“The devil you say.” Robby met his mother’s glare, then looked about behind them. “Where’s Ceana?”
“She’s gone,” his mother said before Braden could deliver the deception they had planned.
Robby took the news like a king who had just found himself without a throne. The smile faded from his lips and the young laird’s face flushed bright red.
Rage descended into his eyes. “What?” Robby roared. “What do you mean gone? Gone where?”
Agnes put her hands on her hips as she faced her son with a tsking sound. “She couldn’t take any more of your whining about Isobail. And who can blame her? I’m surprised she stayed with you as long as she did.”
Robby glared at all three of them as if he couldn’t decide who to cleave in twain first. His anger palatable, every muscle in his body stood taut. “When did she leave?”
“Last night,” his mother said. “When I went to wake her this morning, I found this.” She handed him the folded piece of vellum that they had prepared the night before.
Robby read it, his hands shaking.
With a fierce curse, he turned to his men. “Search the castle. I want to make sure this isn’t another one of Ceana’s pranks.”
“It’s no prank,” his mother said firmly. “She’s left your sorry hide.”
It was then Maggie saw what they had wanted to see. The pain on Robby’s brow, the concern and loss. Whether he admitted it or not, he cared for his wife.
She smiled.
“Gather the horses,” Robby shouted to his men.
“Why?” Braden asked. “If you dinna care for her?—”
The MacDouglas’s eyes flared. “Why dinna you stop her?”
“She said you wouldn’t even miss her,” Braden answered with the very words Ceana had used to dissuade them from this plan. “She said you had never once seen her, for your eyes were filled with the image of Isobail ingen Kaid.”
Robby winced as if he’d been struck. “I want my Ceana back! And I won’t stop looking until I find her.”
One of the young lads brought a saddled horse to Robby. As he moved to mount, Braden stopped him.
“It’s not necessary.”
Before Braden could explain, a shout rent the air.
Maggie turned to see smoke billowing out from one of the small buildings in the inner bailey. It took a full second more before it dawned on her which building it was.
The one where Ceana had gone to hide.
Her throat tight, Maggie watched in horror as the fire ravaged the building.
“Braden!” she shouted, but he was already on the run toward it.
“Dear God,” Robby’s mother breathed. “Ceana!”
“Ceana?” Robby repeated.
“She’s in the fire!” Maggie ran for the building with Robby hot on her heels.
Braden started to run into the burning building, but one of the men pulled him back.
Maggie watched in horror as fear tore through her.
“‘Tis too late,” the man shouted above the roar of the fire. “There’s no way she could still be alive in that blaze.”
