her belly and helping her to forget just how cold she was. Toran continued to massage her frozen fingers and toes until prickles of feeling came back and then finally warmth.
Toran put her hose back on, replaced her boots, and then pulled her onto his lap, tucking her beneath his own plaid. She closed her eyes in a wash of grateful warmth.
“Thank ye,” she murmured, pressing a kiss to his chin.
“Ye need not thank me for taking care of ye, lass. I vow to do it for the rest of our lives.”
Toran pressed his lips to hers in a gentle kiss and then tucked her head beneath his chin against his chest. Jenny burrowed closer, wrapped in a safe cocoon of warmth.
“Even if ye deny ye want me to,” he added.
Jenny smiled, snuggling into his warmth. “I’d have it no other way.”
She jolted awake in the middle of the night, instantly on alert, her heart pounding. Footsteps sounded outside.
When she tried to move, Toran held her tight. “Dinna move,” he whispered in her ear.
The rest of the men had woken as well, the whites of their eyes shining in the moonlight that reflected off the snow in the croft.
The footsteps were light and stuttered, edging closer and closer to the door.
Toran slowly shifted her from his lap, and they both pulled out their pistols, her men doing the same. If they were about to be ambushed, they would face it head-on.
One by one, they slowly and silently rose to their feet. The door and shutters on the window were closed to keep out the cold, though the caved-in roof blocked their view outside.
Toran tapped Jenny and pointed to himself and then at the door, indicating that he was going to open it and confront whoever was on the other side. She shook her head vigorously and mouthed, “Nay.” There could be hundreds of King George’s men out there!
He nodded again, and she again denied him. Opening that door, if there were enemies outside, was just asking for an attack.
“The horses,” he whispered back. “They will know we’re in here.”
Jenny had forgotten about the horses. Mo chreach, but they would have to fight.
She pointed to herself, then the door, and then the rear window and Toran. If they were going to do this, then they were going to repeat the rout they’d done before—her distracting the enemy and him running.
Toran tried to argue, but she simply turned from him and walked toward the door, his fingertips brushing against her arm.
Her hand on the handle, she turned back to see him glowering. They stood for a moment, a complete argument in a stare only. Toran stalked forward and stood right behind her. “I’m not leaving ye,” he murmured.
Jenny gave in to that. There was no use in arguing with him, and she could use his strength at her back. With the rest of her men in position and ready to fight, she slowly opened the door and peered outside—only to find four frightened deer staring back at her, heads turned her way, bodies as still as marble statues, eyes as wide as the moon itself.
“Deer,” she murmured, a rush of relief flooding her, and gave a short laugh. “We were ready to go to battle with a herd of doe.”
The men laughed, and so did she, the tension leaving their bodies. She started to close the door, certain she’d not be sleeping tonight, when one of the animals let out a piercing cry. The doe fell to the ground, an arrow through her neck. The remaining deer took off in terror, and Jenny felt the chilling thread of fear scaling her spine, vertebra by vertebra.
Whoever had just felled the deer could have just as easily felled her.
Toran yanked her back inside and stepped in front of her, pistol raised, as he scanned the woods.
Another of her men heaved open the window to stare outside, his musket poised on his shoulder.
There was a whirring noise in the air, and then flaming arrows blanketed the sky, some landing on the roof of the croft, others falling through the gaping holes to lodge inside.
“Get to your horses,” Jenny ordered.
The men scrambled to do as she bid, holding their targes over their heads as they ran toward the stable to get their mounts. She was glad now she’d told them to keep their horses ready to go should they come under attack. She only wished she’d also thought about keeping the mounts inside the croft for