Elspeth agreed since most of the food was fruit Helen had recently picked and didn’t need to be cooked.
After a breakfast of various berries, seeds and nuts, they set off for the Cameron holding.
“I know this is much to ask fer,” Helen started hesitantly.
“What is it, Helen?
“Can I stay with ye when we reach yer home?”
“’Tis not my—” Elspeth stopped and then smiled. “Of course.”
They talked while they walked. Helen thought Elspeth was very brave.
“Nae, I’m verra fearful, but I want to live,” she told Helen. “I have a reason to live.”
“What is the reason?”
Elspeth thought about it. Was her purpose to kill Logan Cameron? Did she truly have to? Of course, she did, she admonished herself right away. Why was she even entertainingsuch traitorous thoughts? It was because she’d slept beside him. He’d been freezing out in the cold and no matter how many blankets she put on him, he shivered in his deep slumber. She’d had no choice but to slip in beside him on the cold ground. Warming him was a serious task, but his long, lean body against her, carved like the statues in her mother’s garden, trembling like her own heart, made her feel giddy and light-headed.
She had lain there with him under the stars for hours, helping her enemy live.
I’m here to kill the Lochiel’s son.
I’m here because I want to see him again.
But she couldn’t bring herself to say either thing. “We should get out of here.”
Elspeth scowled up at the clouds as they released torrents of water.
They were going to have to walk in the rain and somehow find their way to…to Mr. Cameron’s house.
“Let us hold hands so we dinna lose each other,” Elspeth suggested and closed her hand around Helen’s.
Right away, they heard a man laughing in the fog. Elspeth fumbled for her knife secured to her thigh. Helen stepped behind her.
“What do we have here?” a man drawled, stepping into the dim light of the lantern. “Two comely maidens alone in the rain.”
“Is he yer master?” Elspeth asked Helen.
“He is not,” the gel answered.
“Get out of our way,” Elspeth ordered while the rain pelted them and she reached for the kitchen knife tied in a fold at her waist.
“Aye, move aside!” Helen echoed and clutched Elspeth’s shoulders behind her. “Ye better move out of the way.”
He moved forward for them, ignoring their warning.
Elspeth stepped in his way. “I am usually against taking the life of another, save one. I would much rather heal, but…” She shrugged her shoulders. “If ye dinna move, ye will force me to kill ye.”
Underestimating her, he attacked. Elspeth tightened her fingers around the handle of her kitchen knife. Her heart pumped wildly, heightening her senses. But it was so foggy.
Helen pushed her out of her way and attacked the man, but he caught her around the throat and brought his dirk up to her neck.
Elspeth held up her hands to plead with him not to hurt Helen. She opened her mouth but at the same moment, a looming shadow appeared out of the mist. It reached out for the man grasping Helen by the throat and twisted his neck until it snapped.
Helen didn’t try to fight the new culprit but hurried to Elspeth’s side.
The shadowy figure reached Elspeth before she did.
