The Dunglais captain was outraged by her actions, but he was also horrified by his own reaction to the finger moving back and forth in his ass. It actually excited him when it should have repelled him. Yet that wicked finger in concert with whatever potions she had fed him was stoking his lusts. He could feel his cock swelling painfully beneath him, and he groaned, helpless to this shameful arousal.

"Shall I make you come, Beinn?" she asked him. She bent and slipped her other hand beneath him to feel his swollen cock. "Ohh, how hard you are," she cried, excited. "I must have that great cock of yours again! I must! Rafe, quickly!"

The serving man burst into the room. "Mistress?"

"I must feel his weight atop me," Robena said, and she was almost weeping in her eagerness to have him in that manner. "Get him back on the bed, facedown. Leave his legs free, but keep his arms chained. Hurry! Hurry!" She began to play with herself in her great need as she scrambled to get on the bed.

The serving man did as he was bid, and again Beinn was overcome with dizziness as he was yanked about. Then he was kneeling between Robena's thighs, and there was no help for him. He had to fuck her or he would die. Without release, he would be crippled for hours, and he believed now that he might break the chains that held his arms fastened to the bedposts. He had been more tightly constrained when his legs were bound. "Get out!" he growled at Rafe, and to his surprise the man obeyed him. "Now, bitch," he said to her, and he drove himself to his hilt as hard and as deep as he could go.

Robena screamed, but it was a sound of pleasure, of satisfaction. "Fuck me, you great brute!" she said to him. "I want to come thrice, and if you fail me I shall beat you again, and this time it will be the worse for you."

Beinn said nothing to her, but instead set to work to do as she bid him. She came quickly for him the first time and again the second time. But as his cock throbbed with its own need, she withheld herself from him a third time. He was not certain he could contain his juices much longer, but then he felt the tremors within her beginning, and Robena began to moan and cry as a great pleasure overcame her.

"Yes!" she screamed "Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh, you beast, I cannot stop coming! You have killed me with your passion as I knew you could all those years ago!" She shuddered and fell into a deep swoon.

He had seen this happen to a woman once before. She would not regain consciousness for some time, so great had her sexual excitement been. Able to kneel, he looked at the chain attached to the manacle. Then he examined the bedposts. They were solid oak, but now he saw they were carved so that the middle of the post was thinner than the rest of it. He slid the iron ring at the end of the short chain down to that narrow spot, and then he began to yank against it. After several hard tugs the bedpost gave way, and Beinn was able to slide the ring off of it. There was no way to remove the manacle and chain from his wrist, but he would in effect be free once he snapped the other post, which he quickly did.

Beinn slid off of the bed quietly and looked about the chamber. Against a wall was a small trunk. Opening it, he discovered his breeks, sherte, and boots. He quickly dressed himself despite the disadvantage of the manacles and chains he bore. Then he went to the small window and squeezed himself through it. He immediately headed for the hill where his horse had been tethered. But the animal was not there. Had Rafe found it and stabled it? Had it wandered off? Beinn decided he had no time to go back or even consider where the horse might be. He had to reach the keep. It was not quite evening and he began to run. When darkness settled in he slowed to a walk.

With luck the bitch would not awaken for another few hours. Rafe had been taught not to disturb his lady, nor would Fyfa. Beinn trudge on. He was furious with himself for having been so careless as to be put at a disadvantage by the lack-wit Rafe. The man walked like a damned cat, for he hadn't heard him at all when he came up behind Beinn. As for the beating and sexual torture the bitch had inflicted upon him, he had wanted to kill her when he got free, but then he had realized that that was his master's right and not his. He felt no guilt for what had happened between them this time. She had forced him, and he knew better now, though he would confess the sordid hours spent in the cottage to poor Father Donald. It wasn't something he wanted to keep to himself, and it was the priest's business to listen. Though he had been bound and impelled to her will, Beinn knew his lust had also been responsible, especially when Robena lay beneath him, clawing at his back and howling with her satisfaction.

The moon rose, and while on the wane it still gave him more than enough light to travel. He began to run carefully and after several hours the tower of Dunglais Keep came into view. He stopped and listened carefully. The moor was silent but for the soft rustle of a few night creatures out hunting in the grass. None pursued him, he realized to his great relief. He moved swiftly across the moor, down a hillock, through Dunglais village, and finally up to the closed gates of the keep. He knocked softly.

"Who goes there?" a young voice quavered.

"Beinn, your captain," he replied.

The little grate in the door was opened and a face peered out at him. It was quickly shut, and the small privy gate was unbarred for him. Beinn hurried through, saying as he did to one of the several men on duty, "Wake the blacksmith! Wake Iver, and find the priest for me if he's in the keep tonight. If not, fetch him at first light." Then he directed his footsteps to the smithy.

The blacksmith came, looking irritable until he saw the manacles and chains about Beinn's thick wrists.

"Get them off," the captain instructed, "and ask no questions of me."

"Aye," the smith said with a nod of his head. He was by nature a taciturn man.

Iver arrived as the first manacle and chain fell from Beinn's wrist. He cocked an eyebrow with curiosity, but did not ask. If Beinn wished to tell him, he would.

"Fetch the laird, but be careful not to frighten the lady," the captain said. "She should know nothing of this."

Iver nodded silently and disappeared back into the building. The second manacle and chain fell loose. Beinn was rubbing his wrists as Iver returned.

"He'll see you in his privy chamber," Iver said. "Can I go back to bed now?"

"Aye, and say naught to Fenella," Beinn responded.

"Fenella?"

"She's in your bed, isn't she?" the captain said with a small grin.

Iver neither denied nor confirmed Beinn's query.

The two men entered the house, Iver going one way and Beinn the other. Reaching his master's privy chamber, he knocked and then entered.

The laird shoved a goblet of wine in his hand. "What happened?" he asked. "Why did you not remain watching longer?"

"There was no need. Sir Udolf was there. She's killed him, and he's buried. I would have been back a day sooner but that her lack-wit somehow heard me and hit me with something, probably a shovel. When I awoke I found myself restrained. It took me several hours to break free from the wooden posts I was chained to, and then several more hours traversing the moor home in the darkness."

"Your horse?"

"Probably wandered off. I didn't want to waste the time searching for it. While all in the house were sleeping when I broke free, I feared discovery. I was fortunate the dog did not hear me as I went through the window and set up barking. There is a chance they have the horse though," Beinn admitted honestly. "I was already up the hill to fetch it when I found it gone. I thought it better I not go back, my lord. It was more important I reach you. I think she meant to kill me."

The laird nodded. "Aye, she is not afraid to murder, as we know. You've done well, Beinn."

"What will you do, my lord?" he asked the laird.

"I am not certain I will do anything," Malcolm Scott said. "Sir Udolf is dead and so Alix will not be harassed again by him. As for Robena, let her wonder what I will do. But why did she kill him? And did he tell her of Alix and our bairns? I am curious as to what she will do, but then there is little she dare outside of her own cottage."

"I do not know if she knows of your wife and bairns, my lord," Beinn said honestly. "But I believe she may be waylaying those who stumble upon her cottage and robbing them of whatever they have."

"And probably taking the hapless men who fall into her web as lovers," the laird said dryly. "I hate the thought of imprisoning her in the old tower by Dunglais Water, but I suppose I must think on it. I would not do for either Alix or Fiona to stumble upon Robena's dwelling one day. I know I have been lenient with her. Another man would have slain her where he caught her that day, Beinn."

"Aye, my lord, they would have. But this new murder cannot go unpunished. It is true that Sir Udolf Watteson has no family to come seeking his fate. But if there have been others in the past, if there are others in the future, the bitch may not have such good fortune. You have done your best to protect her from herself, my lord, but now I fear you must protect others from her. Fyfa and Rafe are good souls, and they do their best by her, but you know that she dominates them by virtue of her position as their mistress. They can do so much. She is dangerous, and grows more so, I fear."

The laird nodded. "I do not disagree with you, Beinn," he said. "But autumn and winter are upon us. My lady will birth another bairn soon. I would not have her learn of Robena and her situation, for it will certainly distress her. And I most surely do not want Fiona ever knowing that the mother who birthed her is yet alive. The pain that woman caused my daughter has been wiped away by Alix's love for her."