The Wolf and the Highlander (Highland Wishes) by Jessi Gage

Author:Jessi Gage [Gage, Jessi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jessi Gage
Published: 2014-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

* * * *

Anya nibbled the cooked boar for appearances, but she tasted nothing. Her stomach was in knots. Her hands shook. She pulled the sleeves of her shirt over them to hide the shaking. Also to protect herself. No matter how thoroughly she’d washed at the river, she dared not handle her food directly after harvesting roots of water hemlock to slip into her captors’ tea.

Each of the three men had sipped their tea. The deed was done. No taking it back now. All she could do was wait.

It could take anywhere from minutes to an hour for the effects of the water hemlock to appear. Hopefully, none of the men would show signs of poisoning before their leader returned and helped himself to the tea as well. They called him Commander Lance or simply Lance, a fitting name for a man so coolly dangerous. If she’d had her way, she would have poisoned him first and taken her chances with the other three rather than the other way around, but fate had not given her such a choice.

Her gaze traveled from one man to the next. Across the fire from her was the one the others called Ced. A right cocky bastard, that one. Handsome, but with a cruel set to his mouth. Beside him, reclining on an elbow was the one she’d heard Lance call Gord. She hated him the most. Whenever he looked at her, ’twas with a leer that made her skin crawl. It had taken every ounce of effort she possessed to act casual with him—if she’d curled her lip the way she wanted to when addressing him, he might not have trusted her to make the tea. Nearest to her was Ben, the one who’d hunted and prepared the boar for her dinner.

Poor Ben. He wasn’t a bad sort, but he wasn’t courageous enough to go against his fellows. What they had planned for her, it bothered him. She could tell by the pity in his amber eyes when he looked at her. But the way his gaze shifted when she tried to meet it told her he’d not risk allying himself with her. Mayhap he would have helped her if she could have found a way to disable the others and spare him. Mayhap he wouldn’t. This wasn’t the time to take such a risk.

She had this one chance to escape. She’d committed to it and would see it through. For King Magnus and wolfkind. For Riggs.

She watched Ben carefully. He’d drunk the most. The other two sipped idly while murmuring amongst themselves, but Ben had drained his cup in a few minutes. He would show signs of poisoning first.

If the water hemlock acted on wolfkind as it did on humans and if they’d drunk enough, the men would fall to fits and expire soon after. She’d never seen it happen, but had learned all about which plants were helpful and which were harmful. Water hemlock looked a great deal like wild carrot, the seeds of which could be put in tea to keep a woman from catching a bairn.

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