Kiwi Bride Series: Highland Kiss (9 page)

She kept running until she
reached the stream. Her breathing by then was short, hard gasps,
and her heart was pumping out of control. She was not a very fit
person, for the long exertion managed to cause her heart to launch
into a silly rhythm.

Ignoring her difficult
breathing, she jumped into the ice-cold water and staggered across
with her bare feet, but started shivering from head to
toe.

When she reached the other
end, she hiked up the small hill and stopped for a moment to catch
her breath. A second later, she started running again, but only got
about twenty meters when the sound of horse’s hooves echoed in her
ears.

The man and beast passed
her, and about a meter away after that, they intercepted
her.

She slowed down and
stopped. Her legs were getting tired.

Alec moved his horse
toward her.

Ruby staggered backward,
swaying just slightly because of her exertion. Her face was flushed
red, and her breathing was hard.

“
Ruby, you’ll only tire yourself, lass,” he said as though
he were talking to a little girl.
She was not his darn daughter, for God’s sake.

She stared up at him. He
and his steed were still approaching her, and she continued
stumbling backward, avoiding capture. Then she turned and darted
away.

“
Ruby!” he shouted as he
nudged Storm. The horse lurched forward and raced after
her.

Ruby didn’t get very far
in her attempt to flee. As Alec was about to pass her, he leaned
his upper body down on his right side and spread his arm out while
his other hand held onto the reins. Seizing her by the waist, he
hauled her up onto his lap. He slowed Storm down, turned the horse
around, and rode off in the other direction toward the
manor.

Ruby was lost. One second
she was running for her life, and the next, she was airborne before
finding herself on his lap. The only reasonable thing to do right
then was hold onto him and pray she didn’t fall because the horse
was galloping very fast. If she were to fall, she wouldn’t be able
to think any further.

Alec slowed the horse to a
stop once they reached the courtyard. Bernard came to help Ruby
down. “Ya all right, miss?” he asked.

Ruby could only nod as she was lowered to the ground, her
body shaking for fear of falling; not to mention the utterly
unfamiliar experience of horseback-riding.

Alec jumped down from the
saddle, grabbing her roughly, before lifting her up in his arms and
carrying her into the manor. Bernard watched everything with his
mouth hanging open.

He carried her up the
stairs to the second floor as she struggled in his arms.

“
Put me down, you
beast!”

Alec ignored her and
kicked the door to her room open before dumping her on the bed like
a sack of potatoes. Standing back, his eyes were glaring at her as
though he wanted to murder her.

Ruby swallowed at seeing
the raw anger in them. She shifted uneasily and tried to avoid his
livid gaze.

Alec wanted to throttle her. He wanted to shout at her, and
tell her how silly she was. She could’ve gotten hurt, for God’s
sake. Didn’t she realize he was protecting her from danger? He knew
she was naive and totally ignorant of this place.
Damn it,
she didn’t even know where they were.

He shouldn’t have blamed her for her silly attempt at
escape, he rationalized. His imprisonment of her was for no
apparent reason, at least none that was logical to her. He
shouldn’t have blamed Lizzie either because the woman didn’t know
any better. Lizzie probably thought Ruby was his lover and locked
herself in the room just to get his attention. When he chose to
ignore her, she got bored and decided to run free like a little fox
around the backyard and get some fresh air.

Damn it!

Ruby waited for him to
vent his rage on her. She was sure he would hit her with his mighty
fist, and then she’d probably die in this godforsaken
place—located…? She had no idea where—and she wouldn’t be able to
return home to her family and friends, to tell them about all the
beautiful sights she got to see.

She held her
breath.

Nothing
happened.

Glancing up, she saw him
turning on his heels as he left the room. She sat there, wondering
why he didn’t hit her for bothering him. Then she straightened up
and stared at the door. She didn’t hear the click. Or was she in
such deep thought, she didn’t hear him lock it?

Curious and excited, she
shot up and rushed over. Cautiously touching the door handle, she
turned and let it go.

The door
opened.

She could only stand there and stare in surprise.
Surely, he didn’t forget to lock the
door?

She stepped out, and
timidly looked around. Then, seeing the coast was clear, she ran
toward the grand stairs. She was just taking one step down when she
saw him at the bottom of the stairwell. In his hand, he held
another shirt.

Alec knew he should never
have left her alone in that room unlocked for one minute. Oh yes,
he should have locked the door all right. Damn him for not locking
the darn door, for if he hadn’t forgotten, he wouldn’t be standing
there now, gazing up at her, perched at the top of the stairs,
looking down at him with her damn shirt all wet and sticking to her
body like a second skin. He knew she had on nothing underneath
except for her panties.

Shit!

He raced up the stairs,
and grabbed her wrist, roughly dragging her back to her room.
There, he slammed the door shut and thrust the shirt at
her.

“
Go wash and change,” he
snapped, irritated that she didn’t seem to notice how much she was
affecting him.

Ruby took one look at his angry face and shrank back. She
never liked making people angry. She was always the peacemaker and
eventually apologized even when she wasn’t the one in the wrong.
Even though this man kidnapped her and imprisoned her, in
God knows where
, for no apparent reason, she still felt bad
that she made him angry.

She bowed her head and
said, “I’m sorry.” Taking the shirt, she turned on her heels and
slowly made her way back.

Sorry for what?
Alec
shouted internally.
For
letting him see her damn hot body and making him fantasize about
what he wanted to do to her?

He couldn’t possibly stay
there until she came back out, could he? He knew she would be
wearing nothing underneath that shirt; not even her panties because
they would be wet after her dip in the stream.

Hell!

He left the
room.

Ruby came out a few
minutes later with his new shirt on and found him gone. She went to
try the door. It was locked. Oh well, what was she hoping
for?

* * *

Ruby couldn’t sleep that
night. The wind howled outside her window like an angry she-wolf
after her cubs were killed before her own eyes. The rain kept
slashing and banging against the windows. She was scared, and
couldn’t sleep a wink. She was also very cold, for the only
clothing she had on was her captor’s shirt, and the single layered
duvet didn’t help much either.

Shivering and hugging
herself, she felt like a drowned kitten all night. It was near
morning when the storm finally stopped and she got a bit warmer
that she was able to sleep.

At about eight o’clock, Alec, himself, brought in the
breakfast tray. He seemed unaffected by the nasty storm, and didn’t
even glance her way as she wearily got out of bed.

“
Your breakfast,” was all
he said before he left.

He was probably still
angry with her. She supposed he was being nice to her since her
arrival. He hadn’t poisoned her yet, or hit her either, which she
thought that most kidnappers would have done by now.

Why, oh why did he kidnap her and imprison her here?
He said he would give her back her
belongings and let her go when the time comes.
But when would that be?

She dragged herself to the
table near the window, sat down on the comfy antique chair, and
picked up the toast. The sun’s warm rays that morning after the
horrible storm felt very nice indeed. She moved closer to the
window so she could get as much sun as possible. Then she started
to enjoy her breakfast.

Twenty minutes later, she
heard the door being unlocked and Mrs. McKenzie came in. Ruby
turned to see Mrs. McKenzie holding some books in her arms. At her
heels was a dog.

Ruby cried out in delight,
her exhaustion from the sleepless night instantly forgotten. She
had never owned a dog before, and certainly didn’t know much about
them. This one looked so cute with white fur, sharp, pointy ears,
and coal-black eyes. The dog was also wearing a tartan bandana
around his neck.

She rushed to the dog and
stroked his head lovingly. “Hello, boy, what’s your
name?”

“’
Is name is Westies,
lassie,” Mrs. McKenzie said as she walked around to the bedside
table and put the books there.

“
Westies. Hello, Westies,”
Ruby said.

“
Some books fer
ya.”

Ruby glanced at Mrs.
McKenzie in surprise. “Why thank you, Mrs. McKenzie. Thank you so
much. Now I won’t get bored.”

“
Aye, lassie; now ya
finished wif ya breakfast?”

“
Yes, thank you, Mrs.
McKenzie, that was very nice."

Mrs. McKenzie smiled with
glee at the polite gratitude Ruby bestowed upon her. None of those
high society women Master Alec brought home before ever bothered to
thank her for any meal. She glided over to pick up the tray,
nodding at Ruby as though the girl were royalty who readily
appreciated a lovely meal, and strolled to the door. She turned and
looked sharply at the dog. “Come on, boy, out wif ya.”

Westies looked at Mrs.
McKenzie with his glistening black eyes. Then he turned, barked,
jumped, and ran around the room and Ruby with his little, short
legs.

Ruby laughed. She picked
up the wound-up devil and asked, “Can he stay with me? Please, I’m
very bored.”

Mrs. McKenzie sighed. “All
right, lassie, ya watch ‘im though. ‘E’s a naughty one, that
terrier,” she said as she closed the door.

Ruby heard the click and felt a tightness within her chest.
She tried to ignore the claustrophobia of being imprisoned by
picking Westies up and playing with him. Throughout the rest of the
day, the dog amused her; and the books of British history kept her
from becoming bored to death. From time-to-time, she kept a close
eye on the door, anxiously awaiting the return of her
captor.

By evening, that bloody
captor of hers still hadn’t shown his goddamn handsome face. That
night, she still couldn’t sleep properly because of the blasted
storm. Luckily, this time, she had Westies sleeping beside her. His
warm, breathing, little body soothed her, alleviating her fear of
the noises outside. The windows worried her; and she feared any
moment they’d crack from the relentless, nasty, howling
wind.

By lunchtime, she finished
two books, and now, as Westies lay asleep on her lap, she picked up
the third. She just read through the second page when she heard the
door being unlocked. She didn’t even look up as Mrs. McKenzie came
in.

“
Enjoyin’ yer books?” the
woman asked.

Ruby glanced up and
nodded.

The housekeeper smiled. Master Alec was right. Books kept
her occupied and quiet, just as he predicted, and made her less
likely to stir up trouble. She wondered if Master Alec, himself,
knew that he was harboring deep feelings for the girl, what with
the way he treated her, so nice and gentle as that. She never saw
him treating his other lady guests so intimately tender before. He
was always very aloof since his divorce, and finding out about his
ex-wife’s affair with another man.

“
Come, lassie, yer lunch
is gittin' cold,” Mrs. McKenzie said.

“
Oh, yes, thank you,” Ruby
replied.

“’
Ow was yer sleep last
night?”

“
Horrible, that blasted
storm,” Ruby commented absentmindedly, looking out the window at
the aftermath. The grass was still wet, and some branches of the
trees were broken, which dangled awkwardly in the air like broken
arms, and the grey sky… her spirit dropped immediately.

“
Aye, lassie, very common
up ‘ere. Was the window all right? Very noisy? The ones in this
room are most ‘orrible. Very thin an’ weak. Any moment, they could
break when the storms git that bad. This room faces the north,
where most of our storms come from.”

Ruby snapped her head up.
“Very thin, did you say?”

“
Aye, lassie, very thin.
These windows, it wouldn’t surprise me if they all break one o’
these days.”

Ruby grinned, her eyes
gleaming as a plan sprouted in her head.

“
Ah, ya haven’t changed
sheets fer a week now,” Mrs. McKenzie said, looking at the bed.
“I’ll bring in new sheets when I come back ta git the
trays.”