But my attention shifted. It was then that Kade stumbled. Just slightly, but it was a sign. Campbell was working his advantage. Their swords were blurred with the heat of their fight. And Campbell’s back was to me. His feet moved closer to where I was crouched under the pyre.
I struck, slicing through the flesh of his calf.
Campbell howled, not expecting my attack. He lost concentration for a single moment, looking behind him. And it was all the opportunity Kade needed. It was the kind of invitation he trained each and every day of his life to exploit. Kade’s sword struck at Campbell’s throat, above the chainmail’s edge, in a precise, fatal angle, sinking deep.
With a final, brittle choking sound, Campbell’s body fell to the floor.
Campbell, whose family had led two generations of war throughout the Highlands, was dead.
Jamie, Hugh and Caleb all lay on the floor. There was movement, but I couldn’t tell who it was; the torches,discarded nearby on the dirt floor of the dungeon, were now flickering and sparse.
Kade walked over to where they lay, surveying the damage.
Caleb stood, somewhat unsteadily. He stepped back from Kade, as though fearful that Kade might attack him next.
Jamie was groaning and writhing. His leg, I could now see, was badly injured.
Hugh’s bulky form lay still, a spreading puddle of black underneath him. Kade, as though to make sure of it, stepped forward and cut his throat.
Kade pulled Jamie to his feet, supporting him. He looked once at Caleb, then once, in a lingering, intense glare, at me. Then he walked to the front entrance of the cave, dragging Jamie along with him.
I thought to tell him,’Tis not safe! What if the soldiers have wakened, as Hugh did?But I had a feeling my husband would neither listen to me nor be frightened by my warning. Either way, he was already gone. Caleb and I followed him.
Outside, the first hints of dawn were glowing along the horizon. The sleeping soldiers lay where we had left them, showing no signs of life. Kade took in the scene with alert contemplation. Kade lowered Jamie to the ground, where he sat quietly, his face pale with pain and blood loss. Kade found a discarded tunic on the ground and began shredding it into long strips. He said to Caleb, “Help me tie their wrists,” which they then proceeded to do, and particularly securely. One or two of the menstirred, but none woke. When all of the sleeping soldiers’ hands had been tied, Kade said to Caleb, “Assist your brother to the manor and see that he is looked at by a healer. Rally Tristan, Eion and Colin. Have them imprison these men and do their utmost to secure any other Campbells on the premises. Are we understood?”
“Aye,” Caleb confirmed.
“I will join you momentarily,” Kade added. “But first, I have some urgent business to discuss with my wife.”
And with that, my husband picked me up and began to carry me down through the dense shrubbery and down toward the loch.
CHAPTER TWENTY
WEHADWALKEDsome distance around the side of a small cliff, and were now out of sight from the fields and the manor, alone.
Kade set me down on my feet. He grabbed my arm and pulled me roughly alongside him. His grip was not at all gentle, and he clearly didn’t care if he was hurting me. In fact, the dull pain as he dragged me into a secluded recess of rock had a very different effect on me than I might have expected. I did not shrug off his punishing grip, nor did I protest the stunning strength of his attack. My body was responding to him, as it always did, rising to his demands, opening to him, readying me for his onslaught. I felt brimming and supple, inexplicably. I could taste an otherworldly, unruly anticipation.
He pinned me against the hard rock wall, holding his sword to my neck. I went still, staring directly into his cold, vivid eyes. One of his eyes had a dark ring of a bruise around it and there was a cut along his cheekbone. His hair was a wild mane, matted with dirt and blood. He looked wilder and more enraged than I had ever seen him. This was how he must have appeared to his victims on the battlefield. Here was the ruthless warrior I had once feared beyond reason. Here was thebeastly assailant who would take of me what he wanted without restraint or remorse.
Or he would kill me. I knew it was a very real possibility. He had been tested beyond his limits, andIwas the cause of it. And, while I knew his ferocity was capable of melting without warning into something akin to devotion—I’d experienced it firsthand, after all—I knew his state of mind now was as far removed from benevolence as it was possible to be.
“‘My husband is a brute and savage,’” he spat, repeating the words I had spoken. “I’ll show yousavage,wife. ’Tis who I am after all. You said it yourself.” Kade’s hands held the fastenings of my cape, his teeth bared; then he ripped the garment open, sending several bone buttons flying. My dress underneath had already been ripped, hours ago, and gaped open with his violence. My breasts were barely covered, and my nipples drew instantly tight at the rush of cold air and the feel of his stunningly hard body shoved up against mine.
I didn’t care.
I didn’t care that he might beat me and hurt me. He was considering it: I could read it in the shattered light of his eyes. The blade of his sword traced a line—very, very lightly—down one side of my throat, along thin, vulnerable skin. The slightest pressure would cut into my vein as he drew, if he chose to do it. I knew how sharp his weapons were kept.
“I love you,” I said.
Deep within him, there was a buried, almost-undetectable recoil. He had not been expecting this.His breath quickened, but he did not release his hold on me or remove his knife. He continued to quote my betrayal back to me, word for word. “‘’Tis well known this was an arranged marriage I wanted nothing to do with. Even Aleck knows it to be true.’”
“It was the only way I could keep you alive.” My throat was parched. My voice was little more than a rasped whisper. I reached to touch my palm to his face but he flinched away from my touch angrily.
“You should have let me die,” he seethed. “It would be a better fate thanthis.”
“Whatthis?We’rehere.We’re alive. We’re together.”
“It matters not,” he said with quiet fury, watching the trail of his blade’s edge with some concentration.
