Chapter Twenty-Five #3
Alex groaned and lifted his head, but the pain was too much for him. He was on a pallet in a small hut, and he thought he was alone. He recalled the battle, the lightning, but then something unanticipated had happened, putting a hitch in his plan.
Someone had struck him in the back of his head. Everything had turned black until now.
The pain in his head was so severe that he shut his eyes again, drifting into a dream that brought him pleasure.
Maddie stood in the loch, her back to him, dressed only in her chemise. Trembling from the temperature of the water, she glanced over her shoulder at him, her golden hair falling around her shoulders, the blue of her eyes visible from the distance.
“Alex, could you help me, please? The fabric is stuck in my wound.”
He’d brought her to the loch to wash off her wounds, the ones her own brother had inflicted on her.
Although they’d had many sweeter moments, this one was etched into his mind as one of the most important moments of his life because it was then he’d made his mind up.
It was then he’d decided Madeline would be his wife.
He remembered wondering if she’d give him a son or perhaps lassies.
“Alex?”
“Aye, I’d be pleased to help you, but you may wish to turn around.
I must remove my plaid as ’tis the only one I have.
” He’d said it to guard her tender sensibilities, her innocence, as he waded into the water behind her.
But when he took the soap from her hand, preparing to wash her, she said his name again.
“Alex?”
“Aye, Maddie?”
“You must push yourself to remember other things,” she said, her tone turning urgent. “There is something you must recall. I know ’tis there in your mind, and you must pull it out. Things are not as they seem.”
“Maddie? You’re confusing me. I’m here to help you wash your back.”
“Alex, ’tis a memory of our time together that you chose to revisit so I could come to you. Please don’t forget that I can only be here for a short time. ’Tis verra difficult for me to appear to you.”
“Why did you come this time?” he whispered, turning her around so he could gaze into her glorious blue eyes. “Can I not join you? I think I’m ready. ’Tis my time, nay?”
“Nay, Alex,” she said, her tone intent. “Not yet. Don’t you see?
The spectral swords aren’t only intended to protect John—they need you.
You are the one who’ll guide your bairns and grandbairns through this terrible time in Scotland.
Your clan and your country need you. Not yet, but do not worry.
When your time comes, I’ll be here waiting for you. Just a few more years.”
“Maddie, I’m tiring…”
Her fingers came up to his lips to silence him. “It’s not as you think. Busby is not out to get you. Hamish is.”
“Hamish? But why?”
“Hamish wanted me, and I rejected him. Now he wants revenge. He’ll try to get it through Dyna. Go!”
Maddie kissed him and walked off into the distance, giving him a small wave as she disappeared.
“You have to save Dyna,” she said, her words pounding through his head.
He opened his eyes, driven by Maddie’s last sentence, savoring her presence but forcing himself to search his surroundings.
He watched as Hamish and Busby entered the hut, Hamish behind the sheriff.
Hamish carried a large boulder. He lifted it and brought it down upon Busby’s skull.
Killing him instantly.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Finally, Dyna and Derric find him, but it takes them a while. This is another favorite…
Derric woke up with a raging headache, confirmed by the knot in the back of his head and the crusted blood on his neck.
He sat up to get his bearings and noticed a large rock not far from him, speckles of blood on it.
“I can’t believe that didn’t kill me.” His next thought was that it knocked him daft because he was talking to himself.
He rubbed his head again, winced, and glanced around him, surprised to see no one at all.
Where the hell was Dyna?
As soon as he heard her scream, he stood up and headed to the cottage. “Bloody hell, Diamond. There’s never a dull moment with you.”
He approached the window of the cottage. Peeking through it, he saw Dyna tied to a chair, held captive by a man who waved a dagger about screaming something about Maddie.
While he wished to charge in like a fool and attack the bastard, he knew better.
The element of surprise was his best weapon.
He’d wait until the man had his back to the door, then rush him and a plunge a sword into his back, aiming for a kidney.
Not the most sporting approach, but the man had imprisoned his wife. He wasn’t taking chances.
He moved to the closed door and opened it just a touch, wanting a better look at the scene he would be entering. The kidnapper was a large man with a small protruding belly. He guessed him to be around five decades old, something that surprised him.
Alex Grant lay motionless on a pallet at the back of the cottage. Derric closed his eyes and prayed the Grant patriarch wasn’t dead. Dyna would never cease to blame herself if she lost him like this. Mayhap he was a fool to wait. They needed to get Alex to a healer.
He was about to rush in when he heard Alex’s voice. “Hamish, you’re a daft fool. Maddie never loved you.”
“You’re lying. You ruined everything.” Derric heard scuffling feet and then another sound that he suspected was a chair scraping across the floor, though he couldn’t imagine why. Where was he dragging her if she was tied to the chair?
Alex began to yell again to draw the man’s attention from Dyna, shouting, “Maddie thought you were a sad fool, Hamish. Aye, the only emotion she felt toward you was pity. If you hadn’t left, I would have killed you for approaching her, you bastard.”
Hamish erupted, which gave Derric exactly the opportunity he’d been waiting for.
He swung the door open and charged Hamish from behind, aiming his dagger at the man’s broad back.
And mayhap it would have worked if the bastard hadn’t swung around and cut Derric’s arm, causing him to drop the dagger instantly.
The man kicked him in his bollocks so hard he thought he would vomit.
There was naught he could do but fall to the floor. His vision dimmed and he fought to keep his eyes open.
No, no, no.
It seemed as if everything that could have gone wrong had.
If he didn’t do something soon, the future he saw with Dyna—the life of love and laughter and the little bairns with yellow hair—it would never happen.
With Dyna’s hands bound behind a chair and Derric incapacitated on the floor, their captor was firmly in control of the situation.
It didn’t matter that Derric would be stronger than him in a man-to-man fight, or that Dyna could shoot ten arrows from a treetop.
Derric gagged, holding his arm in an attempt to stop the bleeding, then coughed to draw the man’s attention away from Dyna.
“You think you can hold her down? She’s tougher than you’ll ever be, you ugly old bastard.
” Hellfire, his bollocks hurt. He did his best to push himself to his knees, but it was a struggle.
The man called Hamish spun around and tried to kick him, but Dyna tripped the man, her glorious long legs knocking him to the floor in an instant. Hamish’s head hit the stone hard.
So hard it knocked him out, which would have been excellent if not for one problem.
The man had fallen directly on top of Derric, knocking him back down onto the floor and pinning him.
He landed with an oof, the tumble leaving him breathless for a moment.
“Well done, wife,” he said between breaths, trying unsuccessfully to move the unconscious man.
“But couldn’t you have pushed him the other way? ”
“Pardon me, husband, but if you have not noticed, my hands are tied.” She hopped in her chair, trying to get closer to Derric.
“Kick him off me, the big piece of lard is dead weight. He’ll suffocate me for sure.”
“I’m trying,” she mumbled, jumping with her chair.
“Hurry because my bollocks still hurt. I don’t know if I can heave enough to move him off of me.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Derric. They’re just hairy sacs. Can you not just suck it up? Why must you act like they’re made of gold?” She made it over to Derric and managed to put both feet on Hamish and push.
Derric gritted his teeth and said, “They’re harder than boulders right now, Diamond, but they may get squished to naught if you don’t help me.
If that happens, there’ll be no bairns for us.
” He gritted his teeth, ignored the pain in his sacs, and pushed for all he was worth at the same time.
“And my arm is still bleeding, or haven’t you noticed? ”
“Quit crying like a bairn,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Crying like a bairn? How would you feel in my place?”
“I’d still be able to push harder than that. What happened to your muscles?” she asked as she clenched her jaw. “I have to get my feet underneath him somehow. Can you move him with what few muscles you have?”
“My muscles are buried under the flab and fat of an old man, doing their best to crush the breath out of me.”
The two pushed at the same time and a sudden storm erupted outside the cottage, flashing bolts of lightning illuminating the hut just before a heavy downpour started.
At the same exact time, the two managed to heave together and pushed Hamish off of Derric, sending him airborne quite a distance.
Derric rolled over onto his side, gasping for air.
“I thought the bastard was going to suffocate me.”
“Untie me, husband.”
Derric could barely see straight, but he managed to find the dagger on the floor and cut her free. She threw her arms around his neck and said, “My thanks for saving me.”
Derric nuzzled her neck, grateful to have her in his arms. “I think you saved me, Diamond.”