Page 80 of Lady Len and the Mysterious Mac

Outside the carriage, a swift current tried to drag them away, but Ellen’s dress caught on a bit of debris and she managed to grab hold of the side with her bad hand, clinging tight to the laird with the other, helping him float on his back so his face stayed out of the frigid water.

“Fraser?” she called again.

“Still here, milady,” his voice answered from the other side of the carriage.

A breath at her shoulder startled her, but then a velvet soft nose nuzzled into Ellen’s shoulder. “Buttercup,” she sighed, tears stinging her eyes as she buried her face in the silky neck.

The water came up to the horse’s shoulder, which explained why Ellen couldn’t find purchase with her feet. With one arm around Buttercup’s neck, she managed to splash herself and the laird to the riverbank and drag him onto the silty shore.

Buttercup nosed Ellen’s hand in search of carrots. “Sorry, girl,” she cried, stroking the horse before diving back into the water to help Fraser.

His boot appeared to be wedged awkwardly under the carriage wheel, his other leg tangled in the spokes, his kilt knotted around the brake shaft. Almost completely underwater, it was a miracle he hadn’t drowned, but his head was tilted awkwardly back to keep his nose and mouth dry. His eyes were closed, but his teeth chattered loud enough to wake the dead.

“Quite pinned, indeed,” she said.

“I’m sorry, milady,” he gasped through the pain.

“It was an accident.”

“It wasn’t.”

“What?” she asked absently, trying to figure out how to free him.

“Rabbie Stewart and his mates. They came out of nowhere like the devil himself, yelling and carrying on. Spooked the horses. I tried to scare them off wi’ my rifle. Just spooked the horses more.”

“What did they want?” Ellen asked, wondering if Si could have changed his mind and sent them to bring her back home.

“This, I suppose,” Fraser gasped.

“Then we must make sure they don’t get away with it. If I could give you an inch, Fraser, could you pull yourself free?”

The groom forced a bitter laugh. “That carriage must weigh five times what you do, milady.”

Still, Ellen had surprised herself these past weeks working on the chapel. She’d seen new definition in the shape of her arms and her legs, and a new energy in herself too. Maggie would probably bemoan her shape as less than ladylike, but Ellen’s recent work had made her stronger than she’d ever been before, and that was worth more than being a lady.

“An inch. Could you do it?”

“My right arm’s useless,” he gasped.

“I’ll be right back. Don’t move,” she teased. Then she brought over Buttercup and, ripping the hem of her dress, fashioned a lead which she wrapped around Fraser’s fist and tied to the horse’s bridle.

Then she used the sgian dubh Si had given her to slice the groom’s kilt free of its entanglement. Taking the deepest breath she could, Ellen pulled herself down under the water and along the carriage until she could set her heels into the sticky mud. Her back and shoulder against the carriage, she heaved with all of her might, lifting it the tiniest fraction.

It was almost peaceful under the water. She couldn’t hear anything, and it was so cold that it numbed her pain. But the force of the water buffeted her as Fraser tried to kick himself free, just as her feet began to lose purchase in the mud. She bent her knees lower and bellowed an air bubble, which must’ve produced the most unladylike sound, as she tried again, digging deeper into herself than she ever had before. Buttercup splashed and Fraser kicked and then he was gone just as the mud at her feet gave way, and she dropped the carriage and plunged to the surface for air.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Whilst everyone around Si leaped into action, he felt as though he was moving slowly, backwards, through a bog that threatened to drown him. It filled his ears and brain with sludge so he could no longer think what to do.

“Is the Kintail truly too sick to join us?” Ced asked. “Blair and the lads say either he comes down or they’ll go up.”

“You’d better go and speak to them,” Mrs. Kynoch said.

As though an external force controlled his body, Si managed to drag himself back to the Hall.

“Are ye avoiding us?” a young cousin of Blair’s called out.

“Avoiding responsibility, more like,” the lad’s father added.