“My wife and your lady…Magdalene MacLachlan!” Gabriel announced, every man to the last one brandishing a sword to salute her.
She found herself thinking that if things were different and she wasn’t feigning lunacy, she might have acknowledged them with a smile and a graceful nod of her head. Instead, she gazed at them as blankly as she could muster, allowing no emotion upon her face, which made Gabriel sigh heavily.
“Bring my horse.”
At once a man came riding forth in answer to Gabriel’s brusque command, leading the most magnificent silvery gray stallion Magdalene had ever seen. She couldn’t quell the excitement that suddenly swept her—oh, aye, she loved to ride! That was the one thing she’d missed while at the convent, though she grew unsettled just as quickly when it dawned upon her that she and Gabriel would be atop the horse together.
How could it be otherwise? She was a lunatic, after all. Certainly he didn’t believe that she could do much of anything by herself, let alone command her own mount.
He tossed the one meager bag of her belongings to another of his men, and then turned to face her. She gasped as his strong hands encircled her waist. He lifted her without a hint of effort onto the saddle so that she sat astride, though he didn’t readily mount after gathering the reins. Instead, he once again addressed his men.
“We’ll ride as far as we can with the sunlight that remains, and then stop for a few hours tae rest the horses—by God, woman!”
Magdalene laughed with exhilaration from seizing the reins from him, and dug her heels into the stallion’s sides before Gabriel could grab them back.
With a wild whoop, she took off riding straight for his men, who shouted and scattered right and left so she wouldn’t careen into them.
Och, she couldn’t believe how easy that had been to take the whole lot of them by surprise! Leaning forward in the saddle, Magdalene thrilled at the power of the animal lunging beneath her.
They would never catch her, she was certain of it! How could they when she was galloping atop such a fine beast? If she rode fast enough and far enough, she’d be able to hide in the hills and perhaps they would never find her—
“Aagh!” A shrill whistle sounding behind her, Magdalene nearly toppled from the saddle when the stallion pulled up and veered around to gallop straight back toward the convent.
All she could do was hold onto the reins for dear life, her heart thundering, her widened gaze fixed upon Gabriel standing at the same spot where she’d left him.
His arms folded across his chest, his legs braced wide, and an ominous scowl on his face as once again, his men and their horses scattered to make way for her.
His stallion came to an abrupt stop only feet away from him, the creature tossing its head and whinnying as if glad to see him.
Without a word, Gabriel loosed the reins from her clenched fingers and with amazing agility, vaulted onto the saddle behind her. He pulled her so hard against him that she exhaled in a whoosh, one hard, muscled arm tightening around her before she could draw a decent breath.
She stared straight ahead, most of his men looking astonished as if they couldn’t believe what they had just witnessed…while one of them, nearly as large a man as Gabriel but with midnight hair, grinned amiably.
“Och, she can ride like the wind…a good thing tae know, wouldna you say, Gabriel?”
The man’s easy tone making it clear to Magdalene that the two knew each other well, Gabriel nonetheless didn’t sound amused as he urged his stallion into a trot.
“Conall, you and Cameron ride ahead and keep watch for any trouble.”
At once Conall nodded while another man joined him, Magdalene guessing them to be brothers from Cameron’s raven-black hair, similar good looks, and brawny physique—though he looked a bit older. As the rest of the warriors fell into line behind Gabriel, he shifted his legs so that his hard thighs pressed against her rump, making her blush furiously.
“You could have been killed, wife,” he muttered into her right ear, his warm breath tickling her and making her flush even more. She had to bite her tongue not to retort that she’d been raised to ride a horse since a wee girl, Magdalene wishing at that moment she wasn’t feigning lunacy so she could give him a rousing piece of her mind!
Instead she leaned her head back against his shoulder and began to laugh as crazily as she could muster—his arm loosening around her in surprise while his mount snorted and tossed its head.
She heard Gabriel’s low curse, but she kept right on laughing until he apparently could withstand it no longer and clapped a large, callused hand over her mouth.
“Enough, woman! If we’ve enemies in these hills, you’ll surely bring them down upon us!”
Magdalene thought to bite his fingers, finding it hard to breathe though he hadn’t covered her nose, yet she decided to save that tactic for another time.
Aye, it wouldn’t be long until the high and mighty, all powerful Laird Gabriel MacLachlan would be glad to be rid of her.
Already she was making great progress by stealing his horse, though damn the man! How was she to know he had trained the beast to answer his whistle?
Laughing like a madwoman, oh, aye, she planned to do that often since it had irked him so, and mayhap she’d find another opportunity to knock him on his arse.
She was going to enjoy every minute of making him regret he’d ever taken her as his bride!
