Where had she gone?
"Kristina! Where are you?" This room contained no side dressing room. He searched but couldn't find her or her remains, thank God. She must have left before the fire started. Upon exiting the room, he encountered some of his men with large buckets of water.
"Have any of you seen Lady Kristina?"
They shook their heads, rushed into the room and dumped water onto the fire.
"Where is Kristina?" Anna yelled, trying to scramble past him and into the room. He grabbed her by the upper arms and dragged her away from the smoke billowing into the corridor. "She's not in there! I searched."
"Are you sure?" she cried.
Neacal arrived and pulled her farther back. "What's happening? Where's Kristina? How did the fire start?"
"We don't know."
Bryce ran along the corridor. "The laird's chamber is on fire!"
"What the hell? No one was sleeping in there." Thank God, his mother refused to sleep in the room since his father had become ill and passed. "Make certain my mother is out of here," he told Ethan, who'd just emerged from the stairwell.
"I'll get her now." He turned and hastened away.
"Can you make sure all the women are out, including the servants?" he asked Neacal.
"Of course."
"Find Kristina!" Anna yelled back, tears in her eyes, as Neacal rushed her down the stairs.
"I will," Colin called. He had to. He couldn't lose her again, especially now that she'd changed her mind about marrying him. Even if he couldn't trust her to never break his heart again, he still loved her more than life itself.
At the moment, he had to banish all emotion from his mind and think logically. For two rooms so far apart to be ablaze, the fires must have been started intentionally.
He passed Rusty and Warton. "Check all the rooms to make sure everyone is out of here," Colin ordered. "Upstairs, too. Get the guards and servants organized to pass buckets of water up here to drench the smoldering wood. I have to find Lady Kristina."
"Aye!"
Who would've started both fires? As Colin ran to catch up with Bryce in the laird's chamber, a man's face popped into his mind. "Red Holme," he growled. Of course! That bastard was the only person he could think of who wanted to kill as many Camerons as possible, while at the same time capturing Kristina for his own twisted purposes. Did he have a man on the inside, or was he here in the castle, himself?
Bending low to duck beneath the smoke, Colin entered the laird's chamber. "Kristina, are you in here?"
His father's bed was all that was on fire thus far. Bryce picked up the large woven rug from the floor and beat it repeatedly against the burning mattress, putting out all the flames.
The smoke was so thick, Colin could hardly see. Holding his breath, he checked the side dressing room. He yelled Kristina's name again, but she was not in this room, either, of course. Why would she be? Still, he glanced around, searching for any trace of her.
"I wager Red Holme set the fires!" Colin told Bryce. "Wanting to burn down Rhodie because he can never have it, while hoping we'd all perish in the fire. And then he abducted Kristina. He has a perverse fascination with her."
"How the hell did he get in here?" Bryce opened the window. "The guards have been vigilant."
"'Haps he paid one of the servants or guards to do his dirty work for him." Coughing against the acrid smoke, Colin stuck his head into the corridor to draw a breath of fresher air. "Have the men bring buckets of water in here and pour it on the smoking mattress! Then take it outside," he yelled to two guards nearby, and they dashed away.
Going back into the chamber, Colin found Bryce peering beneath the bed. Colin glanced aside, noticing the chimney sweeps' brush lying on the floor near the fireplace. Why was it still here? The steward had told him he'd hired chimney sweeps and that they'd cleaned the chimney in this room earlier. Stranger still, the built-in wooden box used to stack firewood beside the fireplace was pulled away from the rest of the wall. He frowned and yanked at it. The box, attached to a wooden panel, swung open on concealed hinges and revealed a small wooden door ajar behind it. He opened it and found narrow steps leading down. He had never seen this before.
"What the devil? Bryce!"
"Aye."
"There's a hidden door. Did you know it was here? Maybe they took Kristina out this way!"
Bryce cursed. "I didn't know about it. I'll go get a lantern." He hastened from the room.
