“I’ll leave your door unlocked if you promise to conduct yourself as a biddable lady. I’ll not have you throwing tantrums like a maddening bairn.”
She stared at the floor. “I promise.”
“You’ll marry the Comyn chief next week… unless you can somehow convince the Earl of Rebbinglen to marry you.”
She frowned, her confused but wary gaze on him again.
“I will introduce you to him in the morn,” Murray said.
“Very well.” She clasped her hands before her demurely.
“Off with you, then.”
He was glad to see she quickly vacated the room instead of arguing, as she had done the last time. Aye, ’haps Rebbinglen would find her lovely and lose his head over her. Murray grinned.
∞∞∞
Just before dark, Haldane and his men lurked outside the walls of Gillenmor Castle. He had lost several men in that last skirmish, but had enough left to get the job done. He’d hired over a dozen in Inverness days ago.
The MacKays had to leave the castle eventually, heading back home, and he intended to kill Keegan and any other MacKay he could. The fewer of them left, the fewer he’d have to fight in Durness. Seona would be the ultimate prize, of course, but he doubted she’d leave the walls anytime soon.
Moments later, his attention riveted on a lass of about Seona’s height, slipping out the postern gate. “It can’t be,” he whispered. She was covered head to toe in a dull plaidarisaid,keeping her identity a secret. She had to be a maid or someone of no importance. Didn’t she?
Haldane crept through the bushes as silently as possible, the brisk wind helping to conceal his movements. Transfixed, he knelt and watched her in the low light where gloaming meets darkness. The lass moved exactly like Seona. And he should know; he’d watched her often enough back at Dunnakeil last autumn.
When the lass hiked her skirts off her shoes and sprinted toward the village, he tore out after her. He easily caught up and grabbed her around the waist from behind. He covered her mouth with his hand to muffle her screams. He couldn’t let her alert the guards. Glimpsing part of her face in the faint glow of the distant torches, he saw that ’twas indeed Lady Seona. Why on earth wasshe fleeing?
She kicked her heels against his shins. Her sharp elbows drove into his stomach and ribs. Damnation, what a hellcat. No wonder he loved her. He smiled.
“Come on,” he growled low to McMurdo as he rushed past where he was stationed. “I’ve got her. Let’s go.”
McMurdo and the other men raced after him to the edge of the wood where they’d left their mounts.
“Get something to tie her hands and feet,” Haldane said. “A gag, too.”
Once they had her bound so she couldn’t escape or scream, he climbed onto his horse. “Lift her up to me.”
McMurdo and one of the new men named Edgings put her across Haldane’s lap. Her light weight felt good there, but he had no time for carnal thoughts. He had to get the hell out of here before anyone realized she was missing.
Though he was eager to leave posthaste, they walked their horses silently a few hundred yards, then picked up the pace, their horses galloping toward the shore. ’Twas time to head for Durness.
∞∞∞
A soft knock sounded at Seona’s bedchamber door. She sat bolt upright in bed. Though ’twas the middle of the night, she had not slept, trying to determine a way out of this trap. Could Keegan have slipped along the corridors of the castle to visit her? She had not seen him all day. Her heart thumped in her ears, with both excitement and fear for his safety.
After belting thearisaidaround herself over her smock, she moved close to the door. “Who’s there?”
“Abigail, m’lady.”
One of the chambermaids? What could she want? Although a bit disappointed, Seona was glad Keegan had not risked his life to come to her bedchamber. She opened the door to find a flaxen-haired woman of about her own age standing outside, holding a candle.
“Aye?”
Abigail stepped into the room and closed the door. “Laird Rebbinglen sent me,” she whispered, then pulled a folded paper from the pouch at her waist.
A missive? What on earth? Seona broke the wax seal and unfolded the paper.
It is time for us to make our escape. Bring a change of clothing.
