Captured by a Laird (27 page)

Aye, I’m going to catch and kill you. You’ve committed your last misdeed against me and mine, Patrick Blackadder.

David was close enough now he could almost taste revenge.

Patrick shouted something to his brother, then suddenly veered sharply to the right.
Damn him to hell.
David could only follow one. He stayed on the brother’s trail, as Patrick must have known he would.

He ground his teeth in frustration as he watched Patrick ride off, his image growing smaller and smaller on the horizon. The man was even lower than David had believed. Rather than take a chance that the two of them could prevail against him in a fight, Patrick had abandoned his brother to make his own escape.

His horse’s mane whipped David’s face as he leaned low over its neck and pushed the animal harder still. As he drew up beside the other rider, Beatrix turned wild eyes on him. Their horses’ hooves thundered over the ground. Letting go of his reins, David rammed his dirk into the man’s thigh and grabbed Beatrix with his other hand while his enemy screamed and reflexively reached for his wound.

The bastard was quick, though, and caught David’s arm. Beatrix screamed in his ear and galloping hooves blurred before his eyes as he was nearly wrenched off his horse. He slammed his fist against the hilt of the dagger in the man’s thigh. When the man let go of him with a howl of pain, David quickly righted himself.

He saw terror in his enemy’s eyes.
Aye, death and David Hume have come for you.
Holding Beatrix against his chest with one arm, he unsheathed his sword with the other and cut his opponent down with one sweeping motion.

He slowed to a trot and watched the Blackadder horse drag the brother’s limp body, which was caught by one foot, along the ground.

Battle rage still pumped in his veins. He stared off in the direction Patrick had ridden. Beatrix was safe now. He could set her down to await his return while he rode after Patrick.

David needed to see Patrick’s blood on his sword, to hear the sharp sound of steel ringing this enemy’s death song in his ears. But then he looked down at Beatrix, who had buried her face in his chest and was gripping his shirt in her wee fists, and knew he could not leave her.

Patrick would face his wrath another day.

***

David had returned with Beatrix, the fighting was over, and the bodies of the dead lay on the ground.

“’Tis all right now,” Alison said, holding her daughters in her arms. “You’re safe. You’re safe.” She repeated the words over and over, but her children wept inconsolably.

The Humes herded the four Blackadders who had not been killed or escaped into a circle. Alison prayed they meant to take them captive, but the hard expressions on the faces of the Hume men made her fear the worst. Killing in battle was one thing, but this would be murder. She could not bear for David to incur this black mark on his soul because of her misjudgment.

CHAPTER 36

David stood before the Blackadder prisoners, his body tense with the need to punish them for the affront to his pride, the fear that had shaken him when he thought Alison was lost, and the pain of knowing she had gone willingly.

The Blackadders had come far too close to succeeding. If David had not returned early or had not discovered Beatrix’s message, he never would have seen the trampled meadow along the path to the abbey and found the Blackadders’ trail in time to catch them.

A message must be sent. Every man in Scotland must know that an attack on his family would lead inexorably to death.

“Kneel,” he commanded the prisoners, “and face your death with what courage ye can muster.”

Another chieftain would give the grisly task of execution to another, but David would not burden one of his men with it. The affront had been personal and the responsibility was his.

He unsheathed his sword.

A twinge of guilt broke through his rage when he saw that the first prisoner was not much older than Robbie. In his mind’s eye, he saw the burned village and Leana’s discarded body in the reeds again. He had good reason to believe a different party of Blackadders—a party led by Walter—had attacked the village. But whether these four men had participated in that crime or not, they were Blackadders and guilty.

Killing a man on his knees turned David’s stomach, but it must be done. These men did not merit a warrior’s death. He wiped the blood and sweat from his hands and approached the first prisoner.

Suddenly, Alison was between him and the four Blackadders.

“I beg you,” Alison said, falling to her knees like the prisoners and clasping her hands. “Don’t kill them!”

David looked down at his wife, a woman he would die for. What he would not give to have her defend him. Instead, she judged him. She would fall on her knees to beg for these foul men who meant her harm, but she despised him for the lengths he would go that she might be safe.

He had learned as a boy that life was rarely fair. And still, the injustice of it cut deep.

“Get away from the prisoners,” David hissed.

“I can’t let ye do this,” she said. “When your temper cools, you’ll regret slaughtering men who are already defeated.”

They deserved to die. The consequences of endangering his family must be made clear to all.

“Look at them, David. See how young they are,” she said, flinging her arm out toward the prisoners. “Do ye believe they had a choice about riding with Patrick Blackadder today?”

They were enemy warriors, not lads playing games. And yet, looking down into Alison’s pale face, he hesitated. If he did this, he would be even more of a monster in her eyes than he already was. Why did that still matter to him after what she’d done?

“Please,” she said. “My daughters have seen enough bloodshed today.”

He turned and called to Beatrix and Margaret, who were being guarded by Ian. As soon as Ian released them, they ran to him. When he knelt down to speak to the lassies, they threw their arms around his neck.

“I knew ye would find us,” Beatrix said.

“Me too,” Margaret said close to his ear.

His heart hurt a little less knowing that they trusted him.

“Did any of these men hurt you?” he asked, pointing at the four prisoners. If they had, nothing could save them.

The girls’ black curls bounced as they shook their heads in unison.

“Ye were verra brave, and I’m proud of ye.”

They hugged him again, and he wondered if Alison had been as easy to please when she was a wee girl.

“You lassies will ride with Robbie and Ian to the castle,” he said, and signaled for his brother and Ian to take them.

While the two helped the girls onto their horses, David returned to stand before the prisoners. It was against his better judgment to spare them.

“Ye may thank my lady wife for your lives, but heed my warning.” He let his gaze travel slowly along the row so that each man would see the depths of his rage in his eyes. “If ye ever set foot on Hume land again, I shall cut ye to pieces and feed ye to the crows.”

David’s fingers itched on the hilt of his sword, and he hoped one of the prisoners would give him an excuse.

“Gather your dead and ride before I change my mind,” he said, and turned his back on them.

***

David tied the reins of Alison’s horse to his, snapping the knot tight, then looked at her with an expression of such cold fury that a shiver went up her spine. He motioned for one of his men to help her onto her horse, as if he were too angry to risk touching her himself.

David did not turn back to look at her once on the long ride back to the castle. The other Hume men were subdued. Alison felt their disapproval in their silence and surreptitious looks. Miraculously, none of them appeared badly injured, but most had cuts and bruises.

When they finally rode through the castle gates, the entire household poured into the courtyard. But after seeing the men’s hard expressions, no one spoke a single word. Will alone gave her a friendly look.

“Take care of the horses and mind Beatrix and Margaret,” David ordered his brothers, then he turned and pointed a finger at Alison. “You, come with me.”

Those were the first words he had spoken to her since the rescue. As she followed him up the stairs to their bedchamber, she could feel the heat of his anger pulsing from his body, as if she were standing too close to a raging bonfire.

As soon as he closed their bedchamber door behind them, he turned on her.

“At the first opportunity, ye chose to go to my enemies,” he ground out between clenched teeth.

“I—”

“The Blackadders!” he shouted. “If ye were going to leave me, did ye have to stab me in the heart by going to them?”

“I didn’t. My uncle sent for me—”

“Don’t lie,” he said, clenching his hands. “I saw no Douglases there.”

As quickly as she could, she told him about the monk delivering a message in the night, what happened at the abbey, and being taken by force on their return.

“I had no choice but to go to the abbey,” she said. “He’s my uncle and a bishop, and he said my daughters’ lives were at stake.”

“Neither your family nor the Blackadders have ever given a damn about you or your daughters. But I,” he said, pounding his chest, “I would give my life to protect you. And this is how ye reward me?”

“David—”

“I should never have expected loyalty from a Douglas,” he spat out.

He turned his back on her and went to the window.

“I did not choose them over you,” she said. “I was not disloyal. I feared for my daughters and felt I must heed my uncle’s warning to come.”

“Lies pour from your mouth,” he said, still with his back to her. “Ye knew damned well what your family and the Blackadders wanted.”

“I swear I did not.”

“Any fool would know they meant to take you and the girls from me, and you’re no fool, Alison Douglas,” he said. “Ye wanted to leave me.”

“Nay, I did not,” she said, tears blurring her eyes. “That’s what they wanted me to do, but I refused.”

“Easy to say after your scheme failed,” he said.

“I did not know their plan.”

“If that is true, then ye blindly put your trust in men who have proven time and again that they are unworthy of it.” He paused. “Ye withheld that trust from me, despite all I’ve done to try to earn it.”

“You haven’t trusted me, either,” she said.

“And I was right not to.”

He was so angry that she hesitated to go to him, but she needed to touch him, to somehow reassure him. He flinched when she rested her hand lightly on his shoulder.

When he turned around to face her, his eyes glittered with danger. “I suggest ye keep your distance.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” she said, and brushed her trembling fingers against his rough, unshaven cheek.

“Ye should be.”

His expression was so fierce that it took all her courage not to step away from him. But her heart heard the pain behind his anger and harsh words.

CHAPTER 37

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” Alison said.

David’s eye twitched when she rested her hand against his chest.

“I’d advise ye not to touch me,” he said.

“I want to comfort you.”

“Comfort is the last thing I want from ye now,” he said.

The dark, raging lust in his eyes stole her breath away. Her body reacted to it with a violent need that pulsed through her veins.

“Go while ye can,” he said in a rough voice.

When she shook her head, he pulled her against him.

“I see there’s one way that ye still want to be my wife.” He thrust his hips against her, making her fully aware of his erection. “And that’s with my cock servicing you.”

She jerked back. “Don’t be crude.”

“Crude is what ye expect from me, aye?” He held her chin and fixed eyes like green fire on her. “I’m the Beast. I don’t merit your respect or your loyalty.”

“I don’t think that.”

He spun her around and pressed her back against the stone wall.

“A good pleasuring is all ye want from me,” he said, and curled his hand around the back of her neck. “God knows ye don’t want anything else from me.”

“I do—”

“Not my protection, not my fealty, not my crude conversation. But
this
ye do want,” he said, thrusting against her again. He leaned down until his face was an inch from hers. “Because when I’m inside ye, ye forget who I am and what ye think of me.”

***

“I don’t forget who ye are,” she said, but David knew she lied.

She was the one person he wanted to choose him, and she never would.

Despite everything he did and all that he felt for her, she ran away from him the first chance she had. She risked her life and the lives of her daughters to abandon him.

And yet he had never wanted her more than he did now. His body thrummed with the need to touch her, to claim her, to make her his in the only way she would let him.

“I cannot be gentle this time,” he warned her.

Instead of running from the room, she touched his cheek, and lust roared through him.

He kissed her with all the anger and anguish that was raging through him in a torrent. He had feared for her life so many times in the past hours. That fear roiled with fury and the wrenching pain that had torn his heart in two.

His hands sought desperately for her bare skin, pulling at her gown until the hooks ripped from the cloth. He jerked her bodice down, then lifted her higher to bury his face between her breasts, while he tried to push her endless skirts out of his way.

He had to have her. Now. He didn’t want to give himself time to think. Didn’t want to remember that she cared nothing for him, that she tried to leave him, that she fled to his enemies.

In a fever, he stroked and kissed her, drowning himself in his need for her. He grazed his teeth along her throat and tasted her skin. When he finally freed her skirts from between them, h
e ground his pelvis against her, his erection rubbing against her heat.

He was a man blinded with pain and lust.

***

Alison was thrilled by the strength of David’s passion
. For once, he was not treating her as if he feared she would break. He was holding nothing back.