Highlander Unraveled (Highland Bound Book 6) (17 page)

We walked in silence, each of us listening to the sounds of summer. We’d definitely traveled away from November in Scotland, though it would have helped to know exactly where I’d pulled off the side of the road. I wasn’t sure if I’d gone north, south, east or west. I didn’t even know how long I’d driven. We were either near Gealach, as I’d punched into the computer, or we were wherever it was that I’d pulled off at the rest stop. We could have been near the border of England or the Highlands. And frustratingly, there was no way to know just yet.

“I’m sorry for not paying better attention to where we were,” I muttered. An idea occurred to me, and I pulled Mrs. MacDonald’s cell phone from the purse. But it was dead. Not even a flicker of battery life. I could have sworn it was at least fifty percent charged when I’d taken it from the old bat. That was a good sign. “No cell towers.”

Logan gave me an odd look. I shoved the cell phone back into the purse.

“No need to worry on that account, lass. Wherever we are, we’ll figure it out. Soon we’ll be back at Gealach with our son and our friends.”

I nodded, though I had doubts that were doing a good job of trying to creep into my thoughts. A sudden shiver took hold as my nerves threatened to undo me. Now was not the time to panic. I could panic later.

But still my thoughts came through loud and clear.

Would Mrs. MacDonald follow us? After she got her wound taken care of? As a time jumper, she probably had access to more black boxes. And where was McAlister? And Steven?

So many questions and no way to get the answers.

“What was that?” Logan hissed.

He put his arms out to protect me, standing stock still, his eyes wide, head cocked to the side as he listened to something I couldn’t hear.

I didn’t make a noise, didn’t even breathe for fear of making a sound that would interfere with him deciphering whatever it was that he’d heard.

“We’re being followed,” he said under his breath. “Pretend as though ye did not hear anything.”

I didn’t hear anything, so that was easy. What wasn’t easy, was
knowing
we were being followed, and all the other questionable variables that came with it, and pretending as though I had no idea. Man or animal? Friend or foe? One or many? Did they want to rob us or murder us? Was it Steven? MacDonald? McAlister?

Logan sped up a little bit at a time, so the increased pace was not as noticeable.

“Halt, you bloody Scot!”

“Sassenachs,” Logan hissed, whipping around, and keeping me at his back.

Oh, dear god! We’d definitely traveled back in time, and landed into the very hands of the English!

“Run,” he ground out to me when they weren’t just behind him.

Holding my hand tight, he started to run and I worked hard to keep up, but his legs were long and I was tired. I tripped several times before he swung me up into his arms and kept on running as though the added weight were nothing to him.

“Get back here, you heathen!”

The voice was the same, but the sound of the crashing from behind us had the distinct sound of more than one man.

“How many do you think?” I asked, clinging to Logan as he ran.

“At least six.”

That was too many for him to fight off alone, and while he’d taught me self-defense, I wasn’t exactly a warrior by any stretch of the imagination.

Where had the black box taken us? The woods of Gealach had often been filled with English, but not as of late…

With eyes wide open, I prayed we weren’t caught.

Chapter Seventeen

Logan

Less than a quarter hour later, I set Emma down beside a small spring with a waterfall at its back. A gentle spray misted the morning air. The sound of the falls as it spilled over the top of a crest some fifty feet in the air was thunderous. Dangerous, in that I couldn’t hear our enemy approach from afar, but safe, because they couldn’t hear us, either.

Emma shook, though the air was warm, and dipped her hands in the water, bringing them cupped to her lips.

“We’ve lost them for now,” I said.

“Do you recognize this spring?” she asked, studying the green foliage around us.

Small flowers dotted the landscape, and just above the spring, the sun shone down, warming the spot. It was tranquil, a location I recalled stopping to water horses and rest some years before. I’d not explored it greatly then, too much in a hurry to return to my castle.

I nodded. “I think we are on the perimeter of Gealach lands. At least a day or two’s walk to get back to the castle. If we had a horse, we could be there by nightfall.”

Emma rubbed water on the back of her neck. “Maybe we’ll pass a village along the way that will give us horses. You are their laird, a good and just leader. I think they’d be happy to help you.”

Her faith in me never ceased to amaze. “Aye, but if they were to do so, and the English are following, it will only put my people in danger. I dinna want to lead them to a village’s gates.”

“Surely a scout has spotted the English and gotten word back to Ewan.” She took another sip of water, the color that had faded from her skin when I first found her was returning, and the bruise on her cheek seemed to have miraculously also faded to a yellow, as though it happened a much longer time ago than just the night before. “Will he not assemble warriors to meet the English upon their way?”

She had a good point. I grinned, proud of her for taking on the role of Lady of Gealach with such spark. “Aye. If one of the local garrison’s has not already been warned. I keep men, fully armed, at various spots throughout our land.”

“Then perhaps, we should head toward them?” Emma asked. Her lips trembled with a fear she was trying to hide.

A part of my ego was wounded that she didn’t feel safe just being with me, but I was also not a complete fool. We’d just had to run from six
Sassenachs
who would have killed me and tormented her.

“Aye,” I lied, wanting to ease her fears.

I couldn’t tell her the truth—that the English were most likely headed straight for those outposts, and the worst place for us to go would be toward my scattered forts.

Aye, they had walls and numbers that could protect us—if we made it. Having men, weapons and horses at our back would give us an advantage, but I wasn’t willing to put my wife in danger by deliberately setting her upon the English’s path. If we didn’t make it before the English arrived there, we were dead. If they happened to ambush us on the road, we were dead. It was too risky. I’d already lost her once; I simply couldn’t chance losing her again.

The one advantage we did have now was that the English didn’t know these lands like I did. The best decision would be for us to hide for the rest of the day, and when night fell, make our move. The English would not be brave enough to travel at night. And if they were, they wouldn’t be as prepared as I was, nor as easily able to hide with their larger numbers, not to mention, I could hear their chainmail and armor clinking a mile away. At least, I could before we arrived at the waterfall.

I squatted beside Emma and dipped my hands into the water, wishing I had a water skin to fill to keep us hydrated. We had no food, either. I frowned. It was going to be a long day if we didn’t have
something
to eat.

Around the waterfall, there were often berry bushes and even the occasional nut tree. I couldn’t risk hunting and lighting a fire to cook our food.

“Let us forage, before we go into hiding,” I suggested.

“Where will we hide?” Her eyes scanned the area.

“A cave, perhaps,” I murmured, looking up toward the mouth of the waterfall. Where there were mountains, there was always a cave, one just had to look—and evict any animal that had taken up residence.

“What about behind the waterfall?” Emma suggested.

I glanced at the falls, the darkness that seeped from behind the curtains of water. The water fell hard in yards of thick ribbons. I couldn’t see behind the waves enough to determine if there was a ledge.  “’Tis a possibility. I’ll examine it closer.”

I walked as near as I could around the perimeter of the spring, getting close to the side of the mountain, and still, peering around what I thought to be the edge of the falls, I couldn’t tell if there was an opening behind it or not. “I’ll have to swim over.”

“Okay,” Emma said, her teeth chattering.

Och, but I loathed the fear that filled her. I wanted to take it away, to destroy it, but I knew the only way to do that was to get her to safety, or to distract her at least.

I disrobed, turning to wink at her, as I stood naked in the sun. That was enough to get her teeth to cease their chattering for a minute. A sultry smile curled her lush lips and she batted her lashes at me, before raking her gaze hotly over my figure. Instantly, I was hard, filled with need and wanting. I dove into the water, letting the chill calm my heated body. A few strokes and I came up near the falls, with my
sgian dubh
drawn, in case there was some creature that had made a residence of the very place we wished to hide.

Being that there was no obvious opening between the water and the side of the mountain, I was mostly convinced that the droves simply fell against the side of the ridge, but when I thrust my hand through the water, I felt only air. Moving my hand down I met a flat ledge.

I thrust my head through the torrents, blinking away the water from my eyes. There was, indeed, a cave, damp and dark, completely hidden from view. It didn’t go back far, maybe five feet at the most, and it was only eight or so feet wide. Plenty of space for us to hide for a time. There didn’t appear to be any creatures there now, nor did it smell as though any had been there for some time.

I came back through the water and turned to face my wife, taking in her expectant and worried gaze. I nodded, not wanting to shout over the falls and not even certain if she’d hear me if I did.

Emma’s face brightened.

I waved for her to jump in.

She stood, untied her robe-like gown at her waist, standing in only her undergarment. The sun shone on her full breasts, showing how perfectly creamy her skin was. She shoved the gown into her bag and held the satchel over her head. She dipped her toes into the chilly spring, and then leapt back with a tiny shriek, shrinking away from the water’s edge as though she’d stepped on ice.

I laughed and swam toward her until I was standing, towering, over my petite, fireball of a wife.

“I’ll carry ye,” I said.

“I can swim.”

“I know ye can.” I winked. “But I like touching ye.”

She wrapped her arms around my neck and I lifted her effortlessly. Her silky skin smoothed over mine, and it was hard not to crush her to me. To forget about the English trolling the woods and make love to her beneath the light of the sun.

“What about your things?” she asked.

“I’ll come back to fetch them. I wanted to check for berries and nuts. Get us something to eat.”

“I grabbed a couple of power bars from the kitchen at Moira’s,” she said. “So we can eat.”

“Power bar?” I asked, wiggling my brows. “Will it give me special powers?”

Emma laughed. “Maybe. What kind of powers do you want?”

We moved through the water, her gasping as the chilled depths touched her rear, and rose up to her waist. I clutched her closer.

“I would have the power for a stamina that never ceased,” I said, nipping her ear.

Emma’s head fell back, and she let out a laugh that I wished hadn’t been dulled by the roaring of the waterfall.

“Do ye approve, wife?” I teased.

She leaned forward, pressing her forehead to mine and kissed me gently. “Any more stamina and you just might kill me,” she teased.

I chuckled. “Ye’d die of pleasure, is there a better way to go?”

“None,” she agreed.

We made it to the fall’s base. “Are ye ready? I’m going to thrust ye through, and then fetch my things.”

Emma glanced up, her gaze riveted on the tallest point of the rise where the water spilled over. Droplets landed delicately on her cheeks and I longed to lick them away. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

I let her catch her breath and then pushed her through. Emma let out another squeal that was swallowed by the roar of the falls. I called an apology, though I wasn’t certain she’d heard it.

I hurried back to the side, grabbing hold of my clothes, when I caught the sound of metal chinking.
Ballocks
. We’d not lost the bloody
Sassenachs
fast enough. And if I could hear them through the pounding of the falls, they were close. Closer than I liked. A chill snaked up my spine. They could break through the brush before I had a chance to get back to the cave. But if I didn’t get back, Emma would worry, she might poke her head out, be seen by the enemy, and then it would be over. All this went through my mind in less than a second, before I was acting.

Mo chreach!

I balled up my clothes and shoved them under one arm, racing back to the fall’s base. Checking one last time for anyone coming through the brush, and seeing no one, I shoved myself through the cascade.

I rolled to a landing at my wife’s knees where she sat, already re-clothed—a fact that I found slightly disappointed. No matter, I could always remove them again.

I held my fingers to my lips, and then pointed toward where we’d just come from.

Emma’s mouth fell open and she held the back of her hand to her teeth. Pulling her hand away from her face, she mouthed,
the English
?

I nodded, and kissed that hand.

I spread out my plaid, dry at the center, on the ground, donned my
leine
, and pulled her to me.

Emma shivered, and clutched to me.

We remained still, silent, for many minutes. Could have been even half an hour. Emma pulled out the things she’d called power bars, their flavors strong, sweet, and leaving a film on my mouth that was most unpleasant. Carefully, I skimmed some water from the falls, certain no one could see me from the outside, and offered a drink to my wife. Once she was satisfied, I rinsed my mouth. The power bars might have tasted odd, but they were filling.

So far, there were no signs of the English coming close to the falls, though I wasn’t going to risk looking. Every once in awhile, I could hear the sounds of metal chinking. They were still searching the area. All I could do was pray that they didn’t think to look behind the falls. My sword was drawn, and at my side. I was prepared to drive its sharpened tip through anyone who dared come near to us.

The spray of the water, and the darkened space, was colder than the temperature of the summer sun. If my plaid had not been soaked, I’d have wrapped it around Emma who shivered from fear and a genuine chill.

Since we’d be here for hours more until the sun fell, I knew of another way we could pass the time… One that would keep us both warm, and distract Emma away from her fear.

I nuzzled her cheek, gently pressing my fingers to her chin until she turned to kiss me. She was stiff in my embrace, but with a few swipes of my tongue against hers, she loosened, until she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and held on tight.

“Emma,” I breathed against her ear, using my teeth to scrape against her earlobe.

She clung closer, and I lifted her onto my lap, scooting back until my spine hit stone. I kissed her, caressed her, teased her skin until she prickled with pleasure, the chills of cold gone, replaced by a heat that built and built. Her soft sighs and urgent moans spurned my own heated desire.

Emma moved to straddle me, lifting her gown and my shirt out of the way, our lower bodies colliding, nude.

Pressing her hands to the side of my face, she leaned low and whispered against my ear. “You do know the perfect way to distract me.”