Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Pulled by the seductive lure of freedom, she hurried after Hugo as he led her through the shadows. They halted again briefly by the large, fortified rear gate. Raven waited while Hugo produced a key and unlocked the small side door set within it, locking it again when they had passed through.
“If the gate’s locked, it’ll buy ye a little time once they start lookin’ fer ye, me lady,” he explained, taking her elbow and speeding her to the left, skirting the base of the curtain wall.
“They’ll think ye’re still somewhere inside.
By the time they start searchin’ out here, ye’ll be long gone. ”
Raven nodded, grateful for his foresight.
Her breathing accelerated as she followed him rapidly across the turf, peering into the encompassing darkness that was barely pierced by the light from a cloud-covered half-moon.
From the gloom up ahead came the sound of horses, and Raven’s heart leapt when she made out the figure of a man on a horse a short distance away, holding a restless chestnut mare by its bridle.
When they got closer, she saw the man was a guard and heavily armed.
“This is Todd. He’s a good man. He’ll keep ye safe,” Hugo said.
Raven nodded a greeting to the guard, a burly, battle-scarred fellow of about forty, who dipped his head respectfully.
Hugo took the reins of the mare from Todd and grabbed her cloak from where it lay on her saddle, throwing it about her shoulders.
Grateful for its warmth, Raven fastened it with shaking fingers, then let Hugo boost her into the saddle.
Settling herself, holding the reins lightly, she looked down on him. Doing her best to sound strong, she said, “Thank ye fer yer loyalty, Hugo. Ye have nay idea what it means tae me. When I return, I’ll find some way tae repay ye.”
“I’m sure ye will, me lady,” he said, eyes glinting as he looked up at her.
Todd moved off slowly. “Godspeed, me lady,” Hugo said before slapping the horse’s rump and sending her after the guard.
Soon, both of them were galloping into the moor under cover of misty darkness, hooves pounding over the soft earth.
Raven gripped the reins as she kept pace with the guard, relishing the feel of the cold air blowing through her hair.
It felt like freedom, and for the first time in days, despite her grieving heart, real hope sparked in her breast that she might at last take control of her own fate.
But they had not been riding long—it was hard to tell how long—when she became aware of more hooves pounding along behind them.
At first, she thought it must be an echo, but when she saw Todd glance over his shoulder and glimpsed the tight set of his jaw, she realized it was no trick. Someone was following them.
“Ride faster, me lady,” Todd called harshly, turning back and urging his horse to greater speed. Raven followed suit, keeping pace with him, her heart hammering in her chest as the sounds of pursuit drew closer.
“Who is it, Todd?” she gasped, panic rising.
“I dinnae ken, but there’s a few of them by the sounds of it. Just keep ridin’, me lady, as fast as ye can. When we get tae the bridge, stick close tae me, and we’ll try tae shake them off,” the guard replied, glancing behind them again, his voice rough with exertion.
Raven had no wind to reply, only enough to keep forcing the mare onward in Todd’s wake and pray they could eventually lose or outrun their pursuers.
But when two riders appeared on either side of her moments later, she let out a shriek.
A fleeting glance revealed them as armed soldiers in dark clothing, their horses bigger and more powerful than hers and Todd’s, bred for battle.
Who are they? What dae they want with us?
Her brain became paralyzed with fear as she forced the horse onwards as fast as it would go to stay neck to neck with Todd.
Lord help us, send us a miracle, I beg ye!
“Get in front of me, me lady, and I’ll try tae draw them away while ye make a break for it!
” Todd yelled across at her raggedly, unsheathing his sword.
Before his words could sink in, two more soldiers came racing up alongside Raven, also heavily armed.
She could see the sweat glistening on their determined faces as they closed in on her flanks from either side, jostling her, frightening the mare, clearly trying to force her to a halt.
“Get away, damn ye!” Raven shouted, fear mixing with fury as she flattened herself against the saddle and kicked her heels into the mare’s flanks, desperate to wring enough speed from her to outrun the men.
But the horse was already at full pelt and could go no faster.
All she could do was keep going and hope her prayers would be answered.
To her right, one of the soldiers attacked Todd, his blade flashing in the moonlight.
Shouts and the ring of metal on metal ripped through the night as the two men clashed at speed.
Todd skillfully parried the man’s darting thrusts, getting in a few hits of his own.
But meanwhile, the other man rode as close as he could to Todd’s other side, then sprang from his saddle, blade in hand.
“Todd, behind ye!” Raven screamed as the attacker hurled himself bodily across the gap at him, blade stabbing at the air even as he flew through it.
At Raven’s warning, Todd’s head flicked around, and at the last second he spotted the man flying towards him.
A hefty kick from his boot sent the fellow tumbling with a sharp cry to the ground.
Todd swung back to the other assailant, trading furious blows with him, while the other two focused on keeping pace with Raven, hemming her in, jostling her, trying to grab the mare’s bridle.
Each time, she only narrowly avoided their grasping hands, wishing she had a weapon.
But she had nothing and was sorely afraid she was about to lose her only protector.
“I’ll hold them off, me lady, but ye must run!
Run!” Todd bellowed, blocking yet another blow from his attacker.
The man’s horse stumbled and although it immediately regained its footing, the moment of imbalance gave Todd an opening.
With one thrust, he pierced the soldier’s neck and the man toppled from the saddle, his foot catching in the stirrup so that he was dragged along the ground and off into the darkness screaming.
But the danger was far from over. For just as Todd turned to attack the man on her right, there was a sharp whizzing sound and then a deep thud. Todd cried out and slumped forward in his saddle. Raven gasped, her heart gripped by an icy hand to see the handle of a dirk sticking out of his back.
Omigod, help me!
She urged the mare on, realizing she was now alone and defenseless.
Terrified, she dared not slow down and knew her only chance was to bolt and try to lose herself in the darkness, that was if she did not break her neck first. But the frightened mare was tiring beneath her.
Raven felt her pace slowing, and it was obvious the men harrying her would soon overpower her.
She needed a weapon, and she had an idea.
A few feet away to her left, Todd’s horse was still keeping pace with them.
Todd, whether unconscious or dead, bobbed violently in the saddle as it raced along.
Drawing on a strength she did not know she possessed, Raven jerked her reins and barged the mare into the side of Todd’s horse nearest. The unexpected assault caused it to slow.
In that moment, Raven leaned over and she wrenched the dirk from his back.
No sooner had she grasped the handle of the knife than she felt an arm like steel grab her waist and yank her from her seat.
She screamed as the chestnut bolted and she found herself pinned against a horse’s flank in midair, feet flailing, stabbing frantically at the arm encircling her with the blade.
Curses echoed in her ears as her captor released her.
If his mount had not already been slowing, she might have hit the ground so hard she would not have gotten up again.
But the slight cessation in speed and her voluminous skirts meant she only landed with a bump and then rolled upright, badly winded but with the dirk still clasped in her fist. Her heart pounding wildly in her chest with terror, struggling to get her breath, she cast around for cover.
There was none. Only darkness diffused by pale moonlight and wraithlike mist.
An angry shout came from close by. Raven tensed as her head snapped towards its source—the soldier who had pulled her from her horse.
“Look what ye’ve done tae me arm!” he berated her loudly as he slid from his saddle and ran over to her, nursing his arm.
A dark stain that could only be blood was spreading over his coat sleeve.
Raven scrambled to her feet and backwards, putting distance between them, holding the dirk out in front of her with both shaking hands. “Stay away from me,” she warned, trying to inject as much threat into her quavering voice as she could in her heightened state of fear, “or I’ll kill ye.”
“Ye damned fool, how could ye be so stupid as tae let her get a hold of that dirk?” the other one who had been harrying her from horseback jeered at his wounded comrade as he too dropped from his horse and approached, weapon hanging from his hand.
“How could I know she was goin’ tae try such a damn fool stunt?” the injured one demanded angrily. He lunged at Raven, but she slashed at his hands with the blade before dancing backwards out of his reach. “Look, she’s at it again!” he exclaimed, scowling at her.
“I said stay away,” she gritted out, half crouched, looking from one to the other of them as they stepped slowly closer. Her heart thudded to see a third man appeared from behind them, recognizing him as the one who had jumped from his horse to attack Todd and been kicked to the ground.
“That’s me dirk ye have there, lassie. Hand it over before I take it from ye,” he growled menacingly.
“Try it,” she shot back, determined to do as much damage as she could before they overpowered her, which seemed inevitable if she did not find some way to escape.
Despite her terror, her mind was racing, searching for an escape route.
Attempts to try to try to orient her rough position in relation to what she knew of the moor gave way to confusion.
All this passed through her head at lightning speed while she kept her eyes on the men, maintaining her guard with the dirk.
She had heard too many horror stories about what happened to lone women caught like this and knew death would come as a much desired mercy after they had finished taking their sport with her.
The other option was making a break for it and running headlong into the darkness. But she would not only risk being recaptured but also injury and even death. It would be better tae die falling from a cliff or drowning in some marshy mire than by their hand, she resolved.
She jumped as the knife man suddenly darted forward and tried to grab the dirk from her. With a shriek she slashed desperately at him, stumbling backwards.
“Why, she’s a bloody spitfire,” he exclaimed, jumping back, scowling at the gashes on his hands, then at her.
“Aye, I’ve never seen a noble lassie with so much fight in her,” the injured one said plaintively. “Are ye sure ’tis her and nae some decoy meant tae fool us?”
His words gave Raven pause.
They can tell I’m noble from me clothin’, aye, but who is this “her” and what daes he mean by “decoy”? Unless they had mistaken her for someone else, which seemed unlikely considering the time and place, it suggested they knew who she was. A disturbing suspicion gripped her.
Are they MacDonalds? Is one of them Daemon MacDonald, come tae take me back tae wed him?
Clutching the dirk tightly, her eyes darted from one to another of the men’s shadowed faces. Nay, it cannae be, he couldnae have got here so quick. Could he? But if not MacDonalds, then who?
“Who the hell are ye and what d’ye want with me?” she demanded, trying to sound fierce.
But she got no answer because at that moment, to her shock, a burly arm snaked around her neck from behind, and she was yanked back sharply into a hard body.
A large hand appeared over her shoulder, twisted her wrist until she screamed in pain and dropped the knife.
Whoever was holding her kicked it, sending it skittering across the ground.
Knife man bent and retrieved it, tucking it in his belt.
Raven was abruptly released and shoved forward.
Stumbling over her skirts, she got her balance and whirled around to face whoever was behind her.
A tall man in a long cloak with a hood obscuring his features said in a low, impatient voice, “Me apologies fer the rough handlin’, Lady Raven, but we’ve wasted enough time.
Our orders are tae find ye and take ye tae our chief, and we need tae be on our way.
’Tis dangerous fer us all tae linger hereabouts. ”
Chief? Is he speakin’ of Daemon MacDonald?
She was even more determined not to go with them. Shocked to discover that this had been a planned attack, the suspicion that the men had been sent by Daemon MacDonald flared within her, along with a flash of defiance that momentarily overcame her fear.
“I’m goin’ naewhere with ye before ye explain what yer talkin’ about. Who is this chief of yers who thinks he can go about kidnappin’ innocent women, and what are these orders ye speak of?”
“Why, I speak of yer uncle, of course,” he replied, pulling on a pair of riding gloves.
Raven’s mind reeled in astonishment. “Me uncle? Me Uncle Herman, ye mean?”