Capturing A Highland Knight (22 page)

             
Brighid stood up taller and met his gaze head on.

             
“Doona take that tone with me, Derek MacDougal,” she said, giving him the look she used to give him as a boy.

             
Derek growled and headed down the stairs.  He heard his mother’s softer steps following behind him.  He reentered the great hall and saw that the other men had arrived.

             
“What is the commotion?” Laird Breac asked as Derek stalked up to Megan and Ainsley.

             
“Where is Annabelle?” he demanded of the women.

             
They exchanged glances and then Megan squared her shoulders and looked Derek straight in the eye.

             
“She isnae here,’ she said.

             
Derek waited for her to continue speaking, because surely he had not heard correctly.

             
“She has been gone for a sennight.  We doona ken where she has gone.  When she dinna come down for the morning meal, we went to check on her but she was gone.  We sent out retainers to look in all directions for her, but they dinna come upon her.  She only took what she had on her back,” Megan continued.

             
Derek looked at Ainsley, who looked terrified but did not contradict Megan’s story.  Then he turned to look at his mother.  She was looking steadily at him and nodded her head.  Derek let out a roar that shook the rafters.

             
“Calm down, lad,” his father said.  “Maybe someone saw her or kens something.  Did ye question everyone in the keep?”

             
“Aye,” Brighid said softly.  “No one kenned anything.  That evening she was fine when we saw her at the evening meal.  We had no clue of what she was planning.  But she said that she was tired and she went up to her chamber right after the meal.  No one saw her again after that.”

             
“Somebody has to ken something!” Derek bellowed.

             
Derek felt real fear.  Had she left him?  Or was it foul play?  He paced between the table and the door leading from the keep.  Was she that miserable that she could not even wait for him to return?  Was she out there hurt somewhere no one had looked?

             
“We will go search fer her ourselves,” Laird Breac said.  “She may have just gone back to her Da’s keep.  It ‘tis but a two or three day ride, and she had a headstart on the retainers if she left in the night.”

             
Derek stopped pacing and nodded.  That was possible, but if she returned home, did it mean she was not coming back to Dunkirk?  He would not allow that.  Would she send word that she was there?  He would not wait.  He was going to fetch his wife back home.

             
“Aye, we will go to Kinloch,” he agreed.

             
At that moment, Eilidh burst into the great hall.

             
“Derek!  I was told ye had returned!” she exclaimed, rushing toward him to throw herself in his arms.

             
Caught off guard, Derek caught her to him.  She wrapped her body around him and kissed his face, his neck, and his mouth.  Derek pried her loose and pushed her away.

             
“Derek,” she gasped.

             
“We are done, Eilidh!  I no longer desire ye,” he snarled down at her.

             
“What?” she asked in confusion.

             
“Aye,” he said and turned to leave the keep.

             
“’Tis that
minger
isnae it?  Weel she is gone!  And I hope they kill her!” she screamed at his back.

             
Derek stopped in his tracks.  He turned and noticed all eyes on Eilidh.

             
“What did ye say?” he asked quietly.  Eilidh appeared to shrink away, but then her chin went up and she eyed him.

             
“Aye!  I hope they kill her!  I made her leave because ye are mine, Derek MacDougal!  If it hadnae been fer her, I would have been married to ye!  I told the men from Dunwiche that she was here.  I saw them when I went outside the walls to gather herbs for Megan.  They wanted to ken if we had ever seen her, and I told him that
hure
was here!” she yelled triumphantly.

             
Derek took a step toward her with his fists balled, but his father stepped between them.

             
“How did the men get to Annabelle?  Did ye let them in the gate?” he asked menacingly.

             
Eilidh looked at him with fear in her eyes. 

             
“Nay, I dinna.”

             
“Then how did they get her?” Aster asked her, looking every bit as terrifying as his father.

             
Eilidh swallowed and let her eyes drop to the floor.  Derek walked past his father and grabbed Eilidh by her throat.

             
“What did ye do, Eilidh?  Ye tell me, or so help me, I will snap yer neck in two,” he breathed into her face.

             
Eilidh’s eyes bugged from her face as she struggled for breath.  She clawed at his hands, but they did not let up.  Jace stepped forward and forced Derek to loosen his grip.

             
“What did ye do?” Derek asked her again.

             
“I told her that we kenned who she was and that we kenned that she was the one that killed the entire McInnis clan!  I told her that ye were going to the king to get his help to punish her.  She pretended that she dinna ken what I was talking about, but I kenned she was lying.  I told her that ye planned to marry me and that I was carrying yer bairn, and that ye planned to ask the king for a separation,” she said, still trying to catch her breath.

             
“Ye did what?” Colm bellowed.

             
Eilidh whimpered.  Derek stared daggers at her.  It had to be a shock to Annabelle to be told so boldly who she was when she clearly still did not remember.  What must she think? 

             
Brighid and Ainsley gasped.

             
“She believed me and left the same night.  I watched her take a horse and leave during the change of the guards through the side gate.  The men from Dunwiche were to lay in wait for her.”

             
Megan stormed over to where Derek had her pinned up against the wall.

             
“Ye are carrying?” she demanded, looking hard at the other woman.

             
Eilidh’s eyes slid to Megan for a brief moment before they returned to Derek’s face.  There was no give in his expression.  If anything, he looked even angrier.

             
Derek’s hands tightened around her throat again.  He could so easily kill her, but that would not bring Annabelle back.  No wonder Annabelle had left.  If Eilidh was carrying his bairn, Annabelle would not tolerate that.  He forced his fingers to let go of Eilidh’s throat and he stepped away from her. 

“Answer her,” he demanded.  He supposed it was possible that Eilidh could be carrying his child, but he hoped that she was not.  He did not want to have to keep her around, because no matter what, he would take care of his offspring, legitimate or illegitimate.

“Aye…,” Eilidh began until she looked back at Megan.  There was something in Megan’s face that made her visibly swallow.

“Nay, I amnae breeding,” she whispered.

The silence in the hall was deafening.  It was Laird Breac who broke the silence.

             
“Go and pack everything that belongs to ye.  Ye are no longer welcome at Dunkirk.  I want ye away from here within the hour.  Ye are to have no contact with anyone from this clan another day in yer life.  If anything has happened to Annabelle, so help me, I will hunt ye down myself and make ye suffer like ye have never suffered before.”

             
Eilidh gasped and raised her hand to her bruised throat.

             
“Where will I go?  Derek, ye canna let him throw me out,” she pleaded.

             
“Aye, I can. I doona care where ye go, so long as I doona have to look at yer face ever again.”

             
Derek let his cold stare rest on Eilidh a moment longer and then he turned to leave the keep.

             
“Derek,” Brighid called him.

             
He turned to face her.

             
“Annabelle is breeding.”

Chapter 25

Annabelle slowed down her pace to a trot.  She had been traveling all night.  She took periodic short breaks to give her horse a chance to rest.  The moon had been full so that she did not have to build a fire.  Since there was a slight breeze, she did not worry about the midges that would attack otherwise.

She reached into her bundle and pulled out two apples.  She stopped her horse and slid to the ground.  She looked to the east and saw the sun just peeking over the horizon. 

             
“Here is an apple for ye,” she said putting one of the apples to the horse’s mouth so that he could eat.

             
She took a bite out of her own apple and stretched her back.  She had never ridden so hard or stayed in the saddle for so long, but she had a purpose.  She wanted to reach Kinloch as soon as she could.  She was anxious for news of her parents.  She hated deceiving Brighid and Megan, but she was sure they would understand why she had done what she had.  Once she reached Kinloch and seen that her parents were okay, she would send word back the Dunkirk so they would not worry. 

             
She led her horse to the stream so that he could drink.  She took the stopper from her wineskin and took a long drink herself.  She bent down and filled the wineskin back up and replaced the stopper.

             
She replaced everything in her bundle and got back in the saddle.  She planned to ride through the day.  She wanted to cover as much ground as possible.  Her mind turned to her husband, well maybe her ex-husband by now.  She imagined his happiness at learning that she had done the job for him and fled.  She felt a stab in her heart.  No matter how she tried, she could not stop the love she felt for him.  But she knew if she and her baby were to make a life for themselves, she would have to put him from her mind.

             
Annabelle mounted her horse and kicked him into motion.  She looked toward the sun again and saw that she had wasted about an hour.  She would need to make up for her lollygagging.  She rode at a steady gallop for a long while.  She then pulled back until they were at a walk.             

             
Annabelle noticed the landscape.  She was passing through a lush glen.  This must be part of Dunwiche land because she would have seen this before on her many rides around Kinloch.  In the distance, she saw a familiar tree.  It stood taller than the other trees in the forest.  She and Angus had climbed that tree many times.  She smiled. She knew that she was not far from Kinloch.  If she kept at a steady pace, she would reach the MacAlpin keep by the evening meal.

She took a deep breath.  The air was fresh and clean, and it went a long way to rejuvenate her mind and spirit.  Her horse neighed as if in agreement.

              Annabelle thought about her situation all night as she rode.  It was hard to believe that she had been married to Laird Harold and then not many days hence married to Derek.  She remembered trying to get her father to reconsider her marriage to Laird Harold.  He had been so much older than she.  But she understood why her father wanted to make the alliance with the McInnises.  They were a very strong and powerful clan.  She remembered the richness of the land surrounding Dunwiche and the prosperity of the people.  Now Laird Harold was dead and she did not know if her parents had perished with all of the others.

             
Annabelle shuddered.  She had known something was wrong about Julian the day of her wedding to Laird Harold.  She wondered if he was responsible for what happened at Dunwiche.  She seemed to vaguely remember her mother mentioning that he was next in line to be laird.  She thought about the type of rule Julian would force on Dunwiche’s people.  He would lead them with fear and hatred.  She did not trust him, and she believed that he may have had something to do with Laird Harold’s demise.  Laird Harold’s marriage to her would push him out as the heir. When she got to Kinloch and ascertained if her parents still lived, she would figure out what to do about Julian.  After all, Dunwiche became hers, or her new husband’s, after Laird Harold’s death.  But now that she was married, it belonged to Derek.  He would have to be the one to evict Julian, but she was not ready to face him just yet.  She would make sure Kinloch was safe and secure before she decided to contact Derek about Dunwiche.  If she was still married to him, she amended, otherwise she would enlist her father’s aid.

             
She pushed her horse into a trot, closing her eyes briefly as she felt the breeze across her face, her red hair flowing behind her.  She was so absorbed in feeling the sun on her face that she did not hear the approaching horse.  Before she knew it, she was pulled from her horse and thrown across another.

             
Annabelle could not speak since the wind had been knocked from her.  She could see the ground rushing past her as the horse galloped away from her horse.  She tried to push herself up, but the rider had his hands on her back holding her down.

             
“Who are ye?” she said breathlessly.  Air was forced from her with each step the horse took.  At first she thought Derek had found her, but the thigh she was lying across was not Derek’s.

             
There was grunt, but no intelligible reply.  Annabelle tried to push herself up again, but the hand was like a vice holding her down.

             
“Who are ye?” she demanded again, “Let me up!”

             
“I will when we get to Dunwiche,” the man said.  His voice was deep and gravely. 

             
Annabelle felt the movement of his thighs as he gripped the horse beneath him.  They were strong and powerful.  He was wearing the Dunwiche colors on his kilt and knee high black boots.  Annabelle debated how she could extricate herself from him without risk to herself or her baby.

             
“Ow!” the man howled.  He let go of Annabelle and she almost slipped form the horse face first.  She grabbed the stirrup to keep herself from falling.

             
“Ye bit me, ye wench!” the man growled as he pulled her up into a sitting position before him.

             
“I ought to beat ye for that,” he snarled into her ear.

             
Annabelle fought against his hold on her.  She tried to twist until she could slide from beneath his grip off the horse.   The horse was still going at a gallop, but she thought that she could fall where she fell away from the horse’s hooves.  She thought that she would probably sustain some bruising, but she would be away from this brute.

             
The man’s grip was tight around her.  He was holding her with one arm and controlling the horse with the other.  In desperation, Annabelle swung her head back connecting with the man’s chin.  Even seated, he was taller than she.  He howled again and his grip loosened.

             
Annabelle felt a pain where her head had connected with his chin, but she fought to keep her wits about her and wiggled free.  She allowed her body to slide down the side of the huge animal and pushed herself away from the animal’s side.  She landed in a heap on the ground.   She lay stunned for a second trying to feel if she was hurt.  She finally made her body move when she heard the horse galloping back toward her.

             
Annabelle shot to her feet and immediately crumpled back to the ground.  She had hurt her ankle.  She grit her teeth and pushed through the pain and ran as fast as she could.  Rather limped. She risked a look back at her pursuer.  She gasped as she saw the rage in his face and the blood streaking his chin. 

             
She could see her horse not far away.  If she could get to it, she could probably get away from the man.  Her ankle was in immense pain, but she did not have time to stop.  She mustered up more strength and ran faster.  She could hear the horse gaining on her, and could almost feel its breath on her neck.  She stifled a scream and kept running.

             
Soon she found herself flying through the air and landing back on the horse face down.

             
“Ye wench!  Ye will pay for that!” the man growled as he turned his horse back around and headed toward Dunwiche.             

             
“If I had nae been told nae to hurt ye, I would take great pleasure in giving ye some pain of yer own,” he said pushing his horse to the limit.

             
Annabelle bounced up and down on the back of the horse as it galloped toward Dunwiche.  Who had sent for her?  Who had known where she would be?  She had just recently found out who she really was.  How would someone at Dunwiche know that she still lived?

             
The man rode hard for hours.  Annabelle was sore where her body met the saddle and the man’s powerful thighs.  Her abdomen was protected by her skirts which had somehow gotten bunched under her.  His grip on her was tighter than before so that she could not maneuver her body to do him any more bodily harm.

             
As night began to fall, Annabelle thought the man would stop for camp but he continued on relentlessly.

             
“Could we stop?  I need personal time,” she gasped against the bumping of the horse against her stomach.

             
“Nay.  We will be at Dunwiche soon enough,” he grunted.

             
They continued their relentless pace well through the night.  Annabelle held back her sob of dismay.