To Tempt Highland Fate (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (23 page)

             
“I need someone to take a message to my brother.  Someone ye trust with yer verra life.”

             
“What is the message?”

             
Drust took a deep breath.  “My brother will send men, and we’ll take the castle.  If we catch them off guard, we should be able to reach Willa before they can harm her.  I dinna see any other way.”

             
James stared at him as if he had two heads.  “Just
who
is yer brother, that he can send enough men to take back a bloody castle overflowing with enemy soldiers?”

             
“My brother is Bren Mac Coinnach.  I am Drust Mac Coinnach.”

             
James just stared at him for a long moment, and the room fell silent as the grave.  “Well I’ll be damned.” He shook his head and a wry smile touched his lips.  “Mac Coinnach.  I should have kenned as much.  My sister couldna have just any ordinary man, och no!”  She has to go and fall for a legendary Mac Coinnach!”

             
Drust’s heart stopped for a moment. 
Fall?
  Had Willa
fallen
for him?  No, he decided.  Her brother was only being overdramatic.  James hadn’t even spoken to her recently; he couldn’t know her feelings.  “Listen to me, James.  Yer sister is in danger.  I can feel it, and I think ye can too.  Are ye going to tell me what is going on here, or am I going to squeeze the life out of ye until ye do?  Why was Willa protected by wards?   Why was she hiding?”

             
James glanced at Maura, who gave a little nod of encouragement. 

             
“My sister is… in fact only my half sister.  Though we share the same father, Willa was raised by her aunt in England.  They were hidden there, and Willa only returned a year ago, at my bidding.  Our father seized the opportunity to make a profitable marriage for her, solely for his own gain, of course.  He cared nothing for Willa otherwise.  She did give Colm the chance to woo her… I think she genuinely wanted to love him… to have a home and a family of her own.  But my sister is no fool, she saw through the façade to the real man underneath, and she wouldna have him.  But Colm had already set his sights on Dunbroch, and he returned with a small army.  He was going to take the castle and force Willa to wed him.  Then he could kill our father and become laird.  He took the castle, and killed our father, but Maura and I managed to escape with Willa during the battle.”

             
James paused, his mouth set in a grim line, taught with emotion.  “All that I have left to me now are my wife, and my sister.  I would defend either of them with my last breath, so keep that in mind, Mac Coinnach.”

             
Drust fixed him with a hard stare.  He was not wasting any more time.  “Where is the man who can deliver the message?”

             
James nodded, understanding that the talking was done and now they would get down to the business at hand.  He led Maura and Drust to a small cottage to the south of the castle, where he had a trusted friend.

***

             
The men had returned her to Dunbroch.  Damn them.  It was the very last place on earth she wanted to be.  Colm had taken over the castle, brought in his own men, and made himself at home, despite her refusal to wed with him and give him the lairdship.  In her mind, James was rightfully laird and always would be. 

             
But Colm was determined to amend the oversight right away.  He had sent for a priest.  What he did not know was that Willa would die before she consented to wed him.  She would not live as the wife of a murderer and despot.  Either she would try to escape and probably be killed, or she would find a way to see Colm dead, in which case she would be killed as well.  She had had many long hours to think about it in the past several days.

             
Either way, she was never going to see Drust again.  Even now she longed for him with an ache that was soul-deep.  She could see in her mind the stubborn set of his jaw, contrasting so sharply with the needful hunger in his eyes.  How badly she had wanted to feed that hunger, to make him finally let go of all that honor and restraint.  She knew that once he did, there would be no reining him back in.  He would belong to her.  If only things had been different… if he had stayed just a little longer, if she hadn’t been captured.  If she had managed to win his heart.  She could see it so clearly… her life with him, stretching out over the years, loving him, standing by him, giving him children.  Meeting his family. 

             
But it was all just a dream, after all.

              The door to her chamber in the tower suddenly opened, startling her from her thoughts, and two guards entered the room.  Each of them grabbed one of her arms, and she was lifted from the chair as if she weighed nothing at all.  Though she struggled and refused to walk, they dragged her like a ragdoll, her feet sweeping across the stone floor.  She lifted her feet up when they swept her down the stairs, but did not give up fighting the guards.  In the great hall, a small assemblage of men stoically awaited her arrival.  Colm was there, standing in front of the cold fireplace. There was a priest just behind him, looking nervous but determined.

             
Willa felt sick to her stomach as she looked at him.  Colm was pure evil, she could see that so easily now.  He had never wanted anything but money and power.  But how had he nearly fooled her before?  She was not usually so foolish, or so imperceptive!  She had allowed him to woo her for God’s sake.  To kiss her!  She was beginning to suspect magic must have been involved, for his ruse to have worked so completely for so long.  Thank the heavens she had come to her senses in time.  Even if her judgment had been clouded by magic, a part of her had still known something was not right.  She only hoped that same instinct would guide her now.

             
As the guards continued to drag her forward despite the frantic back-peddling of her feet, Colm gave her an arrogant grin.  He thought he had won.  Her panicked gaze swept the room, and she willed herself to calm.  There were no familiar faces here, no one would help her.  Not even the priest, who had undoubtedly already been bought.  She glanced to the door at the opposite end of the hall.  The heavy oak was shut tight and bolted
.  Would he come for her?
  A tiny part of her dared to hope Drust would break down that door…
for what Willa?  To be killed instantly by the dozens of armed men in this hall alone? 
She shuddered.  No, she would rather he was safe.  Rather he forget all about her and live… but oh, how her heart ached at that thought.

             
The guards planted her firmly in front of the priest, and Colm took her arm, squeezing it too tightly in his grip: an unspoken threat.  He nodded to the priest, who cleared his throat to begin.

             
“No!” she said, though her throat squeezed tight as if she were choking.  “No!  I will not wed with you, there is not a chance in hell!”  She pulled at her arm, but he gripped it tighter until she cried out in pain.  “Let go of me!  I will
never
agree to this.  Do you hear me?  Never!”  Her voice was steadily rising until she nearly screamed the words.  Her breaths heaved in her chest as she struggled against him, determined not to go willingly to her own ruin.

             
Colm wrenched her impatiently back to his side, his expression calm and calculating.  “I thought ye might be a bit nervous on yer wedding day, Sweet, so I brought along some encouragement to help ye get through yer vows.”

             
“I will not be making any vows to you!”

             
“Och, we’ll see about that, lass.  Geordi!  Bring him.”

             
As Willa watched in horror, a hulking soldier entered the hall from one of the other rooms, bringing with him a small lad of no more than six years.  Behind them a woman cowered in the doorway, obviously terrified for his safety, but just as terrified for her own life. 
She must be his mother
.  She looked from the woman, to the child, to the guard, who had removed a gleaming knife from its sheath.  Understanding dawned.  Her eyes flew to Colm’s face, and he raised an eyebrow.

             
“Shall we, lass?”

             
“Colm, please don’t do this…”

             
“Geordi?”  The guard swept the knife up to the boy’s throat, holding it there as the child trembled and his mother sobbed.

             
Willa saw that she had no choice.  She saw it, and she hated it.  She would not risk the life of an innocent, and the bastard knew it.  But there would be a way to win this game even after she became Colm’s unwilling bride.  She would kill him herself if needs be.

             
She turned to the priest, her face a mask of defiance.  She had a plan.  Marry Colm.  See him dead.  Find Drust somehow and do anything in her power to convince him to let her stay with him…  she wasn’t going to think about her overall odds of success. 

             
She steeled herself for what had to be done.  “I’m ready.”

             
The ceremony only took a few minutes.  Before she spoke her final vow, Willa glanced over to where the child was still held with a knife to his throat.

             
“As soon as I say the words, I want that boy released to his mother.”

             
Colm rolled his eyes in impatience, but nodded to the guard. 

             
Then it was done. 

             
Willa wanted to sink to the floor in despair to think she was now the wife of a man she hated to her very core, but at least he had released the boy.  She saw him run back to his mother as she was being led away toward the tower stairs.  The woman in the doorway flashed her a look of thanks, quickly followed by one of pity.

             
Colm pushed her forward into the laird’s solar and turned to the guards at the door.

             
“See that we are no’ disturbed on our wedding night,” he gave her a crooked smile laced with pure cruelty.  “No matter how much the lady screams.”  The door slammed shut.

             
Willa stood tall with her head held high, fixing her new husband with a glare that wished him dead by way of the most painful means possible.  She bravely stared him down, but her knees trembled and her heart beat with the staccato rhythm of a frightened rabbit.  She had somehow, in her panic to put together a plan, forgotten to consider that there would be a wedding night.  Now, she tried hard not to wish herself dead.

             
Think of Drust… his kiss… his scent…  I have to make it through this so I can find him.  But will he still want me?  No!  Don’t think of that…

             
Colm was slowly circling her, watching her.

             
“Tell me, wife”, he said in a deceptively even tone, “are ye still untouched?  Do ye come to yer husband’s bed a virgin still?  Or will I have to kill another man’s bastard before ye bear me a son?  Tell me!”

             
He shouted the last words and she jumped in spite of herself.

             
“Tell me, Bitch!  Do ye come to me pure, or do I chance another man’s bastard?”

             
She drew in a shaky breath.  “No.  I’m… untouched.”  Though she wished more than anything that she wasn’t.  To have this be her first…  Don’t think, don’t think, don’t think!

             
He stopped directly in front of her and reached for the collar of her dress, grasping it on either side and tearing it down the front with a hard tug.  “No matter.  We shall soon see whether ye lie.”