Page 59 of Sins of the Highlander

“Ye could send word to the queen.” Lachlan leaned toward his ally. “After all, she is your cousin, is she no’? I dinna think she’ll approve of one of her ladies-in-waiting being abducted from the altar. The right word in her counselor’s ear, and she might well divide MacLaren’s land between us to settle the matter.”

“No amount of land will settle this.”

“Sometimes a man must take the best of a bad bargain,” Drummond said, signaling for his servant to top off Lord Stewart’s ale. Old Normina toddled forward, but Alistair covered the rim of his horn with his hand and waved her away.

Alistair buried his head in his hands. “Why would the MacLaren shoot Elspeth?”

“I dinna think ’twas his intention. It makes no sense for him to,” Drummond said. Stewart had accepted without question his lie about who released the fateful bolt. Lachlan could afford to put a charitable face on the incident. “It was dark, ye ken, but I believe he was aiming at us on the raft, and your daughter put herself in his way.”

“Then he must still mean to return her. He said ye could collect her at month’s end.”

“Since when can the word of a madman be trusted?”

“If he willna give her up, we have no choice but a siege.” Stewart pounded his fist on the table in frustration. “Besides, her mother wishes it. She willna give me peace until I do something to bring Elspeth home.”

Drummond bit off a hunk of venison and chewed. The haunch was gamey and sorely in need of salt, but his larder was strained by the extended stay of Stewart and his household. And since the marriage ceremony wasn’t completed and the union unconsummated, none of the promised dowry had been forthcoming. Yet by virtue of his troth, Lachlan was still obligated to help Stewart retrieve his daughter. Mad Rob probably timed his interruption of the ceremony with that outcome in mind.

“D’ye hear yourself, man?” Lachlan shook his head. “Ye know full well the girl may already be—”

“Dinna say it.” Stewart’s knuckles turned white as he gripped his meat knife. “Elspeth’s yet alive. I ken it in my heart. D’ye no’ think a father would sense it if his daughter were no more?”

Stewart wouldn’t be so certain if he’d seen Elspeth go down. Even if a crossbow wound didn’t kill outright, Drummond knew it could still take a life. A bolt left a gaping hole. It had been too dark to see exactly where Elspeth was struck, but removing a bolt ofttimes did more damage than the initial hit. If loss of blood didn’t do for her, then putrefaction almost certainly would.

“No, I’ll no’ believe she’s dead until I see her body with my own eyes,” Stewart said, his gaze fixed unseeing at his trencher.

His ally had set his feet, and there’d be no budging him. “Verra well. Since ye wish it, I’ll go with ye and yours to Caisteal Dubh. And bring my men too. I should be able to muster a hundred and fifty by month’s end.”

If Lachlan was going to have to play this hand, he might as well go all out. It would serve to cement his tie with the House of Stewart, even though he fully intended to expand his alliances with a new bride from a different clan as soon as decently possible. James Grant’s youngest was said to be a beauty.

“Even though our clans are no’ yet bound by marriage, we are bound by our common foe,” Lachlan said. “For now and all time, may God smite the MacLaren.”

He offered his hand to Stewart, and the man clasped it.

“For now and all time, may God smite the MacLaren,” Alistair Stewart said. “And may He use us to do it.”

***

It was a full week before Elspeth could walk unassisted, but drinking beef tea and Hepzibah’s special brews helped her grow stronger each day.

Angus found a length of green birch and shaped it into a cane for her. She was able to transfer enough of her weight to use the walking stick to get around on her own.

“It’ll also come in handy to use as a cudgel if ye wish to drive a point into Rob’s thick skull,” Angus said when he presented it to her.

Everyone laughed at the time, but Rob stayed well out of range, in case she should take the suggestion to heart. In fact, he’d barely spoken to her since she asked him to forgive Lachlan Drummond. And himself.

Hepzibah taught her to change the dressing on her thigh herself.

“Once ye leave here, ye’ll have to do it, so ye may as well start now,” Hepzibah reasoned. When the week passed with no hint of corruption in the wound, the wise woman stitched the seeping openings closed.

“Ye’re a fortunate lass, Elspeth Stewart.” Hepzibah lit her pipe while she and Elspeth sat on the stoop before her cottage. They were comfortably out of the wind, catching the last bit of the sun’s warmth while watching Rob and Angus preparing the boat to continue their journey. “Verra fortunate indeed.”

“To be sure, any lass with two holes in her leg is twice blessed.”

Hepzibah shot her a sour look. “Ye still have your leg. That’s the main thing, but I was talking about the lad.”

Elspeth frowned at her.

“Ye’ve the love of a fine man.” Hepzibah nodded toward Rob and followed his movement with her sharp-eyed gaze. “That makes ye fortunate beyond the lot of most.”