“Whore! Did you think I would reward you any other way for your failure?”
“Fiend! Did you think you would die any other way than by my sword?”
Thorgren gasped at the weapon plunging into his abdomen, impaling him before he could lift his own weapon to counter his opponent’s blow.
Blood and entrails spilled from him as he sank, too, into the swirling water beside Roslin’s corpse…the blackness of death enveloping him.
“So it is done.”
His breathing harsh, Errol glanced at Gavin, who strode through the scarlet-tinged foam to his side.
“Aye, it is done.” Sickened by the hulking look of the man who had caused Tira such horror, Errol turned his head and retched into the water…Gavin clapping him on the shoulder when he straightened to wipe his mouth.
“His blood mixed with vomit, a fitting end.” Then to his warriors who stood at the shoreline among the dead raiders’bodies and those still living rounded up and held at sword point, Gavin said tightly, “Kill them and burn their ships. No more mercy than they granted on their accursed raids, aye?”
Errol nodded as screams of disbelief rent the air, no pity in his heart at all…only a burning thirst for vengeance finally satisfied.
For Tira.
CHAPTER 15
“Thorgren is dead?” Tira was certain she had never trembled so violently as Errol stood before her healthy and whole, and nodded at her.
Dead! For an instant the bedchamber seemed to shimmer and spin around her, Tira never having known such intense relief, either, Errol reaching for her arm to steady her.
His grip so strong and the squeeze of his fingers so reassuring, though still Tira felt as if her wobbly knees would give way beneath her.
The next thing she knew, Errol had led her to one of the chairs by the fire where she sank down…almost in disbelief still that she was free forever from any threat by Thorgren…as were her precious twins.
“The woman he sent here tae do his foul bidding is dead, too,” came Errol’s low voice as he stood behind the chair, his hands upon her shoulders as if to calm her. “He cut her down without blinking an eye right before I struck him—och, it is all done now.”
All done now, Tira echoed in her mind as she lifted her head to gaze up at Errol, his face so handsome in the flickering firelight.
Well after dusk, Gavin and his warriors and Errol still hadn’t returned—leaving Tira and Cora with little they wished to do other than remain close to their children and wait…ah, God, but that was over now, too!
With a great outcry, Tira jumped up from the chair and threw her arms around Errol’s neck, hugging him close as grateful tears blinded her.
His embrace as fierce and his cheek pressed to hers as they simply stood there and held each other, Tira rejoicing at Errol’s strong heartbeat against her breast.
He was alive and safe, the man she loved!
Gavin was safe, too, Cora having flung herself into his arms just outside the nursery. Their twins tearfully hugging their legs—aye, even Sinclair for all of his childish bluster—while Errol had led Tira to their bedchamber a few moments ago.
Her heart drumming in her throat, though she had guessed his news from the reassuring pressure of his fingers before Errol had even uttered the words.
“None of Thorgren’s men will return tae Orkney, they have all been slain,” he said against her ear, hugging her more tightly. “It had tae be done and I’m glad of it, their deaths the only fate those raiders deserved and their ships burned tae ashes.”
Tira shivered at the harshness of Errol’s words, his hair, his clothing smelling of smoke and charred wood. As if sensing what she discerned, he pulled away to look into her eyes.
“Forgive me, Tira, I reek of the day’s events. I will return after I wash at the barracks?—”
“No, no, dinna leave me,” she pleaded softly, pressing her hands to his cheeks smudged gray with ash. “I will summon a bath for you and food. You must be famished.”
Tira remembered another time when she had stared so deeply into his blue eyes, a year past when they had pledgedtheir love…but today she saw his astonishment, which made her feel sick with regret.
Errol had done so much for her, saved her life, and wed her to protect her and her children, his love for her unwavering, yet what had she done for him?
So little, truly, a sense of shame enveloping her that made her turn away from him toward the fireplace and grab a poker to vigorously stoke the dying flames—aye, anything so he wouldn’t see her tears welling over how she must have hurt him.
