To Tempt Highland Fate (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (38 page)

             
“Aye”, James looked down with admiration at his wife, “and her visions are so often accurate, I didna take a chance that this one wouldna come to pass.  There should be a wagon loaded with supplies hidden just over there, and then we’ll go to a place that has been well protected so that no one will be able to find us until we’re ready to be found.  Colm will be looking for ye, Willa… ye ken that, dinna ye?  When he finds out ye’ve escaped him…”

             
“Yes, I know he will.  As long as I’m still alive and unmarried, he’s not really Laird, is he?  Though he could hold power with violence and fear, he would prefer to have it by law.  Well, in addition to the violence and fear, anyway.”  Willa was suddenly flooded with a fierce determination.  She would not let the events of this night stand in the way of living her life the way she wanted to live it.  And she would help her brother however she could.

             
“We’re going to take the castle back somehow James, I know we will!  You’ll be Laird and Maura will be Lady and everything will turn out just as it should!  Damn the foul, underhanded, greedy, McTierneys straight to hell, we won’t let them win!”

             
James gave her a weak but indulgent smile.  “Sign me up, sister dear.  But first let’s get out of here and regroup, shall we?”

Chapter 2

             
Willa looked behind one more time as the little wagon made its way along the narrow mountainous road, headed north and farther away from the home she had known all too briefly. So briefly that it didn’t really feel like a home at all, and she was left with a feeling of not belonging… anywhere.  It was a feeling that was all too familiar, because as kind as Aunt Avida had been to take her in all those years ago, London had never truly been home, either.  No, if she had a place in this world to call her own, she hadn’t found it… not yet. 

             
Sighing and stretching her limbs, Willa could not bring herself to dwell too much on the current state of her life.  Even though she knew she was not out of danger, she could only feel relief that she had so narrowly avoided her fate at the hands of Colm McTierney, and her own father.  Whatever happened now, she wanted to help James claim the lairdship, and then she would find happiness where ever she could, and hold onto it with all that she had.  Life was far too short to do anything less.  She closed her eyes and raised her face to a ray of sunshine that had managed to slip through the copious highland clouds.  She imagined the warmth on her cheek was a sign that things were going to get better.  It was of course true that things usually got worse before they got better, but hopefully not
much
worse.   

             
They travelled on, all three of them quiet, having long since given up trying to talk over the rumble of the wagon wheels over the rough path, each drifting into their own thoughts.  After awhile Willa could see that the two horses pulling the wagon, strong as they were, were growing tired.  They had already run for miles the night before, and pulled the heavy cart all morning. Their sides were lathered and they were blowing out their breath in heavy snorts. Even her own horse, tied behind, hung her head and plodded along.  James should know that the animals needed rest and water if they were going to make it much farther, but then he was quite preoccupied with what he considered his responsibility of getting two women to safety.  It was more than just the horses, though, Willa realized, sitting up straight as a strange tingle of awareness tingled down her spine.  She had a strangely compelling feeling that they should stop. 
Had
to stop.  It caused a sensation of near-panic to rise in her chest.  She turned to her brother, her hands grasping the sides of the wagon as she rose up onto her knees.

             
“James, could we have a break at the top of the next rise?  The horses need water, and I need to use the bushes.”  Her brother turned at the oddly urgent note in her voice.

             
Maura sat up taller and stretched her arms over her head.  “I could use a moment in the bushes myself”, she said through a yawn.

             
James looked at them with an indulgent frown.  “Och… women!  Fine, we’ll stop, but only for a few minutes.  We dinna ken if we’re already being followed, and I want to be at the cottage before nightfall.”  He pulled back on the horses, who gratefully slowed.

             
As soon as the wagon came to a halt, James jumped out to tend to the tired horses, and Willa and Maura headed for a tall patch of gorse bushes near a pile of boulders to relieve themselves.  Not an easy task on the side of a mountain while wearing long skirts, but they managed.  When they were done, Maura gave her a small but heartening smile and started back towards the wagon.  Willa was about to fall into step behind her when she suddenly turned and went straight to the largest boulder instead, disappearing behind it.  Maura turned around to see why she wasn’t following.

             
“Willa?”

             
Willa couldn’t say
why
she felt the need to look behind the boulder, only that she absolutely did.  When she rounded the corner, the first thing she saw was a gaping blackness that could only be the mouth of a cave.  The second thing she saw was the man lying just inside.  Her breath hitched and her heart gave a loud thump, and she ran to him without a second thought.  He was lying on his stomach, head turned to the side, and there was a spreading pool of red beneath him, some already soaked into the dirt.  With suddenly trembling fingers, she reached for his throat.  For a long moment she felt nothing, and then, finally, the faint pulse of a vein that carried far too little blood.  She let out the breath she had been holding and yelled as loud as she could.

             
“Maura!  James!  Come quick!”

             
Then she let out a yelp of surprise, because they had already come looking for her and appeared almost instantly from behind the rock.

             
She clasped her hand to her chest.  “Oh God, you scared me!”

             
“Oh heavens!” Maura whispered.  “Is he…?

             
“No.  He has a pulse, but barely.  We have to help him, I need something to bind his wound, quickly!  Before he loses any more blood.”

             
James was about to protest, because stopping for even a moment had been dangerous enough, but then he saw the unshed tears welling in his sister’s eyes and the ‘do something!’ look on his wife’s face, and he knew he wasn’t going to win this battle.  They would end up bringing the man with them in the wagon and he would likely die on the way, but the women’s tender conscious’s would at least be satisfied.  He, however, was not looking forward to digging a grave on the side of the road on top of everything else.  

             
He bent down and carefully rolled the man onto his side.  He knew right away that this was no commoner.  His clothes, torn and bloody as they were, were too fine, and he had the hard, muscled body of a warrior.  And a deep, gaping gash in the length of his side.  He shook his head.  “We’ll have to bind it before we move him, but it doesna look good.  He will likely no’ live.”  He pulled his long shirt out of his plaid and tore several thin strips from the hem.  Carefully he wound them around the man’s torso, pulling them tight and tying a firm knot.  “That’s the best we can do for now, we have to keep moving.  If he slows us down, he has to go.”

             
Willa didn’t see any way an unconscious man lying in the wagon could slow them down, except perhaps the extra weight for the horses.  He did look rather heavy.  She frowned.  It didn’t matter, he was coming with them even if she had to walk the rest of the way.

             
Together the three of them half-dragged, half-carried the warrior to the wagon, where they rearranged the supplies and lay him down.  Willa climbed in the back to sit beside him, and James gave her a censorious look.  She scowled back at him and turned to pull a blanket over the injured man, and James heaved a sigh and climbed into the front of the wagon beside his wife.

             
Within seconds they were moving again, and Willa couldn’t help but wince as each bump in the road jostled the warrior beside her.  But he didn’t move, and he didn’t wake.  For the first time, she really looked at him, studying his features.  His face was streaked with dirt and blood, but even so she could tell he was very handsome.  Incredibly so.  With his strong, squared chin, high, broad cheek bones and wide mouth that held the hint of a sensuous curve, he was almost beautiful.  Though his eyes were closed, long, dark lashes swept his cheeks, and dark hair with highlights of chestnut fell in loose waves to his shoulders.  She pushed a silky lock away from his face and felt a wave of what could only be called tenderness overtake her.  Without thought she leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead, then reached for his hand.  When she held it in hers, his strong, callused fingers should have felt nearly invincible, but instead they were cold.  His whole body was cold with the amount of blood he had lost.  Not so invincible, after all.  Reaching for her water skin, she uncorked it and carefully dribbled a little into his mouth.  Most of it dripped back out, so she gave him a little more and stroked his throat to make him swallow it.  She continued this process for nearly an hour, until she was satisfied he’d taken a good amount.  Then she stretched out beside him to give him some of her own body’s warmth.

             
“I will do everything I can to make you live”, she told him softly.  Strange, but she felt almost… as if she knew him.  Or maybe it was only the events of the past few days (which she hadn’t really let herself think about yet) that made her want to cling to something.  A task to complete, a life to save.  A purpose to the strange and difficult days ahead.  Yes, that must be it. 

Chapter 3

             
Dusk was falling as they finally reached their destination, and the sky was still glowing a golden yellow where the sun had just set.  They were in a little valley, near enough that they could still monitor the situation at Dunbroch, but hidden enough that they (hopefully) would not be found.  Maura had cloaked the place further with her knowledge of wards and Druid magic.  As long as she stayed within the boundaries of the wards, Willa should be safe from all but the strongest magic.  Willa trusted her sister-in-law’s rare talents; after all Maura’s mother had been a priestess of the old ways.

             
When the wagon drew to a halt, Willa rose up on her knees and looked at her surroundings.  Her gaze fell on the little cottage, not much more than a croft.  Her new home… for now.  It looked serviceable enough, cozy even.  But small.  She frowned; James and Maura were practically newlyweds, and they certainly didn’t need her under their feet.  But then, what other choice did she have at the moment?  Try as she might, she could think of no other place to go.  And she’d had a very long time to think.  All day, in fact.  The hard truth of it was that other than her brother and his wife, she was truly all alone in the world.  If she struck out on her own, she would eventually be captured or killed.  Since she had no wish for either of those fates, she would just have to do her best to stay out of the way.  She could give them lots of time alone, and she in turn would have plenty of time to put her mind to good use.  She might not be a warrior, but she could plan and plot with the best of them.  Willa looked down at the wounded man beside her.  In truth, her growing concern for him was on the verge of overshadowing her own troubles, and she only wanted to get him inside where she could take care of him.

             
Maura had seen her worried frown as she looked at the cottage.