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If he hadn’t already lost her.
He looked over to her.
His gaze had barely shifted off of her as they had moved through the dark forest, the four of them silent. But Victoria’s stare had set firmly forward, never once veering toward him.
He needed her alone.
Alone to explain what he’d been forced to do—the pain he’d had to inflict upon her. To convince her it was the only way he could think to save her from Falsted. He needed to beg her forgiveness. To do whatever it took to take the fear of him out of her eyes.
For that’s what she was at the moment.
Afraid of him.
Lachlan’s shoulders lifted in a heavy sigh once more and he pulled his face away from Eva’s head. “I thought…” His eyes closed with a wince and he shook his head, then pulled his gaze away from his wife, looking at Torrie and Victoria. “Ye lasses are well?”
Torrie nodded. “As well as can be expected.”
His arms finally eased around his wife and he lowered her to the ground.
Eva’s hand went onto his shoulder. “Don’t put me down just yet.”
“Ye are injured?”
“Aye. My ankle.”
Lachlan looked to Rafe. “Ye carried her?”
Rafe nodded.
“That is the only reason I’ll let ye live, then, for touching her.” Without letting Eva drop, he swung an arm under her legs and picked her up. “We need to move, there are guards scouring the Falsted grounds right now.”
“There are?” Eva’s eyebrows shot high. “But my stepfather is dead.”
“Falsted is dead?” Lachlan’s eyes widened and he looked up to Rafe.
Rafe nodded.
Lachlan grunted in disgust. “I wanted the pleasure of flaying the boiling skin from that maggot.”
Rafe looked over his shoulder. “You’re right, though, we do need to keep moving. I’m sure the guards have no idea that Falsted is dead. And they are hunting to kill.”
Lachlan nodded. “The rest of my Scots and Reiner are on the north end of the estate.”
Eva’s hand clutched onto the back of her husband’s neck, her fingertips gripping to him as though he were a shadow set to disappear with the rising sun. “Always attack from the north?”
“Aye, ye know me well.” He looked down at her with a lopsided grin. “So why are ye in the south woods?”
She lifted her shoulders with a smile. “Circumstances.”
Lachlan grunted and started walking toward the road and across the adjoining field. “We move quickly, then. My horse is only a short distance from here. We’ll get to it, then get to the farm up the road where we can borrow horses.”
Victoria and Torrie hurried after Lachlan as he strode through the field at a pace that didn’t hint at carrying a full-grown woman in his arms. Rafe took up the rear.
Victoria stayed close to Lachlan’s backside, while Torrie inserted herself in between Rafe and Victoria. Had Victoria any end of people willing to protect her from big, bad monsters?
It wasn’t until all of them were seated on four horses, Eva riding with Lachlan, and they had skirted to the far east of the estate to move around to the north side, that Lachlan looked to breathe a sigh of relief.
Rafe wasn’t anywhere near to breathing a sigh of relief. Not until he got Victoria alone.
