Claimed by a Laird (24 page)

“Did you find anything?” Adam shouted, running down the
steps of the keep and into the courtyard.

Lachlan shook his head. His brother, Gabriel, cast his gaze
to the ground, his lips angrily pursed together.

“She could not have just disappeared!” Adam insisted,
intense fear gripping his abdomen. “Damn it, how long does it take to find a
woman so great with child she cannot make it across the courtyard without
becoming winded?”

A horse’s hooves resonated just outside the castle walls and
the men turned toward the open gate. Cal came into view, riding atop his beige
stallion.

He reined in the horse next to the group. “I found the
midwife. She saw Lady Anna walking toward the cemetery just before evening
fell.”

Mary and Catriona rushed toward them, faces falling as they
searched among the men for Anna. Catriona’s lower lip quivered and Mary wrapped
a comforting arm around her shoulders.

Adam closed his eyes briefly, praying for guidance. There
was no way Anna would have taken off without alerting someone. Something had
happened to her, but what?

A sudden gasp from Mary and he opened his eyes, his gaze
landing on an animal limping into the courtyard with something hanging from his
mouth.

“What the devil?” Lachlan cautiously stepped toward the
animal as he drew his sword.

As the animal came into the light of the torches held by
several of the men, Lachlan shouted, “It is Dog!”

Scruffy and exhausted, Dog moved past Lachlan and did not
stop until he reached Adam. He dropped what he carried in his mouth at Adam’s
feet and then sank to the ground with a thud, his right paw resting limply in
front of him.

Adam squatted in front of the animal, searching for
injuries. Dried blood from a gash just above his right eye had encrusted the
fur on the side of his face. His right leg appeared swollen, as did one side of
his head.

“Is that not our lady’s plaid?” Gabriel asked behind him.

Adam’s eyes dropped to what had been in Dog’s mouth. He
lifted the grimy fabric and slowly nodded. Out of the corner of his eye, a
small strip of blood-soaked cloth lay upon the ground in front of Dog’s nose.

It was a piece of brown wool. He stared at it, searching his
mind for the memory of what Anna had been wearing earlier in the day. From what
he could recall, she had not worn anything that color.

“Someone has taken her.” Adam rose to his feet in a daze.

“What?” Gabriel asked. “She has been kidnapped?”

Adam nodded, fury rising in his throat. “Dog got a piece of
one of them.” He tossed the blood-soaked brown wool at Lachlan for inspection.

“Hell,” Lachlan flicked it to the ground when he finished
looking it over. “Gowrie.”

A new urgency washed over Adam. “Gabriel, gather the men and
take torches into the woods near the burial grounds. See what else you can
find. Lachlan, you and Cal intercept the laird and Geoffrey. The moon is near
to full, so you should be able to make it at least halfway to Cameron lands by
dawn.”

Adam dropped to the ground again and worriedly eyed Dog.
Anna would be sick to death at the thought of him being injured in her defense.

“Shall I get our lady’s healing supplies?” Catriona wiped
tears away with the back of her hand.

He nodded. “I will see what I can do for him.”

As the men rushed around, gathering torches, Adam lifted his
head and spotted Gabriel shouting orders to groups of men.

“Gabe!” he shouted.

Gabriel lifted his eyebrows.

“On the morrow you and I will ride north to the MacBains and
the Sinclairs,” Adam declared. “It is time we gather the clans for our laird.”

* * * * *

Anna shifted in discomfort, her left hip growing numb from
the pain of having lain on it for so long. Around the edges of the blanket,
wisps of morning light reached her swollen eyes. The silent tears, however, had
long stopped, ever since she fell into a fitful slumber during their journey.

The jarring of the wagon lessened and the steeper incline
led her to surmise they were on a more well-traveled road that went uphill. She
took several deep breaths, instinctively knowing that her wagon ride was
nearing the end and she would soon be faced with James.

He had lied to her, had murdered a man and stolen his
identity and had beaten her. She never understood why and she had never really
cared to find out. She had simply gone home and picked up the pieces of her
life, the horrid events fading into a distant memory. Sometimes it seemed as
though her brief relationship with James was merely a dream, especially after
having spent so many years studying and working and desperately
trying
to forget.

The baying of goats and children’s laughter broke through
the rhythmic squeaking of the wagon’s wheels. Soon voices talked excitedly
around her. Their words were so jumbled with one another, however, she had
difficulty understanding the Gaelic being spoken.

All of the disembodied voices fell silent. The baby twisted
around and stilled as dread uncoiled within her.

“Do not just stand there!” a voice shouted some distance
away. “Help your lady out of the wagon.”

The wagon bowed under the weight of someone who had hopped
into it. The hood was pulled from her head and bright morning light hit her
full force. She squinted as someone untied the cloth at the back of her still
aching head while someone else tugged on the rope that held her wrists
together. She licked her dry lips and wriggled her jaw.

A young man squatted behind her and slipped one arm around
her waist. Taking her upper arm with his other hand, he helped her to sit up.

Anna’s eyes adjusted to the daylight and she turned toward
the man next to her. A gasp escaped her lips as she recognized the young
warrior the MacAirths had captured after Adam was wounded—the man she had
defended from being beaten to a bloody pulp and whose injuries she had treated.

He smiled weakly. “I am sorry, my lady,” he whispered as a
faint scar beneath his left eye twitched.

“Me too,” Anna whispered as she tore her eyes from him.

“What are you waiting for? Get her out of there,” a familiar
voice from her past commanded from behind.

The man next to her helped her scoot to the edge of the
wagon where another young man helped her to the ground. Being upright on her
feet after so many hours in the back of the wagon sent her head into a
tailspin.

Steadying her by grabbing her elbow, her betrayer guided her
around the side of the wagon and her eyes fell upon the one person she dreaded
most.

James.

He tousled Caleb’s brown hair and dropped a coin into the
boy’s outstretched hand before the child bounded happily away, disappearing
into the crowd of curious onlookers.

James lifted his gaze to hers and a lump of fear formed in
her throat. The corners around his hazel eyes crinkled as his face broke into a
wide grin. “Anna,” he uttered in a relieved whisper.

She swallowed hard, desperate to push down her fear and
remain calm, but flashes of her brief time with him nearly a decade ago plagued
her as she stared at the face she once thought she loved. His brown hair had
grayed at the temples and his skin was bronzed from long hours in the sun.
Lines of what she suspected had been years of anger had carved themselves on
his brow. His features appeared hard and unsettling . Why had she considered
him at all attractive?

“Ridiculous.” He glanced at the men to either side of her.
“Untie her immediately. Do you honestly think she would have hurt you?”

“Sorry, Laird,” the men mumbled in unison as one of them cut
through the ropes binding her.

Anna refused to meet James’ eyes and instead stared at the
ground while she rubbed her aching wrists.

He stepped toward her and tilted her chin up with his
finger. “Let me look at you, my love,” he whispered in a deceptively gentle
tone.

She remained stone-faced, focusing just over his shoulder as
his gaze roved over her.

“So very lovely,” he murmured.

He took a half-step back, his scrutiny centering on her
protruding belly. She braced herself for his anger.

“I am so very sorry, Anna,” he stated in English. He
caressed her cheek lovingly, sending a shiver of repulsion down her spine. “A
lady should never be forced to endure the attentions of a barbarian like the
MacAirth.”

Her fury got the better of her and she flashed him a
withering glare.

He clucked his tongue and shook his head. “Shameful. You
have been under his power for far too long. Once his brat is born, which from
the look of you should be any day now, and the proper amount of time has
passed, you will undergo the church’s purification ritual. Then you can rejoin me
as my rightful bride.”

Anna wrapped her arms around her belly in a protective
gesture at the chill in his tone. “I am not your wife,” she insisted, staring
at him through narrowed eyes.

He took a menacing step toward her and grabbed her throat.
“You are and always will be, my love. ’Til death do us part, remember?”

“You wouldn’t know this, but I had it annulled,” she
whispered, boldly standing her ground. “We are no longer married.”

He laughed and dug his fingers into her flesh. “You forget.
You have come into the past. This annulment you speak of has not even happened
yet.”

“Then neither has our marriage,” she retorted, twisting the
words from her throat as he pressed further on her windpipe. “I married you in
2003, but the current year is 1214. It appears the MacAirth got to me first.”

James’ nostrils flared. “You are mine!”

A desperate need to hurt him took over and she haughtily
lifted her head as much as she was able. Time to fight a thirteenth-century
fire with a thirteenth-century fire. Words she never, in a million years,
thought she would utter spilled out of her mouth. “I belong to the MacAirth.”

Her eyes widened in momentary panic as he squeezed her
throat again. A struggled exhalation escaped her lips and he shoved her
backward, his hands shaking in fury. She fell onto her backside, her hips
burning in pain upon impact. The baby startled in her belly.

He took a deep breath and stepped toward her, his eyes
glowing with wrath. Before she could react, he swung the back of his hand
toward her.

Anna’s head fell to the side from the force of the impact,
her cheek stinging hotly. The dull throb from where she had been knocked
unconscious earlier, renewed with a vengeance. In that moment, she was
instantly thrown back ten years as the arrogant fury in James’ eyes bore down
on her.

But now there was no one around to help if she fought back.
Alex and Helena weren’t here. The villagers and tourists of Fannich weren’t
here. The only people who were present remained still and silent…mere observers
of James’ violence.

She fought the tears stinging her eyes as a desperate
longing for Galen’s arms overwhelmed her. The flutter of a little baby foot
against her ribs brought reality crashing down on top of her. She was alone and
only she could be responsible for her child. She had to keep herself together
in order for her and the baby to survive.

And she had to have faith that Galen would find her before
it was too late.

James grunted in satisfaction, obviously thinking her watery
eyes and sudden retreat from her defiant stance were his doing. He took her by
the hands and lifted her to her feet.

Anna cast her eyes to the ground, hoping she appeared
remorseful enough for him.

“Where is my pendant?” he asked, his voice tinged with
confusion. “My cousin told me you wore it around your neck.”

Did he mean the amber pendant? If his letter from some
months ago was to be believed, it had been responsible for his appearance in
her life a decade prior. Had he used it to travel back and forth through time?
What could he want with it now?

Anna’s belly tightened and she rubbed it, shrugging. “Laird
MacAirth will no longer allow me to wear it.”

His disappointment was palatable and she dared a quick look
at him. His brow was riddled with confusion and frustration. “Where is it?”

Afraid James might launch a raid on the MacAirths before
Galen even had the chance to arrive home, she took a deep, calming breath to
prepare for the lie she was about to tell. “He traded it for several barrels of
whisky.”

James grabbed her by the shoulders, his cheeks flushed with
anger. “What? Who did he give it to?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered, grateful that he did not know
her well enough to detect her lie.

“God’s blood, what an idiot!” He released her with a jerk.
“No amount of whisky in the world is worth that pendant!”

Anna shifted, her feet aching. Was the pendant the only
reason why he came after her? But why would he need it now? What was he up to?

He sighed and caressed her arm as if to soothe her fright.
“It is not your fault, Anna. Do not think me angry with you. You could not help
what the MacAirth has done. You were only trying to survive, right?”

She held the muscles of her face motionless, determined to
keep her disbelief from being revealed in her features, and nodded, resisting
the urge to recoil at his touch.

“You must be exhausted,” he remarked. “A soft bed and some
nourishment, perhaps?”

She nodded again, allowing her shoulders to relax in relief.
Hopefully, she would be afforded time alone so she could formulate some sort of
plan to get word to Galen or to escape.

James snapped his fingers and a young woman rushed forward,
bowing her head. “Take your lady to the eastern chamber. Feed her and make her
comfortable,” he commanded in Gaelic.

The young woman nodded and stepped to the side, motioning with
a wave of her hand for Anna to walk ahead of her. Anna swallowed the despair
rising in her throat and avoided James’ eyes as she moved past.