Page 90 of A Dangerous Highland Affair

While Neacal was considering this, Marcas pressed closer, prodding his heavy wooden crossbow a shade nearer to his face.

“O’ course, I made it nice an’ easy for ye, giving the lads the day off duty!” he laughed, his ginger eyebrows dancing to a peak on his forehead.

Inwardly, Neacal groaned. No wonder it had been easy getting inside the house.

“Still, they’re there noo,” said Marcas, tapping the side of his bent nose before giving a slight wince.

Neacal cast his eyes over to the door which Marcas had entered by. Sure enough, he just about made out the shape of a burly guard, the top of his dark-colored head bobbing over the top of the narrow window frame.

“Dinnae ye fash, I’ve got it all nice an’ safe noo, though,” observed Marcas, indicating the line of marksmen arriving to take their place outside, in a line around the house.

Neacal’s heart gave a jolt. He was surrounded!

“An’ just in time to arrest ye for murder…,” he said, looking way too pleased with himself.

But Neacal had reached a tipping point. Blind that Marcas still had a crossbow pointed in his face, Neacal pushed him with the silver sgian dubh.

However, before he could move, he felt Marcas’s foot lodged in his groin. An arrowhead of pain shot through him, throbbing into his loins.

For a second, he thought that Marcas had fired the crossbow into him. And for several long minutes after, he almost wished he had.

Groaning, Neacal fell to the ground, clutching himself painfully.

“Dear me, Neacal,” chuckled Marcas. “I thought ye might make it a bit harder for me!”

Now Marcas brought the crossbow right up to his head, holding it still until Neacal was sure he was about to end it all.

And the thing was, at that moment, he didn’t care if he did. He was still in so much pain that he would have welcomed death with open arms right then.

So much so that instead of cowering, Neacal kicked back, almost knocking the crossbow out of Marcas’s hands.

“Alright then, come on, let’s have it, then, Marcas!” he snarled, doing everything in his power to get to his feet. “But it’s gonnae be a bit harder for ye to pin all yer bloodthirsty crimes onto me if ye slay me!”

Despite his pain, Neacal stumbled to his feet, squaring up to Marcas.

“Aye, that’s right, I ken all about what ye did,” said Neacal. “I mean, ye’ve even taken poor auld Duncan’s sword!”

He jabbed the sword in the air but missed Marcas by an inch. All the time, the crossbow was still trained firmly on him.

“Och, Neacal,” said Marcas, pityingly. He looked at him contemptuously. “I think ye mean ye’ve taken it,” he eyed him quizzically. “Ye see, when I call my men, it’s gonnae be when I’ve caught ye, wi’ the damning evidence!”

Neacal’s eyes widened. Marcas had all this planned. Somehow, someone must have told him that he was coming. Racing through his brain, Neacal tried to work out who it could be but drew a blank.

“Dearie me,” said Marcas, a faux look of concern in his light green eyes. “I could almost pity ye, yer so dumb, aye, I kent ye were coming here, an’ now, yer my glittering prize!”

He smiled a smile so warped it almost split his face in two. At that moment, Neacal wanted to kill him but was unable to move an inch.

Then, Marcas narrowed his eyes and leaned into him, like a spider with his prey. With a nod, one of the guards entered the house, and at Marcas’s instruction, began to bind Neacal’s hands with chains.

All the while, Marcas never let go of the crossbow, which was rock solid in his hands.

Between them, they dragged Neacal out of the room and down into a trapdoor, which led into the cellar below.

Every step he took, Neacal could feel the cold iron tip of the crossbow poking straight into his head. His breaths coming hard, Neacal fought to keep himself upright and resist being pushed down the narrow stone steps into the dungeon.

Finally, Marcas shoved him into the cold, damp of the cellar, snapping the door to the room above shut with a bang.

In front of him, the guard chained his arms up to the dank stone wall. Neacal felt sick. How could he have been so stupid to end up like this?