Nay!
She attempted to walk, but could only manage a teetering step. The hood was ripped from her head and she blinked in the sudden light from a torch being held aloft by one of the men.
Her father’s figure was framed in the moonlight and the flickering torchlight lent the harsh features of his face a maniacal appearance. His mouth was twisted with rage, an expression she recalled only too well. Yet she had never seen him so angry, so full of hate.
The man dragged her to stand before her father and she managed to raise her head, lifting her chin in defiance.
He drew back his hand and slapped her across the face with such force that she staggered, feeling a trickle of blood down her chin from where the blow had split her lip. Her knees gave way and she fell. As she lay, her feet tied, scrabbling to stand, he kicked her fair in the ribs, causing intense pain, robbing her breath so that she could only clutch her belly and lie gasping, unable to utter a word.
“I would kill ye, fer daring tae humiliate me the way ye’ve done, but I’ve persuaded Sir Bertram tae take ye, soiled as ye are. Without marriage.” He snarled. “But ye’ve cost me dear.”
She shuddered at his words, nausea roiling in her belly.
He turned his back and walked away, and two of his men stepped forward to haul her to her feet. The rope binding her ankles was untied and at last she regained the use of her legs as they marched her toward her father’s fast-disappearing form.
They were close by the sea, in a little cove. As her eyes became used to the gloom, she was able to make out the shapes of two birlinns riding at anchor beside a wooden wharf.
Her heart sank as she was forced down to the rocky shore toward one of them.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Edmund yawned as he wound his way along the passageway toward the bedchamber he shared with Annora. The meeting between himself, Lionel and the Elders had continued through the night and it was almost dawn as he reached the door.
To his horror he saw it standing ajar. He leapt forward and saw at once that the chamber was empty.
“Annora!” Even as he roared her name, he knew it was no use. She was gone and he knew with deadly certainty she’d fallen into the hands of the man who’d been hunting her.
The Laird Graham Munro.
He sprinted back along the corridor and took the stairs two at a time, heading toward Lionel’s chamber.
Lionel opened the door, his shirt unlaced, but one look at Edmund and he seized his cloak and began pulling on his boots.
“She’s gone.” Edmund groaned, struggling to formulate a plan of action. How? Where? His belly felt as if it was being pierced by a hundred daggers. He shook his head, struggling to make sense of what was happening. All he could think of was that she was gone.
Lionel grabbed his arm. “Hasten tae Tormod’s chamber tae request the castle guard. I’ll raise the alarm.”
They set off at a run in opposite directions.
Tormod’s face seemed to shrink before his eyes when he informed him Annora was gone. The old man snatched up his coat and dashed out of the chamber with the speed of someone much younger.
Together they rushed along the corridor and down the stairs to the entrance to the keep, where several servants had already gathered.
“Have ye seen or heard anything out of the ordinary? Anything strange?”
They were all shaking their heads as the stable boys ran up the stairs and joined the group.
One of the lads, who seemed scarcely more than a bairn, nodded his head, his eyes wide.
“What lad?” Tormod bellowed.
“Mayhap ‘twas naught, milord,” he said nervously, tugging the lock of hair at his forehead. “I heard noises behind the stable. I couldnae sleep and I had gone out tae relieve meself.” He looked around as if to reassure himself that his words caused no offence.
“I heard mutterings, and thought there were people where nay one should be.”
“Where was this?” Edmund was tempted to take the lad and shake the story out of him, but he bit his lip and let the words flow at their own pace.
“I thought, at first, they were in the bailey, but when I looked down the steps there was nae one there. Even though I could swear that’s where the voices came from.”
