Highland Savage (6 page)

“I am shamed to say that I ne’er gave it much thought,” Katerina finally replied. “I assume ’tis an empty grave, Annie. Rocks, mayhap, if they needed to give the coffin some weight. Unless there is someone who went missing at the same time—” she began, but Annie shook her head.

“Nay, no one save Robbie,” Annie said as she slowly sat up.

“I cannae think Robbie came back to Dunlochan and died so conveniently, just when Agnes needed a body. If naught else, Robbie would be appalled at becoming a pawn in Agnes’s treacherous plots.”

Annie nodded slowly. “And so easily, too.”

Katerina grinned. “Verra true. Nay, I doubt anyone rests in my grave.”

The relief on Annie’s face came and went so quickly, Katerina knew she had been lucky to see it. She hid her shock. Had she been wrong about Robbie? Had he been unfaithful to Agnes even before Agnes had broken the vows said between them? Even as doubt about the man and her own judgment crept into her mind, she was able to banish it. Robbie might be quick with a smile for the lasses, but he held true to his vows until he realized the woman he had given them to did not do the same, that Agnes had fooled him in all ways as to the woman she truly was. He had left too quickly after that to have already begun an affair with Annie. Annie was also an innocent and somewhat pious. She would never have fallen into a love affair with a married man. That did not mean, however, that Annie could not be enamored of the far too charming Robbie. Katerina inwardly sighed, hoping the young woman had not given her heart away foolishly. She was all too aware of how much that could hurt.

“What do Thomas and I do now, m’lady?” Annie asked as she shyly accepted a little more wine from Patrick.

“Stay here.”

“Here? For how long?”

Katerina tried not to grimace, knowing Annie would not like her answer. “I fear I dinnae ken. Ranald willnae give up wanting to get his hands on ye and Thomas. Weel,
Thomas is the one he sought, but ye heard how he began to plot pulling ye into his grasp as weel, aye?”

Annie shivered in obvious distaste. “Aye, I did and it fair turned my insides to ice.”

“So, I fear ye and Thomas must now hide away with us until Ranald is no longer a threat.”

“Just what do ye need to defeat that cur and Lady Agnes?”

“Proof of their crimes. That is what is proving so hard to get hold of. I need clear, hard proof to show the council.”

Annie muttered something that sounded very much like a curse. “Old fools, the lot of them. They ken what she is and what she and Ranald have done and still do. They ken the crimes that unholy pair has committed. I think their hesitation has naught to do with what fulfills your da’s wishes. Nay, I think they sit back and let this bloody game continue because they dinnae want to give up the power they hold as guardians of Dunlochan.” She blushed when she realized everyone was staring at her. “Pardon. I was disrespectful.”

“Nay, ye just put the hard truth into words, something the rest of us have hesitated to do.” Katerina took Annie by the hand. “Come, I will show ye where ye can sleep. Thomas can share with ye or stay here with the men.”

“I should like to stay with the men, of course,” said Thomas.

Katerina hid her smile as she led Annie away. A quick glance at Annie revealed that woman was doing the same. When she reached the small chamber she had chosen for Annie, Katerina helped the woman set up a pallet to sleep on and hang a blanket over the door. With both of them working it did not take long to make the small stone chamber relatively comfortable and a lot less like the cave it was.

“’Twill be strange to live under a hill like the fairies,” said Annie as she looked around, “although ’tis finer than my wee niche at the inn.” She smiled at Katerina. “’Tis wondrous that Sir Lucas still lives, is it not? Ye must be so happy to have him back.”

“Weel, I
am
glad that Ranald didnae kill him. ’Twould be verra fine indeed if Sir Lucas didnae think I had a hand in it all, however.” She inwardly cursed her loose tongue and shrugged when Annie stared at her in shock before giving the woman a succinct account of what had happened a year ago.

“He thinks
ye
tried to kill him?” When Katerina nodded, Annie began to look very angry and shook her head. “Men can be such blind, stubborn fools. I am sorry, m’lady. I had thought—” She shook her head again.

“Ah, weel, so had I. It appears we were both wrong.”

“Ye will soon prove to him that he is a fool to think such a thing. Aye, ye will soon make him choke on his foolish suspicions.”

“’Tis a pleasant thought.”

“But ye dinnae ken what to do after that, do ye?”

“Nay, I dinnae. But I suspicion I will think of something. Get some rest, Annie.”

“I willnae be a burden, m’lady. I cannae fight, but I can surely find work to do to help ye. I can cook and clean.”

“Such help will be greatly appreciated. Good sleep, Annie.”

“Good sleep to ye, m’lady, and my thanks for saving me and Thomas.”

“Ye and Thomas have both been a help to us, although ye didnae really ken it. I couldnae have lived with myself if I had left ye to Ranald’s untender mercies.”

Katerina left Annie to seek her own bed, her whole body aching with weariness. She had just reached the opening to her chamber when Lucas stepped into her path. There was a look in his silvery-blue eyes that made her insides clench with need and that angered her. She scowled at him as he neatly pinned her between his hard body and the stone wall.

Katerina did not need to feel the thick ridge of his shaft pressing against her to know what Lucas wanted. It was there to read in the taut lines of his face. Despite the pain he had caused her she wanted it, too. It was too soon, however. She had not yet decided if the pleasure he could give her was worth all the risks dial came with it.

“I believe ye have a pallet readied for ye in the hall with the other men,” she said, proud of the chill in her voice for there was only searing, welcoming heat in her body.

“Your bed would be warmer.” Lucas told himself it was the lingering excitement of a battie and a rescue that had stirred such need in him, and that he had only sought out Katerina to ease it because she was close at hand. He ruthlessly ignored the voice in his head that called him a liar.

“There are plenty of blankets about. Seek their warmth.”

“Are ye sure that is what ye want me to do?”

Before she could reply, he kissed her. It was no gentle kiss, no soft coaxing of a lover. Lucas ravished her mouth. His kiss stirred her hunger into a fierce craving. Katerina clutched at his robe, fighting the urge to rip the coarse wool from his body and crawl all over him. Her need was a living thing inside her, but she fought it with all her strength. The moment his lips left hers, she grasped the shredded tethers of her control and pushed him back. Her whole body felt chilled by the loss of his heat, but she ignored it. It was too soon. She had no control over her emotions, and if she did decide to take him as her lover, she knew she would need some if only to shield her heart from the pain he could inflict on it.

“Kissing a woman ye think guilty of attempting to murder ye isnae wise. Doing it whilst dressed as a monk might be considered blasphemy. I suggest ye leave. Now.”

Katerina did not flinch from his hard, searching stare. If he had been looking for a weakness in her, he had undoubtedly found at least a hint of one in the way she had responded to his kiss. It did not matter. She was in control now and she intended to hold fast to it. There was a glint of anger in his eyes and she was pleased to se it. If she was going to suffer the unquenched fires of desire tonight, he ought to suffer in some way as well.

Lucas could see the strength of her resolve to send him away and knew he would not get what he craved tonight. Her desire for him was still there, however. He had tasted it in the kiss they had shared. He could wait, no matter how uncomfortable waiting was going to be. Bowing slightly, he left her and began to try to recall all the ways he could ease the hunger in his body so that he could get some much-needed rest. He would need his strength for the campaign ahead. Coaxing Katerina back into his arms so that they could wallow in the passion they shared, at least for a while, would take every scrap of patience and guile he could muster. He
could
wait, but he had no intention of waiting for too long.

The moment Lucas was gone, Katerina staggered to her bed and collapsed onto it, her whole body trembling as she fought to control the desire that kiss had brought to life. She was glad Lucas had not argued with her, for her control was tenuous at best. A little
push from him and she might well have fallen straight into his arms. Something in the way he had looked at her, even in the way he had bowed, told her that he
would
push. She would have to make her decision about him soon, for every instinct she had told her that Lucas was now on the hunt and she was his prey.

It was a trap. Katerina could see no proof of that, could hear nothing to indicate they were riding into danger, could not even smell it in the air, but her insides were clenching with fear. It was the same feeling she used to get as a child when she had to go somewhere where she knew Agnes could be lying in wait for her, only much, much worse. A quick glance at the faces of the men with her told her they shared her uneasiness, but she knew their wariness could be born of different causes.

When the feeling had first swept over her, she had looked to Lucas as the cause. For three long days now he had been haunting her thoughts, the warmth of his kiss still lingering on her mouth. He had also been stalking her, always near, always touching her in some way, always watching her with desire darkening his eyes, and always trying to steal a kiss, something he accomplished far too often for her peace of mind. The moment the feeling had grown stronger, however, she had known he was not the one causing it.

Old Ian had sent word that someone had taken the horses. True reivers having always been a problem, though thankfully rare, they had set out to track them down. Now Katerina began to think it was not so simple. Although she always felt tense before a battle, this feeling was even stronger, deeper, and carried a strong hint of foreboding.

“I dinnae like this,” she muttered as she stared at the horses and men slowly, suspiciously so, crossing an open field.

“Nay, it smells wrong,” agreed William, and several of her men grunted softly in agreement.

“Like a trap.”

“Aye, verra like a trap, a weel laid trap.”

Lucas nodded slowly, his gaze never leaving the men and horses they had been pursuing most of the night “Open, but with a lot of places for men to hide all round the edges of the field.”

“Just waiting for us to come out into the open,” she said, “and then moving to cut off our retreat.”

“Unfortunately, we need the horses.”

Katerina hated to admit it but he was right. The six horses they now rode were all they had left if they did not retrieve the ones in the field. They were not all the best horses, either. To replace the ones stolen from them, they would actually have to steal some and Katerina was very reluctant to do so. She was trying to prove Agnes guilty of various crimes and did not think that committing some herself was the best way to do that. There were also the risks to consider. She might not suffer much for stealing horses simply because she was the daughter of a laird, but her men most certainly would. Katerina suspected that, if given a choice in the matter, her men would much rather ride into what they all suspected was a trap than risk hanging for stealing.

The best way to do this is swift and hard, Kat,” said Lucas. “Go out there, grab what we can as fast as we can, and get out”

She tried to ignore the warmth that stirred within her over the use of the name Kat, one he had used often when they had been happy together. Now was a very bad time to be growing sentimental. She had horses to retrieve and men to protect. The part of her that resented Lucas offering plans and assuming some authority was ruthlessly smothered. A good plan was needed if they were all to get out of this trap alive and she would not argue over where that plan came from.

“I think that is the way to do this, Cousin,” said William. “If this really is a trap, we cannae take time to fight with those men and retrieve all the horses. We can, however, ride in fast, grab some, and hie away, giving whoe’er might be lying in wait for us little chance to launch their attack on us.”

“Agreed then,” she said, adjusting the slip of blue linen wrapped around her face to make sure it hid her face well. “No fighting unless ye need to. Just grab a horse and get out of there. We ken that no one lurks in hiding here so this will be our escape route.”

“And we will all set off in different directions as usual once we are hidden by these trees.”

“Let us pray there are no archers hiding out there,” she muttered softly when William moved closer to her.

“Few can hit a swiftly moving target. And, if Ranald is behind this, most of his men couldnae hit the side of Dunlochan keep on a clear day with no wind.”

Katerina smiled as the men all chuckled over William’s insult, but the good humor was fleeting. The men were waiting for her signal to move. After praying for their safety, she gave it and immediately spurred her horse into a gallop. She bent low over the horse’s strong neck to make herself as small a target as possible as she rode straight toward the men herding her horses across the field.

She was in reach of one of the horses when she saw men on horseback rushing out of the trees, swords drawn, and heading right for her and her men. It did not please her at all to see that she was right, that it was indeed a trap. When one of the men herding the horses tried to grab her, she slammed her cudgel into the side of his head, sending him tumbling to the ground. Katerina then grabbed hold of the reins of the horse nearest her and turned to flee, hoping to make it to the safety of the trees before Ranald or his men could reach her.

A grunt escaped her as something slammed into her back. The pain hit her a heartbeat later with such force her vision clouded. Instinctively, she reached for what was causing her such pain, releasing the reins of both her own horse and the one she was trying to retrieve. Both horses reacted badly to the sudden lack of a hand upon the reins, jostling her as they faltered and tried to decide what to do next. Realizing her precarious position as she reeled in the saddle, Katerina reached for the reins, but it was too late to save herself. Her hood fell back, dislodged by her frantic attempts to grab the reins and stay in the saddle, revealing her long hair. Despite the cloth that still covered most of her face, Katerina suspected that several of Ranald’s men would recognize her thick fair hair; Ranald certainly would. She hit the ground hard, pain shooting through her hip and back and, for a moment, her full attention was fixed upon trying to breathe again.

Lucas glanced toward Katerina only to see her flailing in her saddle and he cursed. Even as she fell, he caught sight of the arrow protruding from her back and he felt a chill run through his body. The fact that her hood fell back, revealing her distinctive hair andrevealing her identity as clearly as any banner, concerned him far less than her welfare. They could deal with the consequences of Ranald knowing she was alive later. The only thing that mattered now was saving her life.

He thrust the reins of the mount he had retrieved toward William. “Take these and get out of here.”

“But Katerina—” William began to protest even as he grabbed the reins and secured them to his saddle.

“I will get her and meet with ye at the caves.”

William hesitated for only a moment longer and then raced away, following the rest of Katerina’s men into the trees. He paused only once in his flight to grab the reins of the horse Katerina had lost hold of. Lucas raced toward where Katerina was struggling to get to her feet. Ranald obviously had the same idea, but he was caught up in a confused melee of men and panicked horses that were all trying to go in different directions. To his relief, Lucas reached Katerina first, reaching out for her and pulling her up behind him before grabbing the reins of her horse and securing them to his saddle.

“The other horse,” Katerina choked out even as she wondered why she was so concerned about the beast when she was close to being captured and was in pain.

“William grabbed it. Can ye hold on tight?”

“Aye,” was all she managed to say before Lucas kicked his horse into a gallop.

The ride to their hiding place was little more than a befogged sense of speed and excruciating pain to Katerina. She was barely conscious when Lucas stopped to tie her to him with the linen strip he had worn over his face. When they stopped a second time, she roused from her pain-filled stupor enough to try to see where they were, but pain blurred her vision. As Lucas took her into his arms she caught a glimpse of Thomas and Patrick leading the horses away while William did his best to obscure their trail. That sign that everyone was doing exactly what they should ended all need Katerina had to try to hold on to consciousness and she gave herself over to the blackness that had been fighting to claim her.

“Oh, sweet Jesu, is she dead?” Annie cried from the opening to the hall.

Lucas did not hesitate, but kept striding toward Katerina’s bedchamber. “Nay, but she needs tending to as swiftly as possible. She needs this arrow out and may have broken something when she fell from her horse. I need water, rags, and anything else ye may have for healing wounds.”

“Aye, I will be but a step behind ye.”

The moment Lucas got Katerina settled on her side on her bed, he began to cut away the clothes the arrow had pierced. He struggled to calm the emotions roiling through him. It made no sense that he should be so upset, so chillingly afraid for Katerina. Had he not planned to avenge her part in the brutal beating he had suffered? Although he had not made any specific plans for his revenge against her, the very words
avenge
and
revenge
implied that some violence and pain would ensue. It was obvious now that he would never have been able to do Katerina any physical harm.

Thinking on it, he realized he had thus far failed to exact any revenge on her. He had even joined in her fight against Ranald and Agnes. About all he had accomplished was to irritate and insult her and continuously try to seduce her. It was not the sort of revenge ballads were written about.

When Annie arrived, setting all she had brought on the chest next to the bed, Lucas began to prepare himself for the gruesome task of removing the arrow from Katerina’s back. “Are ye strong, Annie?”

“Aye,” she replied. “Of body and stomach.”

“Good. Ye will need to be both for what happens next. I must needs remove this arrow.”

She frowned, obviously confused by his hesitation. “Do ye wish me to pull it out?”

“Nay, I need ye to hold her still. First I must push it through so that the tip comes out the front of her.” He ignored Annie’s horrified gasp, and continued, “Then I will cut the arrowhead off. Only then can I pull it out of her body.”

“That will be an agony for her,” Annie whispered.

“Aye, it will, and, e’en though she is unconscious, she will fight the pain.”

“Why cannae ye just pull it out?”

“Because it will make the wound worse, tearing into far more coming out than did going in. The head of the arrow must come off first. Now, the more she moves the longer it will take to get this cursed thing free of her body. Are ye ready? Ye willnae swoon, will ye?”

Annie shook her head and moved to hold Katerina firmly in place. The scream that escaped Katerina as he shoved the arrowhead the rest of the way through her body made Lucas’s stomach churn. He suspected he was as pale as Annie was. He cut off the arrowhead and then, after taking a deep breath to steady himself, yanked the shaft of the arrow out of her slender body as swiftly as he could. Katerina screamed again and tried to twist away from the pain he caused her but a softly praying Annie held her firmly in place. Lucas was heartily relieved when Katerina lay silent and limp after the ordeal and he prayed she was so deeply unconscious now that the rest of the work he had to do would not reach her.

Struggling to recall all he had learned while growing up in a family of healers, Lucas cleaned the wounds and then stitched them closed. The salve Annie gave him was unfamiliar to him, but he had a sensitive nose and easily picked out the various herbs in it, judging it safe if not as good as some of the women in his family could make. He put the salve on Katerina’s wounds and then bandaged them. Relieved that he was done with that chore, he stretched until some of the tension in his body eased and he felt he could continue.

“Are ye a healer?” asked Annie.

“Nay, but many of the women in my family are renowned healers and every child is taught at least some of those skills,” Lucas replied. He looked down at Katerina’s pale face and sighed. “We are nay done yet.”

“She has more wounds?”

“She fell off her horse. I dinnae think she has broken anything, but we must be sure.”

Although Annie was obviously uncomfortable with Lucas seeing Katerina naked, she said nothing as they stripped off the rest of Katerina’s clothing. Lucas was relieved to find no broken bones, but there were a lot of bruises marring her fair skin. He helped Annie bathe Katerina with cloths soaked in lavender-scented water and put some salve on the worst of the bruises.

“She has a lot of scars,” he murmured, lightly tracing a long, ragged one on Katerina’s slim leg.

“William said she was badly injured when she was thrown into the loch and had to save herself.”

While Annie fetched a night shift for Katerina, Lucas studied the scars marring Katerina’s body. Some were small, more the result of a somewhat unskilled healer tending to her wounds, but there were several large ones, the result of serious wounds. The scars supported most of William’s tale of what happened a year ago. Katerina was
very lucky to have survived such large, deep wounds.

Doubt about Katerina’s guilt inched into his mind and this time refused to be pushed aside. Perhaps she truly had not intended to have him killed. Ranald and Agnes could have used Katerina’s jealous need to punish him for their own purposes. Once Katerina realized they meant to murder him she had finally tried to stop what she had started but it had been too late to save him or herself.

He inwardly shook his head as he helped Annie put Katerina into a night shift. Tired and worried about Katerina as he was, Lucas knew it was a very bad time to try to sort out anything, let alone exactly what had happened a year ago. He finally admitted to himself that pain might have clouded his judgments, made him recall only pieces of what had happened. Lucas was not ready to believe Katerina was completely innocent, but he was now prepared to start looking for some answers, even to consider that he may not have the full truth.

William strode into the room just as Annie pulled the covers up over Katerina. “How does she fare?”