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Silence. Inert body.
“Of all the damn worthless women.” With a growl, Rune reached in and grabbed her torso under her arms, dragging her from the carriage.
No movement, no motion. But her eyes were still eerily open.
Her dead weight not helping him, he looked up at his horse.
Only one thing to do.
He shifted her in his arms, and with a grunt, he heaved her over the front of his horse in front of the saddle. Her legs and torso hanging on opposite sides, she’d have some bruises to contend with. But she’d also be alive.
His foot into the stirrup, Rune swung his leg over his mount and dug his heels into the horse’s flanks. With one hand on Lady Raplan’s lower back gripping the fine muslin of her dress and holding her to the horse, he set the animal into a brutal pace.
As fast and as far away as possible.
{ Chapter 3 }
She jerked awake—jerked back into the present just outside of the village Rune had set his horse toward.
“What the devil?” She twisted, squirming under his hold on her lower back, trying to break free.
“Stop. Lady Raplan. Stop.” Rune shouted the words, trying to cut through her panic.
She stilled for the slightest second, then contorted and stretched her neck to look up at him, her forehead scrunching. “You? You tossed me on here?”
He nodded. “You weren’t moving.”
“I wasn’t moving?” Her voice went into a screech as she shoved loose strands of her chestnut hair out of her eyes. “I was fine and you tossed me over this—oof!” The horse’s front right hoof slipped off a large rock and the bump caught her right in the belly. She had to gasp a few breaths before she could continue the tirade. “You—you tossed me over this beast like a bloody sack of potatoes and I am not a bloody sack of potatoes, you blasted oaf.”
Rune had to force the smirk threatening on the corners of his lips into submission. “Not a sack of potatoes? I don’t know how I mistook—”
“You miserable ogre—who do you think you are, tossing me about like I’m not a living, breathing woman? You wouldn’t treat a pig to slaughter this way.”
“You’re right—I would be afraid of bruising the meat.”
“What?” She twisted violently, almost freeing herself from his grip and launching herself head first toward the ground.
His grip on her dark blue dress caught her just before her legs went up and over the horse and he dragged her back into balance—still flopped over the horse—but in balance.
Rune leaned forward, his voice low. “I just saved your life, Lady Raplan, I would think I would only hear gratitude spilling from your lips.”
Her look whipped to him, her blue eyes shiny, pointy daggers. “You’ll hear nothing from my lips but what an odious ass you are. Let me up.”
“Saving your life isn’t comfortable?”
“You very well could have saved my life in a kinder, less brutal way.” She shifted, trying to push herself up from the horse’s side. She was lucky the horse didn’t buck at her wild agitations.
He shrugged. “My options were limited. You weren’t moving and I needed to get us out of there.”
Her motions paused and she looked at him. “What do you mean, I wasn’t moving?”
“You were curled into a damned ball on the carriage floor and not moving, not coherent. Dead weight. Flopping you onto the horse was the only option.”
“What? Not coherent?” Her head shook. “No, I was at the window when I heard them approach and then you flew by and…the shot…”
Her words drifted off as her head turned away from him.
“What were you doing stuck there on the floor, Lady Raplan?”
