“Ye are nae longer broken, Brother. Any of us can tell that ’tis more than yer arm that is healed. As happy as all of us are fer ye and yer lady, we are blessed to still have a mother, and one who cares enough to always overstep her bounds.”
Logan and his brother laughed. Elspeth was happy Ealar didn’t hate her. Aye, they should go home and see to Logan’s mother. Elspeth wished she still had her own mother.
They agreed to ride back to the house. The arrival of Steafan stopped them. He was out of breath, as if he had been doing the running instead of his horse. “Roderick Woodburn has escaped!”
Logan and Elspeth both took a step back in utter surprise.
“How?” Logan demanded. “What happened?”
“He was bein’ brought to his cell after another beatin’. He attacked the guards and killed two of them. As weak as he is, he is wily and strong. I know because the two guards he took down were the strongest Tor has.”
Logan didn’t look concerned, but Elspeth did.
“Does no one know where he went?” she asked, pleaded. If Roderick was free, he was coming after her.
Steafan shook his head. “We searched the castle from top to bottom but didna find him. The lochiel sent men oot to scout the land and find any trace of him. There was nothin’ reported when I left to come here. Yer father wants everyone to return to the castle.”
“Aye,” Logan said and then looked around at the others. “He is correct. If the castle has been searched and cleared, then we should go there.”
The others agreed, and Jamie was the first one out. He would ride back to the house with Logan and the others, get Ismay MacPherson, and bring her to Tor.
Elspeth could not find comfort in the saddle with Logan. Roderick was free. He would come after her, and if Logan was near her…
She dared not think about it, lest the terror of it take her over. Logan could not die.
They reached the two houses, that were oddly quiet. Elspeth felt Logan go taut as his gaze searched everywhere outside.
When his mother didn’t answer their calls, Logan and Ealar leaped from their horses and went running. One to the large house and one to the smaller house.
Elspeth kept her gaze glued on the smaller house that belonged to Logan. The one he’d gone to. She watched when Jamie hurried to catch up with him, and Ewen and Steafan followed Ealar.
She hated just waiting here. She slipped out of the saddle and slinked around the back of Logan’s house. Her house. If Roderick was here, she would stop him. She wouldn’t let him take anything else from her.
She checked around the butchering shed, her heart pounding hard in her ears. Roderick was not there.
Logan nearly frightened her out of her skin when he burst through the back door and appeared before her.
“What are ye doin’ here, Elspeth? I told ye to stay back.”
“Logan, I dinna want to wait until Roderick comes to me. I will find him and kill him first.”
“My love, ye canna kill a man, especially no’ yer brother. Nae matter what he has done.”
“If he tries to hurt ye, I will stab him with a dirk. I forgive him, Logan. That doesna mean I dinna want him to pay. I will use whatever is in range of my hands to stop him.”
He smiled, and she wasn’t sure if she should be insulted or not.
“Come inside, lass.” He held out his hand, and she took it and went with him into the Main Hall.
There, she saw his mother preparing food to take with them and Jamie entering from the main doors.
Ismay MacPherson smiled at her. “Did ye come looking fer me, Daughter?”
Elspeth smiled at her and nodded. “Fer ye and—” she looked at Logan—“fer him.”
When his mother clapped her hands in silence and wept what she assured were happy tears, Elspeth believed in dreams coming true.
But some dreams came with a curse. What was the curse? Roderick?
