Mary arched her back so the tips of her breasts brushed Cameron’s chest. “Is that all ye want?” she teased.
“Ye ken I want all of ye.” He swooped down and took her mouth in a plundering kiss that set her body to humming again.
She spread her legs and wrapped them around the backs of his. “Nor is it all I want, husband,” she goaded, tilting her hips to stroke his hardness against her thighs.
“Ye plan to drive me mad, do ye?”
“I do. Is it working?”
“Aye!” he exclaimed and shifted to enter her in one swift thrust.
Aye, Mary thought as she lifted her hips to match Cameron’s rhythm. She’d happily go mad right along with this man.
A few days later,Mary took three of the younger lasses into the forest to show them her favorite spots for gathering herbs and berries. Since she and Cameron were now wedded, she would eventually leave. Someone needed to know what she knew about the useful plants inthe area. Seona was in confinement, and if the child she carried was not her father's, Seona might not be Lady Rose for long. At least the younger lasses would learn and remember.
Mary bent to point out a well-hidden clump of coughwort in a damp depression when an arrow whizzed over her head and buried itself in a nearby tree with a solid thunk. She whirled, looking for signs of the hunter who’d let fly at a target he couldn’t see and called out, “Stop shooting!”
She saw the next arrow coming as the words left her mouth. Shock held her immobile for a moment, then she fell to her knees shouting, “Get down!” The arrow buried itself in the tree at head height with another resoundingthunk. The lass nearest her ran behind a bush. She couldn’t see the other two and hoped they’d run away, back to the keep. “There are lasses here,” she called again, fury and fear strengthening her voice. “Dinna shoot!”
Mary crawled to the lass still with her. “Come on, Lilias.” She tugged and the lass got to her knees. Bent low, Mary led her deeper into the woods, then paused behind a clump of trees.
“I want to go back to the keep,” Lilias whined, her voice trembling with fear.
“Wheesht,”Mary warned. “I’m trying to hear if anyone is still out there. If they move clumsily through the woods, we’ll hear them.”
“They shot at ye, no’ at me. Let me go.”
Mary hushed her with a wave of her hand and whispered, “’Tis no’ safe.” Then the import of the lass’s words hit her. Had those arrows been meant for her?
“Kara and Fiona have gone,” Lilias argued. “We can, too.” The lass got to her feet.
“Ye wee fool!” Mary grabbed at her hand, but she slipped away, running from tree to tree in the general direction of the keep. At least she had sense enough to keep to some cover, but Mary feared the shooter would hear her. She quickly scanned the woods, seeing nothing but trees and bracken, shrubs and more trees, so she headed away from the route Lilias had taken, making as much noise as she could to draw the archer to her and away from the lass. “If ye want me, I’m here,” she called as she ducked behind yet another tree. After a few minutes, she realized how quiet it had become. She was alone.
Mary couldn't blame the lasses for leaving her, though she still feared they’d made targets of themselves. But she hadn’t heard any more arrows hitting trees, nor had she heard the anyone moving about. Perhaps her shout had made the archer realize the movement he saw through the trees wasn’t a deer or a boar or whatever he hunted, and chastened, he’d moved on.
She didn’t want to be alone out here, but she waited a while longer, ears straining for any sound. If Lilias was right and someone had been shooting at her, if they meant to kill her rather than simply frighten her, they could come at her with a knife, too. The only sounds she heard were the wind and birdcalls. Finally, she slowly stood, fear making her breath come fast and shallow. Nothing happened for a moment. Then she heard hoof beats pounding through the woods and the distant sound of her name. At least one of the lasses must have reached the keep. Men were searching for her!
“I’m here!”
In moments, a horse and rider burst through the trees.
“Mary!”
Mary’s heart lifted to see Cameron riding to her rescue. “How did ye ken?”
“Two lasses ran screaming into the keep.” He jumped down and pulled her into his arms. “I passed a third and she pointed the way, but ye had moved. It took a few minutes to find ye.”
More Rose warriors pounded up then.
“Fan out and search the woods,” he told them. Then he lifted Mary onto his mount and threw himself up behind her.
“Cameron, your wound…”
“’Tis fine,” he growled as he tucked her against him and spurred the horse into a gallop back toward the keep. They ducked branches until they broke into the open. Cameron folded himself over her, shielding her body while they raced for the gate. They burst through it before he reined in. People in the bailey scattered out of the way as the horse’s hooves bit into the ground, throwing clumps of dirt and grass as it stopped.
Cameron swung down and reached up for Mary. “I can get down,” she told him. He didn’t listen. His hands went around her waist and hauled her against him before she could move. “God, lass, when they said ye’d nearly been shot, I thought I’d die. When they said they’d left ye behind, I thought I’d kill someone. I had to come for ye. I dinna want to let ye out of my sight ever again.”
Mary melted against him and smiled. “I’m well enough, except for being thrown onto a horse, then lashed by branches and hauled off the horse again. How is yer side?”
