Rowan's Lady (9 page)

But once they found the correct staircase and made
their way to the dark recesses of the castle, it took very little time to make
their way out and into the frigid stream. The water was quite cold, stinging
their feet and ankles.

It had been an unexpected change of plans.
Thankfully, Rowan had allies waiting on all sides of Blackthorn lands. They
waited until they were well within the forest before climbing out of the icy
water.

Rowan was quite proud of his daughter for she had
remained quiet throughout the entire ordeal. Even when he had stumbled on
slippery rocks and fell to his knees. Lily had gasped when the cold water hit
her feet and legs, but she did not cry out. Instead, she tightened her hold
around his neck and buried her face against him.

By the time they met with Caelen McDunnah and his
men, Lily’s teeth were chattering and she was trembling from head to toe. Rowan
removed her wet stockings, overdress and cloak before handing her up to Caelen.

Caelen was not accustomed to small children, but
he was not completely inept. He pulled a fur from the pack of his saddle and
wrapped the trembling child in it and pulled her into his chest.

“Och!” Caelen whispered to Lily. “We’ll have ye
warm soon enough, lassie.”

“Caelen,” Rowan began. “I leave me daughter in yer
care. We’ll no’ be far behind. Our men are expecting us on the other side of
the keep. We shall retrieve our horses and meet you at dawn, at the forests
west of
Tulach Cultraidh.

Lily chose that moment to find her voice. “Nay,
da! I want ye!” she exclaimed, trying to free herself from Caelen’s grip.

Rowan shushed her with a caress on her cheek.
“Lily, this be me verra good friend, Caelen. He’ll no’ let anythin’ happen to
ye, I promise.”

While he could not see his daughter’s face
clearly, he could hear the tears in her voice. “Are ye goin’ to get Lady
Arline?”

Rowan swallowed down the guilt he felt over
leaving Arline behind. At the time, he felt he had no choice in the matter. If
they had come for her and discovered both she and Lily missing then all hell
would have broken loose. Chances were good that he would either be heading to
Blackthorn’s dungeons or dead.

“Nay, lass,” he told her. “Lady Arline will be
fine though.”

“But da, she’s me angel! Just like I’m yer angel.”

Rowan knew exactly what his daughter meant. He had
told her time and time again that God had given her to him to watch over him
after Kate’s death. Lily apparently thought the same of Lady Arline.

“Da, ye must help her! If the mean man finds her,
he’ll hurt her again. He doesna like her, but I do. She would no’ let them hit
me again, da. Ye must get her!” Her words tumbled out, making it even more
difficult for Rowan to understand her. She was upset, crying, and begging for
him to help
her
angel, Lady Arline.

His guilt blended with his anger over the harsh
treatment of both the lady and his daughter. There was no time now to question
her. The hour was growing late and every moment they stayed here arguing, the
greater their risk of being caught.

Caelen thankfully interjected. “Little one, if ye
are quiet and good, I will come back fer yer lady meself.”

Rowan could have hugged him.

“Ye promise?” Lily asked.

“I do so promise,” Caelen said. He gave her no
time to question him further. He pulled rein and tapped the flanks of his
horse, quietly leading his men away from Rowan.

Before Garrick entered the chapel to exchange vows
with the woman he loved, his beautiful Ona, he pulled Gunther aside. They spoke
in hushed tones. To the untrained eye it would have appeared nothing more than
a harmless conversation between a laird and one of his men. The unsuspecting
observer might believe the laird was speaking about his soon-to-be bride, or
the upcoming winter.

But the shadow man knew better.

Years of training had taught him that things are
not always what they appear to be.

And spending the past three years inside
Blackthorn keep, earning his way up through Blackthorn’s army, had taught him
much. Garrick Blackthorn was cunning and devious. He was far more intelligent
than he lead others to believe. And he had a mean streak as long as the river
Tay.

The shadow man hid in plain sight. No one would
suspect him to be anything other than a devoted follower of Garrick Blackthorn.
He had made sure of that, even going so far as to show a strong dislike of the
laird’s wife; behavior that was strongly encouraged by the laird himself.

Garrick’s attitude and his mistreatment of Lady
Arline sickened the shadow man. There were many times when he had to stop
himself from running a sword through Garrick’s gut. Far too much was at stake
to allow his honor and his vow to protect the innocent, to get in the way of
the mission at hand.

The shadow man had felt confident that Lady Arline
would be safely away from Blackthorn keep before the rest of his mission was
put in place. But Garrick had surprised him by taking Rowan Graham’s daughter.
And Lady Arline’s actions the night they had returned with the child had
changed everything.

He should have known that Lady Arline would not
stand by and allow an innocent child to suffer. He should not have expected
anything less from her. Time and again the woman had proven she possessed a
sense of honor as strong as his own.

Were circumstances different, had he not made a
pledge and taken a vow ten years ago, he would have been sorely tempted to take
Lady Arline as a wife.

As far as he was concerned, Garrick Blackthorn was
nothing more than a spoiled brat in a man’s body. The fool did not know what a
good woman he had in Lady Arline.

He stood not far from Garrick now. Though he could
not hear the conversation he
could
read the man’s lips. A wave of anger
scraped across his skin when he saw Garrick’s intent.

If he did not move now, Lady Arline would not
leave the keep alive.

Being cast out of the castle in the middle of the
night, without escort or even the use of a horse, was not the most ideal
situation. However, Arline was grateful that she now had the freedom she had
been longing for this past year.

As soon as Lily and her rescuers were in the
hidden corridor, Arline scooted the trunk back against the wall and began
packing. There was no sense in trying to pack everything for she had no means
of transporting it. Once she settled somewhere, she could send for the things
she was leaving behind. Granted, her worldly possession only filled two trunks,
but still, they were hers.

Gunther’s words kept jumping to the forefront of
her thoughts. If she spent too much time thinking of highwaymen or other men of
that ilk, she would not be able to focus on the tasks at hand.

She grabbed a satchel and stuffed it with extra
woolens, a clean chemise and a spare dress. It would hold little else.

Each time she bent to retrieve something from her
trunk, it was a new adventure in pain. As she packed, she cursed Garrick
Blackthorn to the devil and wished him a very painful and agonizing death.
Arline knew it wasn’t very Christian like, but she didn’t care. The man did not
deserve her respect let alone any wishes of good fortune or health.

She took a pillow and tucked it under the blankets
to make it appear that Lily was asleep. She could only pray that if someone
entered the room, they would think the child was still abed. Arline also prayed
that they would not look for Lily until long after dawn.

Grabbing a cloth she took care in scrubbing the
dried blood from her chin. The cold water felt good against her swollen and
throbbing cheek. The pain when she raised her arms to lift off her bloody
nightdress nearly sent her to her knees. She swallowed hard and took deep
breaths in hopes of quelling the overwhelming sense of nausea.

She struggled, but managed to don a clean chemise,
heavy skirt and over dress. She had just slipped on her boots when her heart
leapt to her throat when the door to her room opened suddenly and without
warning.

Archie quickly closed the door behind him and
strode across the room. “Me lady,” he said with some urgency.

Arline shot to her feet, her fingers shaking, quite
fearful.

“We’ve no’ much time.”

Arline understood all too well that her life hung
precariously by a very thin thread. Archie didn’t need to explain that to her.

“Me lady, I need ye to listen verra carefully,”
Archie said as he grabbed the cloak from the end of her bed. “I’ve no’ much
time to explain, but ye have to trust me that I do mean to help ye.”

Arline stood quietly, curious as to what Archie
meant
and
why he felt this sudden urge to help her. Instinct warned her
not to trust this man. She took the cloak from him and wrapped it around her
shoulders.

“When ye leave the gates of the keep, I need ye to
take the road east. About a mile down, ye’ll come to a fork in the road. I need
ye to go right, me lady. I shall meet ye there before the sun rises.”

She could not resist the urge to ask him why he
was helping.

“Me lady, there be no time to explain it, but I do
need ye to trust me. I mean ye no harm.”

Arline had serious doubts as to his sincerity. Not
once in the year she had been here had Archie acted in any type of friendly
manner. If anything, he had been completely indifferent.

Archie grabbed her satchel and ushered her to the
door. “Pray tell, why should I trust ye?” she asked indignantly.

He stopped and turned to look at her. The
candlelight flickered in his hazel eyes as he appeared to do battle with some
inner dilemma.

“Do ye have Carlich’s box with ye?” he asked
quietly.

Arline’s eyes grew wide, stunned by his question.
Her mind raced as she tried to figure out how he knew of Carlich or his box. She
could think of only one other person who might know that she had kept that box
all of these years.

“Do ye, me lady?” His voice held an urgent tone to
it.

Arline nodded her head as a thousand questions ran
through her mind. The box was tucked safely into the pocket of her dress. In
it, a letter from Robert Stewart, a letter she would not use unless her life
was in danger from forces other than Garrick Blackthorn. That letter could not
protect her from Garrick, but it might, in the future, be a very useful tool.

Archie studied her for a moment before giving a
quick nod. “Good,” he said, sounding quite relieved as he guided her out of the
room. Her voice was lost as he lead her down the quiet corridors, torch lit
stairs, and out of the keep.

How could he know? Who is this man and why does
he wish to help me?
She had no answers. Very few people knew about
Carlich’s box. She searched her memory hoping to find Archie’s face somewhere
among the men who had been at Stirling Castle all those many years ago. Had he
been there? Had he been one of the witnesses?

It had been so long ago that, try as she might,
she could not place his face among those in the crowd. Arline doubted she would
recognize anyone, save for the brave MacDougall men who had helped her and
Robert Stewart.

Mutely, she decided to trust Archie, at least for
now. She allowed him to escort her from her room, down the stairs and out of
the keep.

She saw no one, save for the men who stood guard
along the walk wall, as Archie took her to the gates. She shivered, not so much
from the crisp night air, but from the fear that had wrapped itself around her.

“I shall meet ye before dawn, I swear it. I’ll
have the child with me.”

Panic welled. Archie did not know yet that Lily
was long gone and she did not think she could tell him. She would feign
ignorance for now, allowing Rowan and his men the time they needed to get as
far away from Blackthorn keep as they could.

There was no moon, but the courtyard was bright
enough, lit from the dozens of torches flickering in the late night breeze.
Archie whistled twice and a moment later, the heavy wooden gate began to open.

“Remember, me lady,” Archie whispered into her
ear. “the men in the shadows are always there fer ye.”

There was no way for her to hide the tremendous shock
she felt. The slightest bit of wind would have knocked her over. Archie gave
her arm a reassuring squeeze. “Wheesht, me lady,” he whispered. “I’ll meet ye
in the woods before the sun rises.”

And with that, he gently pushed her through the
gates, turned and walked away. There was no time to explain that Lily was
already safely away from the keep and no time to ask him any questions. Was he
one of the men, the silent and invisible protectors that Robert Stewart had
promised so long ago would always be there, watching over her? Or, did he
simply know of their existence? She had not thought of the Stewart or his
silent army in many years. Why hadn’t Archie made his presence known sooner?
She supposed there had been no need until this night.

For a year now, she had dreamt about the day she
would leave Blackthorn Castle. But traipsing down a rutted dirt road in the
middle of the night was not how she had imagined leaving. Cast out or not, she
was finally
free.
Arline knew she had to focus on that fact and that
fact alone, otherwise she would not make it to the fork in the road before
turning into a heap of babbling and fear-filled insanity.

Although the night air was cold and damp, tiny
beads of sweat covered her brow, the back of her neck and the palms of her
hands. It was the combination of tripping in the deep ruts and fear that made
her heart pound so ferociously and her skin feel so clammy. Still, she pushed
on. She had to. Freedom lay at the fork in road.

The men in the shadows are always there fer ye.
She ran Archie’s words over and over in her mind as she trudged onward. Could
he truly be one of the shadow men?