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Chapter 14
"We've been o'er the area six times now, Greer, and found nothing."
Greer sighed at Aulay's more than reasonable words and gave up examining the ground to move back to his mount. His brother-in-law was right, of course. He'd had the men search the woods repeatedly and had checked here several times himself before this, but today he and Aulay had checked and rechecked the area six times with nothing to show for it. There wasn't even a crushed patch where the archer might have waited. He should have been satisfied that he'd done all he could, but he wasn't. Greer felt as if there was something they were missing . . .
But that might have been simply because he was desperate to find something, anything that might point him in the direction of who had shot his wife. Frankly, to his mind, the best thing would be to find traces of a camp where bandits may have been, or even some sign that a peasant had been hunting in the wrong area. Either would please him. At this point, Greer didn't think he'd even be angry at the hunter if he came across one. He'd just be relieved to know that this occurrence had been a one-time event and unlikely to be repeated.
However, without some evidence of something, he was forced to consider that it might have been a deliberate attack. That meant having to continue to do whatever was necessary to keep Saidh safe.
Greer grimaced at the thought. Recovering from the wound and loss of blood as she was, his new wife was growing restless at being kept to the bedchamber, and he could not blame her. He was tiring of being in there himself and he was only there during the nooning meal and in the evenings. Greer very much feared that if he didn't clear this matter up quickly, she would rebel and neither he nor her seven brothers would be able to keep her in the master bedchamber.
"Perhaps we should be looking in a different direction," Aulay suggested now. "Mayhap we should check the arrow again to be sure there is no' some marking or something else we missed that may help us sort out who it belonged to."
Shaking his head, Greer quickly remounted and took up the reins of his horse. "We ha'e done that at least twenty times now. There were no markings, no nothing. 'Twas as common as can be, a broadhead arrow with gray goose fletching."
"Aye, verra common," Aulay agreed, sounding as frustrated as Greer felt, and then he suggested, "Then mayhap we should try the other side of the path."
Greer shifted impatiently, his gaze fixed on the spot where he'd found Saidh lying beside her mare. "Nay, the angle of the arrow was very slight, but suggested it was shot from this side. To have been shot from the other side of the trail she would have had to have been riding backward on her mount and shot after she passed the archer."
"I did no' really see fer myself," Aulay admitted with a frown. "I mean I saw the wound and the arrow protruding from it, but did no' notice at the time if 'twas at an angle." He slapped his leg impatiently. "Are ye sure o' the angle?"
"The wound on her back is closer to her arm than 'tis on her front," he explained.
"Aye, but Rory pushed it through. 'Tis possible he changed the angle a bit as he pushed it through," Aulay suggested and then shifted with frustration and said, "Nay. He is too careful to ha'e done that."
"He is," Greer agreed and then pointed out, "Besides, the arrow was already pressing against the skin of her back ere he forced it through. That is why he pushed it through rather than . . ." His voice trailed away as he considered his own words. The arrow had been pressing against the skin of her back, the bulge visible. It had hit with enough impact to travel nearly all the way through her body before stopping . . . which meant it had been shot from a relatively short distance; certainly the archer had to have been closer than the area he'd searched repeatedly the last three days.
Cursing, he urged his horse forward, moving slowly along the trajectory he had guessed the arrow had to have taken to hit her at the angle it had. He heard the clop, clop of Aulay's horse and knew the other man was following, but Saidh's brother didn't say anything, merely trailed patiently after him. When Greer suddenly reined in and dismounted, Aulay did as well, and moved up next to him when he stopped.
They both stared at the compressed grass next to the large oak tree to the side of the path. It was the size and shape of a body.
"Someone laid in wait," Aulay said grimly.
"Aye," Greer agreed, but frowned even as he said it and pointed out, "But if they'd shot her from the ground, the angle of the arrow would have been upward as well as to the side."
Aulay murmured in agreement and walked around to the top end of the spot, eyeing it solemnly before suggesting, "Mayhap they lay in wait here, then stood when they heard her mare coming and shot her from a standing position."
That made sense, Greer acknowledged, and the possibility scared the hell out of him. It meant it hadn't been a hunter mistaking her for a deer or some other such animal. No one would mistake the gallop of a horse for that of the much smaller deer. It also made it less likely to have been bandits too. They did not, as a rule, hang about waiting to shoot women in the woods. They would have taken her, or robbed her, not just shot her off her horse and fled, and Greer was quite sure there had been no one here in this spot when he'd found Saidh. He would have noticed them.
Someone had tried to kill his wife. They had lain in wait and deliberately shot her with lethal intent.
The thought floated through his head like a bird of prey winging through the air, and sent a shudder down his back. Whirling, Greer rushed back to his horse, mounted and turned him toward the castle. He had a sudden desperate need to ensure himself that Saidh was well and safe.
Greer didn't need to look back to see if Aulay was following. The man was right beside him, racing his horse through the woods, his expression as concerned as Greer was sure his own was. He had found many things to like about the Buchanan men the last couple of days, but the one he appreciated the most was how much they all loved their sister. They would help him keep her safe, he knew, and that was the only good thing he could think of at that point.
Greer and Aulay raced their horses through the bailey, sending merchants, servants, children, dogs and even a chicken or two scrambling to get out of the way. At the stairs, they dismounted and raced to the double doors together, each pushing through one to get inside. Greer spotted Dougall and Geordie at the trestle tables, noted that both men got abruptly to their feet in alarm at their rushed entrance, but didn't slow in crossing the great hall. He had to see for himself that Saidh was okay.
Apparently Aulay was feeling much the same way, for rather than stop or even slow to explain to his brothers, he kept pace with Greer until they reached the stairs. He only fell back a couple steps then because as wide as they both were in the shoulders they would not have managed the stairs side by side. But he followed on his heels and was only a step behind him when Greer reached and opened the door to the master bedchamber. Both men skidded to a halt just inside the door, however, as their gazes found first the empty bed and then the two men sleeping in the chairs by the fire.
Greer released a string of curses then that would have had Alpin in an uproar. It also woke up the two men in the chairs.
"What's about?" Niels cried, lunging to his feet, one hand grabbing for his sword even as Conran did the same.
Greer ignored them and turned to head back downstairs, his only thought to find his wife. The fact that the men were sleeping and that Alpin too was missing from the bed told him that she had not been taken, but had somehow arranged their escape. Although he hadn't a clue how she had managed it, he was quite sure she was somehow behind the fact that both brothers were sleeping. They cared too much for her to have simply dozed off while they were supposed to have been guarding her.
"What's happened?" Dougall growled, pausing on the steps and turning sideways to let him pass when he reached the man.
"They've escaped," Greer snapped, hurrying past him and then Geordie too when the man made way.
"Who's escaped?" Geordie asked with confusion.
"Saidh and Alpin
, o' course. Who else would be wantin' to escape?" Dougall pointed out grimly and Greer glanced back to see that both men were now following him with Aulay, Niels and Conran on their heels, Aulay still bawling out the younger men for failing at guarding their sister.
Greer had just stepped off the stairs when an alarmed shout from the direction of the kitchens caught his ear. He turned and rushed through the swinging doors. The stillness in the hot and steamy room brought him up short as he entered. The kitchen was generally bustling with noise and activity, but now every servant stood as if frozen and the only sound was bubbling from the pot over the fire. Greer scanned the room and had just spotted Saidh across the room when someone crashed into his back. He stumbled under the impact, but then continued forward, moving more quickly the closer he got to his wife. Her hair was a wild mess about her pale face, blood trickled from a new wound on her forehead, and she was dressed in only her chemise.
"Greer," she cried with relief when she saw him approaching. But rather than rush to him, she began to drag something along the uneven stones of the kitchen floor. "Fetch Rory. We need him."
Greer glanced down with confusion to the sack she was dragging. Not a sack, he realized on examining the material. Her gown. Shaking his head, he asked, "What--?"
The question died on his lips as she stopped and released the edges of the gown she'd drawn up to form the makeshift sack and the cloth dropped, allowing a small pale arm to drop out between the folds to lie unmoving on the floor.
"Alpin?" he asked with dismay.
"Aye," she said as he bent to remove the cloth that now covered the boy. "He saved me."
Something in her voice gave him warning. Glancing up sharply, Greer saw her beginning to teeter and quickly straightened to catch her against his chest as she fainted.
Closing his eyes, he briefly pressed her close, then scooped her up in his arms and turned back the way he'd come, pausing when he saw that Dougall, Geordie, Niels, Conran and Aulay were all there.
"Aulay--" he began.
"I'll bring the boy," the eldest Buchanan assured him before he could ask. He then glanced to Geordie. "Go find Rory and tell him to bring his medicinals."
"Thank ye," Greer said grimly and carried his wife out of the kitchens.
Saidh opened her eyes sleepily and grimaced as she became aware of the low throbbing in her temple. Good Lord, she'd thought she'd got past that. Her head hadn't ached since the third day after she'd been shot and had fallen off her horse. Her back was throbbing something awful too, and she realized she was lying on her back.
