Highland Protector (25 page)

“Aye, ‘tis Simon. What are ye doing here, Wallace? Do ye ride with Henry in this treasonous folly?”

“I ride with Henry because his men hold my wife and bairn. They will kill them if Henry but says the word.”

“He cannae say it from here, can he? Nay without reducing what few fighting men he brought with him. And, with so many of the king’s soldiers about, Henry willnae risk being undermanned.”

“Then he will do it when he gets back to Lochancorrie or send that word when the fighting stops.”

“When the fighting stops, and my plan is to have as little fighting done as possible, Henry will be going nowhere but to the dungeons, a swift trial, and an execution.”

“Ye sound so certain of that. I want to believe ye, but, if ye were able to take Henry down, why havenae ye come home and done it?”

“I will explain that as I can. Just come with me. Yeken that Henry will ken that ye didnae follow your quarry as ye were told to. He will kill ye and then kill your wife and bairn at his leisure. If ye are standing with them, ye will die there. As I see it, ye have nay choices left to ye. Come with me.”

“Aye, for ye are right. I am dead nay matter what I do and all because I couldnae follow them, nay kenning that Henry wanted to hurt that wee bairn. I dinnae suppose ye will give me my knife back, eh?”

“Later, after we talk. For right now I mean to leave ye with a mon who guards my house. He can decide if ye should have a knife or nay. Heed him, for he is a skilled soldier, as most are who live to a great age.”

“Aye.” When they reached the door, Wallace paused and looked at Simon. “This will cost Lochancorrie dearly, aye?”

“I am doing my best to see that all Lochancorrie loses is its laird.”

“Then God be with ye, Sir Simon, for that will be the greatest blessing to befall the clan in years.”

Simon followed the guard down into the bowels of the castle. The damp chill of the place grew worse with every step he took and he knew the hard toll it could take on a body. Ilsabeth was so small, so delicate, and unused to such harsh conditions. Fevers lurked in these dark places, ones vicious enough to down a big, battle-hardened warrior. He had to get her out of here.

He was ready to ease his harsh rules for finding the guilty. Simon knew he could be too stern, too exacting. The many times he had seen the innocent pay while the guilty slipped free had made him so. He had more than enough to bring in Walter, Henry, and half a dozen others, all the important ones who had done all the planning and found the soldiers needed to back them up and fight the real battles for them. Simon was sure that his brother would fight any battle and do so with great enjoyment, but a lot of the others he had drawn into his plan were not great warriors.

And then there were ones like Wallace, who was pulled in because Henry needed fighters, threatened to fight a battle they knew was wrong. Or David, who had been trained from childhood to follow Walter wherever he led. Simon knew he had more than enough reasons to want Henry stopped but Wallace’s plight only added to that need. Even though he knew Henry was bad, he had been shocked to hear Wallace say his wife and child were being held hostage to his cooperation, but then had he not just hidden his own children away? Women and children were a weakness and Henry was never reluctant to use a weakness.

The guard nodded toward the cell Ilsabeth was in and then handed him a torch. Simon could not hide his surprise at this easing of the watch and the guard just smiled. “Gowan says she is a good wee lass and he thinks someone has done her a verra bad turn. This wee kindness is the best we can do. I will settle myself in back where I showed ye the wee guard post and ye come by when ye are done visiting.” He then handed Simon the key.

“Thank ye.”

“Oh, and tell her that wee potion she told me about worked on my son. He is already showing signs of getting better and we had thought we would be burying the wee lad soon.”

“Of course.” Simon watched the guard walk away and shook his head.

Ilsabeth could not even stay in a prison without reaching out to others. He could not believe he had ever been suspicious of her. He had grown cynical as well as unbending, he decided. It was to be expected for he often saw the worst people could be or do to each other. When one was surrounded by crime and deceit, one soon saw it everywhere.

Then again, he had believed in Wallace’s innocence quickly. Simon silently cursed. Wallace was not a beautiful woman who made him harden with lust with just a smile. It was apparent that he had also become very cynical about the innocence or honesty of women. Perhaps when this was all over, he would find the courage to swallow his pride and apologize to Ilsabeth for that because he knew his distrust had hurt her.

He stepped up to the cell and set the torch in the holder on the wall. “Ilsabeth?” he called softly as he unlocked the door.

Simon was just stepping into the cell when she flung herself into his arms. He felt her shaking and feared she had become ill already. He touched her forehead and cheeks but found no heat of a fever. He did find them wet with tears, however.

“Ilsabeth, love, what is wrong?”

“Walter came to see me and he brought a guest.”

“Who?” “Henry.”

“Nay, Henry has been banished from the court. That happened years ago and it was a banishment that made it verra clear he was not to come to court as long as this king ruled.” He thought about that for a moment and then cursed. “Damn. Ye dinnae think this is all about Henry’s stung vanity, do ye?”

“I dinnae ken but, Simon, if Henry is banished how did he get into the dungeons? How did Walter get him in? They had no guard with them.” She frowned. “Neither do ye.”

“I was given a gift because Gowan thinks ye have been wronged and the guard who brought me here thinks your potion saved his son.”

“Oh, I am so glad wee Alek is getting better.” She grabbed Simon by the hand and led him over to her tiny bed. “But listen, Simon, it was more than the fact that Henry should ne’er have been in here. He and Walter came in the wrong way. I havenae seen that many people come down here but even the guards come in the same way ye did. Walter and Henry came in from the opposite direction and left that way, too.”

Simon stared at her in shock. That shock caused her words to circle in his mind for a moment, unable to settle. This was a major breach in their defense of the king. Henry could have walked in any time he chose and slithered close to the king with little more opposition than the king’s personal guard. How had all of them missed such a thing? Even more important, who inside the keep had helped the enemy find it?

“God’s blood, this is what Morainn meant.”

“Morainn had a vision?”

“Aye, and she told me to get down here to see ye as ye had some important information. It was about this creeping into the dungeon. Those men ken a way to get in and out without being seen. Weel, I doubt they will come back today for they must have accomplished what they set out to do, but a guard will need to be set. I will look into that when I leave.”

Ilsabeth wrapped her arms around him and pressed her cheek against his chest. He smelled so clean she was suddenly, embarrassingly, aware of the fact that she did not. She started to pull away but he held her close and rubbed his cheek against her hair.

“Simon, I am verra dirty,” she protested, “and who kens what has crawled into my hair.”

“Ilsabeth, ye have only been here two days. Ye dinnae smell dirty at all.”

He kissed her on the neck and nipped gently at the tender skin there. Ilsabeth was so glad to have him with her but she knew she could not enjoy his company until she told him about Henry’s threats. She needed Simon’s assurances that the children were safe.

She leaned back in his arms until she could see his face. “Simon, just heed me for a moment. ‘Tis about your brother. He... he threatened the children.” She watched his eyes narrow and saw a glint of that anger Henry always brought into Simon’s eyes. “He told me that he kenned I had weaknesses and he kenned what they are. He said I should think on that ere I refused him.”

“Refused him what?”

“Ne’er mind that. He threatened the children. I wouldnae be surprised if he was threatening Old Bega and MacBean, too. He said I should think hard on those weaknesses and how he will use them to make me do what he wants e’en if it meant he got a wee bit of blood on his hands. But, the worse was that he said, ‘the sweetest blood is said to be that of the tender wee lasses. It runs smoothly and brightly o’er the hands.’ He meant Elen, Simon. He meant our wee sweet Elen. Ye have to get the children somewhere safe.”

He pulled her back into his arms and rubbed his hand up and down her back. “ ‘Tis done, love. They have been sent to Tormand and Morainn this verra night. Morainn saw the need for that, too. She didnae name a threat but when she says something about having to get the children to her now, ye do it.”

“Oh, thank God. I was so afraid. There was no one to tell, no one to come and take a message to ye.”

“In truth, Ilsabeth, ye sent me and Morainn a message.” He grinned when she looked at him in shock. “Aye, I was yanked out of a sound sleep and was trying to understand what had done that, but all I kenned for sure was that I had to get to ye and naught would get in my way. Peter came then and told me that one of our men was butchered in a way that is my brother’s favorite so I was distracted from that urgency for a while. A short while later Tormand arrived and said Morainn wanted me to get to ye now. He began to repeat what message Morainn had heard and I finished it, suddenly able to recall the words that had slapped me awake. I think ye yelled it out so loud it did get sent and ye didnae e’en have to write it down.”

“I might have a gift?”

She looked so delighted at the thought that he had to smile. Holding her close as he was, however, his thoughts swiftly wandered to how long it had been since he had last held her. The guard was being kind, but Simon was certain that the man would grow uneasy if he stayed with Ilsabeth for too long. He wanted, needed, to steal some of that time to love her, hold her, and savor the passion they shared. Try as he did to ignore it, a little voice in hismind kept warning him that what he shared with her might not last much longer.

“Shouldnae ye be trying to see where it was that Walter and Henry got in unseen?” Ilsabeth asked as Simon pushed her down onto the rough pallet.

“There is time to do that,” he replied as he started to slide his hand up beneath her skirts. “Right after I feed a hunger that has gone unfed for far too long.”

“Only two days,” she murmured, although she shared his hunger. “Far too long.”

“Ye mean to make love in a dungeon?”

“Aye.”

“The guard...”

“Handed me a torch and the key and told me to fetch him when our visit was over. Now, hush,” he whispered against her mouth, and then kissed her.

Ilsabeth hushed. She was hungry, too. She had missed Simon, missed the way his big, warm body curled around her as they slept. Most of all she had missed the way he made her feel safe. She was desperate to feel safe, even if only for the time she was in his arms. Safe and warm, she thought, even as she lost herself in his kiss.

It took only a kiss to cause their passion for each other to run wild. Simon was starved for her, but part of what had him so desperate to bury himself deep inside her was his fear for her, a fear that had been eating at him from the moment he had been told that Walter had taken her. Suddenly, his house was empty, his bed was empty, and, he realized, a large part of him was also empty without her. When he finally thrust inside her, he stilled, savoring the heat of her and a deep sense of belonging. “Simon?”

“It feels so good,” he whispered. “Aye, it does.”

Ilsabeth did not know how long she could wait for Simon to give her what her body was crying out for, however. It moved her that he found the way their bodies joined together so perfectly, the way that joining brought them close in so many ways, something to savor. Any other time she would savor it, too, be pleased with sharing a time that was both sensual and peaceful. This time she needed more; she needed fire and rough passion.

“I think today it might feel a wee bit better if ye moved,” she finally said.

Simon looked down at her and grinned as he slowly pulled back until he was nearly free of her body and then ever so slowly pushed back in as deep as he could go. “Like that?”

Ilsabeth looked at that grin and narrowed her eyes. Then she smiled and dragged her fingernails down his back, no longer afraid that she would hurt him. The first time she had done it in a moment of heightened passion he had shuddered as he did now and she had quickly apologized. Simon had explained to her that he needed the rougher touch, that the damage done by the whip Henry had so viciously wielded had made it difficult for him to feel a soft caress.

Now she took full advantage of the fact that he found her scratching his back intoxicating, relishing the fact that he felt anything at all. She did it once more and finally received the hard loving she needed. They raced toward that bliss she craved as one, and when he joined her in that release from a blinding need, their voices blending as they cried out from the force of it, she prayed she would soon be free to enjoy this as she had before Walter had dragged her away to this dark place.

Appreciating how long he held her close after their lovemaking, Ilsabeth made no complaint when he finally straightened their clothes and tugged her to her feet. “Time to go, aye?” she asked as he brushed a kiss over her mouth.

“Aye,” he replied. “Soon, Ilsabeth. I will have ye free of this place soon.”

He kissed her again and started toward the door, hesitating and sending her a tortured look when he realized he would have to lock her in. Ilsabeth walked over, pushed him out of her prison, and closed the door. He had to stop the men planning to kill the king and, in truth, with Henry still running free, she knew she was safer right where she was.

“Lock it, Simon,” she said. “I ken ye will solve this trouble soon and that my stay here will be a short one.” She leaned against the door as he locked it and then smiled at him. “And, I was just thinking that Henry cannae reach me here.” The expression that crossed his face and the way his eyes narrowed told her that that might not have been the wisest thing she had ever said.