School For Heiresses 3- Beware A Scot's Revenge (11 page)

“ ’Tisn’t women I’m obsessed with tying up,”Lachlan muttered, and climbed up on the perch. “It’s just you, lassie. Only you.”

Although Venetia had done her best to vexLachlan , nothing had seemed to penetrate his thick skull. He’d acted bored the entire time, staring out the window like a warrior carved in granite, except for the occasional tick of a muscle.

Still, she had to admit that despite his rude comments and surly manner, he’d been a very courteous kidnapper so far. They’d stopped twice more by the road so she could relieve herself. The food he’d brought had been quite tasty, and the carriage was clearly designed for comfort. She didn’t know what to think. Whenever she’d read about the Scourge, she’d imagined some bitter and lazy crofter of Papa’s who’d turned to villainy. Her friend Amelia had described the accomplices as pure scoundrels bent on murdering Amelia’s husband. And perhaps they had been, givenLachlan ’s own words about their foolishness.

But Jamie didn’t fit that description. She would guess him to be about nineteen and, judging from how he shrank into the corner, a little nervous about being alone with her. He even jumped when his leg accidentally brushed her skirts.

“I won’t bite, you know,” she said softly, mindful ofLachlan just on the other side of the panel.

“No, milady.” Reaching under the seat, he pulled out a folded blanket and handed it to her. “Getting cold now. You might be wanting this.” He drew another out and made a big show of spreading it over himself before laying his head back and closing his eyes.

“See here, Jamie, I can tell you’re not like your laird. You know that what he’s doing is wrong, don’t you?”

He cracked one eye open. “Lachlan Ross ain’t done a wrong thing his whole life. He’s the finest man I ever knowed. So don’t speak bad of him to me. I won’t listen. And I won’t be helping you get away from him, neither.”

After that heartfelt speech, he closed his eye, laid his head back, and promptly began to snore. Well, she couldn’t sayLachlan hadn’t warned her.

While Jamie slept, she searched for other avenues of escape. The door nearest her had a simple latch—she could easily slip it off if she ever got the chance. But that seemed more unlikely by the hour. And even if she did escape…

She lifted the shade to stare out the window. Beyond the road lay the stoic hulks of heathery hills glowing silver in the molten moonlight. Nothing else for miles, not even a cottage. She sighed. After a while, lulled by the steady beat of horse hooves on packed earth, she slipped into a dreamless sleep.

It was some time later before she awakened to realize that her cheek was pressed against the squabs,
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the blanket lay over her lap…and they’d stopped. Before she opened her eyes, she heard the snick of the driver’s panel sliding open.

Feigning sleep, she kept her breathing steady, even when light from a carriage lamp shone against her face. Only after the panel closed did she look around. Across from her, Jamie snored peacefully, and outside her window, the sky began to lighten.

Then the carriage lurched asLachlan climbed down. Was he going to make Jamie drive? No, or he would have roused the lad. Holding her breath, she watched through slitted eyes asLachlan paused outside the window to glance in and confirm that they both still slept. When he disappeared, she popped up and looked out just in time to see him stop near the road. As he shoved back his coat and rocked back on his heels, she realized what he was doing. With a gulp, she jerked her gaze to the other window.

They were at the edge of a pine forest cloaked in predawn mist. Her blood roared in her ears. This was her chance. In the fog-shrouded woods, she could find a place to hide until she could reach a crofter’s cottage.

But she had only a few minutes beforeLachlan returned. Keeping an eye on Jamie, she laid her blanket aside and edged open the door opposite the one nearLachlan . Then she leaped out. The second her feet hit, she lifted her skirts and ran neck-or-nothing for the pines. There she tore through the bracken, ignoring the birch branches that snagged the sleeves of her deplorably bright pelisse robe.

Oh, why had she chosen purple yesterday morning? Once dawn fully broke, her gown would stand out like a beacon against the green bracken. Best put as much distance between her and—

“Damn you,Venetia !”

The cry spurred her on. Frantically she wove through trunks that became more distinguishable by the moment. Lord save her, the woods weren’t very deep. She could now see beyond the edge to where the mist lay heavier over a loch.

Shifting direction, she ran parallel to the loch, praying that the woods stretched all the way around. Instead, the trees petered out into a short swath of bracken that ended in a huge slab of granite stretching right down to the water! And now she could hearLachlan crashing through the brush behind her. He would catch up to her any moment if she didn’t find a place to hide. Swiftly skirting a rocky foothill, she left the loch, but the way grew harder until she was climbing steadily upward between huge boulders. It was either go up or go back, and she refused to go back to meetLachlan .

With any luck he’d look for her near the loch. Perhaps the giant boulders would shield her from anyone below. She might even find a cave to hide in.

Suddenly something tawny and fierce dropped onto the path ahead of her and bared its fangs. She nearly screamed…until she realized what it was.

Only a tabby, thank heaven. A rather large tabby, to be sure, but still…Murmuring soothing words, she
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approached the snarling creature, probably one of the feral cats she remembered from her childhood.

“Stop right there, lassie,” cameLachlan ’s low voice behind her. Her heart sank as she turned to see him approach from behind her with his pistol drawn. Not willing to give up, she edged nearer the tabby. “I am
not
getting back into that coach!”

The tabby growled and she halted, trying to figure out if she could get past it beforeLachlan reached her. Oddly enough,Lachlan paid her no heed. His eyes were fixed on the tabby as he inched forward. “Move aside so I can get a clean shot at the beastie.”

“Beastie! Don’t you dare shoot that tabby—”

“That’s not a tabby,” he said grimly. “ ’Tis a wildcat. They still roam this part of theHighlands .”

Her breath caught in her throat. She’d heard of the Scottish wildcat, but she’d never seen one. A fact he probably knew. “That is
not
a wildcat. Look at the poor thing—”

“
You
look at it, damn you, and tell me if ye’ve ever seen a tabby that big or that vicious.”

She stared into the tabby’s narrowed yellow eyes. It did seem awfully large for a house cat, and when she took a tentative step toward it, it hissed like a venomous snake. Then she saw why. Set into the rock beyond it was a cave, and a couple of kittens now appeared in the mouth. Very large kittens, only slightly less ferocious than their mama. One of them clutched a small hare in its teeth.

With a gasp, she fell back, andLachlan pulled her to his side. But when he raised his pistol, she said,

“No,Lachlan , please. It was only protecting its little ones. You’ll leave them without a mother.”

“Little ones?” he said, then apparently spotted the kittens. Some of the tension left his body. “Ah, that explains it. Wildcats don’t usually attack people.”

Keeping his pistol drawn, he looped his free arm about her waist. “I’ll spare the beastie if I can.” He pulled her back with slow, measured steps. “No big motions, ye ken? Nothing that will make her think we mean her harm. She’ll be loath to leave her wee ones, so she probably won’t follow.”

They inched back, keeping the drop-off to their left and the wall of rock to their right. Only when they were well out of sight of the wildcat didLachlan turn and break into a swift walk, dragging her along as he shoved his pistol into his pocket.

Now that the crisis with the wildcat was past, it dawned on her that she’d lost her chance to escape.

“Let go of me, sir!” she demanded, fighting to get free of his grip on her waist. “You’ve got what you wanted, but that doesn’t mean—”

“Got what I wanted!” He jerked her around to face him, his eyes blazing. “You think I wanted such a fright? To watch you nearly torn apart—”

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“I doubt there was any chance of that,” she retorted, though the alarm in his face took her aback. “I’d have figured out on my own that the cat was wild.”

“Aye, after it mauled you.” He swore vilely. “And what did you think to do once you made good yer escape?”

She set her shoulders. “I would have found a crofter’s cottage—”

“There are no crofters here, only forest and lochs. The nearest village is twenty miles off. More likely you’d wander the hills until you starved.”

She eyed him suspiciously. “Surely I could find sustenance somewhere.”

“You know how to fish? To hunt? When was the last time you killed a squirrel, skinned and gutted it, then cooked it over a fire you built yerself?” He made a sound of disgust. “I’ll wager ye don’t even know which berries are edible.”

That he was right annoyed her. “Then I’d simply have to walk until I reached the next village.” Turning on her heel, she marched down the path toward the woods. “I could manage twenty miles, you know. No matter what you think, I’m not some languishing, coddled sort of a girl.”

“Aye, and that’s the trouble,” he growled as he hurried to keep pace. “You’re just sure enough of yerself to try anything. It will get you killed.”

“I should at least like the chance to find out.”

“Devil take you, have you no sense?” Catching her by the arm, he shoved her against a boulder. When her temper flared and she hammered at his arms, he cursed and grabbed her hands, forcing them flat against the rock on either side of her hips. “Listen to me! Hold still a bit and just listen, will you?”

She stopped fighting to fix him with an icy glare.

He let go of her hands. “It’s not only wildcats and starvation you’d have to worry about. Thanks to the laird’s ‘improvements’ hereabouts, the only people left in the villages are hungry and desperate. They’d take one look at yer pretty gown and yer fine boots, and they’d see a body to plunder, not help.”

“I don’t believe that,” she said stoutly. “The Scots have always opened their hearts to strangers.”

“Where? TheLowlands ?Edinburgh ? In theHighlands , people are suspicious of cultured ladies who sound and look and act English. And there are men who…” He swept his gaze down her. “Ye’re a pretty lass, an innocent lass. Exactly the sort desperate men want to sully.”

“Let them just try,” she hissed.

His gaze snapped back to her face. “Right, I forgot,” he said with heavy sarcasm. “You’ll slash them with yer rapier wit.”

His condescension infuriated her. She kicked him as hard as she could manage with her sturdy walking boot.

With a howl of pain he jerked back, and she took off through the bracken toward the woods. She didn’t
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get far before he caught up to her, pouncing upon her like a beast. Next thing she knew, he had her on her back underneath him.

Rage scored his white features as he pinned her hands above her head. “So you’d fight them, would you?” he snarled. “If some villain tried to harm you, ye’d fight him off.”

She struggled to bring her knee up between his legs the way Mrs. Harris had said they should do if some man tried to hurt them, but he anticipated the move, thrusting his thick-as-oak thigh between hers to trap her.

Grabbing her wrists, he held them together in one large fist above her head, then raked his other hand down her neck to her bodice. “Very well, Princess Proud,” he taunted her. “Fight! Show me how easily you’d free yerself of some murdering savage who wanted to harm ye!”

She writhed beneath him, but she might as well have been staked to the ground for all the good it did. His weight crushed her so she couldn’t breathe, and his single hand was stronger than her two. Holding her irate gaze with his grim one, he flicked open the top clasps of her pelisse robe, baring the upper swells of her breasts. “Stop me, damn you! Go on! Since you’re so ferocious and all!”

He started to slide his hand inside her bodice, and she gasped.

“You see?” He paused with his rough hand lying flat across her breastbone, the fingertips just grazing the inner flesh of her breast. “A moment or two is all it would take, and yer innocence would be gone. Is that what you want?”

She stared up at him, suddenly aware of the strain across his brow and the taut lines of his square jaw. He looked as if he was suffering great pain. Had she hurt him that badly when she’d kicked him? Or was he simply struggling not to give in to his basest urges? That possibility alarmed her, and she realized how close she’d come to pushing him over the edge. Lord save her.

“Well, lass?” He slid his hand deeper inside her bodice to undo the bow of her corset. “Is that what you want?”

“No!” When he halted his motion, she lowered her voice. “No,Lachlan .”

Yet he didn’t remove his hand. For a moment, she feared she’d waited too long to stop him. His thigh lay intimately, heavily between her legs, a firm reminder of how easily he’d subdued her. Though the fabric of her corset and chemise still separated her bare flesh from his bare hand, she shivered to feel his fingers inside her bodice, mere inches from the crest of her breast. All he would have to do…

“Please,” she whispered. “Don’t hurt me.”

He blinked at her, then yanked his hand free with a curse and rolled off to lie beside her in the green bracken.

At first, the only sound was that of their harsh breaths and the discordant cry of a nightjar. ThenLachlan swore and eased himself up onto one elbow to gaze into her face. “I would never hurt you, you know. Never.”

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She wanted to believe that. She really did. But she knew how vulnerable she must look to him, lying here with her hair loose and her gown gaping open. And considering the circumstances…“That’s only because I’m no good to you if I’m damaged. Papa would never pay you.”