Ridiculously, she said a silent prayer that the Butcher would return and stand between her and these three wild Highlanders.Please, God …
But God was not listening.
Angus tilted his head to the side and inhaled the scent of her skin, then let his dangerous gaze rake over her body. It was a deliberate attempt to intimidate her. She recognized it, and it worked—there was no doubt about that—but it also ignited her anger.
She had done nothing to this man, or to any of these rebels. She was an innocent victim inallof this, and she despised what they stood for. She loathed their foul, violent ways and their sick infatuation with bloodshed and brutality.
No wonder England felt such a necessity to crush this Scottish rebel ion.
“You won’tkillme,” she said, speaking the words clearly, in an effort to feel more confident.
“Are you sure?” he replied. His voice was unexpectedly soft and whispery.
“Yes, because you need me,” she said. “I am your bait.
Duncan said so.”
Angus grinned with sinister intent. “Aye, that’s because he means to use you to settle a score.” He glared at the other two, who had been watching the exchange with some concern, then slowly backed away.
Palming the hilt of his broadsword, he stalked off in the other direction. His horsefollowed, trotting obediently behind. When Angus reached the edge of the clearing he withdrew some food from his saddlebags, sat down on the ground, and leaned back against the gnarled trunk of a chestnut tree to eat alone.
“Are you hungry, Lady Amelia?” Gawyn asked.
She was oddly startled by the politeness of his address.
“Yes, I am.”
“Then you should eat.” Fergus went to his horse and retrieved his own sack of supplies. “We don’t have much—
just a few biscuits and cheese—but it’llfil the hole in yourbellyuntil Gawyn can prepare a proper hot meal for you.”
“A proper hot meal,” she repeated. “I confess I am partial to the sound of that.” Though she wasn’t quite sure what it would entail, or if there would even be utensils. She imagined herself squatting by a fire, chewing flesh off the thighbone of something.
“Come and sit yourself down,” Gawyn said, unfurling a tartan blanket and spreading it out on the grass. He offered her some dry-looking biscuits while Fergus poured wine into a pewter cup and passed it to her.
“Thank you.”
They ate the biscuits in silence. Amelia watched the men uneasily, and they did the same to her, glancing frequently at her, then looking away. To avoid making any further clumsy eye contact, she let her eyes wander inalldirections around the glade, wishing she knew the location of this place. Shestillclung to the hope that Richard was searching for her, or that she mightstillbe able to escape when her captors were distracted, but where would she go? She could die out here in this deep wilderness. She could starve or be gobbled up by a wolf, or be mauled by a wild boar.
Just then, out of the blue, Gawyn asked her a personal question. “So you were planning to get married, right inside the fort?” He studied her with a furrowed brow. “Your father’s been dead only a month, lassie. Did you not think you should mourn him properly before you made such an important vow?”
Taken aback, Amelia reached for another biscuit. “You know when my father died?”
“Aye. Angus told us who he was, and your father waswellknown among the clans.”
She sighed and returned to his original question.
“Contrary to what you must think of me for behaving in such a way, Ididthink about my haste to marry. And I amstillnot certain it was the right thing to do, to dash off to Scotland so quickly after I buried my father. But something drove me here. My father had given us his blessing, and I believed it was what he would have wanted—for me to be safe and cared for. He didn’t want me to be alone.”
“But you had your uncle as your guardian,” Gawyn reminded her. “And surely you have other folk you cancallfamily. Do you not have any sisters or brothers, lassie? Or cousins?”
Hearing what sounded like pity in his voice, she glanced from one to the other, then turned her gaze across the clearing toward Angus, whostillwatched her like a starving animal. “I was an only child,” she said, “so I have no brothers or sisters. I do have cousins who werewilling to take me in, but I was never close to them, and I didn’t want to be away from my fiancé.”
She was quite certain Angus couldn’t possibly hear what she was saying, yet he seemed to be listening from the other side of the glade, with a menacing scowl on his face.
Gawyn, who sat cross-legged, rested his elbows on his knees and his chin on his hands. “Aye, I know what you’re saying, lass. True love can be a powerful thing.”
Fergus shoved him over onto his side. “What the fook is wrong with you? She’s talking about Colonel Bennett, yousillyarse.”
