No one would hear her scream this far from the manor, but the Highlander was clearly too injured to attack her. She didn’t see any blood upon him other than a trickle from his forehead, but he had been grievously hurt somehow.
She heard a wheeze when he breathed, and guessed that some of his ribs might be broken or at least, badly bruised. Or mayhap a sword had pierced his chest or his back through the thick leather armor he wore over his tunic where she could not see the wound?
“My men and the others…the attack came upon us so swiftly. Surely some are still alive—”
“No, they are dead. All slain—oh!”
Julianna had clapped her hand over her mouth to have blurted out such dreadful news even as the Highlander’s hand tightened again around her ankle.
“All slain? How do you know of this?How?”
He had fairly shouted and she felt a fresh surge of fear, judging from the look of him even lying upon that ground that he was powerfully built and taller than most men she had ever seen.
She would never be able to fight him and he struggled again to sit up, his eyes appearing dark and piercing in the bright moonlight filtering through the trees. What else was there to do, but to tell him the truth?
“I live at a manor not far from here and—and we heard the news. They believe all of you to be dead, so no one will be looking for you…”
Julianna fell silent at the look of relief on the Highlander’s face, but then his jaw tightened as if in anger.
“I told them it was too dangerous tae stop and for us tae push on—fools! Now my men have paid the price while I…”
He cursed vehemently and fell back again, releasing her ankle to wave her away.
“Go on and leave me if you willna help me. I dinna blame you, lass, we are enemies after all.”
He sighed so heavily, as if resigning himself to his fate to lie there until he succumbed to his injuries, while Julianna could not help but feel a rush of pity.
“How did you come to be here and not with your men?” she murmured, doubting so fearsome-looking a Highland warrior would ever show cowardice and run from a battle. He must have sensed her thoughts, a grim laugh escaping him that made him start to cough and grimace again in pain.
“A horse knocked me down just as we were attacked…no rider atop him. My breacan caught in the stirrup…and I was dragged through the woods. An ignoble end, aye?”
So he did believe he might be dying—though Julianna’s instincts told her that he was battered and bruised, his head clearly pounding in pain, but very much alive.
Yet he wouldn’t make it in this condition to Penrith to speak to a constable, she knew that with certainty, and if he remained on the damp ground with the mist growing heavier, he would catch a chill and his lungs would suffer.
He had no weapon that she could see, the scabbard at his belt empty, which told her that he must have dropped his sword, so he could not harm her in that way. In truth, she didn’t believe he intended to harm her at all. He had already released her and waved her away to run back the way she had come if she wanted to…
“Do you think you can stand up? I…I could help you.”
Julianna felt as astonished to have uttered such words as the Highlander appeared as he turned his head to stare at her.
“You will take me tae a village, then?”
She shook her head and at once, he groaned, though she quickly sought to reassure him. “You will never make it that far—not tonight, at least. There’s a hut nearby where you can rest and gain your strength, though I cannot drag you. If you rise to your feet, I’ll try to support you.”
“A wisp of a lass like yourself? Och, I see that now. It’s better that you fetch someone tae help you—”
“There’s no one to help me,” she cut him off, another kind of fear gripping her that this Highlander was as good as dead if anyone else knew about him. Charles and his men had cut down the rest of the delegation without any mercy at all, so it would be no different for…
“Will you tell me your name?” she asked him, thinking that would assist her in urging him to rise.
“Roger Douglas…Laird of north Lanarkshire.”
“Very well, Laird Douglas, nowyoumust listen to what I tell you. If you want to live, you must trust me. It’s a terrible thing that happened to your delegation, if you were indeed on your way to York to seek a queen’s release—”
“You know of our mission?”
He sounded startled, which made her nod at him with another surge of pity.
