Chapter 30
30
A strid’s heart thumped an uneven pattern as she pulled the low-hanging branch down, causing it to snap from the base. The sound echoed through the desolate landscape, shattering any hope she had of sneaking up on Laird Chalium.
She swallowed hard as she noticed the oppressive darkness that made the land feel more dreary. The sunlight was masked by thick clouds that made the world appear ghostly and surreal. Each step she took felt like a step further into madness as her heart pounded a dirge of dread.
She pulled her smock closer as if it could shield her from the icy winds that whipped through the dried, weathered trees that dotted the moors. A low howl stole the last bit of warmth she had managed to hold on to.
She froze in her place, listening for an answering howl that would indicate her doom. When silence answered, she let out the air trapped in her lungs and continued onward, hunting for Olivia.
“Where are ye?” she grumbled as she took the small piece of parchment out of her pocket.
She could barely call it a map. It was more like a few chicken scratches on paper that gave her no real indication that she was going in the right direction. For all she knew, Laird Chalium was sending her out into the bog to die and had no intentions of letting Olivia go.
The thought of having been made a fool of irked Astrid. She never thought herself dull or daft, yet as she ventured deeper into the wilderness, she couldn’t calm the knots twisting in her stomach.
“Please, ye cannae leave me out here. I’ll be dead before anyone finds me…”
Olivia’s pleas drifted through the fog and mist, reaching Astrid’s ears.
Astrid stopped, wondering if she was already starting to lose her wits. After all, the bog was no place to get lost in. How many people had lost their lives trekking through such a place?
Astrid shuddered as she turned around in a circle, praying that Olivia would say something else.
“Please. I ken ye’re still there. Ye cannae leave me here.”
“Olivia?” Astrid called, daring to expose herself to her enemy.
What choice did she have when she couldn’t see Olivia through the mist?
“Call to me again.”
“Astrid? Nay, it cannae… Ye cannae be here. Ye have to run.”
“Keep talkin’,” Astrid called as she followed the sound of Olivia’s voice.
She stopped and dropped to her knees the second she spotted Olivia. Her mouth dropped open.
If she could only describe Laird Chalium in one word, she’d say that he was cunning. He had Olivia tied to a tree on an island surrounded by moss, peat, and certain death. One wrong step and she could sink below the marsh, never to come up again.
“Where is me braither? Please tell me it’s nae just ye?” Olivia said as Astrid moved around, using the shadows and fog to her advantage.
From what Astrid could tell, there was only one way she was going to get to Olivia—she’d have to use the boat tied to the fallen oak tree.
“Hold fast,” she called as she steeled her nerves, realizing she’d have to paddle to get to Olivia. “I’m comin’ for ye.”
“Astrid, ye cannae. The second ye step foot on the island, he’ll kill ye. Turn around now. I’ll nae have ye risk yer life to save me.”
“Too late, I’m already here. Besides, ye’re like a sister to me. Ye think I can just walk away and leave ye? Nay. Now, hold on,” Astrid insisted as she searched the shadows and shrubs for Laird Chalium.
He was there somewhere, watching and waiting for her. He was patient, she had to give him that much.
With no sign of anyone around, she rushed to the boat and pushed it off into the water. She climbed in and got as low as she could while still able to paddle. It didn’t take her but a few hard strokes to direct the boat to the island.
“Astrid,” Olivia screeched as Astrid jumped out of the boat and rushed over to the tree she was bound to.
“I dinnae want to hear it—I’m already here. Now, as soon as yer hands are free, ye need to go. Ye get back to the castle, do ye understand? Dinnae look back, nay matter what ye hear.”
“I’ll nae leave ye with that madman,” Olivia scoffed as Astrid untied the rope pinning her to the tree.
“That wasnae part of our deal,” Laird Chalium’s voice boomed through the bog, rattling Astrid to the core. She looked at Olivia as panic shot through them. “I’ll let her leave, but ye’ll have to stay.”
“Nay, Astrid, come wit’ me,” Olivia begged as Astrid walked her to the boat and shoved her into it.
With a hard kick, Astrid pushed the boat into the water and watched it drift to the opposite shore.
“Ye wanted me, here I am,” she shouted, her voice carrying through the mist.
She closed her eyes and waited for the arrow to pierce her flesh. When no pain came, she dared to open her eyes.
“And so am I,” Laird Chalium growled. His hot breath tickled her ear.
The suddenness of his proximity startled her. She lunged away from him and stumbled over one of several dried branches littering the ground.
“I have to say, ye dinnae disappoint,” he said with a snicker.
Astrid’s heart skipped as dread and terror coursed through her. She considered charging for the bog and taking her chances with whatever foul creature called the swamp home.
“Ye came alone.”
“I gave ye me word that I would,” she said through clenched teeth as she tried to catch sight of Olivia.
Had she made it to the other side? Did Laird Chalium have men waiting to capture her?
Astrid’s mind reeled from the possibility that Olivia may not make it back to her home.
The second Thomas’s face flashed through her mind, her heart ached. There was no doubt she wanted to be with him. He had become more than just a protector to her. He had become her other half. He was the love she had been missing, and now that she was about to lose her life, everything became crystal clear.
“Why are ye smilin’? I’m about to run ye through and ye smile?” Laird Chalium hissed as he drew his dirk from its sheath.
“Once ye end me, I’ll be rid of ye,” Astrid hissed. “None of this will matter any longer, and I’ll be free. So, go on then. Put me out of me misery. See that me body is ravaged by the beasts of the land. I care nae, for I willnae be here for ye to torment me anymore.”
Laird Chalium’s vile smirk vanished. He arched an eyebrow and slipped the dirk back into its sheath as her words sank in. Slowly, he shook his head as his eyes focused on her again.
“Och, I dinnae think so,” he growled. “Ye think I’m goin’ to let ye have a quick death? Nay, dear lass. Ye marked me, and I shall return the favor. Dinnae think for a minute that I’m goin’ to let ye slip through me fingers again. I’m goin’ to enjoy this. Ye, on the other hand, may nae.”
Astrid swallowed past the lump of fear clogging her throat as he lunged for her.
Before she could step back, he had her. There was no point in thrashing about. She knew what she had come here to do. All she could do now was pray that he would finish her too quickly.
Moments of her life flashed before her eyes as he dragged her to the tree he had tied Olivia to.
“I want ye to ken that I’m goin’ to savor every moment I have wit’ ye. And when ye have satiated me appetite, I will give ye to the beasts for a night. Let them do what they will to ye.”
“Aye, let us get on wit’ it then,” Astrid challenged as she rolled her eyes. Laird Chalium was starting to annoy her. If he was going to do all these horrible things to her, she didn’t want to be told about them. “I’ve got a funeral to get to, and I dinnae want to be late.”
“How I’ve forgotten how lovely ye are,” he purred as he tied her to the dead oak tree and rested his head on her shoulder. “Yer sister could enchant, me wit’ her looks too. It’s one of the many things I told meself I’d be able to resist. But it would seem that even now, ye bewitch me.”
“Then let me go,” Astrid hissed.
She wished she could push him off her.
“Och, if only it were that easy. Ye left me wantin’, and that want has grown into an obsession . Do ye have any idea how I’ve longed to have ye in me arms again? Och, the things I’ve thought of doin’ to ye those many nights I lay in me bed, teeterin’ between life and death. Ye were wit’ me then, as I’ll be wit’ ye now.”
“Ye’re a sick man, Jenson. Ye dinnae deserve yer title. Ye’re nay Laird. Ye’re a rake, a blackguard, a fiend. Ye’re the mire on the bottom of me shoe.”
“I believe yer sister thought otherwise,” Laird Chalium growled.
Astrid tried not to take the bait he was dangling, but she couldn’t help it. It was because of her sister that he had spent so many years hunting her down.
“Me sister isnae here to defend herself, and if she were, I promise that she would have finished what I started,” Astrid sneered. “How is yer stomach, by the way? Still have the swellin’?”
She enjoyed watching his face contort with ire and irritation. He drew his dirk and pressed the cool steel to her throat.
“I never loved yer sister. She was too needy and annoying to ever love. When she told me she was wit’ child, I wanted to run her through and forget her completely.”
“Why didnae ye, then? I ken why—because ye’re a coward. Ye couldnae take her life, so ye manipulated her into doin’ it herself. It’s why ye didnae kill Olivia when ye had the chance and why I ken ye willnae kill me. Ye dinnae have it in ye.”
“Dinnae test me patience,” Laird Chalium hissed, his teeth grazing her earlobe.
Astrid wished her body didn’t betray her, but she trembled against him, coaxing a moan of pleasure from his lips.
“Yer sister used to move like that every time I lay wit’ her. I wonder, would ye tremble like that for me as well?”
Laird Chalium moved around her, a wicked grin spreading across his face. The warmth drained from Astrid’s body as she tried to keep her wits about her.
There was no doubt in her mind what Laird Chalium had in store for her, now that she was at his mercy. She closed her eyes and tried to think of Thomas. She envisioned his features as best as she could, recalling the line of his jaw and the slant of his nose. She let out a heavy sigh as she let go of the hopes and dreams she had secretly harbored since she married him.
“Ye’ll never ken,” she said. “Ye can take me body, but ye’ll never get what I freely give to Thomas. He is a real Laird.”
“If he was so grand, he’d have come. Instead, ye did. I dinnae see that as bein’ very honorable, sendin’ a woman to do a man’s job.”
“He doesnae ken that I’m here,” Astrid confessed. “I’ll be cold and gone before he finds what ye leave of me once ye’re done.”
“I could send ye back in pieces,” Laird Chalium threatened. His eyes gleamed as he twisted the tip of the dirk against his finger. “I could ravage ye until ye’re but a shell of the person ye used to be.”
“I’m done,” Astrid snapped, glaring directly at him. “I’m tired of yer monologue. Do it. If ye have all these plans for me, then get it done and let me reunite wit’ me sister.”
“Och, ye’ll see her again,” Laird Chalium snarled as he unfastened his breeches and let them drop to his ankles. “But I’ll have what I want from ye first. I’ll have ye screamin’ me name by the time I’m finished.”