Page 19 of Highlander’s Dangerous Gambler

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They were hunting her.

Through her dreams, Aileen turned, drenching the feather mattress beneath her. The bed was comfortable—a luxury, in fact—but it may as well have been a bed of nails. She just couldn't get it right. One minute she was dodging them, as she could not see how many there were, and the next, she was writhing, being scratched by their thorns.

Stop!

She tried to yell. Aileen's lips moved, but the words did not come. And nothing could stop them from catching her. Through the trees, she saw them coming.

Run! Run! Run!

Their arrows rose in the air. Wherever she went, they were waiting. Screaming in pain, Aileen tried to get free. The dream felt real, but every now and then, reality broke in. Feverishly, she realized she was asleep. But waking up was not easy.

Who they were, she did not know, but snatches of words hissed out at her as she ran:

Marriage.

Husband.

Wedding.

Finally, she saw their faces. And when she did, she gasped.

The hunters were her own family! Her sisters, her father, and even her mother...all of them were chasing her into the ground, cursing her with talk of marriage.

Nay, nay, nay!She moaned, but the words would not come. Panicking, Aileen turned in her sleep. There was nothing to stop their spears from piercing her heart.

Then, they left her, facedown and bleeding on the straw ground.

Groaning, Aileen slowly came to. She was waking. Blinking, it took time for her eyes to adjust to the dark. Curiously, she looked around.

The McLeod bedchamber came into view. She was still here!

Her head wringing with sweat, Aileen pulled herself up. Opening her eyes had been hard, but moving was even more so. Immediately, pain hit her.

Her body was sticky, shaking. Looking down, she saw the sheets soaked with sweat.

Fever had taken her, and her body was in thrall to its shocks, with waves of pain racing through from the center of her chest to her teeth.

Everything hurt.

After what felt like forever, she succeeded in sitting up. Terror clung to her heart. Maybe it was the dream she had just had, but a deep sense of doom filled her.

Here she was in this strange place. The man who had helped her had turned out to have tricked her. Or, that was how it felt to Aileen at that early hour. Scott's taunts about the race came back to her in cold clarity.

So he had bet against her? What else might he do?

It stung Aileen to the core to think she had trusted him. The truth was, she did not know him at all.

Outside was dark, and the bedside candle had burned out. For the first time in her life, Aileen was scared of the shadows.

A door creaked. Maybe it was just the wind that rattled around the McLeod castle seemingly endlessly. Or perhaps it was a person.

Wishing she had some way of lighting the candle, Aileen watched fearfully. There it came again. That sound. Aileen tensed. Her body stung and burned with the ache of her fall. That and the fever that had set in, and she felt as if her body must glow with the heat.

Confusion grew in her mind. The creaking and the noise began to unsettle her. Windows rattled in the wind and with them, the door blew ajar. Now convinced that someone was approaching, Aileen sat up straight.

"Hello?" she called, her terrified voice reedy and thin in the night.