“If I speak of it,” she said softly, “I will need a listening ear.”
He smiled. “I have two.”
He was so happy to see her smile that he said the first thing that came to his head. “I love ye, Elspeth.”
Her bonnie eyes opened wider. He swallowed his thumping heart. “I dinna…I wasna thinkin’ clearly. I—”
She held up her palm and then took a step forward and threw her arms around his neck. “Dinna take it back, Logan.”
“I dinna. I dinna take it back.”
She drew back so he could see her bonnie grin. “Tell me again.”
“I love ye, Elspeth.”
He leaned down to kiss her, but his brother barging into the room stopped him.
“He has been spotted in the castle,” Ealar informed them.
Logan was torn between being overjoyed that the madman had been caught and sorrowed that he was Elspeth’s brother.
“Stay here,” he told her. “Dinna remember him like this.”
“I will remember him murdering my little brother and my parents.”
Logan made his brother wait while he lifted his fingers to Elspeth’s temple, the soft curve of her cheek. “Still, my beloved, I would spare ye more heartbreak.”
Finally, she nodded. He promised to return soon to tell her more, then he left her.
*
Roderick Woodburn watchedthe castle kitchen maids hurrying to and fro from the kitchen to the well near the rear wall. He’d been scouting the castle servants most of the day, deciding which was best for his purpose. It had to be a female. She had to have long, dark hair, and she had to work close to the dungeon so he wouldn’t have to carry her for too long.
One kitchen maid stood out to him. She was perfect. He waited for her to leave the castle to see to her outdoor chores. When she made her way to the well, he followed her. She was easy to take down and even easier to kill.
Despite all the blood, he managed to swing her body over his shoulder and walk to the stairs leading down.
Unlike Dunley Keep, Tor Castle did not keep guards over the prisoners. He’d killed one anyway, for the key to the only occupied cell.
When he neared it, he saw her sleeping on a small bed. Sleeping or dead?
He called her name. “Helen.”
When she didn’t respond, he opened the cell, dropped the body and hurried to Helen.
“Roderick?” she said sleepily, then slapped his arm. “What took ye so long?”
“I’m here now, wench.” He pinched her cheeks together and kissed her on the mouth. She laughed. He laughed with her.
Then he switched the body and Helen and left the castle with her. He stopped when he heard a commotion up ahead. “Go to ye right. Ye will see the gardens. Hide there. I will come fer ye.”
“Dinna be too long,” she ordered, but made a sound like one whose heart was breaking.
Roderick would hurry.
With that thought in his mind, he walked calmly, doing his best not to draw too much attention to himself. It was bad enough he was covered in blood. He just had to make it out of the gate. Helen would find her own way out. He did the difficult part, getting her out of the dungeon. If she couldn’t do this one thing, then mayhap she was not the right one for him. Although she had helped him with everything he’d asked and even more. Still, there was one more thing he had to ask of her before he left her.
He smiled when he was stopped at the gate by the returning Camerons, one sporting a pistol.
