Tempest Heart - Paula Quinn Page 0,66

biting part of another man’s cheek off. He had been beaten again.

She didn’t think telling him about the monster’s lies would do any good right now. She wanted to try to keep him calm since his face was beginning to turn purple and swell.

“Do you know where we are?”

Her friend took a deep breath and moved his back against the tree.

Rose looked up into the canopy of branches. Was Tristan somewhere in them?

“We are on the outskirts of Thornhill, I think,” her captain told her while looking around at the men who were setting up camp for the night.

No food was offered to the captain or to Rose. She didn’t want any anyway.

She remembered Thornhill. It was where Tristan had killed Governor Walters. It felt as if they’d been traveling a sennight and it had only been a day. The captain hadn’t said too much upon his second awakening. His eyes were red and swollen. He looked dismal and filled with sorrow. Just looking at him made Rose want to weep.

“Mayhap she escaped, Captain,” she said in a quiet, soothing voice.

“I’m going to kill him.”

“Aye, ’tis what he deserves.”

“I’m going to torture him, and—” A tight sob escaped his lips.

Rose didn’t turn her head to look at him. She knew he was trying not to weep so in front of her. She wanted to tell him it was all right. She’d wept plenty of times in front of him.

She set her dark gaze on the pale-haired monster biting into a pear several feet away. She wanted Neill dead, too.

At last the monster had a face and a name. The name of a friend. She hoped the captain was the one to kill him. Not her father. She didn’t want him anywhere near Neill. She hoped he didn’t try to find her!

“There, there, William,” she whispered on a shaky breath, brokenhearted for him.

He straightened, as if pulling himself together for her sake.

One of Neill’s men chose that moment to walk by their tree.

“You there,” the captain spat out, “where is that filthy piece of rat shyte—”

The guard came near and backhanded the captain across the cheek.

“Leave him alone!” Rose warned through clenched teeth.

“And if I do not?” he grinned and came closer to her.

She didn’t hesitate but hauled back her leg and kicked him in his nethers. When he doubled over, screeching in agony, the captain kicked him in the face and sent him sprawling, teeth flying.

Immediately, Neill made his way over, his long sword exposed in his hand, the tip of the blade dragging in the dirt.

Rose’s belly knotted with fear. What had she done? She had to do something to save the captain!

“You and your men continue to tempt me to have Tristan MacPherson kill you when he finds us…and he will find us, Neill.”

“Tristan MacPherson?” one of the men called out. “No one said anything about MacPherson!”

Neill moved closer to the soldier and put his arm around him. “I ask you, de Anders, is MacPherson worse than me?”

The man realized his insult too late. He went pale from fear and then from the blood leaving his body when Neill sliced open his belly.

Rose turned away to keep from seeing, disgusted and horrified. The captain laughed, inviting him to kill even more of his men and make the captain’s task easier.

“Where are you taking us?”

Neill stepped away from the captain and drew closer to her. “Why do you believe you can get away with demanding things of me? Do you get away with such insolence with your father? With Tristan? Of course,” he answered his own question with a scowl poorly veiled behind a smile. “That is why your father is still alive. Is it not?”

She nodded, happy he was finally beginning to believe her.

“After he rescued me from death, he rescued me again from twelve men who sought to have their way with me. He overcame every one of them like a savage whirlwind.” She gave him a slow smile. “You can kill me or let me live. It will not change the fact that he is going to kill all of you. Only I can stop him. And do not think I will ask anything of him under compulsion. I will not. Unless I am free when he comes, you die. Rather gruesomely, I might add.”

“I have thirteen men,” Neill mocked. “Can he fight that many?”

“As long as you are dead, who cares who else he kills?”

He laughed but turned and walked away. Fighting no more.

“Why do