The Scottish Bride - Catherine Coulter [81]
The naked husband ran beyond where she was standing silent and still, then pulled up sharp, held a candle high, and looked right into Erickson’s eyes.
It wasn’t fair, dammit, just not fair. Erickson cursed, ripe, full-bodied curses. Damnation, his was an excellent plan, and it had gone perfectly until he’d had the rotten luck to have an amorous couple want to play in the corridor.
“She’s mine, damn you!” He was so furious, so frustrated, that he yelled right in Colin’s face, “I’m taking her!”
For a moment, Colin couldn’t believe his eyes. “My God, you puking little bastard, you’ve got Mary Rose. Sinjun, come quickly!”
Erickson saw the flash of a white nightgown, saw the man hand her the candle. Erickson didn’t wait. He turned on his heel and ran down the long corridor as fast as he could with Mary Rose bouncing up and down on his shoulder, the naked man nearly on his heels.
Then Mary Rose groaned, reared up, and shouted, “No, Erickson! This is madness! Let me down, you fool!” She stiffened right up, knocking him off balance. She grabbed his hair and kept pulling even as she leaned as far back as she could.
“Damn you, Mary Rose, stop it! Trust me. We’re leaving this place, together.”
They went down, Erickson falling on his back, half on top of her. Mary Rose yelled, Colin came to a stop to stand over them, and Sinjun, her white gown fluttering about, was holding a candle over them.
“He’s smashing me,” Mary Rose gasped, trying to breathe, then, “Thank you both for coming out for whatever reason I don’t yet know.”
“It is no problem,” Colin said, coming down to his knees beside Erickson, who was just lying there, staring up at him. “You’re bare-assed, man,” Erickson said. “Have you no sense? There is a lady present.”
Colin looked briefly over at Mary Rose. “Close your eyes.” She did. Colin jerked Erickson off her, and Erickson came up fighting. He was strong, a dirty fighter, and he would have had a chance if it hadn’t been for Sinjun. She gave a low growl when Erickson sent his fist into Colin’s belly. She threw the candle at him. The iron base hit him in the jaw, then bounced onto the wooden floor, sparking flashes of flame as it hit.
“You asinine idiot,” she yelled, “trying to steal Mary Rose,” and she joyfully jumped at him.
Erickson knew he was in very deep trouble. He was doing his best to hold the woman off, even as he realized that she smelled wonderful, a sort of violet smell, before the naked man was ripping his arm out of the socket. He smacked his fist against the woman’s shoulder, sending her reeling back into the naked man, who let him go to catch his wife. Then Erickson was on his feet again, running as fast as he could. The only thing was, he didn’t know of a way out of the castle that lay in this particular direction. But it didn’t slow him.
And then directly in front of him, a door flew open and a man came running out, fastening his breeches as he moved. This time it was the damned vicar. At least he wasn’t altogether naked.
“I don’t have her,” Erickson yelled. He briefly considered trying to knock the vicar senseless, but thought better of it. It was ridiculous for a man of God to look strong and mean, but this one did. Erickson turned quickly, only to run into both Colin and Sinjun. All three of them went down. Tysen looked up to see Mary Rose running toward them, his dressing gown held in one hand above her knees so she could run faster, the other hand carrying the candle that thankfully hadn’t set the castle on fire or even gone all the way out. It was flickering wildly, but hanging on.
“He tried to steal her, Tysen!” Colin shouted, coming to his feet, giving Sinjun his hand to pull her up as well. “Ah, it’s you, Mary Rose. Close your eyes again.”
Instead, Mary Rose quickly shrugged out of Tysen’s dressing gown and thrust it toward Colin, her eyes shut tightly. Colin laughed as he put it on and belted it around his waist. Then the three of them stood over Erickson MacPhail, who, in truth, was too smart to stand