CHAPTER 1
1603 Scotland
The North Sea
Niall
Sinclair blinked, trying to open his eyes, but pain shot across his left brow
and cheek. His vision was nothing more than a wavering fog, with pinpricks of
bright light sending stabbing twinges shooting through his skull.
Disoriented,
he struggled to clear his head and regain his sight. However, when he attempted
to raise his right hand to feel the aching left side of his face, his arm would
not obey his command. His hands were bound behind him. When he shook his head to
clear the cobwebs, a searing pain tore through his temples. He stopped. In all
his thirty years, even when the tip of a broadsword wounded him during battle
and left its mark across his chest, he had never endured such pain.
A
sudden wave of nausea had him swallowing bile. Pain erupted once more from his
wrists to his neck. While he contemplated whether he had broken bones or
dislocated a shoulder, a movement to his right made him as rigid as a Scottish
standing stone. Until he knew if the movement was either friend or foe, his
best option was to appear docile and unconscious.
“He
be awake. Better fetch the capt’n.”
Too late.
The
voice rumbled low and craggy, like an old hound coughing up a bone. Its owner
came no closer. Niall threw his head back in an unwise attempt to see the
owner, and slammed against something hard and unyielding. They had bound his
hands around whatever stood behind him. From its circular shape, his first
thought was a tree. However, the wood was smooth against his naked back and buttocks,
and the gentle rolling of the hard surface beneath his feet suggested the mast
of a ship. The stranger’s use of the word captain
added to his conclusion, yet how could he have ended up on a ship?
Several
other voices, along with the heavy stomping of boots, drew closer. A breath of
cool air swept his damp hair across his face, and he could see little of his
surroundings. When the same breeze made certain body parts shrink, he realized
he was soaking wet, and naked.
My Hunted Highlander Buy Links
Nancy Lee
Badger
paying-it-forward, helping authors
Twitter @NLBadger
SHIVER,
a White Mountains Thriller
***Available from
Audible: My Honorable Highlander
Now
out! My
Hunted Highlander
No comments:
Post a Comment