Highland Savage. Hannah Howell

again and she turned even paler. With her free hand, Katerina grabbed Annie’s hand and held it tightly, hoping that touch would reassure the woman.

      “Dinnae ye faint on me again, Annie,” Katerina said sternly. “Drink this,” she ordered and handed the woman the wine.

      “Ye arenae dead,” Annie said in a soft, unsteady voice before she gulped down nearly half the wine. “Why would everyone say ye are dead when ye arenae?” She gasped. “And who did they bury?”

      Katerina rocked back on her heels and stared at Annie for a moment, all too aware of how everyone was staring at her and waiting for an answer. She tried to think of her grave as little as possible, for it gave her the chills. Agnes had put up a very nice stone and played the grieving sister with skill according to some of the others. Katerina had never wondered if anything or anyone had actually been put beneath that stone, however.

      “I am shamed to say that I ne’er gave it much thought,” Katerina finally replied. “I assume ’tis an empty grave, Annie. Rocks, mayhap, if they needed to give the coffin some weight. Unless there is someone who went missing at the same time—” she began, but Annie shook her head.

      “Nay, no one save Robbie,” Annie said as she slowly sat up.

      “I cannae think Robbie came back to Dunlochan and died so conveniently, just when Agnes needed a body. If naught else, Robbie would be appalled at becoming a pawn in Agnes’s treacherous plots.”

      Annie nodded slowly. “And so easily, too.”

      Katerina grinned. “Verra true. Nay, I doubt anyone rests in my grave.”

      The relief on Annie’s face came and went so quickly, Katerina knew she had been lucky to see it. She hid her shock. Had she been wrong about Robbie? Had he been unfaithful to Agnes even before Agnes had broken the vows said between them? Even as doubt about the man and her own judgment crept into her mind, she was able to banish it. Robbie might be quick with a smile for the lasses, but he held true to his vows until he realized the woman he had given them to did not do the same, that Agnes had fooled him in all ways as to the woman she truly was. He had left too quickly after that to have already begun an affair with Annie. Annie was also an innocent and somewhat pious. She would never have fallen into a love affair with a married man. That did not mean, however, that Annie could not be enamored of the far too charming Robbie. Katerina inwardly sighed, hoping the young woman had not given her heart away foolishly. She was all too aware of how much that could hurt.

      “What do Thomas and I do now, m’lady?” Annie asked as she shyly accepted a little more wine from Patrick.

      “Stay here.”

      “Here? For how long?”

      Katerina tried not to grimace, knowing Annie would not like her answer. “I fear I dinnae ken. Ranald willnae give up wanting to get his hands on ye and Thomas. Weel, Thomas is the one he sought, but ye heard how he began to plot pulling ye into his grasp as weel, aye?”

      Annie shivered in obvious distaste. “Aye, I did and it fair turned my insides to ice.”

      “So, I fear ye and Thomas must now hide away with us until Ranald is no longer a threat.”

      “Just what do ye need to defeat that cur and Lady Agnes?”

      “Proof of their crimes. That is what is proving so hard to get hold of. I need clear, hard proof to show the council.”

      Annie muttered something that sounded very much like a curse. “Old fools, the lot of them. They ken what she is and what she and Ranald have done and still do. They ken the crimes that unholy pair has committed. I think their hesitation has naught to do with what fulfills your da’s wishes. Nay, I think they sit back and let this bloody game continue because they dinnae want to give up the power they hold as guardians of Dunlochan.” She blushed when she realized everyone was staring at her. “Pardon. I was disrespectful.”

      “Nay, ye just put the hard truth into words, something the rest of us have hesitated to do.” Katerina took Annie by the hand. “Come, I will show ye where ye can sleep. Thomas can share with ye or stay here with the men.”

      “I should like to stay with the men, of course,” said Thomas.

      Katerina hid her smile as she led Annie away. A quick glance at Annie revealed that woman was doing the same. When she reached the small chamber she had chosen for Annie, Katerina helped the woman set up a pallet to sleep on and hang a blanket over the door. With both of them working it did not take long to make the small stone chamber relatively comfortable and a lot less like the cave it was.

      “’Twill be strange to live under a hill like the fairies,” said Annie as she looked around, “although ’tis finer than my wee niche at the inn.” She smiled at Katerina. “’Tis wondrous that Sir Lucas still lives, is it not? Ye must be so happy to have him back.”

      “Weel, I am glad that Ranald didnae kill him. ’Twould be verra fine indeed if Sir Lucas didnae think I had a hand in it all, however.” She inwardly cursed her loose tongue and shrugged when Annie stared at her in shock before giving the woman a succinct account of what had happened a year ago.

      “He thinks ye tried to kill him?” When Katerina nodded, Annie began to look very angry and shook her head. “Men can be such blind, stubborn fools. I am sorry, m’lady. I had thought—” She shook her head again.

      “Ah, weel, so had I. It appears we were both wrong.”

      “Ye will soon prove to him that he is a fool to think such a thing. Aye, ye will soon make him choke on his foolish suspicions.”

      “’Tis a pleasant thought.”

      “But ye dinnae ken what to do after that, do ye?”

      “Nay, I dinnae. But I suspicion I will think of something. Get some rest, Annie.”

      “I willnae be a burden, m’lady. I cannae fight, but I can surely find work to do to help ye. I can cook and clean.”

      “Such help will be greatly appreciated. Good sleep, Annie.”

      “Good sleep to ye, m’lady, and my thanks for saving me and Thomas.”

      “Ye and Thomas have both been a help to us, although ye didnae really ken it. I couldnae have lived with myself if I had left ye to Ranald’s untender mercies.”

      Katerina left Annie to seek her own bed, her whole body aching with weariness. She had just reached the opening to her chamber when Lucas stepped into her path. There was a look in his silvery-blue eyes that made her insides clench with need and that angered her. She scowled at him as he neatly pinned her between his hard body and the stone wall.

      Katerina did not need to feel the thick ridge of his shaft pressing against her to know what Lucas wanted. It was there to read in the taut lines of his face. Despite the pain he had caused her she wanted it, too. It was too soon, however. She had not yet decided if the pleasure he could give her was worth all the risks that came with it.

      “I believe ye have a pallet readied for ye in the hall with the other men,” she said, proud of the chill in her voice for there was only searing, welcoming heat in her body.

      “Your bed would be warmer.” Lucas told himself it was the lingering excitement of a battle and a rescue that had stirred such need in him, and that he had only sought out Katerina to ease it because she was close at hand. He ruthlessly ignored the voice in his head that called him a liar.

      “There are plenty of blankets about. Seek their warmth.”

      “Are ye sure that is what ye want me to do?”

      Before she could reply, he kissed her. It was no gentle kiss, no soft coaxing of a lover. Lucas ravished her mouth. His kiss stirred her hunger into a fierce craving. Katerina clutched at his robe, fighting the urge to rip the coarse wool from his body and crawl all over him. Her need was a living thing inside her, but she fought it with all her strength. The moment his lips left hers, she grasped the shredded tethers of her control