Claimed by a Scottish Lord (39 page)

She started to ride forward, but Colum grabbed her arm. ―Those two lads know enough to hobble the horses, my lady.‖

Her mare danced sideways. Rose had to reach down to calm the horse. Her glance went to the pine trees that disappeared into the low-hanging misty sky. And she knew something was wrong.

Colum eased his sword from the scabbard, then they heard a slow ominous hiss. An arrow flew past. ―Go back now,‖ she heard him say. ―Go!‖

The first arrow missed them both, hissing past Rose‘s head. The second and third hit Colum directly in the ribs, another somewhere else, she could not see. Her horse reared up, saving her life as a fifth arrow struck the mare in the throat. The horse screamed and faltered and went down in a flurry of hooves. Rose hit the ground hard; searing pain exploded in her head, driving her momentarily into unconsciousness.

When she stirred and tried to push up on her elbow, she saw Colum unmoving a few yards away, blood pooling around his head. She called his name. She struggled to pull her leg from beneath the fallen mare. ―Colum!‖

A pair of heavy black boots appeared where she leaned her hand against the ground. She looked up.

Geddes Graham!

She had not seen him or thought about him since she had held a blade to his bollocks and demanded Jack‘s coin returned. He could not be here.

―Milady Countess,‖ he mocked as he squatted beside her, ―ye ain‘t so big now without my knife in yer hand, are ye?‖

She glared up at him through a tangle of hair. ―What have you
done
?!‖

Had Geddes killed the boys, too? Rage filled her and gave her strength.

From behind her, brutal hands dragged her to her feet. She cried out with the pain, then faced Geddes, that traitorous carnivore, with hissing fury, and kicked out at him, nearly striking him in the bollocks. Her foot hit his stomach instead.

―Bitch!‖ He backhanded her and split her lip. Only the rough hands gripping her kept her from falling.

Geddes gripped her hair, forcing her face back. ―Your dear da is payin‘ us to see ye delivered to him. He did no‘ tell us in what condition you had to be.‖

Rose tried to hang on to consciousness. Her swollen mouth stumbled to form her next words. ―Why would my father do this?‖

Geddes laughed. ― ‘Tain‘t you Hereford wants, my thorny Rose.‖

Chapter 24

R
ose came awake in slow stages, aware of the rocking movement of the wagon, and felt sick and momentarily disoriented.

She turned on her side, attempted to see through the slats in the wagon, and saw that the sun had nearly set. A lazy twilight had settled over the sky. She saw two of Geddes‘s henchmen trailing the wagon on horseback.

Ruark would know she was gone by now. She fell back and let her eyes adjust to the dark.

She lay atop smelly furs and blankets in a gaily painted trader wagon, filled with an assortment of wares. Pots and pans dangling from the roof clanked and rattled along with crockery, teacups. Nostrums and remedies jostled in their glass and tin containers, all neatly set in wooden brackets near the tailgate.

Though she was bound, Geddes had tied her hands in front of her this time, not at her back as he had all day yesterday, since she had worked up a few tears and pleaded for his mercy today. Geddes enjoyed her groveling.
Bastard
.

She was confident in her ability to outwit her captors, who seemed more nervous today and less attentive to her, and ignored her still tender and bruised mouth, now chafed with rope burns as she had gnawed through much of the knot. But in her exhaustion, her mind touched on Colum, and her throat tightened as she squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to think about him.

She was sure the boys had survived. Geddes had not bragged about finding anyone else at the falls, and he didn‘t have time to search, taking the extra horses instead.

Jack must have seen Geddes in time, she realized. Jack would know him and was smart enough to take Jamie and hide. Ruark would have already found the boys safe. She knew even now Ruark was coming after her.

Ruark had been correct when he‘d told her they were connected. She could feel his heartbeat inside her as he must feel hers.

Aye, he was coming for her.

Geddes Graham and her father would rue the day they had been born.

The clatter of dozens of horses alerted Rose. She knew Geddes sometimes left the group to scout ahead for a hidden place to camp. After a while, the wagon lumbered to a halt. She felt it dip, then heard footsteps in the dirt as someone walked to the tailgate. A bolt slid back on the thick wood, first on one side then the other. A creaking sounded. The door came down and the canvas covering slid back to reveal Lord Hereford. She could not sit straight for all the goods hanging above her. He took one look at her.

―Get her out of there,‖ she heard her father say to someone just out of her vision.

The mountebank appeared. She scooted, desperate to be free of the tomblike enclosure. He pulled until she could sit on the tailgate. A chill wind hit her. As the rough hemp on her ankles was hastily removed, she glanced briefly at the mottled magenta and amber-stained sky before focusing on the hand that helped her stand. The mountebank wore the same tatty loose-fitting frock, waistcoat, and greasy leggings she‘d seen him wearing in Castleton.

As she struggled for balance, she faced her father. He captured her chin between his thumb and his forefinger and tilted her face. ―Who struck her?‖

When no one answered, he dropped his hand and turned to face Geddes. Without warning, her father‘s arm swung in an arc and backhanded Geddes across the mouth. ―I don‘t care what you bloody do to the other women in your life, but this one is my daughter, and you will not lay a fucking hand on her again.‖

Geddes‘s lank brown hair hung in his eyes as he pressed the back of his hand to his bloody mouth. ―She ain‘t te be trusted,‖ he said.

―Of course, she isn‘t to be trusted! But I want Roxburghe cooperative. See that she is fed and cleaned up.‖

Geddes grabbed her arm. ―Why are you doing this?‖ she demanded of her father. ―Why did you go to all the trouble to send me my mother‘s things and ask to visit Stonehaven . ‖ His actions were so cold. So utterly . cold.

Hereford‘s gaze swung back around to her, his smile unpleasant. ―Roxburghe reneged on every agreement we made. A week ago, I received notice from his solicitor that he has made a legal claim upon Kirkland Park on your behalf. No one. I mean
no one
betrays me.‖

―Can he do that?‖ she whispered.

―Oh, aye. ‘Tis called blackmail. He can tell the world I am a pirate, I can tell the world he is a pirate. We can both produce proof against the other and most probably be hanged for it all. And he can face a tribunal for kidnapping and raping you.‖

―But you
forced
our marriage.‖

―No jury will deny a father‘s need to protect his daughter any way he can. And I will see it annulled.‖

More powerful at that moment even than despair was fury at her father as he turned on his booted heel and strode across the camp, where he conversed with two red-coated dragoons setting up a tent.

She shouted after him. ―It cannot
be
annulled!‖

Geddes tossed a blanket on the ground at her feet. His contemptuous gaze swept her tangled hair and crumpled clothing. ―Many pardons, m‘lady, that we cannot offer ye a more accommodating bedchamber. One I‘m sure you‘ve grown accustomed to these past months.‖

―My husband will come for me,‖ she said casually, as one might announce a change of weather. ―He will hunt the lot of you down. But you, Geddes Graham . he will take special pleasure in killing. And if he does not, I will!‖

She derived enormous satisfaction as she watched a momentary flash of doubt in his eyes.

―My father will not protect you. Let me go now and I will see that at least your life is spared.‖

Geddes sneered. ―If only I could, me thorny Rose. Lord Hereford and me . Let me just say we got us a special understanding.‖

Her eyes swept his swollen mouth. ―I can see how much that
special
understanding means to him.‖

Geddes walked away, leaving her to sit on a rock and absently rub her ankles where the ropes had burned into her skin.

The mountebank presented her with a bloated skin that looked as if it had been recently filled in the stream. ―We‘ve stopped fer the night, Miss Rose,‖ he said. ―So ye can rest now.‖

Rose numbly accepted the skin. Her hands remained bound and they trembled despite her best effort. As she drank, she looked over the rim at the mountebank. He had a face like a shaggy brown cow with large sad eyes and an underbite that made his lower jaw protrude. More so now with his emotions in his eyes. Wiping his greasy hands on his frock, he shifted from foot to foot.

―I‘ll bring a bowl and a rag fer ye to clean up.‖

She watched him rummage through the back of his precious wagon filled with nostrums, throwing items this way and that. The sun was almost gone for the day. Rose looked up at the indigo sky and could not help the path of her thoughts as she thought desperately of Ruark.

He was trying to get back Kirkland Park for her. He must know the effort would fail.

Her father stood across the camp outside a tent, directing men to the watch detail. She studied his harsh profile. She glanced briefly at Geddes‘s men as they unsaddled horses and prepared a small cooking fire.

She could see about three dozen men sprawled out over forty yards. A wood of trees sat to her right and at her back. In front of her, mist rose from a field stretching into the darkness that ended on a high ridge a half mile away.

Rolf returned with a ceramic bowl the size of a cocked hat. ―Why are you involved with Geddes and my father, Rolf?‖

―I travel. Know things, Miss Rose.‖ He looked away. ―I‘ve seen things, too. Things a man oughtn‘t see.‖

After he left her, Rose dipped the cloth in the water. The rag was fraught with some questionable sticky substance and she dropped it in the bowl without using it. Pulling experimentally at the bonds on her wrists, she looked toward the woods. Men walked the perimeter of the camp. Would she get far if she ran? Maybe. Dark was upon them. She threw one last glance at the clearing.

Standing and making a pretense of cleaning a spot on her ankle, she let the blood circulate in her feet. Then, with skirts lifted, she ran twenty yards and she was in the trees. Shouts followed her escape.

Fear seized her body and with it the sound of pursuing men crashing into the woods after her. She tripped when her skirts caught on a branch, then she ran head-on into a bear.

A huge beast. Or at least to her it seemed that way. She screamed and recoiled as two giant clawed hands clamped down on her shoulders to keep her from falling backward. She screamed. Her eyes swung upward past thickly furred arms and hit Duncan‘s face. He wore a bearskin cloak fastened at the neck with a wooden clasp.

Behind her, twenty men crashed into the clearing, some armed with dirks and daggers, others with pistols. Geddes was the last through the ranks, breathing hard as he found her. He thudded forward with murder in his eyes, was nearly upon her before he noticed the bear and stopped.

Duncan nudged her aside but kept a firm grasp on her arm. He looked casually among the group. ―Have I interrupted somethin‘, lads?‖

―Who be ye?‖ Geddes demanded.

―The name
be
Duncan Kerr,‖ he said slowly and deliberately. ―I‘ve come to offer my services to Hereford. I am Roxburghe‘s uncle.‖

Rose could not breathe.

Then another voice said, ―I had heard you were no longer living at Stonehaven.‖ The group parted for Lord Hereford.

―Then ye are aware, my nephew holds no high regard for me, me bein‘ accused of murdererin‘ my own brother and all.‖ He spat. ―Though I do no‘ mind the credit. But a man who kills his own brother so he can be laird can no‘ be trusted no‘ to murder the two who stands in his way.‖ He let the words land against Rose like a blow. ―I am no longer welcome at Stonehaven.‖

Geddes laughed. ―
You
killed your brother?‖

Hereford peered with interest at Duncan. ―Geddes here might take insult to your boast, Duncan. Mightn‘t you, Geddes?‖

Duncan‘s eyes narrowed on Geddes. ―I did no‘ say I killed my brother. I said Ruark thinks I did. Though I would have if he were no‘ already dead when I arrived.‖

Hereford glared at Geddes. ―Check him for weapons. Go.‖

Duncan let Rose loose. She stumbled backward as he blatantly opened his arms for anyone brave enough to approach and lay his hands on him.

Geddes finally stepped forward for the task. He removed a knife, two pistols, a sword, and a dirk, handing each off to a man behind him. ―Why are you here, Duncan?‖ Hereford asked when it finally looked as if he was clean of weapons.

―I came to do ye a favor, your lordship. I came to warn ye to prepare to fight or leave. Ruark knows where ye are.‖

Rose watched her father‘s expression change. ―None of my spotters have signaled. How many men?‖

―A hundred.‖

Hereford laughed. ―Is
that
all he could muster?‖

―A hundred men . ‖ Geddes said worriedly.

―Are you an idiot, Graham?‖ Hereford said. ―Roxburghe isn‘t going to let those men ride down that hill with their weapons blazing. We have
her
. Why would you tell me this?‖ Hereford asked Duncan.

―I have no loyalty to Ruark.‖ Duncan‘s teeth shone white in his beard. ―But I do want Stonehaven and all that belongs there. When this is over . when ye have Ruark . you‘ll give me this one as my prize.‖

―Nay!‖ Rose whispered. ―How can you do this?‖

―Because he is no‘ deservin‘ of ye, lass.‖

And she truly believed Duncan. ―And you are?‖

―Aye, that I am.‖

―Bastard!‖ Rose flung herself at him, pounding his chest with her bound hands. ―I believed in you! I . I believed . you were decent.‖

Duncan ducked the blows against him. She struck him, and much to the amusement of all landed a double-fisted blow against his chin before he could wrestle her body around and hold her against his chest, one big arm over her shoulder. He laughed. ―Need I say more? The lass is in love with me.‖