“Cancel the council meetin’,” Jack answered. “I will call one when it pleases me.”
“My Laird—”
“I have only just returned from the great market of Birlet Shallows, and I willnae have the council tell me what to do with the proceedin’s of the sales this time. I ken how to rule my people, and I will do just that,” he contended before he combed his fingers through his hair. “I will ride back to the Castle, stay with the men and continue inspections.”
Jack did not miss the stiff set line on the guards’ lips as he bowed his head in agreement. “Aye, My Laird.”
He watched the guard walk away from him and sighed. What was the point of all this? He did his best to make sure his people were safe most times, but his councilmen still bothered more about calling meetings to discuss his love life.
Jack’s muscles strained because he knew it was all they wanted to talk about in their small meeting.
Everything he had done in the past eight years was for his people, and yet the small council always found a way to either thwart or frustrate his plans simply because it did not suit their needs.
While Jack was more concerned about the well-being of the Clan and making sure he could provide protection for every man, his council was more concerned with matters of his life and heirs. They wanted him to take a lady wife, bed her and make sons.
That will not help the Clan survive.
Jack was lost in his thoughts and didn’t realize he had walked far off from the market toward the vast expanse of lands covered in lush grass. As he admired the lush fields, he remembered the dream he had the previous night. The images were vivid in his head. Jack recalled the scent of roses that invaded his senses as he moved close to the woman standing with her back to him in his Castle’s dungeons, and the shiver that raced through him when he had put a hand on her shoulder to stir her in his direction.
He woke up before he saw the woman’s face, but that little scene was etched into his memory like it was one of importance.
Time to get back to the Castle,he thought, dragging his thoughts back to reality before turning and walking back toward the market. He didn’t make it far before he heard a loud, horrifying scream that cut through his hearing and pierced at his heart.
* * *
Jack raced toward the direction of the scream. When he rounded the corner around a cottage closest to the village, saw a woman struggling to push the men who held her away.
She was small compared to their larger frames and nothing she did could ever make her break free from them.
His first instinct whenever he saw anyone in trouble was to jump in and save the day, but Jack froze in his steps when the woman’s head whipped in his direction and his gaze landed on hers.
She had the deepest shade of green eyes he had ever seen. Her short wavy, black hair tumbled down to her shoulder blades, and he didn’t need to get too close to see the creamy white shade of her skin, and the hue of crimson on her cheeks.
An instant tingle raced through his body, his muscles tightened a bit, but the woman yelled again, and this time her words sounded like curses.
“Let me go,” she continued as the man holding her arm laughed loud and then sneered.
She’s English,Jack realized when he heard her clear intonation and language. She was also spirited as she struggled even in the face of danger.
“What do ye think ye’re doin’?” Jack roared in a loud voice to get her attacker’s attention. Once the three men turned in his direction fully, he marched toward them and took out his sword sheathed to his side. “Let the lass go.”
“She isnae a Scottish lass,” one of them replied. “She’s nae from here, and we arenae either so we dinnae answer to ye.”
The woman whimpered as the man suddenly grabbed her tight against his body and put the dirk he held to her neck.
Jack’s blood surged forth in a rush that filled him with anger.
His gaze narrowed on the woman again. Jack had never seen a color like the one she was wearing. He didn’t know what to call it, but the shade made her skin look even more appealing.
Her lips trembled as they parted slightly. The full-skirt dress she wore clung tight to her body and the bodice pushed her feminine parts up, exposing lovely, creamy skin at her chest.
“We will take the lass into one of these caves and we will do as we please with her,” one of the men said to Jack. His voice was barely audible as Jack stared at the mesmerizing woman.
What is this pool of heat settling inside me?He had never felt anything like it, and it was instant. He couldn’t tear his eyes off her but when he saw her attacker press his blade deeper into her neck, his already tense muscles strained.
“Let her go now,” Jack threatened as he tightened his grip on the head of his sword. “If ye want to live ye will do as I say.”
“What will ye do otherwise?” another man of the three asked, then they all laughed and started to chatter in an ancient Gaelic dialect he didn’t fully understand.