"He is but a lad and he wouldnae kill us."
"Aye, I know it. Fear makes me sharp. Let us bind his wound.” They each tore strips from their petticoats although Islaen's was so badly torn she suspected her contribution would only serve as padding. “The sword thrust pierced his side cleanly."
"Do we try to escape now or wait for Iain and Tavis?” Islaen frowned, sniffed the air, then froze. “Smoke,” she whispered.
"That filthy dog. Come on, help me drag this fool boy nearer the back. We must get out. We cannae wait for our men now."
Iain stared down at the small crofter's hut and fought the urge to ride down there, sword swinging. He noticed Tavis looking as taut as he felt and suspected his brother suffered a like urge. They had to go slowly but he felt it was the hardest thing he had ever done. He tensed when he saw Fraser come out of the hut. Iain wished he could be sure that Fraser had no men there with him for then he could simply kill the man and collect Islaen and Storm.
"Fraser,” he bellowed. “Give it up. Ye have lost."
"Aye, but so have ye, Iain MacLagan,” Fraser cried, grabbed a stick from the fire before the hut and darted around the side.
"What is that madman doing?” Tavis grumbled and signaled his archers to be ready.
Fraser darted back to the fire, laughing in a way that made Iain shiver. “Aye, MacLagan, ye have lost too."
"Nay,” Iain screamed when he saw what the man meant to do with the burning stick he pulled from the fire.
Even as Fraser tossed the stick at the thatched roof the MacLagan archers fired. An instant later his body bristled with arrows. With a maddened bellow echoed by Tavis, Iain charged towards the hut but, by the time he reached it, flames engulfed the place. When he and Tavis tried to get closer, a white-faced Colin ordered the men to hold them back. The hut was burning so fast that even if the men got inside they would never come out alive. They could not even use the water that was near for there was nothing to carry it with.
"'Tis nay so bad at the back,” one man cried and they all raced to where he led.
Islaen did not think she had ever been so scared. She and Storm were breaking through the wall but it seemed to go so slowly. The place was filling with smoke. Her eyes streamed and she felt as if she was choking. She noticed that Storm was no better. Burning pieces of the roof were falling in by the time they felt the hole was big enough to get through.
"Ye go first, Islaen,” Storm ordered. “Do not argue. Ye carry a babe. Get out there and then pull the lad through."
She knew she would only waste precious seconds by arguing so Islaen wriggled through the hole. Reaching back through she grasped the youth under the arms and was pulling him out when suddenly she was yanked away. Roughly set down away from the rapidly burning hut, she watched dumb-founded as Iain and Tavis yanked the youth out, then Tavis pulled Storm out. Seconds later the roof collapsed in a shower of sparks and Tavis, the nearest to the conflagaration, had several sparks land on him. She heard him curse when too many hands roughly slapped out the embers. It was not until Iain yanked off his tunic and put it on her that she came out of her stupor. She then realized she had been sitting there almost naked while the MacLagan men stood around.
Iain saw her torn clothes and her bruises and felt like weeping. “We had to wait, lass, to go slow for fear he would kill ye."
Still blushing over how she had sat so exposed before his men, Islaen only nodded as he helped her stand, then whispered, “'Tis all right."
"An I had come to him as he had asked, I could have saved you from this."
"I am alive, Iain. ‘Tis all that matters."
"I feel the same, Islaen. Believe that. No matter what that whoreson did to ye, I care only that ye have survived it all."
Suddenly realizing what he thought had happened, Islaen whispered, “He didnae rape me, Iain."
Gently grasping her by the shoulders, he said, “Islaen, there is no need to lie. It doesnae matter. Ye arenae at fault."
"But I tell ye, he didnae..."
"Sometimes,” Robert interrupted softly, “they say the shock is so great the woman puts it from her mind. Best we get her back to Caraidland."
"Aye,” Iain agreed. “Meg can tend to her."
"Iain, will ye just listen...” she began.
"Come, Islaen, we will take ye to Meg. Ye will learn to accept this,” he said softly, “and understand that it doesnae matter to me."
"Iain,” she ground out, “I wasnae raped."
"Islaen, we can all see the truth,” he said sadly.
Following his gaze she did not need to see beneath the tunic that hung on her. She knew all too well how badly torn her gown was. It was not, however, proof that she had been raped. Then she glanced at Storm but the woman could not speak, her voice finally taken due to the abuse her throat had suffered. Storm nodded towards Islaen's legs, however, and when Islaen looked she gasped for there was blood there, a small trail of blood from her thighs to her calves. For one horrified moment she thought she was losing the child but then became aware of the stinging in her thighs and relaxed. Sometime in her fight with Fraser he had cut her or she had hurt herself in her rush to escape the fire.
