Ailithdidhave someone.She had Teagan, and though Teagan couldn’t fight a grown man on her own, she could ride out to Blair Keep and find William.It would take her all night with how poorly she rode, but Teagan had to hope the Grants wouldn't do anything more than throw Ailith in a cell until morning.
As she continued making the clicking sounds, Teagan led the horse back to her cruck house and tied her off as she packed a small sack of items she might need for this journey, including what she might require to heal anyone if they were injured.
She shook her head as she walked back outside.She was lying to herself.
Items she might need if Ailith were injured, she thought bitterly.God only knew what they were going to do with her.
Though the palfrey still seemed agitated, she calmed as Teagan patted her neck and fed her a piece of dried apple.Then Teagan unhooked the reins and gripped them tightly.She had placed a stool near the horse, something to step on so she could mount the palfrey.
“I hope ye are as patient as Ailith promised,” Teagan cooed in a soft voice to the horse.“I’m a weak rider, and we have a long way to go this night.”
The horse made a huffing noise as Teagan gripped her mane and swung herself into the saddle, clumsy and nearly falling back off the other side.Fortunately, Bonnie Bride was patient as promised and waited as Teagan settled herself in the saddle.
“We canna go too fast, or else I’ll fall right off,” she told the horse.“But if we go at a steady pace, we might make it before daybreak.”
With a shaky hand, Teagan mimicked what she had seen Ailith do and turned the horse around.Then she kicked Bonnie Bride’s sides lightly, and the horse ambled off in an easy gait, steady and slow and unaware of the role she played in saving her mistress.
I hope we both can save her,Teagan told herself as they rode into the darkness.
Ailith fidgeted in her thin léine and kirtle the entire time as they rode to a small village right inside Grant lands, not from the rain and damp chill in the air but from fear and trepidation.The village was nothing more than a small collection of squat, thatched-roof buildings and farms, and boasted a few torches for light.A thin crowd of people emerged from the buildings as they arrived.
A bald man in a roughly hewn, ankle-length tunic and rope belt watched over their procession into the village.Ailith hadn’t missed the stone church near the edge of the houses, and given the way the man was dressed and looked down his nose at her, Ailith understood he must be a priest, the man Eoghan had referred to as Abbot Graham.
She did not see James Grant anywhere, or any other Grant men she had met before.These people who brought her to the village must not be working on his behalf then.Eoghan and this wayward abbot were the ones behind her capture.
Their involvement was noteworthy.How much could they do this without approval by their chieftain?She might have a rough night or two in a cell, but the prospect of the Grant chieftain coming to her aid or sending for her brother or William briefly lifted her spirits.
Which then came crashing down almost immediately.Her brother was married to Mairi, and she was one of the clanswomen spreading rumors about her.And William ...
Well, he was near Aberdeen, and if even part of what Eoghan said about William was true, she couldn’t count on him, either.He didn’t know she was gone from Drumoak.
All Ailith had was the hope that the Grant chieftain would not listen to those rumors and take pity on her.
Feck, what a mess this is!
Eoghan stopped the horses in front of the priest, and the man on Ailith’s horse dismounted, yanking her off the horse with him.Ailith found her footing and gathered her wits as she wiped the wet strands of hair off her face.The mist had become more of a light drizzle, making her shiver all the more.
Just add insult to injury,she thought with a sullen glance around the villagers.
Even if she wasn’t bound, too many people crowded around for her to fight her way out of this.One of the villagers threw back her hood, her thin, toothy smile unmistakable.
Betris.Of course.That vile woman was enjoying this horrifying spectacle.
Why was she taking her hatred this far?What hand did she have in this?It was probably her words that urged Eoghan to action,Ailith thought with bitter realization.
Ailith did not recognize anyone else, but held onto the hope that someone recognized her and would come to her aid.
“The pit is there,” the abbot intoned as he pointed to the dark ground at his side.“Put her in and secure the grate.”
Wait!A pit?Oh, hell no!
“Nay!Eoghan, stop!”she shrieked as she struggled against her bindings and the man dragging her to the dark hole in the ground.She kicked up hard, catching the man in his side.He grunted but ignored it and tightened his grip on her arms.
Then she was shoved in.After stumbling against the wet earth, she landed hard on her backside and looked up as a grate was latched on top of the hole.A black iron grid covered the gray, sunset sky.
What the actual hell?
Pure despair, something harder and more gut-wrenching than any emotion Ailith had experienced before, filled her entire body, hot and panicky and robbing her of all her wits.She was in a wet pit in the ground, covered by an iron grate.Her backside sank into the cold, watery earth as sprinkling rain continued to fall on her.
