As it turned out, Finn was able to relievehimself despite his fears to the contrary. Sitting on a felled treestump next to Lachlan, she looked away from the peeing warrior andtoward the horses drinking from a stream that hadn’t completelyiced over yet. She absently handed her husband a wedge of cheeseMaisie had packed for them. Lachlan thanked her and made the wedgedisappear in two bites.
“Have you any more wedges?” he asked whilestill eating the last bite. “Other than the one for yourself?”
She fished out another wedge. The smallestof things made her husband content. “Sure do.”
He held her hand overlong when she handedhim the wedge. “’Tis glad I am Victor found me that I could findyou.”
Lachlan always knew just what to say. Betteryet, she recognized the sincerity of his claim. She loved him.Completely and hopelessly. “Me too.” She placed her head againsthis shoulder and sighed. “Me too.”
*****
During the final hour’s ride, Lachlancouldna take his gaze from his wife o’er long. In truth, she hadnigh unto broken his heart when she’d matter-of-factly insistedthat Victor’s life meant more than her own. Dinna the woman ken howmuch she meant to him? Hell, how much she meant to so many, Victorincluded? He prayed to the saints she understood it now that sheand her brother had gotten everything out.
In truth, he kenned his thoughts should beon the Campbell holding and what they might find there, yet theykept straying back to his wife. He dinna want her here anymore thanshe wished for Victor to be in their party. The thought—thehope—that she might be with child was at the root of hishesitation. He knew verra little aboot pregnant wives, which lefthim feeling unsettled.
Resigned, Lachlan acknowledged that Veronicawould never agree to stay out of the fray if it came to that.Praise the saints his sword arm had never been better honed andready to strike. As he had vowed to his wife, he was wearingleather braies and his arm bangles. His wife had warned him ‘twasthe arms and the legs an eater went for first for reasonsunbeknownst to her.
His memory returned to the eve prior whenfirst Veronica had told Lachlan of her love for him. Nay, hecouldna lose that love now. ‘Twould be a grief from which there wasno recovery. Somehow, someway, they had been destined for eachother. He kenned that now. Mayhap he always had.
Lachlan forced his thoughts back to themission at hand. He wanted to believe ‘twas the snow that had keptDouglass and Cameron from returning to the Gunns, yet their partywas managing to traverse it with little fanfare. The snow was stillfalling in billowy clouds all aboot them, yet the ride was takingslightly less than an hour longer than what was considered normalfor getting to the Campbells.
Lachlan sighed. He dinna have a care forthis. Not at all.
*****
By the time they reached the Campbellholding it was clear that something had gone horribly wrong here.Veronica palmed one of her guns and kept the others in her satchel.Grenades were strapped onto her belt, a sword and machete in herbag. She had knives concealed in the sides of both her boots.Thinking more on it, she bent down and enabled the mechanism thatput her boots into auto-activation mode; now blades would spike outof her heels when and if she lifted a foot to kick.
All the men save Victor drew their swords asthey entered Campbell lands. For as far as the eye could see therewas smoke plumes and eerie silence in the village whose huts layscattered around the base of the Campbell keep. She realized thiswas definitely not a good sign. She’d seen this many times in thefuture, just with modern domiciles in lieu of huts.
“It’s been abandoned,” Veronica murmured toLachlan. “It looks like the villagers took shelter elsewhere.”
“Mayhap within the keep’s courtyard,” Finnpointed out. “I can see from here that the portcullis has beenlowered.”
“Aye, I see it too,” Lachlan softlyconcurred. “I also see men atop the battlements.”
“Oh boy. And I thought I needed to comehere,” Victor muttered.
Veronica turned to look at him. “Secondthoughts?”
“And third and fourth and fifth.”
“’Tis too late now,” Lachlan harshlywhispered. “Stay near to Finn.” He frowned. “And dinna getbitten.”
“That’s excellent advice,” Victor rasped.“Damn, but I’m a fucking idiot. If I don’t make it out, be certainCatriona knows how much I love her.”
“Don’t talk like that!” Veronica chastised.“Just keep your eyes and ears open. You’ll—”
The first eater lunged at Veronica’s legfrom seemingly out of nowhere. She did a roundhouse kick with herleft leg and foot, slitting the infected’s throat in the doing. Shethen aimed her gun and shot the thing through the forehead to be onthe safe side. It fell before it could reach her, but not beforeher adrenaline spiked. She could feel her heart beating out of herchest, the thumping of blood in her ears.
She saw Lachlan’s jaw tighten. “Should wedismount or will they wish to eat the horses too?”
“Dismount,” Veronica said. “They don’t wantthe horses, only us.”
The group took to their feet, but didn’t tiethe horses down to a hitching post. They let them wander freely incase they felt the need to bolt. Veronica worried over theunnerving silence. She looked at Lachlan. She could tell he toounderstood the stillness was not a good sign. Forest animals alwaysfled when greater predators abounded. The group kept up a slow, butsteady pace, methodically working their way from hut to hut.
“Clear,” Veronica said of the next hut.
“Clear,” Ramsay called out from the hutacross from hers.
