Beast of Caledonia (11 page)

Suddenly another memory came back to her. She put both hands
over her belly. It was still distended and firm. They didn’t wait, she thought.
They let my baby die with me.

A keening wail filled the chamber where she lay, and bounced
off the rock walls around her. It took her a moment to realize that the sound
was coming from her own throat.

“Sara, shhh, hush now, you are all right.” A hand caressed
her cheek. “Everything is all right.”

She turned her head to see Annachie leaning over her. “Oh,
no, no! I am so sorry, Annachie. I did not tell them. I do not know how they
found out it was you. I never meant them to kill you, too.”

“Sara, what are you talking about?”

“They wanted me to tell them the man’s name, the father of
my baby. I wouldn’t tell them. They said you would be punished and I knew what
they would do to you. I did not want you to die, too.”

“Oh,
nighean
, we are not dead.”

“What?”

“Rolf and I were able to move the cover and we got to you
just in time. Another hour and I don’t think…” He didn’t have to finish the
sentence; Sara knew what he was going to say.

She looked around the small room. “But the bones?”

“Micah has hidden us in the catacombs. We will leave here as
soon as you get your strength back.”

“Rolf? Micah?” She shook her head, still confused. “Oh, I am
so thirsty.”

Annachie helped her sit up and supported her with his arm
behind her back. He held a cup of water to her lips. She sipped it as he told
her about his two accomplices. She was becoming more aware now, and things were
starting to make sense.

When she indicated she had had enough, he set down the cup
and placed his large hand over both of hers on her belly.

“Oh, Annachie, it’s dead,” she sobbed. “Our baby is dead. I
begged the emperor to wait, to let me give birth, but he refused. I am so
sorry.” She turned her face into his tunic so she wouldn’t have to see his
expression.

He stroked her hair with his other hand and kissed her
temple. “Hush,
nighean
, it is all right. When we are away from here and
safe, we can try again…if you want to.”

“Yes, oh, yes, I do. I want to give you a son, one who will
grow up big and strong like his father.”

He hugged her tightly. “I would be just as happy with a wee
girl as pretty as her mother.” After a pause he asked, “Sara, why did you not
tell me what could happen? I would not have risked getting you with child had I
but known.”

“That is why I didn’t tell you. I have always wanted you,
Annachie. From the first time I saw you when my father’s soldiers brought you
into the fort, I wanted your body. Then, as I got to know you, I fell in love
with the man. When I learned that you felt the same way, I suspected you would
not make love to me if you knew of the consequences should I become pregnant.”

“You are right, I would not have.” He paused. “No, that is
not true. I had to have you, but I would have started to take precautions
sooner. I wanted you so badly, I could not think straight.”

Sara laughed. “It is the same with me. I couldn’t be so
close to you and not love you with my body as well as my heart.”

Suddenly, Sara heard footsteps approaching. “Annachie,” she
whispered, cringing against him.

“It’s all right,” he said. “It is only Micah.”

“How do you know?”

“He is lame. I recognize his walk.”

Even as he said that, a young man came around the corner of
the tunnel to the left of the chamber in which they sat. When he saw Sara, his
face lit up with a smile. “Ah, you are awake.”

Sara nodded.

“I have brought you both some food and drink,” he said. He
set a package and a wineskin down next to Annachie.

“Thank you, Micah,” Annachie said as he unwrapped the food.
“Will you have some?”

Micah sat down on the ground in front of them. “No, I have
eaten already with some friends of mine. When you are ready, we start for
Castrum Novum.”

“Castrum Novum? Is that where we are going?” Sara asked.

“Aye,” Annachie replied. “We will stay there until we can
get a ship to…well, somewhere.”

Sara frowned at him. “Where?”

Annachie shrugged his broad shoulders. “I do not know yet. I
will think of someplace. Will you go with me, wherever it might be?”

“Of course I will.” She held his gaze with her own, as he
lowered his head for a kiss.

Micah cleared his throat and smiled at them. “I will return
later,” he said, rising to leave.

“You do not have to leave,” Annachie said, then chuckled. “I
am hungry for food right now, as well.” He broke off a piece of bread and
cheese and handed them to Sara. “How far is it to Castrum Novum?”

“If we could take the roads and travel by day, it would only
take about a day and half. Traveling by night and avoiding patrols, we should
be able to reach it in a little over two days.”

“Ah, I see. Well, as soon as Sara—”Annachie stopped speaking
when Sara gasped. “Sara? What is it? What is wrong? Are you ill?”

She looked up at him, her hand on her belly. “No, I am fine.
I-I felt the baby move.” Annachie simply stared at her. “Our baby is alive. Oh,
Annachie, our baby.”

He hugged her so tightly, she almost lost her breath again.
But this was a joyful breathlessness, the kind she always felt when she was
with Annachie. Not that of fear and death. She thanked the gods for giving her
a reprieve from her punishment. She took that, and the feel of the child
shifting inside her, as signs that she was forgiven, that she and Annachie were
meant to be together.

* * * * *

Sara slept most of the next day in Annachie’s arms, and he
was more than content to simply hold her. When she grew restless with bad
dreams, he smoothed her hair and kissed her temple. She seemed to hear him, for
she would quiet then and relax against him.

Every time he thought back to the events of the last few
days, he shuddered. He had come so close to losing her that even now, it made
him weak to think about it. The sooner they could get away from this barbaric
land, the better he would like it.

He awakened Sara when Micah brought them more food that
evening. For a moment, she seemed confused and frightened again, but when he
tightened his arms around her, she looked up at him and smiled.

Micah’s clothes were so wet, they clung to his skin. “There
is a terrible storm raging outside,” Micah said. “I do not think it will blow
through until late tomorrow night. If so, I will come for you then.”

Annachie nodded. “Whatever you think best. Does it seem that
the winter storms have begun early this year?”

“Perhaps,” Micah replied. “I have seen many boats in Ostia
tied down for the season.”

Sara turned to Annachie. “We should risk it. We have to get
away from here as soon as we can.”

“No,” he replied. “I will not expose you to danger needlessly.
And I will not have you giving birth on a ship somewhere on a stormy winter
sea.”

“But Annachie, women do it all the time. I would not be the first—”

“No. If we have to, we will stay with Micah’s family until
the babe is born, then leave in the spring.”

After Micah left, Sara said to Annachie, “You still do not
want to go home.”

He gave a short laugh. “How did you know?”

“Because I know you. You once told me you did not try to
escape because you believed you were a disgrace to you people.”

“Hmph, I am. Captured in battle, made a slave, forced to
fight for my life for the sport of others. What is that if not disgrace?”

“I heard talk about you in Rome.” When he raised his eyebrow
in question, she continued, “I know that you only killed those who would be unlikely
to recover from their wounds. That you defied the sponsors of the games, even
the emperor. You are the best fighter the Empire has ever seen. Surely that is
an honor.”

“Is it?”

“You have nothing to be ashamed of. You have survived when
many men would have given up or rebelled and been killed.”

“Better a live coward than a dead hero.”

She raised her hand and caressed his cheek. “Is that really
how you see yourself? You told me you are the eldest son. What father would not
welcome such a man back to his home?”

Annachie covered her hand with his own, then turned his face
into her palm and kissed it. “Thank you for those words, my little love. We
shall see, won’t we?” He was not ready to tell her the other reasons he could
not go back to his family and tribe. He knew he would have to, sooner probably
rather than later, but for now, he would keep his shame to himself.

Thankfully, Sara did not press him. She brought his face
down to hers and kissed him deeply. “Oh, Annachie, I love you so.”

“Mmmm, if you keep kissing me that way, I will not be able
to control myself.”

“Then don’t,” she replied. She nuzzled his neck and slipped
her hands up under the sleeves of his tunic.

It felt too good. “Stop, Sara.”

She pulled back and looked up at him. Annachie’s heart lurched
at her hurt expression. “Why? You-you do not want me?”

“Of course I want you. I want you more than my next breath.
But it is too soon after your ordeal and I do not want to hurt you or the
baby.”

“You will not hurt us.” She leaned forward again and kissed
the deep indentation above his collarbone.

Annachie shuddered. “No,
nighean
.” He took her by the
arms and pushed her away slightly. “You must get your strength back.”

“Shall I show you just how strong I am?” Her voice had taken
on a sultry tone he had never heard her use before. He decided he liked it very
much. Her grin told him she was plotting something, and somehow Annachie knew
that whatever it was, it could likely be the death of him. “Sara, what are you
going to do?”

Instead of answering him, she pushed his shoulders back so
that he was braced against the wall behind him. Then she reached down and eased
his tunic up his thighs. As her lips followed the path of the material,
Annachie felt his shaft start to harden and lengthen.

“By the gods, girl. What are you doing to me?”

Sara giggled as she pulled the tunic over his head, leaving
him naked…and at her mercy. “I think you know quite well what I am doing. You
have done it to me, so why should I not return the favor? But if you want me to
stop…”

“If you do, I think I shall go mad. You have lit the fire,
now you must bank it.”

Then he had no words, for her fingers were traveling,
feather-light, up his thighs to his groin. She traced the tender skin in the
valleys where his legs and body met, then followed with kisses, always careful,
it seemed, not to brush against his burgeoning flesh. Annachie thought he would
indeed go mad if she did not touch his cock soon but, too, he wanted to see
what she would do.

In their nights together in the gladiator cell, she had
sometimes taken the initiative, but to Annachie, it had seemed as if she was
hesitant. He had attributed it to her inexperience. Knowing now what she had
risked to love him and to make love with him, he thought it might have been her
fear that held her back, even as she gave herself to him. The threat of death
for loving him had hung over her head. Now, however, that fear was relieved—at
least for the time being. Who knew what dangers lay ahead of them? But for now,
for a brief time, they could forget and live in the moment.

So, he laid back and let her do what she would.

She kissed her way across his thigh and laid her soft cheek
against his balls at the base of his cock. Slowly, lightly, she stroked his sac
as she traced the engorged veins on the underside of his shaft with her tongue.
Her other hand played in the tight curls surrounding his hard flesh. He watched
her, straining to hold back his crisis. When she reached the tip of his member,
she smoothed back the foreskin and probed the tiny opening, licking away the
drop of pre-cum.

“Mmmm,” she purred, as if his fluid was a treat she was
tasting for the first time…as indeed it was. The vibration of that purr made
him harder than he thought he had ever been in his life.

But he was wrong. When she moved her mouth lower, taking him
in until his tip touched the back of her throat, his shaft swelled to the point
of pain. “Ahhh,” he cried.

She let his flesh slip from her mouth as she asked, “Am I
hurting you?”

“You are killing me.”

“Is that so?” He only heard the smile in her voice for his
eyes were squeezed shut. The feelings were so overwhelming that he knew he
would not be able to hold back if he watched what she was doing to him. “Aye,”
he sighed, “but what a pleasant death.”

He felt as well as heard her giggle as she took him in her
mouth again, licking and sucking. Every muscle in his body tightened as he
struggled to delay his completion.

Oh, blessed
Druantia
! He had never invoked the
goddess of passion and mating before because, although other women had done
these same things to him, he had never loved them as he loved Sara. It was all
he could do to hold back his crisis.

Then she rose up on her knees and straddled him…and he lost
the battle. As she settled down on his staff, he thrust into her. “Sara,” he
cried, and shot his seed deep into her womb.

The next night, they started the journey into their new
life.

Chapter Ten

Sara stubbed her toe on the paving stone. Immediately,
Annachie’s arm came around her waist to catch her. “Are you all right,
nighean
?”

“Yes, I am fine.”

“Do you want to rest?”

“No, I want to get there. I am afraid we will be recognized
and sent back.”

Annachie did not reply; his silence told her he shared her
fear.

They moved stealthily through the night, Micah leading the
way. The half moon shone through the trees, and shimmered in the rippling water
of the Mediterranean Sea.