loved the silly, talkative, sweet woman.

Chapter Fourteen

"Nay, husband, I have water!" Evelinde shouted between coughs, then gave up her protest to leap to the side as she saw Cullen rushing the flames from the hall.

The stupid man is going to get himself killed when if he'd just waited a moment, I could have put out the fire, she thought impatiently.

It had taken Evelinde a moment to recall the pail of dirty water in the room, a precious moment during which the fire had grown wildly, and she'd heard her husband shout for her. She cursed that moment of stupidity as she watched Cullen try to leap the flames. He might have managed to do so were it not for the doorframe. There simply wasn't enough room for his tall body between the top of the flames and the upper ledge of the door.

Much to her relief, Cullen had the sense to tuck his head down as he jumped, but his shoulders still hit the doorframe, and he crashed back down short of safety.

Evelinde screamed in alarm, her heart lodging itself in her throat as he came down at the edge of the burning rushes, but in the next moment, he'd thrown himself forward and rolled away from the fire.

"Are you all right?" she gasped, hurrying to his side as he regained his feet.

"Aye," Cullen growled, grabbing her by the arm and urging her to the window as she began to cough again. Once she'd drawn in a couple of fresh breaths and stopped coughing, he asked, "What happened?"

Ignoring the question, Evelinde peered over him a bit frantically for any sign of burns or injury, repeating, "Are you all right?"

He had given her such a fright! The likes of which she hadn't experienced since the day her father had died. She'd had that same sickening lurch in her stomach when he'd clutched his arm, turned grey, and tumbled from his seat,