Lynsay Sands - The Chase

LETTING HER GUARD DOWN

"There ye are then!" Angus Dunbar slapped him on the back and chuckled. "They've disarmed the lass, so ye should be able to get the deed done."

Blake's eyes widened incredulously. They'd had to disarm her? Good God. This was ridiculous. Women did everything they could think of to seduce, lure, or trick him into their beds, yet his bride had to be disarmed for him to bed her?

"Go on then." Angus gave him a push toward the door. "We'll be below fer a bit. If ye find yerself in difficulty, give a shout."

The crowd began to move off then. All but Lady Wildwood who, after a slight hesitation, stepped closer and whispered so that the others could not hear, "I trust you shall be gentle with her? All that teasing at sup tonight was not her fault and while the girl may seem strong and fearless, she is as overset as any virgin on her wedding night."

Seonaid laughed with exhilaration as she rode her mount through Dunbar's gates and across the bailey. Bringing it to a halt at the steps to the keep, she leapt to the ground, then turned to grin triumphantly at her two cousins as they rode up.

"Well, and doona ye look pleased with yerself?" Allistair commented as he dismounted. "I was hoping that letting ye win would put a smile on yer face. Glad to see it worked."

"Letting me win?" Seonaid echoed with affront. "Ye ne'er did! I won fair and square and ye ken it, Allistair Dunbar!"

"If you say so, love," he quickly agreed.

Seonaid narrowed her eyes with irritation on his smug smile. He was trying to rile her up. She knew he was. And it worked.

Growling, she launched herself on his back as he made to strut past her. Grateful for the plaid braies she wore, she caught her legs around his waist and slung one arm over his shoulder and down across his chest while she smacked the top of his blond head.

Seonaid was a tall woman, large enough that many men would have been overset by such an attack, but Allistair came from the same stock, was taller than she, and built like a bull. Chuckling with amusement, he caught her under her legs to keep her from slipping off and turned to face his sister as she dismounted and moved to join them.

"You two are a right pair," Aeldra said with amusement. "But you can't fool us with claiming to have let her win to make her smile, Allie. She's been smiling ever since we came up with a way to avoid the Sherwell."

"Aye. So there!" Seonaid gave his long hair a tug.

"Hair pullin'," he snorted, bouncing her on his back. "That's a female's technique if ever I saw one." A shout came from the wall, past the gates they'd just ridden through, and he paused to look.

Seonaid followed his gaze, her eyes widening as a wagon and at least twenty riders came slowly into the bailey.

She frowned at the sight of her father at the head of the party, then spotted her brother riding with his young wife, Iliana, mounted before him. The couple were keeping apace of the open wagon. Seonaid could see at least one head poking out of the wagon, but couldn't see much else.

"What's about?" Aeldra asked.

Unhooking her ankles, Seonaid patted Allistair on the arm to get him to release her, then let her legs drop. Once on her feet, she moved around to the man's side to eye the riders. "I doona ken. I dinna ken they'd left the castle."

"I wonder where they are coming from," Aeldra murmured.

Seonaid shook her head. "It couldna ha'e been far. We werena gone long and they were here when we left."

"They went to fetch Lady Wildwood," explained the breathless maid who was now rushing down the stairs toward them. Seonaid thought her name was Janna. She was one of the new women Iliana had hired from the village.

"Lady Wildwood?"

"Lady Iliana's mother," Janna explained, looking worried. "She fled that Greenweld fellow that forced her to marry him and headed here, but it appears she fell ill or something, for she made it as far as the border of Dunbar but no farther. A servant rode to the castle to say a wagon would be needed to bring her the rest of the way. Lady Iliana and Duncan headed right out with Lord Angus and twenty men to fetch them back."

Seonaid nodded at this news, then turned back as the small party came to a halt before them. She watched in silence as her brother lifted his wife off his mount. The moment her feet hit the ground, Iliana was running around to the back of the wagon. Duncan was quick to follow her. Seonaid saw her brother climb into the back of the wagon and stoop to pick up what at first appeared to be a bundle of heavy cloth. It wasn't until he was back on the ground and walking toward them that Seonaid could clearly see that his burden was a woman. It was only her hair, trailing across his arm and toward the ground in lank salt and pepper waves, that revealed her gender. There was no way to tell from her battered features.

If Lady Wildwood normally looked anything like her lovely daughter, there was no sign of that now. Her face was puffy and blotchy with bruises, her lip split, and her nose was swollen so badly that Seonaid could only assume it was broken. From the way the woman was whimpering and flinching with every careful step Duncan took, the rest of her body had not faired any better. It must have been a hellish journey for her.

Seonaid's gaze slipped away from the woman's ravaged face to her brother's expression. Any questions she might have asked him were immediately swallowed back. He was furious. Curious now, Seonaid caught her father's arm as he made to follow Duncan up the stairs. She held him back and waited a moment before asking quietly, "Janna said that was Iliana's mother?"

"Aye." His voice was sharp and short with the same anger Duncan was carrying.

"What happened to her?"

"Greenweld," Angus said with disgust. "The English took his fists to her. She was forced to flee for her life."

"And came all the way here?" Seonaid asked with amazement, thinking that surely there was somewhere closer in England that she might have sought sanctuary.

"We're kin now through Iliana. She knew we could keep her safe from that bastard husband of hers, and wouldn't turn her back over to him when he comes to demand her back," Angus said grimly, then followed the rest of the party up the stairs and into the keep.

The bailey seemed unnaturally quiet once the doors had closed behind them.

"I'm thinkin' 'tis a shame ye werena leaving today," Allistair commented quietly, drawing Seonaid's attention away from the closed door.

"Aye," Aeldra agreed. "Distracted as they are with Iliana's mother, they may no notice our being gone for a bit."

Seonaid nodded slowly in agreement, then shook her head. "Nay. We'll stick to the plan. We ride out tomorrow. They most like still willna notice our absence fer a bit. Greenweld's treatment of Lady Wildwood will have them all fired up for a few days."