Highland Supplanter (Book 2)

Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Jolting awake. Pain was the first sensation that registered in her mind. She had not realised how long she had gone living without the constant pain, until she had experienced it once more. Hamish truly had saved her, and the conclusion she could find, was one of the most heart breaking she could come too. He would try to find her now, but she had no idea if she was ever going to get the chance for him to save her once more. She had no idea what she had done to deserve him within her life, but whatever had caused his presence had more than likely run out. The tears for the utter grief that thought caused, silently coursed down her cheeks, joining with the rain that hit them from above. Yet she was numb to the cold, the pain in her body buried under the pain now radiating out from her chest.

The rough tempo of the horse’s hooves, causing jolting pain each time the galloping horse moved. Days they had been travelling now. The pace punishing and she knew that they could not have been followed so easily in this rain and over such rough terrain. Her confidence in Hamish’s abilities unquestionable, only she had doubt even God himself could follow her on the path she had been taken. Sure that the devil himself had her in his grasp at that very moment.

Thinking back to when she had been taken, the long trek through the trees, as the heavens had opened upon them. The punishing grip that Grant had upon her arm as he hauled her towards, wherever it had been he wanted them to reach. The pace he set had her almost running to keep up with his long strides, her fingers tingling with the tightness he held her upper arm. As the ground beneath them grew slick with water, the mud trying to suck in their moving feet, she found herself one moment being pulled along, and the next tumbling down a small incline.

Her first instinct had been to protect her bairn. Her arms around her stomach, she had tried to cradle the bairn within. As her upper body had hit the trunk of a tree, she was sure that she had felt a rib or two crack. The pain taking her breath, but as she assessed herself, with only the ability of someone used to injury could. She knew there was no sudden pain, or strange feeling from her stomach, and from what she could judge the bairn was fine. She prayed that it was so. The same could not be said for her ribs, and her breathing came in harsh, painful pants as she tried her best to breath steadily.

Before the thought of escape had even managed to enter her mind, Grant’s angry red face had appeared before her, as he hauled her up by her arm. Her cry as he did so only seemed to delight him, and he kept the punishing pace he had set before, even knowing what state she was in. Seeming to take great enjoyment in her every sharp intake of breath and groan of agony that she failed to keep within. Grant’s arm tightening around her damaged rib cage had her brought from the memories, each time the jolting movements of her body against his upon the horse making the efforts to breathe that much worse.

Over the last few days she had felt her bairn move, and knew that they were alive and well within the comfort of her body. At least she had that to cling onto a hope in the utter darkness around her. The place she had always managed to crawl to in her mind whenever the pain became too overwhelming had closed its doors to her. She had spent too long without pain, the path back to her safe place had become overgrown and she was unable to navigate it anymore. There was nothing she could do, nothing she could think of, which would ever manage to get her out of the situation she had found herself within. Hamish had shown her a part of life she had never even wanted to dream of before, and now she had felt it, the harshness she was in now seemed all the worse for it.