“Eilis…”
“Oh, James, what are we to do?”
Broc snorted. “I have accepted James’s bride price for you on my da’s behalf, Eilis.” He shrugged. “’Twas a much better offer than Dunbarton’s. And since you are not Agnes, the betrothal was no longer valid.”
Broc was standing up for her?
“My men and I will fight alongside MacNeill.” Broc inclined his head.
Stunned speechless, Eilis glanced at James to see if what Broc said was true. James gave her a small nod.
Ian hurried over from the table where he’d been sitting beside Keary and spoke in private to James. Eilis strained to hear his words and picked up bits of the conversation—plan, fight, free Dougald. What had Keary in mind?
But would it be a ruse? To kill more of the MacNeill? Was Dunbarton’s bastard son trying for a way to smooth over past difficulties with his sire?
James rose from the table and offered a toast. “To my bonny wife, Lady Eilis, also known as Marsali, pearl of the sea.”
Everyone drank to the couple except for Catriona. Had she been the one to send a missive to Dunbarton, stating his betrothed was at Craigly?
“’Tis usual that the festivities continue throughout the day. But we have other matters that must be dealt with at present. Afterwards, we will continue the feasting in celebration,” James said to his people and his guests.
“What do you plan to do?” Eilis asked James, as he escorted her out of the hall.
“Worry not your bonny head, Eilis. Stay with Ethan and my mother and Fia. ‘Tis time I fetched my brother home.”
“What if ‘tis a trick? What if Keary has sent word and his da plans to kill or capture you?”
“There is no other way, sweeting. Now that Dunbarton thinks you are Agnes or not and wishes you just the same, I have no choice. He will not release my brother or Gunnolf until I hand you over to him.”
“But…”
“No more worries. Stay here. I will return before nightfall, and we will continue to celebrate our new beginning.” He kissed her soundly and hugged her tightly against his chest.
She quashed the tears threatening to spill.
“Now, now, my lady. You are to send your hero off with smiles and well wishes.”
She smiled, but the tears began to roll down her cheeks anyway, and she hurriedly wiped them away. “I am sorry.” She looked down, wishing to avoid seeing James’s annoyance that she could not be cheerful for him when he went into battle.
He lifted her chin and gave her a wistful smile. “’Tis your tender heartedness that I love best. Take care of your wee brother, and I will return as soon as I can.” Again, he kissed her, hugged the breath out of her, and then hurried with his men to the inner bailey, discussing their plans for the battle ahead.
What if she lost her Highland hero now, when they finally found each other, and she had a home, a mother, and her little brother to raise in a place where he would be loved and not terrorized into submission?
Tears filled her eyes again. How could she survive?
Chapter Twenty
Ever since James had left to do battle with Dunbarton, Eilis couldn’t hide her upset, and, although she tried to spend sometime with Ethan, her brother was too excited about playing with his new found friends below stairs.
Lady Akira had ordered a hot bath for her to help her to relax. James’s mother had warned Eilis ‘twould not do well for her to fret too much when she might be carrying James’s child.
Eilis had never heard that worry could cause a woman to lose her baby, but she obeyed, since the lady had four sons and would know more than Eilis would about the matter. Ethan was having a great time playing with wooden swords with some of James’s kinsmen’s sons in the great hall while Fia watched with a protective eye.
Catriona had packed her bags and left with her servants and escort, vowing to ruin Eilis in any way that she could for deceitfully stealing James under her nose. Nesta was busy talking nonstop as she usually did and despite the worry about James, the heated bath and not enough sleep was making Eilis drowsy.
Until Lady Allison came to the room and dismissed Nesta. “I will help the lady dress for bed. Go, Nesta. I can manage.”
Nesta didn’t immediately leave like she’d been ordered but waited instead for Eilis’s word. “Thank you, Nesta. Mayhap you can bring me some goat milk later?”
Nesta smiled and curtseyed. “Aye, my lady.” Then she hurried out of the room.
“Hurry, Lady Eilis. You must get dressed at once,” Allison said, helping her out of the tub then hurried to dry her off.
“What is this all about?” Eilis sensed some mischief was at play, and her skin prickled with fresh concern. With Allison’s help, she quickly donned her shift, a traveling gown, and her stockings and shoes.
“We go to Dunbarton’s castle. I will get us in, and while the men are causing a distraction, we will free Dougald and Gunnolf.”
“But I thought Keary was helping James to get into the castle and free Dougald. And that you could not get in again without getting caught.”
“Keary is not to be trusted. Aye, he wishes to overthrow his da and become the clan chief. But he does not wish to release James’s brother. He will turn on James as soon as he has his da’s people’s support. He was the one who sent the missive to his da concerning you and how James was holding you here against his will. As for the rest, as I said, Laird James and those who rode with him will be enough of a distraction.”
“But how will you and I be able to slip in and free the men?”
“I told you. I was raised there. I know all the ways in and out. Also, I know the best way to get there from here. They say you slipped out of here without alerting the guards. We will have to use the same secret passage you used before. Since I’m not part of the MacNeill family, I do not know the secret passage.”
“But Tavia had the keys to the door that leads out of the castle. It would be locked.”
Allison pulled the key from the pouch hanging from her belt. “Let us leave before we are too late.”
“But…why do you need my help?”
“The secret passage? I don’t know the way. But also, I cannot take anyone else with me, and the two of us will be able to watch each other’s backs.”
“Should we not have an escort? At night, we would not be safe—”
“We cannot take an escort, Lady Eilis. No one will allow us to leave. And I tried speaking to Niall, but he brushed me off. I fear no one will trust my words, despite that I have freed Dougald and Gunnolf at my own peril once already. The men are bull-headed and have only one thing in mind—a frontal assault. Come, hurry, my lady. We are wasting verra valuable time.”
With a wariness that she had felt when Nighinn helped her escape, Eilis pulled her own cloak over her head this time and fastened the silver brooch, hoping she would not regret yet another hasty decision. Yet what if she and Allison could free Dougald and Gunnolf without any bloodshed? ‘Twas worth taking the chance.
She had to know Allison’s motivation though. “Why do you do this, risking your own life?”
Allison let out her breath. “Lady Akira took me in, has given me a home, and has been verra kind. I saw the way Dunbarton’s men treated Dougald and Gunnolf when they first captured them. I could not sleep for knowing how brutal Dunbarton and his men could be. And when he learns James will not give you up no matter what, he will kill them. If we can get to Dougald and Gunnolf first…” She spread her hands. “I can think of no other way.”
She sounded as desperate as Eilis felt. “All right. But James will have my head no matter what the outcome.”
Eilis and Allison shoved the chest aside that hid the trap door into the secret maze beneath the castle. Her hair still wet from bathing, she shivered as they entered the bowels of the maze.
If Allison was right about this and Eilis believed with all her heart that as soon as Dunbarton learned James had wed her, he would have James’s brother a
nd the Viking murdered before James and his men could breach the castle, she had to do her part to help. She just had to. Dougald was as much a brother as Ethan was to her now, and he’d saved her life. But the pounding of her heart and her quickened icy breath in the chilled air beneath the castle warned her she might be the pawn in a dangerous scenario. Still, if she could help James and his brother, she would do anything.
But who to trust? Keary? Or Allison? Mayhap neither.
****
Dougald struggled with the manacles around his wrists, clanking the metal from time to time.
“Any luck?” Gunnolf asked from his cell beyond.
“Nay. You?”
“Not me either. Think you another sweet lassie will come to free us?”
“Nay, ‘twould be too dangerous for any to try again.”
Gunnolf shifted on his straw. “Think you the guard was telling the truth when he said that James had taken Keary hostage and offered him in exchange for us?”
“Aye.”
“But there has been no release.”
“No doubt Dunbarton still refuses to acknowledge his bastard son.”
“You would think since he cannot seem to have one by a legitimate wife, he would acknowledge one of his bastard sons.”
“Aye. Think you James has Dunbarton’s betrothed hidden away at Craigly?”
Gunnolf snorted. “Nay. Your brother would not do something so underhanded as that. Dunbarton lies.”
Running feet headed out of the dungeon, and Dougald sat up and tried to discern what was happening. “There is commotion abovestairs. Think James is coming to our rescue?”
****
When Eilis and Allison arrived at Dunbarton’s castle, the place was quiet. Guards walked along the wall walk while Allison guided Eilis to the south side of the castle. Eilis assumed James and his men had not arrived yet because Allison had learned a more direct route in all her travels back and forth between the two places.
“’Tis an escape route much like the one James has leading out of his chamber,” Allison whispered.
“So we will be slipping into Dunbarton’s chamber?” Eilis didn’t like the plan. She had thought they’d be going straight to the dungeon beneath the castle and lead Dougald and Gunnolf out that way. Traveling all the way through the castle to the dungeon and out again, och, how could they manage without getting caught?
Allison lighted a candle, and they traversed the maze of tunnels, but she snuffed the candle out when they reached a small wooden door.
Eilis’s stomach flip-flopped, and she feared her heart beat so loud, everyone in the castle would hear it.
Allison took her hand and led her into the chamber, the only light, one beyond the door leading into the rest of the castle. “Dunbarton’s chamber,” Allison whispered.
In the chamber of the devil himself. If he caught Eilis in here…
Men’s voices caught their attention and Allison quickly traversed the floor to the door leading to another room then peered in. “Lady’s chamber, unoccupied,” she whispered.
“Think you the MacNeill will be pounding at our gates soon?” the man said, as he and another’s boots tromped by the door.
“Aye, but what a surprise they will find when they get here.”
Allison groaned softly and shut the door from the lady’s chamber to Dunbarton’s. “’Tis Dunbarton’s advisor, but I do not know who the other man is.” Then she patted Eilis’s arm. “Stay here until I make sure the way is clear. I know my way around, and everyone knows me. You will be safe until I come back for you.”
“Why did I really need to come, Allison? I am not a bargaining tool for you, am I?”
Tears filled Allison’s eyes. “You saved me from your cousin once, my lady. I would not ask you to help if it had not been than no one else would aid me. I wish no harm to come to you. Stay. I will not be long.”
Allison slipped outside the chamber and closed the door. Eilis had a very bad feeling about this. Why would Allison leave her here? In Dunbarton’s wife’s chamber where, if the situation had turned out differently, Eilis would have lived permanently? What if Allison truly intended to free Dougald and Gunnolf, only by using Eilis as the bargaining tool? Did she have feelings for one of the men?
After what seemed like hours, the door opened. Eilis barely breathed. A man entered the room, his large body shadowed in the light outside the chamber then he shut the door.
God’s wounds, who was he, and would he find her here?
****
Delayed in arriving at Lockton by a band of thieves, not any of Dunbarton’s men, James and his men quickly had made the brigands see the error of their ways…dead men no longer stole from unsuspecting folk.
Keary spoke to one of the guards at the gate, who reluctantly lifted it for him and his men. Dunbarton would kill the whelp if he knew Keary had helped James and his men to enter the bailey in the middle of the night. Worse, that Broc, son of MacBurton, would be aiding in the plot to free James’s kin instead of siding with Dunbarton.
“Keary, how now,” one of the guards said, greeting him with a slap on the back. Thankfully, the man was interested in seeing Dunbarton’s son return and didn’t pay any mind to his friends. “Dunbarton will have your head when he discovers you are back from the Crusade, but I for one am glad to find you well. Are the women as beautiful as they say?”
Keary grinned. “Aye, that they are. My friends and I will take our pallets for the night, although we wish a bit of mead before we retire.”
“Aye, good to see you return. We were told you had died in battle or lost your way home.”
“No’ me. No one would keep me from home for long.” He dismounted while a stable boy was rousted from the stalls to take care of the horses.
Keary motioned to James and the others. “Come, we drink then sleep.”
James and his kin and Broc and his men hurried to dismount, everyone eyeing the guards on the walk who stood with their bodies tense, hands poised to unsheathe swords. But the guards glanced at them, somewhat curious then went back to their posts.
James assumed the one who let them in was assured enough that they belonged. He hoped his own men were never that naïve. ‘Twas something he’d discuss with Eanruig when he returned to Craigly.
Keary escorted them inside the keep as though he were laird and not Dunbarton’s bastard son then motioned to the stairs that led into the dungeon.
While most of the men hovered around the stairs, waiting for a fight, James and two of his men and Keary headed down the stairs into the foul-smelling abyss. Torches let off a smoky light, and someone stirred then heavy footsteps headed in their direction.
Keary greeted the lumbering, half-asleep guard. “Dunbarton wishes to see the MacNeill and Viking prisoners in his solar.”
“Keary, ye back from Crusade? What does Dunbarton want them for at this hour?”
“He wishes to make special sport of them.”
The man scratched his bearded chin, glanced at James, but didn’t seem to recognize him then shook his head. “Aye, whatever His Lairdship wishes.”
He scuffled toward the cells, then after several long moments, a key ground open the door lock and then another. As soon as he shuffled toward them with Dougald and Gunnolf leading the way, their wrists and ankles manacled, the naked prisoners raised their brows in surprise then smiled. James circled around them in one fell swoop, jumped the guard, and knocked him senseless.
Dougald grinned and said to Gunnolf, “See, ‘twas the plan. My eldest brother would rescue us.”
“Ja,” Gunnolf said, lifting his manacled wrists while Keary hurried to unlock them. “Could have let me know sooner, though. I was still trying to come up with my own.” He motioned at his nakedness. “You have clothes and weapons for us, ja?”
Ian hurried down the stairs. “Aye, just procuring the items.” He handed the ragged garments to Dougald, and he shared some with Gunnolf, who grunted.
“The man who wore these must have b
een no taller than your mother, Dougald.”
Dougald laughed.
Ian said, “Lady Allison is abovestairs and has awakened her brother. Apparently, he is one of Dunbarton’s bastard sons.”
Keary ground his teeth and headed for the stairs. “My half brothers, all Dunbarton’s bastard sons, plan a revolt then.”
James shook his head. He wished to get Dougald and Gunnolf free of the castle before anything else untoward happened to them, especially as weakened as they had to be. “Hold, Keary, allow us to leave before you start your battle.”
“Too late, my laird,” Ian warned. “Lady Allison brought Lady Eilis here also. She is waiting in the lady’s chamber adjoining Dunbarton’s.”
“Eilis, God’s teeth, man, why did you not already say? What in the devil’s name is she doing here?”
He rushed up the stairs with the men, but already swords had been drawn, and Broc and the rest of the men were fighting in the great hall.
****
“Lady Eilis,” the unknown man whispered, drawing closer as Eilis inched away from him in Dunbarton’s lady’s chamber.
She didn’t recognize his voice. She moved away from him, desperately trying not to make a sound as her feet slid rushes across the wooden floor.
“My lady, come. We are to free Dougald,” he said, his voice rushed but meant only for her to hear.
Who was he? She didn’t trust the man, and now she didn’t trust Allison. As quietly as she could, Eilis slipped under the bed, much relieved she didn’t run into a chamber pot and make a lot of racket. She lay very still while the man’s feet shuffled through the rushes as he searched for her in the dark.
The door opened again, letting in shadowed light from the corridor, and another man whispered, “Have you got her?”
“She seems to have slipped away.”
“God’s teeth, if only Allison had stayed here with her.” The man paced then said, “All right. It cannot be helped. As long as Dunbarton’s dead, then all we have to do is kill that meddling Keary and the others. Come, before James finds a way to free his brother. We may still find James’s woman in the meantime and…”