Page 3 of Saved By the Highland Beast
Walking over to the edge of the lake, Sophia splashed the cool water over her hot skin.
I hope the castle isn’t too far from here.
The sun was just beginning to set over the mountains in the distance, and every limb in her body ached. She wanted nothing more than a hot bath and a meal to eat before she slept.
She hoped the people at the castle didn’t think she’d run away. It had been a few days since she’d been expected.
I must have taken the wrong turn at some point.
“What do we have here?”
She whipped around in shock, the voice drawing her attention back to the present. Her heart was beating in her throat when she stared up into the rugged face of a man wearing a bright red British coat.
“Oh, thank goodness.” She let out a breath when she realized the color of the uniform. She had heard many a story of highlander rogues setting upon poor ladies as they travelled alone. An English soldier was a blessing from above.
The man gave her a toothy grin with his yellow teeth, which were broken down into jagged edges. He seemed unwashed and dirty as if he hadn’t taken a bath in quite some time. The soles of his boots were worn and beaten, and the bottoms of his breeches were in shreds.
“Is your troop close by, soldier?” she asked as she pushed herself to her feet and dusted off her cloak.
“No, Ma’am, it’s just me and the rest of my friends.” The man nodded to the outcropping of rocks as three more men came out of the shadows. They were all wearing their bright red uniforms and seemed unkempt.
Sophia felt a slight amount of unease as the men came walking toward her but pushed it to the back of her mind. “I’m glad I ran into you, gentlemen. Perhaps you could help me by pointing me in the direction of McGill Castle.” She eyed the men as they drew even closer.
“Oh, you don’t know how glad we are to run into a lady out here in the wilderness.” The man’s ugly smile widened. His hair was dirty and matted, with pieces of dirt and debris caked into the strands. “We are the lucky ones here…” The more she looked, the more she realized just how dirty the soldiers were.
She took a step back as the rest of the men joined their friend, advancing on her in a semi-circle, making her feel trapped.
“You didn’t answer my question, soldier.” Her foot squelched in the mud as she backed away, the water behind her making it impossible to escape. “Where is the rest of your platoon? I would like a word with your commanding officer.”
“I think you will find that it will be us that you will be talking to.” The man laughed softly in a menacing way. “We will be having the last words tonight, and we intend on enjoying them too.”
The rest of the soldiers laughed as they looked at her, the same kind of menacing grins on their faces.
She began to panic when she realized that all was not as it seemed with these men. Their clothes were ragged and dirty with blood stains and rips that would have been fixed if they were in a platoon. “Have you wandered away from the battlefield?” she tried again in an attempt to calm her own nerves more than anything else.
It wasn’t uncommon for injured soldiers to stray from the troops during the confusion of battle. The ballroom banter was filled with tales of soldiers that started a battle in Inverness and ended up in the wilderness of Scotland weeks later. Some had been lucky to be found in time, and others had fallen prey to bandits or the elements.
“In a way,” one of the other men answered in a cool voice that sent shivers down her spine. “One might say that we voluntarily decided to lose our way.”
His friends laughed at the joke with mocking derision.
Sophia felt like a fox cornered in the hunt. “You are deserters,” she said in disgust as she walked back further until the water was lapping at her feet. “You’ve betrayed your country.” The words slipped out before she could stop them, making her realize her mistake when the men’s smiles disappeared.
“I see we have an uppity little miss here, men,” the first soldier growled, his eyes darkening with murderous intent. “I don’t much care for being accused of treason.”
“What right do you have to be judging us?” the man with the cool voice snapped as he closed the distance between them.
“I wasn’t judging anyone,” she said quickly as panic rose in the pit of her stomach. He was close enough for her to smell the stench on his skin. He smelled like a mixture of sweat and death, and his breath was just as sour and pungent when he leaned in.
“I’ll show you what we do with uppity little Society rats who think they are better than the rest of the world,” he breathed against her cheek as she winced away from him.
“Please, I don’t want any trouble. Just let me be on my way. They are expecting me at McGill Castle. I only wanted some help…”
“You dare accuse us of treason when you’re flitting about the countryside in the pursuit of some bastard Scot?” Their leader spat in the mud as if the mention of Scots left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“We will help you with something all right,” the man with the cold voice suddenly grabbed her wrist in a vice-like grip and wrestled her arm behind her back, spinning her around to face the lake.
“Please don’t hurt me!” she screamed in panic, hoping that someone would hear her.
