Page 13 of Highlander’s Sweet Poison

Lydia and her aunt were nowhere to be found.

“Stay here!” Graeme hissed, and before she could stop him, he threw open the door and disappeared into the house.

“Water!” Jillian shouted to the villager. “Bring water!” The cottage couldn’t be saved now, but they had to stop it so it didn’t spread. Soon, men and women were throwing buckets of water on the house. Others began clearing the brush around the house and waited with water in case any of the flames decided to move to another target. She organized everything while she waited for the guard and Theo to show.

“Come on, Graeme,” Jillian whispered, but no one came out of the door. Fearing the worst, she took a deep breath and raced in after him. The fire raged inside, and the smoke made it impossible to see. “Graeme! Lydia!” she shouted as she held her arm over her mouth to ward off the smoke.

The cottage was empty unless they were all up in the loft. Glancing up, her heart dropped. Anyone in the loft would surely be dead.

As soon as the thought entered her might, the floor of the loft dropped. Pain exploded throughout her body, and she crumbled.

8

The little girl's aunt was unconscious, and the child was stoically quiet. Graeme managed to get her out the back first when a flaming beam fell and blocked the path back to the front door, so he pulled the child out of the window and sat her in the grass. Tears ran down her face, but she didn’t make a sound, and Graeme went back for the woman. It didn’t look as though she’d been injured from the fire, which was lucky since her fall had been precariously close to the fireplace where a basket of cloth had rolled too close and caught fire.

After getting her out, a much more difficult task than the child, he checked her breathing and hurried around the front to get Jillian and Agnes. Theo was arriving with his men, but it seemed like the fire was contained for the most part.

“Agnes,” Graeme sighed when he saw the older woman. “Hurry! There is something wrong with the woman!”

As he started to lead Agnes back, he stopped short and looked around at the crowd. “Where is Jillian?”

“Jillian?” Agnes shook her head. “She was just here, organizing the rescue.”

There was a terrible crash as part of the cottage caved in. “No,” Graeme whispered and turned and raced to the door. The smoke was so thick he could barely see, but there was movement on the floor. Heart in his throat, he held his breath and hurried to her side.

Blood trickled down her head, and she was staring right at him, but he could tell that she wasn’t seeing him. “Lass,” he said as he tried to pull her up. Part of her dress was caught under the debris, but there was no time to try and lift the wood off of her. The whole cottage would collapse at any minute. Tearing the fabric of her dress, he hoisted her up and raced to the door. The fire crackled and wood groaned, and as soon as he stepped outside, the roof caved in.

“Jillian,” he murmured as he set her down. “Look at me, sweetheart. Come back to me.”

“Jillian!” Gemma and Elizabeth both screamed in unison and ran toward them. Elizabeth reached them first and fell to her knees next to him. “Jillian, what have ye done to yerself?”

“I’m fine,” she said faintly as she blinked and focused on Graeme. “Ye didnae come out of the cottage.”

Is that why she came in? She came in after me?

Fury rose inside of him, but he forced it down as he rose. “Agnes is looking after Lydia and Lydia’s aunt, but she should look at yer wound.”

“‘Tis a head wound,” Elizabeth said as she reached down and she helped pull Jillian to her feet. When they saw her torn dress, Gemma immediately unclasped her cloak and wrapped it around her. “My father has had plenty of these, mostly from my mother, so we will take her home and take care of it.”

“Fine. She is not to leave the cottage until I get there,” Graeme bit off as he turned and strode away. The woman was insufferable. First, she hated his touch, and now she was willing to go into a burning building and do what? It wasn’t like she would be able to drag him out if he were unconscious.

A couple of the guards were carrying the woman to Agnes’s house, and Harry followed behind his wife with the child in his arms. Graeme joined Theo. “It looked as though she passed out before the fire started. I believe she was carrying some clothes that caught fire when she fell.”

Theo’s face was still hard, and Graeme knew that he was also thinking about the last time fire had ravaged Loch Moran. “Jillian took charge to help contain it,” Theo rumbled and turned to Graeme. “Once again, that woman is putting herself on the line to save the people here.”

“I am inclined to agree, but I am also afraid that what she does now doesnae wipe away what the council believes she has done in the past.” The fire was dying out now, having consumed most of the wood and having nowhere else to go.

Theo rumbled. “And if I had her taken in the middle of the night and stowed her away? Would ye wage war on me?”

“Leave no evidence,” Graeme said with a faint smile, but he knew there was no way Theo could pull it off, and Graeme wasn’t willing to leave Jillian alone at night to let it happen. “I will find a way to make this work.”

“See that ye do because having a pregnant wife is hard enough, but having an angry pregnant wife is terrifying,” Theo told him wryly before he turned his attention to the cottage. “As soon as the fire is out, we will start tearing it down to rebuild.”

“And if the child’s aunt doesnae make it?”

“Then someone will take her in. This is Loch Moran. We take care of each other.”

The sun was setting by the time Graeme started back to Jillian. The candle flickered in the window, but laughter filtered through the open door, and he breathed a sigh of relief. The women would not be enjoying themselves if Jillian was not well, but he’d seen enough head injuries to know that their effects were sometimes long-lasting.