Chapter 12
He’d been helpless to save her as that grinning bastard had dragged her away. The sound of her screams echoed over and over in his mind, slicing deep into his soul and stoking his rage.
Alexander stared down at the keep from the secure outcropping he’d discovered at a higher elevation. Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in all of Scotland, might help fortify the Neal stronghold but it also provided innumerable ways to spy upon the clan and their movements.
From this vantage point, he could see most of the area inside the curtain wall but couldna quite see clear into the bailey to identify individuals as they scurried about, increasing the guard around the fortress. They held their torches high, unwittingly helping Alexander pinpoint their posts and count their numbers. Alexander found their behavior odd. Paranoid even. 'Twas a great deal of activity to protect a keep from as small a group as seven men. Alexander snorted out a satisfied grunt. Calum was afraid. Good. He should be.
Alexander’s horse rumbled with a deep nicker, stomping in the cold night air then sidestepping all along the narrow plateau jutting out from the mountain. The lively animal was obvious in its ambivalence at being free of the stable. Murtagh had been right. The horses he’d chosen for their escape loved the snow and harsh weather of the Highlands.
Poor Murtagh. Betrayed by his own and now dead.
“We erred, brother. When do we go back to get her and make it right?” Graham asked as he sidled his mount up next to Alexander’s.
“We need a solid plan,” Alexander said more to himself than to his brother. He shifted in the saddle, the leather creaking in protest with every movement. “And we need to make haste.” He nodded down toward the keep. “They’re in quite a stir about something considering we’re only seven of us.”
Graham studied the scene for a long moment, his dark eyes narrowing into a scowl as the wintry wind whipped his black hair about his face. “Methinks additional things are afoot other than our attempt at freeing Catriona.”
Magnus nosed his horse in between Graham and Alexander. “Have the two of ye a plan yet? Bloodlust runs high in this group at present.”
Alexander stole a glance back at Alasdair, Ian, Duncan, and Sutherland. The sight of the men reminded him of the four horsemen from Revelations. Motherhad bid him memorize that book of the Bible. Perhaps she had sensed his destiny. Aye. Mother knew him well. She knew his thirst for vengeance.
He acknowledged his restless kin with a nod and pulled his attention back to the keep below. “We dinna ken where they’ve taken her, nor what’s been done to her.” That thought alone nearly drove him insane.
“We need someone on the inside willing to give us information,” Graham said as he sat taller in the saddle.
“Oursomeonewas betrayed and now they’ve tossed his body outside the walls to the wolves,” Alexander said, wishing that somehow, they could retrieve Murtagh’s remains and give the man a proper burial—for Catriona’s sake.
Graham leaned forward and gave Alexander a pointed look. “We have ‘the Ghost,’ brother.” He glanced toward Magnus then returned his attention to Alexander. “And I believe there are at least two young maidservants working in Neal keep that would be more than happy to do his bidding.”
“Aye,” Magnus agreed with a shrug to shift his white-blond braid back from across his shoulder to his back. He pointed down the mountain with a casual jab of a finger. “I could slip in right about there. See the weakness where the outer wall connects to Ben Nevis? Take note the space between the blocks of the wall and the stones. A man could slip through easy enough.”
Alexander studied the breach. “Aye, a man could slip through and make his way to the back hallways of the keep.” He shifted in the saddle, worrying the reins between his hand. “But if anyone goes in alone—'twill be me.”
“Ye are no' fast enough on your feet just yet,” Magnus argued. “And ye’ve ne’er been quiet—wounded or no'. Ye canna run. Ye canna crouch nor climb. Ye’d be discovered in a matter of minutes.”
Though his limp was vastly improved, Alexander grudgingly admitted that Magnus might have a valid point. But that didna change the fact he needed to be the one inside that keep, needed it more than anyone could imagine. Guilt at the mishandled escape burned through his veins like a raging fever.
“I can do more than ye know when the need arises.” He kept his focus trained on the goings on below, wishing he could see within those walls, find Catriona. He pulled his attention away from the Neal clan’s movements and turned to Magnus. “I have to be the one, ye ken?”
Magnus glared at him. His eerie blue-white eyes narrowed, and his blond brows knitted into a scowl. “Ye must use your head in this, Alexander. Not your heart,” he said quietly. “Ye risk her life if ye dinna plan well and ye ken that as well as I.”
“They said a regiment’s coming,” Graham mused as he rolled his shoulders and stretched in the saddle. He turned to Alexander. “Did Catriona say if her betrothed would come here or was she traveling to wed him? If she’s traveling, we could steal her away then.”
Alexander tightened his fists around the reins and leaned forward, his anxiousness and frustration building. “She never said. All she knew was that she’d marry in the spring as soon as the passes cleared enough for travel.”
“The passes are clear enough now, I reckon,” Magnus said as he backed his horse down from the narrow plateau and turned the beast toward the other men waiting on the trail to the northern pass of the mountain. He twisted in the saddle and looked back at Alexander. “Give me a few hours, Alexander. I’ll find what we need to know to win this battle.” A rare smile broke through Magnus’s solemn countenance. “'Twill be my wedding gift to ye, aye?”
Alexander ignored the wedding comment. The fact remained he had nothing to offer Catriona other than freedom from her brother. He studied Magnus for a long moment. The waiting would be torture but after mulling it over, he realized he had no choice. He agreed with a stiff nod, scowling down at his still healing leg and cursing it. His other wounds healed and forgotten, already added to scars covering his body. He’d always healed quickly but this leg injury had sorely tested his patience. “Be quick about it, aye?”
“Aye.” Magnus urged his horse down the narrow path heading down the mountain toward the keep.
Alexander turned to Graham where he waited beside him on his mount. “Take the men and find what shelter ye can that’s close.”
Graham nodded then turned his horse toward Duncan, Sutherland, Alasdair, and Ian. “Shelter. Close,” he called out before reaching them. The four men splintered off, each of them taking a different direction. Graham took to the path leading toward the pass.
Dismounting, Alexander led his horse to the back of the plateau closer to the mountain. He found a spot out of the wind, large enough for both himself and the horse, surrounded by gigantic sprouts of stone jutting up from the earth like rows of great gray teeth.
“And now we wait,” he said as he patted the horse’s neck. He secured the animal’s reins around the trunk of a twisted young tree. If he wasn’t on the beast, he’d have to keep it tied. This close to its home, if it discovered itself riderless, it would eventually end up back at the keep. “I’ll be back as soon as I see Magnus is safely through.”
