Jamie closed her eyes and concentrated on calming her racing heartbeat. Mary was clinging to her now, squeezing the breath out of her.
Jamie was suddenly shaking like a leaf in a windstorm. Her legs felt as brittle as kindling wood.
'You may open your eyes now.'
Alec gave her that order. When Jamie did as he commanded, she found her husband standing just a breath away from her.
His eyes didn't look so terribly cold now. In truth, she thought he looked close to smiling. That didn't make any sense to her. She'd just seen him kill so easily, so brutally, so casually. And now he looked as if he wanted to smile over it.
Jamie couldn't make up her mind if she wanted to run away from him or stay and throttle him.
While she stared up at her husband, she heard Daniel order Mary to come with him, then felt him pry her sister's hands away from her. She didn't have the strength to help with that chore, yet she did wonder why Daniel sounded so angry with Mary and why Alec looked so damned cheerful.
Jamie wasn't aware her hands were clenched together. Alec was. 'It's finished,' he told her in a soft voice.
'Finished?' she repeated. She turned to look at the man Alec had just felled, and immediately started to shake.
Alec moved to block her view. He held up her dagger, his intent to give it back to her, but stayed that action when he saw how upset she was. She acted as though the dirk had suddenly become possessed by demons.
'This belongs to you, doesn't it?' he asked, confused by the unreasonable fear in her eyes.
Jamie took a step to the side, looked down at the dead man again, staring at the gaping hole in his neck where the dagger had penetrated.
Alec again moved to block her view. 'Wife?'
She started backing away from him. 'I don't want the dagger anymore. Throw it away. I have another one in my satchel.'
'He's dead, wife,' Alec stated, trying to be reasonable. 'You needn't keep looking at him, lass. He can't hurt you now.'
'Aye, he's dead,' she stated with a vehement nod. 'You tossed me in the air, Alec, just like a…'
'Caber?'
She nodded again. 'You killed him so easily, milord. I've never seen…'
When she didn't finish her statement, Alec let out a sigh. 'It was good of you to notice,' he said then.
She gave him an incredulous look while she continued to back away from him. 'It was good of me…? Do you think I am giving you praise, husband?' She paused to take a deep breath, trying to ease the ache in her throat, then looked at the dagger he was holding. 'Throw that away, if you please. I don't want to look at it.'
'Does the sight of blood upset you?' he asked. He thought her behavior most confusing. The woman had been a tigress only minutes before, when she struggled with her captor, yet now was acting like a frightened child.
Alec tried once again to calm her. He tossed the dagger over his shoulder.
'Yes-I mean, no,' Jamie suddenly blurted out.
'Yes and no what?' he asked.
'You asked me if the sight of blood distresses me,' Jamie explained in a rush.
'And I answered you.'
'You did?'
She threaded her fingers through her hair, inadvertently making it more disheveled than before, then whispered, 'That blood makes me sick.'
She had to sigh then. She'd meant to tell him she was used to seeing blood, that she was a healer and had probably mopped up enough blood to turn a river red, but it was simply too much trouble to try to explain anything. She was still reacting to the terrible upset she'd just had, she told herself, and to her husband's incredible strength.
There was also the rather painful fact that he had been very willing to give her away. Her horse actually meant more to him than she did.
She was going to have nightmares for a month.
Alec suddenly reached out and pulled her into his arms. 'If you take another step back, you'll end up on top of the heap.'
Jamie took one look over her shoulder, saw the stack of bodies, and felt her knees give out on her. She would have fallen on her face if he hadn't held her up.
Yet even in her distressed state, she couldn't help noticing how very gentle he was being. A contradiction, that, given the fact that he was such a giant of a man. It didn't seem possible that someone his size could be so gentle. Yet it seemed just as unlikely that he could dispose of four armed attackers without showing the least bit of exertion. The man hadn't even worked up a proper sweat.
He smelled nice. Jamie leaned against his chest and let him hold her.
'Did you mean it, Alec?' she whispered.
'Mean what?' he asked.
She didn't explain quickly enough to suit him. He tilted her chin up so he could see her expression. 'Mean what, wife?'
'When you told that horrible man he could have me but not my horse,' she explained. 'Did you really mean what you said?'
He would have laughed if she hadn't looked so upset. 'No.'
She immediately collapsed against him. 'Then why did you sound as if you meant it?'
Her voice was still whisper-soft, but he heard her all the same. Alec couldn't believe she harbored such a worry. Give her up? Never! 'I wanted him to think he was in control, lass.'
'He was in control, Alec,' Jamie argued. 'He was the one with the knife.'
'Ah, I see,' Alec returned, a smile in his voice now. 'Then the men who circled me were also in control.'
'Well, no,' Jamie whispered. 'I mean to say, they did have weapons, but you were the one who… took charge.'
Before he could respond to that comment, Jamie added, 'Then it was all a trick, wasn't it? You lied to him.'
'I lied to him.'
She let out another long sigh before her shivers reminded her how frightened she'd been. She immediately shoved away from him.
Jamie was back to being bloody furious. There was fire in her eyes, Alec thought, and he didn't have the faintest idea why she was angry now. The woman was as puzzling as a maze.
Ignoring her command to let go of her, Alec draped his arm around her shoulders, hauled her up against his side, and led her over to where Daniel had collected the horses.
Jamie didn't offer a word of gratitude when he lifted her up onto Wildfire's back. She kept her gaze downcast until he handed her the reins. His hands brushed against hers, startling her. She jerked her hands away.
'Look at me.'
He waited until she obeyed his command before speaking again. 'You've shown me how courageous you are, wife. I'm very pleased with you.'
Her eyes widened in surprise. Alec smiled. He'd just found a rather simple way to placate her: praise. Wasn't it true that all women liked to hear their husbands' expressions of approval from time to time? Alec decided to remember that fact for future use.
'You might be pleased with me, husband, but I'm certainly not pleased with you, you arrogant Scotsman.'
The thunder in her voice surprised him as much as her retort.
'You don't want my approval?'
She didn't bother to answer his question, but the anger in her expression told him he'd misjudged her. She wasn't one to be swayed by praise. Alec nodded with satisfaction. 'Tell me why you were so frightened.'
