Page 73 of Sins of the Highlander

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They looped around on game trails a bit, and Elspeth almost lost track of which direction the castle lay. Then Rob set his face toward a steep incline. There didn’t appear to be any trail worthy of the name making an ascent on it. Only goats might attempt such a rock face. She was certain she’d be unable to drive her mare up it.

“Are we to pass through stone?”

“In a manner of speaking.” He swiveled in his saddle and looked back at her. “What I’m about to show you is a way known only to the laird of the castle. My father showed me. Someday, I’ll show my son.”

“Ye have a child?”

He looked at her intently. “No’ yet.”

Elspeth’s chest ached. For all she knew, she might be bearing Rob’s child already. She didn’t know whether that would simplify or compound their problem.

“The secret is both a blessing and a curse,” he said as he dismounted and tied his horse to a pine. Then he helped her down.

“I’ve never kenned how a thing can be a blessing and a curse at once.”

“’Tis a blessing because should there be a need to enter or leave Caisteal Dubh by stealth, as there is for us now, there’s a way to do it.” His mouth set in a hard, thin line. “But if this secret should become known, ’tis the only way the castle will ever fall.”

He took both the horses’ reins and led them around a boulder. “Coming?”

She followed. Behind the rock, another cave opened into the steep incline, its dark mouth yawning.

“Ye seem to have a way with the deep places of the earth, Rob MacLaren.”

And the deep places in her heart. Though they’d declared their love, it still felt tenuous. Like a rope of two strands that might break if too much weight were put on it.

“Do ye seek out caves wherever ye go?” she asked.

“They seem to seek me. I’ve stumbled over several in my travels, and all by accident.”

“Or by running from those whose herds ye’ve reived?”

“Aye, ye’ve the right of it,” he admitted with a laugh.

She followed him into the gloom. He handed the horses’ reins to her and pulled out his flint. Once a torch was lit and placed in a holder in the rock wall, Elspeth could see this first chamber of the cave was even-floored and dry. It would serve well as a temporary stable. Rob put up some planks to bar the way out and keep their mounts safely in.

“After I see ye settled, I’ll come back and tend to these two. If this business with yon armies drags out, I may have to set them loose, but if I do, they’re likely to be caught by your bridegroom’s men.” He patted the mare’s neck, and she whickered softly. “Horsemeat is stringy, but it’ll feed a multitude.”

“Dinna set them free,” Elspeth said. “And dinna call Lachlan my bridegroom. I’ll no’ marry him now.”

Rob’s eyes glowed at her. “It pleases me to hear it. Come, lass.”

He took the torch again and caught up her hand. He led her unerringly through a long tunnel, ignoring the side passages that led off into the dark. She ran her free hand over the side walls. There were tool marks gouged in the stone.

“This was made by human hands.”

“Aye. Parts of it,” he said. “But the work was done so long ago, the doing of it has fallen out of memory. Some of this cave system has been here since the days of Noah, and others have been improved upon over the years. Like this.”

They’d come to a series of stone steps leading up. They were by no means regular in size or height but were obviously the work of man.

“Some of the steps may be wet and slick, aye?” Rob said. “Be careful.”

She would have been afraid in the cave if she’d been alone. And the steps looked daunting because of the throb in her leg, but as long as she held Rob’s hand, she feared nothing.

Elspeth concentrated so hard on putting her feet aright on each step, she lost track of how long they climbed. Finally the stairs ended, and the cave continued in a fairly level corridor. It was wide enough for them to walk two abreast, and Rob didn’t have to duck his head at all.

“I hear voices,” she said, and hers echoed several times off the stone around them.