“Your tears are wasted on such a one.”
She hiccoughed, trying to stop but unable to as Colin sobbed, too, his wet face buried against her neck.She had held him there so he wouldn’t see what she’d seen, but he had heard it—ah, God, such a terrible day for one so young.
“K-King Robert sent Conall to abduct her on the eve of her m-marriage as revenge against Euan for executing his brothers,” she babbled to the raider, not sure if he listened or not as he gestured for some of his men to pick up Euan’s body.“C-Conall was to marry her, too, but he mistakenly took me instead.We wed the next day because I lied to him that I was Isabeau—”
“Why wouldna you have lied?”the raider cut her off, something akin to sympathy in his dark eyes.“I’d say Conall’s was a fortuitous blunder, aye?”
Lisette bobbed her head, then blurted, “I didn’t lie about the cloak!Conall had wrapped me in it—but I never knew anything about the jewels.So much hatred…all of my life.I-I never meant any harm to Isabeau—”
“She meant grave harm tae you, Lady Campbell, but no longer.We’ll let the fish have them.”
Lisette heard a splash as Euan was dumped overboard, buckets of sea water poured upon the deck to wash away the blood.
More splashes followed as Euan’s men leapt into the waves—including the two who had snatched her and Colin, all of them clearly frightened for their lives after what they’d seen.The raider only laughed, a cold, humorless sound that chilled Lisette as much as the grim look in his eyes.
“Aye, we’ll let your husband serve his own justice upon them.Here he comes now, aye, and eager for that fight you spoke of.”
Lisette gasped and followed the raider’s gaze to where a fisherman’s boat had been carried down to the beach and shoved into the water.Conall stood at the prow as a dozen men, Finlay among them, pulled hard on the oars.
The sword in Conall’s hand glinting in the sun.
His face set with fury and his body stiff with tension when he saw the raider draw closer to Lisette, making her gasp.To her surprise, he had unwound his breacan of black-dyed wool and wrapped it snugly around her and Colin, chucking the boy under the chin with callused fingers.
“Forgive me, I should have done so earlier.”
Lisette could but stare at him, his gruff apology the last thing she expected from him.He said no more, but strode back to the railing with his own sword in hand.
Who was this man that he could be so merciless one moment and then so kind in the next?Yet as soon as she hastened to join him, Colin thankfully not shivering half so much, she could see that the fierceness in his expression had returned.
Conall looked fearsome, too, as the boat drew closer, until a look of surprise overcame him, which made the raider chuckle under his breath.
“By God…Gavin MacLachlan?”
“Aye, Conall…and just know that your wife and son are safe and sound and their tormenters consigned tae the bottom of the ocean.Is it still your intent tae fight me, man, or will you come alongside and allow me tae lift them down tae you?”
“Papa!”interjected Colin, his tears ceased and his distress all but forgotten as he pointed at Conall, his blue eyes bright.
Lisette’s tears weren’t done, though, and she wept for joy when he drew close enough for her to see that moisture glimmered in his eyes, too.
Her heart hammering her throat.Her eagerness overwhelming her to feel his arms around her again…to feel him kiss her again.
“Say a good word for me,” came the raider’s low voice as the prow of Conall’s boat scraped against the ship.“If I’d known an innocent lass would be wearing that cloak, I would have slain the whole accursed lot when we came upon their ship this morning and spared you and the boy much suffering—aye, your husband, too.Up with you now!”
He lifted her and Colin over the railing as if they weighed nothing at all and handed them down to Conall, Lisette burying her tear-streaked face in his neck as Colin squealed and hugged his father.
“You’ve come up in the world, Campbell, from the runny-nosed whelp I once knew.A landed baron now—though you’re still as reckless tae face me in that leaky vessel!”
“You were reckless, too, as I recall,” Conall said with a wry retort, “and your cousin Finlay will vouch for it!”
Lisette glanced up in surprise to see a smile flash across the raider’s face as he acknowledged his kinsman with a nod, but then he grew grim again as he gestured to the rocking vessel.
“Mayhap you might want tae keep MacCulloch’s ship?I’ve no use for it—”
“Burn it.”
Lisette shivered at the harshness in Conall’s voice, such gratitude flooding her that these two formidable warriors hadn’t come to blows.
As he used his sword to push off from the ship, she looked up, wanting to thank the raider—non, Gavin—but he had disappeared beyond the railing.
