That, and the sensation of someone touching her hair.
It had been all Lisette could do to lie still and breathe calmly, when she had wanted to scream in fear.Her first conscious thoughts a wild scramble of wondering where she was and what had happened to her.
Then she had heard a low husky voice speaking to her…a man’s voice that she recognized at once.
The same man who had vowed he wouldn’t hurt her right after he had tilted that vial into her mouth, and said she would soon fall fast asleep—mon Dieu, he had given her a sleeping potion!The last thing she remembered was her limbs growing weak and the sensation of someone sweeping her off her feet.The friar, except he wasn’t a man of God at all, but a warrior…
Now the tears did spill, but Lisette did not dare to wipe them away.
What else had he said?Ah, yes, something about his path being decreed by others and that he didn’t want a bride.Why, then, would he have agreed to abduct a woman betrothed to another man?Yet he hadn’t abducted Isabeau at all, buther!The circular spinning of Lisette’s thoughts made her head pound as despair threatened to overwhelm her.
He had said, too, that a castle and lands awaited him…so that alone could explain why he had put his life in great peril for such a mission.No one but a powerful lord could bestow such a rich reward, mayhap even a king.If her captor realized she wasn’t Isabeau, would he ride back with her to the convent to try again?Or would he simply dump her in these woods to fend for herself and return from whence he’d come, his mission foiled?
Lisette started at the hoot of an owl overhead, but it didn’t seem to stir the man sleeping next to her.Some of the others were snoring and sputtering, but her captor didn’t make a sound.She stared up at the dense branches aglow in golden firelight, her despair reaching such a crescendo that it felt like a knife cutting through her.
She didn’t want to go back to Dumfries!Nor did she wish to see Isabeau ever again.
Her half-sister had made her life a misery since she could remember, and had threatened to marry her off to one of Euan MacCulloch’s brutish warriors.Either way, a wedding lay in her future—but with this man, she might have a chance at a new life.
He must have been given some description of Isabeau to have mistaken Lisette for her, so why not pretend that shewasher half-sister?They looked so much alike after all.God help her, if there was any mercy in heaven, it might work…
Lisette could have wept aloud for the hope that filled her, sweeping away her desolation as if it had never assailed her.
Yet what would Isabeau have done if she had found herself in Lisette’s place?A young woman abducted from her betrothed?Surely not lie there like a lamb to the slaughter.
Isabeau would try to escape at her first opportunity, which made Lisette slowly lift her hands out from underneath the blanket, her heart once again racing.
If her captor was to believe she was Isabeau, she must try to escape, too, but which way?
Lisette glanced all around her, the thick, towering trees cloaked in shadow and appearing almost menacing.She heard a stick snap, which made her gasp and then bite her tongue.
She didn’t relish the thought of running headlong into the dark forest with dangerous animals lurking—wolves and wild boar.Yet what choice did she have if she was to appear convincing as an abducted bride?
Gathering her courage, Lisette threw aside the blanket and jumped to her feet, though sudden dizziness nearly felled her.
She staggered a step, dragged down, too, by the heaviness of a cloak that had been wrapped snugly around her…oh, no, the burgundy cloak that had been made especially for Isabeau’s wedding day.Lisette was certain her half-sister didn’t care anything about her disappearance, but the loss of the beautiful gown and cloak must have infuriated Isabeau—
“Laird Campbell, the lady is awake!She’s awake!”
Lisette stifled a scream at what appeared to be a priest jumping up from his blanket, which made her stumble forward to the nearest trees while the camp exploded into commotion all around her.Yet she had taken no more than another step when she was swept up into powerful arms, coming face-to-face with one of the most handsome men she had ever seen in her life.
She gasped as his hold upon her tightened, his deep voice ringing out around them.
“Steady, men, I’ve got her.Go back tae your rest.”
She gaped at him, not sure if his eyes were dark blue or black in the firelight, as he seemed to give her a fierce hug before striding back to where they had been lying.
“So you’ll live after all, lass.You had me wondering for a while if I’d poisoned you with that healer’s potion—”
“Oui, you could have killed me!”Lisette blurted, her outrage as genuine as anything Isabeau could have uttered.“Let me down, I’ve two good legs and can walk on my own—”
“Like you did a moment ago, staggering like a drunkard?You might have hurt yourself, Isabeau.Bumped your head against a tree trunk or twisted an ankle.What will I tell King Robert if any harm comes tae my bride?He sent me tae fetch you and I’d like you tae meet him safe and whole.Now lie down, woman, and go back tae sleep.”
King Robert?Her mind spun as her strapping captor set her down upon the blanket with surprising gentleness, Lisette realizing that her abduction had been ordered by the highest authority, just as she’d guessed.
No, Isabeau’s abduction, Euan MacCulloch one of young King Edward’s most loyal Scots nobles, which made him one of King Robert’s most hated enemies.
Suddenly Lisette remembered Euan boasting not long after she and Isabeau had disembarked from the ship that he had helped to capture two of King Robert’s own brothers earlier in the year…everything starting to make sense.Those wretched men had been put to death in the most horrible fashion—
