Jamie let out a loud gasp. "Shut your mouth, bitch," her enemy muttered. He pressed his blade to her throat, glaring at Alec all the while. "I'm wanting both, damn your hide."

Alec shook his head again. "Take the woman if you want, but not the horse."

"I said I'm wanting both!" His voice sounded like the screech of a trapped bird.

"No."

"Let him have both, Alec," Daniel interjected. "You can easily replace her and her horse."

Jamie couldn't believe what she was hearing. The urge to weep was almost overwhelming. "Alec?" she whispered, her worry obvious in her tone. "You can't mean it."

"I told you to shut your mouth," the enemy ordered again. He gave her hair another vicious yank to emphasize his command.

Jamie slammed her foot down on top of his in retaliation.

"Daniel, get her horse," Alec ordered. "Now."

"Let the other woman fetch it," the captor shouted.

Daniel ignored that command and walked over to Wildfire.

Jamie couldn't believe what was happening to her. She could have sworn she heard Daniel whistling. She knew the Scots didn't like the English, but this horrendous conduct was simply untenable. She was trying desperately not to be afraid. Alec wasn't making that task easy for her. After giving her only a quick glance, he'd ignored her. God help her, he had looked downright bored-until her enemy demanded her horse, Jamie qualified. Alec hadn't looked bored then. He looked furious.

Cholie had been right, after all. The Scots did value their horses more than their women.

If she'd had anything in her stomach, she certainly would have lost it by now.

The scoundrel squeezing her so indecently smelled like a forgotten chamber pot.

Every time she took a breath, she wanted to gag.

"Put the horse between her man and me," Jamie's captor ordered.

Alec waited for his chance. He moved when Daniel approached, grabbed the reins out of his friend's hands, and pulled Wildfire as close to his opponent as possible.

What happened next so startled Jamie that she didn't have time to react. She suddenly found herself flying through the air like a disk. She heard her captor's scream of agony just as Daniel caught her in his arms.

Jamie turned in time to see Alec plunge the enemy's dagger into his throat.

She did gag then, twice. Daniel hastily put her down. Mary came flying across the clearing and hurled herself at Jamie. The danger was over, but Mary continued to cry hysterically.

Jamie closed her eyes and concentrated on calming her racing heartbeat. Mary was clinging to her now, squeezing the breath out of her.

Jamie was suddenly shaking like a leaf in a windstorm. Her legs felt as brittle as kindling wood.

"You may open your eyes now."

Alec gave her that order. When Jamie did as he commanded, she found her husband standing just a breath away from her.

His eyes didn't look so terribly cold now. In truth, she thought he looked close to smiling. That didn't make any sense to her. She'd just seen him kill so easily, so brutally, so casually. And now he looked as if he wanted to smile over it.

Jamie couldn't make up her mind if she wanted to run away from him or stay and throttle him.

While she stared up at her husband, she heard Daniel order Mary to come with him, then felt him pry her sister's hands away from her. She didn't have the strength to help with that chore, yet she did wonder why Daniel sounded so angry with Mary and why Alec looked so damned cheerful.

Jamie wasn't aware her hands were clenched together. Alec was. "It's finished," he told her in a soft voice.

"Finished?" she repeated. She turned to look at the man Alec had just felled, and immediately started to shake.

Alec moved to block her view. He held up her dagger, his intent to give it back to her, but stayed that action when he saw how upset she was. She acted as though the dirk had suddenly become possessed by demons.

"This belongs to you, doesn't it?" he asked, confused by the unreasonable fear in her eyes.

Jamie took a step to the side, looked down at the dead man again, staring at the gaping hole in his neck where the dagger had penetrated.

Alec again moved to block her view. "Wife?"

She started backing away from him. "I don't want the dagger anymore. Throw it away. I have another one in my satchel."

"He's dead, wife," Alec stated, trying to be reasonable. "You needn't keep looking at him, lass. He can't hurt you now."

"Aye, he's dead," she stated with a vehement nod. "You tossed me in the air, Alec, just like a…"

"Caber?"

She nodded again. "You killed him so easily, milord. I've never seen…"

When she didn't finish her statement, Alec let out a sigh. "It was good of you to notice," he said then.

She gave him an incredulous look while she continued to back away from him. "It was good of me…? Do you think I am giving you praise, husband?" She paused to take a deep breath, trying to ease the ache in her throat, then looked at the dagger he was holding. "Throw that away, if you please. I don't want to look at it."

"Does the sight of blood upset you?" he asked. He thought her behavior most confusing. The woman had been a tigress only minutes before, when she struggled with her captor, yet now was acting like a frightened child.

Alec tried once again to calm her. He tossed the dagger over his shoulder.

"Yes-I mean, no," Jamie suddenly blurted out.

"Yes and no what?" he asked.

"You asked me if the sight of blood distresses me," Jamie explained in a rush.

"And I answered you."

"You did?"

She threaded her fingers through her hair, inadvertently making it more disheveled than before, then whispered, "That blood makes me sick."

She had to sigh then. She'd meant to tell him she was used to seeing blood, that she was a healer and had probably mopped up enough blood to turn a river red, but it was simply too much trouble to try to explain anything. She was still reacting to the terrible upset she'd just had, she told herself, and to her husband's incredible strength.

There was also the rather painful fact that he had been very willing to give her away. Her horse actually meant more to him than she did.

She was going to have nightmares for a month.

Alec suddenly reached out and pulled her into his arms. "If you take another step back, you'll end up on top of the heap."

Jamie took one look over her shoulder, saw the stack of bodies, and felt her knees give out on her. She would have fallen on her face if he hadn't held her up.

Yet even in her distressed state, she couldn't help noticing how very gentle he was being. A contradiction, that, given the fact that he was such a giant of a man. It didn't seem possible that someone his size could be so gentle. Yet it seemed just as unlikely that he could dispose of four armed attackers without showing the least bit of exertion. The man hadn't even worked up a proper sweat.

He smelled nice. Jamie leaned against his chest and let him hold her.

"Did you mean it, Alec?" she whispered.

"Mean what?" he asked.

She didn't explain quickly enough to suit him. He tilted her chin up so he could see her expression. "Mean what, wife?"

"When you told that horrible man he could have me but not my horse," she explained. "Did you really mean what you said?"

He would have laughed if she hadn't looked so upset. "No."

She immediately collapsed against him. "Then why did you sound as if you meant it?"

Her voice was still whisper-soft, but he heard her all the same. Alec couldn't believe she harbored such a worry. Give her up? Never! "I wanted him to think he was in control, lass."

"He was in control, Alec," Jamie argued. "He was the one with the knife."

"Ah, I see," Alec returned, a smile in his voice now. "Then the men who circled me were also in control."