Geordie flapped the folded plaid out to lie on the grass, and then took the time to move to each corner and give it a tugto straighten it out on the ground as he considered what to do first. He wanted to make love to Dwyn in the waterfall, andhad planned to set her down here just long enough to strip off her clothes and bandages, as well as his own clothes, and thencarry her into the water. But the kiss he’d just shared with her had heated his blood so quickly he feared they’d end up matinghere on the plaid first.
“Well, so be it,” Geordie muttered to himself. With the appetite his wife had, and that he had for her, they could start here,move on to the waterfall after they’d rested and then maybe make their way over to the meadow where the ladies had pickedtheir flowers. He’d had some pretty hot imaginings of loving Dwyn there too, and they could end the night back at their tree,perhaps even in the tree if he came up with a way to keep them from falling, he thought wryly, and turned to walk back to Dwyn where he’dleft her. Only she wasn’t there.
Geordie’s feet paused, and he blinked at the spot where he’d left her . . . by his horse, which also wasn’t there.
“What the hell?” he muttered with bewilderment. While Geordie knew that the noise of the falls would have prevented his hearingthe horse leave, Dwyn wouldn’t have ridden away with the beast without him. Where the hell were they? he wondered, and thenspotted something on the ground by where he’d left his horse. Hurrying forward, he squatted and picked up the item, his heartlurching when he turned it in his hand and realized it was Dwyn’s slipper.
His eyes searched the dark woods as he straightened, and then he withdrew his sword and started forward. His pace was cautious,until he heard a male shout followed quickly by Dwyn screaming his name, then he burst into a run.
“Shut up, bitch!”
Dwyn grunted as she was hit in the face hard enough to send her crashing to the forest floor.
“And what the hell’s the matter with ye, Coll? Screaming like that. Ye’ll give us away. We’re supposed to be quiet, remember?”
“She grabbed me ballocks and twisted.”
Dwyn raised her face off the ground, and glanced around as she spat out the dirt that had got in her mouth as she’d fallen.The man who had dragged her into the woods must be the one presently bent over with both hands covering his groin, she decided.Which meant the man standing straight up was the one who had hit her and started yelling. And he was complaining about theother one not being quiet? She snorted at that, and then stilled, her eyes narrowing warily when the standing man turned onher.
“Ye’ll no’ be looking so pleased with yerself when we get ye back to our camp, little lady,” he growled, stomping toward her.
Dwyn tried to lunge to her feet and make her escape, but didn’t even get upright before he grabbed her by a handful of hairand yanked her around to face him. Dragging her so close she could smell his foul breath, he snarled, “There’s a good chancethe men’ll all get a turn at plowin’ into ye once we have ye back at camp, lass, and I’m thinking Coll there’s gonna wantto show ye about as much care as ye showed him now we ken what a nasty lass ye are. So, unless ye want me to behave just asbadly, I suggest—”
He broke off abruptly, his head swiveling to the side.
It was only then Dwyn heard the sounds of someone crashing through the woods toward them. Geordie had heard her scream, shethought with relief, and then began to struggle as the man holding her by the hair tried to drag her in front of him. Desperateto get away, she tried to reach down and grab him as she had the other man, but this one was ready for that trick and grabbedher hand with his free one so she kneed him in the groin instead. When his grip eased, Dwyn threw herself to the side. Shewas already scrambling away before she hit the ground, desperate to put as much distance between them as she could to avoidbeing used against Geordie. But Dwyn hadn’t moved far when she heard the ring of swords clashing.
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Geordie battling the man she’d just kneed. It took little more than three swings of hissword before he felled the man. It was only when Geordie started to turn toward her that she realized he didn’t know therewas a second man. She and the villain he’d just felled must have been blocking the second one from view, she thought, andshouted a warning even as a sword suddenly exploded out of the front of his lower chest.
She watched with horror as Geordie lowered his head to peer in shock as the blade slid back the way it had come until it disappearedinto his chest. Dwyn fully expected Geordie to drop to the ground then as the first villain had done when he’d struck hima similar blow, although it had been a little higher on him. But Geordie didn’t drop. Instead, he whirled on his feet witha roar, his sword coming up and swinging.
Judging by the man’s wide eyes and gaping mouth, he hadn’t expected that response from Geordie any more than she had, Dwynthought grimly as she watched his head tumble from his neck and crash to the floor even as his body fell. Only then did Geordiego down, dropping first to his knees, and then falling forward on the forest floor.
Crying out, Dwyn crawled quickly to his side. Her gaze slid over his back, but while her eyes had adjusted quickly to thedark forest where the moonlight didn’t
