Her mother looked similar—except she was taller and broader. But both wore gowns befitting royalty. Mayhap to impress James and his people?
When Eilis discretely looked away from James’s aunt and cousin, she saw Nesta speaking with three women, which garnered her immediate attention. She couldn’t be telling them what she’d seen transpire between Eilis and James. Could she?
The ladies turned to observe James and her, their eyes wide, brows raised. Eilis felt as if she’d been slaving over a cauldron of boiling beef all day. The women turned to talk to others and surprised expressions filled faces all along the table then small smiles accompanied the news. Before long, the word began spreading from table to table. Eilis was certain the news would cover the farthest reaches of the MacNeill’s land before everyone retired for the eve, that James was found half-naked with Eilis in the guest chamber, and he had undoubtedly bedded the lass.
If she could have enjoyed the experience at least that would be something, but to be innocent and presumed wanton… She glanced at James and found him enjoying his new notoriety. She quickly pulled her hand from his arm and sat at the head table beside him. Which thankfully blocked her view of Nighinn whose very glare threatened to slice Eilis in two.
“Who is she?” Nighinn spat.
The woman’s shrewish words were not the way to a man’s heart, Eilis thought.
“She is Eilis McLennan of Glen Affric.”
So James did not wish to let his cousin know she was a MacNeill also, although she was not truly one of his distant kin, she didn’t think.
“What is she doing here?”
“Visiting much the same as you are, Nighinn.” He buttered a slice of bread and smiled at Eilis.
But she couldn’t shake loose the notion that the days would progress badly if his cousin stayed here for very long.
“She looks pale and thin. She is not ill, is she?” Nighinn asked, her voice haughty.
James glanced at Eilis and quirked a brow, his mouth turning up at the same time. “Nay, her cheeks are quite rosy.”
“A fever?” Nighinn quickly responded, implying Eilis should be whisked away from the table at once.
He smiled at Eilis, and aye, the feverish way her body felt grew even hotter. But then her embarrassment turned to anger that the ruddy-cheeked cousin would attempt to intimidate her. Eilis would leave before long, but she could play His Lairdship’s game just fine.
James reached for his goblet, and Eilis touched his hand with a tender caress. “’Twas kind of you to take care of me when I became indisposed.”
His brows shot up at her forwardness in front of his people. But then a sinister glint appeared in his dark eyes. He leaned over, and his mead-flavored breath caressed her ear. “You will not leave here until I command it, lass. I am verra well aware of your maneuvers.”
Not expecting that kind of a response, she scowled back at him.
He took her hand and pressed his lips to the tender skin at her wrist, making her breath hitch. He would be just like his father, she imagined, taking a wife, leaving her with a castle full of heirs, but finding his pleasure in other women’s arms at night.
“Your thoughts, Eilis?” he asked for her ears only.
She took a deep breath. “Nesta will have told all your people what she saw.”
“Nay,” he said, with a devilish smirk.
“Aye. She has already told the ladies closest to her, and the word is spreading.”
Nesta was again speaking at the lower table to one of the women while two others leaned in to hear what she had to say. Eilis imagined ‘twas not good. The women sitting close to Nesta had wide-eyed expressions as they shot looks James’s and Eilis’s way. What more could Nesta be saying? ‘Twas Eilis’s misfortune that Nesta had come to serve her at such an inopportune time.
James patted Eilis’s hand, which did not go unnoticed by many of James’s people. “Nesta is a great weaver of tales. I assure you, she will elaborate much more, and the story will grow into an epic tale.”
Groaning inwardly, Eilis drank several gulps of her mead. “You are trying to shame me.”
“I am not the one who barged into your chamber whilst you were naked, lass. When you fainted, what choice had I but to catch you and carry you back to your bed? Of course, I donned my plaid before I woke you, worried that had I not worn it, you might faint again.” He grinned as the heat returned to her face. “Did you like what you saw?”
She tried to gather her composure to appear unaffected, although the way her cheeks burned, her efforts were in vain. “I have naught to compare you with. I imagine every man is the same as any other.”
James laughed out loud.
Nighinn leaned over to James and said something Eilis didn’t hear, but it was Eanruig’s arrival that caused her heart to stand still. He looked at James, nodded then smiled at Eilis with smug satisfaction.
In that instant, she knew he had found out who she was, and although she wanted to bolt, James must have surmised as much and clamped his hand around her wrist.
“Appears we may have some news, lass. Mayhap even good.”
She knew deep in her heart the news could not be good. She felt it with the tightening of her muscles, with the skittering of her heart, and the way her mind sorted through options. Escape remained the only alternative to her way of thinking.
But for now, she stiffened her back, waiting to hear who she was and dreaded learning the truth.
****
Dougald MacNeill drank some more of the wormy gruel, knowing he needed any sustenance he could get if he was to keep his strength in the Dunbarton’s dungeon and ultimately make his escape. He had no intention of being bartered for ransom.
The dark, dank place smelled of human waste, although Dougald thought he was becoming accustomed to the stench because it didn’t seem quite so odorous. Now that his eye was less swollen and his head pained him a wee bit less, he considered his surroundings.
Groundwater seeped through the stone walls covered in green moss, and the air was cold and damp. Chill bumps covered his bare skin. A sliver of light from a barred window high above and the torches flickering in the hall outside the cell kept the tiny room shadowed in gloom. He devoured the rest of his gruel, angered that a battle-hardened warrior and not a sweet lassie had delivered the putrid tasting stuff.
“Have you come up with a plan yet?” Gunnolf grumbled from his cell across the hall. “I will be laid to waste if I have to endure another bowl of this slop.”
“I am still attempting to remove the chains from my—”
The door creaked open down the hall, and Dougald waited, the tension building in his muscles as he prepared himself to spring on anyone who might get near him. If he didn’t attempt escape soon, he feared he’d be too weak.
The telltale light footfalls of a lassie taking one step, then another, made him smile. And he knew Gunnolf would be grinning his fool head off.
When the small lass finally appeared before Dougald’s cell, he swore a golden halo radiated above her dark curls. Wearing a brown woolen kirtle, she looked like she served on Dunbarton’s staff. But doe-like eyes betrayed fear and intrigue.
“Lass,” he whispered, hoping his voice would shake her from the way her dark eyes devoured his nakedness.
Her eyes shot up, caught his, then her hands shook as she fumbled with a key in the lock. She trembled so hard, he feared she’d never get the lock open before she was caught. But then as if deciding it was now or never, she managed, yanked the lock free, and rushed across the floor to join him. She attempted to unlock the manacles around his wrists and ankles, her hands shaking just as hard as before while her silky hair tickled his chest.
Slightly built, pretty of face, and smelling of sweet waters, the maid was truly a heavenly apparition.
Once she freed him, he tossed the chains aside and took her wrist, then led her to Gunnolf’s cell in a rush. But she shook her head. “Not him.”
“Aye. He will come with me.
I will not leave him behind.” Dougald took the keys from her and freed his friend. “What is the plan, lass?” At least he hoped she had a plan if she’d made it this far without being stopped.
“I will lead you out of the castle while Laird Dunbarton is having a grand feast in celebrating your capture. But I can do no more for you. You will have a long way to travel on foot.”
“Without clothes or weapons?” Dougald asked.
She looked up from his nudity and pointed to a bundle on the floor. “Some of the servants’ clothes. They are not much but will have to do.”
They grabbed the bundle of the mended and tattered woolen garments and shoved them on while the lass watched for signs of trouble.
“What about the guards?”
“Sleeping. I know a potion or two.”
“Your name, lass?”
“Allison,” she said. “Speak not from here on out. We must be silent.”
Dougald kept feeling it was some kind of trick, and the shared look Gunnolf gave him assured him he felt as uneasy. But no one gave them a second glance while busily imbibing ale, laughing and joking about capturing the MacNeill and Viking as Dougald, Gunnolf, and the lass hastened out of the keep into the inner bailey. They quickly made their way to the outer bailey, and once they were beyond the curtain wall, he and Gunnolf were free men. He glanced over his shoulder, but before he could thank the lass, Allison had disappeared back inside.
Not wanting to alert anyone, they stalked through the grass, wanting to run, but quelling the urge as they made their way west toward Castle Craigly. In the distance, the ancient forest loomed and would provide them relative safety if they could reach it in time. With a lot of luck, they would arrive on the MacNeill land by midday tomorrow.
Shouts from the wall walk made Dougald’s heart race even harder. Forced to sprint for the forest, he prayed they had not been sighted so soon and that the agitated yelling was for some other reason having naught to do with Dougald and Gunnolf’s escape.
Chapter Nine
Had Eanruig located the woman in Glen Affric acquainted with Eilis or not? James assumed he had by the satisfied smile he had cast Eilisa while they were seated at the table, eating their meal.
Eanruig crossed the hall to stand beside James and glanced in Eilis’s direction, then said to James, “My laird, may I have a word with you in private? I have some information, but...”
‘Twas not good, he surmised from the disturbed tone of Eanruig’s voice. James rose from his chair. “Continue with your meal,” he said to his people.
His muscles rippling with tension, James stalked out of the hall with Eanruig by his side.
“What did you find?” James asked, barely able to suppress his anxiousness.
“I believe I have found a young woman who knows the lass.”
James narrowed his eyes. “You believe?”
“Aye. A woman named Fia denied she knew her. Fia is the niece of a woman who married one of my cousins. She is around Eilis’s age but dark haired and eyed and doesn’t look at all like Eilis. I had hoped they were related, but I was afraid to ask too many questions just as you had warned.”
James raised his brows. “And?”
Eanruig cleared his throat. “Fia grew flustered, as if she were lying. She was clearly distraught, and I am sure she is the one I saw with Eilis last summer. When I first questioned Fia, she seemed reluctant to speak of her. But when I mentioned the shipwreck and how we had rescued the lady, the lass seemed overjoyed. Her expression quickly changed, and again she denied knowing her.”
“I want her brought here. We will see if she can continue this mockery when the two women are reunited.”
“But how will I be able to convince her da the woman should be allowed to come here, my laird?”
“Is the lass married?”
“Nay, and not betrothed either.”
“Tell Fia’s da I wish to consider her as a bride choice. Not that I want to give the lady false hope or that I would be interested, but I must know who Eilis truly is.”
“Aye, my laird. I will send an escort for her right away.”
James motioned to a servant. “Bring a meal for both Eanruig and me to my solar.”
“Aye, my lord.” The man rushed off to the kitchen.
“What news have you of my brothers?” James asked, unable to wait to hear the news in the privacy of his solar, although there was no one about as most were at the meal.
He and Eanruig headed up the stairs.
“Angus was injured in a fight with some of Robert Curthose’s men, but his injuries will heal, and he will have use of his sword arm before long.”
James sat down at his desk in the small room and motioned to another chair. “And the others?” Although the news about Angus was not the best, he gathered from Eanruig’s furrowed brow it was not the worst.
“Malcolm married Lady Anice.”
James closed his gaping mouth. “My brother has a death wish? I release my brothers from my service to find English brides and what does Malcolm do? He marries a Scottish lady, ward of King Henry I, who wishes her wed to one of his Norman barons? Here I have my own battles to fight, and now I will have to take up arms against the English king to save my brother’s neck? Whatever possessed him to do such a foolhardy thing?”
“He would not give me the details, but he did receive King Henry’s permission, after the fact.”
Unable to believe it, James stared at his seneschal. In all the years he’d protected Malcolm and his brother had done the same for him, not once had Malcolm acted in any manner, well, rash, when it came to dealing with a woman. He’d had his share of lovely lasses, aye, but to lose his head over King Henry’s ward and then claim her before getting the sovereign’s permission?
“God’s teeth, I did not think Malcolm had it in him! This calls for a celebration, although my mother will be furious to learn of this when she was not invited to the wedding. And why is Malcolm not here to assist me? Lady Anice has already shackled him to her wedding bed?” He smiled at the thought. Not such a bad reason at that if he had Catriona in his own.
“She has had some trouble with a Laird Robertson, and Malcolm did not wish to leave her alone until he dealt with the matter.”
Servants carried in trays of food, and James seized the mug of mead and took a swig. After dismissing the servants, James turned his attention to Eanruig. “You have not told me about Dougald.”
“Nay, my laird. Both he and Gunnolf should have arrived here already.”
A sickening feeling swamped him, yet, James couldn’t believe his brother and Gunnolf could be dead. He would not believe it. He slammed down his mug. “Get as many men together as we can. We search for my brother and Gunnolf at once.”
****
Eilis couldn’t eat a bite of her food when James and Eanruig returned to the great hall. Everyone watched their laird as concerned as she was.
James leaned over to whisper something in his mother’s ear then kissed her cheek. He glanced at Eilis, but he hid his feelings well, and she couldn’t tell what the matter was. Then he stalked out of the hall while Eanruig spread the word about the trouble. All the men began rising from their benches and followed James out of the hall, like sheep following their sheepherder, only they looked ready to do battle with some unseen force.
Dunbarton’s men again?
Lady Beatrice was speaking to Lady Akira about the matter, Eilis was certain, but she couldn’t hear their words. At first, Nighinn listened to her mother and Lady Akira’s conversation but then she turned to Eilis and gave her an icy glower.
“Ye are not from a clan James is considering to tie with his own through marriage.”
Eilis didn’t intend to respond, but Lady Akira was closely watching Nighinn. As if she feared Eilis might say the wrong thing and ruin the charade, Lady Akira abruptly rose from her chair and ended the meal.
Which, considering most of the men had left and the women were in a tither over the matter, was ju
st as well. Besides, Eilis was grateful she didn’t have to contend with James’s cousin for a moment longer.
But the best news was Tavia was nowhere in sight, and Eilis assumed the healer was still with the lady who needed her help in delivering her bairn. Even Fergus had left with James, and it appeared Eilis finally had a means of escape.
But Lady Akira motioned to Nesta, and when the maid joined her, she said, “Stay with Eilis.”
“Aye, my lady.”
Och, of all the women to serve Eilis, why the woman who wove the greatest tales? Still, there were no men sent to guard Eilis and…
His expression concerned, Niall reappeared and crossed the hall to join them. Before he even spoke a word, Eilis’s heart sank.
He said to his aunt, “James asked me to stay and take charge here in his absence.” He glanced at Eilis, and she knew he meant to foil her plot.
“Aye. See that Eilis is taken to her chamber. I hear she became indisposed earlier, and she must rest further.” Lady Akira’s dark eyes studied Eilis.
She couldn’t discern how his mother felt about Nesta’s accusations.
As kind as she’d been in taking Eilis in, she hoped the lady was not too perturbed with her. Lady Akira, Lady Beatrice, and Nighinn hurried off, while Niall, his mouth turned up slightly, his dark eyes even darker, escorted Eilis back to her chamber. Nesta trailed behind them.
“I believe,” Niall said, his words lowered for Eilis’s hearing only, “Lady Catriona is already too late in coming.” A devilish lift to his lips and a glint in his eyes indicated his amusement.
She was much relieved he made the comment only for her, because she knew if Nesta had caught his words, the tale would be all over the castle by morn. Eilis worried about the way Niall spoke low to her, his mouth a hair’s breadth away from her ear. What if Nesta would make something more of their relationship also?
“You think Nighinn has caught His Lairdship’s eye?” Eilis asked demurely.
Niall gave a short laugh. “Playing the innocent does not become you, dear lass.”