There was a gurgling sound, and she looked down. One of the corpses was moving. "Help me," the stricken figure said in a weak voice.
Rose knelt beside the man, ignoring her disgust at the sight of bloody foam forming on the man's lips. "What happened?" she asked. "We'll get help. Just hold on."
"There is no help for me," he replied. "We did a deal with the devil, and we’ve paid the price." His hand slipped into hers. It felt icy cold and clammy. "He promised us so much, but he lied. He swore he would give us the world if we found the keys." He coughed, blood flying from his mouth. "I was a fool. I brought a copy. I’ve paid the price." He coughed again. "Do one thing for me."
"What?"
"If you see him, kill him."
With that he slumped down to the ground, his grip on Rose’s fingers slipping away. She didn't move until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to find Lennox motioning toward the freed horse.
"Come away," he said. "There's nothing you can do for him now."
He climbed up onto the horse, holding his hand out to help Rose up.
She took a last glance at the dead man on the ground. "This is too much," she said. "All these men just left on the ground like this. We should bury them."
"I have no spade. Do you?"
With a flick of the reins, the horse began to move away. Rose looked back over her shoulder at the scene they were leaving behind. The carriage was already fading away. She suddenly felt incredibly weary. They just looked like they were asleep back there.
As they rode, she found herself thinking about how this world compared to her own. Five men laid in the middle of a road would be a major crime scene. The police would be involved, the coroner. It would be on the news. People would look high and low for the killer.
What would happen here? Would they rot on the ground where they fell? Did they have families? Were their loved ones looking for them at that very moment? It all seemed so cruel, so arbitrary.
"We will not reach Rievaulx tonight," Lennox called back over his shoulder. "We ride until this horse can go on no further, and then we stop and rest."
"What if he was right. What if it is the barefoot man out there?"
"Then we fulfill that dying man's last wish."
"You think you can kill someone like that?"
"Would you rather I didn't try?"
"No," she said, her voice cold. "I think he is one who deserves to die more than any other I have met since I came here."
Lennox said nothing. Only when the horse began to tire did he speak. "We will stop here to rest a spell and then continue."
She climbed down to the ground and almost fell, her leg muscles rigid enough to cause cramp in her left ankle. She sat down hard and began rubbing her leg frantically. "Ow. Ow. Ow."
"Hold still," Lennox said, kneeling beside her, taking over, kneading her flesh with his strong hands.
She winced, pain slowly fading from her leg.
He let go a minute later. "Rest up for a while. Sleep if you can, and I'll take first watch."
Rose lay down on the grass, looking up at the Highlander, her legs still tingling from where he'd rubbed them.
Maybe staying in the past wouldn't be so bad after all. When she had been describing her world, she didn't find herself missing it as much as she expected. It had been like she was saying goodbye to each thing she mentioned.
She couldn't stay though. That remained the case. Lennox had a clan to look after, and she was not part of it.
She should focus on the fact that they would find a way to get her home. She could get back to a world with decent medical care, transport, movies, and most importantly where she would find her mother.
She closed her eyes, waking to find the morning had come on, the sun illuminating a clear sky. The storm was long gone. Lennox was sitting at a fire, cooking a fish on a spit. "Where did you get that?" she asked, her stomach rumbling at the delicious smell.
"There's a river over there. Hungry?"
