The Enchantress Read Free Page A

back, William swung his sword at the advancing leader of the Sinclairs, and the sound of clashing steel rang out above the sounds of the shouting crowd.
    Shoving the Sinclair warrior back into the tumultuous battle behind him, William once again tried to back over the low wall. As the Sinclair leader lunged at him again, the toothless old farmer from the market square tackled him with a vitality that William would have never thought he had in him, thumping the man’s head resoundingly on the frozen earth. The Sinclair sword clattered against the wall at William’s feet.
    As the farmer sat up on the man’s chest and winked, the woman dangling over the laird’s shoulder dug her claws into William’s buttocks. He shifted her weight farther up over his shoulder and heard her gasp at the threat of dashing her head against the wall.
    “We’re going out the south lane to a boat at the firth,” he shouted to the old farmer. “Keep these blackguards busy for me.”
    “Aye,” the crofter shouted back before two brawlers came tumbling over him.
    She was again using her fists on his buttocks and legs.
    “Quit your squirming,” William growled, vaulting the wall and starting across the ditch. “Or I’ll ding you so hard, lass, you’ll think you’re back in England.”
    “Let me go, you filthy brute, or I swear I’ll dig your ugly eyes out of their sockets with my own fingers.”
    He started up the far embankment toward a stand of trees and the horses. “Is that not a wee bit violent for a mild and gentle English damsel? Nay, let me think on this again. You’ll take my eyes out so you can put them back in my face, and more to your liking. How do you sort eyes, m’lady? By color or--?”
    “I’d stuff one into that gaping maw of yours if there were a chance you’d choke on it!”
    “Now, there’s an arrangement I would never have thought of.” Reaching the two waiting horses, William hesitated and sheathed his sword. He could hear the brawl still going full-tilt in the market square. There was no way that the woman clawing his back was going to ride alone. Yanking free one of the tethers, he swatted the horse on the rump, sending it trotting off a ways.
    Her gasp of shock at being thrown like a sack over the withers of the other horse brought a devilish smile to his lips, and he leaped onto the animal himself. As William spurred the steed into action, he took a firm hold on the cloak at the nape of her neck, keeping her draped precariously over the horse.
    “I’ll kill you,” she screamed, eliciting a gruff laugh from him. “I swear I will!”
    The jump over a low stone wall and down across an icy brook turned her threats into another gasping cry. Her hands clutched his boot in desperation as he looked over his shoulder. Three of the Sinclair men had broken away from the chaos and were running across the market square after them.
    In a moment William and his prize had entered the scrubby pines to the south of Fearnoch, and he abruptly wheeled his charger to the west, galloping over stony, uneven ground--and away from the boat landing on the firth.
    “Let me up, you blackguard,” she cried out, squirming again. “The little I had in my belly is ready to...is ready to...”
    “Feel free, lass. ‘Twould be far better to get rid of it down there than in my lap.”
    In a few minutes of hard riding, they broke out of a patch of trees and onto a well-traveled road that led from the town along the line of hills to the west.
    The woman was now groaning at every dip and turn in the road, but William was not ready to slow their flight. When the road turned southward again toward Fearnoch Firth, the Ross laird reined his horse sharply to the right, leaving the main road and continuing west through thick groves of pine.
    Looking back over his shoulder again, William could see no sign of the Sinclair men. They were on foot and heading south toward the firth. It would be far too late once they realized their mistake.