Chapter 9
Hearing the sound of hoofbeats behind her, Laura turned in her saddle to see who was pursuing her.
Her heart skipped a beat as she saw Nicholas’s big stallion galloping behind her at full speed.
Although she knew the mare she was riding was capable of a fair turn of speed, Nicholas’s horse was faster than any other in the stables.
She had hoped to put some distance between them before he realised that she had gone, but it seemed that her plan had not succeeded.
She felt herself wobbling in the saddle as the ground beneath them changed and became rough and stony.
She clung to the pommel in a desperate attempt to stay on the horse’s back, but the uneven surface beneath them was making it more and more difficult.
After she had watched Nicholas riding back from patrol on a few occasions, Laura had found herself reluctantly admiring his horsemanship: he looked as if he had been born in the saddle, whereas her riding skills were basic in the extreme.
As well as that, she could feel that the mare was tiring and had reached the limit of her strength and speed. In a few more minutes she would have to come to a halt whether she liked it or not. The poor creature had done her best, but she was no match for the strong, powerful horse at her heels.
The hoofbeats behind her became louder and louder as the stallion drew closer, and Laura felt a rush of both fear and rage sweep over her.
She was seriously afraid of falling, but she was furious at being forced to run away in the first place.
If she died or was badly hurt from tumbling off the horse she would put the blame squarely on the shoulders and the extremely big head of Nicholas Munro!
As he realised that he was closing in on his quarry, Nicholas felt a surge of grim triumph. Laura was not going to escape from him—there had never been any doubt of that, he knew. He also knew that when he caught up with her he was going to give her the tongue-lashing of her lifetime.
‘No woman is going to run away and make me look like an eejit!’ he thought savagely. He was only a few yards behind her now, so close that he could hear the mare’s laboured breathing and see every button on Laura’s riding habit.
He kicked his stallion’s sides, urging him on to one final superhuman effort, then they surged forward, speeding past Laura’s horse. Nicholas turned him, hauled on the reins and they skidded to a halt a few yards in front of the mare.
Laura saw Nicholas and his stallion appear in front of them as if out of nowhere, and cried out in terror as her mare reared in fright, letting out a horrible scream.
She felt herself sliding from the saddle and desperately scrambled to hold on, but her efforts were fruitless and her clutching fingers were torn away from the hard leather.
Then, for a few moments, it seemed as though everything was happening in slow motion as Laura saw the ground rising up to meet her.
Strangely, she did not feel afraid; on the contrary, a feeling of peaceful resignation overcame her during what she thought were the last few seconds of her life.
Then, abruptly, a strong arm snaked around her waist and she was wrenched upwards, colliding with a hard body as she watched her panicking mare bolting towards the trees.
“I’ve got you,” Nicholas’s gruff voice said in her ear.
“You’re safe.” He held Laura against him until the stallion came to a stop then eased her onto the ground and held onto her for another few moments while she regained her balance.
She clung to his arm to steady herself, taking in great gulps of air as if they were the last she would ever breathe.
She stood, shuddering for a few moments while the world spun around her and a jarring, thudding sound filled her ears. A wave of nausea almost made her vomit, but she succeeded in overcoming the urge and gradually everything around her settled down.
She was not dead, she realised at last: she was not even injured, but Laura was angrier than she had ever been in her life. She pushed Nicholas’s arm away and began to stride towards her horse, but he reached out and hauled her towards him by the front of her dress.
“Did you think you could run away from me, lass?” he growled in her face.
“Why should I not leave?” Laura spat, her face a mask of rage. “I owe you nothing!”
“You were supposed to stay in the castle,” he reminded her angrily. “For your own safety!”
“Nobody is going to keep me prisoner!” she retorted. “Someone else tried that, remember?”
“And I rescued you, you cheeky wee besom!” Nicholas yelled into Laura’s face, so close that the sound almost deafened her.
“You are a loathsome brute!” she screamed. “I hate you!” Then, before even stopping to think, she drew her arm back and slapped him across his face with all the strength she could muster.
Nicholas was completely unprepared for the stinging blow that landed on his left cheek. The force of it astonished and enraged him in equal measure.
“Ow!” he cried out, placing his hand over the painful spot on his face, which was so sore that he felt as though he had been branded with a red-hot iron.
“You wee—” He stopped abruptly. “What was that for? I saved your life!” He took a step towards her, towering over her in an attempt to intimidate her, but Laura stood her ground.
“Really?” She barked out a cynical laugh. “And who endangered my life in the first place? It was you, you are a horrible swine!”
Nicholas’s eyes blazed with rage as he reached out to grasp Laura by her upper arms, holding her so firmly that she was unable to move away.
They stood, gazes locked, while the anger between them slowly changed to another kind of passion.
Nicholas dropped his eyes to Laura’s full lips, and he involuntarily took another step closer to her so that their bodies were only inches apart.
Laura felt wretched as she looked at the sore spot on his cheek. What wouldn’t she give to kiss away the pain, partly because she was sorry for striking him, but mostly because she desperately needed to touch him.
Suddenly Nicholas heard the whistling sound of an arrow and felt the wind of its flight as it sped past his ear and embedded itself with a thud in the ground a few feet away from him.
If he had been standing only a little to his left it would have hit him squarely between the shoulder blades, he realised later.
Instinctively, he moved in front of Laura as years of military training had taught him to do, yelling: “Go back to the castle as fast as you can!” He unsheathed his sword in one fluid movement, his face a grim mask of determination and rage.
“I will go and look for whoever shot that. Now get out of here! Hurry!”
“No, it’s too dangerous!” Laura cried. “Come with me!”
Nicholas looked at her for a split second, then did the last thing she had expected—he grinned. “Worried about me, lass?” he asked. He touched her cheek in an ever so tender gesture. “Go! I will be fine.”
Then he whipped around and dashed away, leaving Laura to mount her horse, which was still standing, shocked and trembling, beside the trees.
Fearing another arrow, she hurried towards the mare, but had only managed to put one foot in the stirrup when she heard the sound of a familiar voice behind her.
“Not so soon!” Percival Crowley said, as he grabbed Laura by her hair and yanked her towards him. The pain was so intense and so sudden that it shot through her like a searing bolt of lightning, and she opened her mouth to scream, but Crowley clamped his other hand over her mouth to silence her.
“Well, we meet again, Lady Laura,” he said, his voice grating and harsh. “I wish I could say it was good to see you, but that would be a lie.”
His laugh was cruel and cynical and he bent his head so that his mouth was almost touching Laura’s ear as he spoke. “Now listen to me, and listen well,” he went on. “Do as I say, or you will suffer the consequences. Understand?”
Laura nodded frantically. She was utterly terrified, trembling from head to foot as she was pressed hard against Crowley’s body.
Then, to her astonishment and complete disgust, she felt the hardness of his erection against her backside.
Suddenly she realised that he was actually deriving sexual pleasure from torturing her, and the thought made her feel physically ill.
She had not realised until this moment what a pervert he was, and now she was once again at his mercy, powerless to help herself and scared to death—what was he going to do to her?
She had heard terrible tales of people who enjoyed making people suffer for their own twisted pleasure.
Surely Crowley was not one of those? Yet his next words proved that he was.
“If you don’t want your hosts to know your dirty secret,” he went on, “that you stole a baby and you are not his mother, then make sure that Charlotte is brought to me. If you do not, I may even tell them you killed her.” Laura could hear the sadistic smile in his voice: he would enjoy telling that lie.
“Now, I expect to hear from you as soon as you arrange something for me. Tell Charlotte I want to see her—if you do not, it will go very badly for you. There is a ruined cottage just outside the village, leave a message for me there when you have made arrangements. I will be waiting. And she must come alone. Goodbye, Laura, and remember what I said—you have a lot to lose.”
A moment later, to Laura’s immense relief, he let go of her, and she watched as he disappeared into the trees. She stumbled over to her horse, her knees so weak that she could hardly stay on her feet.
When she heard footsteps approaching a few moments later, terror shot through her again as she thought that Crowley was coming back.
However, when she saw Nicholas, her knees finally gave way and she sank to the ground, unable to stand for a moment longer.
Then, to her dismay, tears began to leak from her eyes, but they were tears of relief: she had never been so glad to see anyone in her life.
Nicholas had expected Laura to be long gone by the time he returned, so he was shocked to see her standing by her horse, her hair tangled and dishevelled, her expression one of stricken terror. She can’t have been that worried for him, could she?
As she heard him approach, she turned, looking absolutely terrified, then she fell to her knees beside her horse and began to weep. He rushed over to her and knelt down in front of her, then gently pulled her into his arms, his heart beating wildly in fear. Something terrible had occurred.
“Laura!” he cried fearfully. “What happened? Are you hurt?” He felt her trembling as she clung to him and sobbed her heart out, but to his relief he could see that she was not injured in any way.
Laura shook her head. She could not speak yet, but leaned into the warm hard strength of Nicholas’s body, feeling safe for the first time that day. His arms were wrapped tightly around her and she was nestled so closely against him that she could feel and hear the steady thud of his heart beating.
“I-I’m fine,” she replied, even though it was quite clear to Nicholas that she was not. He drew her to her feet, but did not release her from his embrace.
“You are not fine,” he replied. “Was somebody here? Tell me, Laura!” His tone was sharper than he intended, and he saw her flinch as if he had struck her. He gathered her closer. “I am sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so abrupt, forgive me. Tell me what happened, Laura.”
She felt so small and helpless in his arms that a wave of tenderness swept over him that was so strong that it took him completely by surprise.
“I’m fine. I was just so scared, I-I thought I was going to die.” She paused to catch her breath then went on. “I couldn’t go any further. I’m sorry to be such a coward.”
It was at that moment that Nicholas realised that if anything happened to the woman in his arms he would be utterly devastated. He cared for Laura, the mother of his child, despite—or because of—her stubbornness, her defiant spirit, her ability to make him mad at her, and to make him laugh.
He tightened his arms around her and said with gentle firmness: “You are not a coward, Laura, and nobody will hurt you while I am around to stop them. I’m here, and you are safe now.”
She was shuddering all over, and she could not bear the thought of moving away from the shelter of Nicholas’s firm body, but she knew that she would have to.
“Come with me now, we can talk back at the castle,” he said gently.
Laura took a deep breath, inhaling the now-familiar scent of this big man. She looked up into the dark green depths of his eyes and realised that despite all his annoying traits, his ability to completely unsettle her, she wanted him in her life—forever.