The Heart of A Highlander by Johnstone Julie

Author:Johnstone, Julie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Historical Romance
Publisher: Darbyshire Publishing LLC
Published: 2019-11-22T00:00:00+00:00

William jerked awake at the feel of something touching his forehead. Disorientation flooded him as he blinked in the darkness, trying to get his eyes to adjust. Something sharp poked into his back, and a rushing sound—water?—filled his ears. A cool breeze blew, swirling the smell of salt and sand around him. The cave. He was in the cave by the ocean.

“He’s awake,” a man’s voice murmured low.

Instinctually, William tried to bring his fists up to defend himself, but he couldn’t. He pulled on his arms, realizing they were bound in front of him. Tied?

Another tug.

Definitely tied.

At the wrist. He tried to touch a finger to the rope to no avail. Questions exploded in his head at the same time as pain. “Christ,” he growled, recalling suddenly the hit on the back of the head he’d received from one of Brothwell’s guards. The man had not appreciated William’s efforts to escape.

“Shh,” came a woman’s command from his left.

He jerked his head that way, nausea roiling in his stomach, and he squinted into the darkness. “Ada?” William croaked.

“Nay, MacLean. ’Tis her companion. Where is the lass?”

“Thomas?” William swept his gaze around the cave, starting to finally make out faint outlines. Rock. More rock. A blob. He moved past it only to go back. The blob was big. “Thomas?” he asked again.

“Aye, and lower yer voice,” Thomas whispered. “The guard assigned to watch me loves to give me a hit when I wake.”

“Where is Lady Ada?” a young lad asked, the voice very close, making William jerk instinctually. He scanned at the space around him, seeing no one, but when he tilted his head up, there above him, on a rock appeared to be someone whose face he could not see. Whatever had been touching his head disappeared and returned with a sharp kick. A foot.

“What did ye do to her?” an irate young lad demanded.

Images of Ada slid into his mind. Ada naked. Ada in the throes of passion. Ada naming him a traitor. “I did nae do a thing to her,” he said, his anger vibrating in his tone. The minute the words left his mouth, he clenched his teeth against the realization that he’d not spoken the entire truth.

“Filthy liar!” the lad accused, then kicked him in the head again. The throbbing pain at the base of his skull reverberated through his entire head and down his body. He hissed with the excruciating agony.

“Maximilian,” the woman chided. “Dunnae kick the man. Recall what Thomas told us. He is for the king.”

“Oh aye,” the lad, Maximilian, said, his tone sarcastic. “He’s for the king, but he’s here to use Lady Ada just as all men wish to use her.”

William was having trouble keeping up with the conversation because of the torturous throbbing in his head, but he could keep up enough to realize that Thomas had been divulging secrets. “What the devil, Thomas? Why are ye revealing things to our enemies?” William gritted out between waves of pain.

Thomas snorted. “Lady Ada’s companion and the lad that feeds her hounds are nae our enemies.

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