I must quit this place and find Torr!
Pulling the cloak's cowl over her head, she searched for the back exit of the kitchen and found it farther along the stone corridor. Twilight obscuring the details around her, she ran through the mud alongside the kitchen garden, careful not to slip, then across the cobblestone bailey and toward the portcullis.
"Is aught amiss?" a deep voice demanded, startling her.
Her gaze swinging to the scowling guard, she slid to a halt. "Nay. I but wish to leave."
"'Tis nay safe for a woman to travel alone at night hereabouts," he growled.
"Torr MacElrath—my husband—awaits me in the village," she asserted with more confidence than she felt. "He's Chief MacAuley's cousin."
The guard stood obstinate, scrutinizing her with a critical eye, his hand on the hilt of a sword sheathed at his side. Nearby, four female servants passed through a small door in the curtain wall... the postern gate.
Catriona calmly headed in that direction. "I'll be safe! I'll be with them," she called out to the guard, then joined the servants.
"Lady Catriona!" A woman's yell echoed from the side of the bailey, near the kitchen garden. 'Twas Lenora... the chief's wife. She hurried forward as if giving chase. Had the lady found her out? Did she know about the magic potion?
Panicking, Catriona sprinted through the narrow postern gate, following the servants.
"Guards, stop her! She cast a wicked spell upon Lady Elsea," Lenora yelled.
