Page 50 of Deception of a Highlander

Mariel sprinted across the field, her feet barely touching the ground in her determination to place herself between Coira and the beast before it was too late.

Mariel streaked across the stretch of grass to where the powerful horse charged. The little girl stumbled over the hem of her plain brown dress and tumbled to the ground in a pile of small arms and legs, flailing and shrieking pitifully.

The horse’s shadow loomed over her. The beast reared back on powerful hindquarters, his front legs savage as they slashed the empty air.

A burst of energy propelled Mariel forward, driving her burning muscles onward as she dove toward the ground. She threw her body over Coira, wrapping the child in the shield of her arms, and rolled them both away. Hooves slammed into the soft ground where Coira’s head had been, and the earth shuddered.

Without waiting for a second attack, Mariel scrambled to her feet with the little girl still clutched against her. A crude wooden fence lay on the other end of the field. Its slats were crooked and leaned against one another, but it was their only hope for escape.

Mariel did not hesitate. She darted forward with the girl cradled against her chest, focus on the high fence. The horse thundered closer, and the grass shivered under Mariel’s feet. Almost there. Her legs quivered with exertion, but she refused to give up.

Using the last of her energy, she leapt into the air toward the fence. Her feet kicked against the wooden planks and shot her higher. She didn’t think about what needed to be done; she fell back on her rigorous training. Her hand darted out automatically, bracing their weight and pushing them over the top of the fence to where they landed safely on the other side.

Through the visible gaps in their barrier, Mariel saw the horse rear back in anger. His hooves stomped the worn soil, and his eyes rolled. With a toss of his head, he turned his wrath toward the rickety fence.

Mariel’s heart sank. He would burst through the aged wood without issue. Her muscles trembled with such exhaustion she could barely stand. Outrunning him was impossible.

In a desperate move to protect the girl from as much impact as possible, Mariel crouched to the ground with her back toward the fence and wrapped Coira tight one final time.

Mariel waited for the crack of rotted wood as the fence splintered apart. She waited for the victorious snort of the beast as it charged at them in their vulnerable position. She waited, and yet neither ever came.

“Mariel.” Colin’s voice sounded overhead. “We’ve caught him. Ye can let her go.”

Her eyes flew open and glanced at the empty field beyond the slatted fence. A whimper sounded from her arms. Coira. Mariel released her grip on the girl and scanned over the delicate face and tiny limbs. Aside from bits of grass and dirt clinging to her dress, the girl appeared unharmed.

Mariel’s chest burned with the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. The air rasped from her tight chest and sent her heart hammering anew.

Had the horse not been caught, he surely would have broken through the rickety fence.

They would have been killed.

Then, Jack would have no one.

The strength drained from Mariel’s body, and it was only the bones within that left her standing upright by some miracle.

Innes appeared beside her and grasped Coira by the shoulders, inspecting her as Mariel had done. Innes’s gnarled hand patted one rosey cheek before she straightened and faced Mariel. The old woman’s face was flushed.

“Thank ye.” She spoke in English thickened by lack of use. “I dinna know how ye did it. I dinna care. Ye risked yerself to save my Coira.” She looked down, her translucent lips pressed against one another. When she looked up, unshed tears shimmered in the depths of her icy-blue eyes. “I willna forget this.”

Mariel’s mouth fell open, yet nothing came out. Innes did not appear to want a response. Innes turned, gathered the softly sobbing Coira into her arms, and shuffled away.

“Ye saved her.” Colin squeezed Mariel’s shoulder, breaking her from her trance.

She watched the little blonde head nuzzle into Innes’s sturdy chest, and Mariel’s heart swelled with a lightness she had not known in some time. She had saved a young life with the very skills she had been taught to kill with.

Mariel turned toward Colin’s charming smile. “It was just luck,” she said, brushing off the compliment and heading back toward her fallen basket with Colin at her side. “Anyone would have done the same had they been closer.” Her legs wobbled with the exertion of her feat. And with the fear of everything she’d almost lost.

Colin edged closer to her as if sensing her depleted strength. “I’ve no’ ever seen someone leap a fence like that. Where did ye learn how to do that?”

Mariel lifted the discarded basket to her hip and regarded him from the corner of her eye, suddenly wary. Was he asking in true curiosity or suspicion?

“I played with boys when I was younger. If you couldn’t jump a fence, you got left behind.” She gave him a playful wink and added, “I never got left behind.”

He grinned down at her and stopped in front of the small hut. “I can see that. I bet ye gave those lads quite a challenge.”

Before she could grasp the handle, Colin tugged the door open for her. Mariel shifted the basket to the front of her hips and angled her way into the doorway. The room was cold inside. Cold and dark and reeking of soggy woad. The sudden loss of sunlight left her momentarily blinded. She patted her hands around for the baskets of wool until her fingers skimmed the smooth braided wicker, and she knew she had the one she sought. She lifted it and felt its weight pulled from her hands.

“I’ll get that for ye,” Colin said in the darkness.