“Aye, and you’re a warrior’s wife,” Tira murmured under her breath as she cast a glance at Cora to see tears welled in her eyes, too.
Yet Cora seemed to swallow them back and Tira did the same, the door closing behind them with a resounding thud.
“You sawthem carry Roslin into the bailey?” Thorgren queried one of the men who had just returned to the secluded cove, their cloaks dripping wet from the steady rain.
“Aye, at once, Thorgren. Your plan is working?—”
“Mayhap…and mayhap not. By Odin, what madness overcame me tae entrust so important a task tae a woman—and a Scotswoman at that?” Cursing so vehemently that the man seemed to blanch, Thorgren demanded, “What took you so long tae return?”
“W-we lost our way in the woods?—”
“Not surprising, you’re raiders, not landsmen. Get back tae the ship.”
The man nodded, nearly running into a tree in his haste while the other five men who had accompanied Roslin obliged Thorgren as well, which made him mutter another curse.
How long would it take her to do what he had commanded? He imagined she would have been treated by now for her feigned injury, and then would wait for the right moment to find Tira and his son—aye, a wild plan, a dangerous plan, but what other choice was there?
Infiltrating a fortified castle wasn’t anything akin to attacking an unprotected and vulnerable village, and required audacious courage that Roslin clearly possessed or he would never have sent her on such a mission.
What other woman had ever run to him with her village in flames behind her and jumped into his arms to kiss him full on the mouth, and demand that he take her with him?
Thorgren grunted at the stirring memory, his loins tightening as he stared into the woods from the mossy riverbank, water dripping down his nose.
His own heavy cloak was soaking wet, but what matter? He felt enlivened by the rainy weather and the brisk coolness in the air, his thoughts jumping ahead to that moment of triumph when he would finally hold his infant son in his arms.
He would name the boy Ragnor after his father, as renowned and feared an Orkney raider as Thorgren, and Roslin would become his buxom bride?—
“By the gods,what?” Thorgren stood stock-still as another branch snapped a short distance away, his hand moving to the hilt of his sword.
Surely it was too soon for Roslin to return on horseback…though mayhap she had accomplished her mission more boldly and quickly than he could have imagined?—
“Three warships approaching from the west, Thorgren!”
He spun to face the river and cursed as he drew his sword, even as the thundering of hooves came from the woods behind him—making him twist back around.
He heard his men shouting and at once, it seemed he was flanked by a host of them with their weapons brandished to face the onslaught he knew was coming.
He heard a feminine scream, too, Roslin raising her voice to warn him, but it was too late.Too late!
Now Thorgren roared in defiance—a wild enraged bellow echoing his Norse ancestors as sword-wielding Highlanders burst through the trees astride their horses and mowed down the nearest raiders.
Within an instant, Thorgren knew he and his men were outnumbered. He spun on his heel to run toward the nearest of his two beached ships already being heaved by other raiders into deeper water.
Such an escape had succeeded for him before, Thorgren shouting over his shoulder, “Fight tae the death, Orkneymen!” to the ones closing ranks behind him amidst the clash of swords and screams of the dying.
With one wild lunge, Thorgren grabbed for the railing to hoist himself aboard, only to feel himself pulled backward by his sodden cloak into water that splashed around him.
Roaring with rage and still clutching his sword, Thorgren struggled to his feet to face a red-haired Highlander who stared at him with pure hatred in his eyes.
“By Odin, you’re too young a man tae be Gavin MacLachlan, the famed devil of the sea, so who are you?” Thorgren spat as he tried to find better footing in the shifting sand while his scowling opponent slowly circled him.
“Errol Sutherland, and you’re a vile coward tae leave your men tae fight and die while you escape, but you’ve failed this time—in all ways. Tira is alive and well and my wife now, and thetwins she bore areminetae raise, aye, a fine son and daughter who will bear my name and never know you existed?—”
“Damn you, man,my son!” Enraged, Thorgren swung his sword so viciously that he nearly lost his balance, Roslin shrieking in dismay and suddenly splashing through knee-deep water to reach him.
“Thor—!”
Her outcry cut off as cleanly as he slashed her throat, Thorgren swore at her as Roslin sank, wide-eyed, into bloodied water.
