CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
P aige cried out as she slammed against a wooden wall. The covered cart she’d been dumped in rumbled along the road at a speed that flung her from side to side with every stone in its path.
After being dragged from the horse, still dazed, in less than a minute, someone had tied her up like a bird about to be cooked. The new driver had his hat low over his face so that she could not see who he was. He refused to slow down, even when she screamed at him.
“Stop, I beg ye!” she screamed through the crack in the cover of the cart. She braced her head on her arm as the road was so bumped, she could not take more blows to her head.
With the speed the man was taking, they could have an accident any moment now. She did not want to die, not now, now when things between her and Ruben were going on so well.
“Who are ye? What are ye going to do to me?” Paige yelled.
The driver kept silent as they flew over the road.
“Why are ye doing this to me?” she demanded.
When he did not say another word, she wiggled in the back of the cart and tried to look out. It was dark so it took her a moment to realize that he was headed back to the MacPherson’s lands. She hadn’t thought she could become more frightened, but a sinking feeling began to carve her chest in two.
Is this Faither’s doing? But why?
She saved her breath as it made no sense to demand answers from this man when he would not answer her. When the cart finally stopped, she kept still, hoping the driver and whoever was waiting for them would think she was asleep.
Someone flung the cover over and she kept her head tucked into the crook of her arm. A man snorted. “Ye’re nae foolin’ anyone. I ken yer awake.”
He hauled her out of the bed and got her on her feet. In the darkness, she saw two men in the clearing. She looked up and behind the trees, she saw two jutting peaks looming in the darkness, curving into the air— devil’s horns.
“Where am I?”
The man sneered, “Ye daenae ken yer own father’s lands?”
Paige’s knees almost went out from under her. The truth of everything came tumbling out and made her feel sickened. Her father had been the one who had taken Norah, held her hostage and had shattered the poor girl to bits.
Did he do all that because he couldnae admit he lost a bet?
“Are ye going to stay there for the rest of eternity?” Paige looked to where the voice was coming from and saw her father approaching. “Ye need to get out of the open and into the hidin’ place?—”
“Nay,” Paige snapped. “Ye are the reason for all this! Ye kidnapped Norah after ye lost the bet and dinnae give up the lands ye had wagered.”
“I was tryin’ to rescue ye!” her father blustered. “Ye should nae believe all the lies McKinnon told ye.”
“They are nae lies,” Paige said, “And when Ruben finds out about this abduction, he will nae spare yer life.”
“If ye think I am scared of that brute, ye ken nothin’.” Her father grabbed her arm and began to drag her across the clearing—when the thundering hooves of horse had her head snapping to the left.
Sure enough, seven men were riding towards the clearing, their horses ghastly looking in the light from the lit torches three of the men held raised over their heads.
“MacPherson!” Ruben snarled as he launched from his horse, “Ye are going to die tonight!”
Her father laughed while yanking Paige behind him. “Ye walked right into me trap! Men! Fight! Kill him!”
More men launched into the clearing while he pulled her away from the battle. Paige yanked her arm from him, then picked up her skirts and ran. She skirted the active battlefield and hunkered behind the cart while drawing a dagger from her boot.
In her line of sight, she could see Ruben fighting swiftly, methodically cutting men down left and right. When a rider came on him with a raised sword, he met the blow quickly swung his sword low and slashed the man’s gut, ripping him open from one side to the other side.
Plucking the sword out, he went on to cut down every man who came against him. Looking around, she tried to find her father in the fray, but he was nowhere to be found.
He was a full-grown man who’d seen hundreds die, perhaps thousands, yet there were things he couldn’t stand to hear. Someone yanked her from behind the cart man she did not know, so Paige struck.
The man’s arm was up so she slashed under his arm to his armpit then swiped the blade across his inner elbow.
“Ye bitch!” he hollered.
Undaunted, she jabbed at the man’s belly and sunk the blade to the hilt. She yanked the weapon out, he grabbed at her, but she ducked and ran to hide behind a tree.
“MacPherson!” Ruben roared. “Show yerself, ye coward!”
Peeking around the tree trunk, she realized the battle was over, the ground was littered with bodies. The rest of her father’s men, the few that were alive, were knelt on the ground.
Ruben spun on his heel, searching the trees with a snarl of rage on his face.. “Where are ye, ye bastard?”
Tentatively, Paige stood, relieved. She headed to Ruben—only to get grabbed again. Her father yanked her to his front and before Paige could react, he pressed the tip of the sword against his belly.
“Give up, McKinnon,” Angus spat. “I demand ye return the lands to me, forget the bet, and give us free passage away from here. That is unless ye daenae want to see yer wife and spawn again.”
Her head snapped to him. “Father! W-what are ye talkin’ about? I am nae with child.”
Angus did not seem to hear her. “If ye have any heart inside that carcass of yers. Let us go and I will consider lettin’ ye see them.”
“Father—”
“Let her go, MacPherson,” Ruben said, lifting his sword. “Kennin’ what horrors ye put me sister through, I have the mind to hang ye by yer toes and let yer blood drain like a deer. Let her go and yer death will be swift.”
“Last warnin’, beast,” her father spat.
Paige stifled a sob. She knew what he had done to Norah, but how could her father use her, use his own daughter as a shield? Her father was a selfish, cruel man with no compunction, shame or conscience.
“Paige.” For just a moment, the rage faded from Ruben’s face and his snarl eased. “Do ye trust me?”
“Aye. I do.”
“Then float.”
“‘Tis easy. Go limp. Ye simply trust…”
Paige closed her eyes and dropped to the ground. Surprised by the sudden weight, her father bent downward and jerked back upright.
He dropped the blade as Ruben darted in, dropped two blistering punches to his midsection, and had him on the ground. Elijah ran to her and pulled her from the two. Ruben had his boot on Angus’ neck.
“Ye’re a disgustin’ swine,” he swore. “Ye abducted me sister, almost had yer nephew killed, and now ye tried to kill me wife. Admit it.”
Angus’s face soured, “I should have never let yer sister go alive. And that spineless cousin of yers deserved the death he should have gotten. But he slithered away like the snake he is.”
Paige pressed a hand to her pained heart, the truth of all if made her blood go cold. How could anyone do something this heinous to another person, an innocent one at that?
She watched as he pulled up a leg and if it was not for the moonlight glinting on the head of a steel dirk, she would not have seen it.
“Ruben!” she screamed. “Dagger!”
He leaped away from Angus just as the felled laird slashed as his heel and missed. Angus scrabbled to his feet, but couldn’t run before Ruben took him down with two vicious slashes and finally ran him through with his blade.
Grabbing at the blade, Angus tipped over and he crashed to the ground, gurgling for breath.
Ruben’s head fell back as he gazed at the rising moon. She could only imagine how it felt that such a heavy burden had dropped from his shoulder and how free he was of the years-long mystery.
“Go,” Elijah told her. “Go to him.”
Slipping away from his hold, she went to Ruben’s side and gently touched his arm. He turned to her and silently wrapped an arm around her middle, pulling her into his side and buried his face in her hair.
“Thank ye for being brave,” he murmured. “Ye managed to protect me and yerself. Thank ye, Paige.”
She wrapped her arms around him, bitter tears slipping from her eyes. “Take me home, Ruben. Please take us home.”