Page 39 of The Highlander's Inconvenient Wife
“That’s nae what she said to me on the cliff,” MacAdair said sternly as he glanced at his men that were being driven to their limits. “The girl said that she was yer captive.” He looked Jasper up and down. “How I ken that she would be there is none of yer business.”
Jasper felt a pang of confusion in his heart as he looked at the man. There was no way that Joan would have said that she was being held against her will, not after the moment they had shared. Even before their connection on the cliff, he had made it clear to her that she was free to leave and even stay at any point. Confusion clouded his thoughts as he sought the truth. It wasn’t possible that anyone else knew she had briefly been taken captive upon her arrival.
Did I nae make her feel safe?
“The lass is safe with me,” Jasper repeated through clenched teeth. “Call off yer men, an’ we can clear up the misunderstandin’.”
“That’s nae what I heard; release her to me an’ the attack will stop,” he said sternly as he squared his shoulders, standing up to Jasper. “All we want is the lass; ye can go back to livin’ yer secluded life once she is safe with me.”
“She is safe!” he growled angrily and lunged forward as he drew his sword from his hip.
MacAdair countered his attack with his own sword as Jasper place his full weight behind the blade, bearing down with all the anger he felt in his chest. “She will never be safe with a beast like ye!”
Losing his temper, Jasper lifted his sword in the air and swung with all the fury he felt growing in his core. He’d come too far in the past few days to allow Joan to be taken away from him by an insolent man who simply assumed that a woman like her could be nothing other than a captive in his castle.
The men fought one another with angry cries until Jasper finally got the upper hand, throwing the man to the ground as his men rushed forward to help him back up.
A sudden blood-curdling scream drew their attention to the opposite line of trees as a sudden wave of ice ran through Jasper’s veins.
Joan…
“We have the lass!” one of MacAdair’s men screamed over the heads of the fighting men, causing most of the soldiers to stop fighting and look in his direction.
Jasper did his best to try and keep the Laird where he was, but it was no use as his men turned on their heels and held him at bay with their swords. “Leave her alone!” he yelled as two of the men gripped each arm and held him back from behind.
MacAdair suddenly set off at a run, making his way toward Joan as more men gripped her by the waist and hoisted her onto the back of a horse.
Feeling his body being overtaken by an unstoppable anger and rage, Jasper began to fight back, first throwing one man to the side before freeing his arm and connecting the other square on the chin with an uppercut that sent him flying into a tree.
He rounded on the men with swords next and made quick work of them before pushing forward through the throng of men who had returned to their battle.
Feeling as if his heart was about to beat from his chest, Jasper ran forward, knocking anyone out of his way that dared stand in his path. He was halfway across the battlefield when he saw the MacAdair reach the horse where Joan was being held down by two very large men with swords.
“Leave me alone!” she managed to kick one in the face as she struggled to break free.
MacAdair gripped her arms just as she slid from the horse, holding her back before she was able to make a run for it.
Picking up the pace, Jasper tried his best to push through the throng of bodies that warred with blades and daggers. It wasn’t until he had made up most of the distance that he realized the opposing men were beginning to retreat in full. His own men were pushing them closer to the line of trees as they defended the castle.
“Jasper! Help me!” Joan’s scream filled his ears as he looked up again to see a sight that filled his heart with dread.
Joan had been bound and gagged this time before she was thrown over the back of the Laird’s horse. Spurring the beast on with a blood-curdling cry, MacAdair raced off into the trees with Joan staring at Jasper with a look of panic on her face.
The world suddenly seemed to stop spinning as Jasper froze, feeling his body go numb from shock. The woman he loved had suddenly and very unceremoniously been ripped from his arms. How could it be when he hadn’t even had the chance to tell her that he loved her with every fiber of his being?
I love her.
The words sliced through his heart with searing pain. He’d never thought that his happiness would ever depend on another person, let alone an English woman he had only just met a few days prior, but at that moment, Jasper knew that any future happiness he may have hoped to have depended on Joan being returned to his arms.
Turning his face to the sky, he let out a fierce battle cry that made the men around him stop and run for cover. There was no turning back now that he knew what needed to be done. The consequences be damned.
I will get her back if it’s the last thing I do.
20
Jasper gripped his hair as he fell to his knees in the mud; he needed a moment to think before simply running after Joan. MacAdair didn’t seem as if he wanted to hurt her; he seemed to be operating under some kind of false assumption of chivalry. That in itself would give him time to get a horse and give chase.
The men of the opposing clan had already begun to disperse when Jasper pushed himself up and made his way toward the gates of his castle, ignoring the men who fled from his presence. There was no use in spilling more blood when killing even one of them wouldn’t help get her back. Wealth and land didn’t seem to be the factors at play. They had come for Joan and nothing else.
