Highlander's Captive (15 page)

“I was surprised to find you gone when I woke this morning,” Wintra said as they walked along the path that ran through the village.

Torr smiled and lowered his voice. “I was concerned as to how tired you were from all that you had learned and been through, and if I had stayed, I would not have been able to keep my hands off your luscious body.”

Her steps faltered from his blunt compliment, and Torr was quick to tighten his hold on her, which only worsened matters since it sent her stomach fluttering before it turned to a loud gurgle.

“You’re hungry,” he said with concern.

“I’m not hungry,” she protested, at least not hungry in the way he thought and, besides, she was more famished—famished for him. She turned her head away from him for a moment, her sinful thoughts heating her cheeks. And, of course her stomach had to disagree and gurgle again.

Torr laughed. “You are such a stubborn woman that your stomach must speak for itself.”

Embarrassed by her stomach’s betrayal, she turned to him with a toss of her chin. “According to you, I have proven time and again how stubborn I am.”

He smiled. “Truth be told, I would not have you any other way.”

Surprised by his response, she asked, “Truly?”

“Your stubbornness challenges me and that will make for an interesting rather than boring life together. It also helps that I love you.”

Her heart fluttered upon hearing him say it without doubt or hesitation. It was as if it came natural to him. He needed no preamble or flowery verse. He stated his love for her simply and honestly.

“I am hungry,” she said, though wasn’t quite sure how to tell him that it was him she was hungry for.

“Then we will eat,” he said and took hold of her hand.

His grip was strong, almost as if he feared letting go and losing her, and her own grip grew a bit stronger, for the thought of him never holding her hand again brought an empty ache to her heart. She loved him and she was happy that she was actually wed to a man she loved, a man she so enjoyed making love with.

“Deep in thought again?”

She nodded.

“Share them with me.”

Did she dare take a chance and tell him that she was hungrier for him than for food? Or did she heed the nuns repeated warnings that intimacy was initiated only by the husband?

“They will continue to haunt you if you do not discuss them.”

Her brow knitted. “You know me well? How is that?”

He smiled. “You often make your thoughts known by speaking your mind, so it is not that difficult to get to know you, though I wonder what makes you hesitate now.”

“I speak my mind around you more than anyone else,” she admitted, as if she had just realized it.

“I am easy to talk to.”

“So I have learned.”

“Then tell me what seems to trouble you,” he encouraged.

Her stomach gurgled much too loudly this time and though her cheeks burned with embarrassment, she could not stop from laughing.

“First, I will see that you are fed, and then you will tell me what keeps you from telling me what is on your mind.”

They turned around and headed for the keep, though at the bottom of the keep steps Wintra stopped and said, “Dawn and my brother may still be talking and I do not wish to intrude on their discussion.”

Torr placed his hands on her waist and gently propelled her up the steps. “Cree would have seen to their privacy by now if he intended for them to remain alone.”

Wintra was pleased to see that her brother remained with Dawn at the table in front of the fireplace and pleased that that was where he chose to eat rather than take breakfast at the dais. It made her see that somewhere in Cree still lurked the brother she knew, and he was the one she hoped to talk with.

Dawn’s gestures were easy to understand, she eagerly welcomed Torr and Wintra, urging them to join Cree and her.

Torr did not give Wintra a chance to refuse. With a little push of his hand to the small of her back, she took a seat opposite Dawn. Torr climbed over the bench and gave her hip a bump with his so that she would move down to the end and sit opposite Cree while he faced Dawn.

More food and drink were placed on the table and Wintra was grateful for the diversion. There was much she wished to discuss with her brother, but now was not the time or place, though she itched to do so. Cree had no idea how much she had missed him.

Dawn began to gesture and Cree interpreted. “Dawn is pleased that you and Torr will be staying here until the babe is born.”

Wintra looked to Torr surprised and yet so relieved by the news. She feared she would be pulled away from her brother before she had a chance to be reunited with him.

“You need time with your brother and I need time with my sister,” Torr said, explaining his decision.

Dawn nudged Cree with her elbow, and he scrunched his brow wondering what she implied. She raised her brow at him and tapped his knee under the table.

He watched as she signaled with her hands. She pointed at Wintra and then to Torr and locked two fingers together. He realized what she was saying. The couple also needed time alone, time to discover each other.

“The cottage is adequate for your stay here?” Cree asked.

“I love it,” Wintra replied quickly, not wanting to stay anyplace else. It afforded a sense of privacy and solitude. Both were things she had learned to enjoy while at the abbey, and she wasn’t ready to give up either just yet.

“In the meantime, perhaps you can help Dawn plan our wedding celebration,” Cree said.

“I would love to help,” Wintra said enthusiastically and couldn’t help but wonder if she and Torr would ever have a true wedding.

“I am gone but a couple of days on a hunt and what do I hear on my return? That I have a new daughter,” Kirk McClusky, Torr’s father, yelled out as he entered the keep.

Torr stood and his father greeted him with a bear hug.

Wintra stood to be presented to Torr’s father, feeling apprehensive. She was surprised to see what a good looking man Torr’s father was, though why not? If not for the scar on Torr’s face he would be more handsome than most any man. Actually, the scar did little to distract from Torr’s good looks. In an odd way it added to his fine features, making him appear a warrior not to tangle with.

“My God, son, she’s a beauty,” Kirk McClusky said with a genuine smile that startled Wintra as well as the bear hug he gave her. After the hug he held her at arm’s length. “I am a lucky man. I now have two beautiful daughters to be proud of.”

Wintra could not help but wonder if he knew that she was Cree’s sister and so, of course, she had to say something, and bluntly. “I am Cree’s sister.”

“So I have heard,” he acknowledged, surprising her yet again. “And it is pleased I am to have Cree and you join our family. Yes, I am surely a lucky man.”

Wintra could not help but smile at the man’s sincere joy and the thought flashed through her mind that she now had a father. And once again the thought slipped past her lips. “My father died before I was born. I am pleased to have you as a father.”

Kirk McClusky slipped his arm around Wintra’s shoulders. “I am so sorry that you never got to know your father, but I would be honored for you to call me Da. And I will do my best to live up to that honor.”

A tear tickled the corner of Wintra’s eye and she was quick to dab at it with her finger before it could fall and embarrass her. “And I will do my best to be a good daughter.”

“I think that will come natural to you,” Kirk said and looked to Torr. “You are a lucky man, son.”

“That I am, Da, that I am,” Torr agreed and reached out to steal his wife away from his father and tuck her in the crook of his arm.

“Join us,” Cree said. “We will raise our tankards in celebration to Torr and Wintra.”

Before they could, Sloan came barreling into the Great Hall. “A fire at the mill.”

“You stay right here,” Cree commanded with a finger in Dawn’s face. He then turned to his sister. “And you stay with her.”

Wintra was already on her feet ready to help. She was all too aware of how fast a fire could spread. Two small outer buildings at the abbey had been lost to a fire and a third larger one had been saved to the tireless efforts of all the nuns. She had not sat idle that day and she would not sit idle now.

“You cannot command me,” Wintra said defiantly.

“But I can,” Torr said. “You will stay here with Dawn. And I will not hear another word about it.”

Before either woman could protest, the men were gone.

Wintra shook her head. “I cannot sit here and do nothing.”

Dawn waved for her to follow, and Wintra was quick to join her.

Once outside, they both stood in shock on the keep’s steps when they saw the plume of flame and smoke in the sky. They were about to rush off and help, when Elsa’s words stopped them.

“Stay away from the smoke, Dawn, it could harm the babe. If you must help, go to my healing cottage and make ready to help with the injured.”

“We will see to it,” Wintra assured Elsa, just as concerned for Dawn and the babe as Elsa was.

Dawn and Wintra rushed in the opposite direction of everyone else. And as soon as they entered the healing cottage, a man staggered in cradling his injured arm.

The two women went to work. Healing was not new to Wintra. The nuns had taught her what herbs worked well on various ailments, explaining that it would be her duty to see to her family’s care, especially if the man she wed had no healer for his clan. She had quite enjoyed learning the different properties of the many plants, and she hoped to learn more from Elsa while she was here.

Most of the wounds were minor, though Dawn had gestured what Wintra had thought herself, which was that Elsa was treating those more severely injured at the scene until they could be safely transported to her cottage.

Wintra questioned those who sought their help, eager to know if the fire had been contained yet. The last wounded man assured her that it was almost under control and so far the water wheel was still intact, but the mill building itself had sustained some damage.

While Dawn saw to an older man who looked as if exhaustion had claimed him, Wintra took a bucket outside to dump the dirty water and refill it with clean snow to melt by the hearth. She went around back of the cottage when a hand suddenly clamped over her mouth and a strong arm snaked around her waist and began to drag her away.

The hand was so tight against her mouth that she couldn’t bite at it, her first thought. And since she was being dragged, she couldn’t gain any firm footing, so that left her with only one option. She grabbed one of his fingers at her waist and yanked it back as hard as she could.

He let out a scream as his hand fell off her waist, and the other off her mouth. She didn’t waste any time in running and screaming for help as she did.

Dawn heard the screams and ran out of the cottage, the older man trying to keep up with her. She caught sight of Wintra running toward her, the warrior not far behind her.

“Go for help!” Wintra screamed worried that Dawn would attempt to help her and get hurt. “Go! Hurry!”

“Go,” the old man shouted at Dawn and gave her a shove as he ran as best he could toward Wintra.

Dawn didn’t want to leave either of them, but she was wise enough to know that the quicker she got to Cree, the better chance Wintra had of being rescued. She raised her arm, burying her nose and mouth in her sleeve to keep away what smoke she could as she got closer to the mill.

“Get out of here, Dawn,” Elsa yelled when she caught sight of her.

Dawn paid her no heed and Elsa did not stop her. She was too busy tending the more seriously wounded men and women. And Dawn was relieved she had not tried. She had to find Cree or Torr, Wintra’s life depended on it.

She stopped, seeing Cree shouting orders and Torr was not far from him at the front line of the brigade tossing bucket after bucket on the last of the fire while billowing smoke plumes consumed an already gray sky.

She needed to get his attention since she was still a distance away, so she did the only thing she could think of, she clapped her hands loudly.

Cree turned at the sound, so out of place in the chaos, and his eyes widened. Something was wrong. She had clapped to get his attention and her eyes were wide with fright. He rushed toward her.

Her hands were moving before he reached her and he shouted, “Torr.”

Torr turned and when he saw Dawn gesturing frantically to Cree, he felt a punch to his gut. Something was wrong with Wintra. He dropped the bucket and when he saw Cree run off as if the devil was on his heels, he quickly followed him.

Torr was beside him in no time.

Cree called out as he kept running, “Someone took Wintra. Behind the healing cottage.”

Torr flew past Cree, jumping over mounds of snow and maneuvering around trees. He heard her screams as he turned the corner of the cottage. He shouted her name so loudly that it rang off the trees. “WINTRA!”

When she didn’t respond, he shouted her name again and with such power that the woods and all in it trembled with fear.

He heard someone shout as if from pain, and then heard Wintra call out his name loud and clear. He never felt so relieved, though he knew he had to get to her fast. She would not be able to keep the warrior off her for long.

He came upon an old man sitting on a stump, breathing heavy and pointing.

Torr went where the old man pointed.

Wintra let out another scream, and this time her abductor slapped her across the cheek so hard that her head whipped to the side, and she fell face first in the snow. She screamed when he grabbed her by the back of her hair and yanked her up to her feet. Try as she might, she could not strike out at him, since he held her at arm’s length in front of him.

“You will learn to behave fast enough,” he said with an angry growl.

She did not bother to waste a breath on a response. Instead, she let out another scream, hoping it would help Torr find her.

The warrior cursed profusely as he swung her around.

Torr came upon the scene just as the warrior raised his hand to deliver another stinging blow to Wintra’s face. He roared out his rage as he rushed the warrior.

As soon as the warrior caught sight of Torr charging him, he released Wintra in a flash.

She stumbled back as Torr lowered his shoulder and thrust it out to ram into the warrior’s gut, his hands going around his upper legs as he did, and then he tossed him over his shoulder to land on the hard snow-packed ground.

Wintra heard the snap, it echoed off the trees. Torr had broken his opponent’s neck in one swift move. She watched as he gave the dead man one last glance, and then walked toward her.

She was about to assure him that she was unharmed since he was forever asking how she fared, when he took her in his arms and kissed her with such intense need that it turned her legs weak.

He tore his mouth off hers as his hands reached up to cup her neck and he rested his brow against hers. “I feared I would not reach you on time and that I would lose you. I cannot lose you. It would be like losing a part of myself.”

She brushed her lips over his. “What madness has me not only loving you, but needing, aching, for you in a way that is—sinful?”

“I see all is well,” Cree said.

She looked to her brother and said, “More than you know.”

“It is best we get back to the keep. We do not know who else may be lurking in the woods,” Cree said.

Torr was quick to nod and take hold of Wintra’s hand. He leaned down and quickly whispered, “Later, I will satisfy your sinful ache.”

She shivered at the thought or was it anticipation?

They did not stop at the healing cottage; they went straight to the keep. Once in the Great Hall, Dawn greeted Wintra with a hug.

“The old man who helped does well?” Cree asked, tugging his wife to his side after Wintra assured an insistent Dawn that she had suffered no injuries.

Dawn nodded and gestured that he rested.

“Good, he will be rewarded for his bravery,” Cree said and turned to his sister. “Did the man who took you say anything to you?”

“Only that I would learn to obey soon enough,” Wintra said. “I assumed he was one of Owen’s men, though he wore no plaid that could identify his clan.”

Torr spoke up, keeping firm hold of his wife’s hand. “It seems odd that a fire raged at the mill at the same time Wintra was abducted.”

“I agree,” Cree said. “But the question is why would Owen abduct Wintra? He knows she is wed to you, so why would he possibly want her now?” Cree shook his head. “We will speak to Sloan after we see to the mill.”

He took Dawn by the shoulders and sat her down on the bench by the hearth. “You will dare not move off this bench until I return.” He pressed his finger to her lips, warning her not to argue and looked to his sister and then to Torr.

Torr eased Wintra up against him. “Do not make my heart slam against my chest with worry or my stomach roil with fear because you are too stubborn to obey me. Stay here until I return.” He rubbed her cheek, the redness almost gone. “I will send Elsa to—”

She pressed a finger to his lips. “There are others more in need of Elsa than me. I am fine.”

He hugged her tight so that he could whisper in her ear, “Good, now nothing will stop me from making love to you tonight.”

Wintra lowered herself to the bench when he let her go, his words sparking a passion in her that seemed to sit far too close to the surface all the time. She watched him walk away with the thought that tonight could not arrive soon enough.

Once out of the keep, Torr turned to Cree. “You did put guards on the two of them didn’t you?”

Cree laughed and nodded. “You are beginning to know my sister well.”