The Rose and The Warrior Read Online Free PDF Page B

wondered Magnus, looking genuinely horrified. “I’ll have ye know we’re God-fearin’ thieves, not heathen savages.”
    â€œThen why are you taking us with you?” demanded Roarke.
    â€œWe want to see how much you’re worth to your laird.”
    Roarke looked at Colin in disbelief. “You intend to ransom us?”
    â€œYou MacTiers have stolen much from our clan. We intend to use you to get some of what belongs to us back.”
    Roarke tightened his jaw, struggling to keep his sorely frayed temper under control. It was bad enough that he had been shot in the arse, robbed, and made a prisoner by the very outlaws he had been sent to capture. But to be imprisoned and held for ransom by this preposterous little party was more humiliation than he could bear. He could just imagine MacTier’s reaction when his laird received the missive from the Falcon demanding payment. Once he recovered from his shock, his laird would be infuriated that his finest warrior had failed in what Roarke had assured him would be a childishly simple mission. After years of brilliant service, in which Roarke had successfully led scores of men into the bloodiest of battles and on the most harrowing of raids, he had come to this. He had been captured by an asp-tongued wisp of a girl in coarse leggings and a battered steel helmet, a decrepit old man who looked as though he might trip and impale himself on his own sword at any moment, and three striplings who barely qualified as grown men, never mind warriors.
    Everything he had fought so tenaciously to procure for himself these past twenty years would be completely, irretrievably lost.
    â€œYou have no hope of securing a ransom for us,” he said flatly. “Laird MacTier will not pay.”
    Magnus scratched his white head. “Why not, lad? Does he not like ye?”
    â€œTo pay for our return would subject all of his warriors to the risk of being trapped and ransomed in the future,” Roarke explained. “MacTier cannot possibly agree to your demands.”
    â€œYou had best hope that you four hold a special place in your laird’s heart,” Melantha warned, “or there is no value to our letting you live.”
    â€œHe will not pay,” Roarke insisted. “You should take what you want and release us. I give you my solemn word that we will not seek you out, but will simply return to our holding.”
    â€œNow, that’s a joke,” scoffed Finlay. “Expecting us to trust the word of a MacTier.”
    â€œYou came here to kill us, yet you expect us to release you?” A bitter laugh erupted from Colin’s throat.
    â€œI am trying to prevent you from doing something that will only endanger you and your people,” Roarke replied. “By ransoming us, you will infuriate Laird MacTier, and I warn you, his wrath will be awesome.”
    â€œWe are well acquainted with MacTier’s vile ways,” Melantha snapped. “Now get on your horse, or I shall have Magnus shoot another arrow into you to get you moving.”
    Magnus fitted his prized arrow against the string of his bow. “Take yer time decidin’, laddie. Truth be told, I’m curious to see how this shaft flies.”
    Roarke muttered a curse, then reluctantly limped to his horse and heaved himself up, gritting his teeth against the pain the movement cost him.
    Realizing they had no choice, his men did the same.
    â€œMy men will form a ring around you at all times,” Melantha informed her prisoners. “If any of you try to break from the group, you will be shot—is that clear?”
    â€œIf I am shot, I will kill two of you with my bare hands before I hit the ground,” vowed Eric darkly.
    Magnus chuckled. “Got a real fire in yer ballocks, don’t ye, laddie? Ye remind me of myself when I was a lad. What ye need, if ye don’t mind my sayin’ so, is a good, strong woman to put out some of those