Her Highland Protector by Ann Lethbridge

Author:Ann Lethbridge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Poor Niall. Clearly, he hadn’t yet recovered from the climb. She didn’t dare offer comfort in case he took offence. She’d also been terrified, climbing up that cliff in the dark. Only the knowledge he was ahead of her, holding the rope, had given her the courage to follow. For a while, at the bottom of the fissure, she’d been sure she wasn’t going to make it. Thank goodness he knew what he was doing. She breathed a sigh of relief. With that awful climb behind them, all they had to do was get back to Carrick.

She wasn’t exactly looking forward to going back to the castle. There was sure to be an uproar. Her cousin would be furious when he learned what had happened and she very much feared he would blame Niall. Well, he needn’t worry she would let him shoulder the blame or suffer the consequences.

Since there was nothing to be done about it at this moment, she strode along beside him, or at least he strode and she had to keep breaking into a run to keep up. She was just about to ask him to slow down when she saw a soft red glow up ahead. Niall must have seen it, too, because he grabbed her arm and pulled her to the ground.

Her heart sank. ‘They left a guard up here, too?’

Niall hissed at her to hush.

‘We could just go around,’ she whispered.

Niall hushed her again and she knelt on the rough grass, listening to her heart beat hard in her ears.

Niall turned to her. ‘Whoever it is has a horse. I can hear it.’

She listened. She could hear it, too. The odd jingle and a whooffly sound horses made at night.

‘So?’ she replied.

‘So a horse will get us back to Carrick faster than we can walk.’

‘Will he sell it to us?’

‘I don’t have any money.’

‘Nor me.’

‘We will have to steal it.’ He grabbed her shoulders. ‘Stay close. We’ll work our way around the fire and try to walk it away without them noticing.’

‘And if they do notice?’

‘I have a pistol.’

A pistol was better than money in some circumstances.

Slowly they circled around the fire, towards the direction of the horse. As they drew closer, the flames revealed a wagon closed in by an arch of canvas and its owner relaxed against one wheel.

Oh, blast. The horse was still in the traces, munching on the contents of a nosebag. Niall must have noticed, too, because he stopped.

The owner of the wagon seemed to be looking straight at them. Which was impossible, because they were in the shadows on the opposite side of the fire. There was something familiar about the man.

The gypsy from the market. She clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her gasp of shock.

She heard the click of Niall cocking the pistol and winced. They were going to have to steal the horse at gunpoint.

‘Come to the fire,’ a dark voice said. ‘I have been expecting you.’

‘We want only your horse,’ Niall said, standing up.

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