Chapter 2
“Nay, stay back.”
Theodore’s chest tightened as she scrambled to flee from him. Yet despite her efforts, she couldn’t make it out of his long stretched out shadow. He flexed his jaw. He’d seen some foul things on and off the battlefield, but nothing could prepare him for the sight of the young lass before him.
The lass was nothing but a wraith, hollowed out from neglect and hunger.
Her skin was pale as parchment and where her eyes should have been full of life, he saw nothing but empty, haunted darkness.
Swallowing hard, Theodore refused to focus on her cracked chapped lips as he wondered just how long it had been since she tasted water.
“Ye’ll leave me be, do ye hear? I’ll nae go anywhere with the likes of ye.” She thrashed the crumbled branch in her hand as her eyes burned with defiance and determination. Despite how worn she appeared, there was still spirit in her, a fire that this world just couldn’t put out.
“Ye’ve nothin’ to fear from me, lass,” he said as his gaze met hers.
He couldn’t believe what he saw before him.
Here was a lass who by all rights, should have been dead.
Yet, here she was trembling but unbroken.
There was no doubt in Theodore’s mind that the fire the coursed through her was a force far greater than the frailty of her body.
“I was told that before and yet here I am,” she said.
There was no masking the malice in her tone.
But he wasn’t about to hold that against her.
Not with everything she had already endured.
Running his fingers through his hair, Theodore wasn’t sure he wanted to contemplate what vile things she had encountered.
“Aye, here ye are, alive. Still drawin’ breath, are ye nae?”
“So, ye’re to put me out of me misery, is that it?
Well, nay matter what it may look like to ye, I happen to like being alive,” she said through clenched teeth.
Every muscle in her body was taunt. She reminded him of how his men would look before battle.
How every muscle in their body was taunt and coiled ready to spring.
Theodore pulled in a long breath, throwing a quick look to the sky.
“Ye took quite a tumble out of the tree. I’m sure ye’d rather have someone have a look at it, and maybe make some tea for ye to soothe the ache?
” he suggested as he realized she needed a tender hand, not a firm one.
He ventured with grace, treating her as if she were a wild doe that would take flight at any frantic movement.
“And I supposed ye take me a fool do ye?” she snapped as she took another swipe at him.
He shook his head. How easy it would be for him to snatch the branch from her hands.
But he knelt beside her, studying her. Although she was caked in a layer of dirt and grim, he instantly noticed how striking her features were.
“I never said ye were a fool,” he answered, reaching a hand out to her. She recoiled and jerked to the side, her frail body twisting so her shoulders hunched protectively. . A corpse had more meat on it than she did. And at least it was at peace. “But I’ll nae hurt ye.”
As light as a bird, he snatched her hand but the moment his hand closed around her, shock ripped through him.
Good Lord she was nothing but thin, brittle bones that felt more like fragile reeds in his grasp.
He tried to soften his grasp around her, to guide her to her feet, but as he held her, she cried out.
Her jagged, ragged nails clawed at his forearm in a feeble but desperate attempt to free herself.
“Easy there, lass,” he said in an even and steady tone. “Ye’ll only break yerself.”
She didn’t yield her attempts but kept at him like a feral cat.
He pursed his lips into a tight line and pulled her closer to him.
In a single swoop, he had her in his arms. How tiny she was against him and just as tender.
She was no more than a bag of flour he’d tossed over his shoulders as a lad.
He feared that if he loosened his grip around her so much as a breath she’d slip right through like sand in an hourglass.
“Will ye stop,” he huffed as she continued thrashing against his efforts. He couldn’t bear the thought of her taking him as an enemy. Yet, if that was what he had to be to get her out of such a place, then that was what he was going to do. “I’m here to help.”
“Oh, tell me again dear laird, how ye’re here to sweep me off me feet,” she said, her voice laced with sarcasm and mire.
“Aye, and from where I’m standin’ it seems that’s exactly what I’ve done, have I nae? So ye goin' to keep on insultin’ me?” he asked as he moved through the thicket.
“Put me down.”
“Ye cannae walk.”
“That will nae stop me. If ye mean me nay harm, ye’ll put me down and give me some respect.”
“I put ye down and ye’ll just hurt yerself. Then what sort of hero could I be called?”
“Hero? And how is kidnappin’ an injured woman heroic?”
Theodore glared at her as they came out of the thicket and into a clearing.
“Maybe when ye see the healer, ye’ll stop accusin’ me of being such a horrid person.”
“Ha, that will never happen. I daenae care how kindhearted ye pretend to be, I’ll see right through it. Ye may have won this body, as frail and pitiful as it is, but mark me words sir, that will be all ye take of me.”
Theodore arched his eyebrow. He pulled in a long deep breath as he studied the woman before him.
She has a spirit he’d never seen in someone so frail before.
It didn’t matter how broken her body got, it was clear her spirit wouldn’t let her give up.
It was a trait he couldn’t help but admire.
His eyes shifted away from her dark brown eyes to her parched lips.
She was like the last coal burning on a winter’s day that refused to give in to the frost.
“Believe me when I say, I understand ye’re fearful of me.
That’s fine. One day I hope to prove to ye that I’m nae the monster ye think I am.
” The words spilled from his lips like an unbreakable oath he would be forever bound by.
Even if she didn’t believe him, he would ensure that no hand would ever touch her in violence again.
She stilled a moment. As if his words were like a weight dropped in her lap.
The moment was fleeting as a tremor ripped through her.
Her eyes bore into him. She blinked. Her lashes were heavy with exhaustion.
He watched her lips part for a moment as if she were to protest, yet the strength left her.
For a brief moment, Theodore thought he had found a reprieve of her accusations. But the moment her forehead touched his chest, the second her gaze fell from his, she stiffened with resentment and mistrust.
The weight of trauma rested on his shoulders as his ears perked at the rustling of the underbrush. It was his years of training in the wilderness of the moors and untamed valleys that told him the movement was of no woodland creature. He stiffened as his ears perked.
“What are ye— ” she started. Theodore pressed his finger to her lips to silence her as he hunted the gray shadows for their intruder. Every hair on the back of his neck rose as he continued walking through the grove.
“That’s nae very nice.”
“Shhh,” he warned as he stopped and placed her on her feet next to a hollowed tree.
Every nerve in his body tingled as he felt the danger but could not yet see it.
He wanted to draw his sword, but the last thing he wanted was to cause her to fear him.
Especially when he’d finally got her to be silent.
“What is goin' on? What are ye doin'?”
“We’re nae alone,” he answered as he pressed her up against the tree. She felt so nice against him. It was her body heat soothing his chilly skin like a furnace that made him want to stay put. But the danger was closing in on them. He could feel it.
“Wait, how do ye ken that?” she asked as he cupped his hand to her mouth and drew his dirk. Every muscle in his body was tight and ready to strike whatever might come against them. But no matter what it was, Theodore was certain he’d be the one to walk away alive.
“Ye are to stay right here, do ye hear me?” he growled over his shoulder.
His voice was low and deadly, leaving no room for her to think he was making a suggestion.
She bobbed her head without protest. He gave a slight nudge of his chin to the hollowed stump in the tree.
“Get yerself hidden and daenae come out nay matter what ye might hear.”