Her voice quivered as she stopped wallowing through the tall grass and faced him. “You don’t understand. I am the eldest. Karma is more than just a dog.” She cast another worried glance up the hillside before turning back to Gray. “Karma has been with me ever since I can remember. He will be with me until my soul travels on. He is a part of me. My guardian. My familiar. The eldest daughter of every time runner generation is gifted with an animal spirit guide.” She hitched in a deep breath, gathered up her skirts, and started toward the woods. “I can’t lose him, Gray. I have to keep him safe.”
The emotions in her voice stirred his heart even more than the eeriness of her words.Guardian. Familiar.A worried knowing filled his gut. The Sinclair women needed to stay well within the MacKenna lands. Superstition and belief in the old ways had long been held sacred by the MacKenna clan. The old magic was still considered holy. But in other parts of Scotland, the Sinclair women would not be so safe.
“Come.” Gray waved her toward him. “We will follow the path to Tamhas’s dwelling. I feel certain that is where the lad is headed. Ye ken he has always gone ahead of us before and been waiting there when we arrived.”
An excited bark echoed from the woods, followed by a deep baying howl. The sound traveled across the hillside, gradually growing fainter by the minute.
“Karma!” Trulie shouted and took off in that direction.
“Lass!” Gray loped up the hillside, dodging and leaping over tangled clumps of matted heather. How the hell could the woman move so fast? This was not the place for her to wander alone. Gray crashed through a tangle of saplings and fought deeper into the woods.
“D-dammit!” A cursing shriek followed by splashing water came from just up ahead. Karma’s steady bark echoed through the woods as though he were shouting instructions to his mistress.
Even before he had shoved his way through the thick underbrush, Gray knew exactly what had happened. He had hunted these hills many a time and cooled his body in the spring-fed pool just up ahead. An unwary traveler could easily be deceived by the grade and lay of the land. If they did not keep to the steep side of the path and carefully set each step, the unknowing discovered too late how the loose shale paving the slight walkway would throw them. The unseen trap would quickly shift and send them tumbling into the deepest end of the pool.
Louder splashing and curse words hurried Gray farther down the path. If he remembered correctly, an overhang of stone should be just up ahead. Depending on how high the level of the pool had risen from the most recent storms and snow melt, he should be able to reach the lass from there.
“Karma! Get help!” Trulie’s gasps for breath spiked her words with panic.
Gray pushed through a tangled mass of carpet willows and came to an abrupt halt.
The huge black bear of a dog sat at the edge of the wide plate of limestone. The stone shelf hung several feet above the rippling surface of the pool. Ears perked, head cocked to one side, the great beast’s enormous tail swept slowly back and forth atop the rock as he stared down at the water.
“Karma, please! Go get Gray or Granny or somebody. I am freezing my assets off and can’t make it up the bank. The rocks are too steep and I can’t get past all that brush on the shallow end.”
Gray couldn’t help but chuckle. Her assets. Aye. He had admired them every time Mistress Trulie walked away from him. More splashing sounded, followed by a very feminine growl of frustration. He halted at the edge of the stone as Karma turned and faced him.
“Easy, lad.” He kept his voice low as he moved up beside the dog. “I mean yer mistress no harm. I only mean to pull her from the water.”
Karma’s long pink tongue lolled out one side of his mouth, between several large, sharp-looking teeth. If Gray didn’t know better, he would swear the beast was actually smiling. He nodded to the dog and lowered himself to his hands and knees.
Trulie’s pale face bobbed just above the black surface of the pool. Her wide eyes flickered with growing panic. With fingers outspread, the pallor of her hands reflected beneath the spreading ripples like shining fish skimming near the surface. Her long, dark hair shimmered like polished ebony, slicked down against the sides of her face and floating across the top of the water like rich, black ribbons.
Gray stretched out his hand and motioned her forward. “Here, lass. Come. Take my hand.”
The top of the pool bubbled and foamed as Trulie flailed closer to the rock shelf. She grunted and lunged upward for Gray’s hand.
“Get lower. I can’t reach you.” She sputtered and gasped as she sank back into the water. “You’re going to have to get down on your belly and hang farther over the water.” Her blue-tinged lips trembled and her teeth started to chatter.
He flopped down on his stomach and stretched out over the pool. He had to get the woman out of the water fast. The cold was beginning to take its toll. She would surely drown if he didn’t rescue her soon. Locking the toes of his boots into the dips and bumps in the rock, he held out both hands. “Now, lass. Take my hands.”
She took in a deep breath and lunged upward, missing Gray’s fingertips by a whisper. When she fell back into the water this time, she submerged completely.
Karma stood at attention. He dug and pawed at the front of the stone while barking down at the water. Ears perked forward toward the spot where his mistress had disappeared, his tail no longer wagged.
“Enough of this.” Gray jumped to his feet, stripped off his great plaid, and peeled off his knee-length léine. The cold Highland air against his flesh strengthened his resolve. He would be damned if he allowed the lass to drown and saddle him with her grandmother. He dove headfirst into the freezing water. Opening his eyes to liquid blackness, his fingers brushed against Trulie as she struggled to rise to the surface. He rose up behind her, hooked an arm around her torso and pulled her back against his chest. No wonder the lass could hardly stay afloat. Her heavy layers of clothing made an effective anchor.
He pushed them both back up to the blessed air. “I have ye now,” he said against her chilled cheek as her head fell back against his shoulder.
She coughed and closed her eyes. Her arms floated limp on the water. “Good. Because I am entirely too tired to swim anymore.”
“Open yer damn eyes!” He shook her. Now was not the time for the woman to give up. Not when he nearly had her saved.
Her dark lashes fluttered against her pale cheeks, then her eyes slowly opened. In a breathless voice, weak and rasping, she nodded toward the rock ledge looming up ahead. “If you’re going to save me from drowning or freezing to death, I wish you would hurry up and do it. I am really tired of being cold and I have never liked swimming.”
“Aye, lass. I will warm ye.”Those firm breasts of hers currently caught beneath his arm deserved his undivided attention. A violent shiver shook her in his arms, triggering immediate remorse. What the hell was wrong with him? The woman was about to freeze to death and he had bed play on his mind?
“I is now or never, Gray,” she whispered, then went limp against him.
