Page 34 of Brigand

“Ewan?”

He spun on Colin with a furious snarl. “What?”

“My boat is gone.”

His heart thudded. Once. Then ceased to beat altogether.Pain swelled in his chest. His head went light. Acid churned in his belly andcrawled up his throat. She wouldn’t have… She couldn’t have. She was frightenedto death of the water. Always had been. There was no way she would have steppedinto a dinghy on her own. Someone must have taken her.

His gaze scorched the assembly, taking note of each familiarface. Rory was there. And Tavish. Jessie and Pip. Mungo. Hell, they were allthere.

Except Craig.

Blinding rage buzzed in his brain.

He’d kill him. He’d tie him to the parapets of this decrepitcastle and—

Craig rounded the corner, slapping the dust from his sleeve.“Well, she’s not in the garderobes.”

Ewan stared at him. As furious as he was with the man, hewasn’t happy to see Craig. Not in the slightest. Because that meant Violet hadto have taken the boat. And she was out there alone.

The river had a wicked current when the tide changed. Morethan one idle fisherman had found himself floating on open sea when the foglifted.

He scored his fingers through his hair. Panic skirled in hisveins. His brain refused to function. He couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t bear itif she…

Hell. He couldn’t even think the word.

Thank God for Colin. He sprang into action, barking outorders like the military man he was. “You men, signal the shore to send overthe other boat. You three, take the backup dinghy by the old chapel and headtoward Dundee. Search the shore on both sides of the river. Go as far as theNorth Sea if you have to.”

Faced with these indomitable commands, the men scattered.

It seemed to take an eternity for the men posted on the farside of the river to row over. Ewan glanced up at the sky and frowned. It wasgetting late in the day. Soon the sun would slip behind the hills andeverything would be shuttered in shadows.

“Can’t they move faster?”

Colin’s hand fell on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Ewan. We’llfind her.”

Finally—finally—the skiff scraped the shore. There wasn’troom for everyone, just Colin, Ewan and Wolfe. He clutched the tatteredremnants of her old dress. If he needed to, he would use his faithful hound totrack her down.

Rowing together they made speed, heading toward the westbank. But they didn’t dock. When they got close, they turned left and followedthe shore to the south.

It seemed they rowed for hours with no sign of her. Ewan wasabout ready to give up—surely she could not have come this far, not a smallgirl with no experience maneuvering a heavy boat all on her own. But then hesaw it. The prow of his purloined dinghy thrusting from the underbrush.

Dizzying elation, boiling relief and howling rage fought fordominance in his mind. He pressed them all down in favor of resolutedetermination. He would have her back. In his arms. Tonight. Or die trying.

* * * * *

Violet paused, leaning against a tree and clutching her sideas she gasped for breath. She kept looking over her shoulder but there was noone there. No one following. She probably didn’t need to keep up such a madpace but she was frantic to find some kind of shelter before it got too dark tosee.

The woods were thick and gloomy. The sun, far in the west,was beginning to set. The air had taken on a bitter chill. The thought ofspending the night huddled in the bushes didn’t appeal at all.

She was miserable enough as it was. She hadn’t thought tobring food or water with her on her headlong flight. And the shoes Jessie hadgiven her didn’t fit right. They probably would have been fine for clompingaround the keep but she’d traveled miles over woodsy terrain and now theychafed at her heel and blisters were forming on the side of one foot.

Her belly growled and she sighed, peering through thefalling murk. Why did the wilds of Scotland have to be so…wild? What shewouldn’t give to find a kindly crofter’s hut or a hunting cabin.

With a low growl to herself—which accomplished nothing—shehoisted herself from her repose and kept going.

It was almost near dark when she found a rutted tracksnaking through the woods. It was so narrow she almost missed it. She took amoment to get her bearings. It wouldn’t do to head back the way she came. Itwas a challenge because there was no sun by which to navigate, but she figuredshe should turn left. That would send her south. Or…west. Either would work.Either would take her farther away from the river. And the Cloud.

She stumbled several times, once banging her toe painfullyon a root and once nearly falling on her face, but she kept going. She wasrewarded by the sight of a dark, looming shadow.