Highlander's Destiny, page 14
She looked around. Besides the four sentinels, everything was quiet. The only sounds were campfires crackling, quiet voices murmuring, and people snoring peacefully inside the tents. She quickly made her way towards the tray and poured a whole handful of ground morels into the bowl, then picked up the spoon and stirred it.
A shadow blotted out the light of the fire behind her, and her stomach dropped.
“What are you doing, boy?” asked a man’s voice.
She turned around, her heart in her feet. A richly dressed nobleman, he had a crimson tunic with golden patterns of flowers and leaves. He was in his thirties, with dark blond hair in a jaw-length, wavy style. He had a short, well-trimmed beard and gray eyes that looked her over with a glistening interest. There was an air of arrogance and entitlement about him with his nose high and his straight back.
A little behind him followed two men-at-arms, fully armored and bearing swords and shields that shone in the firelight.
This must be the king.
Danielle’s feet as heavy as lead, she thought hard. How much had he seen? An idea struck her. She picked up the tray and took a step towards the king. “I was just going to bring this to you, Your Grace.”
He looked her over, and there was something odd in his eyes. A look she didn’t like. As though she was a curious little specimen he wanted to inspect more closely.
He nodded and took one step closer to the pavilion’s entrance, pulling the drape aside. “Then come in.”
Heart in her throat, she stepped in. Inside, it was rich and beautiful. A large carved bed was at the other side of the tent, and a brazier illuminated the space. There were swords and axes and shields stacked next to a beautifully carved chair. A large table with empty silver and golden plates stood in the middle of the room, with several chairs around it. Furs covered the floor and the bed, and at least a dozen chests stood along the walls.
When Danielle put the tray on the table and turned around, she noticed they were alone. The guards hadn’t followed them.
Danielle nodded to King Edward, pressing out a polite smile, and walked to the exit. But the king took a step to the side and blocked her way.
She stopped breathing. He stood close, an inch away. She could smell him—light sweat and alcohol on his breath and the scent of dust.
“Where are you from, boy?” Edward asked.
“South, Your Grace.”
“Hmm,” Edward said, narrowing his eyes. “There’s something…different about you.”
She met his gray gaze. There was interest in it. Interest that went beyond curiosity. Interest that she saw in the eyes of men who liked her.
God…did he realize she was a woman?
Or was he interested in the boy she appeared to be?
Danielle wasn’t a history connoisseur like Jamie, but she did remember Edward II had been married and had a son. He was married to one of the most notorious femme fatales in history, Queen Isabella, the She-Wolf of France. Edward III was his son and considered to be the most perfect king.
“Different?” she asked, wondering if that was a code word for him checking if she—he—was gay.
“Yes, boy. Some men prefer the company of other men. Especially when they’re as young and handsome as you are.”
Panic ripped through her.
This was going to be a disaster. She needed to leave, quick.
She must think of something smart and yet diplomatic to get out of this. But her brain was numb.
“Forgive me, Your Grace.” She stepped aside in an attempt to walk around him, but the king caught her by the arm.
His gaze was hard. The glare of an angry king. A king who had told someone to rape the Queen of Scotland in front of her stepdaughter so that Colum would switch to his side.
What was he capable of? Danielle’s breath caught in her throat.
“No one says no to me, boy. I always get what I want. On John the Baptist, I will get Scotland. And tonight, I get you.”
He pulled Danielle against his chest and looked her over with lusty, hungry eyes.
“Look at you. So sweet. Innocent. Almost delicate. And I know you’re like me. Will you give in to me, sweet boy? Will you allow me to have my release before we march to the greatest battle of my life?”
Danielle couldn’t feel her feet, couldn’t feel her hands. “Your Grace, I’m not what you think I am.”
His face went from longing to threatening. “You are. Even if you don’t know it yet, even if you deny it, you are exactly what I think you are. I’ll show you. Tomorrow, you’ll be grateful to have been taken by your king.”
He grasped her hard and pushed her down onto the table. One strong arm held her down while with his other hand, he yanked her jeans down painfully over her hips and her bare bottom was pressed against his hard erection.
Chapter 23
Colum peered from behind the tent’s edge. The sounds coming from the king’s pavilion made his stomach twist and his throat fill with acid.
After he had thrown a good handful of morels into Aymer de Valence’s cauldron, he’d come back to the king’s tent. With a horror spilling through his blood like ice water, he’d watched Danielle go inside.
Carefully, he’d approached. The two king’s guards had joined the four sentinels at the king’s campfire, but they would see him if he tried to enter the pavilion. He’d hidden in the shadow of the nearest tent and watched the red pavilion, praying she would come out.
But moments had passed by, and no one had come out of the pavilion. With his legs barely moving from panic, he’d quietly sprinted towards the other side of the structure. Behind the thick, canvas wall, he’d heard their muffled voices but couldn’t tell what they were saying.
Then there were the sounds of struggle.
When he recognized Danielle’s panicked whimpering and crying, he got his claymore out of the sheath and cut the canvas open. The sound of fabric ripping was like thunder.
What he saw made cold sweat break across his body. It was like he was sucked back in time into the night in Berwick Castle with the queen spread over the table and Sir Henry de Bohun leaning over her and about to rape her.
Only, it wasn’t the Queen of Scotland, and it wasn’t Sir Henry.
Danielle was spread on the table, with her bottom bared, and Edward held her down with one arm while trying to shove his stiff erection into her. Her face was red, straining. The king’s head was turned to him, his mouth opened in quiet shock.
Rage thundered in his blood, deadly and hot. He raised his claymore and sprinted towards Edward. “Get away from her!”
The king, his braies still down, scrambled away from Colum and picked up a sword from his armory. His eyes darted to Danielle. “Her?” he asked.
But Colum didn’t pay attention. He was going to murder the bastard. His claymore came down onto the king’s sword with a loud crash. From the corner of his eye, he saw Danielle scramble to her feet and pull up her odd blue braies.
The king saw that, too. And he must have seen what was between her legs. His face went ashen.
“He thought I was a man,” Danielle spat out bitterly.
The king’s face turned livid as he recognized Colum.
“You,” he said, his teeth bared. “Colum MacDonald. A traitor. Guards!” he yelled. “Guards!”
Colum needed to act. With a furious roar, he raised his claymore above his head and swung it again and again against Edward’s sword. The pavilion filled with the clang of metal.
“Ye changed who I was, ye raping bastart!” Colum yelled between grunts. “Ye made me a traitor. But nae to ye, ye shite. To my clan!”
Edward laughed forcefully, loudly. “I didn’t make you anything you weren’t already.”
Colum thrust the sword from below and from the side but always met the king’s blade. “Go to hell!”
“And who is this woman?” Edward asked. “Did you send her to pretend to be a boy? To distract me?”
“She isna of yer concern. Dinna talk about her.”
“She’s English? So she’s a traitor, too, if she’s with you!”
Colum threw a quick glance at Danielle. She should run. She should leave before the guards arrived. “Run, Danielle!”
But she wasn’t running. She was watching Colum with wide, panicked eyes. Using Colum’s moment of hesitation, the king went on the attack, and Colum had to take a step back to block his swing. Edward was, unfortunately, a good swordsman.
“What were you doing near my tent, with my food?” Edward asked, and sudden realization made the muscles of his face go limp. “You wanted to poison me. Guards!” he yelled with all his might.
Then there were worried cries and yells from outside and the shuffle of many feet. The curtain at the entrance to the tent was lifted. The two king’s guards and the four sentinels barged in, their swords drawn.
His only chance now was to take the king hostage. He pretended he was about to make a movement to one side, but instead he lunged to the other side, which was unprotected. He managed to put the tip of his sword against the king’s neck.
“Drop yer sword,” he said, “or I will slit yer throat.”
Edward threw a hateful glare at him and panted heavily.
“Your Grace?” asked one of the guards.
The king’s eyes darted to Danielle.
“The sword!” roared Colum.
Edward dropped the sword, and it thumped softly against the furs that covered the floor. Triumph blasted through Colum. If he could just reach out and grab the man—
But there was a movement behind him, and when he looked, his heart dropped to his feet. One of the guards held Danielle, a sword at her throat.
“Let the king go,” the sentinel said slowly, “or the lad dies.”
Colum growled.
Danielle shook her head, tears rolling down her cheeks. “No, Colum.”
“It’s not a lad, by the way,” said Edward. “It’s a woman that is as much a traitor as this man. She has no value other than, apparently, that Colum cares about her. So yes, MacDonald. He will kill her if you don’t let me go.”
He had been so close. He could have murdered the man. Gotten his revenge. Helped win this war, win this battle. Left England without a head of state.
But nothing was worth Danielle’s life. If he cut the king’s throat, they’d kill her. They’d also kill Colum, but he was ready for that.
Danielle didn’t deserve it.
He lowered his sword, and the next moment, several pairs of hands grabbed him and held him. They shoved him close to Danielle. Edward finally pulled up his braies and tied the girdle.
He looked at Colum and Danielle with eyes full of contempt. “The Scot will be beheaded tomorrow together with this traitorous Englishwoman. Now, take them to the cage.”
Chapter 24
Danielle was shaking. The wooden cage she and Colum sat in was suffocating her. She’d thought she was finally free, only to end up in another cage. The camp was still quiet around them. It was hard to believe everyone was sleeping peacefully while Danielle and Colum would die tomorrow… One guard sat next to their cage, leaning against the grating, his back rounded.
“A beheading…” she murmured.
Colum sat next to her, his arms around his bent knees. His jaw was tense, his gaze jumping around the camp, his expression thoughtful.
He looked at her, and his eyes softened. “I am sorry. I should have never taken ye with me.”
Danielle shook her head. “No, I should have never let you do this stupid thing anyway. It was clear it would be a disaster.”
“Are ye all right? I mean, after that bastart tried to…take ye like that?”
A shudder of disgust ran through her. She understood now some of what rape victims must have gone through. The humiliation, the helplessness, the incredible rage at the bastard. That feeling that she was just a piece of meat to him, with no will of her own.
She knew Colum had been worrying about her. He could have killed the king, but he’d chosen her. The warmth of realizing they were a team, that they had each other’s backs, washed over her. She smiled.
“I’m fine. What a tosser that man is. But it would take more than that to break me. Thank you for choosing me… You gave me back what I lost when Sebastian held me captive. The belief that I can trust people. That I can let them get close to me. That I might…might find love and happiness.”
Their eyes locked. Even sitting now in this cage, simply looking into his eyes made her breathe easier. Calmed her down. Gave her back hope.
“Lass, ’tis the very same for me. Love and women werena even on my mind after Berwick. I thought I’d die alone. I had a betrothed before Berwick, but while I was gone, the engagement fell apart. I liked her. I may have been infatuated with her. But I didna think I would ever meet a woman like ye.”
She smiled and kissed him. His lips were soft, and the kiss was more tender and slow than passionate. She inhaled his scent, reveled in his taste. Then she put her forehead against his. “If we do die tomorrow,” she said, “I want you to know it was all worth it because I met you. I’d do it all over again.”
“My heart is full with ye, lass.”
She kissed him again. If she died tomorrow, at least she would die knowing what true love was. What it was like to trust someone, to love someone, to have them love her back.
She’d been sacked by now, for sure. But the funny thing was, it didn’t seem so significant anymore. Not after how this man had changed her perspective on herself. She was no longer a frigid woman who needed to use her work to keep herself at a distance. She was a regular woman who could have a hunky man like Colum love her. Who melted from his touch.
And who could, after all, love with her whole heart.
This adventure had taught her she was more resilient than she had thought. No matter who had bound her, she’d never stopped fighting, never stopped trying to get out.
“You know,” she said, “you didn’t give up after that horrific thing Edward put you through. You’re still fighting to reclaim your honor, to get back in the good graces of your clan. So we shouldn’t give up now, either.”
“But how will we get out?”
“I don’t know yet.”
The guard at the door of their cage gave a long, pained groan and held on to his stomach. Danielle and Colum exchanged a puzzled look.
“Oh, God’s blood,” the guard moaned. “What—”
Then there was the sound of growling guts and a long, loud fart.
“Ahhh…” the man groaned.
“You all right, mate?” Danielle asked, moving closer despite the foul odor.
“Go to he—” He bent over to his side and vomited.
Danielle pulled back and watched him retch and empty his stomach. She looked at Colum. “How many cauldrons did you manage to poison?” she asked quietly.
“Mayhap a dozen…mayhap fifteen. I almost emptied my pouch.”
“Oh!” she said in surprise. “I managed maybe seven or eight. Well done! Could he have eaten from one of them, do you think?”
“Ahhh!” The man clutched his stomach. “Ahhh! Is there a beast inside feasting on my guts…? Oh God!”
Then there was another long fart followed by the liquid sound of diarrhea.
Danielle and Colum pulled back, their faces disgusted.
“Oh no!” cried the guard as he pulled down his trousers and sat in a crouch and proceeded to empty his guts right next to the cage.
At the same time, more groans and cries came from all around them. And then three men ran past the cage, clutching at their behinds. Someone else a few steps away kept vomiting. The scent of woodsmoke was replaced by the horrible stench of diarrhea and vomit.
Danielle and Colum looked at each other. “Ye were right. We shouldna give up.” The guard’s trousers lay in a heap right next to the wall of the cage. And at their edge was a key chain.
“Oh my God,” Danielle said. “You think it got dirty in his…poop?”
“I dinna give a shite,” Colum said as he crawled towards the trousers. “Forgive the expression,” he said as he threw a sideways glance at the poor man who squirmed on the ground while his body struggled to get rid of the poison.
“Ahhh!” the man cried again.
She moved to the door as Colum put his hand through the gap in the wooden grating and grabbed the trousers. Careful not to touch the soiled parts, he took the key chain and rushed to Danielle. The clang of the metal keys seemed deafening, and the guard looked at them, his face a grimace of pain.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“Sorry, man,” said Colum as he put his arm through the grating of the door and inserted the key into the lock.
When it turned and the lock fell, the door opened with a loud clang. Danielle’s throat caught at the sight of freedom.
Then they were off.
Chapter 25
As Colum ran next to Danielle, dodging tents, barrels, and sacks, the chase after them was like a tidal wave. Those who didn’t get sick had been awoken by the noise and were quick to take up arms in pursuit of the runaway prisoners. But the mayhem helped their cause, and Colum and Danielle ran as hard as they could. His lungs hurt, his stomach was tight, and his legs and arms were tired and aching as he kept pumping them. He never let his attention slip away from Danielle, always on the lookout for her.
Finally, they were out of the light of campfires and in the darkness beyond the camp. They ran up the hill, using clumps of grass, bushes, branches, and roots to pull themselves up. When Colum looked back, there were people with torches running in all directions. They didn’t know where Colum and Danielle were, but they were searching, and some lights were moving up the hill after them.
