A Highlander's Promise

Hopelessness

For the first time, Laird MacLachlan didn't know what to do.

He would have slapped her or beaten her for ridiculing him.

But he saw that she was utterly lost. If she was trying to get something out of him or do it for her pride she would have claimed her family name and she would stand proud and tall as she did before.

But whatever hope she had, any flicker of strength had left her body.

He didn't have time for this. He had to get back to his men and make a decision. For all he knew she was probably some lunatic from a nearby camp. Except they hadn't come across anyone else for miles.

"Then you're coming back to the keep," he simply said.

He had no intention of taking her home, if she belonged to any clan or a kin to a laird he would have gone to get a ransom. Hell, even if there was a caravan nearby of human traffickers he would have gladly dropped her off for a trade worth a good ale, but there was none of that nearby. Now she was not worth any monetary value.

If she wasn't that, the least he was going to do was at least have some fun with her.

He looked down at her, her hair was a mess with leaves and twigs, her clothes were filled with muddy stains as well as her face, and her flannel pajamas had ripped at the bottom displaying her ankle on her left foot. She was a mess; a mess with a decent face and powerful green eyes, and freckles that covered her skin. She looked like a girl, not yet grown into her womanly years.

She looked like a flower that had not yet known the fears of being picked.

And that had tempted him all the more.

She noticed a sudden hunger in his eyes. Shivers raced down her back and she knew something ominous had just filled his mind.

"Coming back to the keep? As in, I'm going home with you?" She didn't know many things but she knew this man was not safe and the notion of bringing her back home with him was not even remotely close to the ideal of safety.

"Aye," he grunted.

"No way," she opposed.

"Well that isn't up to you to decide."

"I should have a choice to my own being! I am not your property or your responsibility! You can let me be and you shan't make decisions for me!"

He knew he didn't need to have her. He had many more wenches back at his keep to fulfill his needs. But the more she resisted him, the more he was determined to have her.

He looked forward to every second he could make her cry out with hate and detestation, especially the time when he could make her bend for him. He would have his way, he always did.

"Well, that's too bad for you when you decided to call upon my men and deride me. Maybe you should learn your lesson wench." He ended the conversation, leaving his decision permanent.

After he had left, Leora had turned her face towards the tree and wept, quietly.

She felt defeated and never in her life had she had been so hopeless.

Who knew the dangers this man would bring upon her in the walls of his own territory.

There would be no way she could escape him then and be stuck forever amongst his people and his ways.

She decided she had to escape. Even if all the other times had failed her she decided she would have to again.

Falling asleep against the tree, Leora prayed to fate to fix this mess. Fate had brought her here for a reason she had no idea. What had she ever done in her life that was so bad to receive this punishment?