Kenna slid off the end of the wagon as gently as she could. The last thing Colum needed was another sharp bounce as the loss of her weight shook the cart. She stared back up into it. Thankfully, Colum hadn’t moved. They had finally gotten enough herb-laced whisky into him to numb him into a restless stupor. But her hardheaded warrior, her Viking god still fought and cursed them even in his drugged sleep.
She closed her eyes and leaned heavily against the cold iron frame of the wagon. A deep breath shuddered free of her as she sent up another silent prayer of thanks. Colum’s arms and legs were still intact. Badly injured, but at least the axe hadn’t been necessary. Now, all she had to do was keep his soul anchored in his body until they made it back to the keep.Please let him live. Please let him hold on until they can heal him.
“Yon lies a fresh stream. Go. See to yerself.” Ronan gently pulled her away from the cart. “I promise ye, we will not tarry here longer than a few hours, but I must give the horses a bit of rest or they will not last the remainder of the journey.”
“You promised we wouldn’t make camp for the night. Promised we would travel straight through to the keep. Right?” She pulled the plaid tighter around her shoulders, shivering against the cold dampness of the dreary day. What she wouldn’t give to turn back the clock to a warm sunny day in the garden. A delightful day where her only worry was teasing Colum with kisses. A hard swallow against an onrush of tears nearly choked her. What she wouldn’t give to change a lot of things.
Ronan frowned down at her like a weary parent displeased with an unruly child. “Ye will find I always keep my word. We are not making camp. But we canna risk the health of the horses or the men. If we push either too hard, we will never make it back. All must have a bit of rest. Fresh water and feed must be tended to as well.” He gently nudged her toward the softly bubbling sound of moving water and again nodded toward the woods. “Fresh water and a bit of food would help ye as well. Go now. Tend to yer needs. A fine fire will be ready when ye return.”
She glanced back at Colum one last time, then finally nodded. Reluctantly, she admitted Ronan was right. If they all dropped from exhaustion, they would never get Colum the help he needed.
Her muddy dress crackled and weighed down her steps as she plodded into the trees. With an irritated yank, she snapped free a good-sized branch from a nearby sapling. Gritting her teeth and mentally counting off all her frustrations, she whacked at the mud-encrusted folds of what was once fine, costly material. She repeatedly beat against her skirts until most of the dried chunks of mud fell free.
Better.She shook her skirts from side to side. Much better.She straightened and rubbed her lower back, then tossed the stick and dropped free the tattered layers of her cherished gown. What a ridiculous failure that plan had turned out to be. Kenna sighed and shook again. The last of the dried mud and bits of debris pattered down into the leaves around her like steady drops of rain.
She swiped a corner of Ronan’s borrowed plaid across her mud-streaked décolleté. That was useless. She would have to wait until she reached the creek because that layer of filth was going to take some water and scrubbing. Ten pounds of caked mud from her clothes might have been knocked free, but the stubborn Highland soil wasn’t giving any ground when it came to her skin.
She paused and cocked an ear back toward Ronan’s men as they milled around tending to the horses. The deep somber rumble of their conversations hummed around the wagon like thunder in low-hanging clouds. Kenna swallowed hard against the aching knot in her throat and blinked again against the threat of tears. No. She had to be strong. For Colum. She had to be the one to get them both through this. Someday, he would realize why she had to do this. Someday, he would understand.Like hell, her inner voice prodded. She shook her head against the truth.
The frosty cold made her sniff as she gathered up her skirts and plodded on. She would feel better once she washed up; icy water splashed on her face would clear her head. A dull ache deep in her right hip forced her to slow her pace. She must’ve pulled something during her wrestling match with the tree. She paused, sucked in a deep breath, then winced and bent against a sharp stabbing burn in her ribs. Hopefully, the stream was close. The more she moved, the more aches and pains were making themselves known.
After shoving her way through tangled underbrush, she lifted her head and listened. The water sounded a bit closer but not as close as it should. Kenna turned, straining to see back up the hillside. She couldn’t see Ronan and his men anymore. Couldn’t even hear them. How could the stream have sounded so close and still be so far away? She shivered deeper into the woolen cloth around her shoulders and pulled it closer around her face. An eerie sense of being watched tingled across her.
She squinted against the biting wind rattling through the trees and shook away the feeling. “Now is not the time to lose your last shred of sanity.” Her voice sounded lost and small beneath the stark canopy of silent trees. A rustling crunch came from the right. She jerked toward the noise. Nothing was there but a scraggly bunch of gray-twigged saplings. “Get to the water, Kenna, before you completely lose your mind.” She huffed out an irritated breath and shrugged free the cloying feeling she wasn’t alone.
With her skirts gathered in one hand, she quickened her pace. She had to get to that stream. Fresh icy water would do the trick. Not only would it wash away the dirt, but it would also cleanse away paranoia.
Finally, she reached the edge of the stream. Smooth black rocks, round and glistening, peeped up through a paper-thin layer of ice. They must be a great deal farther up the mountain than she had realized. That explained why it was still so cold.
Bubbling water, clearer than the finest crystal, danced and gurgled across a smooth bed of larger stones dotting the center of the creek. She gingerly worked her way down the steep embankment until she reached an open bend that smoothed out into a wide shallow strand of gray-white pebbles. Perfect. She could break through the coating of ice and wash up without having to perch on the edge of the bank like a bird at a watering trough. The memory of the steep ravine she had so recently survived sent a series of shivers through her. She blinked hard and took a deep breath. She’d definitely had enoughperchingto last her a lifetime.
Squatting at the stream’s edge, Kenna knotted the tails of the plaid around her waist and plunged her hands into the icy water. Her fingers burned with the freezing cold as she splashed the water on her throat and scrubbed the mud from her décolleté.
A nagging sense of something not quite right plagued her worse than the sting of the biting wind. She tried to shake the feeling as she closed her eyes and submerged her face in her water-filled hands. Blinking away the dripping water, she opened her eyes to the iciest blue stare she had ever seen. Her heart rate ratcheted into high gear as the wolf in front of her lowered its shaggy gray head and growled.
Gaze locked with the wolf’s predatory stare, she opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Kenna stared at the beast. Didn’t wolves always hunt in packs? Without moving her head, she darted a quick glance along the embankment directly behind the animal. If this one had any friends, they must have decided to remain hidden. She would decide later if that was good or bad.
Now, to figure a way out of this mess. She chewed on her chapped lips and eased back on her heels. If she could get to the dagger that Ronan had returned to her, she might not be able to fend the creature off for long, but she could at least slow it down.
Memories of nature documentaries streamed through her mind. Granny had always loved watching the shows, just to argue with their inaccuracies. There had been one about wolves. What had they said about them stalking their prey? Kenna chewed her lip until it bled while she inched her right hand down her leg and felt for the haft of her knife.
The animal’s gaze followed her hand. Ears perked, the wolf rumbled a louder warning and slid another pace closer. The great animal’s shoulders bunched beneath its thick pelt. Its muscular hindquarters tensed to lunge.
Kenna held the predator’s stare with her own as she slid the dagger from its sheath. With movements so slow and painstaking it made her muscles ache, she pulled the plaid wrapped around her waist loose and bunched it around her throat. She had to protect her throat and her belly when the wolf attacked and, hopefully, wound the beast with some well-placed slashes of her blade.
Ronan’s deep voice rang out from behind her and echoed through the trees. “Stay yer ground,madadh allaidh.This woman is under my protection.” His words were followed by a low, clicking growl—a growl that sounded exactly like that of another wolf.
Shit. Shit. Shit. There was another wolf behind them, and it sounded like a big one.Kenna stole a glance back at Ronan. He stood a bit higher up on the bank—alone. She rolled the knife in her hand. Where the hell was the other wolf? It had sounded so close. She and Ronan needed to get their backs snug against the protection of the embankment fast, before the animals attacked.
The great wild beast in front of her lifted its head, bared its yellowed fangs, and snorted out a hissing response.
Kenna slowly rose from her crouched position, knife held aloft and ready in case the wolf decided to spring. She edged her way backward, all the while watching the wolf as it inched closer. “I heard another one behind you. Do you see it?” She stole another glance back. Ronan’s relaxed stance and sense of calm seemed completely out of place. Was the man crazy? They were about to be eaten by wolves. “And I don’t think this one cares if you know me. I think food is the main thing on its mind.”
He stepped forward and pulled her behind him. “No. Ye happened too close to the pups she protects. She guards the orphaned young of others.”
She eased around, searching the woods behind them. “What about the other one?”
“I am the only one here.”
