Stolen by the Highlander (19 page)

‘Margaret...’ he began to say. She put her hand up between them, forestalling him from speaking.

‘You have not told her, have you? You are more fool than I thought you to be,’ she said, shaking that same finger at him.

‘’Tis an impossible situation for us, Margaret. You know that. I know it and so does the lady.’

‘You let your duty stand between you so you do not have to take the step you should. And that’s even more reason to make sure she knows how you feel. Love does not come our way often and it is not something you give up, Brodie. Say the words. Let her leave and go to her duty knowing the truth in your heart, in spite of your stupid actions and pride.’

He shook his head and looked up at the sky in frustration. Until Margaret took his arm and tugged on it to gain his attention.

‘The words, Brodie. If I could have one moment to say them again to Conall, I would pay whatever price was asked.’ She looked away then and he knew tears were gathering. He’d so rarely seen this strong woman brought to tears that he was surprised. ‘Give her that much. So that in the dark days to come, she will have your words to hold close in her heart. So that she knows her gift to you was honoured.’

And the dark days were coming. For good or bad, he would step out of exile and present his evidence. There would be no grey, shadowed result—it would be black or white, good or bad, life or death. He nodded then.

‘I will think about your counsel, Margaret,’ he said. She cursed under her breath, but he thought she might have cursed the wee laddie as well as the rest of him, too. He turned to walk away and realised he’d not asked about Arabella. ‘How does she fare?’

‘Well,’ she said. ‘She fares well, which is more than you deserve to know.’

He walked off then with Margaret still speaking her mind. But he did hear the last thing she said before she stopped.

‘Do not wait, Brodie. There is little time.’

Brodie thought about her words, glad that Arabella was well after their passionate night. But later, as he finished his tasks for the day and sought refuge and sleep, he wondered just how much time there was for him and his quest.

The next day brought his answer...

No more.

Chapter Nineteen

A
s the sun rose, Arabella forced herself awake.

She’d sought the refuge of the smaller cave where they’d held Alan after Brodie discovered the truth, partly because of self-pity and partly because of embarrassment. But mostly because she was exhausted—heart, body and soul—and simply wanted to be alone.

After gathering together some blankets, she had added them to the pallet and then collapsed on them. There was not a place on her body that did not feel the strenuous use that had happened throughout the night before. Muscles deep in her legs ached. Her back protested. But those private places, untouched until hours ago, ached in a different way. The skin on the inside of her thighs bore the marks of his beard’s stubble. Her lips and breasts yet felt swollen.

But, even with all the physical pain and soreness, it could not match that in her heart.

She had not trusted him even to tell him the truth. In spite of knowing how dearly he held true to his word and his promises to her, she did not trust him to see to Alan’s safety. And she knew the exact moment he’d comprehended her ruse. She’d read it in his eyes and in his stance.

He probably did not even realise how he’d turned as though preparing for a blow, but she’d seen it. What past betrayals had prepared him for hers? Rob and Duncan saw it and it made them even angrier at her than they had been. When Brodie left, Rob had escorted her to this cave and left her without a word, but he’d practically glowed with the heat of his fury.

Some time later, hot water and soap had arrived, left at the opening to the cave by unseen hands without a word. Then Margaret had come with food. Arabella felt guilty since she knew the woman was always busy and she could have got it for herself, but Margaret had waved off her words of apology. She would not share the food she’d brought and instead simply watched Arabella’s every move and step. Finally, she’d just asked the question that hung there in the space between them.

‘Are you well, lady? Have you need of any remedy I can give you?’ Margaret’s gaze softened for a moment. ‘Or have you questions you might want to ask, having no kinswoman here to speak to?’

‘I am well enough, Margaret. My thanks for your concern.’ Then as the woman was leaving, Arabella just could not help but ask her own question. ‘Does everyone know?’

‘Aye. Everyone kens.’

Arabella could feel the heat of a blush filling her cheeks then. What must they all think of her? She pressed her hands to her cheeks to cool them.

‘Oh, about you and Brodie?’ Margaret asked. When she met the woman’s gaze, she saw the teasing there. ‘I thought you meant...’ Arabella shook her head.

‘Aye, my lady, we know about your cousin, as well.’

Margaret turned to leave once more, but Arabella had another question.

‘How does Brodie fare?’

‘He will be fine, when he is done being stupid.’

She smiled for the first time that day. So she was not the only one he exasperated.

‘I have known him all his life, him being Rob’s friend, and he is always willing to do for others. He puts his family first, even when he deserves that consideration,’ she explained. ‘And when he is being this stubborn, I want to smack him and tell him he is daft.’

Arabella could believe that Margaret was a woman who would do such a thing. Her father would never have stood for such behaviour from the women of the clan, or his daughter. But Brodie respected Margaret and her opinions and took the counsel of the women who’d escaped with him. He would make a good husband when he married.

The kind of husband she would like to have.

The pain of that realisation pierced her heart and she nearly gasped out loud. Luckily Margaret had turned to leave and did not seem to notice it.

The man who would be the perfect husband for her—if only he had not been the one to kill Malcolm. He’d been right in saying that her father would never accept a peace that included him. Her heart might have fallen to him, but her hand in marriage would not.

So, mayhap her actions which had pushed him away were for the best? He would never trust her again. She sighed and sat back down on the pallet once more.

With Margaret gone, Arabella had managed to sleep for several hours. She had woken to the sound of orders being called out and people passing by the cave carrying out those orders. Part of her had wanted to offer her help. The part that won knew she would be more of a distraction than a help so she had remained within, getting the rest she did not get the night before.

So, as the sun rose on this morn, she decided she must face the day and any repercussions to her actions—both those with Brodie and in helping Alan to get away. Pushing back the cocoon of blankets she’d fashioned, she stood up and shook out her gown. As she stood, her body protested once more, so she stretched tall to ease the tightness in her back and legs.

Although they would be busy with the preparations to move the camp that she could hear being ordered outside, there would be a cooking pot in the centre of the camp. She gathered her hair up into a braid, grabbed a length of plaid to use as a shawl in the cool air of morning and walked outside. Nodding to the guard who would now dog her every step, Arabella headed to the centre of the camp.

The reactions of those who met her gaze were varied. As Margaret had said, they all knew what had happened between her and Brodie. A mixture of curiosity, sympathy and knowing filled the eyes of those who looked at her. But some greeted her as she walked by, so that had not changed.

In the next moment, the somewhat organised chaos of the busy camp turned into mayhem.

Mounted warriors and more on foot flooded in from all sides. Their shouts blended with the screaming of men, women and children who fled their swinging swords. She pressed herself into a copse of trees and tried to find the safest way out. And then she saw one man on a horse pursuing Fia from behind.

Running out from her shadowed hiding place, she scrambled around the fighting and got to her first. Pulling the crying girl close, she ran to the nearest shelter and pushed her inside. Across the clearing, Arabella saw more children and women clustered in fear and not moving. Skirting the horses and the men, she ran to them. She heard Brodie’s voice calling out orders to his men and then saw him leading a group of his men against the invaders.

For a part of a moment their gazes connected across the camp. Her heart pounded in her chest at the way he stared.

‘Get to safety!’ he yelled, and the spell broke between them.

She grabbed the hands of two of the boys and called for the women to come. Ducking and running, stopping when they got too close to the warriors now engaged in battle, Arabella managed to get this small group to one of the caves. As she ran back to find Margaret, she heard her name being called and stopped to look.

A man bore down on her with his sword in hand. Just before he began to swing his sword down at her, he pulled up hard on the reins and brought his horse to a halt in front of her. Shielding her eyes from the spraying dirt sent into the air by the horse’s hooves, she stumbled and fell.

Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her to stand. Arabella then found herself face down over the saddle of a man’s legs. When she tried to push off, a strong hand on her back held her in place.

‘Have no fear, Lady Arabella. I will get you to safety. Be still!’

Through the confusion and screaming, the fighting and people running around below her, she could not tell the direction they travelled, but soon they were away from all of that and on the road leading down the mountain.

‘I cannot stop until we are safely away, lady,’ the rider warned her.

She heard the sound of a small group of riders massing along and around them and then nothing.

* * *

‘What do you mean she’s gone?’ Brodie asked as he ran towards the place where they were gathering the wounded. ‘I saw her taking the women to the caves.’

‘Aye, she did. Then she came back this way. Was she struck down?’ Rob asked.

A terrible fear pierced deep into him then. Had she been killed in this attack? They ran along the path, checking every injured person and not finding her. He called out for help when they found someone needing attention. Margaret and the other women were already helping.

‘Arabella!’ he called out as they made their way around.

Then he stopped and looked one more time across the clearing where he’d seen her.

‘The man took her.’ Brodie whirled around and found Bradana’s daughter there.

‘What man?’ he asked, crouching down to speak to her. Rob came to his side and waited.

‘The man on the horse. He grabbed her up and rode off there with the others,’ Fia said, pointing towards the path out of the camp. The girl winced as both he and Rob let loose several curses.

‘Go to your mother, Fia,’ he said, pushing the girl to where he could see Bradana working.

‘Ye will bring her back, Brodie? She looked scared. She didna want to go,’ the little girl said. He wanted to give his word, but he could not. Not right now.

‘Go to your mam now.’ She ran off as he said, but her sad eyes pleaded with him to follow Arabella. Then he turned to his friend. ‘Gather the men,’ he ordered. He knew the horses were safe so they could follow them.

‘Nay.’

Brodie turned to look at Rob. ‘Nay?’

‘Chasing them down the mountain is likely to end up with the lady’s death. We know the paths and trails, they do not. It will be a simple thing to ride off the cliffs near the turns. Is that what you want?’ When he did not answer quickly, Rob pushed it. ‘Well, do you?’

‘You know I do not.’

‘Stop for a minute and think about this. They were Mackintoshes from Caelan. They will return to Drumlui Keep. That’s where they’re taking her. Caelan wants her back.’

True. Caelan would take her back, if for nothing else than to prove he could best Brodie. But did he still plan to go through with his plot? To marry her and destroy the Camerons? If he wed her, and the betrothal yet stood as legal unless her father broke it, then he would control a fortune and be able to pay out the promised bribes.

‘And we know how to get into the keep.’

‘Aye, we do. But we cannot defeat all of them with the men we have. We’ve lost at least three just now and more are injured.’

‘Then our best weapon is our planning and stealth. That has kept us alive all these months. Do not play into his hand now.’

Brodie tried to bring his thoughts to clarity. Rob made sense. He nodded. ‘Our original plan but with a few changes. We need to get the others moving north, just as we planned. Then, once we have a better idea of how many can fight, we will know what we can do.’

* * *

They spent the rest of the day gathering up survivors, treating the injured and organising those who would leave in the morning. Just before they sought their night’s rest, Brodie called them together—men and women—to discuss their next step.

* * *

The next morning, after escorting those going to his uncle’s lands down to the road that would take them north, he waited until they were well away and then gathered those remaining and told them his true plan.

‘We do not have enough men to fight our way in or out of Drumlui Keep,’ he announced. ‘We have the proof we need but not enough of us to see it through.’

Rob cast him a dark look and Brodie shrugged.

‘We could...’ Rob began.

‘Nay. I will not be the one who orders you to your deaths. You have fought well at my side, for my quest.’

‘We didna fight for ye, Brodie. We fought for our families and our homes,’ Duncan said. ‘Well, we fought for ye also.’ A few laughs and chuckles echoed around them.

‘And now it is time to seek new homes with my uncle. Pledge your service and loyalty to him.’

‘What will ye do?’ Hamish asked. ‘Ye rescued the lady once. Will ye leave her to her fate now with that bloody bastard?’

Rob had been watching him closely and now stepped forward, arms crossed over his chest. ‘So what is your plan then, Brodie?’

Brodie had thought about this all night. Without enough men, he could never be successful in his challenge. Their conflict had already torn apart the Mackintoshes and split loyalties.

‘In order to put Grigor in the chieftain’s chair, we need to remove Caelan and destroy his right to hold that seat in the eyes of both our allies and our enemies.

‘The documents and evidence that’ve been gathered there—’ he stopped and pointed to the locked strongbox that sat next to him on the ground ‘—are part of it. The other part is getting the Camerons to agree to back this.’

The shouting he knew would erupt did, so he waited while they all called out their objections, some rational and calm and others seething mad. He said nothing, but only acknowledged their contributions, until everyone, even Margaret and the other women, had spoken their piece.

The lass had given him the only possible answer to this quandary when she’d said she would convince her father about Caelan. If Euan Cameron had not truly wanted peace, he would have broken the betrothal contract and attacked the Mackintoshes when his son was killed. That Lachlan had been able to work out a new truce and treaty spoke of The Cameron’s commitment to ending this feud, ending the relentless deaths and destruction.

Brodie planned to take advantage of knowing that when he approached Arabella’s father. If he lived long enough to actually speak to the man.

‘My plan is to go to Achnacarry and speak to Euan.’ At their shouts, he paused. ‘’Tis up to you whether or not you follow me.’ More shouts and objections. ‘I think the man wants peace. I think he wants his daughter back. I think he will help us.’

‘Before or after he guts you and hangs your innards from his wall?’ Rob said. Brodie walked to his friend and placed his hand on Rob’s shoulder.

‘That is where you will come and play your part. I will make my attempt and you and any who stand with us will wait outside Achnacarry with the proof that we have paid for with our blood and tears. If The Cameron agrees, we will attack Drumlui together to rescue Arabella and defeat Caelan.’