Page 44 of Lost with a Scot
“Aye, wife. Ye cannot be rid of me, no matter what we find in London.” He’d promised to stay with her through sunlight and storms, and he had a feeling they were about to face the latter.
Her hand tightened on his arm. He knew she was afraid, but he would protect her.
“Dinna be scared, lass. We’re together now.”
As they reached her bedchamber, she kissed him and hugged him tight. “Yes, we are, husband.”
CHAPTER11
Alexei and William stood in the center of the village of Vasler. Charred remains of homes and the slain bodies of village men filled the center of the square. There was no doubt that Yuri and the men he’d rallied to join him in his coup had done this. Alexei’s men moved from building to building, seeking any survivors. The acrid scent of smoke brought back all too vivid memories of finding his parents dead in their bed as their room was engulfed in flames.
Alexei pressed his palm to his chest, suddenly unable to breathe. William put a hand on his shoulder, holding him steady when he might have wavered.
“Is there no end to my uncle’s madness?” Alexei asked his friend. He knew that his uncle had always wanted to sit upon the throne, but had no claim, not as the son of the queen and her second husband. Yuri was half brother to Alexei’s father, they shared the same mother, the dowager queen but the royal blood ran down Alexei’s father’s side, leaving only Alexei and Anna with the right to the throne. The only relief Alexei had had since this nightmare began was his certainty that his sister was safe. He could feel it in his bones that she was not in danger. It was something they’d always shared since they’d been born. That connection between them, that sense of knowing the other’s feelings even when thousands of miles away. Thank God Anna wasn’t here to see the results of Yuri’s destruction.
Yuri had pressured Alexei’s father time and again to push Ruritania into the future, to industrialize and to build armed forces. He’d even spoken of hiring Prussian mercenaries until a proper Ruritanian army could be formed. Alexei’s father had always maintained good political relations with the neighboring nations and had never needed to arm the country’s citizens against an outside threat. No one could have foreseen that the threat would come from within.
Alexei would never understand what made a man think he could do such terrible things to innocent people—it could only be a madness of the mind and a blackness of the heart.
“It seems not,” William said, and then his voice pitched low with worry. “Alexei, I don’t see any women or children among the dead.”
“None?” Alexei stared at the ruins around them. “Do you think they were taken prisoner?”
William’s eyes were deeply shadowed. “We would have seen footprints leading them away. We’ve seen only the boots of soldiers and shoes of horses.”
“Then they have to be here. They...” Alexei didn’t finish. If they were here, they couldn’t be alive, or they would have been found by now.
“Search everywhere. Find them,” Alexei ordered with a desperation and fatalism that tore his heart from his chest.
No survivors were found.
“Alexei, you must see this,” one of Alexei’s men called to him. Alexei headed in the man’s direction and slowed to a stop before the ruins of a small church, where the man stood and pointed at the ruins.
Once the church had been a place for villagers to gather in peace; now it was a mass of blackened timbers. The stench of death hovered around it, and Alexei’s blood froze in his veins as he realized that not all of the charred objects in front of him were wooden beams... many werebodies.
He sank to his knees and let out a raw scream of rage. He would cut his uncle’s black heart out of his chest if it was the last thing he ever did.
* * *
Anna jerked awake,screaming as heartache ripped through her body.
“Anna!” Aiden’s arms banded around her, holding her tight. His woodsy scent enveloped her, and she calmed a little, but she still found it hard to breathe.
“What is it?” Aiden asked.
She blinked in surprise to find herself with Aiden, Brock, and Joanna in a large coach. Lydia and Brodie were in a second coach following them. While she slept, she’d forgotten she was on the way to London, not standing in front of a burned-down church filled with the remains of women and children. For a moment the realization that what she’d seen had come to pass was too much for her, but then she knew she had to explain to Aiden since he would understand.
“The village that I saw in my dreams... it happened. Everyone is dead. Oh God...” She burrowed against Aiden’s chest, shutting her eyes tight, but it only made the images she had seen all the more clear in her head.
More than ever, she was glad she had spoken her vows to Aiden by the fairy pools. He was her husband—they would be together in whatever the future brought. The comfort this gave her, knowing she wasn’t alone, that her tall, dashing Scottish husband would be there, soothed her in a way she’d never imagined marriage would bring. Her mother had always spoken of love and marriage as a partnership, but until that moment, Anna hadn’t fully understood what she’d meant.
Aiden said nothing for a long moment. He simply held her. When at last he spoke, she had managed to find her center of calm again. Joanna and Brock watched her with concern, but she was glad they let Aiden speak to her without interference.
“Do ye have any ideawhyye are seeing this village? Perhaps it is where ye lived or a place ye ken?”
“I don’t think I lived there. The place is unfamiliar, but the feeling of seeing the death, the destruction... It felt as if I was there as it happened. But I’m here with you.” She could smell the burning wood and bodies, feel the wind blowing smoke into her face. She could taste the salt of the tears from her cheeks, but they weren’thers.
She felt like she was losing herself each time the visions overtook her. They were so strong that it robbed her of what few memories she had that she knew were her own. What if it kept happening? What if she would never be free of these horrifying visions?
