The Highlander Who Saved Me (Heart of a Highlander Collection Book 2) Read online

  The Highlander Who Saved Me

  A Heart of a Highlander Novel

  Allie Palomino

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), business establishments, events locations, or any other similarities, is purely coincidental.

  Except for brief passages for use in reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form (scanned, distributed, copied, [not an exhaustive list]) by any means (electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, information storage), in any printed or electronic form (even those yet invented) without permission.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Copyright © 2015 by Allie Palomino

  All rights reserved.

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Note to Reader

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Epilogue

  Vote: Katie & James Novella

  About Allie

  Other Books by Allie

  Excerpt of To Have and To Trust

  Dedication

  A great big thank you to the hubs for supporting me throughout the years. Thank you also to my family and friends for your love and support. I especially want to thank my mother, who always believed in me, and always pushed me to do things I thought I could not. She is, and always will be, my North Star. I am truly grateful for the many blessings in my life, and wish for bountiful blessings in yours.

  Dear Reader,

  While my proofreader and I carefully comb through my books for spelling and grammatical errors prior to publication, inevitably a sneaky one slips by. I, like you, enjoy reading polished books, and I would greatly appreciate it if you would inform me of the little rascals if you spot one. You can contact me by visiting my website at http://www.alliepalomino.com. Thank you in advance, and I hope you enjoy The Highlander Who Saved Me.

  Happy Reading!

  Allie

  Prologue

  The Highlands, Scotland, 1280

  “Doona do anything rash, Connor,” Lady Miriam said, her hazel eyes shining with pooled tears. She swept back a wisp of gray-dusted, auburn hair. Her hands were ringing themselves dry.

  The mood in the room was somber and angry. Tension was thick and choking.

  “Leave us, Miriam,” Malcolm said to his wife.

  She hesitated, and continued to look at them. Malcolm walked over to her and reached his hand out. He touched her cheek, rested his palm against her shoulder, and nodded. She looked into his blue eyes. Her nod was slight when she turned to the door.

  Once she was gone, he turned to his sons. Malcolm stared into the similar crystal blue eyes of his blood. Two of Malcolm’s sons looked like him. They were tall, broad shouldered, and blue-eyed. His youngest son and daughter had hazel eyes like their mother. His sons were hot-tempered, although Connor had a shorter fuse than all of them. His sweet Katie, though, she couldn’t hurt a fly. This is what made the recent events so much bloody worse and unfair.

  “Ye must behave rationally,” he directed his comment to his oldest son, Connor, and newly appointed laird after Malcolm stepped aside six months earlier. A tight chest had been the catalyst for his family begging him to slow down.

  “Rationally? Not do anything rash? Are ye mad? Katherynne! Are ye forgetting what has been done to her?” Connor’s blue eyes flashed with indignation. His temper was barely concealed underneath a mask of thin control.

  “Nay! But we must think this through, Connor. Ye canna barge over to them and kill them.”

  “The hell I canna!”

  His brothers nodded in the background. Their faces were hard and unyielding.

  “Father, what has been done to our Katie is intolerable!” Iain, the second oldest son, said.

  “Intolerable? ‘Tis putting it a bit mild, doona ye think, Iain? Our sister was violated. Her innocence was brutally taken! How she still lives is a miracle after the beating she took.” Connor paused, and said through clenched teeth, “They must pay dearly for it.”

  “Ye canna go killing innocents, Connor,” Malcolm said.

  “I would never kill innocents, nor violate innocents!” Connor responded instantly.

  “We must think this through. Think of a plan to proceed,” Kiel said, the youngest son by four years.

  “What do we know about them?” Iain asked, taking advantage that Connor was quiet.

  Connor now stood with his back to them and arms crossed over his chest, staring into the fireplace. Everyone saw the tension in his stance.

  “They live some distance beyond the border, son. Their name is Wynton. The father, William, is earl and he has three sons and a daughter, same as I do. His wife died decades back.”

  “How is it that ye know so much, Father?” Kiel asked.

  “When I was laird, I had made it a point of knowing my allies’ enemies, and Sir Wynton is a verra loathed enemy of the McLeans on the borders.”

  “Why did they do this to Katherynne? What would they have to gain from deflowering a young maid and potentially beginning a feud with a clan?” Kirk asked, who was not only Malcolm’s nephew, but also Connor’s second-in-command.

  “It is my mistake, Kirk. I should have never taken her there to visit Cassandra McLean on the border. Katie and Cassie are good friends, near the same age. I should have never…” Malcolm’s words faded.

  Connor turned back to them.

  “They hate the Scots, ‘tis my guess. A young lass like Katie means nothing to them.” Connor’s own words seemed to enrage him. “They will pay for this. Mark my words. I care not what I have to do or what has to be sacrificed,” Connor said vehemently, his shoulder-length bl
ack hair moving as his hand sliced through the air and pounded on the desk.

  Everyone stared at him. His brothers, his father, and his men-at-arms silently watched Connor pace.

  “We’ll make them hurt like they’ve hurt Katie and damn the consequences! How old is the girl and what is her name?” Connor asked.

  “I’m not sure of her name but she’s near the same age as Katie. A year or two older, I’m thinking. Mayhap she’s about twenty-one summers, or so. The McLean kept a spy in the castle,” Malcolm responded, shrugging.

  “That age and she has not taken a husband? She must be a fearful looking creature.” Connor remarked.

  “I doona know anything else about them,” Malcolm said.

  “What are ye thinking?” Kirk asked.

  “The girl. That would be their weak point, as Katie is ours.”

  “Ye canna be thinking of defiling an innocent, Connor!”

  “Nay, Father. I have never taken an unwilling woman to bed. What I have in mind will hurt more. She will come willingly.”

  “So what is yer intent, Connor?” Iain asked.

  “I will rescue her from Scottish warriors who will be kidnapping her from her home. I will seduce and bed her. It would be a worse insult if she willingly came, rather than being forced. With any luck, she’ll fall in love and make the vengeance sweeter.”

  “So we’re clear, the punishment is in bedding the lass? Are ye that horrible in bed?” Kiel asked, laughing along with the men in the room.

  Connor’s lips straightened and his nostrils flared.

  “Always so surly,” Kiel mumbled under his breath, taunting his oldest brother.

  Connor gave him a bland look.

  “The vengeance lies in making her fall in love with a Scottish blackguard, who throws her out after he tells her the truth. She’ll be destroyed, as much as our Katie is. The only difference is that I willna force the girl into my bed. Her lust will be her undoing.”

  “Ye’ll have to woo her, Connor. That is something ye know nothing about, bachelor brother of mine,” Iain said laughing.

  “I didna say I’d marry her.”

  “Nay,” Iain said laughing, “so ye’ve said time and time again that ye’ll never marry. How do ye plan on wooing a lass when ye’re always in such a foul and disgruntled mood?”

  Connor glared at Iain.

  “We can also ransom her, making the plan more sound,” Connor said.

  “Aye. Yes. That would be good, too.” An interested light gleamed in Iain’s eyes.

  Malcolm shook his head, bringing them all back to the subject.

  “What, Father? Ye doona agree?” Iain asked.

  He shook his head again.

  “Nay, not that. That is a sound plan. It is just, as a father, I know the hurt this would cause another father. I would spare the hurt brought on to the girl and family for the acts of some or one of them, but as the father of an innocent violated lass, I want blood.”

  “And ye’ll have it,” Connor said, leveling a look into his father’s eyes.

  “Why nay just go and declare war?” Bruce, the third-in-command, asked.

  Malcolm shook his head slowly, a sad smile played on his face. He looked at Connor and knew Connor was the only one who understood.

  “Because the killing of warriors is not enough. Because the ruin of one’s children is a greater blade to cut with than that of a sword’s,” Malcolm responded, finally allowing his own bloodlust to come forward.

  “I’ll gather some trusted men and they’ll take her from Wynton’s castle. At a certain point, I will play her rescuer, her savior. From there, I’ll bring her back here to Keisealle. After the maid’s carnal ruin and shame, I’ll hunt the brother who did this, and kill him.”

  “We doona know which brother did it,” Kiel said.

  “I’ll hunt until I have him, and if the other brothers die, well ‘tis nay so horrible. The leaves doona fall far from the tree,” Connor responded. “The girl is probably just as awful as the rest of her family.”

  “McLean said his soldiers saw a small number of men when they were looking for the girls,” Malcolm said.

  “Why werena the guards with them?” Iain boomed loudly.

  “They didna let anyone know they were leaving, and slipped passed the guards. They wanted privacy to chat as girls do,” Malcolm responded.

  After a moment, Malcolm continued.

  “Ye canna tell yer mother. She is heartbroken and impossible to console. She spends day and night with Katie, worried.”

  “Nay, Mother willna find out about our plan. Outside of a few other men to take the girl, no one in the clan will know who the Wynton girl is. No one must know who she is. Does Mother know the name of those responsible?”

  “No. Neither does Katie. I only know because the McLean told me he saw the eldest son on his land many times taunting the soldiers into a brawl. His men doona know either, but McLean is certain it was a Wynton. Cassie said she was being held back and would have been violated next, if it hadna been for the McLean warriors they heard nearing. They carried Katie to McLean’s castle, and that was when McLean and I were first alerted. McLean was assembling men to begin the battle but I wanted to come here first,” Malcolm answered.

  Connor shook his head.

  “No battle. Yet. A day has passed and still, that is a day too long. Our plan would be more difficult to execute if anyone knew it was a Wynton who violated Katie, or if anyone recognizes this Wynton girl,” Connor said. “We doona want any meddlers.”

  “Aye, agreed,” Kirk said.

  Connor looked at all the men in the eyes before speaking.

  “Let us detail the plan, and soon, the Wynton girl will be taken.”

  An eye for an eye.

  It wasn’t always a Highlander’s code, but it was Connor’s.

  Chapter One

  Skorthyne Castle, The Borders, England

  One month later

  “Come here…come here…we must be getting back!” Madeleine yelled, trying to get the hound back to the castle. The hound barked back a denial.

  It was a frigid day. She had a gray woolen wrap covering her shoulders and head. Her gray woolen dress was smudged with dirt and was wet after the couple of attempts she made wrestling the beast. Her temper, she reminded herself, must be controlled. He was just a hound after all, and she, in a couple of years, would go to the abbey to serve her Lord.

  It was a sin to let tempers flare.

  “Ramsay, where are you?” She cupped her hands over her eyes. “There you are! Come here,” she ran after him and dove.

  “Gotcha! Let’s go!”

  The hound escaped her grasp again. She ran to him, lunged, and caught him.

  “Honestly, you try even my patience, Ramsay!”

  She swatted the hair that covered her eyes and turned around. Her breath faltered. There were five men standing there watching her. They were tall and wearing greenish-brown plaid. They melted into the scenery, which explained why she hadn’t seen them before now. Madeleine couldn’t discern any facial features in that one scant instant because mud was caked on their faces. It looked layers thick.

  “Oh God,” she said, dropping the hound as she began running towards the castle. Before she could scream they were on her. A hand covered her mouth and she bit it, trying to gulp enough air to let out a reverberating scream.

  “Bitch!”

  Another man managed to cover her mouth and gripped her hard against him.

  In a raspy whisper, he said, “Try that again, and ye shall be headless.”

  She was panting but stopped struggling. The man lessened his hold on her and she pushed away from him with dignity. She straightened her dress and tried looked up at the savages. Her face still remained hidden in the hood and the wrap.

  “Who are you, you loathsome savages?”

  A hard slap against her face was her response. The force of it nearly felled her to the ground.

  “Doona ask questions. Ye’re coming with
us, Lady Wynton.”

  How did they know my name?

  Madeleine straightened up. She fought hard to keep some semblance of decorum. She would find a way to escape these barbarians.

  “Come here!” One man said and hauled her over. The force of the pull nearly dislocated her shoulder. She was unsuccessful at muffling her moan. Their only response was laughter.

  “My…” she began weakly then cleared her throat and started anew. “My father will pay you for my return. If you’ll…” more laughter halted her speech.

  “Aye, we know that yer father will pay a large sum for yer, ah…return,” one said sarcastically.

  “Now! Move!” Another one said, halting the dialogue.

  They walked in unison. Two men were behind her, two more were at each side of her, and one was in front of her. The man to her right saw her looking around.

  “Doona even think about it, wench,” he said and pushed her forward. She bumped into the man in front of her, who turned around and pushed her.

  “All in good time, lass. I could never keep the wenches out of my bed, but now’s nay the time!” he said and the others chortled.

  Her face was throbbing and her right hand flew to her face. She would have bruises for certain now, no thanks to their beastly behavior. Her cheeks stung fiercely. She hugged her wrap closer, thanking the Lord that she had the hood. She lowered the hood a bit more, hiding her face.

  Madeleine was scared. It wasn’t only the frigid air that had her trembling. These men looked deadly. What man would hit a woman?

  She saw hooves and knew they’d reached their horses.

  “Ye’re riding with me!” The man who seemed to be the leader barked the order at her. He mounted the horse and the men started to tie her hands and feet together.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Doona ask questions,” he said, and she felt the rope tightly around her ankles and wrists.

  “That hurts! Loosen them. I’m starting to lose sensation!”