Kyla was the first to leap into the water. She did so just as Aelfread shouted her warning, but 'Twas too late, by then she was discovering what the other woman was warning her of. The boat was deeper than she had realized and so was the water. Perhaps they'd skimmed a sand bar. Kyla released a startled cry as she found herself landing in waist-deep water. She had barely a moment to get over the shock of cold water up to her navel, when a second shout from Aelfread drew her attention. With her weight out of the boat, it had risen slightly in the water and slid off the sand. It was now drifting rapidly back out the way it had come.
Cursing, Kyla turned as swiftly as she could with her water-logged gown dragging at her and lunged at the boat, tugging on it to bring it back toward shore. It returned much more easily than she'd expected, sending her toppling backward in the water as it raced passed her and lodged itself in the sand once more.
Gasping at the shock of cold to her upper body now, as well, Kyla muttered a string of curses as she floundered toward the beach. By the time she reached shore, Aelfread had leapt to the sand with nary a drop of water on her and tugged the boat a safer distance up on land. Once that was accomplished, she turned and eyed Kyla, then burst into laughter as she slapped wetly out of the water.
When Kyla glared at her balefully, she tried to staunch her laughter, then shook her head. "I am sorry. 'Tis just that I never thought to hear ye speak such words, yer being a lady and all."
Flushing, Kyla shook her head, amusement tugging briefly at her lips until she gave in to it and grinned. "I learned them from my brother. He has quite a collection of words for such occasions."
Smiling, Aelfread propped her hands on her hips. "Well, ye'd best get out of yer dress and set it out to dry." Her gaze ran along the shoreline now and she frowned slightly. "Then we shall have to pull the boat further up the beach."
"Why?"
"The tide. 'Tis coming in."
"Now?" Kyla surveyed the water with dismay.
"Aye."
"But it will cover the entrance to the cave."
Aelfread nodded.
"But we shall be stuck here," she pointed out.
Aelfread smiled slightly at that. "For a bit, but we planned to have a picnic and mayhap a swim anyway."
"Oh, aye," Kyla murmured, the worry slipping from her face, only to be replaced a moment later by dismay. "Oh, hell!"
"What?"
"The bread." It was all she had to say. Understanding lit the other woman's face at once, followed by a groan of dismay.
"I daresay 'tis not just flat now," she said wryly. "I begin to think we weren't meant to eat bread this day."
"Aye," Kyla sighed.
"At least we still have the apples." The other woman dug them out of her bodice and Kyla laughed, then shook her head and turned her attention to undoing the laces of her gown.
Dropping the ripe, red apples into a pocket of her own gown, Aelfread left her to undress and turned away to explore the beach.
"Kyla!"
She had just stripped down to her under-tunic when Aelfread called her name. There was a worried sound to her voice. Setting her gown across the bow of the boat, Kyla turned and moved to join the other woman farther down the beach. Reaching her side, she peered down at the sand where Aelfread gestured, her eyes widening slightly as she took in the small bag lying on the ground before them.
"What is it?" Kyla asked, bending to pick it up.
"Someone has been here."
Raising her eyebrows at the fear-laden words, Kyla began to open the bag. "Mayhap whoever looks in on the boats dropped it when last checking on them."
"They check them at the beginning of the month. This is the middle."
"Mayhap they dropped it at the beginning of the month then and did not know where they had lost it," Kyla suggested with a shrug, then frowned. The bag had slid open to reveal oats inside.
"Nay."
Kyla glanced up at the quiver of fear in her voice.
"The tide reaches well past here when 'tis fully in. It would have taken the bag with it long ago. Someone has been here."
"And not long ago," Kyla murmured, picking out a handful of the dry flakes. Surely had the bag drifted onto the beach, the oats would be wet. That meant it had been dropped today...After high tide. Her gaze slid around the small beach now. "I do not see anyone."
"Do ye see the large tree against the cliff wall--Don't look," she hissed when Kyla started to peer past her. "I mean, try to look without appearing to." She waited a moment as Kyla nonchalantly ran her eyes over the length of the cliff wall again.
"Aye. What of it?"
"There is a cave behind it, half-hidden. 'Tis where they hide the boats," Aelfread informed her quietly.
"If 'tis only half hidden, someone could have found it."
"And be in there now," Aelfread agreed grimly.
"We'd better get back to the boat," Kyla suggested tensely. "Whoever dropped this may have left already, but 'twould be better to go back, admit what we planned to do, and have Galen send someone to check the cave." Sighing, she glanced back at the small bag she was clenching in her hand. "It may be nothing. It could have been one of the men earlier. You said yourself there is no way to scale this wall."
"Aye," Aelfread agreed, her gaze moving blindly over the water. "But I have a bad feeling." Her gaze snapped back to Kyla. "We mustn't make it obvious that we suspect anything. Ye head back to the boat and act as if yer simply going to stretch out yer dress. I'll follow. Be ready to jump in and push off quick."
"Mayhap you should head over to the boat first," Kyla suggested worriedly. "'Twill be harder for you to run if you have to in your full gown than it would be for me in my tunic."
"Aye, but I'm not the one they're after. I'm just your subject."
Kyla became indignant at that. "You are not a subject. You are the wife of one of my husband's best warriors. You are also my friend."
"Me lady, whether I work in the castle or simply live in the village, ye became me mistress the day ye married me clan chief and I swore an oath on me marriage to defend me laird and his kin with me life."
"What of your child's life?" Kyla argued stubbornly.
"The longer we stand here arguing, the longer we are vulnerable," Aelfread snapped. "'Sides, were it not for me we wouldn't be here. I'd never forgive myself should anything happen to ye. Now please...Please go to the boat."
Kyla glared at her briefly, then let her breath out on an exasperated sigh. "Fine, but I must say, Aelfread MacDonald, if my marriage does make you my subject, you are a poor one for daring to argue with me."
A small smile tugged at her lips despite the situation. "Aye, but then I never said I was a good subject," she murmured, then her smile slipped. "Go."
Reaching out, Kyla gave her hand a squeeze, then turned and headed calmly back toward the boat, swinging the small bag at her side in as nonchalant a manner as possible. She had only covered half the distance however, when she heard Aelfread's warning cry. Whirling in the sand, she saw the other woman running toward her, several men charging down from the trees after her.
Chapter Fifteen
"Run!"
The stark terror in the other woman's voice snapped Kyla out of the panic that had frozen her briefly to the spot. Letting the bag of oats slip from her hand, she spun back around and set out at a dead run.
It seemed to take forever to reach the boat. The harder she ran, the deeper her feet seemed to sink into the shifting sand, and the slower she seemed to go. Kyla was chanting a prayer under her breath as she moved--a prayer that got all jumbled with her apologies to God for sneaking about as she had done to come to this beach, and promises not to do so ever again. With each step she took, she expected to feel a hand grab her from behind or to be tumbled to the ground, but she made it to the boat unmolested. Once there, she did not even think, but gave the small vessel a sharp shove that sent it sliding back into the water, then caught it before it could go too far and glanced back toward Aelfread.
The other woman was still a good twenty paces away, her efforts to run hampered by her skirts as Kyla had feared. The men were gaining on her. Their long legs seemed to gobble up the distance twice as fast as Aelfread's smaller steps. The closest one would be on top of the woman in another moment, and Kyla began searching the ground frantically for something to throw at the man. A scream from Aelfread told her that she was too late. Glancing up, Kyla saw her falling beneath the weight of the first of their pursuers.
Cursing, she released the boat, grabbed the closest paddle off of it and charged forward. She lifted the oar over her shoulder in preparation to strike Aelfread's assailant, but the second man had reached the struggling pair on the ground by the time she arrived, and Kyla swung it at him instead. He went down like wheat before a sickle, but before she could bring the oar back to bear upon Aelfread's attacker, the third man shot forward to tackle her. His head down like a bull's, he slammed into her stomach, sending her crashing backward knocking the very wind from her.
"Kyla!"
She heard Aelfread call to her but had no air to respond. Rolling onto her side, she gasped for breath as the other woman shoved her captor away with disgust and crawled across the sand on her hands and knees to Kyla's side. Their captors stood, watching them silently.
"Are ye all right?" Aelfread asked, grabbing her shoulders and frowning worriedly as Kyla gasped desperately for air that simply did not seem to be there. "Calm," she soothed, brushing the hair back from her face. "Ye've had the breath knocked from ye. It'll come."
Kyla tried to nod, but could not stop gasping. Then the first small gust of air finally managed to force its way into her lungs, and she dropped back onto the sand with relief, dragging a second breath in as she did.
"Whist," Aelfread murmured, relief on her own face as she drew Kyla's head to rest in her lap while she recovered. Then her eyes froze over like the surface of a lake in the middle of winter and she raised her head to peer at the half-dozen men now surrounding them. "MacGregor, no doubt," she accused grimly.
"None other," the one who had tackled Kyla murmured, relaxing a bit as he saw that she had not been truly injured by his actions. "'Twas unexpectedly kind of you to present yourselves here for us to collect. We expected to have to wait for dark to paddle around to a much more accessible, but guarded beach, then slip about the keep until we found you. You have saved us a great deal of trouble."
A groan drew his gaze to the man Kyla had downed and he grimaced, then turned back to add, "Though 'twould have been kinder had you not brained my man, Jimmy, here."
"Ye are the MacGregor?"
Kyla understood the surprise in her friend's voice. This man hardly looked a brutal, villainous bastard. Neither did he sound or look like a Scot. His accent was most definitely English, as were the braies he wore in place of the customary Scottish plaid. His hair was blond, his skin fair, his figure slender and long, and his dress meticulous despite having tackled her. He looked like a courtier, she decided, easing slowly to a sitting position.
"At your service," he answered, giving a mocking bow. Then he arched an eyebrow. "Are you out on your own, ladies? Or is the MacDonald following?"
Both women shared a glance but remained silent.
"No, hmm?" he guessed. "Well, mayhap we should return to our little hiding spot anyway. Bring the boat," he ordered his men, then turned and started back up the beach again, leaving his men to deal with the women and their vessel.
"What do ye mean ye can't find them?" Galen stared at Tommy blankly, then frowned. "Did the men search everywhere?"
"Aye, me laird. Every last inch of the isle has been searched."
Galen was frowning over that when Lord Shropshire suddenly stepped closer, concern evident upon his face.
"Am I to understand that you have lost Lady Kyla?"
"Nay!" Galen snapped, then calmed enough to add, "She is most like out for a breath of fresh air. She doesn't like being cooped up too long."
"Or mayhap she fled when she learned I had come to the island," the Englishman murmured thoughtfully. Galen peered at him as if he were daft.
"Why the devil would she do that?"
"Why do you not tell me?" the man responded calmly.
Irritation suffused Galen at those cryptic words. "Yer talking riddles, man. She doesn't even ken yer here."
Shropshire raised his eyebrows at that. "You are sure she does not?"
"Aye, I'm sure. Now sit down and tend yer ale. I don't have time for yer games now." Galen waved him away as if he were a pesky child and turned to Tommy. "Did ye check Robbie's cottage?"
"I had the men check every cottage, me laird. They aren't on the island."
"They must have gone to the mainland," Angus suggested now, perplexity on his face even as he said it. "But why?"
"Aelfread wouldn't go to the mainland without telling me first," Robbie rumbled, then shook his head in disgust and frustration. "Hell, she wouldn't go anywhere without telling me."
"MacDonald," Shropshire began slowly after one of his own men leaned forward to murmur something to him.
"Not now, man. I needs must find me wife."
"Could the MacGregor have--" Duncan began, then paused when Galen turned sharply on him. Swallowing uncomfortably under his gaze, he shrugged. "Well, we knew he wouldn't take the loss of her without some type of retribution. Mayhap he stole her back."
"From me own room? Under our very noses?" Galen's expression became ferocious at the thought.
Tommy shook his head at that. "Nay. No one went up or down those stairs after I went above to fetch ye, Galen. We would have seen them."
There was silence at that as all the men glanced uncomfortably at each other, then Shropshire opened his mouth again as if to comment. Morag interrupted him.
"Well, 'tis either that someone snuck them out under yer noses, or they did so themselves." Frowning now, she shook her head. "I thought sure they had both just tired of being mollycoddled and had slipped out for a saunter on the beach. Kyla always took to a walk along the river when she felt down or stifled at home. But if they are not on the island...Yer sure ye've searched everywhere?"
Tommy stiffened at the suggestion that he had not done his job properly. "Of course. Every inch. Except for the cliff beach," he added suddenly, his gaze going questioningly to Galen who shook his head at once.
"Nay, I had not got around to showing her that yet," he murmured.
"Someone else may have told her. Aelfread, for instance," Duncan suggested. They all turned to Robbie who had sunk down at the table and was now staring morosely into the distance, misery on his face and fear in his heart. He could not get Duncan's words out of his head. What if the two women had been taken by the MacGregor? Aelfread was such a wee lass. And she was with child. She was also a mere wife of a clan member. It was bad enough what might be done to Kyla, but Aelfread didn't have a title to protect her. She could be abused horribly, her wee body passed around the MacGregor men for each to use--
"Robbie!" Galen had to shout the man's name three times to get his attention. Once his friend had snapped out of whatever fears had grabbed ahold of him, Galen asked, "Does Aelfread ken about the cave?"
The giant blinked at the question, slow to realize the reason behind it. Then the horror slid slowly from his mind, anger taking its place and spurring him to his feet. "Damn!" he roared, stomping toward the staircase, Galen and the others, even the messenger, on his heels. "I'll kill the sneaking little wench!"
"The tide'll be in," Tommy pointed out as they raced up the stairs, his words slowing both Robbie and Galen until they paused at the top.
"Aye," Galen murmured thoughtfully. "But it wouldn't have been in earlier when they went above stairs. Still, we won't be able to follow." He hesitated, then glanced to Gavin. "Gather some men and take search boats out to the cliff beach. We'll check to see if they are in the cave or if there is a boat missing, then wait for ye on shore." Grimacing, he added, "'Twill give Robbie and me a chance to
cool our tempers."
Nodding, Gavin turned away at once, descending the stairs and heading for the keep doors.
Galen did not wait to see him leave, but turned to lead the way up, pausing when he realized that Shropshire was following. "Ye'll have to stay here," he announced, then glanced to Duncan. "Keep him company." With that he continued up the stairs, to and through his chamber, to the tunnel entrance. Moments later he, Angus, Tommy, and Robbie were in the cavern, counting boats.
"Nine," Tommy murmured aloud as he finished counting.
"One is missing." Angus smiled with pride at that and Galen grimaced with disgust, deciding that his men's penchant for delighting in every little display of spirit or rebellion his wife now revealed was becoming most annoying.
"'Tis a shame," Robbie rumbled, bringing the other men's gazes to him curiously.
"Why?" Tommy finally asked.
"It means I shall have to kill Aelfread," he responded nonchalantly, then explained, "'Tis just punishment for this scare."
Galen bit back a smile and patted the man on the shoulder sympathetically. He'd had his own horrible demons chasing him for the past several minutes as he had considered the possibility that the MacGregor had his wife. He well understood his friend's odd behavior now. His own relief was making him giddy and in peril of saying or doing something incredibly foolish. That being the case, he thought it best he keep his mouth shut.
"Well..." Tommy shifted after a moment when they all simply stood there, contemplating the empty cavern. "I suppose we had best go down to the dock and await Gavin's return with them."
Heaving a sigh, Galen nodded and turned to lead the way to the steps, pausing abruptly when he spotted Duncan stepping into the cavern, the English lord directly on his heels. "What the Devil?"
"I ken ye wanted us to wait in the great hall," Duncan rushed out at once. "But I think ye'll be wanting to hear what Lord Shropshire has to say."
Pausing at the mouth of the cave, Kyla peered curiously at the MacGregor. He stood in the center of the small chamber, frowning over the other four boats that had already been crammed into the narrow space. It really wasn't much of a cave at all, from what she could see, just an eight-foot-square hole in the rock. With just the two boats Aelfread had told her the cave usually held, the space would have been snug, leaving a small area clear for someone to camp out should they be forced to during a storm. Now there were four boats leaning up against the walls. It left only a foot-wide and eight-foot-deep space for them to stand in.