Page 20 of The Cruel Highlander (From Enemies to Marriage #3)
CHAPTER 19
Valorie forced herself to remember each step that led her to sitting here in this carriage. The woods surrounding them were still unfamiliar, and the coachman was ignoring all of Valorie’s attempts to get his attention.
Valorie’s memories of the morning were foggy already from her emotions, but she needed to figure out what was going on.
It was definitely her father’s coach that she was sitting in. Upon a quick inspection, Valorie recognized the slight tear in the fabric on the door.
When she was a child, she had accidentally sliced through it with a short sword. She had been trying to show off for her father, but the quarters were a little too small even for that sword.
Valorie’s father didn’t yell or punish her for it. He had just laughed kindly and told her to keep practicing, and that maybe one day she could wield a sword inside of a carriage. Thinking of that memory sent another pang through her chest, but it was only one of the thousands that were racing through her mind.
Valorie remembered falling off her horse as a girl and her father patching her up but encouraging her to get back on. Or when she finally shot her first bullseye on purpose and her father had the whole castle celebrate that night.
Her favorite memory though was when her father had gifted her Bluebell as a foal. Valorie was finally old enough to ride seriously, and her father wanted her to have a horse that she could train and grow up with.
Focus, Valorie, she chided herself. Ye’ll never get back to yer father if ye don’t sort out what’s goin’ on with this carriage.
Back at Aiden’s, Valorie had forced Aiden to let her read the note from her mother. She needed to make sure there was nothing additional in there that Aiden was keeping from her or anything he thought was unimportant.
Besides, Valorie thought that maybe her mother’s words would provide some comfort to her. In reality, seeing her mother’s hasty scrawl and emotional words had only made Valorie feel lost. But because of that inspection, Valorie knew the letter had definitely been her mother’s handwriting. So, it was her father’s coach and her mother’s handwriting. But something was still off.
The coachman!
Now that she thought about it, Valorie realized she didn’t recognize the coachman. In her rush to get home to see her father, it barely crossed her mind, but where was Stewart?
Their usual coachman had been with the family for years and wasn’t nearly old enough to retire. Surely her father would not have let him go and hired someone new so soon. So, who was driving this coach? And where was he taking her?
As Valorie tried to think of a way out of this situation, because it was becoming increasingly clear that she was not headed home, the coach stopped abruptly. Valorie looked around; they were in the middle of the woods!
The door to the coach was ripped open, and before Valorie could even get a scream out, someone grabbed her by the arm and forcefully pulled her out of the carriage.
With the step up to the carriage and the force with which she was pulled out, Valorie’s feet missed the ground, and she ended up in a heap in the dirt. The man who pulled her out stood over her and leered at her prone body. It was not the coachmen but rather another man she didn’t recognize. So, two strange men then.
Not one to miss any opportunity, Valorie used her position on the ground to sweep her attacker’s legs out from under him. As soon as he started to fall, she pushed herself up to stand again.
Valorie popped up from the ground, ready to run off, but two more large men appeared. One was the coachman reappearing, and then there was another whom Valorie swore looked familiar. The two of them stalked towards her together, and while she tried, desperately, to run off and escape them, their longer strides easily caught up to her. It wasn’t like with Aiden in the woods — she didn’t have the element of surprise on her side, and these woods were unfamiliar to her.
One man she could fight off, two if she had a weapon, but in her current situation, unarmed, the two men quickly immobilized her. Besides, the third was already picking himself up from the ground.
With one man grabbing tightly to each arm now, Valorie was sufficiently captured. For good measure, the third man walked behind them, just in case Valorie somehow slipped their grasp. It was unlikely though because their meaty hands dug into her biceps painfully, probably leaving behind fingerprint sized bruises.
Still, Valorie tried everything she could think of to escape. She kicked out her legs, trying to connect with either of the men beside her. She attempted to let her body go limp in the hopes that the extra weight would cause them to slip up. She tried to twist her body and arms out of their grasps.
But it was all useless; their grip on her arms was firm. Through all her wriggling, the men just continued to walk her forward, and all Valorie managed to do was tire herself out.
Valorie was still convinced she recognized one of them but could not place him. Hundreds of scenarios were racing through her mind. Was this related to the threat Aiden had received? Maybe this was some enemy of his — could it be someone related to Aiden’s capture?
Was her father even ill, or was that all part of this scheme to get her alone? Valorie was sure that carriage was her father’s, and the note was written by her mother, so maybe the carriage had just been intercepted and taken over by whomever that coachman had been.
Which brought all the worries about her father back. If he was as ill as her mother said, Valorie may miss her opportunity to see him again.
Valorie needed a plan — she had no idea what was happening, but it couldn’t be good. No one kidnapped someone for non-nefarious purposes. Her heart raced in her chest, but she was equally determined. She couldn’t let her fear stop her from acting; if the moment came to escape, she needed to be ready.
Maybe Valorie could convince these men to let her go? Or maybe she should wait until she had more information? They seemed to be taking her somewhere specific, and Valorie was filled with dread at the possibilities.
“Where are ye takin’ me?” Valorie asked the brutes. A slight tightening of the grip on her left arm was the only answer she got.
“Ye won’t get away with this! Me parents or me betrothed will be lookin’ for me,” Valorie exclaimed, still doing all she could to try and wiggle out of their hold. The men just looked at each other over her head and laughed.
They all but dragged her through the forest to an abandoned cabin. Valorie took note of their surroundings the best she could, in case she should somehow escape this, but she could only do so much with the never-ending trees and shrubs that surrounded them.
As soon as the two men opened the door, the first thing Valorie noticed was the smell. It was a damp and musty smell, like something wet had been left sitting in the cabin for months. Valorie scrunched up her nose, but her captors just continued to drag her beside them.
Inside the small house, it became clear that no one had been there for a long time. It looked like it had once been a hunting cabin but was left abandoned years ago. The wood in places was rotted through or collapsed in, letting a small amount of sunlight into what was otherwise one dark, damp room.
Towards the back there was another door, also suffering from years of unuse — Valorie was sure to take note of it as another potential exit for her. There were no windows, but if she had to, she could probably kick out some of the rotting wood panels.
A few menacing tools hung on the wall, and the sight of them sent a shiver down Valorie’s spine. Were those for her or just a relic of the old cabin?
In the middle of the room sat one chair already adorned with ropes.
I bet I can guess where I’m about to be, Valorie thought looking at the one piece of furniture in the whole place.
Unsurprisingly, the two men pushed her into the wooden chair and made quick work of tying her ankles and wrists to the chair with rope. The ropes were tight against her, and the knots felt like these men had experience with this sort of thing.
When they had secured Valorie firmly to the chair, the men left without a word. She was alone in this abandoned cabin in the middle of nowhere. Valorie still did not know what she was doing here, and the possibilities in her mind were becoming increasingly dark. She almost wished the men had stayed because sitting here alone was causing her mind to wander and her anxieties to increase.
Immediately after the carriage stopped, Valorie had the adrenaline of the fight to keep her going and focused, but now all of that energy was fading from her body and fear was filling its place. How would she ever get out of this? Did anyone even know where she was?! Her parents must have been expecting her home, so at some point they would realize she was missing, but how would they ever find her?
Valorie could be nearly anywhere in the highlands at this point. The carriage had traveled long enough that there was no way to know for certain which clan’s land she was on. And her parents would have even less information about her whereabouts. They could search for days and never find her. The idea of remaining trapped here, alone, set Valorie’s heart racing, and her body broke out in a cold sweat.
“Why are ye doin’ this?” Valorie shouted at what she thought was an empty cabin.
“Because yer mine,” a voice from behind her said.