Page 82 of In Bed with a Highland Brute

A bellow that sounded more like a stag which had been struck erupted across the clifftop. Murdoch looked around, seeing others approaching, scrambling up the cliff.

Ian was out front, sword in hand, and behind him, Avery was running too, but with his injury he could not possibly keep up. He had fired the crossbow instead, and now hastened to reload the weapon as Ian ran forward.

“Murdoch!” Avery bellowed. “Get Eloise.”

Murdoch didn’t need telling twice. He jumped forward and took Harper’s shoulder, thrusting her to the side. She rolled across the ground, screaming for him to come back to her.

The figure with the bolt in his knee tried to stand, dragging his injured limb behind him. Murdoch thrust him away too, all very easily as the man couldn’t put weight on both feet. He dropped to his knees and rolled away, just as Ian reached them and thrust the sword toward him. A fight must have followed between the pair as Murdoch heard the clatter of swords thrusting together.

Murdoch reached for the man with his hand as Eloise – taking hold of the back of his cloak, tugged so hard that he jerked. The man fell back, as did Eloise, coming away from the cliff edge and onto land.

She landed on her back, winded and grappling at her hair.

At least she is safe!

Murdoch just had to stop the man reaching for her again. Wrapping an arm around the man’s neck, he dragged the him back as far as he possibly could, getting him away from Eloise.

The man squealed like a dying pig, grasping at the thick arm Murdoch had around his throat. He pressed down hard, hardly caring if he squeezed the life out of this man that had been so prepared to throw Eloise off that clifftop.

“Dinnae move,” Murdoch warned him.

The man fell still, no longer fighting, but Murdoch didn’t trust him. As he dropped the man to the ground, he caught the glimmer of a blade, shining in what was left of the sunlight of the day. Murdoch thrust out with the sword. He struck through the man’s stomach and looked away, refusing to watch the life that drained out of his face.

One death tae stop another. Never nice, but necessary.

He withdrew the blade, staggering back as he heard the heavy thud of the man falling to the ground.

“Eloise!” Avery’s scream from further back across the clifftop drew Murdoch’s attention.

He turned around, ready to reach for Eloise again, only to find she was no longer on the ground. She was at the cliff edge again, tussling with Harper who had hold of a blade. Eloise was repeatedly pushed back toward the edge, the heels of her shoes creating furrows in the earth beneath her.

“Harper? Harper, stop!” Murdoch’s voice boomed as Eloise got near the edge, that blade close to her throat. Yet Harper didn’t stop. She just kept on pushing forward, ready to murder Eloise. “I’ll give ye what ye ask!” The words tore out of Murdoch.

“What?” Harper half turned in her fight with Eloise. She shifted to face Murdoch, her arm wrapped around Eloise, pressing the knife in her grasp to Eloise’s throat. Forced still, Eloise strained to look at the blade, trying to see it at her neck as her chest rose and fell with panicked fast breaths.

“I’ll give ye what ye want.” Murdoch dropped his sword to the earth beneath him and stepped forward, a hand outstretched as if he were calming a wild bull. “All right? I’ll stay married tae ye. I’ll be the husband ye want me tae be, just please, let Eloise go.”

Eloise’s eyes shot to him. There was pain there, even agony as the tears pooled in her eyes.

I dinnae want tae marry her, Eloise, but what choice dae I have?

“Ye will?” Harper’s voice pitched high, full of hope. “Aye… aye, that is fer the best. But if we are tae be wedded, truly wedded, Murdoch. I cannae have ye thinking of her. I cannae even have her around anymore.” That blade tipped dangerously close to Eloise’s throat.

“Nay!” Eloise screamed and abruptly bent forward, a hand reaching for that dagger. She thrust her hips back and managed to dislodge Harper from her.

Murdoch jumped forward, catching Eloise as she fell. He grabbed her in his arms, towing her back as Harper slipped on the earth.

The stones were disrupted, some dropping beyond the clifftop, as Harper’s arms windmilled in the air, struggling to stay straight. That blade dropped from her hand and her body tipped backward.

Such a bloodcurdling scream erupted into the air that Murdoch froze, his arms fixed tight around Eloise as Harper disappeared from view and dropped from the cliff.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Eloise turned her head into Murdoch’s chest, wishing she could hide from that scream, but it just seemed to keep going on, reaching into her very soul and echoing deep inside of her. When it abruptly ended with a heavy thud, Eloise whimpered into Murdoch’s chest.

“It’s done,” he murmured hurriedly in her ear, lifting her in his arms completely and carrying her away from the cliff. “She’s gone. It’s over, Eloise. Can ye hear me? It’s over.”

She nodded into his chest, her hands grappling at his shirt, just trying to get closer to him. Her head lifted enough to see that Ian stood a short distance away, with blood on his sword and one of the two attackers unmoving at his feet. Beyond Ian’s shoulder was Avery. He’d lowered his crossbow and was doing his best to run toward her.