Chapter Two
Elspeth rode better than her brothers and nearly as well as Callen.
But she refused to cooperate with the men who’d stolen her from her brothers and friends.
She pretended to wobble in the saddle and gagged hard enough to projectile vomit on the man who rode beside her.
She begged to relieve herself and complained that her horse was going lame.
She did anything she could think of to slow their breakneck speed across the border, which they’d crossed at least an hour ago.
It surprised her that no one had caught up to them yet.
She knew her brothers and the Armstrongs gave chase.
She also knew without a moment’s doubt Callen was already coming for her.
She closed her eyes for a moment, envisioning Callen.
He towered over her, and she loved it. She was tall by most standards, but he still resembled a giant beside her.
His deep voice could rattle a roof like thunder, but he could speak so softly he’d put a puppy to sleep.
She’d seen him train countless times and knew he was an experienced and powerful warrior despite only being one-and-twenty.
Even when he stepped out of the lists, he smelled like pine and heather.
She recalled the time a couple of Armstrong warriors teased him for smelling like a flower.
He’d boasted his mother made his soap as though that was all the explanation the world needed.
However, his dark eyes had sparked flames, daring anyone to insult the woman who’d been in the northern Highlands.
“If you fall and break your bloody neck, I’ll kill you.”
Elspeth’s eyes snapped open, yanked from her daydream by one of her captor’s threats. “If I die, you get no ransom.”
“You assume we plan to give you back.”
“By the time we get wherever we’re going, you’ll be begging to take me back.
” Elspeth broke into a bawdy song no young lady should know, and she screeched it like a dying magpie.
When a man reached to slap her, she snapped her teeth at him.
He pulled away but not fast enough to avoid his pinky landing between her teeth. She clamped her jaw and shook her head.
“A rabid bitch, she is.”
She recalled the lessons Callen taught her in secret.
During the summers Callen fostered with the Johnstones, they and the Elliots had often visited the Armstrongs at the same time.
When the Johnstones visited while the Elliots weren’t there, Callen always volunteered to go on patrol with his hosts’ warriors.
He’d maneuvered his way into joining the groups who guarded the southeastern border with the Elliots.
Elspeth found excuses to ride out and check on outlying villages on her mother’s behalf.
They’d slip away from their respective guards and talk for as long as they could during their nighttime rendezvous.
They both knew what they risked, but they’d accepted the consequences.
They’d met in the Armstrongs’ hayloft only the night before.
Elspeth intended to return to Callen, speak to her father, even demand an audience if needed, and tell him to accept Callen’s suit when he asked for her hand.
He hadn’t proposed to her or even asked permission to court her, but she considered those formalities.
She knew Callen’s honor ran deep into his marrow, so he would never play her for a fool.
“Don’t offer me so much meat on a bone if you don’t want me to chew it.
” She sneered at the man who’d barely kept from falling from his horse, one foot slipping from the stirrup.
He favored his injured hand, keeping it close to his chest. She noticed his horse was farther from hers than it had been.
“She’s bloody barmy.” It was the man on Elspeth’s other side who muttered the insult. She turned her attention to him and smirked. The man leaned away.
“Shut the bloody hell up.” The group’s leader drew a knife from his belt as he twisted in his saddle.
He pointed it at Elspeth even though he couldn’t reach her.
“You test my patience, lass. If I could kill you to shut you up, I would. You’re more trouble than you’re worth, but we have no choice but to bring you.
No one said you had to be in one piece.”
Definitely a Northerner if he called me lass. He claims they won’t give me back. Why would anyone want me but for a ransom?
Bile rose in the back of Elspeth’s throat as she thought of an answer that made cold sweat slide along her spine.
Bride stealing. I thought that was what only Highlanders did. I’d thought to tease Callen aboot that, even suggest it, if Da isn’t cooperative.
Elspeth couldn’t think of anyone living days from the border who’d want to force a marriage upon her. Perhaps another border clan or even some lords just across the border, but not anyone a few days from her home.
“Who expects me in one piece?” She doubted any of her captors would tell her, but it didn’t hurt to ask.
“Men who pay us good money to drag you south. By your hair if need be, so mind yourself. Shut your gob, and you can stay atop your horse.”
The glower the man gave her told her it was no longer time to test his patience. She remained quiet the rest of the day, but the opportunity to escape never came. Not that night or the four that passed before she reached their destination across a foggy Yorkshire dale.