Highlander's Virgin Bride

Chapter 13

Down by the lochside,Meredith’s growing sense of unease had become impossible to ignore. I wish I knew what was happening up at the castle, she thought, resisting the impulse to turn around and look up at it. I wish I knew whether Ryder was being civil to his visitor — or treating him with the same disdain he had for him the last time we met.

The hair on the back of her neck prickled uncomfortably. It’s just the winter chill, she told herself firmly, wrapping her shawl around herself. That’s all it is. And yet, as she sat there by the water, huddled on a rock, it was hard to shake the feeling that she was being watched.

“Meredith, did ye hear me?” Melissa said, appearing in front of her, her face annoyed. “I was telling ye about the feast I think ye and Ryder should have, but I daenae think ye heard a single word I said, did ye? Ye were miles away!”

“Sorry.” Meredith shook her head sharply as if to dislodge the unwelcome thoughts that had set up home in it and turned her attention to a sister. “Now, what’s this about a feast?” she said, smiling. “What possible reason could ye have for expecting us to throw a feast?”

“There’s always a reason for a feast,” Melissa said confidently. “What reason could ye have not to have one?”

She never did find out Meredith’s answer, however, because, just as her sister opened her mouth to speak, a hand appeared from behind her, clamping it firmly shut. Melissa had just a second to take in her sister’s shocked expression, her eyes round with horror, before she was rushing forward, her hands grabbing at her sister’s clothes, as she tried to pull her away from the hooded figure who held her firmly in his grasp, one arm around her waist, almost lifting him from the ground, the other still held over Meredith’s mouth.

“Help!” Melissa shouted, turning towards the castle as Meredith struggled in the man’s grip, her heels beating frantically against the ground as she tried to free herself. “Help!” she shouted again, realizing even as she did so that the castle was too far away for any of its inhabitants to possibly hear her. “Help us, someone!”

Melissa paused for a second, torn between the impulse to attack the figure who held her sister and that to run back to the castle for help. She could not see the man’s face — as the hood fell back slightly in his struggle, she saw another covering underneath, pulled up over his mouth and nose so that only his eyes were visible, glinting dangerously in the shadow of the hood.

Whoever he was, though, he had obviously never encountered Meredith Quinn before because, as Melissa spun round in a panic, not knowing which way to run, the man suddenly cried out in pain, snatching his hand away from Meredith’s mouth to reveal a deep bite mark where she’d sunk her teeth hard into his flesh.

Seeing her opportunity, Melissa swiftly bent down and plucked a large pebble from the mass of stones which lined the lochside, hurling it at the attacker and somehow managing to hit him square in the forehead, right between the eyes. As he raised his other hand to his head, in shock, Meredith ran forward, realizing the instinctive reaction had forced him to release his grip on her before suddenly changing her mind and turning back to knee him sharply in the groin, just as Ryder had shown her, a few days earlier.

Thank goodness he was so insistent on teaching Melissa and me how to defend ourselves, she thought, as another pebble flew past her head, thrown by Melissa, who had, by now, gathered a small armful of the missiles and was throwing them at the figure one after the other, cheering enthusiastically as she did so.

“Come, Melissa! Quick!”

Tempted though she was to join in the fun her sister was having, Meredith knew it would take but a few seconds for the man who had grabbed her to recover his senses and return fire — and she knew, too, that, in spite of all of Ryder’s instructions, she and Melissa would be no match for an angry man.

“Come on, Melissa,” she said again, grabbing her sister by the arm as she turned and ran towards the castle. “Run!”

Disappointed, Melissa dropped the armful of stones she was still holding and ran after her sister, neither of them daring to look back until they were safely within the shadow of the castle walls.

“Ryder! Ryder! Help us, Ryder!”

Meredith had not even realized she was shouting for her husband until she heard her own voice echo off the walls of the castle’s cavernous entrance hall. “Quick, Ryder, before he gets away!”

Before she could shout again, the door of the Great Hall banged open, and Ryder appeared, Colby Green close on his heels.

“What is it?” Ryder said urgently, taking her by the arm. “What’s happened, Meredith? Tell me!”

She was dimly aware of her mother’s terrified face in her peripheral vision as she stumbled out an explanation of what had happened by the loch, her voice shaking now that the adrenaline had started to leave her body. The hall seemed full of people —curious servants, she supposed, drawn there by the sounds of her screams as she arrived— but she ignored them all and concentrated on Ryder’s face, watching the panic that had been etched there as he’d ran towards her turn quickly to fury.

“Simon! James!” he roared, summoning two of his best men, who had joined the small crowd in the hall. “Come with me! Meredith, stay here with yer mother and yer sister, ye hear me? Guards, look after me wife. Daenae let her out of yer sight, whatever ye do!”

And then, unsheathing his sword, he was gone, followed by Colby and the two men he’d called upon to help him. Meredith stood there for a moment, watching them run from the castle — then, with a small sob, she felt her legs give way beneath her as she fell to the stone floor.

* * *

“Ryder, it’s almost dark,” Colby called out, his eyes straining to catch a glimpse of Ryder’s figure in the failing light. “Even if he is still out here, we’ll never find him in these conditions. Better to return to the castle, surely? We can start the search again as soon as it’s light.”

Hours had passed since Meredith and Melissa’s dramatic appearance in the castle’s entrance hall. Yet the only trace they had found of the man who had tried to take them was the disturbed ground on the banks of the loch, where Meredith had struggled with her assailant, and Melissa had thrown stones with an accuracy that Ryder had to grudgingly admire.

I’m glad I spent some time showing them how to defend themselves,he thought, as he turned in the direction of Colby’s voice. Melissa may have scoffed and said there was no need of it, but if they hadn’t been able to fight him off…

He shook his head, not wanting to dwell on the thought that had been circling his mind for hours now. It had been no random attack, that much he knew for certain. Someone had tried to kidnap his wife, and, had she been alone, without Melissa and her rocks to come to her assistance, they may well have been successful. Someone had wanted to hurt her — or to hurt him, rather, for what other reason could there have been for the attempt?

None. There was no other explanation for it, other than that someone had wanted to rattle him. To get at him, by taking her. And that someone was still out there somewhere — which meant that Ryder would not be able to rest until he had found him, and killed him.

“Ryder, listen to me. We must head for home, or we’ll be putting everyone at risk, out here in the cold and the dark.”

Colby had ridden up beside him, but although Ryder knew his words made sense, he was not prepared to listen to them.

“Nay,” he said shortly, not bothering to look at the man. “Nay, I’ll not be stoppin’ the search until I’ve found him, whoever he is. Not while there’s breath in me body. Ye should go home, though,” he added, almost as an afterthought. “I’m grateful for yer help, Moore, but this is something I need to do meself.”