AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After she heard Mungo climb out, Donella pretended to stumble, slapping a hand down onto the leather cushions.
“It might be easier if I could see where I’m going,” she meekly suggested.
“Ye promise not to make a fuss?” asked the man holding her arm.
“Yes. I promise.”
A moment later, he gingerly pulled back her hood.
“Thank you, ah . . .”
“Rory, miss,” he said with a shy, gape-toothed grin.
Donella recognized him from the Perth Bridge. Fortunately, he wasn’t the brute that had tried to drag her from the carriage. Rory seemed quite friendly for a kidnapper.
She’d take allies wherever she could find them.
“That’s ever so much better, Rory,” she said with a winsome smile.
He blushed.
“What the hell are ye doin’?” barked Mungo from outside. “Get the lass out here.”
Carefully, Rory helped her down, holding on as she found her balance. She teetered a bit, since she’d lost a shoe during her abduction and the ground was freezing.
Donella blinked up at the tall structure that loomed over them, lit by the flare of torches. “It’s Dun Manor.”
Mungo, who’d been conferring with one of his men, stomped over. He gave Rory a shove.
“Why the hell did ye take off her hood, ye ninny?” he snapped.
“You needn’t bark,” Donella said. “It’s not as if I can tell anyone where you’ve taken me.”
“Poor lass canna do a thing about it,” Rory said with a sympathetic grimace. “Besides, you said to take care of her. We dinna want her trippin’ and hurtin’ herself again, do we?”
“Might I point out that you are trespassing on Clan Graham property,” she added. “As a member of that clan, I demand you vacate these premises immediately and return me to Breadie Manor.”
Mungo sneered at her. “It used to be Murray land, and it’ll be ours again. On my word as a Murray and a Highlander, we’ll take it back.”
He took her arm and marched her through the open door of the keep. For an elderly man, Mungo was surprisingly strong. Donella had counted at least three other men, and there might be more lurking about the premises.
Her only chance for escape was through the use of her wits.
Built well over four hundred years ago, the building was more a keep than a manor—an old tower house with a great hall, and decrepit spiral staircase leading up to probably even more decrepit upper floors. An ancient banquet table stood in the middle of the hall, and some benches and a few old settles were in front of the empty hearth. It had the unfortunate odor of a place now primarily home to wildlife.
Donella couldn’t help but wonder why Mungo was so intent on regaining the old place. Estates and holdings had changed hands so many times over the centuries as a result of clan feuds or financial mismanagement. Dun Manor had been abandoned long ago and hardly seemed worth the fuss.
She lifted her skirts to avoid a pile of droppings. “It might more properly be called Dung Manor.”
“And that be the fault of the Grahams,” Mungo groused. “The Murrays would nae have let it fall into ruin like this.”
“Well, you’re welcome to it, as far as I’m concerned,” she retorted.
In the light of the torches carried by his men, she could see the crafty gleam in the old man’s gaze. “Aye, we’ll get it back. And ye along with it.”
“Over my dead body, you will.”
When his wrinkled features pulled tight with malice, she mentally kicked herself. The situation was fraught enough without petty comments. Still, the entire situation was so ridiculous and annoying that she found it almost impossible to hold herself back.
