Instead, the strapping warrior appeared to relish the rolling waves and blustery wind that whipped at his dark red hair…awild, exuberant look in the man’s eyes that lent credence to his former title of devil of the seas.
“We’ll know soon enough if those bastard raiders spoke the truth about where tae find your lady, Sutherland. A good thing you brought two of those prisoners with you tae Dumbarton tae join us on this quest. We’ll haul them from the cargo well straightaway if we discover they lied and have led us astray—aye, a sword pressed tae the throat will sharpen their memories. Hoy is dead ahead!”
Errol nodded, his heart pounding hard as he squinted into the distance at the imposing cliffs that seemed to have risen out of the stormy sea.
Tira was somewhere on that island…aye,his lady, just as Gavin had said. The woman he loved, who would become his wife.
God help them that they find her, and not a grave. Please not a grave…
CHAPTER 3
“I’ve never seen the flaxen-haired Scotswoman you seek, I swear it—no, no!”
A shriek of pain filled the small cottage as Errol pierced the wide-eyed raider’s shoulder with his sword, the man held down on the dirt floor by Errol’s hand at his throat.
“I dinna believe you! Take a last look at your wife, your bairns, for you willna live a moment longer if you dinna tell me where tae find Tira Cheyne, by God,speak!”
To Errol’s disgust, out came nothing but babble, spittle glistening in the raider’s dark beard as his terrified wife and three crying children huddled in the corner.
“Enough, Sutherland, the bastard is of no use tae us?—”
“No, he knows something, they all do!” Errol cut off Gavin as his fury mounted. “Are these people so afraid of their leader that they will hold their tongues and forfeit their lives? We have already learned Thorgren is gone for a fortnight. Ah, God, mayhap he took Tira with him on his raid or mayhap she is dead after all?—”
“She isna dead!”
The woman’s unexpected outburst made Errol withdraw his bloodied sword and lunge to his feet while Gavin pressed his booted heel to the raider’s throat to keep him on the floor.
Still the man found breath enough to hiss at his wife, “Say no more, wife! Thorgren will slay us all?—”
“And I say speak now, or I swear we will burn your cottage tae the ground with you and your family inside it!”
Errol had strode with his sword brandished toward the woman, whose face had gone stark white as she tried to shield her two little girls and one son, their wails become shrieks of terror.
“Show us mercy, I will tell you! Thorgren took her tae the other side of the island—another village, larger than this one with more men tae protect her while he’s gone.”
“Protect?” Errol spat, glancing from Gavin back to the woman. “Your leader has held her captive for nearly a year and you say they’re protecting her?”
“A-aye, she is highly prized by him and he intends tae wed her if?—”
“Wed her?” Incredulous now, Errol lowered his sword even as his heartbeat still thundered in his ears at the news about Tira—God help him,she was alive!
“We must go,” came Gavin’s stern voice behind him, more a command that made Errol nod and stride over to his side.
“Aye, while there is daylight left tae find her. What of the raider and his family?”
Errol heard a sharp intake of breath behind him from the woman, her frightened children still weeping while her husband on the floor gasped for breath beneath Gavin’s heel.
A heel the grim-faced warrior ground hard against the man’s throat. His fingers clawing in vain at the boot until his entire body seemed to spasm and then went limp—a scream of horror erupting from his wife.
“Murderer! You’ve killed him even after I told you?—”
“Run from this cottage with your bairns—now!”
The woman gulped at Gavin’s command and nodded, clearly understanding they were to be spared. She gathered her children close and rushed outside with them as piercing screams rent the air.
Other women and children running for their lives as their cottages were set ablaze, their men slain or dying.
Gavin had decreed no mercy for any raiders before attacking the settlement surrounded by a rock palisade they had easily breached thanks to the howling wind as their cover and the element of surprise.
