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.And--I don't believe your brothers would heed your words if they thought you were in trouble.By now news of the bounty on your head should be all over Scotland.""Slade.You're not taking me to Bertram are you?" She was finally certain he wasn't going to Edinburgh and felt the relief swallow her and rescind all the terror she was facing now."Took you long enough to figure it out." His devilish grin sent a jolt of heat rushing through her despite the danger."Don't let your hopes get too high.I'm not taking you to your brothers--at least not right away.I mean to figure out a way to see you home without dying in the process."Lainie sighed.She had not realized how much she wanted to go home.How much she was looking forward to the crashing ocean and the narrow land bridge that separated the castle from the mainland.Or how much she was looking forward to seeing her people."Maybe Jericho gave up," she said."He might have given up on the thieving tavern girl, but if he's found out you're Lainie MacPherson, he won't give up on the bounty.Or," Slade said sardonically, "on the man who helped to blow his brother's ship to smithereens after he'd taken the gold.""You?"Slade nodded."Stephan, Jamie and myself.Stephan used to be in the King's Navy and Jamie is Stephan's brother.""What if Jericho goes after Stephan?""Jericho is smarter than that.Stephan has some hard men working for him--men who put the Navy behind them when Stephan left--men who sailed with Stephan, fought battles with them and killed pirates.Jericho doesn't have a death wish, and riding onto Stephan's estate would be tantamount to a death wish."Lainie frowned."Are they armed and ready for an attack if one came?" she asked, knowing she hadn't seen any evidence of armed men when she was there."Bloody hell, do you think they're stupid? Stephan made more than one enemy of his own.He'd better be ready." Slade winked, “besides, there are the Scots who ride down from the hills and pillage.”"Jericho has a lot of men," Lainie said, ignoring Slade’s last comment."Stephan has good men.Don't you worry about Stephan.He's a one-man army all by himself.If he didn’t have a wife and newborn at home, I would have asked him to ride with me."With that, Slade reined Baby toward the slit.The other horse followed.The two packhorses fell into place despite the absence of lead ropes.Slade didn't have to tell Lainie to be silent.She rode the way he rode, alert to every shadow and wary of every rock and fern growing on the steep cliffs.The dirk in her hand caught what little sunlight filtered between the deep shadows and gleamed.There was no sound only an eerie, nerve tingling silence.A light fog tumbled down the cliffs.As the day wore on, the mist grew thicker, seeming to hang in the air.There was no sound but that of creaking leather, the dry swish of a horse's tail, and hoof beats clattering on the hard rock.The cliff walls began to widen, telling Lainie they were almost out of the narrow slit of rocks.Just ahead, the trail bent to the left around one more cliff, and to the right the walls seemed to fall away completely.In there place a raging river tumbled angrily over rocks and boulders.Without warning, Baby tried to leap off the trail."Find cover!" Slade yelled at Lainie.She leapt off her horse and ducked behind a narrow ledge.Men shouted and arrows flew through the fog-shrouded canyon.Some of the arrows were Slade's.He fired arrows at dark wraith-like shadows that had leaped from hiding behind the cliff that stood just ahead of his horse.Slade's speed in drawing and shooting took the ambushers by surprise.His deadly accuracy shocked the men who survived the brutal onslaught of the first arrows.The mercenaries who were still able to move dove for cover in a tangle of flailing limbs and vicious curses.With actions so fast they blurred, Slade pulled out another quiver of arrows and began shooting again before the men could recover."Behind us!" Lainie yelled.Slade spun Baby around and fired so quickly the whir of arrows was buried beneath the sound of the deadly attack.Two of Slade’s arrows found their mark.A deep brooding silence followed.The only sound she heard was the wild hammering of her heart.Lainie knew the deadly calm wouldn't last."Lainie, are you all right?""Aye.Are--"The rest of Lainie's question was cut off by the ragged thunder of horses' hooves echoing down the trail.The sound came from behind and from ahead, rising around to her echo a blood red staccato inside her head."They've trapped us!" Lainie shouted surprised by Jericho's tenacity
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