‘I prefer touching to looking,’ he said with a smile in his voice. His hand stroked down her cheek and neck, then eased under her bodice. ‘Ah, that’s better. These are so firm and pretty. I think I want to see them.’ Cullen tugged down her bodice. ‘I am famished too. I think I will gorge on these.’ And he did, and soon, they were writhing in the long grass, and Lowri was gasping his name, her loins thudding with desire. Afterwards, they lay sated and flushed in the glare of the sinking sun.
Cullen rose and held out his hand. ‘Let’s go, lass. The warmth is fading from the day, and I need food to keep my strength up for later tonight.’ He winked, and Lowri knew full well his meaning.
She reached up a hand, and as he bent to take it, a crack echoed around the trees. Cullen flinched and ducked. He clutched his neck. Blood seeped through his fingers.
‘Go, lass. Quickly, down the bank,’ he hissed.
Lowri scuttled for cover, sliding down the steep bank and landing ankle-deep in fast-running water next to the trunk ofa huge tree that had fallen into the river. Cullen followed and pressed her up against the bank, putting a finger to his lips.
‘You are hurt,’ she whispered.
He rubbed his neck, smearing blood all over it. ‘Tis a scratch is all. They should have aimed for my heart instead.’
‘They?’
He shrugged in reply. His eyes met Lowri’s, alarmed, bewildered. His face was stiff with shock. ‘They will come for us. We have to move up the river where there’s more cover.’ He took her hand, but she pulled back.
‘Come on,’ he said.
Lowri pulled the little pistol out of her pocket. ‘Let them come, Cullen, and then ambush them.’
‘There could be more than one.’
‘Aye, but we are easy targets here, and once we get above the bank, they can pick us off.’
Cullen took her by the shoulders. ‘Stay here, under this tree and don’t move.’ He snatched the pistol from her hand, crept downstream, and disappeared around a bend in the river.
Lowri gulped down her fear. Cullen didn’t know where the shot had come from. He was exposed and vulnerable, and someone wanted him dead. She slid under the tree trunk, hiding in the tangle of upended roots. But if someone came along the bank, it would not stop a shot ripping through her flesh.
A hush had come over the pretty little glade, so Lowri’s panted breath seemed deafening. Someone was moving. She could hear them, swooshing through the swathes of meadowsweet, coming closer, frightening the birds into silence.Lowri sank beneath the water, leaving only her face above, hoping her black hair would help camouflage her.
A rattle of earth and stones. Someone had slid down the bank. Lowri turned to look and stared straight into the teeth of a pistol. The man said nothing, holding her gaze as he waded through the water, his hawkish expression meaning only one thing – death.
‘No!’ she cried, and squeezed her eyes tightly shut. She flinched at a loud crack and the smell of sulphur, but felt no pain. Her ears rang, and as if from far away, Cullen’s voice intruded. When she opened her eyes, he was standing over her attacker, and the man was bleeding into the water, screaming and holding onto his stomach.
‘Lowri, go to my horse and fetch my pistol. Make sure it is loaded so that I can send this wretch to hell.’ Cullen’s voice was murderous and icy.
‘You would be doing me a kindness. I am done for anyway,’ gasped their would-be murderer. His head fell back, eyes fixed on the sky. ‘No need for a pistol. A belly wound is a slow rot, a painful end. I would rather go quickly, with some dignity, some honour. Slit my throat and be done with it, bastard.’
Cullen hauled the man up by his collar. ‘Honour! Dignity! You would have murdered me in cold blood, my wife too, you coward.’
The man’s eyes flicked to Lowri. ‘No, not her, such a bonnie lass. I was only after you.’
‘Why me? Who are you? Who sent you?’
‘Why should I tell you?’ spat the man.
Cullen stuck his fingers in the man’s wound, making him howl in pain, and Lowri had to look away. His snarl echoed about theglade. ‘Tell me, or I will tie you to a tree and leave you to bleed out. The foxes will come and feed on your innards. The crows will come and pluck out your eyes while you still live, while you scream.’ Cullen shook the man hard. ‘Was it Heap who sent you?’
‘Heap? Who is that?’ gasped the man. ‘I know no Heap.’
The man was in terrible pain, dying before her eyes, so Lowri believed him. ‘Who then?’ she said.
‘Make the lass come closer.’ The man grinned, his teeth red, blood bubbling out of his mouth. ‘I want to look into her bonnie face when I go and imagine it was me taking her in the long grass, as you just did.’
He had watched them make love. Lowri’s face burned, and she felt sick. But she eased out of the tree roots and faced the man. ‘You are a despicable lecher.’
He reached out a bloody hand to her. ‘Ah, but ‘tis not me who is the lecher. It is the man who sent me to bring you back to him. ‘Kill Cullen Macaulay but not his wife,’ he said. ‘I want her whole so that I can take her to pieces in my own good time.’
