Return Of The Highlanders: The Guardian Part 20

CHAPTER 21.

Sileas stumbled several times on the rocky path in the dark, but she kept running, as if putting distance between her and what she saw in the kitchen could dull the sharpness of the pain in her chest. But no matter how fast she ran, the vision of Ian and Dina was always before her.

The two of them. Together. Naked.

Seeing her crystal hanging between Dina's b.r.e.a.s.t.s was an even harder betrayal. She had denied Ian her bed. In time, she might have been able to forgive him for giving his body to yet another woman before they were sharing a marriage bed.

But the crystal was her wedding gift to him. It symbolized the gift of her heart, and Ian knew it.

The leather pouch tied to her waist slapped against her thigh as she ran along the dark path. She hoped she had stuffed enough coins in it to pay a fisherman to take her across the strait and buy a horse on the other side. Praise G.o.d she'd kept Niall's old clothes for cleaning out the byre. If anyone asked, the fisherman would say he'd taken a lad across.

What was that?

Over her breathing, she heard something behind her. A wolf? A bear? She remembered Ian telling her never to run from a wild animal because it made you look like prey. d.a.m.n him! Would she never be free of Ian's voice in her head?

She ignored it and ran faster.

The sound came closer the faster she ran. She screamed as the beast slammed into her, sending her sprawling to the ground. Its great weight landed on top of her, knocking the breath out of her and pinning her to the ground.

"Sileas, stop kicking me! I'm trying to get off ye."

"Niall?"

The great weight rolled off her, and she sat up, gasping great lungfuls of air. Her limbs felt weak and boneless in the aftermath of fright.

"Ye scared the life out of me!"

"Did I hurt ye?" Niall asked.

"No, but why did ye come after me? Ye saw what I saw in the kitchen, so ye know I won't go back."

"I couldn't let ye go off alone, with no one to protect ye," Niall said. "I'm coming with ye, wherever you're going."

She wanted to weep at his kindness but refused to let herself. Once she gave in to tears, she feared there would be no end to them.

"I can't let ye come with me," she said. "Your family would not be happy with ye for helping me get away."

"Da is the one who sent me," Niall said. "He heard ye climb out the window and told me to follow ye and keep ye safe. He gave me money, too."

Dear Payton. This time, she did wipe a tear from her eye.

"Besides," Niall said with a smile in his voice, "I didn't want ye going to Grdan for help."

"There's nothing wrong with Grdan," she said, and wondered why she hadn't even thought of going to him.

"There's not enough right with him, either-not for you, Sil." Niall stood and helped her to her feet. "So, just where are we going?"

"To Stirling."

Niall gave a long whistle. "That's a fair distance. What do ye want to go there for?"

Sileas started walking. "I'm going to ask the queen to help me obtain an annulment from the church. And while I'm there, I'll also ask her help in removing my step-da from Knock Castle."

She didn't want to live in Knock Castle, but it was hers and she needed someplace to live.

"Asking the queen is a wee bit drastic, wouldn't ye say?" Niall asked. "You've got cause to leave Ian under Highland law. That should be enough."

"And before I know it, my chieftain will be telling me who I am to wed next," she said. "I won't let Hugh decide my fate, that is for certain. No, the only way to free myself is to put myself in the hands of someone more powerful. I praise G.o.d that happens to be a woman at the moment."

"But ye won't have to worry about Hugh for long," Niall said. "Connor is going to be chieftain."

"Connor wants Knock Castle in the hands of someone verra close to him," she said. "He'll decide I've no cause to leave Ian."

"Connor is a fair man," Niall said. "He'd let ye leave Ian so long as ye take another man in the clan-especially if the man is another close relative of his."

She snorted. "Are ye suggesting Alex? I'm verra fond of him, but wedding Alex would be going from the frying pan into the fire."

"Take me," Niall said in a soft voice. "I'm as close a blood relation to Connor as either Ian or Alex."

Sileas felt as if her chest were caving in on itself. She stopped and turned to look into his face, though she could barely make out his features in the dark.

"Aw, Niall," she said, reaching up to touch her fingers to his cheek, "ye can't mean it."

"What, do ye think I'm too young?" he said, sounding hurt. "Or is it that I'm not as good as my brother-even after what he's done to ye?"

"No, it's not that," she said, though he was far too young. She rested her hand on his arm. "I grew up wis.h.i.+ng every day I had brothers and sisters. Having you become a brother to me has been one of the great blessings of my life. Don't ask me to give that up."

"You've been a sister to me as well," Niall said, and she could hear him fidgeting in the dark. "But... well, ye are so pretty that I believe I could overcome it."

"I do appreciate the offer," Sileas said, taking his arm to hurry him down the path. "But I don't believe I'll want another husband for a verra, verra long time."

"Where is she?" Ian shouted, as he pounded on Grdan's door.

No candlelight shone in the window or under the door. If Grdan had taken Sileas to his bed this very night, Ian would murder the devil's sp.a.w.n on the spot.

He pounded the door again until the windows rattled. "Come out and face me like a man!"

When the door swung open, Ian clenched his fists, ready to pound Grdan's pretty face to a pulp. He choked back his fury when Grdan's mother peered up at him from under her nightcap.

"I've come for my wife."

"Sileas?" Grdan's mother clutched her nights.h.i.+ft about her throat. "Don't tell me the la.s.s has left ye. I always knew she was trouble."

It occurred to him that Sileas and Grdan would know this was the first place he'd look for them. If they weren't here, then he would track them down-to h.e.l.l, if need be.

"I must ask ye to step aside, so I can have a look about," Ian said.

Grdan suddenly appeared behind his mother.

"What in G.o.d's name do ye think ye are doing," Grdan said, as he pushed his mother aside, "showing up at my door in the dark of night and threatening my mother?"

Ian slammed his fist into Grdan's face, dropping him backward into the house. As he stepped inside, he picked Grdan up by the front of his s.h.i.+rt.

"I'll ask ye but once," Ian said an inch from Grdan's nose. "Where have ye got my wife?"

"Sileas? Is that what this is about?" Grdan said, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "Has she finally left ye, then? Good for her."

"Don't try telling me ye didn't know it," Ian said, as he scanned the room. She was not in sight, so he released Grdan and crossed the room. "Where is she?" He stuck his head into the empty kitchen.

"No one's here but the two of us," Grdan's mother said.

Ian heard her fumbling with the lamp. When the flame took hold, Ian caught the look of worry on Grdan's face.

"She left in the night alone?" Grdan said. "What have ye done to her, man?"

A blade of fear cut into Ian's belly. "Are ye telling me the truth, that ye don't know where she is?"

"I swear it on my father's grave," Grdan said.

Ian swallowed. "I must find her before any harm comes to her." At the door, he turned and said, "Will ye tell me if she comes here?"

"I will," Grdan said. "But if Sileas has chosen to leave ye, I won't send her back."

"Where could she have gone?" Ian ran his hands through his hair as he paced up and down the hall. He was always clearheaded in a crisis, but he couldn't think at all.

"Let's go up to her bedchamber and see if she left something that will tell us," Alex said.

Ian ran up the stairs with Alex on his heels.

When he reached the bedchamber, he picked up her gown from the floor. Before he could stop himself, he held it to his face and breathed in her scent. He closed his eyes. Missing her was a physical pain, like a razor's edge slicing into his heart.

How could she leave him?

"Take a look at this," Alex said behind him.

Ian joined Alex at the small table where Sileas kept the accounts. Alex had ruined her neat stacks, tossing the parchments haphazardly across the tabletop.

"Read this one," Alex said, tapping his finger on a sheet that rested on top of the scattered parchments.

Ian's heart sank as he read it. G.o.d in Heaven, what was Sileas thinking? It was a letter to the queen, begging for her support in obtaining an annulment from one Ian MacDonald. She also asked for the crown's a.s.sistance in removing her stepfather from her castle and lands.

"It looks as though this was her first attempt," Alex said, pointing to where the ink was smudged. "I didn't find her final version."

"She must have taken it with her." The realization of where she had gone struck Ian with the force of a blow to the chest. "G.o.d help me, she's headed for Stirling."

Ian heard light steps on the stairs and turned to see his mother in the doorway. She remained there, worrying her hands. When she finally spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Niall is gone as well."

It took Ian a long moment to take in the meaning of his mother's words. "Niall? Niall is with Sileas?"

"Your da says it's good that she's not alone," his mother said.

"G.o.d's blood!" Ian stormed up and down the bedchamber, feeling like a trapped animal. "What can the two of them be thinking? Stirling is not a jaunt down the road-it's a journey of several days. Christ above, they could be murdered along the way!"

Visions filled his head of Sileas raped, the pair of them mercilessly beaten, and their mutilated bodies left beside the road for wild animals to feed upon.

"Niall is good with a sword," Alex said, guessing the direction of Ian's thoughts. "I'm sure your father taught him, same as he did you, to watch for trouble and travel unseen."

His mother's gaze rested on the yellow gown that was somehow still clenched in Ian's hand, then s.h.i.+fted to the bed. "Niall's old clothes that she wears to muck out the barn are gone. I washed them and left them folded on the bed for her."

"With Sileas dressed like a lad, the risk is no so great," Alex said.

"Even if they do manage to reach Stirling in one piece," Ian said, raising his hands, "the town itself is a hive of hornets."

The untimely death of James IV at Flodden had left Scotland with a babe as king and his mother, the sister of the hated English king, as regent. Ian didn't need the Sight to know that powerful and ruthless men would be at court vying for control of the babe and his mother.

"I'm going after them," Ian said, starting toward the stairs. "And when I find them, I'm going to murder them myself."

Alex caught up with him in the hall. "It won't take us long to collect Connor and Duncan," he said.

Ian shook his head. "No. I don't know how long this will take, and the gathering for Samhain is only a fortnight away. The three of ye must stay here and make certain Connor is chosen chieftain."

"We're coming with ye." Alex put on his cap and lifted his mantle from one of the pegs by the door. "There's time to make it to Stirling and back, if we're quick."

Ian met his cousin's sea-green eyes, which were solemn for once.

"Connor and Duncan will say the same." Alex said.

Ian nodded his thanks and went out the door.

CHAPTER 22.

Sileas held onto Niall's arm as they walked their horses through the crowded, cobbled streets of Stirling. Despite being exhausted and filthy after days of travel, she stared about her. She'd never been in a town of this size before.

"Can ye let go of my arm?" Niall said in a low voice. "I don't like the way people are looking at us, with ye dressed like a lad and all."

Sileas s.n.a.t.c.hed her hand away. In her amazement, she had forgotten her disguise.

"It looks like a palace built for the G.o.ds," she said, looking up at Stirling Castle.