Free Highland Promise by Hannah Howell Page B

a ways and see if William is close on our heels. We just passed a hillock that should give me enough of a view of the land.”
    “And ye want me to stay here?”
    “Aye,” Eric said and bent down to steal a quick kiss. “If he is close, he may see me and I shall have to move fast. I may e’en be able to pull him away from ye, lead him off in another direction.”
    “Aye, and he could catch ye.”
    “Then ye must go on to Dunnbea. It isnae that far away. There is a wee village up this road. A half day’s ride at most. From there ’tis a few hours to Dunnbea. Nay more than ye had already traveled when I found you.”
    That was true but she did not want to travel it without Eric. She took a deep breath to still her fears. Although she did not want him to risk his life in even the smallest way, she could tell by the set of his jaw that he would not be deterred from his plan.
    “How long should I wait ere I start out on my own?” she asked, staring down at the packs he dropped at her feet and struggling not to cry.
    “If I havenae returned by dawn, go on alone.”
    “I didnae nurse ye through a fever to have ye get yourself killed by William and his loathsome sons.”
    “I have no intention of letting those fools get me.”
    She watched him disappear back along the way they had just come and cursed softly. “Ye may have no intention of it, but ’tis pure vanity to think it cannae happen,” she grumbled.
    For a while it was not so hard to wait for Eric. Bethia filled the time caring for and playing with James. As each hour crept by and he did not return, however, the waiting became more and more unendurable. Bethia discovered that she had a fierce imagination, was too easily able to conjure up more gruesome deaths for Eric to endure than she could tolerate.
    Bethia knew it would not only be a fierce heartache she would suffer if anything happened to Eric, but a deep, abiding guilt. William and his sons were her enemies, not Eric’s. She had dragged him into the middle of her troubles, blindly and willingly allowed him to share her danger. In truth, he risked far more than she did at the moment. All she had to do was hide.
    Feeding James some cold porridge she had set aside for just such an emergency, and ignoring his almost comical faces of distaste, Bethia tried to find the strength she needed to do as Eric had told her to. That strength would be especially important if he did not return. Glancing at the child, she tried to calm herself with the reminder that he was the most important one. James was totally unable to care for or protect himself. No matter how much she might ache to go after Eric, to try to discover his fate if he did not return by dawn, she knew she could not. She would have to set out on her own, would have to push all grief from her mind and heart and think only of getting Sorcha’s son to Dunnbea.

Chapter Six
    The sound of a horse breathing was the first thing that penetrated Bethia’s exhausted, fear-frozen mind where she sat crouched in the dark. As the sun had set, she had moved herself and James into the shelter of some thick, uncomfortably prickly bushes. The darker it had grown the more afraid she had become—for herself and James and especially for Eric. She had not dared to light a fire as she had sat in the dark, huddled in blankets, praying diligently for Eric to come back to her. Now that she heard someone approach she had to fight the urge to run out into the open calling Eric’s name. She pulled out her dagger and waited to see who had invaded her refuge.
    “Bethia?” Eric called softly.
    He looked all around the place where he had left Bethia and the child but could see nothing. For a brief moment, he feared that he had gotten lost for the first time in his life, had returned to the wrong place. Then he was afraid that William had somehow found them. He quickly shook away that chill fear as well. Eric had no doubt that he had led the man off in the wrong direction.
    A soft