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Aulay had no idea, and nothing was coming to mind . . . mostly because he was sifting through Saidh's words. Cat hadn't been trying to kidnap Jetta before now. She'd been trying to kill her, and he suspected that was what Saidh had not said. That Jetta had been made to strip, forced out of the castle through the passages and tunnel, and then killed.
Aulay turned abruptly, intending to head back to the master bedchamber. He was desperate to see if Jetta was in the baby's room. She couldn't be dead.
"Aulay, wait," Cam said firmly, catching his arm. "Ye can no' just go marching back in there. Ye might be jeopardizing Jetta. Ye said the sister came out o' the baby's room. Jetta may be in there. But she may not, and if she is no', then we might do better to pretend we believe the sister is Jetta and follow her to find where Jetta is."
"Cam is right," Greer said solemnly. "We need to see if Jetta is in there ere ye do anything. Is there a passage entrance in the little room as well?"
"Aye," Dougall said as Aulay tugged free of Cam's hold and started moving again, this time heading for the door just a few steps away. It was the door to Niels and Edith's room, and he didn't bother knocking, but thrust the door open and strode in.
"What the devil!" Niels barked, freezing in the middle of pulling on a fresh shirt. Yanking it down into place, he grabbed up a plaid to cover himself up and scowled at the lot of them. "Ha'e ye never heard o' knocking?"
"What has happened?" Edith asked anxiously, turning from the window to peer at them with concern. "Please tell me ye've caught the attacker, else Niels is determined to help ye find them."
"Nay, but I'm about to," Aulay growled as he continued to the passage entrance and quickly opened it.
"Yer eyes are back to normal," Greer commented behind him, presumably to Niels. "How are ye feeling?"
"Much better," Niels said quietly. "What's happening?"
"We're about to catch Jetta's sister," Alick said, directly behind Aulay, and the words made him freeze with one foot in the passage and one in the room. Turning back, he scowled.
"We're no' doing anything," he said firmly. "I'm going to sneak into the baby's room and see if Jetta is there. The rest o' ye will wait here."
"What if they are both in the baby's room?" Cam asked at once. "Ye can no' just go barging in. The sister could slit Jetta's throat ere ye got to them."
"Aulay's no' an idiot. He's no' going to just barge in," Saidh said with exasperation. "He'll check the know-holes first to be sure 'tis safe to enter."
"The what?" Aulay asked with bewilderment. He had been intending on just barging in.
"The know-holes," she repeated, her brow knitting as she took in his expression. "The spy holes? Ma called them know-holes when she showed them to me, because they let ye know what's happenin' in the rooms."
"We ha'e spy holes?" he asked with disbelief.
"Aye." Her eyebrows rose. "Surely ye kenned that?"
"Nay," he snapped and then glanced to his brothers. "Did any o' you?"
"Nay," they all said together, shaking their heads and looking rather put out themselves.
"Well, hell," he growled, turning back to his sister. "Why were we no' told about them? I should ha'e been told at least. I am the laird o' this keep."
Saidh shrugged unapologetically. "Ma told me. I just assumed she or Da had told the rest o' ye."
"I think I know why," Jo said thoughtfully, drawing all eyes her way.
Aulay's eyebrows rose. "How would you ken why our parents did no' tell us about the spy holes and only told Saidh?" he asked, more curious than anything.
"Because I have a son," Jo said wryly, and then asked, "I presume you were lads when you were told about the passages?"
They all nodded.
"How old?" she asked at once.
"Five or six," Aulay answered at once.
"Aye," Dougall agreed. "What has that to do with anything?"
Rather than answer, Jo asked, "If, as a lad, there had been a visitor to the keep, say a beautiful buxom blonde, or a curvy redhead you thought attractive. And if her maid sent for a bath within your hearing," she added. "Would you or would you not have slipped into the passages to peek through the spy holes at her?"
Affronted, Aulay opened his mouth to answer, but Jo held up her hand to forestall him.
"I am asking all of you Buchanan boys, and I do not mean now would you look, but when you were a young lad, of twelve or so, would you have tried to get a peek then?"
Aulay hesitated, and then exchanged glances with his brothers, before admitting on a sigh, "Aye," even as his brothers did. But he added, "'Tis the kind o' thing lads do."
Jo nodded as if that was exactly what she'd expected. "And that is why you were not told as children." Turning to Cam then, she added, "And that is also why we will not tell our sons about the spy holes in the passages at Sinclair until they are adults and can be trusted not to look unless necessary."
"There are spy holes in the passages at Sinclair?" Cam asked with amazement.
"Aye. Your mother showed them to me after we married," she announced.
"What?" he asked with disbelief. "Why did she or Father never tell me about them?"
When Jo shrugged her shoulders helplessly, Dougall suggested, "Mayhap they're waiting until yer an adult and can be trusted no' to look."
Cam stiffened, but then nodded solemnly. "Aye. And no doubt that is why yer parents ne'er told ye ere they died, and why ye're uncle still hasn't."
Aulay almost cracked a smile at the exchange of taunts, but in the end he didn't. No one did. They were all too aware that Jetta was in jeopardy . . . or possibly dead.
"Where are the spy holes?" he asked Saidh sharply, impatient to see if Jetta was all right.
"They are those small stones sticking out o' the wall," Saidh explained. "There are dozens o' them along the walls at all different heights. The stones pluck out easy as ye please, revealing a pinhole ye can see through into the room."
Nodding, Aulay turned to finish stepping into the passage, but paused again as someone bumped against him and he realized everyone had crowded forward, intending to follow him. Even Edith and Niels were moving toward the passage, he saw, and it was Alick who'd bumped into him.
"I am going alone," he growled. "The rest o' ye stay here."
"Ye might need help," D
ougall argued at once.
"I'll be fine, and the bunch o' ye will make too much noise," he argued.
"We'll be quiet as mice," Alick assured him.
"Aulay," Saidh said quietly. "If she dies because ye refused help, ye'll never forgive yerself . . . and I may no' forgive ye either. I really like Jetta."
Aulay closed his eyes briefly, but then gave in with a sigh. "Fine. But ye can no' make a sound."
When every one of them nodded solemnly, Aulay turned and led the way into the passage.
It was the splash of cold water that roused Jetta. Blinking her eyes open with alarm, she peered anxiously about, and then froze as she spotted Cateline and recalled her situation.
"Finally," Cat said, tossing aside the empty pitcher she held. "I thought you would never wake up."
Jetta eyed her with dislike. "I suppose it was too much to hope that your presence at Buchanan was just a nightmare."
"Oh my!" Cat's eyes widened in surprise and delight. "The kitty has developed claws. When did you find courage, sister? You never would have spoken to me like that at Fitton."
Jetta just shook her head and closed her eyes. She had no intention of getting into a battle with her sister. She had refused to do it when they were children growing up, and then as an adult, not because of a lack of courage, but because it upset their mother. She wouldn't do it now because she needed to think on how to escape. Getting her sister talking so that she could do that was more likely to aid her than wasting her thoughts on trading insults.
Determined to keep her talking, she asked, "Are you not going to finish telling me what happened after you and Father left me on the ship?"
There was a pause and Jetta began to worry her sister would not continue talking, but would move on to whatever she planned to do next, and then Cat said, "Aye. Where was I?"
"You were on Le Cok," Jetta said at once, and when Cat did not immediately begin speaking again, asked abruptly, "did you trade your body to the captain to escape marrying the marquis? Is that how you came to be here?"
"Nay. He was more interested in his first mate than me," she said with disgust.
