Highland Savage. Hannah Howell

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СКАЧАТЬ turn on them with equal speed and have a good chance of defeating them all. Now, because of these men, he had to weigh his every move carefully if he had any hope of coming out of this alive.

      “E’en that wee wound willnae stop me from killing ye,” Lucas said, his voice almost cheerful even as he noted with a twinge of dismay how the men began to slowly encircle him.

      “Still arrogant,” said Ranald, grinning as he shook his head. “Weel, soon ye will be joining your wee whore in the cold clay.”

      “So, Annie spoke true when she said Lady Katerina was dead.”

      “Aye, she joined ye or so we thought. Tossed her right o’er the cliff and into the water with ye.”

      That made no sense to Lucas, but he pushed his sudden confusion and all the questions it raised aside. How and why Katerina had died was of no importance at the moment. Staying alive had to be his only priority. A quick glance toward the inn revealed a white-faced Annie and several other Haldanes watching and listening, but Ranald spoke too low for them to hear what was a clear confession. Lucas had to hope that, if he failed to win this fight, they would find out what happened to Katerina, although why he should care about that was just another puzzle he had no time to solve.

      “I dinnae suppose ye have the courage to face me mon to mon, without all your men to protect your worthless hide,” Lucas said as he braced himself for the battle to come.

      “Are ye calling me a coward?” Ranald snarled.

      “Ye needed near a dozen men to capture me, beat me nigh unto death, and toss me off a cliff, and then ye murdered a wee unarmed lass. Aye, I believe I am calling ye a coward and weel do ye deserve the name.”

      “’Twill be a joy to kill ye, fool.”

      Glancing around at the men encircling him, Lucas had the sinking feeling that it would also be a quick killing, but then he stiffened his backbone. He had been in such tight spots before and come out nearly unscathed. All he needed to do was regain that arrogance Ranald found so irritating. Lucas was a little concerned that he would fail at that. It seemed his heart was beating so hard and fast that he could actually hear it. Telling himself he was imagining things, he readied himself to win and, failing that, to take as many of these men with him as he could. This time, killing him was going to cost them dearly.

      Chapter Two

      “He is alive?!”

      Katerina stared at young Thomas, certain she had misheard him, that his breathlessness had garbled his words. Lucas could not be alive. He had been bleeding and broken when Ranald and his men had thrown him off the cliff. The fall would only have added to his already serious injuries. Just before they had tossed her off as well she had caught a fleeting glimpse of Lucas’s limp body being dragged off the rocky shores by the rough, wind-tossed waters of the loch. She had barely survived being tossed into those waters herself and she had not been beaten first. Even as she struggled to keep from drowning in those cold, dark waters, she had looked for Lucas and seen nothing.

      “The mon has those same eyes, m’lady,” Thomas said. “Aye, and e’en the same voice. I recall both verra clearly, although he didnae seem to remember me. It has to be him.”

      “Weel, ye have grown a fair bit in the last year,” she muttered, still fighting her shock.

      “Did Sir Lucas nay tell us once that he has a twin?” asked William as he stepped up to stand close by Katerina’s side and place a comforting hand upon her shoulder.

      A wave of sharp disappointment swept through Katerina at her second-in-command’s words, but she just nodded in silent agreement with his recollection. “Aye, Cousin, he did. Artan was his twin’s name and Lucas said they were alike in looks, voice, and sword skill. This must be Lucas’s twin. His family has finally come to find him or to seek revenge.”

      “But, m’lady, did ye nay tell us that Ranald and his dogs had cut Sir Lucas’s face?” asked Thomas.

      “Aye,” Katerina whispered, unable to halt the searing memories of that day from flooding her mind.

      “Weel, this mon has a scar upon his face and he also limps a wee bit, as if his leg is a wee bit stiff.”

      “It could still be his twin brother.” That both men would suffer such similar wounds was too great a coincidence to be plausible, but Katerina was afraid to let herself hope that Lucas had survived and had returned to her.

      “Ranald and his dogs believe it is Sir Lucas and they mean to be certain that he dies this time.”

      “Then, whoe’er this mon may be, ’tis best if we pull him free of this trouble ere those curs kill him. We can sort out this puzzle of who he is later. Thomas, ye best spread the word that we are riding so that all is ready for us.”

      Pushing aside the fierce, tangled emotions raging through her, Katerina selected six of her men to ride with her. They all donned their long, black cloaks, wrapped a wide strip of dark blue linen over their mouths and noses to better hide their faces, secured their hoods over their heads, and mounted their waiting horses. This was not what they had planned to do when they had gathered this night, but Ranald and his men could not be allowed to murder another man.

      As she led her men on a swift race toward the village, Katerina fought to kill the hope young Thomas’s words had stirred in her heart. She had done her best to kill all hope when Lucas’s body had not even washed up onto the rocky shores of the loch so that she could give him a proper burial. It had taken a long, wretched time to silence all the questions that had kept her from fully accepting his loss, ones such as why his family had never come searching for him. Those unanswered and long ignored questions were all creeping back into her mind now and she struggled to silence them again. All that should matter to her right now was that Ranald and his men were about to kill again and she had sworn on her father’s soul that she would put an end to Ranald’s brutality.

      Even more important, she had yet to prove who gave the man his orders. Katerina was certain it was her half-sister Agnes, but she needed indisputable proof of the woman’s crimes and that was proving very hard to come by. She never would have thought her half-sister was so clever, so cunning. Katerina’s only moments of satisfaction, fleeting and shallow though they were, came when she thought of how Agnes had to be feeling as trapped, as cornered and frustrated, as she was. Agnes had not yet found her rogue of a husband, the man their father had so disliked. Until the man was found and Agnes was made a widow, she could not lay claim to Dunlochan either. They were both locked into this battle, which was draining all the joy and prosperity from Dunlochan.

      The conditions set by her father’s last wishes had been demeaning. The results had thus far been disastrous. Katerina loathed the thought that five old men chosen by her father had the final say on whether any man she chose to wed was suitable or not. That sorely stung her pride. The fact that she and any who supported her were marked for death before her father was even cold in the ground made her wonder just what her father had been thinking of. Either he had been utterly blind to Agnes’s true nature and thus saw no danger, or his general scorn for women had made it impossible to even consider the possibility that there would be a battle over the lands and money he had left behind. Her father may not have been an affectionate man, but she had always considered him a good laird and a clever man. His instructions concerning the settlement of Dunlochan after he died made her wonder if his illness had badly disordered his wits.

      The sound of sword hitting sword abruptly pulled her from her thoughts and she signaled her men to slow their СКАЧАТЬ