Her Wicked Highlander: A Highland Knights Novella Read Free Page B

landscape was sparse, and when he scanned it, he could just hardly see her, far down the road, running, her red-blonde hair flying out behind her.
    He groaned out loud, then sprinted down the stairs and out the back door to the stables, where he saddled his horse in record time.
    She was clearly inexperienced in escape, but he was an experienced tracker. It was one of the skills he possessed that had made the Highland Knights give him a second look.
    Aila’s footprints appeared and disappeared at regular intervals based on the saturation of the dirt on the road. Finally, the prints disappeared altogether, and he rounded back, knowing that she must have heard his approaching horse and tried to hide in the foliage.
    It was simple to find the broken twigs and crushed leaves where she’d left the road and gone into the forest. He dismounted and secured the horse, knowing that she could only be a few minutes ahead of him.
    She was still running hard, if the flattened bushes in her path were any indication. He ran too, easily jogging along the trail she’d created. As he grew closer, though, he stopped and then trod slowly along, careful to make minimal noise. He could hear her ahead, crashing through the forest. A second later, he saw her pushing blindly through a thick bramble of bushes.
    He surged forward and, within a few seconds, caught her, wrapping his arms around her.
    “Oh!” she gasped. “Damn it. Damn you. Leave me alone!”
    “Stubborn wench,” he muttered, holding her as steady as he could while she flailed about in his grasp.
    And then she burst into tears.
    He blinked at her, pushing her to arm’s length away from him so he could look at her. “What’s wrong?”
    She shoved at his chest, and he looked down, confused.
    “Are you stupid?” she sobbed.
    “Nay,” he said truthfully.
    “You’ve stolen me from my bed in the dead of night, trussed me like a turkey, and taken me to an abandoned castle. I dinna ken whether you intend to maul me or rape me or murder me, or all three. I dinna ken what you want from me, and why you want it. You dinna tell me a thing, just lock me into a room and expect me to sit docilely while you go… while you go collect your torture devices!”
    For the first time, Max truly considered this from the lass’s point of view. Mayhap she had a point. He’d simply been doing his duty, but perhaps he’d forgotten the feelings of the other human involved. In his defense, he’d never been tasked with the duty of protecting a belligerent female before. He had been somewhat at a loss as to how to handle the situation.
    One thing was clear now, though. It’d be far easier to simply tell her the truth rather than tie her up and hear her shrieks or have to recapture her every half hour.
    “You’re right,” he told her.
    Glassy and still brimming with tears, her eyes narrowed. “About what?”
    “I need to be telling you more. Come back with me, we’ll have a meal, and I’ll tell you why I brought you here.”
    “I dinna trust you!”
    “You need to trust me, lass,” he said solemnly. It was true—right now, Max was her best chance. The other man searching for her would have no qualms about hurting her—probably even killing her—once he got what he wanted. “If you do naught else, you need to trust me.”
    “How can I? You’re a kidnapper and a trespasser and a thief!”
    “A thief?” He frowned.
    “Well, aren’t you?”
    “I dinna think so.”
    “Verra well, then. A kidnapper and a trespasser!”
    He opened his mouth to argue, but then, realizing he couldn’t, he simply sighed. “Come back with me,” he said wearily.
    “Do I have a choice?”
    “Nay.”
    “Do you intend to throw me over your shoulder again?”
    “If needs be.”
    “Please don’t.”
    “Then come willingly.”
    Swiping her eyes with the back of her hand, she straightened, standing tall and proud in the red tartan dress he’d taken from her cottage last night, a Highland woman through