Chapter Four
Getting the wolves from the cave had been easier than Evander had anticipated. They were quickly transferred to the carriage with Zeus on the floor and Hera placed on the bench beside Evander where he could watch her injured paw. Neither wolf so much as twitched during their move, nor did they wake when the Mackenzies began their rumbling, bouncing passage over the English countryside on their way to Scotland.
Zeus lay silent where he’d been settled, his pink tongue poking out from between his small front teeth. Six hours had passed, and all still slept, with the exception of Evander.
Diana’s hand hung limp over the seat, her splayed fingers near the scruff of Zeus’ back. She shifted on the narrow bench. A moan sounded in the back of her throat, husky and low, more tempting than Evander cared to admit. Her eyes blinked open and she regarded him upside down with bloodshot eyes. She rocked with the sway of the carriage.
“You poisoned me,” she said simply. “And now I’m being taken somewhere against my will. Presumably bound for Scotland. Am I correct?”
“Ye wouldna come.”
Her full lips curled in a wry smile. “I’m not the obedient type. You should take me back and find another wife.”
His right hand tingled and he rested it casually on his knee to rid it of the odd sensation. “I dinna need an obedient wife. I just need ye.”
“To bear you children?” She lazily pulled herself back in her seat so she lay on her side.
“To provide me with coin.”
Her brows lifted in surprise.
He met her gaze. “Ye want honesty. I couldna pass up the amount of coin offered for yer hand.”
She narrowed her eyes. “How romantic.” She tried to sit upright, but her movements were slow and clumsy.
Evander leaned forward to help her. She squared her shoulders, facing him with the bravado of someone intending to be hit.
He frowned and held up his hands, palm out. “I meant only to help ye sit, lass. I dinna strike women.”
“Just poison them and steal them away?” She rolled her eyes.
She sagged back into the cushion she lay upon. If Evander was going to give her the tonic again, the opportunity to do so was now. Each passing minute would make her more and more aware.
“I dinna want to drug ye the entire ride to Castle Leod,” he said honestly.
“Castle Leod?” She tried to lift herself into a sitting position once more, the stubborn lass. “From one prison to another.”
Evander leaned forward in his seat again, this time extending his hands out in silent offering. “Let me help ye.”
She stared at him for a long moment with a shadow of skepticism over her lovely face. “Very well, since you’re so inclined to do so.”
Zeus grumbled from his place on the floor. Evander glanced down and found the pink of the wolf’s tongue no longer peeking between his teeth and those golden eyes glaring up at him. “Do ye mind, Zeus?”
The wolf gave a guttural sound and settled his head on his paws in silent resignation. Evander could almost swear he saw the subtle lift of Diana’s mouth in a whisper of a smile.
He moved slowly to take her hands in his. Her fingers were warm where they’d been furled against her body in slumber. A tingle started in his right palm when it met that of her left. He ignored the sensation and assisted her into a sitting position.
Her skin was surprisingly soft against his, her fingers delicately tapered and feminine. She might be a bit of a hellcat, but she had the hands of a lady.
Hands he found himself not eager to let go, not when this was the first moment they had where they were not warring and she was not in a drugged stupor. He did not release his careful hold on her, but nor did she remove herself from his gentle grasp. She stared up at him with her mesmerizing blue eyes, and he found himself unable to look away.
Diana Stuart was a captivating woman, one he could easily see himself sharing a life with.
She pulled herself from his grasp and tentatively reached for the back of his neck. A warning echoed through his mind, one he should have listened to.
She caught his shoulders and drove her forehead into his. Pain exploded at the front of his head and white dots flickered in his vision. He brought his hands up to the injury.
Her fingers danced over his belt. “Bloody hell, where is your dagger?”
“I moved it after last time.” He lowered one hand to regard her. “I was trying to help ye sit up.”
She huffed out a sigh and sat back in the seat with heavy shadows under her eyes. “After you kidnapped me. How gallant.” She gave him a brittle smile. “Turn this carriage around and take me home.”
“And what will ye do there?” he asked.
She looked at him as if he were daft. “Go home to my father, tell him of your abducting me, and then watch you hang for your crimes.”
He stared at her for a long moment, at the resolve in her narrowed eyes. It was not often he had a twist of sympathy for someone so eager to see his death.
“Ye dinna know,” he said.
She jutted her chin upward in defiance, but she remained mute.
“I came here to get ye because I was summoned to do so,” he said. “By yer father.”
The news of Diana’s father hit her as sure as any punch. Had her father truly sent this man to take her away? Was he so desperate to be rid of her?
She tried to will away the memories of being a girl, the beautiful fond ones of doting and affection long before he deemed her too feral to love. After all he’d done to her in the last few years, was it any wonder he’d sent a man to kidnap her?
The pain of his lost love burned deep in her chest, beyond the shield she’d tried to raise. Her father had indulged her every wish when she was a child, until the day he realized he couldn’t control her. Her father, who controlled everything, who was used to being obeyed, could not handle her impertinence. The years of strife tore them apart – his insistence to make her do his bidding, her determination to remain free. Over time, that once-affectionate love had soured into resentful hatred.
Perhaps she ought to be glad Evander wasn’t there to kill her.
Still, she stared hard at him in challenge. “I don’t believe you.” Her voice trembled slightly as she spoke. She hated such weakness in herself, that the soft place in her heart would so betray her.
The Mackenzie watched her with his green stare, and she realized to her great horror he watched her with pity.
Pity.
A knot hardened in the back of her throat. She kept her chin held upright to force resolve into her demeanor. He reached into a small box beside him and drew out a folded parchment. Wordlessly, he handed it to her.
A seal was pressed into a lump of off-white wax, broken where either end of the thick paper met. Her fingertips brushed over the indents and grooves of her father’s seal. She unfolded it carefully with trembling hands.
The words on the page ran together, loops and slashes of letters.
She shoved it back at him. “Read it for me.”
He took the parchment and shifted, his discomfort quite evident. “Are ye sure ye want me to do this?” he asked.
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
The Mackenzie’s eyes skimmed over the page, and she knew he was reading it once more to himself before doing so aloud. Time settled over her in an unbearable itch.
“Why are you taking so bloody long?” she snapped.
He looked up at her from over the top of the letter, those deep green eyes too soft to be anything good. “Because if I were to read a missive like this from my da, it would hurt.”
His words shocked her, but she straightened her back and nodded at him. “I’m tougher than I look.”
He dropped his stare to the letter once more and read. “The girl is exceedingly uncooperative. Come and get her if ye damn well want her. I’ll double the dowry. I recommend ye bring others to help ye.”
The girl? As if she didn’t even possess a name worth taking the time to scribe.
She’d known of her father’s lost affection, she’d known it was broken beyond repair, but his letter was the final, fatal blow in their battle. And it made Diana break inside.
The secret hope of her father’s approval for the woman she’d become, the desire to see his love for her restored, the heart-wrenching need to belong – it all shattered into a million dagger-sharp shards.
The Mackenzie paused a moment after finishing the missive before lowering it. As if he intended to give her time to compose herself.
She would need a lifetime to pull herself from the hurt she’d suffered.
“Are ye…all right?” He winced after he’d spoken, obviously aware of the awfulness of his question.
Her thoughts churned too quickly for her sluggish mind to keep pace. Whatever drug had been given to her had been potent.
Her father didn’t want her. He’d bribed this man by doubling her dowry to take her away. She swallowed away the aching knot swelling in the back of her throat. She would not cry. Not for a father who had not even intended to say goodbye.
“What did he get out of this agreement?” Diana asked, her tone harsh.
The Mackenzie’s gaze dipped. It was only for a flash of a moment, but it was enough to make her stomach slide low in her belly.
“What did he get from you?” she asked again, biting off each word as it was spoken. “Land? Livestock? Wool?”
He answered in a soft voice. “Yer da dinna receive anything from me.”
“Nothing, except me gone,” she concluded.
The Mackenzie shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I think it was at the behest of his new wife.”
Diana straightened. “New wife?”
When she’d last been in the manor with her father, never once had there been mention of a possible bride.
The Mackenzie nodded. “A young woman with brown hair, brown eyes. A bit short, but bonny enough.” He lifted his hands in a helpless gesture.
Diana sat in stunned silence, her mind whirling. Her father, married. He’d never told her, never alluded to the possibility of a new marriage. He’d always loved Diana’s mother. Long after she’d died in childbirth, he had loved her faithfully. Then again, he’d loved Diana once too.
And clearly no longer did.
The wrenching pain in her chest was exquisite.
Her father did not want her.
The weight of a stare fell over her, pulling her attention back to the Mackenzie. He watched her silently. His brows tugged together and visible hurt showed in his eyes. Hurt for her.
She grasped her hood and pulled it over her head, blocking out his face and the evidence of his sympathy. She could stand it no more than she could stand her father’s blatant rejection.
“Leave me.” She’d meant the words as a command, but they emerged in a choking croak.
He hesitated before replying. “I dinna want ye to try to run if I do.”
She gave a bark of harsh laughter. “You brought up a valid point. Where would I go?” she asked bitterly. Tears burned in her eyes. Tears!
She hadn’t cried…ever. It’d been so long, she couldn’t even remember. Not through the whippings for insulting a potential suitor, not through the hunger strikes when she refused marriage requests, or when her father had left her alone in the room with that man. A shudder raked up her spine.
Even still, none were as cruel as this.
A sudden rap sounded within the carriage, startling her from her thoughts. They rolled to a slow stop. The cabin swayed and Diana knew the Mackenzie stood. In the limited line of her vision, his hand reached for hers. She should fight him, this man who consorted with her father, who abducted her from her home, but her body was too weakened by her broken soul.
His skin was warm against the chill setting in her fingers. Soothing heat blossomed through her and a tingle began in her palm.
He knelt comfortably on the narrow floor beside Zeus and looked up at her through the shadowed gap of her hood. “Ye’re to be my wife, Lady Diana. I willna ever allow hurt to come to ye from this day forward, and will do all in my power to see ye happy.” He paused and looked away. There was more he wanted to say, but when his eyes met hers once more, she knew he would not continue.
“If ye need me, dinna hesitate to ask, aye?” he said encouragingly.
Diana nodded her acquiescence. She wanted him gone. She wanted solitary silence where she could give in to the harsh grip of her tears.
He rose smoothly to his feet and released her. Diana looked down at her fingers where his foreign touch still hummed against her skin.
The door opened and a gust of icy wind swept through the small cabin. It stayed open for only a moment before the carriage rocked with the Mackenzie’s departure and he was gone.