Page 58 of The Burden of a Scottish Chieftain
Meg screamed and ran away from him, her attacker in hot pursuit.
“Meg, your dagger!”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Meg
Meg had thrown her axe at one of her attackers as hard as she could. It landed in the man’s chest, and he crumpled to the ground. But now all she had left was a small dagger.
She did the obvious, screaming and running, something she hated to do, but she didn’t have the confidence to use the knife on him.
Lennox’s voice caught her. “Your dagger!”
She tugged it out of the sack tied to her belt, glancing over at Lennox to see if he’d be able to help her. He killed one quickly, but the second one was tougher with a larger weapon.
“Fight, Meg! I’ll be there soon.”
She held her dagger out against the brute, but he grinned, lunging for her. She didn’t see any weapon other than the man’s fists, but they could do plenty of damage.
“You think you’ll hurt me with that small knife, lassie? Try to get close enough because I’ll get my hands on you then.” He chuckled, an evil-sounding laugh that went right up her neck, making her hairs stand on end.
He jumped toward her, but she kicked at his waist and his hand caught her foot, tossing her onto her back. She hit the ground hard, but she still had her weapon. He grabbed for her, so she attempted to embed her dagger in his neck as Lennox had told her, but she missed, the blade landing in his shoulder instead.
“Bitch! You’ll pay for that one.”
Blood sprayed all over, but she had a moment when he pulled the dagger out, so she did the only thing she could think of—going back for the dead man and her axe. Lurching toward him, she landed on his legs and tried to pull herself up to hischest, but her adversary grabbed her feet, his hands scrabbling up her legs.
“My, but are you not a fine one. I have a baron looking for a wife. He’ll pay good coin for you, so I’ll not kill you, but I must sample you myself first.”
“Egan, if you touch her, I’ll kill you,” Lennox shouted as he parried with the tallest man.
“How do you know my name?” Egan paused for a moment to stare at Lennox, then a grin crossed his face. “I remember you. The one I put in the cellars. I’m about to have a taste of your lady friend.”
She kicked Egan in the face before she finally grabbed the axe, though she couldn’t dislodge it from the dead man’s chest. Tears blurred her vision as Egan’s hand rubbed on her bottom, so she kicked and screamed again, pulling herself up enough to get leverage to remove the buried axe, but it wouldn’t budge.
“You’re mine now, lassie.” Egan winked at her, and she punched him in the face, but his fist was far more powerful than her own. Her head snapped down against the dead man from the blow.
The weight of Egan lifted from her in one swift move as Lennox tossed him aside with a roar, then held the tip of his sword at his throat. “Why, Egan?”
“Why? For coin. Why else would I do it?”
“Why me?”
Egan chuckled, so smug that Meg thought Lennox would kill him just from the confident laughter. He didn’t answer quickly enough, so Lennox pressed harder. Blood dripped down Egan’s neck, his laughter ending quickly.
“Why me?” Lennox’s tone dropped to nearly a whisper.
“Why you? Because I saw you at the festival, and you gave me that look, the look that says you were better than me. I knew you were a chieftain’s son, everything given to you, and youshould have been grateful. Instead you were arrogant, so when my boss said he wished for a man to carry boulders, you were my first thought.” Egan looked at Lennox, then spit off to the side. “Thought you’d drowned. Hoped you’d drowned.”
Lennox stood back, pausing to rake his hand through his hair.
In that one pause, Egan bolted up and lunged for Lennox’s sword, but he was too slow. Lennox stabbed him in the chest, ending the battle.
Meg got up and ran straight to Lennox, launching herself into his arms where she clung to him, sobbing into his shoulder. So afraid after all she’d seen and heard, she refused to turn her head to look at their dead foes. “Are they all gone?”
“Aye. Hush now,” he said, holding her tight. He lifted her into his arms, her legs now around his waist as she sobbed into his shoulder. “Hush, lass. I’ve got you, Meg. They’ll not return.”
When she was finally able to lift her head, her breath hitched so that she couldn’t say a complete sentence, only one word: “Blood.”
