mouth.
She looked at Cait and grimaced. The other woman laughed.
'What is so amusing?' Drustan asked.
Cait lost her smile. 'Emily doesn't seem to like the oatcake.'
'It is merely that the flavor took me by surprise,' Emily hedged, not wanting to be rude even amidst her enemies and then got angry with herself for caring whether or not she offended them.
They bloody well deserved to be offended.
'I don't like them either,' Cait assured her. 'Only warriors lack taste enough to find them palatable.'
'That doesn't surprise me,' Emily said with asperity.
They finished the repast quickly despite its unappetizing nature.
'Come here, English.' It was Lachlan. He was twenty feet away, standing by the boat that looked much too small to transport five giant warriors and two women anywhere across the water. He was so close to the edge, he was practically standing in the water.
She had no desire to get that close to the sea. 'My name is Emily, not English.'
The big warrior just shrugged. And waited.
She crossed her arms and gave him a look that told him he could wait until her father came calling from England. She wasn't getting that near to the water. She measured the distance to the horses out of the corner of her eye. If Drustan wasn't so close, they would have better luck escaping, but they had to try.
She turned to signal Cait, but she was too late. Without so much as a muscle twitch of warning, Drustan swung Cait up in his arms and headed toward the boat. She yelled and shoved against his chest, but he kept hold of her.
'Ulf,' the laird said.
A second later, Emily found herself swung high in another warrior's arms and then thrown over his shoulder. It was the man who had said Talorc would thank Lachlan for stealing her because she was English. She immediately tried bucking out of his hold, but his grip tightened painfully across her thighs and she yelped.
His shoulder rammed her stomach with every step he took and she found it difficult to breathe. She was not happy about hanging upside down either. His backside was right there and she averted her face so she was at least looking at the ground. He felt different from Lachlan and she didn't want him holding her. Even briefly.
His glare had been filled with a malevolence she had not seen in Lachlan's eyes either.
'Put me down,' she demanded when she could get enough breath, only to lose it again as she realized the warrior had walked right into the water.
He put her down all right… straight into the boat on a tiny seat beside Cait. The craft rocked dangerously and she gasped in fright. Drustan was in front of them and Ulf climbed into the boat behind them. He sat down right behind her, his hostile presence too close for comfort. She felt trapped and her body twitched with the need to get away from him.
The water was shallow here. She noticed his legs were only wet up to his knees. No matter how dark it looked, it was not deep. She must remember that. Emily pinched Cait lightly. It was now or never. Her friend dove out one side of the boat while Emily forced nausea-producing fear down so she could dive out the other. Ulf caught her by the skirt of her overtunic and held her hanging above the water.
The sound of splashing and Drustan's bellow told her Cait had been more successful.
'Save yourself, Cait,' Emily screamed as she scrabbled to get back in the boat and do what she could to hamper efforts at catching her friend.
She was just in time to grab Drustan's ankle. She clung for all she was worth with both hands, but he gave a mighty yank, straining her shoulder joints. He dove after Cait, but it was the other redheaded soldier who caught her as she tried to mount the single horse remaining on dry land.
Cait fought like a wildcat, biting and clawing, screaming for the man to let her go.
But it was Drustan's lethally quiet command that accomplished that. The other soldier released her and Drustan grabbed her in the same motion. He subdued her almost instantly and tied her hands behind her back with a leather strap, his face set in a black scowl. He then did the same to her feet.
Cait was sobbing by the time he was done. 'Don't do this,' she begged through her tears. 'Please, don't do this. I'll talk to Talorc… there will be an apology. Please…'
But Drustan just picked her up, cradled her to his chest like a small child and carried her back to the boat.
She looked up at him. 'I h-hate you. I'll never be yours. N-never!'
He looked down at her and his anger was terrifying. 'You'll be mine, lass. Hate me if you will, but I am keeping you just as Magnus kept my Susannah.'
'I'll kill you first, or die trying,' Cait said, her tears giving way to fury.
After that, she said nothing, sitting ramrod straight on the small bench beside Emily. With a sideways look, Emily noted that Cait was glaring a hole in Drustan's back. And the horrible man deserved it.
Emily did not know how to help her friend, but her mind was reeling in horror from what the angry warrior's words had implied. Less than five minutes later, they cast off. The warriors rowed with practiced movements that showed they'd made this crossing together many times before.
She was trying not to imagine how deep the water was or how flimsy the boat felt. She valiantly ignored the spray from waves that crashed against its bow. Her eyes were fixed firmly on the back of Drustan's wet plaid, but the image of the furious soldier was no mote comforting than the terrifying water.
She turned to Cait. 'Are you all right?' she asked in Latin.
Cait met her gaze with troubled brown eyes. 'The babe and I are not physically harmed,' her friend replied in the same language. 'But I am not all right.'
Emily nodded, understanding better than another woman might what it meant to feel her life had been taken out of her control and the best she could do for those she loved still left them vulnerable. 'I am sorry.'
'Thank you, but you know it is not your fault.'
'I insisted on bathing outside the walls… because I was weak.'
'We were on Sinclair land. We should have been safe.'
'You should not have been with me. If your brother had known you were going, he would have sent more soldiers to guard you… probably older ones, too.'
'The boy he sent with you is known to be fierce. Unless he had sent a contingent of his personal guard, like he did to fetch you from the border, we could not have been better protected. Even then, it would have been an uncertain outcome with the Balmoral soldiers.'
'They are that fearsome?' Emily asked.
'These ones are.'
'It is still my fault we were outside the walls.'
'Emily, I would have taken you to see the loch sometime. They would have been waiting then.'
'You think they were watching for their opportunity?'
'I am sure of it.'
The wind gusted and despite the summer sun, Emily shivered. Cait was wet and she wasn't. She patted her friend's shoulder in commiseration. 'You must be awfully cold.'
Cait looked surprised by the comment. 'Nay.'
Her friend certainly wasn't shivering like Emily was and she did not understand it. She'd noticed at the Sinclair keep that they often didn't light a fire in the hall until evening although it was certainly chilly enough for one much earlier in her estimation. There was no doubt about it, the Highlanders were a hardy people.
But even a strong woman like Cait could be broken by the kind of plans Emily suspected Drustan had for her friend.
'Cait…'
'Yes, Emily?'
'What does it mean to
Cait grimaced. 'You mean like Drustan has threatened to keep me?'
It had sounded more
'Between a man and a woman, it means he intends to take her for his mate.'
'Drustan is going to marry you?' It was as she feared, but something still did not make sense to her. 'But is
