The man must have had the sight. It was the only thing Kyla could imagine. She hadn't made a single sound in her approach and had stayed well out of his peripheral vision, yet she was only halfway to him when his head suddenly whipped around. His mouth dropped open upon seeing her, and he seemed to freeze.
With no other idea of what to do, Kyla raised the boulder over her head and hurled it at him with all her might, aiming roughly for his head.
With a squeak of distress, the fellow raised his arms to protect his head, his braies immediately dropping to tangle around his ankles as he tried to jump back out of the way. He ended sprawled in the sand. Not that Kyla stood around waiting to see that. Once the rock had flown from her hands, she whirled and raced for the beach, Aelfread hard on her heels, the other woman removing her plaid even as she ran.
When Kyla peered back as she reached the edge of the water, it was to see that the guard had managed to tug his pants up and make it to the cave entrance, bleating away like a panicked sheep all the while. Even worse, the MacGregor was at the cave entrance now, ordering a boat to be brought out. He charged across the beach after her and Aelfread.
"Go!" Aelfread screeched as she reached Kyla's side. Kyla stumbled into the water, then dove under the waves. She burst back to the surface a bare moment later to see that Aelfread was ahead of her, swimming strongly toward the outcropping of rock they had to circumnavigate to reach the cave.
A glance over her shoulder showed her that the MacGregor had nearly reached the water himself. Two of his men were directly behind him and two more were following as quickly as they could with the boat between them. Behind that staggered the unfortunate Jimmy, apparently finally roused.
Turning away, Kyla struck out after Aelfread, silently praying for strength and speed. She would need the help, she knew. While she was recovering nicely from her injury and accompanying fevers, she was aware that she had not fully regained her strength and stamina. She was already tiring.
Digging down deep inside herself for whatever reserves she had, Kyla propelled herself around the outcropping of rocks. She was more than relieved to see Aelfread paused before the cliff ahead, treading water--until she realized that the tide had come in and the other woman was searching for the arrow-like rock that showed where the entrance to the now-submerged cave was. Panic welled up in her as she realized that they would have to swim the tunnel entrance underwater to reach the cave. She pushed it down determinedly. Aelfread would find it and they would make it through the tunnel. They had to.
Kyla could tell the exact moment when Aelfread found what she sought. The relief was plain on the girl's face. But it was short-lived. Panic replaced it the moment she turned to look toward her. And that was enough to tell Kyla what she had already suspected. Their pursuers were hard on her heels. She could almost feel the nearest man's breath on her neck as he pursued her.
In the next second, Aelfread's mouth opened on a shout of warning even as Kyla felt a hand close around her ankle. Water suddenly rushed past her lips as she was abruptly tugged back and downward. Whirling in the water, she swung her arms frantically in an effort to pull herself back up above the surface, instinctively kicking out at her captor. She felt her foot connect with something, then pushed with all her might, managing to break away toward the surface.
As she shot out from under the water, she saw her pursuer surface no more than one body-length behind her. Panicked, Kyla coughed out the water she had inhaled and gasped fresh air into her lungs. She struck out blindly toward Aelfread's screams, managing to keep that small distance between them out of sheer fear until she reached the other woman's side.
"Go!" she shrieked frantically and Aelfread immediately dove beneath the water. Barely managing a gasp, Kyla followed as closely as she could, her foot connecting with something firm and most definitely human as she did. It told her just how close her pursuer was. Using the man's body as an impromptu platform, Kyla pushed herself down and forward off him, her hands searching for the wall she knew was directly ahead.
Cursing, Galen turned away from Shropshire and led the men toward the stairs. Fear for Kyla was eating at him, urging him to head for the docks to follow Gavin. It was hell not knowing what was going on. Was the MacGregor even this minute creeping up on an unaware Kyla and Aelfread? Or had he already made his presence known and dragged them off?
With these questions gnawing at his nerves, awaiting news from Gavin was out of the question. Action was needed. He would take a boat to the beach. If Kyla was there, he would get her back. Even if he had to kill all the MacGregors to do it. He could not lose her. He loved her.
Galen was neither pleased nor surprised at that thought. He had been wrestling with his feelings ever since the day they had made love on the beach, the day he had realized that the fevers had not stolen her wits. He had realized a lot about her that day; she was smart, passionate, beautiful, and good-natured. He had already known from hearing the tale of her saving her brother that she was both brave and loyal. How could he not love her? But loving her had brought him no joy. This last week had been hellish for Galen as he'd struggled to hide his feelings behind short words and a surly nature. He had to, for he knew that his wife did not love him in return. To her he was a stranger.
He would change that, he decided grimly, then paused with his foot on the first step when the sound of splashing erupted behind him. Spinning back, he stared in amazement at the woman now in the water.
"Aelfread!" Her name rumbled from Robbie's throat as they all rushed back to the edge of the rocky shelf. Whirling in the water, the woman blinked at her husband and the other men in surprise, then struck out wearily toward the shelf.
"Kyla," she gasped as she was hauled out of the water by her husband.
"Where is she?" Galen asked sharply as Robbie enfolded the woman in his bear-like embrace.
"MacGregor."
Galen stiffened at that name, his skin blanching sickly.
His own anxiety eased by the presence of the woman in his arms, Robbie frowned worriedly at his laird, then held his wife a little closer as he gently asked, "What about the MacGregor, wife? Does he have Lady Kyla?"
Frustrated at her own inability to catch her breath, Aelfread shook her head. "Picnic...beach...MacGregor...cliff cave..."
"Ye went for a picnic on the beach and the MacGregor was there hiding in the cliff cave?" Angus translated for her.
When Aelfread nodded, Galen grabbed her hand to get her attention, asking urgently, "Did he get Kyla?"
She nodded again. "Caught...both." Those words put horror on the faces of every man in the cave, until she added, "Escaped. Swam for it." That brought sighs of relief until she added, "They followed."
"But ye got away. Did Kyla?"
Before she could answer, the cave rang with the sounds of splashing again, drawing all eyes toward the water once more.
Kyla sobbed her relief as she broke through to the surface. The tunnel had seemed unending as she had used its rocky wall to both find her way and pull herself forward. Her body was trembling with effort and her lungs ached from lack of oxygen, but she had made it.
Aelfread's relieved shout hit her ears now and she struck out instinctively toward it, her eyes seeing little but the blurred shapes of the boats bobbing at their moorings off the platform. She had only taken a couple of weary strokes toward those boats however, when the water seemed to erupt behind her.
She knew without looking that one of the men had followed them into the tunnel, and apparently he was not as exhausted as herself. He grabbed her by the hair, whipping her head backward in the water and bringing her up short. She swung instinctively toward her attacker, ready to put up a fight no matter how feeble, but before she had turned halfway around, her hair was released and she was bobbing free again. Too exhausted to really think, Kyla merely struck out for the platform once more. This time she reached it unassaulted.
A hand covering her own as she grasped the slimy rock surface brought her head up
to find Aelfread's face swimming into focus. The woman was crying tears of mingled relief and exhaustion as she knelt at the edge of the shelf and Kyla found her own eyes beginning to leak. Suddenly, she was grasped under the arms and lifted out of the water.
Recognizing Robbie's giant girth and thinking he had just arrived, Kyla turned back toward the water as he set her on the rocky surface of the platform, her arm lifting limply to point toward their pursuer. But that arm dropped weakly to her side when she recognized Galen was already in the water battling the man who had grabbed her. Some part of her fatigued mind realized that he must be the reason her pursuer had released her so abruptly, but beyond that she really wasn't capable of thinking. She watched him knock her attacker unconscious. Catching him by the hair now, Galen swam for the ledge, dragging his captive behind.
Robbie relieved him of his burden as soon as he reached the side, lifting the limp man out of the water and dropping him with little care on the rocky shelf. He turned back to offer a hand to Galen himself. Kyla couldn't even find the energy to raise an eyebrow when her husband came lunging out of the water garbed only in his shirt.
Stooping to pick up the plaid he had dropped before plunging into the water, Galen slung it over his shoulder, then turned and bent to lift Kyla away from Aelfread's supporting arms and into his own.
"See to yer wife, Robbie," he ordered, moving immediately toward the stairs. "The rest of ye stay here to be sure no one else finds the cave and enters through it. I'll send word when Gavin returns. Then ye can bring that MacGregor bastard above for questioning." With that, he headed up the steep, slippery steps.
Not having bothered to grab a torch, they were quickly enveloped in darkness. Kyla tightened her arms around her husband's neck, remaining silent during the trip.
He paused in the darkness suddenly and she heard a click as he kicked out at something with his foot. The wall on their right slid open and they were splashed with light again as Galen carried her into their room.
Sighing inwardly, she resigned herself to the verbal blasting she more than deserved as he walked to the bed. But it did not come. He set her on the bed, came down on top of her, then pulled her into an almost desperate hug.
Kyla lay still for a moment, uncertainty rising up within her. There was nothing sexual in the embrace. She was quite sure it was not a prelude to loving. He simply seemed to need to hold her. Biting her lip, she moved her arms carefully around him, holding him in return, and that was when he finally spoke. "I'm sorry."
Kyla blinked at that, then asked uncertainly, "For what?"
"I nearly lost ye today and 'twould have been all me own fault."
"Nay, 'Twas--"
"I didn't guard ye well enough," he interrupted. "'Tis my job to guard ye. Yer me wife after all. And no' even by yer choice. I kidnapped ye and forced this marriage. The least ye could expect was for me to keep ye safe from the man I angered by such actions."
"Stop!" Amazed, Kyla pulled back to peer at his tormented face. "'Tis not your fault. Aelfread and I snuck off again. We put ourselves in jeopardy."
"And that is my fault, too," he told her in a pained voice. "Had I seen to taking ye out sooner like I promised, ye wouldn't have had to resort to sneaking about again. Morag is right, I have been treating ye like a Sabine slave."
"What?" She gaped at him in amazement.
"Well, think on it. I lock ye up in the keep all the day long and only see ye at night when I use ye for me own pleasure."
Kyla rolled her eyes at that. "I seem to recall experiencing a moment or two of pleasure in there myself, my lord," she announced dryly.
"'Sides," he went on, ignoring her words. "Even yer escaping was me fault. Were I a better protector, ye never would have been able to slip away today."
Sighing at that, Kyla touched his cheek. "Galen--"
"I love ye."
Her mouth froze open when he blurted that, her hand stilling at his cheek.
"I do. I love yer smile, yer sweet body, and yer sassy wit. Every morn on awakening I cuddle yer sleeping body close, kiss the top of yer head, and count meself a lucky man for having married ye."
"I--"
"Nay." He covered her lips with one hand and shook his head. "I ken ye don't love me back. Ye hardly ken me. I'm still a stranger to ye. But we'll change that. And mayhap ye can come to love me?" He suggested hopefully, then added practically. "We deal well together abed, that's a start at least."
"What of Margaret?"
Galen blinked in surprise, then sighed the name sadly. "Margaret. Our marriage was arranged when we were children. We grew up together. We married," he said simply.
"Did you love her?"
"Love?" He frowned over the word. "I cared for her, but...nay," he admitted sadly. "I never loved her as I should have, not as I do you." A tap at the door drew Galen's irritated attention. "Aye?"
"'Tis Gavin, me laird."
One moment Galen was reclining on the bed and the next he was on his feet, redonning his plaid as he shouted, "Did ye catch the bastard?"
There was a hesitation, then the reluctant response, "Nay, me laird, they..." He paused as Galen tugged the door open, his expression ferocious. Sighing, the warrior shook his head. "They saw us coming and managed to reach the mainland first. We followed, but they had horses waiting. We hadn't thought to take any. We didn't expect to find them on the beach."
"Nay, I ken," the MacDonald sighed unhappily.
"We came back and I sent the big boat over with some men and horses to track them. Then I came to see if ye wish to follow."
Galen nodded at that. "The men are in the cavern still. Shropshire and a MacGregor are with them. Fetch them and take them down to the great hall."
"Gilbert is here?" Kyla cried in amazement. She had not really even noticed the other men in the cavern when Galen had carried her out of it. Scooting off the bed, she hurried toward the chests, her exhaustion forgotten.
"Get back abed," Galen ordered, scowling when she ignored him and began tugging a fresh gown from one of her chests. "Get ye back to bed and rest," he tried again. "I'll not have ye fretting over this."
"Nay," she protested at once, tugging her gown on and quickly tying the laces. "I would speak with Shropshire."
"We'll deal with him later. After I return from hunting the MacGregor."
"Nay. I would hear news of Johnny," Kyla announced determinedly.
"Yer brother is well."
She stilled at that, relief flooding her face. "What did he with Catriona?"
"I don't ken. I'll find out, though, and let ye know."
Kyla hesitated briefly, then finished her laces, determination filling her face.
Galen glowered over this silent rebellion, then sighed. "Oh, hell! If ye must insist." Crossing to where she stood, he scooped her up into his arms again.
"I can walk, my lord," Kyla murmured dryly, clutching at his shoulders as she bounced out of the room in his arms.
"Ye've had enough excitement today. Ye'll be carried and like it."
Relief made Morag's old face glow when Galen carried Kyla below. "Oh! Thank God. I thought sure the MacGregor had ye when Gavin came back saying he was on the beach."
"Nay."
"He did," Galen contradicted, and Kyla sighed as she admitted it. "He did have us briefly, but Aelfread and I managed to escape."
Muttering under his breath, Galen set her on the bench at the trestle table, then straightened and moved to pour himself a mug of ale. He downed the first one so quick, Kyla doubted it had much of a chance to even wet his tongue. She was not terribly surprised when he immediately set about pouring himself another.
The keep doors opened then and her eyebrows rose as Robbie entered. She was not the only one surprised.
"I thought ye were above stairs with yer wife," Galen greeted the man.
Robbie shook his head as he reached the table and accepted the mug of ale Galen offered him. "Nay. I took her back to our cottage to rest. She's fair tuckered...Or claimi
ng to be--to avoid me yelling at her like I should."
"Hmm," Galen muttered, tossing a glare in Kyla's direction.
"Have ye questioned the MacGregor man yet?" Robbie asked, distracting him.
"Nay, Gavin is fetching the men now. He just arrived back."
"Already? He didn't catch them, then?" Robbie sighed and downed his drink when Galen shook his head unhappily.
Spying the men starting down the stairs then, Galen set his mug on the table and straightened. Seeing his gaze move between Lord Shropshire and the other man with displeasure, Kyla could almost hear him trying to decide what to deal with first. Tommy made up his mind for him.
"He woke up shortly after ye left, me laird. He didn't feel much like talking, but we convinced him 'twould be a good idea."
Kyla raised her eyebrows at the men's wolfish grins, then glanced to the sullen-faced MacGregor who bore more than a few bruises on his countenance. Her gaze moved to her husband as he asked, "What did ye learn?"
"They did kill Scatchy. Stole his boats and rowed across under cover of the mist this morn to fetch her ladyship back as ye thought."
Galen scowled at the man. "Why? What did MacGregor plan to do?"
When the man merely tightened his lips sullenly, Galen raised his fist.
Jumping up, Kyla caught his arm, blurting, "He planned to marry me."
Galen stilled at that, his expression amazed. "He said that?"
"Aye."
"But he can't, yer married to our laird," Duncan pointed out.
"He planned to have it annulled."
"Well, he couldn't have done that...Could he, me laird?"
"Nay. It has been consummated," he said quietly.
Kyla flushed as the men all turned to peer at her, but said, "He said it mattered little. He could and would have it annulled and marry me himself."
The men muttered over that, Galen the only one who remained silent.
"Could he do that?"
Turning away, Galen moved to the table, then shook his head. "He may be able to. He has many friends among the English and might use them to gain what he wants." Turning back, he eyed the MacGregor man. "What will he do now?"
"I don't ken." The man gasped as Tommy twisted his arm. "He planned to take her to England, but the plan has been ruined now. He didn't get the lass."