Revenge (Book 3 of Lost Highlander series) (19 page)

She pulled away and rested her head against his shoulder. “When ye first said ye loved me, ye seemed so resigned,” she said, running her fingers up and down his back. “I thought ye may have been under the witch’s spell.” Her voice sounded tentative and it squeezed at his heart.

He ran his hands from her shoulders to her waist and gripped her fiercely, hoping to convey his feelings through his fingertips. “Piper isn’t a witch,” he insisted. “And I wasn’t resigned, I was certain. As I am still.” He pulled her close, so their bodies touched from top to toe.

“I believe ye now,” she said. “Ye gave up an easy life under the Ferguson’s protection, and ye came back for me.” She stopped her declaration abruptly, tugging at his kilt. “Ye dinna kill anyone to get this, did ye?” she asked.

He laughed, which turned into a fit of coughing. “Just hit him and hogtied him,” he said when he was recovered.

“We must get out of the tunnel,” she said, taking his hand and pulling him along at a fearsome pace. “We shall get ye well, once and for all when we are settled together.”

He closed his eyes and let her lead him through the long, endlessly winding passageway, buoyed by her new dedication. She still hadn’t said she loved him, but he was going to ignore it, for she had said they were going to be together and that was enough to make the dark closed space seem like the sunniest meadow.

Until they continued to walk for another eternity, twisting around corners, going up, then going down. In his mind, he calculated the distance from the castle to the lake, sure they must have gone further than that. If Bella hadn’t been in the passage in over a year maybe things had changed or she was misremembering. They had reached such a happy, tentative understanding between them that he didn’t want to act like he didn’t trust her, but he was beginning to feel like they were going to die down here, underground, in the dark.

Finally, she stopped and began kicking at what sounded like wood boards. When a crack of dim light appeared, he hurried to help her pry open the small door, then stepped aside while she squeezed through it. He looked at the opening, barely larger than a cupboard door and knew he would never fit.

“Stop panicking.”

He heard her muffled voice from the other side of the wall and laughed. “I’m not quite panicking yet,” he called back.

After some scraping and scuffling from the other side, she swung open the wall in its entirety, a huge grin on her dust smeared face. He squeezed through and wiped a smudge of dirt off her nose, then kissed the spot where it had been.

They were in a tool shed, barely lit by the light of the moon glowing through a single window. They replaced all the things she had moved aside to open the passage door, then got out into the open. Huddling behind the shed, they sat close together for warmth.

They were far enough from the castle to feel safe for the moment but still too near by half for Pietro’s liking. He heard some distant shouting and his stomach sank.

“I think they’ve realized,” he said.

“I believe their first thought will be that I’ve managed to take a horse and run off that way. I think my maid is too daft to believe ye had any part of it, so they may just be looking for me.”

“Ye forget the man I left tied up in the stable,” he said.

Her lip quivered. “I think I may be the one panicking here in a wee bit,” she admitted, tears sparkling in her eyes.

He hugged her. “Ah, bugger,” he said. “Quinn’s men are in the forest still.” He shut his eyes, trying to think. “I can’t let them come looking for me and walk right into a fight. I think I should go back and warn them to get home as quick as they can.”

“Perhaps they’ll give us a horse,” she said, not looking very hopeful.

Pietro knew she was thinking of all the times she’d been an absolute nightmare to Quinn. Judging solely by the state of Quinn’s mood when Pietro ran off, it was likely he would just throw a sack over her head and dump her at her father’s feet.

“I’m going to have to go on my own,” he said regretfully, wincing at the scared, hurt look in her eyes. “We couldn’t find Lachlan,” he explained, wiping away her tears. “They don’t want to start a clan war.” He looked down. “I have no claim to ye, except what is in my heart,” he said sadly. “I don’t want to risk them taking you back, but I do have to at least warn them to get out of here.”

He stood up and pulled her to her feet. She didn’t think the guards would think of the passage, but he didn’t want to risk it and have them coming out to the shed to search. He’d find a safe spot for her to hide in the woods, then come back for her when he was done speaking to Quinn.

He only prayed she wouldn’t be so capricious as to run off again, because then he really would wring her neck.

Lachlan rode out with two men flanking him, a grim look on his face as he nodded goodbye to her from his seat high in the saddle. Quinn led her to sit by the fire and gave her a blanket to put over her legs. She rubbed the healing amulet between her fingers and numbly stared into the flames.

“Will my brother no’ need this to keep him well?” he asked, taking the engraved disc from her and inspecting it.

The coppery gold strands of hair that fell across his face gleamed in the firelight, which also glinted off the pendant as he turned it, his expression shuttered and suspicious. His handsome face was so like Lachlan’s she could barely look at him without her breath catching in her throat. Being separated from him again, even if it was only supposed to be a short time, rode over her nerves like a runaway train.

“I can make him another when we get home,” she said morosely, twisting her empty fingers together.

He started at her words and handed the pendant back to her, a look of queasy distrust on his face. She noticed he wiped his hand on the edge of his kilt and she sank deeper into her despair. Quinn was afraid of her.

“Is that where ye were these days?” he asked. “The future? Yer own time, I mean to say.”

“Yes,” she said, stifling a sniffle. “Oh, Quinn. Everything’s so messed up.”

“That it is,” he agreed.

She sat there feeling lost without Lachlan and riddled with tension that they weren’t actively seeking out Magnus. Every minute dragged like an eternity that he was without his mother. Her imagination kept running away from her, and she couldn’t stop a steady stream of horrible thoughts from flying through her mind, as to what Daria might be doing.

She had hoped Quinn might at least try to cheer her up. She’d overheard him complaining about her beastly many times great-grandmother and what a bother she’d been while he helped Lachlan saddle a horse. He had wanted to just ditch her and go home. She was glad Pietro had gone after her, poor girl. She was a little brat, but certainly didn’t deserve to be locked up by her father just because the man was too proud to admit he had made a bad marriage for her.

As if being married to Lachlan was a bad choice. Oh, she longed for the day that he could get an annulment and be completely hers. She knew the marriage was in name only, and Lachlan had no feelings whatsoever for Bella. His only motivation in marrying her in the first place was to try to keep Piper on track to being born, but it still rankled.

Quinn reached over and placed his hand on her arm and her spirits lifted a fraction, but then she heard a rustling in the bushes on the other side of the camp. Tightening his grip on her arm, Quinn tilted his head to the trees behind him, signalling her to run and hide if necessary. She nodded and Quinn stood up, drawing his sword.

“It’s just me,” Pietro hissed, popping his head over the top of the shrubs.

Piper ran to him and hugged him, pulling him close to the fire when she felt how cold and clammy his skin was. He was gaunt and pale, his bruises faded to yellow and green smudges in his hollow face, dark shadows under his tired, glazed eyes.

“Here,” she said, tugging the pendant over his head. She pushed it under the collar of his shirt and pressed it hard against his chest. “It’ll help you,” she said, praying it would work.

Pietro looked at her like she was out of her mind, and began to pull away, but then she saw his face relax into a wondering smile.

“What is that thing?” he asked. “My headache is going away. I can actually feel it going away.”

She covered her face to keep from crying tears of relief. At least one thing was going right. “It’s a protection amulet,” she explained. “I’m sorry I didn’t think of it before.” She looked back to the bushes. “Where’s Bella? Weren’t you able to get her out?”

Pietro looked narrowly at Quinn before answering. “Aye, I got her. But she’s not here. I didn’t want Quinn to send her back.” A look of dawning comprehension crossed his face. “Is Lachlan back as well? That’ll solve everything.”

“No,” said Quinn darkly. “As he’s already gone to fetch her.”

“But she isn’t there anymore,” Pietro said, realizing why Quinn was glaring at him.

He looked at Piper, but she just shook her head. Quinn stomped off, a string of curses flowing from his lips. Piper was shocked at the instructional nature of the long tirade and stared wide eyed at Pietro.

He shrugged. “It’s a stress release for him,” he said.

When Quinn settled down, he returned and sat down opposite Pietro and Piper. “Things are no’ going to go well when Lachlan demands his wife and she is gone.”

He looked very much like he wanted to take a swing at Pietro and Piper placed a soothing hand on his arm.

“Why don’t we just go get Bella and all go down there and settle it nicely.”

Quinn laughed while Pietro shouted his disagreement to that suggestion.

“I don’t want her going back there,” he said. “She and I are going to set out on our own for Edinburgh. All we need is a horse.”

Piper watched as Quinn nodded calmly. Too calmly, she thought, wondering if he was one of those people who made rash decisions like murdering someone, then carried them out as if it were a trip to the grocery store. She moved closer to Pietro and Quinn laughed again.

“I’m no’ going to kill him,” he said, though the look he gave Pietro still made her shiver. “He’ll do that fine on his own.” He stood up and started toward the remaining horses. “Come along, then, Romeo. Let us go fix yer harebrained mistake.”

“What are we going to do?” Piper asked, alarmed.

“Ye are going to stay here with Redmond and warm yerself by the fire until we return. We are going to try and intercept my brother, or keep him from being taken prisoner if he’s already gotten so far as making demands of Tavish Glen.” He let out a long low whistle and a few moments later a man came from the woods, only half surprised to see Pietro had returned. “Stay here and guard the lass until we return,” Quinn ordered.

Redmond nodded and sat down, holding his hands to the fire to warm them.

Piper tried to argue, but Quinn was unyielding and soon she was sitting across the fire from a taciturn man who barely glanced at her and answered all her questions with grunts.

He didn’t seem any happier to get left behind with her as she was to be left behind. Damn Quinn’s stupid chivalry. And Lachlan had left her behind too. She was sinking into a new low, and considered finding a way to sneak away from Redmond.

“Dinna try it, lass,” he said, his voice surprisingly friendly when he used entire sentences.

“Oh my God, do you damned Highlanders read minds?” she cried.

Redmond merely grunted out a short laugh and went back to ignoring her. She tried to ignore him back, but he seemed to have a rash of some sort and whenever she managed to forget about him by staring into the flames, he started up a new round of scratching, jarring her out of her lonely misery. When he got up to inspect the perimeter, she was glad for the few minutes of respite from fingernails digging into hairy flesh.

A gust of wind blew up her skirts, and she was sorry she hadn’t worn all the proper undergarments. At least they would have kept her warm.

The few minutes dragged out, and she began to get anxious for Redmond’s return. She stood in a low crouch and peered out into the trees, but saw nothing but darkness and trees.

If she went to look for him, he’d think she was trying to sneak off, she could tell he was the suspicious sort. She sat back down, pulling her shawl up under her chin and scooting closer to the fire.

When a few more long minutes passed, she was seriously worried and quietly called out his name. She heard a scuffle behind her, then one of Redmond’s grunts. But it wasn’t a conversational grunt like what she had grown used to. This was definitely a grunt of pain. A crashing thud, and the sound of crunching leaves, as if something heavy hit the ground. Something Redmond sized.

She stood up and hissed his name again, seconds from screaming at the top of her lungs or bolting in the opposite direction. A small, dark haired woman stepped out from the brush and smiled at Piper.

“‘Tis a pleasure to make yer acquaintance at last,” she said, wiping a bloody blade against the bark of the nearest tree.

Piper blinked. It was like looking into a slightly distorted mirror. Her legs gave out and she sat down hard.

Here was Daria, at last.

Pietro rode beside Quinn, feeling like himself for the first time in days. The pendant that Piper slipped over his head was still working to drain away his illness and every moment that passed, he grew stronger. He wanted to let loose with an American style yeehaw, but one glance at Quinn’s drawn face and he kept his mouth shut.