“Maddie? You’re confusing me. I’m here to help you wash your back.”
“Alex, ’tis a memory of our time together that you chose to revisit so I could come to you. Please don’t forget that I can only be here for a short time. ’Tis verra difficult for me to appear to you.”
“Why did you come this time?” he whispered, turning her around so he could gaze into her glorious blue eyes. “Can I not join you? I think I’m ready. ’Tis my time, nay?”
“Nay, Alex,” she said, her tone intent. “Not yet. Don’t you see? The spectral swords aren’t only intended to protect John—they need you. You are the one who’ll guide your bairns and grandbairns through this terrible time in Scotland. Your clan and your country need you. Not yet, but do not worry. When your time comes, I’ll be here waiting for you. Just a few more years.”
“Maddie, I’m tiring…”
Her fingers came up to his lips to silence him. “It’s not as you think. Busby is not out to get you. Hamish is.”
“Hamish? But why?”
“Hamish wanted me, and I rejected him. Now he wants revenge. He’ll try to get it through Dyna. Go!”
Maddie kissed him and walked off into the distance, giving him a small wave as she disappeared.
“You have to save Dyna,” she said, her words pounding through his head.
He opened his eyes, driven by Maddie’s last sentence, savoring her presence but forcing himself to search his surroundings.
He watched as Hamish and Busby entered the hut, Hamish behind the sheriff.
Hamish carried a large boulder. He lifted it and brought it down upon Busby’s skull.
Killing him instantly.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Finally, Dyna and Derric find him, but it takes them a while. This is another favorite…
Derric woke up with a raging headache, confirmed by the knot in the back of his head and the crusted blood on his neck. He sat up to get his bearings and noticed a large rock not far from him, speckles of blood on it. “I can’t believe that didn’t kill me.” His next thought was that it knocked him daft because he was talking to himself. He rubbed his head again, winced, and glanced around him, surprised to see no one at all.
Where the hell was Dyna?
As soon as he heard her scream, he stood up and headed to the cottage. “Bloody hell, Diamond. There’s never a dull moment with you.”
He approached the window of the cottage. Peeking through it, he saw Dyna tied to a chair, held captive by a man who waved a dagger about screaming something about Maddie.
While he wished to charge in like a fool and attack the bastard, he knew better. The element of surprise was his best weapon. He’d wait until the man had his back to the door, then rush him and a plunge a sword into his back, aiming for a kidney. Not the most sporting approach, but the man had imprisoned his wife. He wasn’t taking chances.
He moved to the closed door and opened it just a touch, wanting a better look at the scene he would be entering. The kidnapper was a large man with a small protruding belly. He guessed him to be around five decades old, something that surprised him.
Alex Grant lay motionless on a pallet at the back of the cottage. Derric closed his eyes and prayed the Grant patriarch wasn’t dead. Dyna would never cease to blame herself if she lost him like this. Mayhap he was a fool to wait. They needed to get Alex to a healer.
He was about to rush in when he heard Alex’s voice. “Hamish, you’re a daft fool. Maddie never loved you.”
“You’re lying. You ruined everything.” Derric heard scuffling feet and then another sound that he suspected was a chair scraping across the floor, though he couldn’t imagine why. Where was he dragging her if she was tied to the chair?
Alex began to yell again to draw the man’s attention from Dyna, shouting, “Maddie thought you were a sad fool, Hamish. Aye, the only emotion she felt toward you was pity. If you hadn’t left, I would have killed you for approaching her, you bastard.”
Hamish erupted, which gave Derric exactly the opportunity he’d been waiting for. He swung the door open and charged Hamish from behind, aiming his dagger at the man’s broad back. And mayhap it would have worked if the bastard hadn’t swung around and cut Derric’s arm, causing him to drop the dagger instantly. The man kicked him in his bollocks so hard he thought he would vomit.
There was naught he could do but fall to the floor. His vision dimmed and he fought to keep his eyes open.
No, no, no.
It seemed as if everything that could have gone wrong had. If he didn’t do something soon, the future he saw with Dyna—the life of love and laughter and the little bairns with yellow hair—it would never happen. With Dyna’s hands bound behind a chair and Derric incapacitated on the floor, their captor was firmly in control of the situation. It didn’t matter that Derric would be stronger than him in a man-to-man fight, or that Dyna could shoot ten arrows from a treetop.
