Without Malcolm.
There could be any number of explanations for that, she reasoned, forcing herself to slow the pace that already drew stares from those she passed.
Rauf had disappeared the same day they’d discovered Dermid missing. Perhaps the groomsman had simply hunted down his charge and returned him here. Perhaps they’d never even caught up with Malcolm.
Perhaps they carried news that Malcolm was dead.
Dani lifted her skirts and ran. To hell with what people thought. Right now she only cared about locating Patrick and finding out what had actually happened.
She’d be no trouble at all. Just discreetly slip into the room and wait quietly to observe what Dermid had to say.
Out of breath, she rounded the corner and skidded to a stop outside the laird’s solar. She debated only a second before fisting her hand to knock upon the closed door.
“Dani! Wait!”
Ignoring Elesyria’s call from farther down the hallway, she pounded once and then again before throwing her weight against the door, her plans for discretion completely forgotten.
Elesyria reached her side just as the door opened and she pitched forward, stumbling into Patrick’s broad chest.
“And why am I not surprised to find the two of you here?” he asked, his hands at Dani’s elbows to steady her.
“Where’s Malcolm?” she demanded over his shoulder when she caught sight of Dermid and Rauf. “What’s happened to him?”
“I dinna suppose you’d be willing to wait in yer chambers and leave this to me to handle?” Patrick looked from Dani to Elesyria and back again. “No. I dinna think so. Then I’ll thank you to have a seat and be quiet while I get to the bottom of what my brother has to tell me.”
Patrick held on to her elbow as he walked her over to a chair at the side of the room and she sat. Elesyria took the seat next to hers, catching up her hand to hold once she was seated, too.
“My apologies for the interruption,” Patrick began with an annoyed look in her direction. “Perhaps you’d begin again at the beginning for the benefit of our . . . guests.”
“Torquil demands twice the silver he originally required. One portion for homage to yer rightful laird and one portion to secure Malcolm’s release.”
Dani straightened in her chair.Malcolm’s release?Then he lived? He lived!
“Ransom, you mean,” Patrick interpreted.
Dermid shrugged. “I only deliver Torquil’s words as they were passed to me. Yer to pay and I’m to return with the silver. He says to tell you that if you attempt to follow, Malcolm’s blood will be on yer hands.”
Patrick sank into a chair at the table, his finger tapping out a tattoo in the momentary silence.
“You’ve a hard journey behind you, Dermid. I’ll have food sent to yer chamber for you. You’ll need yer rest to recover yer strength.”
“As you say, brother. A hard journey behind and another ahead.” With a nod first to Patrick and then one in Dani’s general direction, Dermid left, Rauf at his heels as always.
Dani had restrained herself as long as she could. “What are you going to do?”
Patrick shook his head, his finger still tapping. “I canna say as yet, though I’m no at all pleased with the idea of sending Dermid back into the enemy’s nest. And I’ve little doubt that Malcolm would agree with me on that count.”
No, Malcolm likely wouldn’t approve of sending Dermid back, either. But she didn’t approve of leaving Malcolm to whatever it was that he didn’t want her to see behind that black door.
“Then why don’t you go ahead with your original plan. Lead the army you intended to use to save Christiana and free them both.”
Yes, it would mean Malcolm would be indebted to the MacKilyn, but she would rather lose Malcolm to another woman a million times over than have him killed.
Again Patrick shook his head. “We might well have had a chance before. But Torquil is aware of our intent now and will likely expect that of me. He’ll no be caught off guard to an army’s approach as long as he holds Colm. I’ll have to devise another plan, though at the moment, I’m at a loss as to how to get enough armed men in there to make a difference.”
“You need to start with what it is Torquil wants.” Elesyria had risen to her feet and was pacing the length of the room. “Your wealth, to begin with, since he’s doubled the amount of silver he’s asking for. What else?”
“Knowing my brother? As much as he can get. Money and fealty. And if he can humiliate and destroy Malcolm in the process, so much the better in his eyes.”
