He smiled and tucked a strand of hair that had escaped her braid behind her ear. “He did, but it cannae hurt to see if I can find a sign that they are headed toward Scarglas. It would be good to ken if they are ahead of us.”
“Ah, of course. We wouldnae want to ride into their hands.”
“Nay, we wouldnae. Will ye be all right here?”
“Aye. Go. I will be fine. I will just rest here beneath the tree.”
Brian hesitated and then gave her another kiss before leaving. Arianna smiled faintly as she watched him go. It was time to sit and wait again, but this time she did not mind. He needed to assure himself they were not riding into a trap and she needed to rest. It was also the middle of the day, the land around her bathed in sun, a cool, light breeze blowing, and she wanted to enjoy that for a while.
She settled herself beneath the tree. Within a short time her eyes grew heavy but she tried to fight the urge to sleep. It was not wise to sleep as if there was no danger, she sternly told herself, but her body was obviously not concerned. Just as she began to slide into a doze a faint noise snapped her awake.
Arianna slowly stood up and looked around. It was light where she stood, the trees thinner than ones surrounding her. She realized that made her very easy to see and cursed her own foolishness. She should have moved into the shadows. The faint snap of a twig drew her gaze toward where the trees thickened, the shadows they cast heavier and harder to see through. That was where she should have hidden herself. Instead, it now gave shelter to a threat. Her whole body tense as she fought a blinding panic, Arianna backed toward her horse.
Fear making her heart pound, she turned to run to her mount only to find a man between her and the horse. Now she knew why the animal had not become restless, warning her. Men did not trouble it. She spun around thinking to run in another direction only to find another man behind her. What terrified her the most, however, was the man who stepped out from behind a large tree and gave her a smile that chilled her blood.
“Greetings,sister,” the man drawled in French.
“Amiel, how nice for ye to slither up out of the muck to greet me,” she replied in English, and briefly wondered if it was wise to be so insulting only to decide it did not matter. The man would do his best to hurt her even if she was as sweet as honey.
“I see you have sunk back into the barbaric ways of this country again, although I am rather pleased that you no longer even attempt to speak French though you still appear to understand it reasonably well.” He shuddered. “It is difficult to listen to you speak it.”
Did the idiot think she could forget such a skill in mere days? “Then ye will be pleased to ken that I have nay intention of ever speaking it to ye again. I shall take my barbaric ways and leave now.”
Even as she bolted she knew she had little chance of avoiding capture. Amiel and his men had quietly surrounded her while she had been napping in the sun like an overfed cat. They easily kept her from getting to her horse, blocking her path no matter which direction she tried to run in. When one of the men reached for her, she kicked him in the groin and tried to run past him as he fell to his knees. A hand grabbing her braid and yanking hard sent her stumbling back into another man.
Arianna turned and pummeled him with her fists and feet in a desperate attempt to break free. She did not hesitate to use her nails and teeth as well. A punch to his nose loosened his grip and she had a brief flare of hope as she tried to run again. That hope was abruptly ended with a hard blow to the back of her head. As Arianna fell to her knees, fighting vainly against the blackness sweeping over her mind, she saw Amiel looking down at her, a thick stick in his hand and a smile on his face.
“He will rip ye into wee pieces and leave them for the carrion,” she said as the blackness closed in on her, and then she fell face-first into the dirt.
“My, such a vicious little bitch,” Amiel murmured as he tossed aside the stick he held and brushed off his hands.
“Should we look for the man?” asked Sir Anton as he handed the man Arianna had punched a scrap of linen to stop the blood flowing from his nose.
“No need. We have what we want. Take her up with you.” He turned to the man Arianna had kicked, who was just stumbling back up on his feet. “You bring her horse.”
“We are taking her to this Scarglas then?”
“Yes, but with a little stop on the way. There is no gain in trying to ride through the night. I believe we shall spend some of the evening having a conversation with this little savage.”
“I doubt she was out here alone. Someone will come hunting for her.”
“They cannot hunt in the dark.”
Brian frowned as he reined in and looked around. He was certain this was where he had left Arianna. The fear that gripped him by the throat told him he was not wrong, that he was never wrong about such things. His sense of direction was legendary amongst his kin.
Flinging himself out of his saddle, he searched the grounds for some sign that would tell him why she was not where he had left her. Brian was just praying that she had simply wandered off even though he knew she would not be so foolish when he found the signs that told him she had been taken. Forcing himself to be calm, he carefully studied all the ground told him, moving outward from where she had so clearly tried to escape the ones who encircled her. Several yards into the shadowy area of the forest, he found the signs of several men on horseback having paused and dismounted. They had made no attempt to hide the direction they rode off in, either.
Cursing continuously under his breath, he returned to the place where Arianna had been captured. He took a deep breath and finally looked closely at the one place on the ground he had noted but fought to ignore. There was blood there and he could see that someone had fallen. He tried to comfort himself with the fact that there was not much blood but his fear for Arianna did not wish to be appeased. Brian knew he was looking at the place where she had fallen, which meant she had already been hurt.
His first instinct was to hunt her down immediately but he fought against it. That would be a mistake and he had already made one by leaving her alone and unprotected. One man against six was not good odds. And there could be more than that now if Amiel had found some more hirelings. He needed enough men to encircle Amiel and his men as they had obviously encircled Arianna. Overwhelming the men was the only way to get Arianna back alive.
Brian leapt on his horse and raced back to Dubheidland. He tried not to think of what could be happening to Arianna as the time slipped away for he knew that would drive him mad, force him into doing something reckless that could get them both killed. The certainty that Amiel did not want her dead until he had the boys in his grasp was the only thing that helped.
Sigimor was already armed and in the bailey when Brian rode in. Brian leapt from his exhausted mount and stood trying to catch his breath for a moment, certain he had never ridden so hard in his life. He accepted the water given him and gulped it down.
“He has her,” he said.
“How?” Sigimor demanded as his men brought saddled horses up to them, including a strong fresh mount for Brian.
