Taming the Wild Highlander 04 (25 page)

B
arely able to keep up with MacRae's long stride, she still attempted to pull free from his titan hold. His hand on her arm was bruising her skin. "What have you done to my brothers? My da?" she asked, her voice low with scorn.

"
They still search within the keep. 'Twas my luck that I happened to pass by the chamber when I heard your words concerning where my son had been taken."

"
We had naught to do with this." Edana understood how people would mistrust her words, but she had to make him understand.

"
How did you learn your brothers were here?" MacRae asked, taking her to a horse, not her own. He helped her into the saddle.

He hadn
't believed her.

"
In the same manner I heard your son speaking to me. My brothers called to me."

MacRae mounted his horse and a dozen men soon followed them.
"Someone must have talked in the village."

"
Nay. I began searching for them days ago when one of my brothers called out to me."

"
They were blindfolded. They didna know which castle they were being held in. Someone in the village had to have talked."

"
My brothers didna know where they were being held at first. Aye. But…then they did. I dinna know how. I didna ask my brothers when I was reunited with them, but finally one of them said—in my thoughts—it was
your
castle."

MacRae snorted as he led her away from the castle at a gallop and into the woods
, following a man with a torch. Several others carried them as well.

The sky had cleared, only a hint of cloud, but a full moon clung to the dark sky while stars twinkled like candles against the inkiness.

"Pol, where are you?"
she asked.

"
She is taking me along the river to where it narrows."

She told MacRae what his son had revealed.

"I dinna believe he is telling you these things. You must have known her plan," he growled at her.

"
How would I know what the woman planned? I have never met her!" Stubborn, goat-headed, impossible man. "Ask me something that I canna know. Something that mayhap only you and your son know," Edana said, as she ducked beneath a low hanging oak branch.

MacRae didn
't say anything for a while as they hurried as quickly as they could through the woods to reach the river. Then he finally said, "Ask him which girl he kissed yestereve."

"
How old is he?" Edana asked, thinking he sounded young and the notion he wasna shocked her.

"
He will be ten soon, but he is as precocious as I was at that age.
Ask him
."

The lad reminded her of her brothers at that age. Had Angus been the same way?
She took a deep breath and asked the question of Pol. He didn't answer her for the longest time, and she worried Oppida had injured him and he could not speak.

"
Well?" MacRae asked.

"
He isna saying anything."

"
I knew you couldna do as you said you could," MacRae snapped at her.

"
Ingrid was the girl's name,"
Pol said.
"Hurry! Oppida is dragging me across the river."

Edana quickly relayed the information to MacRae.

For a heartbeat, he stared at her as if he couldn't believe she could know such things. Then he cursed up a storm, spurred his horse on, and they finally bolted out of the woods. Only a few feet away, a frothing river plunged down the hill. The woman attempted to drag the boy across the river south of them, but because of her long skirts and the swift flow of the water, she wasn't making much headway. The boy struggled to return to shore, a torch clutched in his hand as he lighted their way. He tugged and threw her off balance.

R
edheaded like his father, he looked in their direction and saw them. His face was pale, but his eyes widened.

"
Da!"

One of MacRae
's men nocked an arrow. "Should I shoot her?"

"
Nay, mon. She could take the lad down with her and drown him as far out as she is," MacRae warned and kicked his horse to a gallop to reach the two of them.

With his men, Edana rode after MacRae
, not sure what she could do, wishing she could help in some way as she watched the frightened lad attempt to pull loose of the woman's tight grip.

The woman
's black hair streamed down her back, the strong breeze whipping some of it around her face. She turned and saw the men coming for her. She screamed. That's when Edana saw the
sgian dubh
in Oppida's free hand. That was why she wasn't carrying the torch. Her skin prickling, Edana feared she would use it on the boy, either to attempt to bargain with MacRae or to kill the lad if she thought she had no chance to live.

"
Fall into the water as if you have slipped,"
Edana told Pol.
"Oppida will either let go of you or fall with you and you can get free. Your da will save you."

Without hesitation,
Pol did as Edana told him, dropping into the water like a falling sapling. Only he doused the torch's flame and they could barely see him and Oppida in the black waters. Oppida nearly fell with him and lost her grip on his arm. She lunged forward to secure her hold on him to use him as a shield. But too late. MacRae struck with all his fury, sword slicing through the air, cutting her down. She screamed and sank into the water.

Edana quickly looked away as she tried
to reach the boy. MacRae's men all gathered around, some dismounting and running into the water, others riding into it as Edana had done.

"
Take my hand, Pol!" MacRae shouted.

T
he lad couldn't get to his feet and the water swept him down river. Edana and MacRae galloped after him, the other men soon joining them.

Her heart was beating so hard, she could hardly hear her shouts,
"Pol! We are coming!"

MacRae reached him first and l
eapt off his horse. He landed in the water with a splash. He seized Pol by the arm and pulled him into his embrace. The boy coughed and spit out water. "How clever of you to think of falling and wrenching free of the woman in such a manner, Pol," his father said with pride.

"
Edana told me to do it. She said you would save me."

MacRae turned slowly to s
ee Edana sitting on her mount nearby. Relieved and glad for the lad's safety, she smiled at him, wishing to scowl at his father. "Thank you for aiding my brothers," she said to Pol with all the gratitude she felt in her heart. But she hadn't wished another clan to know of her gift.

"
They were kind to me when Oppida wasna.
She
should have been in the dungeon and no' your brothers." Pol turned to look up at his da. "Will you marry Edana, Da? She is like me. She is bonny. Her brothers said she would be a good mother for me. And she would have bairns so I would have more brothers and sisters."

Her face feeling hot when the air proved so cold,
Edana would kill her brothers.

MacRae lifted his son on
to his horse, then joined him. "The lass is spoken for, son. Otherwise, I do believe I would have wed her." He cast a dark smile at her.

She frowned at MacRae. The lad was a charmer. The father was not.
She would
not
have married the man. Anyone who would be so taken in with Oppida's charms was not the man for her.

"
They said she has no husband," Pol insisted, as if he was ready to get this wedding between his father and her over and done with at once.

MacRae looked her over as if he finally saw her as a woman, and not an enemy of his clan.

"A man I knew in my youth came looking for me, Pol," Edana said, ignoring MacRae's sudden interest in her. "Before we discovered where my brothers were being held, I married him. So my brothers knew naught of the marriage." She didn't want the boy thinking her brothers had lied to him.

Wet and shivering,
Pol leaned back against his father. His father wrapped his arm around Pol's waist as he cantered alongside Edana, the lad looking disheartened. She felt badly for him and wished he could find a mother who would be good for him.

"
What about Oppida?" one of MacRae's men asked as they gathered about MacRae.

"
Bury her somewhere out there," he said, motioning to the woods, not looking back at the woman he had killed. He maneuvered back through the woods to the keep.

She imagined MacRae had some soul searching to do of his own, concerning how hi
s son could have died because MacRae had taken Oppida in.

Edana
hoped when they arrived at the keep that all hell had not broken loose if her brothers and father learned Angus and Drummond were being held prisoner and she had been forcibly removed from the chamber.

A man
carrying a torch rode into the woods to meet them, his brown eyes wide. "Fighting has broken out between our men and the Chattan and MacNeill."

"
Damnation," MacRae said. "Ride ahead and tell the men my son is safe and the other men had naught to do with Oppida's taking him. Edana is unharmed and will be returned shortly."

"
Aye."

Not about to wait, Edana urged her mount to gallop after the ma
n.

"
Edana!" MacRae shouted, but she ignored the chief.

If his men killed any of her kin or her husband, she would not be responsible for her own actions.

***

As soon as MacRae took off with Edana, Angus had fought as if he was on the battlefield
, protecting his brothers and his men. She was everything to him, and he wasn't about to lose her now.

"
He willna hurt her," one of MacRae's guards said, but Angus didn't trust MacRae. Not as angry as he was over his son and not when he thought Edana had something to do with Oppida taking the lad hostage.

Angus hit one of the men in the head
with his fist so hard, the guard stumbled and fell to his knees, turning his head back and forth, trying to shake off the blow.

Drummond was sitting on the bed, but as soon as he tried to stand, he collapsed
on the floor among the rushes and swore out loud.

Angus didn
't need his help, and the guards were leaving him alone. "Stay where you are, Drummond."

Angus ha
d just slammed his fist into the other guard's jaw when a commotion outside the chamber told him Tibold and the rest of his sons had returned to find the guards fighting with Angus, and others not allowing them entrance into the chamber.

Fists flew as the Chattan family fought with the MacRae men
until Kayne was able to knock out the man fighting Angus. Angus hurried to help Drummond back to bed.

"
Where is Edana?" Kayne asked, winded and furious.

"
MacRae took her, thinking we were in on the kidnapping of his son," Angus said.

"
How the hell did he come to that conclusion?" Kayne asked, looking confused.

"
She learned where the boy was—you know the way in which she does," Angus said.

Kayne swore under his breath.
"Can you stay and watch over my brother?"

"
God's knees, nay," Angus said, divesting one of the knocked-out guards of his sword. "The chief has taken my wife."

Kayne looked back at Drummond.
"Can you do without us?"

"
Aye, find Edana. Make sure she is safe," Drummond said, his eyelids drooping, his face red with fever.

"
Aye, we will return soon." Angus prayed they would be victorious in short order.

Kayne took the other g
uard's sword, and with his brothers and their da relieving the men in the corridor of their weapons and now duly armed, they headed for the stairs that led to the great hall.

Keary, who was with some of MacRae
's men, had not received word of what had happened concerning the boy either, as many continued to look for him inside the castle. He quickly joined Angus and the Chattan men.

Unlike them, he was still unarmed.
"What has happened?"

Seeing
the Chattan men and Angus with swords in hand, MacRae's men drew their own weapons, but none of them attacked.

"
MacRae believes Edana had something to do with Oppida taking his son," Angus told Keary, as he and the others with him stalked toward the door that led into the bailey. "He took her with him and they have gone to the river."

"
That is absurd!" Keary said, keeping pace with him.