Chapter Four

Night was the most dangerous.

Kaid glanced outside where the trees had grown shadowed and the gray light of dusk dampened the summer sky. They would need to stop soon.

While he knew the women would prefer they stop at a village to restore their food supply and have a comfortable place to sleep, Kaid could not risk the exposure.

While there were no villages nearby to threaten discovery, wandering men could be just as dangerous.

The maid had long since fallen asleep on her mistress’s shoulder, but Elizabeth had remained awake, her gaze alert. Her hand, he noticed, had continued to hold her maid’s, even after the other woman had long since faded into sleep.

The coach rocked hard to the right and then teetered to the left.

Leasa bounced forward and then knocked back, smacking her head on the wooden wall. Her eyes flew open, and she clapped her palm over the injury.

Elizabeth shot him an accusatory glare, as if he had personally rocked the coach.

“We’re going off the path to set up camp for the night,” Kaid explained.

Elizabeth turned Leasa’s face to the side and examined what was most likely a large knot on the woman’s scalp. “It would have been nice to have had some form of warning.”

The coach swayed and bounced in earnest now, and they all braced themselves in the small cabin, their bodies stiffly jerking and fighting the momentum. Ages seemed to pass before they finally rolled to a stop.

Leasa bolted out of her seat and lurched toward the door with her hand over her mouth.

Kaid jumped up to stop her, but she moved more quickly than he. She stumbled out of the coach, fell to her knees and retched.

“Does yer maid ever actually care for ye?” he asked Elizabeth sardonically.

She threw him a dark look and rose from her seat.

But Donnan beat her to her maid’s side. He bent over her and offered a square of linen. The wet sound of her blowing her nose soon followed.

Kaid disembarked from the coach and aided Elizabeth onto the soggy ground. The evening summer air graced his skin with a chilled breeze. Donnan’s murmured voice hummed quietly as he spoke to Leasa in gentle tones.

Elizabeth watched the two as well. “That was kind of him to help.”

The gentleness with which she spoke and the softness in her brown gaze as she regarded Donnan and Leasa made a flicker of jealousy prickle through Kaid.

He’d received little more than the sharp side of her tongue when he knew she was capable of far more. No sooner had the thought entered his mind, he steeled himself against the absurdity of it. She was his captive.

In the end, she was his bargaining tool to return to MacKenzie for peace. She would be married, and he would never see her again.

“We’ll eat after we set up camp.” His voice came out gruff with his determination.

If she noticed it, she did not chastise him for it. Perhaps she was as tired as he.

“We have no food,” she reminded him. “Our main stores were ruined when our bags fell from the coach.”

“We’ll make do.” Though he tried to sound optimistic, there wasn’t enough food for all of them. The scant amount of meat remaining wouldn’t be enough to fill any of them.

He surveyed the area, letting his gaze skim over the tree line, straining his vision against the darkening sky until he saw several puffs of smoke in the distance. A town or a village, far enough away not to be a threat, but close enough that they would arrive by midmorning.

Once he and Donnan had set up camp and Leasa appeared recovered enough to not lose what she ate, Kaid distributed the remaining food.

Elizabeth accepted the meager hunk of salted ham with a quiet note of thanks. It wasn’t until they began to eat that she regarded him with a shrewd glint in her eye. “Where’s your food?”

“We already ate,” Donnan answered.

She nodded to Kaid. “He didn’t. Only you did.”

Donnan slid a questioning gaze to Kaid, who offered a nonchalant shrug in reply.

In truth, he’d given Donnan his quarter of the share and hadn’t expected the women to notice he hadn’t given himself one. Apparently Lady Elizabeth was more observant than he’d given her credit for.

“What will you eat?” Her voice was gentle.

Kaid shrugged off her question. “A warrior isna worth his weight if he canna take a bit of hunger for a night.”

She tore her piece of ham and held out half to him. The meat was a deep, roasted pink, charred along the sides. Its briny scent made his mouth water.

“Take this,” she said. “Please.”

A part of him, a larger part than he cared to admit, wanted to snatch the hunk of meat from her palm and devour it. But, he reminded himself, Lady Elizabeth was not used to hunger. The piece she had was already too meager to see her sufficiently filled.

“I’m fine,” he answered and strode away before she could offer again. Before his resolve could crumble.

When he was far enough away from them, he drew a slender vial from the pouch at his waist. The clear liquid within rolled against the glass like a fat droplet of rain.

There was only enough left for tonight. Maybe tomorrow as well, if he was conservative with his dose.

His fingers shook at the prospect of having so little remaining.

The women were not the only ones who lost several items when the bags came loose. The bag he’d packed had spilled its contents, and the remaining vials the seer had given him had been lost. He’d looked for his stock with barely contained madness, but to no avail.

This was his last.

Perhaps he ought to try one night without it. To sleep without the blanket of valerian root to pull over his mind.

He clenched his teeth. The images would flood his mind at all attempts to sleep and keep him in wakeful horror. His muscles went tight in anticipation.

The bodies.

The empty stares.

The blood.

He pulled the stopper from the bottle. Carefully. Carefully.

His fingers were clumsy, too large for so tiny a bottle, and shaking with an overwhelming anticipation.

He touched the vial to his lips and let a slight amount of the bitter liquid wet his tongue.

He needed this. The sleep. The escape.

Kaid shoved the stopper into the vial and pushed hard to ensure it was in there deep enough to keep the contents from leaking.

“Why are you doing this?” Lady Elizabeth’s voice sounded from behind him.

He slipped the vial into the pouch at his waist before turning to face her. But it was not accusation on her face. It was sincerity.

“You and Donnan both, you seem kind. But you’re committing an egregious, heinous crime.”

His soul chilled at her delicate claim, hating the truth behind her words.

She shook her head. “I’ve been trying to think why you could possibly do this and can come up with no morally sound answer.”

A warmth started in the base of his neck and pulsed slowly through his body. The valerian root was beginning to take effect. Soon he would be numb. Soon even the burden of his guilt would be assuaged.

“There are more people at stake in this than Donnan and me.” Perhaps it was more than he should have said, but he wanted her to understand, to not judge him so harshly. Not when she was affording him her kindness.

She cast a glance behind her to where Donnan and Leasa were chatting by the glow of the fire. “If you let us go, we won’t tell anyone.” Her heavily lashed brown eyes searched his. “You’re a good man, Kaid. Please don’t do this.”

Even the numbing blanket of the valerian root could not stop the ache from spiking in his chest. “We need rest,” he said. “We have a long day tomorrow.”

She studied him for a long moment, her face blank, then finally turned away. For that he was grateful.

He wished he could return the lasses to the road and walk away as if no wrongdoing had ever occurred.

But he was not a man with the luxury of options.

• • •

Delilah’s inability to sleep was due more to the discomfort of her mind than that of the thin cushion upon which she tried to sleep.

She envied the men their freedom, under the stars with the cool earth beneath their backs. The walls of the cabin were becoming too familiar, too close, as if they were pressing against her and choking the air from her chest. At least she’d taken off the blasted corset.

The sound of Leasa’s even breathing came from the opposite bench. Delilah was glad the other woman slept after the taxing stress of what had transpired since their quiet ride through the forest that afternoon.

Had it truly been only one day when it felt another lifetime ago?

Delilah rolled onto her back to get more comfortable. The coach squeaked and rocked with the simple movement. She suppressed a sigh and tilted her head back on the cushion to stare out through the top of the narrow window where the sky was alight with countless stars.

London never had so many stars. The skies of Scotland seemed vaster and more open. She’d been in the country for almost four years and still loved the wildness of it all. For as much as she’d dreamt of London’s court as a girl, she truly did not miss it as a woman.

A low groan came from outside.

She froze and locked her breath in her chest, fearful the simple act might keep her from hearing something important.

The groan came again, louder this time, followed by the incoherent mumbling of a man’s deep voice.

Kaid?

The voice cried out.

Was someone hurt?

Delilah sat carefully upright to keep from making the coach move too much. The glow of the firelight momentarily blocked her vision before she made out the shadowed form of a man lying near it on the ground. His head thrashed from side to side and a low growling sound emerged from his throat.

Kaid.

Her heart went tight.

She got to her feet and exited the confining coach.

While she did not intend to demonstrate her skills, she would not allow herself to be surprised either. Nor would she allow any harm to come to Leasa, no matter what it took.

The sweet night air bathed her face, washing away the oppressive suffocation of the coach. She glanced around their camp and noted Donnan’s absence.

Kaid’s brow puckered and his head shook from side to side once more in a silent no.

Was he asleep?

She crept closer when a raw and anguished cry erupted from the back of his throat.

“Kaid,” she whispered.

His brow remained furrowed, his body tense in his slumber.

“Kaid.” She spoke louder this time and reached for his shoulder.

He lurched awake like a gunshot and thrust the blade of his dagger to her throat before she had time to register the threat.

Her heart slammed hard in her chest, but she did not back away.

“Kaid, you had a nightmare.” She put her hand on his and tried to push the dagger from her throat, but found his arm locked tight.

His blue eyes were pale gray in the firelight. “They’re dead.” His voice was flat. “They’re all dead.”

Her heartbeat came harder and faster. Was he referring to Donnan? She cast a quick glance around the clearing, confirming the lanky man was still missing. “Kaid, who’s dead?”

“There’s so much blood.” He sniffed hard and looked away, but not before she caught the gloss of tears in his brilliant gaze. “The men. The women. God, the children.” His voice caught.

Chills raked over Delilah’s skin. She stared at him, not seeing the things he clearly saw in his mind, but witnessing well enough the horror etched on his face. Never had she seen a man so vulnerable, and it made her wince with the force of his suffering.

Her mind whirled with a million different thoughts, all warring against one another.

To prod for information, or to comfort?

To worry about him, or to worry about herself?

To let him continue, or to stop him?

Delilah pushed at Kaid. “It was a dream.” This time the blade shifted from her throat.

His hand sank to the ground, limp, and his gaze drifted toward the dagger. “They’re all dead. And I couldna save them.”

He dropped his head forward and might have pitched to the dirt had Delilah not caught him.

Perhaps she ought not to have done it, but her arms came around his body, and she rubbed small circles against his back, as she’d done with her younger siblings back in London. “It’s a dream,” she whispered. “Just a dream.”

He smelled of sensual masculine spice, and his body was strong beneath her touch. Hard muscle beneath firm flesh. The observation set her nerves on edge. Hadn’t she allowed men to interfere enough with her life?

She eased him off her and settled him as gently as possible to the ground, not an easy feat when his body was so much larger than her own.

In the end, she got him lying on his blanket with one arm awkwardly tucked beneath his body. With a sigh, she leaned over him in an attempt to liberate the trapped limb. After much tugging and grunting, she finally freed it.

Using that very arm, he caught her around the waist and pulled her down and back against him.

Everything in her body went on high alert, tensing for a fight.

But it was not a fight she got.

Kaid held her with the heat of his strong body and nuzzled his face into her hair, tracing the line of her neck with his lips.

Tingles prickled over her flesh and suddenly the night air was too warm.

He was cradling her to him like a lover would.

She lay still, uncertain what to do.

Part of her wanted to leap up and away from him in…what? Fear? Modesty?

But there was another part of her, a shamefully large part, which wanted to relax into his embrace and revel in the affection of his mouth upon her naked skin.

Footsteps sounded beside them, startling her. She’d been so engrossed in her own thoughts, she had failed to hear the person approach.

With a start, she jerked her gaze upward and found someone staring down at her with raised brows.

Donnan.