Page 103 of Hold Fast

Una clutched her belly and tried to marshal her breathing, to figure out a plan. Just then, the tapestry next to Una was swept aside, and Maddie’s head appeared from a dark recess. Both women clapped their hands over their mouths to stifle their shrieks.

“God in heaven, Una! Are you hurt? Is any of this blood yours?”

“Nay,” Una panted, shaking with relief at Maddie’s appearance. She’d heard rumor of the secret passages in the keep, but there had been none that led to her room and so she hadn’t had a chance to explore. “’Tis all his blood.”

Maddie’s gaze slid from Una’s face to where Cameron’s body lay prone on the floor.

“Thank God,” Maddie said, and as her friend flexed her shoulder, Una noticed the cudgel in her hand.

“Maddie?”

“I came prepared to do what I must to save you. But it seems you saved yourself.”

Una felt the need to cry—she so desperately wished she could—but the tears wouldn’t come, leaving her with a pit in her chest and an ache behind her eyes.

“We must hurry, Una,” Maddie whispered. “It will nae be long before they discover him, and you must be far from here by then.”

Una nodded, and Maddie held the tapestry wider to allow her to pass into the shadows beyond. She bent to tuck the sgian dubh back into her boot before she followed Maddie into the passage. The tapestry flapped as it fell behind them, followed by the barely audible sound of Maddie closing the hidden door. A torch burned in a sconce on the wall, and Maddie grabbed it, holding her skirts and the cudgel in her other hand. She stepped past Una and began to descend a winding staircase into the dark.

Una picked her steps carefully. The torch helped, but it wasn’t bright enough to clearly light the stairs, and it wouldn’t do to fall. Maddie kept her brisk pace and led them down, down, down into the depths, passing landings along the way, which Una knew must lead to other chambers and passages. They were beneath the keep now. The air was cold and damp when the staircase ended and Una stepped off it into a shallow puddle.

“Mind your step, lass,” Maddie whispered before turning sharply to the right and walking down what appeared to be a long, straight tunnel. They moved without speaking, the only sounds the soft, hasty shuffling of their shoes against the stone floor and the occasional drip of moisture from the ceiling. The passage stretched on and on, and Una picked her way across the uneven stones with as much speed as she could manage. She’d survived the belly of the beast. She couldn’t afford to trip and fall now, especially not in her condition. The babe within her was blessedly still, lulled to sleep by her walking.

Creatures scurried around them, and Una tried not to think of rats and bats and other things that lurked in dark places as she hurried on. But in the distance, she could see stars. The tunnel was ending. Given how long they’d been walking, Una imagined it let out far beyond the walls. After all, these secret passages were built to help the residents of the keep escape in the event of a siege.

The moon was full and the sky was bright beyond the passageway. Just as they were about to exit, Maddie gasped and lunged backwards, pressing Una against the wall behind her and tossing the torch in a puddle of water.

“There are men outside the tunnel,” she hissed in the sudden darkness.

“Cameron men?” Una asked, terror rising sharp and shocking.

“I couldnae see their plaids, lass. But nae doubt they saw the torchlight. You must hide here. I will go and speak to them. I’ll tell them I got lost in the tunnels and found my way here.”

“They’ll never believe you, Maddie,” Una insisted.

Maddie shook her head stubbornly, but Una knew what needed to be done. She would not let her friend, someone who had been so kind to her, be punished for her crime. She would likely hang for this crime. She grieved the fact that she would never see Ewan again or get to tell him that she had fallen in love with him. But if she could die knowing that Malcolm Cameron had been scoured from the earth, it would be enough. She could be at peace.

Una gripped her hand. “Maddie, you must listen to me. They dinnae ken you are here. I willnae allow you to hang beside me.”

“I willnae abandon you,” Maddie protested, taking Una’s face in her hands. “They’ll kill you for certain.”

“Not yet. They’ll wait till I deliver this babe, and that buys us more time. Perhaps you can get a message out with that lad you said you trust.”

The men outside the tunnel grew louder, closer.

“I dinnae like it, Una. I cannae let you go out there alone.” She spoke the words around a sob, and Una grabbed her and held her close.

“We have no choice. Either I go out alone, or they come in and find us together. No sense in both of us hanging, Maddie. After all, you didnae kill him, I did.”

“But I would have, Una,” Maddie whispered through her tears. “I planned to. I—” she broke off, biting her lip.

A gravelly voice called out. “We know someone is in there. Come out, or we’ll send a man after you.” She heard the low rumble of other men speaking, the shifting of boots, and water cascading quickly over rocks. They must be near the river.

“Go, Maddie!” Una said, clutching her friend in one last hug.

With her heart in her throat, Una stepped out of the tunnel and into the brilliant moonlight. But even though the moon was full, she could not make out the colors of the men’s plaids. She squinted at the group of men, searching for a face she recognized. Unease crept up her spine and over her scalp. Why were they staring at her? Why had no one grabbed her?

“God’s bones, Una, is that you?”