Captured by the Highlander by Julianne MacLean

Author:Julianne MacLean [MacLean, Julianne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan

Chapter Fourteen

After an initial ordeal of terror and imprisonment, followed by a confusing and overpowering lust for her captor, that particular morning was the worst.

Amelia had woken up in a state of emotional turmoil. She took one look at Duncan asleep on the bed of fur—the most handsome man she ever laid eyes on—and realized she had to get away from him, because she had fallen hopelessly, passionately, foolishly in love.

Now she was stumbling across a field, weak and disoriented. Her shoes were wet from the dew in the grass, her toes numb from the chill. She was exhausted and breathless, for she’d been running frantically for almost an hour—first through the forest, then across these wide, rolling fields. She had no idea where she was; she had only the sunrise to guide her in any direction. She could be lost in the middle of nowhere for all she knew, for it was entirely possible that the castle was not located perfectly south of where they had camped the night before, even though Duncan had said they were north of it. She could have inadvertently passed it by and might in due course end up on the shores of the Irish Sea.

Surely he must have discovered her absence by now and begun his pursuit. He could come galloping across the fields at any moment and bring a swift end to her escape. If he found her, he would be furious. It would not be so pleasant between them after that. There would be no more kissing and caressing. He would likely tie her up and gag her from that moment on.

But it would not be so very different, she supposed, from the bonds of his sexual power, which had enslaved her in a mad, irrational desire and almost kept her from running this morning when she finally had the chance to escape.

She stopped and looked around, glanced up at the sun to try to ascertain her location and bearings. If she was going to survive this ordeal and return to the life she once knew, she would have to stop thinking about Duncan and set her sights on locating the castle.

* * *

It had been far more than an hour since Amelia had fled the camp in the woods. She was just resigning herself to the fact that she was lost when she reached the edge of a tree-lined field and a grand skyline of towers and turrets came into view.

Exhausted but clinging to newfound hope, she stopped in her tracks and blinked to focus her eyes on the impressive panorama of stone architecture, like a small city in the distance. On its outskirts she saw vegetable gardens, an orchard, a vineyard, a mill—all less than a mile away. Civilization at last. A world she knew.

She began to run, stumbling on blistered feet over grass that glistened with dew. White mist rose from the surface of a lake, but as she drew closer it revealed its true purpose as a defensive moat.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.