Page 30 of Transporting a Ruthless Highlander
“I am ashamed to say that I do not know what poverty is like,” he confessed. “I have always been comfortably off, even though I was born out of wedlock.”
“So was I,” Gavina told him, laughing.
“We have something in common then,” he said, smiling.
“Aye, both bastards.” Gavina yawned. “I need tae sleep, number four-five-two. Goodnight.”
Then she had walked away, and he had watched her tall, willowy figure until she was out of sight, wishing that his situation was different. When he went to sleep under the stars that night, he dreamed of making love to her, kissing and stroking her tender body, then entering her and pleasuring her until she screamed her fulfillment.
Struan woke up the next morning feeling more rested and refreshed than he had been since he came on board the ship. That was the day he attained his freedom, but not in the way he had hoped.
Struan had been riding hard and fast to catch up with Gavina, but his horse was tiring, and he had been slowed down by his detour to May’s estate. However, he owed it to her to make sure that she reached safety since her husband was obviously not to be trusted. She had looked the picture of misery when he left her, but he had had to harden his heart and go on with his journey. His future depended on it.
Gavina slowed her horse to a trot, not only because he was tiring, but because she wanted Struan to catch up with her. He and May had looked so right together, the big, tough man and the small, fragile woman. He had obviously thought so too and had decided to stay with her, but if there was even a small chance that he had followed her, she had to embrace it.
She stopped to let the horse graze for a while, and to drink and wash in a burn. Once more, she found herself without food, but she found a blackberry bush and plucked some fruit from it, then she picked some wild mushrooms. She had nothing with which to fashion a fishing line, so she ate the little she had and plodded on.
She had calculated that her journey to Captain Hunter’s house, which was over twenty miles away, would take another full day’s riding. It would take every ounce of determination she had, but she would do it, despite her hunger and weariness.
The sun was setting; she began to look for somewhere to sleep for the night. She could see the edges of a village in the distance and decided to try to stop there.
As she entered the main street she saw a tavern up ahead and decided to try her luck at scrounging up a meal. She had nothing with which to pay, and did not feel up to another card game or using any of her other strategies, so she did what she had been forced to do many times before. There was a midden outside the tavern, and she fished among the food scraps for crusts of bread, cheese rinds, bacon fat, bits of fruit, and anything else with which she could fill her grumbling stomach. She left without looking back at anyone, hoping no one had seen her, but someone had.
“Poor lass,” the landlady said, shaking her head. “Take care, hen!” she murmured as she looked out of the window.
“I have never been sae ashamed in my life,” Gavina told the horse, whom she had decided to call Harry. “They must think I am a tramp, Harry. At least you can eat grass. Maybe I should dae that.” Harry nodded his head and whickered as if agreeing with her, and she laughed.
She mounted again and plodded on at a slow trot, keeping her eyes peeled for somewhere to sleep. She had almost decided to settle for a hollow in the trunk of a huge ash tree when she saw a barn some way away from the road. She made her way toward it. It was empty of animals but full of straw and was the best of the ones she had slept in so far.
This time she was able to bring the horse inside with her, and he made his way around the space munching the straw contentedly. Gavina had become so used to sleeping in strange and uncomfortable places that another barn did not faze her in the slightest. In fact, she would have been perfectly content if only Struan had followed her. She sighed, laid down, and covered herself with the only blanket she had managed to snatch from the dungeon. Surprisingly, she tumbled headlong into sleep at once.
At some point during the night, Gavina woke, disturbed by the crackle of straw around her. At first she thought it was Harry nuzzling around inside the barn, but there was no sound of his chomping as he ate his hay. She could hear breathing, however, and realized that someone was very near her, so close that she could have reached out and touched them.
She lay dead still, trying to breathe as quietly as she could. She was sure the stranger could hear her heart, which was pounding so hard and fast that it felt as if there was a drum inside her chest. The stranger moved away, and Gavina would have given a sigh of relief if she had not been afraid of alerting them.
She saw a shadowy shape silhouetted against the open entrance to the barn, and realized that a big man was only feet away from her. Her stomach clenched into a knot of fear, then relaxed as she saw that he was leaving, and she let out the breath she had been holding.
It was a mistake. The man whipped around and drew a dagger, then retraced his steps, swinging the weapon in slow circles. He was utterly silent, but Gavina heard the sound of straw crunching under his feet as he retraced his footsteps to the source of the noise.
She curled into a ball as he drew abreast of her, then he stepped forward, his foot landing on her leg. She gave a shriek of pain and tried to crawl away, but his hand landed on her shoulder, gripping it so tightly that she could hardly move. Acting on pure instinct, she twisted around and grabbed at the man’s arm with both hands and bit it as hard as she could, and heard a satisfying growl of pain.
Gavina scrambled backward, trying to get to her feet while the man was incapacitated. She stood up with difficulty, but as she tried to hobble past him, his arm shot out, he pulled her sharply toward him, and she collided with a solid, muscled chest. Gavina pummeled it for a moment but found it hard and unyielding, and at last, she gave up, then did something she had never done before in her life.
“Dinnae hurt me, please,” she begged, her voice trembling with fear.
There was a moment of silence before the man loosened his grip. “My God, Gavina? Is that you?” he asked in astonishment, and she recognized a deep, familiar voice.
18
Gavina sagged against Struan, limp with relief. All her pent-up emotions of fear, gratitude, and joy poured out of her all at once in a storm of tears. He held her tightly while she breathed in his musky, male scent and pressed her face against him. At any other time, she would have felt fiercely aroused, but now she was infinitely thankful to feel safe and protected. Nothing could hurt her while she stood here in Struan’s arms, but she knew she could not stay there. He did not want her.
At last, her weeping stopped, and she gazed up into his deep, dark eyes, which were looking down at her with concern.
“Why did you run away?” Struan asked, his voice puzzled as he stroked her hair back from her face.
“I wanted to let you have the woman ye loved,” she replied. “Why did ye come after me? If it is tae make sure I am safe then dinnae worry. Ye know I can find my own way.”
“But Iamwith the woman I love.” His voice was tender as he wiped the last of her tears away with his fingertips. “The woman who has stood by me during all my troubles, kept me safe on the ship, risked her own life to save mine when I almost drowned. I am with the woman who came with me to go to the place I thought I wanted to be to confront my brother. Only I do not want to be in that place anymore. I want to be by her side—my Gavina’s side—if she will have me.”
