Ahead of her, metal scraped against stone and the wall in front of her shifted open. Not the wide, gaping doorway she’d seen in her bedchamber but a narrow space, not much bigger than her body’s width. The opening led into a corridor, about twice the width of the tunnel they’d just traversed, and though the wavering light appeared to come only from torches, it seemed bright after so long in absolute black.
“Go,” Christiana whispered with a gentle nudge to Dani’s back. “Wait outside the door at the end of the passageway.”
Dani slipped into the corridor, her eyes fixed on the prize, a small wooden door just ahead.
A large, callused hand clamped over her mouth was her only warning that she wasn’t alone in the hallway.
Panic flooded her system with a burst of adrenaline and she fought the man’s hold, unable to break free but doing some good damage with her nails and her feet, even as she twisted in his grasp to see her captor.
Rauf!
Dermid’s groomsman held her braced against his chest, his face contorted in pain even as he tightened his hold. Nothing in sight but two large wooden buckets on the floor in front of her. She struggled to bend, stretching out her leg to catch one of the pails with her toe. If only she could get her hands on one of them, she might be able to use it as a weapon.
As if he read her mind, Rauf pinned her against the wall with a twist of his body, all the while making some half-witted shushing noise.
Always trust your gut about a man,her aunt Jean had liked to say.
Her gut certainly hadn’t steered her wrong on this one.
ASPLASH OFwater, cold and stinging, awoke Malcolm to the nightmare of his reality, bringing with it the ceaseless pain.
He struggled to shift his weight from his arms to his feet even as another bucket of water cascaded into his face.
“You stink like the shithole you were in, MacDowylt,” the man in front of him called out, lifting another bucket into his arms. “Or should I call you MacGahan now, since that’s how you fancy yerself?LairdMacGahan. The mighty Malcolm, defender of Clan MacDowylt, turned traitor to yer people and gone soft in the turning. How mighty are you now,LairdMalcolm?”
Spitting out a mouthful of water, Malcolm glared at his tormentor through the dripping clumps of hair that clung to his face. “Loose these bindings and we’ll see how soft I’ve gone, you putrid wee arse.”
The man laughed, displaying a patchwork of missing teeth as he unleashed the third bucket of water.
Malcolm turned his head, but it did little good to protect him from the unavoidable onslaught slapping against his face. If only he had a weapon. If only he were free of the bindings that threatened to pull his bones from their joints.
Squinting against the water running down into his eyes, he watched as the door opened to admit another man, his arms stretched down with the weight of two large, obviously filled buckets.
Rauf!
He should have killed the man when he first stepped foot in MacGahan Castle.
“I’ve brought the water you asked for, Henry. The other lads are following along behind.”
“Set them down here. Yer welcome to stay and watch, if you like. Mayhap I could be talked into letting you have a go at him, too.”
Henry bent to lift one of the filled buckets, his laughter ceasing abruptly with a loud thunk as the empty bucket in Rauf’s hand connected with the back of his head.
“Now,” Rauf called from his spot crouching over Henry’s body.
The door behind him swung open and Malcolm reconsidered whether he was awake or dreaming. Surely the women rushing in the door had to inhabit his dreams.
Dani’s body slammed against his, forcing a whoosh of air from his chest as her arms tightened around him.
She felt too real for him to have been anything but awake.
“Oh, Malcolm! What have they done to you?” Her hands fluttered over his chest and across his face. “We’re getting you out of here.”
“My lady,” Rauf called, tossing something through the air when Dani turned his direction.
Her hand shot out to catch the little item and she began to pull at Malcolm’s arm, stretching up on her tiptoes to grab the chains that held him.
“I can’t reach it!”
