Page 38 of Lost with a Scot
“Was it before ye got on the ship? Was it long ago?”
As the pain faded, Anna regained some clarity, enough that she could actually tell that this wasn’t a memory.
“No, I don’t think it has happened yet.”
Aiden’s eyes were dark as he gazed at her. “Ye mean it will happen in the future? How can ye be sure?”
“I just am. Something terrible is going to happen,” she insisted. It was different to how her returning memories felt. A clear sense not of things that were, but would be. “You believe me, don’t you?”
“Aye, lass, I do.” Aiden brushed a lock of hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “Can ye stand?”
“Y-yes. The pain is almost gone.” She climbed to her feet with his help. Then he gave a sharp whistle and raised his arm. The merlin streaked back to earth and landed on Aiden’s fist. He chirped, his cheery tone indicating he was quite pleased with himself for having caught his meal.
“Let’s go back. Ye should have some tea and rest.”
Anna didn’t want to admit to being tired, but she felt hollow now that the images had faded. Hollow and weary beyond her years.
“I’m sorry if I ruined our outing.” She turned away from him, walking more quickly up the hill to hide her embarrassment.
Reaching out, he caught her arm and gently turned her to face him. “Caring about someone does not mean the days are always sunny and the air full of laughter. It means weathering the storms too, the winter chill and the stifling heat. Ye ride out these things together, good or bad.” His gray-blue eyes were so deep, Anna could have gazed into their depths and lost herself forever... or perhaps found herself.
She was falling in love with him, and had been since the day he’d pulled her from the water. It was a love that would grow so fierce that it would have the power to tear the world apart or put it back together. It was a love born of destiny, as he once put it, and now more than ever, shebelievedit.
And the stronger her feelings grew, the more that knot of dread grew inside her, and her fears fed it hour by hour as she worried about what was yet to come.
* * *
Yuri and Fain,along with a contingent of one hundred men, surrounded the little village of Vasler just before dawn. They waited in the shadows of the wood as they watched the fires burn low and the village guards, who were no more than a few farmers with pitiful pitchforks, drift to sleep at their posts.
“Your orders, my king?” Fane whispered. The horses shifted restlessly beneath them.
“Take the men captive. Round up the women and children and lock them in the church. I want them to see what their loyalty to the rebel princeling has cost them.”
Vasler was one of many villages that Yuri had learned were receiving food and coin from the wagons that his nephew and his men had looted en route to Yuri’s camp. He couldn’t afford to keep his small army of guards happy if he didn’t have money to pay them or food to feed them. His ability to maintain control of the country was hanging by a thread, and as much as he wanted to deny it, he couldn’t, at least not to himself. His men couldn’t know how close he was to losing his hold on everything. That damned brat of a prince was going to destroy him.
He dares to steal from me, so I will show him the price of his rebellion.
Fain and the armed soldiers charged the village, throwing torches onto the roofs of homes and trampling those who stood in their way. Screams tore through the air as their pitiful resistance was quelled. When it was over, Yuri walked in front of the captured men of the village, who were all on their knees, their hands bound behind them. The women and children were forced into the small church, and Yuri’s men closed the door, dropping a heavy timber into place to seal the door from the outside.
“You accepted food and coin from those who oppose me and my claim to these lands. Now you pay the price for that betrayal.” He turned to Fain, who handed him a torch. He walked toward the church. Behind him, the men of Vasler began to shout, plead, and beg for mercy. But Yuri heard only the glorious sound of subjugation by force as he threw the torch onto the church’s roof.
He let the village men drown in the screams of their wives and children. And then, when the embers burned in the collapsed chapel and no life remained within its blackened walls, Fain gave the signal and his men raised their swords, hacking the surviving men down. When Alexei came to check on this village, he would find every last man, woman, and child dead. And he would know who had done it.
Yuri mounted his horse and surveyed the chaos he had sown and was pleased. This land was his, because he alone had the will to take it. He would take everything Ruritania had to give, and then, when he’d sated himself on the riches of this land, he would turn his gaze to Prussia. Such was the way of things. The way of those with the might to take what they wanted.
CHAPTER10
Anna bit her lip to keep from laughing. She sat across from Aiden at the dining room table as they ate breakfast. Prissy, Aiden’s hedgehog, was slowly meandering down the length of the table toward Brock and his plate of half-eaten kippers, berries, and nuts. Brock had the morning post spread out in front of him and was completely unaware of the approaching creature.
Brock was at the far end of the table, while Joanna, Lydia, and Brodie were seated at chairs in the middle of the long table. As Anna fought to hide her laughter, she and Aiden both kept shooting looks at each other, then back at the hedgehog.
Anna had no idea how the hedgehog had gotten onto the table, but she hadn’t bothered to stop Prissy because she was too busy trying not to giggle. If there was one thing she’d learned about the animals Aiden healed, it was that they lost all fear of people in general, including the other members of Aiden’s family.
Prissy paused at Brodie’s plate, sniffed at the crumbs he’d left, and then continued on down the line, checking each plate as she went. But the closer she got to Brock’s plate, the more the tip of her little snout quivered in anticipation.
Brodie, having now noticed the hedgehog, leaned forward and grinned down at the creature. Lydia and Joanna were both engrossed in talking about the latest political developments in France and hadn’t noticed the hedgehog. Prissy perused their empty plates, then continued on, unnoticed by the two women who were deep in discussion.
With a ruffle of his paper, Brock reached for his plate to grasp a slice of apple, but he didn’t see that the hedgehog had now perched halfway onto his plate and was nibbling at one. His large hand landed heavily right on top of the prickly creature.
