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She fought the impulse to gag even as relief filled her. Dear Lord, how long would it take the Seconals to work? He had eaten, which would slow the effect, but from the look of him he had also had a good deal to drink. She had to stall for time, anything that would keep him from assaulting her now.
Genius struck,
and she made an eating gesture, her brows lifted, and then she rubbed her stomach to indicate hunger. He scowled, but went to the door and bellowed something, she hoped a call for food. Evidently he didn’t intend to starve her, but had merely forgotten.
He stomped to the chair and sat down, and poured himself another cup of ale. Grace smiled at him, pointed to herself, and said, “Grace St. John.”
“Eh?”
At least she understood that sound, she thought in relief. She said again, “Grace St. John,” then she pointed at him and waited.
He caught on now. He thumped his bull-like chest. “Huwe dhe Hay.”
“Huwe,” she repeated. She tried another smile. “Well, Huwe, I don’t wish you any harm, but I hope the Seconal knocks you flat on your butt. I know you have big plans for tonight, but so do I, and you aren’t included. As soon as everyone is asleep, I’m going to see what kind of damage you and your goons have done to you-know-who, and then I’m going to get him out of here.”
Huwe listened to her speech with growing impatience, and he cut her short with an impatient wave of his hand. Then he spouted something involved at her. She made a helpless gesture, spreading her hands and shaking her head.
A brief thud sounded at the door and it swung open. A plump, slatternly woman with wiry dark hair came in, carrying a small platter on which rested a thick piece of coarse bread and a hunk of cheese. She set the platter down with a thunk, glaring at Grace all the while. Either no one here liked outsiders on principle, or the woman had a thing for Huwe, which gave her a new appreciation of the old saying that power was an aphrodisiac.
The woman left, and Grace pinched off a piece of bread. She sauntered around the room, nibbling daintily at the bread and making an occasional comment to Huwe. His gaze still followed her, but after ten or fifteen minutes she noticed he was blinking owlishly. She continued to pace, her manner completely relaxed, returning to the table to taste a tiny bit of the cheese. It wasn’t bad.
Huwe’s eyelids were drooping heavily. Grace walked over to the narrow window and stood still, looking out at the night while she pretended still to eat. In the shadows as she was, as drugged as Huwe was, he likely couldn’t tell her hand was empty.
The night was bright with starlight, and a soft mist was gathering in the glens. Grace quietly watched, listening for Huwe’s snores, but the inaction gnawed at her. She felt—she felt as if her body couldn’t contain the force of her blood, pounding through her veins. She felt excited, anxious, burning with energy. The constant wariness with which she had lived the past year, the sense of doom hovering over her, was gone. Parrish couldn’t reach her here. There were very real dangers she might face but still she felt oddly light, as if a weight had been lifted from her.
She felt alive.
The realization shocked her. She had become so accustomed to the numb bleakness inside her that she hadn’t even noticed its absence. Until today, all she had felt for a year had been fear and rage and hate, punctuated by moments of a pain so sharp the numbness had been welcome. But today she had felt excitement, and interest; she had even smiled like mad at Huwe—Huwe! The smiles were totally false, but they were more than she had managed in a year.
She was really here. She ached in every muscle, she felt sore inside, but she was here and Black Niall was just two floors below her. They were both captives, he was likely wounded, by their captors’ fists if not their swords and daggers, but she could feel his presence like an energy field, making her fingertips tingle.
A soft rumble reached her ears. She looked over at the table, where Huwe was slumped across the surface, his head pillowed on one outstretched arm.
She tiptoed over to the table and moved the bottle to a safer location. A swipe of his arm would have dislodged it, and perhaps awakened him, though she thought likely not even a cannon would do the job tonight. She wasn’t going to take the chance.
She had no idea of the time, so she gingerly sat down on the bed and forced herself to wait. The ale would have flowed freely that evening; the men would be tired and sore from the battle earlier, and the ale would ease their aches. They would sleep early that night, and deeply.
Still she waited, until she was in danger of falling asleep herself. When she jerked herself to attention for the second time, she knew she had to go now.
She picked up her bag and walked silently to the door. She eased the door open, peering through the crack to see if a guard stood outside. Empty darkness greeted her, lightened only by a dim glow from down below.
She slipped out of the chamber and eased down the stairs. Men slept in the great hall, snoring lumps rolled in their plaids. She didn’t tiptoe; she walked quietly, as if she had a right to be there. Anyone who woke and saw her in the dim light might think her nothing more than a serving wench, but if she were sneaking about, her furtiveness would rouse suspicions. Harmony had told her that: “Walk as if you have a right to the entire sidewalk, and the bad dudes will leave you alone.”
A big iron candlestick was set on a table, the thick candle burned half down. Grace picked it up in case there was no light below; she didn’t want to use her penlight and try to explain it to Niall, at least not yet.
The staircase to the dungeon was at the back of the great hall, hidden behind a door so dark she almost didn’t see it. She set both candlestick and bag on the floor, and eased the door open by increments, taking care the leather hinges didn’t creak. A light came from below; there would be a guard, then, for a prisoner wouldn’t need light.
She eased her body into the opening, holding the door while she retrieved both bag and candlestick. She didn’t need the candle, but she did need a weapon. She blew out the candle and pinched the wick with spit-dampened fingers, then removed the candle from the spike atop the stick and placed it in the bag. Carefully setting the bag down on the top step, she took a deep breath, then another, and silently prayed.
The stone wall of the dungeon was cold and damp against her back as Grace eased down the narrow, uneven steps. There was no railing, and the flicker of the torch below didn’t penetrate up the inky, curving stairs. She had to feel her way down, wishing for the candle after all, but it would have alerted the guard to her presence.
The weight of the heavy iron candlestick pulled at her arm. When she was halfway down the curve of steps she could see the single guard, sitting below on a crude bench with his back resting against the wall, a rough skin of wine at his elbow. Good; if she were lucky, he had drunk himself into a stupor. Even if he had a Scotsman’s hard head for spirits, at least the liquor would have slowed his reflexes. She hoped he was asleep because given where he was sitting, she would have to approach him almost head-on. The light was poor and she could hide the candlestick against her leg, but if he stood up it would be much more difficult for her to hit him hard enough to knock him out. She was so sore and battered from the trip through time that she didn’t trust her strength; better if she could simply lift the heavy candlestick and swing it downward, letting gravity aid her.
Grace cautiously edged her foot forward, searching for the edge of each step while trying not to scrape her shoe against the stone. The air was cold, and fetid; the smell assaulted her nose, making it wrinkle in disgust. The odor was composed of unmistakable human waste, but beneath that lay the sharper, more unpleasant odors of blood, and fear, and the sour sweat of pain. Men had been tortured, and died, in these foul depths that never saw the sun.
It was up to her to make certain Black Niall didn’t join their ranks.
She had a guilty thought: was it her fault he had been captured? Common sense told her that was ridiculous; it was impossible for Niall to have heard her mental call to him. She couldn’t have caused a split second of inattention that could have resulted in his capture. She hadn’t actually seen what had happened, anyway, so it was silly to feel guilty. But then, her very presence here was evidence that the impossible was possible, so she couldn’t say for certain that Niall hadn’t heard her call him.
