Page 21 of Moon Awakening

"Save yourself, Cait," Emily screamed as she scrabbled to get back in the boat and do what she could to hamper efforts at catching her friend.

She was just in time to grab Drustan's ankle. She clung for all she was worth with both hands, but he gave a mighty yank, straining her shoulder joints. He dove after Cait, but it was the other redheaded soldier who caught her as she tried to mount the single horse remaining on dry land.

Cait fought like a wildcat, biting and clawing, screaming for the man to let her go.

But it was Drustan's lethally quiet command that accomplished that. The other soldier released her and Drustan grabbed her in the same motion. He subdued her almost instantly and tied her hands behind her back with a leather strap, his face set in a black scowl. He then did the same to her feet.

Cait was sobbing by the time he was done. "Don't do this," she begged through her tears. "Please, don't do this. I'll talk to Talorc… there will be an apology. Please…"

But Drustan just picked her up, cradled her to his chest like a small child and carried her back to the boat.

She looked up at him. "I h-hate you. I'll never be yours. N-never!"

He looked down at her and his anger was terrifying. "You'll be mine, lass. Hate me if you will, but I am keeping you just as Magnus kept my Susannah."

"I'll kill you first, or die trying," Cait said, her tears giving way to fury.

After that, she said nothing, sitting ramrod straight on the small bench beside Emily. With a sideways look, Emily noted that Cait was glaring a hole in Drustan's back. And the horrible man deserved it.

Emily did not know how to help her friend, but her mind was reeling in horror from what the angry warrior's words had implied. Less than five minutes later, they cast off. The warriors rowed with practiced movements that showed they'd made this crossing together many times before.

She was trying not to imagine how deep the water was or how flimsy the boat felt. She valiantly ignored the spray from waves that crashed against its bow. Her eyes were fixed firmly on the back of Drustan's wet plaid, but the image of the furious soldier was no mote comforting than the terrifying water.

She turned to Cait. "Are you all right?" she asked in Latin.

Cait met her gaze with troubled brown eyes. "The babe and I are not physically harmed," her friend replied in the same language. "But I am not all right."

Emily nodded, understanding better than another woman might what it meant to feel her life had been taken out of her control and the best she could do for those she loved still left them vulnerable. "I am sorry."

"Thank you, but you know it is not your fault."

"I insisted on bathing outside the walls… because I was weak."

"We were on Sinclair land. We should have been safe."

"You should not have been with me. If your brother had known you were going, he would have sent more soldiers to guard you… probably older ones, too."

"The boy he sent with you is known to be fierce. Unless he had sent a contingent of his personal guard, like he did to fetch you from the border, we could not have been better protected. Even then, it would have been an uncertain outcome with the Balmoral soldiers."

"They are that fearsome?" Emily asked.

"These ones are."

"It is still my fault we were outside the walls."

"Emily, I would have taken you to see the loch sometime. They would have been waiting then."

"You think they were watching for their opportunity?"

"I am sure of it."

The wind gusted and despite the summer sun, Emily shivered. Cait was wet and she wasn't. She patted her friend's shoulder in commiseration. "You must be awfully cold."

Cait looked surprised by the comment. "Nay."

Her friend certainly wasn't shivering like Emily was and she did not understand it. She'd noticed at the Sinclair keep that they often didn't light a fire in the hall until evening although it was certainly chilly enough for one much earlier in her estimation. There was no doubt about it, the Highlanders were a hardy people.

But even a strong woman like Cait could be broken by the kind of plans Emily suspected Drustan had for her friend.