Highland Temptations: Boxed Set: Books 1-3 by Adams Aileen

Author:Adams, Aileen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

17

Every part of William’s body ached.

Blood ran down the side of his head.

The blood of two men was still fresh on his dirk.

And the lass who’d almost been taken from him expertly rode his horse at breakneck speed, carrying them both far from the scene of horror.

Only when the poor beast’s breathing became labored did William close his hands around her arms. “All right, then,” he called out into her ear. “All right. We must stop for a while.”

It was as if she could not hear him. Or chose not to.

“Lass!” he shouted, perhaps louder than he wished to, but there had to be something that could get through to her. Gentleness certainly wouldn’t. “Tara. We must stop!” He took her hands in his, then moved them forward until it was he who gripped the reins, and he drew them in until they’d slowed to a trot.

She was in shock, sitting completely still, eyes wide. She’d never seen anything like what they’d just left.

Neither had he, and until then he thought he’d seen everything.

He directed the panting beast into the woods and between towering spruce trees, their scent mixing with that of blood to create a strange new odor he feared he would never be rid of. Just as he would never be rid of the horror he’d just witnessed.

They were not soldiers. That much was clear. The men had not worn uniforms and were not trained fighters. They were nothing more than mercenaries, just like the man he’d killed days ago, only they were the worst sort.

He had seen what two of them were doing to one of those poor, defenseless women at the edge of the camp. He would never be able to forget it.

And he had left her. He’d left all of them. The knowing of it settled in his heart and turned it to stone. He had left them, all of them. Yes, their men had been armed, but what had become of them? They’d either been fighting or been killed in the fight, or in the fire which had spread as tents were knocked into the flames in the center of the camp.

They were mercenaries, those men, which told William one thing, they’d been looking for her.

She likely knew it.

And knowing her as he did, she was blaming herself. As if she had any control over what a passel of gold-hungry men were capable of.

They reached a river. He did not know which. He might have been in a small amount of shock himself, or else he’d taken a harder blow to the head than he’d thought. Regardless, it wasn’t easy to think straight. He stopped the horse and dismounted quickly as the poor, exhausted thing lowered its nuzzle to the water and drank deeply.

“Come,” he murmured, handling her as gently as he could, his already sore muscles straining as he lowered her from the saddle. She knelt at the riverbank and splashed water onto her face, where tears had already streaked through the dirt.

He

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