The Intended (44 page)

“She asks me why I am here.” He smiled
malevolently, bringing his mouth down, giving her a bruising kiss
on her lips.

Jaime felt the bile rushing to her throat as
she twisted her head to the side.

“I am here, my intended, to escort you to a
priest.” He shook her hard, forcing her to look again into his
face. “I am here to make you go through with our betrothal—to make
you live up to your promise of becoming my wife.”

“I
never
made that promise!” She shook
her head. “We never...”

Edward released one of her wrists, and in a
single motion, took hold of the front of her shift and tore the
front of it away, exposing her flesh to his lascivious gaze.

“And I am here to consummate our marriage,”
he sneered, grasping her breast brutally as he shoved her down onto
the sheets. “In fact, I like this order of things better. A
marriage will follow. After I am done with you. Stay where you
are.”

Straightening up, he unbuckled his sword-belt
and dropped the weapon onto the end of the bed. Seeing her chance,
Jaime tried to twist away, but Edward grasped her ankle and dragged
her roughly to the edge. She opened her mouth to scream but his
hand clamped down hard on her lips. She felt his leg shove between
her legs. With his weight on her, he fumbled with the ties of his
codpiece.

She bit on his palm with all of her might.
She tasted blood.

“Slut,” he shouted, drawing his hand back to
his mouth.

She opened her mouth again to scream, but
this time his hand closed around her windpipe, strangling her cry
in her throat. Jaime found herself gasping for the air.

“So I am not as good as your filthy
Highlander, is that it?” His blazing eyes bore into hers. “Aye, I
have heard.”

She shook her head, lights beginning to flash
before her eyes.

“After I am done with you, you’ll think
different.” As he again yanked at his codpiece, his grip on her
throat eased a bit, allowing some air into her burning lungs. “And
if you don’t please me, wench, we’ll take a little trip to Norwich
Castle. There, I’ll have you whipped by my man Reed. Do you know
what he does to women while they are being beaten?”

Jaime started thrashing in terror as she felt
his member swing free, scraping hard against the inside of her
thigh.

Edward reached down to guide himself into
her. “He has one of his men drive into the slut while...”

Jaime saw the flash of the dagger above his
shoulder, and before he could finish his words, she saw it sink
into his back.

Edward contorted in pain, lifting himself and
trying to turn to face his attacker. It was all the chance Jaime
needed, breaking herself free from beneath him and rolling to the
side. A look of horror was etched on Caddy’s face as she stepped
back, and Edward staggered to his feet, the hilt of the dagger
protruding from his back. As he lurched toward the older woman,
Jaime sprang into action.

She jumped from the bed, reaching for the
closest thing she could find. His unbuckled sword lay beside her.
Jaime grasped the sheathed blade and, with all her force, swung the
hilt at the attacker’s head. Edward’s knees buckled under him, and
he dropped like a stone to the floor.

Staring down at the motionless form at her
feet, the sword hanging in her hand, Jaime pulled together the
front of her torn shift. Dropping the weapon, she stepped back and
wiped away a tear that was running down her face.

“He is dead!” Caddy announced, pushing at him
with her foot.

Jaime looked up and, unable to hold back any
longer, rushed into the older woman’s arms. “You saved my life!”
she cried. “And I would have preferred death to what he was about
to do.”

“I’m so sorry, mistress. He must have come
right by me. Lord Malcolm asked me to stay close to you tonight. I
was sleeping in the alcove just outside of your room when I heard
your cry. I know I should have called for help, but I...”

Jaime shook her head. “There wasn’t time,
Caddy. If you hadn’t come when you did...” She couldn’t
continue.

As the tears began to flow freely now, the
older woman held her tight in her arms and stared down at the demon
sprawled at their feet.

“Who should I go to first?” Caddy asked
finally. “The earl himself, or...”

“No one.” Jaime pulled back, shaking her head
adamantly. “Edward is dead. There is no reason for us to call upon
them now. They’ll find him soon enough, and by then we’ll be
gone.”

“Gone?”

“Aye, Caddy, we are leaving here tonight. We
are going to Scotland.” Suddenly chilled to the bone, she gave the
woman’s hands a squeeze and stepped around Edward. Pulling a
blanket from the bed, she wrapped it around herself, but it did
little to stop the quaking that had settled into her body. “Malcolm
intended to come after us at first light, but I want you to go to
his chamber and tell him that he is to meet us outside the south
entrance right away. Then you must go and ready yourself for the
trip.”

“You are taking me with you, mistress?” the
older woman asked with a tremulous voice.

“How could I go without you?” Jaime choked on
her tears again. “But please go. We don’t know if anyone
saw...him...arrive at Kenninghall.”

With a quick nod of her head, Caddy wiped her
hands at her skirts and rushed from the room.

Left alone with Edward, Jaime continued to
shake as fear and shock battled from control of her body. She never
took her eyes off of him as she hurriedly dressed in her traveling
clothes and slipped out of the chamber.

Nell, Evan’s wife, held the sleeping infant
in the crook of her arm as she handed Caddy the basket of food.
Malcolm stood by the horses beneath the trees and talked privately
with the falconer and Master Graves.

Jaime, crouching before the young Kate, tried
desperately to hold back her tears as the little girl tied her pink
ribbon around Jaime’s thick ebony hair. “‘Tis for good luck,
mistress, and also for you to remember me by.”

“But when I gave this to you—it was for
keeps,” Jaime whispered.

“And I kept it, mistress, and it brought me
luck,” Kate answered, coming around Jaime and hugging her lovingly.
“Now I want you to have it...to bring you luck, and keep you
safe.”

Jaime placed a gentle kiss on the young
girl’s soft cheek and reached inside her cloak. From around her
neck she removed the long chain. Opening Kate’s little hand, Jaime
placed the emerald ring and the chain in her palm. “You give this
to your mother to hide and to keep safe for you. And someday, when
you are older, it may bring you
more
luck.”

Kate’s large eyes stared in an awe at the
ring as Jaime, placing another kiss on the young girl’s fiery hair,
pushed herself to her feet.

Nell’s eyes were teary when they met Jaime’s.
When Jaime opened her arms to embrace her, the woman nodded and
hugged her fiercely. Words were meaningless in expressing the
abundance of emotions that they both felt. Pulling away, Jaime
caught Malcolm’s gaze.

In his face she could still see the remnants
of rage that had nearly swept him over into the grip of savagery.
Only by begging had she kept him from going back to her chamber and
hacking Edward’s dead body into a hundred pieces. Caddy had told
him the truth of what occurred, and Malcolm, wild with fear and
worry, had rushed to Jaime, only to find her gliding silently
toward the stairway. As Malcolm had drawn her into his arms, she
had made him promise to take her out of the palace without a
moment’s delay.

And now they stood, gazing lovingly at each
other beneath the trees at the edge of the meadow, freedom in their
grasp.

Jaime had thrilled at the very sight of her
cousin.

Alexander Macpherson, the eldest son of Alec
and Fiona, sat in the best cabin of the armed merchantman, master
of the ship that was carrying them northward. His presence had been
a surprise even to Malcolm, who had expected a Flemish ship to
rendezvous with them.

“You don’t expect me to sit aside and let
someone else take care of family, now, do you?” Alexander,
following in the steps of his seagoing forefathers, had already
established himself, at twenty-three, as a force to reckon with in
the German Sea.

As Jaime watched Malcolm’s handsome face
relax in the presence of Alexander, a man he had grown up loving as
a younger brother, her mind wandered back over the flight that had
brought them to safety.

Their daylong ride along the winding roads to
the fishing village north of Harwich had been hard, but mercifully
uneventful. And once there, Malcolm had been able to hire a
longboat and the men to row it, in no time. So they had sat at the
stern of the boat, Malcolm with a sword on his lap, eyeing with
suspicion the swarthy rowers, and they had met Alexander’s ship
under the light of the full moon. But it was not until they’d
boarded the sleek
Elizabeth
, and the wind had filled her
sails, that Jaime had felt the tension begin to melt out of her
body.

“We’ll have to move off the coast and tack
northward,” Alexander said, leaning back, a cup in his hand and his
long legs stretched out before him. “The wind is coming from the
north—so be prepared for a slow journey home.”

“Thanks, lad,” Malcolm said. “We’re planning
to make good with any idle time on our hands.”

Jaime felt herself blushing crimson at
Malcolm’s suggestive words and mischievous glance. Hiding a smile,
she tore her gaze away from her intended—the rogue—and looked
innocently at Alexander. But her cousin’s raised eyebrows made her
blush even more.

“So when is the wedding?” the handsome young
Highlander asked with a grin.

“As soon as we arrive,” Malcolm answered.

“Will it be at Benmore Castle?” Alexander
probed. “We haven’t put on a good wedding there since...”

“Nay, Alexander. On the Isle of Skye,” she
corrected quietly. Jaime looked steadily at Malcolm. She had to
slay the demons of her past. She would stand at that Priory altar
as Malcolm’s bride.

“Well, then, we’ll just have a nice summer
voyage around the Orkney’s and drop anchor in Loch Dunvegan, if
that suits you.”

Alexander’s blue eyes twinkled with mirth as
they traveled from Malcolm’s loving expression to Jaime’s matching
looks. Putting his cup down on the table and folding his hands over
his flat belly, he jutted out his lower lip and took on a fatherly
pose, frowning at the two sitting across from him.

“Now, mind me, you two,” he said sternly.
“You mustn’t forget that you are under my safekeeping. So as master
of the
Elizabeth
and all who sail on her, I am telling you
now that I’ll be glad to help you two keep your distance from each
other. I’ve already given my dearest cousin Jaime the use of my
chamber, and you, Malcolm—foul beast—will sleep with the rest of my
scurvy, pox-infected sailors in the forecastle.”

In response to Malcolm’s growl, Alexander
raised a hand. “I know. You appreciate my looking out for you. But
that is not all that I will do for you. When you two meet while
aboard this ship, I’ll make certain that a chaperon, preferably
myself, will oversee your visit.”

Seeing Malcolm come to his feet, Jaime fought
back a giggle.

“Of course, you’ll want to stay away from any
kisses—any fondling—any act that...”

Alexander’s chair splintered beneath him as
Malcolm kicked out one of the legs, and an instant later the
Highlander stood with a boot on the younger man’s chest.

“If you’re thinking that because you have
grown to be as tall as me, I’ll be treating you any different from
before, then you are in for a great surprise,” Malcolm snarled.
“You might be master of this ship, and feared from the Shetlands to
Calais, but I can still handle you with the same ease that I have
since you were a wee bairn.”

“Jaime.” Alexander turned his blond head to
face her. “How could you marry a man this old?”

But before she could answer, the young
mariner grasped Malcolm's ankle firmly with one hand and upended
the MacLeod laird with the other. In another moment the two
warriors were locked in combat on the floor.

“Some things never change,” Jaime said in
disgust, coming to her feet and backing away to a safe distance.
“You two remain the ruffians and rogues you were when we were
young.”

As the two turned their heads to look at her,
she extended a hand toward Malcolm. “A person would think one of
you, at least, would grow up.”

Alexander bounced to his feet first and
extended a hand to help Malcolm up. But the Highlander instead
accepted Jaime’s outstretched hand. The ship’s master turned to
her, as well.

“Jaime Macpherson, do not think that anyone
here is about to accept this motherly admonishment. Do not forget
that you are much younger than me and...”

“Four years, my piratical cousin,” she
corrected, jabbing Alexander in the chest. “But knowing your
dull-witted lack of good sense, I figure though you are four years
my senior, I am still twelve years your superior in wit
and
in wisdom.”

“Are you saying that I have only a fraction
of your reasoning abilities?” he asked, towering over her.

She nodded sweetly as she moved snugly into
Malcolm’s protective embrace. “But I will admit that your skull is
four times thicker than mine.”

Alexander feigned a menacing look at the
young woman. “You can’t hide by the Giant’s side forever,
lass.”

Jaime laughed. Giant...that was what the
children used to call Malcolm when they played so many years
earlier. Wrapping her arm tightly about his waist, she looked up
into her intended’s loving gaze.

“But that is exactly what I plan to do.”

Malcolm followed the direction of Alexander’s
gaze to the galleon that had appeared in the distance.