Page 29 of Transporting a Ruthless Highlander
“To the house of her former captain, I think,” he answered. “She has nowhere else to go.”
“Not with you?” May’s voice was suspicious.
“Only until we reach her destination,” he said irritably. “Why?”
“Are you lovers?”
“No!” He was furious. “She does not want me.” He looked around to see where Gavina was, but she had disappeared. “Where is she?” Regardless of the fact that his departure should have been a secret, he leaped up the dungeon steps two at a time and rushed to the arched gate, then stood looking into the distance, but there was no sign of her.
17
Amoment later, May was at his side. “Take me past my family’s estate then go after her,” she said, with a soft, resigned sigh. “You don’t want me, Struan. She is your true love.”
“Yes, she is,” he admitted. “She is everything to me.”
“Then come and let us be on our way.” May was suddenly businesslike. She strode into the stable and ordered the grooms to bring out two horses that were already saddled. “I had your other one made ready too, but I see that she has already taken it. How did she get past the stable lads without me, though?” She was mystified. “They did not know her.”
Struan laughed as he mounted his horse. “She has ways of doing things that you would not believe, May. I have never seen such a resourceful person in my life, but I do not know which way she went.”
May called one of the stable lads over and listened while he gave her the direction in which he had seen her going, and they set off.
Struan was annoyed by the fact that he would have to take unnecessary time making a detour to May’s home, but he owed her that much since she had helped them to escape.
“How did they not know that she was escaping?” May asked curiously.
Struan laughed. “She has a theory that if you look as though you should be doing something then no one will stop you,” he explained. “She says it always works.”
“She sounds like quite a woman,” May remarked, smiling sadly.
“She is,” Struan replied, and she knew by the look on his face that her cause was lost.
His heart belonged entirely to Gavina now, and she realized that it had never really been hers anyway. May handed him a jingling pouch of coins. “You must not go hungry,” she said. “At least I can do this for you.”
“Thank you, May,” he replied, but his thoughts had already left her. They had flown to Gavina.
Gavina listened to Struan’s and May’s conversation until she could stand it no longer. After she put her hands around his face, she could see the look of love and longing in the other woman’s eyes and Struan’s gentle response. It was more than she could bear. She tiptoed away from them, but they were too engrossed in each other to pay her any attention at all. At the top of the stairs, she took a deep breath, then strode across to the stables.
“Is there a horse ready for me?” she asked in a tone that was both pleasant and forceful. She looked confident, although her heart was beating nineteen to the dozen. She only hoped that May had kept her promise to have all the horses ready.
The young man went into the stable and came out with the horse that she and Struan had ridden in on. He eyed the stallion appreciatively. “Milady told me tae saddle this one,” he said. “He is a beauty.”
“Aye. He’s my favorite.” Gavina smiled. “Milady will be here in a minute.” Then she leaped onto the horse and rode away.
The young man stared after her and frowned. He had never seen a woman riding astride before, but he had to admit he liked the sight.
Struan had left May at her family’s estate a little regretfully. He had made so many plans for them, but when he compared how he felt about May to how much he loved Gavina, there was no comparison. Now he was driven by an urge to find her that was so insistent that it was almost painful. He was going over memories of her and recalled a conversation he had had with her just before the sinking of the ship.
“What would you be doing if you were not doing this?” he had asked.
She did not blink. “I would be in prison,” she replied. “Or on one o’ these ships. Or I might have had my neck stretched in a noose.”
He was shocked. “Why?”
“Because I would have killed my father,” she had answered. “If Captain Hunter hadnae taken care o’ me, God knows where I would be. If I hadnae run away, I would likely be a beggar or a whore, starvin’ tae death or dyin’ o’ the pox.” She sighed. “I would have been fed in prison, maybe no’ very well, but enough tae keep me alive. But if I was deid, I wouldnae care.” She shrugged, but her face was not sorrowful. It had a resigned look about it that saddened him.
“You paint a very bleak picture,” he remarked softly. His heart was breaking for her.
“My life was a very bleak picture,” Gavina admitted bitterly. “But that is the life o’ most people.”
