The Highlander's Runaway Bride Read online

  A leather purse holding some gold and silver coins. Not enough to live on for long, but enough to present a temptation to any thief along the road.

  Another shift.

  A set of prayer beads, carved out of some black stones. Well, she might appreciate the book he’d brought for her if she was a godly woman. But a godly woman knew her place and obeyed her father and then her husband. Eva MacKay did not know the first thing about obedience or her proper place if what she’d done so far was the measure used.

  Rob laid the things aside and shook his head, watching her sleep there. What kind of woman would run away when given the news of an impending marriage? Especially a marriage that would hold benefits for both families involved.

  She shifted on the furs and mumbled some words in her sleep. Though he could blame some of her restlessness in sleep on her illness and fever, she never seemed to be at peace when she slept. She called out names, mostly the one, throughout the time when sleep claimed her.

  Something was wrong here. Very wrong.

  If she did not know him or the Mackintoshes, then they could not be the reason for her refusal to accept the marriage. Yet, she did the unthinkable and left the safety and protection of her father’s keep to avoid it. Was it just maidenly fear or something more? Though clearly fear was not something that seemed to rule her life if she was brave enough to do what she’d done.

  Rob stared at her, trying to decipher her actions and her intentions. If she did not want to marry him and had a good reason for her objections—one that would satisfy Brodie and Arabella—he would see that the betrothal was broken. He’d not expected a love match at all, but he would be damned before he married an unwilling woman.

  If she would only explain herself...

  The winds howled then, rattling the wooden walls of the cottage and sending cool air through the cracks. The low flames of the peat fire danced in the current. It would grow much colder before the sun rose in the morn.

  Eva shivered then, curling herself into a tight ball under the blankets. He was tempted to wake her and give her the tunic she’d refused earlier, but he would not disturb whatever rest she could get. On the morrow, he would send word to her father that he’d found her, and they would begin the journey back to Castle Varrich a day or two after that.

  For now, he did what he’d done these last three nights—he took off his boots and tunic and lay down next to her, sharing his body’s warmth with her. She startled a moment and then moved back nearer to him, as she did each time he shared the pallet with her. Then he pulled the extra blanket over both of them.

  Although she sank into a deep sleep, it evaded him for hours. The riddle that Eva MacKay was haunted him all night. At some moment, he realised that she was awake next to him. So, he decided to ask her for her reasons.

  ‘Have you need of anything, lady?’ he asked first. ‘Do you thirst?’ Helga had told him he should give her as much to drink as possible.

  ‘Nay,’ she whispered back.

  Silence reigned for a long minute or two before she spoke again.

  ‘You have slept like this each night, then?’ she asked.

  ‘Aye.’ Then he explained further, ‘At first there was no sleeping, you were that ill with fever. Then, I found that you were cold more than hot, so lying this way seemed to keep you warm.’

  ‘And you knew of the betrothal, so there was nothing wrong in the eyes of God or the law in doing that.’ Her words were more a declaration than a question, but there was something buried within them.

  ‘Just so.’

  The lady began to say something more but paused and held her words behind her teeth. A minute later, she did the same thing—began and paused. When she did it for a third time, he spoke instead.

  ‘Just speak your mind, lady. Between us. Tell me what you wish to say.’

  ‘I mean no insult, sir. I have no intention to embarrass or insult your laird and chief. I just cannot marry you.’ He could hear her trying to remain calm and failing as her voice hitched on the words.

  ‘Is there someone else, lady?’ he asked. ‘Or do you have some other objection? Give me some reason that I can understand, for I have no wish to marry an unwilling bride.’ And he did not.

  ‘I cannot marry you,’ she repeated.

  ‘Mayhap if you’d remained in your father’s house and discussed this before the betrothal, we could have made an agreeable arrangement. Now, though...’ he said.

  ‘Nay, pray do not say it is too late now?’ she asked, turning to face him. The grimace of pain told that she’d forgotten that injury in moving.

  ‘The betrothal is legal and sound. I fear it is too late.’

  Rob waited, waited for tears, waited for angry words, waited for some emotional reaction from her. None came. All he heard was the sound of her ragged breathing. Once more she turned away from him, tucking her face into the pillow.

  * * *

  A thought occurred to him in the night some time later, as they both yet lay awake in the dark.

  He’d not wanted this marriage. She wanted it not. So, why would he force this? It spoke of a disaster in the making. And problems and conflicts every step of the way. He would not even have a marriage of convenience, he would have a marriage of catastrophe.

  ‘I will speak to your father when we return. ’Tis clear to me that we do not suit. My laird will offer suitable compensation for breaking the betrothal contract and handle the issue.’

  ‘Truly?’ she asked, her voice now filled with hope. And that stung worse than any of her words so far.

  ‘Aye. I want no unwilling wife.’

  Then silence filled the cottage, broken only by the occasional crackle of the fire or burst of wind outside. He thought she might have fallen asleep as he still tried to do.

  ‘I thank you, sir. I will always be grateful for the mercy and good will you have shown me when you have every right to treat me otherwise,’ she whispered.

  Again, her words stung him. However, he’d spoken the truth. It would be easier to return to her father and his laird with a specific reason for breaking the contract, but Rob knew Brodie would have his back in this...or in anything he asked him to.

  He rolled to his side and found himself drifting to sleep.

  * * *

  At some time in those last few hours before dawn, she turned to him and he slipped his arm over her, drawing her closer. He drifted in and out of sleep until the sound of swords being drawn got his attention.

  Opening his eyes, he found Ramsey MacKay and six of his warriors standing around the pallet where he and Eva lay.

  Where the MacKay’s daughter lay naked in the arms of her betrothed husband. Where Eva MacKay sighed his name before opening her eyes to find her father standing above them.

  Her reaction—a loud, shrill scream that filled the cottage and made him squint—was something Rob could understand. But it was the MacKay’s soft words that bothered him more.

  ‘Well, I guess ye have no objections to taking my daughter as yer wife after all, Mackintosh. Welcome to the family.’

  Chapter Six

  The door to her chambers slammed open and the maid helping her with her bath let out a shriek. With a nod of his head, her father ordered the maid out and closed the door behind her. Eva knew there would be a reckoning, and it appeared to be at hand.

  ‘You are quite bold for someone with so much to lose,’ he said quietly. Too quietly. ‘I told you what would happen if you did not do as I said. ’Tis the little bastard who will pay for your sins, daughter. All I have to do is send the word, and she will die.’

  Eva grasped the sides of the tub, unable to breathe or reply.

  He stood next to the large wooden tub and glared at her. There was no way to hide herself or to leave the tub. Her ankle was much improved but would not
hold her weight yet. So, she was trapped here until he left and the maid returned.

  ‘’Tis a good thing he is willing to overlook your disobedience and stupidity and wilfulness,’ he began. ‘And a good thing he does not know you are nothing but a lying, ungrateful slut who does not know when to keep her mouth or her legs closed.’

  She made the mistake of opening her mouth then, determined to find out what he’d done with her child, but he slapped her with the back of his hand. Her head bounced back against the side of the tub.

  ‘God knows, I have been too lenient with you. ’Tis your mother’s fault—she coddled you and allowed you too much say,’ he said, grabbing her by her hair and dragging her over the side of the tub. Unable to stand, she tried to crawl away, but he grabbed her arm and pushed her to the floor.

  ‘You dare demand that I tell you what you want to know? You dare threaten to reveal it to the Mackintosh’s man if I do not?’ He held her down with one strong hand on her back, and she could not move from his hold.

  ‘Mayhap if you’d been strapped well when I found out about that boy and what you’d been doing, you would have lost it and saved me such trouble.’ Only then did she see the long leather strap in his hand.

  Eva tried to grab for some covering, but she was too far from the bed and from the stool where the drying cloths lay. He did not wait before striking her, laying it hard on her back and buttocks. She screamed against such pain, but it had no effect on him.

  ‘I have him where I want him. You will not speak of this to him,’ he said in a lower voice. ‘Or your child will not live to see the first anniversary of her birth.’

  The threat took away her breath then, against Mairead and against Rob. She tried to bear it in silence but could not and screamed with each blow. Four lashes delivered with a heavy hand and he’d reared back to hit her again, when the door opened. Already out of breath, her father called out over his shoulder rather than stop.

  ‘I’m seeing to my daughter. Get out now,’ he called.

  ‘She is my wife.’

  Rob.

  Eva could only curl up in a ball there on the floor. The pain in her back and her buttocks took her breath away.

  ‘Then learn from my mistakes, Mackintosh. She needs to be taught obedience. She only understands the strap. Used often and used well.’ Her father swung once more, wrenching another cry from her.

  Eva wanted to die then. Humiliated before the man who would control her life, she could not raise her head to look at him. It seemed that every time he came into her life, she was helpless. Now, worse than helpless, for she was naked on the floor being beaten by her father.

  ‘Then I will see to it,’ he said to her father.

  The tension in the chamber heightened as she waited to see what her father would do. Ramsey MacKay was not used to interference with his wishes or to being ordered about, so she held little hope that he would cease now. Eva dared a glance to see what would happen.

  ‘I agreed to the betrothal. I agreed to the marriage. She is mine, to do with as I please and no longer under your authority, MacKay. Or do I tell Brodie Mackintosh that you reneged on the contract?’

  When she dared to peek, Rob had crossed his arms over his chest in a frightful pose. His face grew dark and threatening, and Eva was not certain who was most in danger: her or her father. She shivered at the sight.

  ‘Very well,’ her father said, relenting. He tossed the strap to Rob and crossed the room to the door. Staring at her, he began, ‘Do not allow her disobedience to go unanswered. You will rue the day you did not make certain she knows who is in control of her.’

  Eva dipped her head again, unable to look at his face and see his hatred of her. She cried now, unable to control her tears in the face of the pain and humiliation.

  ‘Give me your hand,’ Rob said.

  ‘Please, I pray you leave,’ she whimpered.

  ‘I said give me your hand.’

  Eva pushed herself up and held out her hand as he’d ordered. Her hair dripped on the floor and was a tangled mess over her face and shoulders. It was long but not long enough to hide the rest of her from his sight. She was not certain what he planned to do, for he had reason to continue the punishment for her sins against him.

  He took her hand and then helped her to her feet, careful to keep her weight on one foot. Then he lifted her up and carried her to the tub. Placing her in the still-warm water, he stepped away, never looking at her. Eva held herself away from the side of the tub, not resting back now, but hugging her knees.

  ‘I will send your maid to you so you can finish your bath, lady,’ he said. ‘We will speak our vows before the evening meal and leave in the morning.’

  She nodded, surprised at his gentle touch and treatment.

  ‘I have to say I am confused.’ He reached for the latch on the door and turned back to face her. ‘You want to refuse marriage to me and remain here with your father, knowing what will happen to you. What would keep you here, Eva, rather than taking the chance with a man who has done nothing to harm you? I think it must be something very important indeed.’

  He paused then, and she wanted to tell him. She wanted to explain that this had nothing to do with him. That she needed to be here to seek out her daughter before her father moved her so far from her reach that she would never find her. The words were there—she owed him at least that. She struggled to keep the words within her. Eva just could not take the chance that her father would hurt her child...as he already had Eirik.

  She looked down at the water that swirled around her and said nothing.

  When she looked up, he was gone. Shuddering from the pain and humiliation, Eva rocked in the water. Her father would kill her daughter, she doubted it not. But what had he meant about Rob?

  She remembered Rob’s promise to end this betrothal, a promise made in the dark of night just before her father had found them. However, with her lying naked and next to him on the pallet, there was no way to talk their way out of it. The marriage was a fait accompli because of those circumstances, with the witnesses and those who would swear to what they’d seen.

  And the villagers who would tell that Rob had cared for her for days alone.

  Had Ramsey MacKay arranged it all, then? To trap Rob into having no choice? For surely a report back to his laird that he’d compromised the MacKay’s daughter would result in the marriage going forward. No MacKay would speak to an outsider about last year’s incident and her disappearance for several months. A bit of hysterical laughter escaped her then, echoing around the chamber.

  It would not surprise her at all, for he was a master at manipulation and deceit.

  A soft knock on the door warned her of her maidservant’s arrival. The girl approached slowly and then gasped.

  ‘Oh, my lady,’ she said. ‘Let me get some ointment for your back,’ Nessa said. ‘And a cool cloth for your face.’

  Her face was the least of it, with her back and buttocks burning in pain from his blows. She accepted the cloth and held it to her face as Nessa saw to her injuries.

  Did she have any choice in this at all? If she spoke of it to Rob, her father would deny it and punish her through her daughter. If Rob backed out of the contract over it, there could even be war between their clans, or the Mackintosh could seek retribution in some other way.

  And what of her daughter’s fate?

  Her father had sworn that she was some place safe and would be raised well. Eva might never see her again, but she would be safe. Mayhap that was the price she would have to pay for her sins?

  Running away had not worked. Eva was in exactly the same position she’d tried to avoid by escaping her father.

  Seeking her daughter on her own had not worked. Her heart broke as she knew she’d failed.

  Trying to protect the man she loved from her father’s wrat
h had been a terrible mistake and had ended horribly, a cost her soul must bear forever.

  Eva hissed when Nessa washed her back, no matter that the girl had a light touch in the task. The pain brought her back to her predicament.

  ‘Just see to my hair now, Nessa,’ she said. ‘You can see to those when I dress.’

  As the efficient maid washed her hair, Eva faced the unspeakable realisation that her only way out of this was to protect her daughter. She would have to take her father’s word that he would not harm Mairead if she did as he ordered. And it meant forcing the Mackintosh’s man into a marriage he did not want.

  Between the devil and the deep sea, Eva made her decision in that moment.

  * * *

  After shaving and dressing in his finest shirt and plaid, Rob strode down to the hall, needing something to drink after the scene in Eva’s chambers. His hands shook in fury as the image of Ramsey taking a strap to Eva repeated in his mind. He wanted to strangle the man for such a callous act. Especially now that Eva was Rob’s.

  He stopped. Buffeted by the servants and others in the corridor who were not expecting him to do so, he leaned against the wall, out of the way.

  When the hell had he decided she was his?

  Thinking back over the last days, Rob realised that when he’d rescued her from the cave and took her to the cottage, he began to accept the idea of it. That was why her pleading words to escape him bothered him so much.

  The idea of being forced in to marriage had angered and repelled him at first. Just as it clearly had Eva.

  It took him the weeks of travel here to begin to accept it as his fate. Eva had not.

  It took days for him to accept her. From what he’d just witnessed and heard...and not heard, it would take her much longer, if she ever would.

  Yet, in spite of his actions and treatment of her and in spite of her father’s, she seemed disinclined to marry him.

  Had she set her sights higher, then?

  As the reality struck him and the old wounds of pride surfaced, he knew he needed a drink. He pushed off the wall and made his way to the hall. Expecting something to mark the occasion of the wedding of the laird’s daughter, instead he found the hall as it had been during other meals.