"Wet for him? Ye are a harlot, just as I thought." Spittle flew from her mouth as she spoke. I would think she were on meth or something, based on the crazed look in her eye, but that wasn't possible. She was too on edge, too wound up to be drunk.
The surprise at her appearance had faded and now I was worried. I was naked in the tub and she was a little insane. I stood and stepped from the tub, trying to be as ladylike as I could. I was Lady MacInnes, after all. "He's my husband," I replied, reaching for the bath sheet Ian had put on a stool beside the tub. "He will return soon."
"Nay. A patrol was attacked. He has ridden off with the others."
Ridden off? He left… or did she lie?
"Thank you for telling me, but you may go."
"Go?" she shrieked. "I am nay a maid to be commanded about."
I walked toward Ian's big bed. "I will nap while he is gone. I am quite weary from all the… tupping."
"Ye willna soil his bed with your slattern ways. I should be in that bed with him. I'm the one who should be filled with his seed." Her skin flushed bright pink and she had a crazed look about her.
Shit, she was insane. I had no idea what to say, so I shrugged.
She screamed and I widened my eyes as she pulled a knife from the folds of her skirt.
I stumbled away from her, but she was fast. I fell to the floor, landing hard on my butt, then my elbow. She was upon me in an instant and I felt the searing fire as the knife plunged deep into my belly.
My breath lodged in my throat, the pain overwhelming. I'd never known such agony. My hands came to cover hers, to stop her, but it was too late. I could only stare up at the woman who'd just stabbed me, feeling the hot trickle of my blood drip over my fingers.
"He will be mine now."
My vision blurred, my world narrowing. I saw her maniacal face, then heard her laugh, then shouting, heavy footfall on stone. Glynnis was lifted from me and I heard my name called through a fog. An anguished roar.
Ian. I tried to call his name, but there was no voice. His face loomed above mine, the last thing I saw. The last words I heard from his lips, "My heart."
The world went black.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lexy
My eyes flew open and I cried out at the pain, clasping my hand to my side. I was no longer on the hard stone floor. While I remembered the horrific feel of the knife plunging into me, I had no pain. No blood. No knife. I was sprawled in the overstuffed chair in the jewelry shop. Jumping to my feet, I looked myself over. I was back in my clothes from the day before, not wrapped in a bath sheet. My hair wasn't wet from when Ian washed it.
I hadn't been stabbed. I wasn't dying. Oh my God, I'd died in Ian's arms! I hadn't though, because I was in the jewelry store. It wa
s daylight, the air conditioning hummed, chilling the cozy store. I still felt the weight of the ring on my finger, touched its warm red stone, yet the rest of my body was covered in goose bumps. I felt sick, nauseous from what had just happened. Glynnis, the assault. But it hadn't happened. It had been hundreds of years ago and it hadn't really been me.
It hadn't been a dream though, either. Absolutely not. I wasn't sore between my legs any longer. Deep inside I didn't feel well used. My ass wasn't sore from being stretched by Ian's cock. My nipples weren't tender from his whiskers. There was no physical sign of our lovemaking—while we'd definitely fucked, I would consider it lovemaking—I remembered it, could still see him, feel him, smell him. Even taste him. He had just been with me, holding me as I'd died.
"Oh my God!" I cried, realizing the impact of what had happened. Scottish Lexy had died on their wedding night, leaving Ian alone. He'd had only a few hours with her before that crazy Glynnis had ruined it all. I felt sorrow, anguish over what Ian had to face. "Ian!"
A clock chimed on the wall. Outside the window, cars passed. Being back in the present made it seem as if it had never happened. It did. It did. I ran my hands over my face, trying to wipe away the intensity of the moment. I'd never been attacked before. Never hit or even slapped. I'd been mortally wounded and it felt like it occurred just a minute ago. Not worlds, make that centuries, away. So was Ian. He was gone and alone. The storekeeper had been right. One night. Just like Cinderella. Cinderella wasn't stabbed by a crazed bitch after the wedding leaving the groom to mourn. I knew he mourned. He'd called me his heart.
"You're back." The storekeeper approached, carrying a glass of water. She wore the same clothes as the day before. "What's wrong, dear? Was it so awful?"
I dropped back down in the chair as the shakes began. I was going into shock, the adrenaline of it wearing off. I'd found a connection with Ian unlike I'd ever known existed that was severed just as it was being made. One night hadn't been enough. It was so unfair. Horrible. Cruel. What had happened to Ian? Glynnis? Had Ian killed her? Stabbed her with the knife she'd used on me?
I leaned forward and covered my face with my hands and began to cry. Not the pretty tears, but fat ugly ones that I knew made me look splotchy red and have snot dripping from my nose. I heard the clink of the glass as the woman set it on a glass display. Her frail hand settled on my shoulder. "Was it so horrible?"
"You… you said it was one night of sex. You never said anything about murder." My words were thick with tears and I had to stop and cry some more in the middle.
Her white eyebrows went up. "Murder?"
"I was stabbed by a crazy lady. A woman scorned by Ian. She was insane and jealous and evil. I died."