Moonstone (3 page)

Rhiannon
trained her gaze forward and took a moment to plan ahead. She and Alice would have to find employment somewhere, but she wasn’t too worried about it. She’d been around horses the whole of her life and could pass as a stable lad, assuming she kept her weight down and her hair covered. Alice was another story, but they had time to work on that. Whatever they decided to do, they would have to hold out in the forest for a bit. There was something Rhiannon had to take care of.

Assuming she
could figure out how.

Chapter Three

William
flat-out refused to lose his horse to a thief. He had trained his stallion, Jeremiah, himself, and the two of them had been through a lot together.

Once thro
ugh the village, he heeled his borrowed mount and thundered across a field. Turf kicked up under the horse’s heavy hooves and William wiped mud off his face with his sleeve.

They
broke through the tree line, oak and birch flashing by. William scanned the woods and saw a path of broken branches just wide enough for a horse.

He
followed it for a time, then reined his borrowed stallion to a stop, frowning at the sight before him. The horse thieves were meandering through trees and shrubs, admiring the scenery like one might flowers in a garden. William tapped his mount with his heel, moving in behind them as if they were in a slow-motion game of cat-and-mouse.

He
cleared his throat. Two young faces turned, caps shielding their features. They jerked in unison.

William gestured
. “Dismount.”

The taller of the two lads shook his head.
He was young, his jaw smooth and his clothing loose as if they were hand-me-downs from an older brother. He turned the rein with a skilled hand and disappeared from view. He didn’t dress with enough affluence to keep horses, so he was probably a stable boy. The second boy followed on Hercules by default, since Hercules was accustomed to flanking Jeremiah. William didn’t go after them, he didn’t have to. He whistled to his horse.

He heard a
thump, and a moment later Jeremiah trotted toward him like an overgrown lap dog. Hercules followed with the other lad still on his back.

Dismounting, William took up Hercules’s flopping reins and led
the horses to where the taller lad was sprawled out on his stomach in a blanket of bracken, sunlight pouring through tree branches in fuzzy rays over him.

“Up
on your feet,” William said.

“I’ll not go with you
.” The lad pushed himself under a patch of brambles.

“You have
n’t any choice.” William tethered the horses then followed, thorns scratching his hands. “Stop!”

The boy
clamped one hand over his cap and pushed further in, elbows digging mossy turf and branches crunching beneath his slender body. He had William at a slight disadvantage, because he was smaller. But unlike the lad, William’s entire upper torso was covered in leather, and he could easily dismiss the thorns that stung his face and hands.

William
grabbed a hold of both the boy’s legs and pulled, shifting backward until he had him all the way out. The lad writhed against him like a wild animal, catching a solid blow to William’s right knee. He bit back a growl and slung his leg over the boy’s torso, then pinned his wrists together with one hand and yanked the cap away.

Burgundy hair spilled over the ground, glow
ing where the light caressed it.

Rhiannon.

William looked at her wrists, noting the broken skin from the ropes she’d been bound with the night before. Her lip was split from her recent fall, trailing blood down her chin. He hadn’t meant to hurt her. She shivered beneath him, the curves of her hollow flesh hidden in folds of cheap wool. A tear welled in the corner of her eye and she turned her face from him.

“I’ve not so little left,” she
said, her voice raspy, her hipbones pressed into his thigh. “If you take me now, know that I will kill you later.”

H
er fear drove into him. “Take . . . I wouldna force myself on a woman.” It occurred to him that he should probably move his leg. He slid back, then before he could stop himself, tucked his arms around her, pulling her into him and cradling her on his lap.

William
looked at Alice. The maid’s eyes welled as she pulled her cap free, brown hair tumbling down her shoulders. “Please help her.”

“I
will,” he said, Rhiannon shivering in his arms. She was so cold. He tucked her closer, reaching up to unpin the top portion of his plaid so that he could wrap it around her. 

“You can release me now.
” Rhiannon pushed against his chest.

“You’re too cold.”

“Let me go.”

He didn’t want to, but he doubted it would lessen her fear of him if he kept her.
He released her and she slid out of reach, sitting with her knees tucked against her chest, her eyes devoid of expression.  

“I
really should take you back to the hall,” he said, mostly to convince himself. What he really wanted was to take her back into his arms and head straight for the Highlands. 

G
reen eyes swiveled onto his. Her mouth moved, but she didn’t say a word. She felt her lip with the tip of her tongue. William looked down and saw her blood on him, streaking the linen of his shirt below his sleeveless leather jerkin. That was the second time he’d gotten her blood on him.

“
Bean-shìdh
,” he said. “
Fey
lassie.”

Her eyes widened. Then they narrowed on him.

He immediately regretted his big mouth. At least he’d called her a banshee in Gaelic instead of English. “How do you fair? Besides the lip.”

“Fine.” She rubbed her arm.

“Let me see.”

“Nay.” She
pulled away. “It was not from the fall.”

“Your guard, or Reginald?”

“My guard
.” She held up her palm. “Do not touch me.”

“I willna hurt you.” He dropped his hands to his sides
, acutely aware of his size. Various weapons were stashed about his person. He could take anything he wanted from her, right there, right then, and she would be powerless to stop it.

It made him sick.

She inched away, her palm still out.

“Easy, lass,” he said in Gaelic.
She wouldn’t be able to understand him, but he didn’t want her to. It gave him the freedom to say whatever he wanted. He shifted closer. “Fairy sprite. I dinna know what spell you’ve cast on me, but I’m completely past resistance.” He grinned. “I didna put up much resistance, did I?”

Her
burgundy brows pinched together.

“I’d like to see you without your bruises
,” he continued. William took her hand and laid her forearm over his knee. “And to see you when your curves fill out again.”

She
pulled back, and he decided that his bare knee was contraindicative to her comfort. Laying her arm over his thigh wasn’t likely to work any better—for obvious reasons—even if it was covered with his plaid.

He settled on letting her keep her arm at her side while he
worked his fingers over the joint in her elbow, then upward toward her shoulder, keeping in mind the way Geoffrey had manhandled her the night before.

Rhiannon stiffened.

“Just let him,” Alice said. “Please, my lady. For me, let him.”

Rhiannon nodded.

“Dinna move.” He didn’t want her to further injure herself. William set his jaw against her soft skin and intoxicating scent as he eased his fingers around her shoulder. The joint felt swollen, warmer than the rest of her arm, but not enough to alarm him. Her loose shirt gave no resistance, sliding further down than he’d expected.

“’Tis not bad
.” He backed away, his throat tight. “Let me know if the pain gets worse.”

Rhiannon
covered her shoulder and tucked her knees against her chest, rocking back and forth. She shook out her hair so that half of her face was covered with it.

He wanted to t
ouch her. “Tell me what is going on here?” he asked to distract himself before he pulled her back into his arms.

“We
are running away,” Alice said from on top of Connor’s horse.

“Aye
. I can see that.”

“I cannot stay with Geoffrey
.” It was Rhiannon. 

William turned back to her. “And I knew that as well.”

“I told you,” Alice said. “I told you he wanted to help.”    

“You willna wed Geoffrey.” William was su
rprised by how easy it was to say out loud.

Hope sparked in
Rhiannon’s eyes, making his chest tighten and the heat of his needs surface before he could do anything to curb them. He had his reasons for abstaining from women, as much as he’d like to partake. Debauchery had wreaked enough damage in his callow youth, and he wouldn’t cause any further pain for the sake of his own gratification.

Rhiannon caught the look on his face and her expression
hardened. “Why are you helping me?” 

Well, h
e couldn’t exactly tell her what she was doing to him. She wasn’t ready to hear it. William stood and brushed himself off, leaving her unanswered because it was safer.

“Who
, precisely, are you, anyway?”

“William M
acAlastair.” He smiled, hoping he could impress her, even if she was English. “Laird William, chieftain of the clan MacAlastair.” 

“Lady Rhiannon
Hanover,” she said, as if they were meeting for the first time under more pleasant circumstances. “I wish I could say that it was delightful to meet you, but given the situation . . .”

“Aye.”
William ducked his head. “I am pleased to meet you too, my lady.”

She cleared her throat and looked away
.

William came back down
, his knee sore from where she’d kicked him. The lassie had quite a wallop. “You never told me how you came to be here like this?” he asked, sitting back on his heels.

“They killed my parent
s. Reginald and Geoffrey did. They’ll try to tell you differently, but I’m not lying. Reginald knew he would inherit everything.” Her face contorted. “Including me.” She shook her head. “Geoffrey said he would take me off Reginald’s hands. And here I am.”

She’d given him
the abbreviated history, not that he expected her to share the rest with him. The part where she was beaten, raped, and starved.

“Reginald sees her as a loose end,” Alice
said. “He wouldn’t let her take her meals in the great hall. I had to sneak her food out of the kitchen late at night. Scraps, so he wouldn’t know I was feeding her.”  

“’Tis my
dowry,” Rhiannon said. “He wants to keep it. But I suspect he is afraid of Geoffrey and won’t back out of their agreement. He probably hoped I would fall ill and die on my own.”

Whatever was happening ran deeper than Geoffrey’s usual stupidity.
“Stay out of Geoffrey and Reginald’s way,” William said. “And let me take care of the rest.”

“Rest?”

He chewed his next words, wondering how much she needed to know. “I’ll make sure they canna hurt you.”

“And how will you do that?”

“I still plan on dueling Geoffrey for you. If he has the nerve to go through with it, that is. If not, then I will find some other way to free you from him.”

“
And precisely what do you mean by free?”

“I
have only one option.”

“What if I will not agree to your
option
?”

“I willna force you into anything.” It was difficult to say, because it wounded his pride. Maybe she wasn’t ready for a husband in the conventional sense, but she could accept
the protection of his name. 

“
Can I go on my way then?”

“You are a lady. Someone has to take responsibility for you.
Besides, where else would you go?”

“On my own.
” Her jaw flexed.

William stood
and held his hand out to her. “I canna let you do that.”

“Why?”

He pulled her up whether she liked it or not, careful not to touch her sore arm. “Because you need to be sheltered.”

She came to his nose. Connor was right, her height was refreshing.

“Then you surprise me not,” she said from between her teeth. “You are what I thought you to be.”

He smiled, enjoying
the way her stubbornness overcame her fear. “And what is that?”

“Male.”
She licked blood off her lip.

“I offer to shield you with both my sword and my name, and that is all you have to say?”

She crossed her arms over her rib cage and turned her cheek to him.

“I like it when you’re angry. It makes you forget your fear.”

“You don’t scare me.”

“My laird,” Alice said. She held out a handkerchief and he took it from her.

“Let me see your lip
.” He knew his words had sounded too much like a command. William exhaled through his teeth. “I am more accustomed to the company of men than of women.”