Did I not tell you there was nothing to fear? Look ahead to the land rising to greet us. There is freedom, my love, and…
His voice faded, carried away by the racing wind, drowned out by the waves as they again smashed against the rocks.
The ship sped on as well, only not the one Alanna had seen. Now, for the briefest eye-blink, she saw a simple galley, its oar-banks manned by big men in dark cloaks, while two figures stood at the prow – a warrior in mail, his back to her, and a woman with wild, tangled hair streaming in the wind.
Then the moon slipped behind a cloud and the ship vanished, beating off into the night, the endless expanse of sea that loomed on the far side of the headland. Snow fell again, harder now, the night air much colder and lifting gooseflesh on Alanna’s arms.
Chills that followed her across the room and back into her great four-postered bed, but as a Grant, she ignored them, though she did pull the covers to her chin.
And it was then, just as her thundering pulse eased and her breath steadied, that icy wind swept into the room, a wild gust that carried the warrior’s final words…
No power on earth will part us.
Chapter 5
The high moors outside Seacliffe Castle
The next evening…
“It’s the only way.”
“Say you.” Callum turned in his saddle and tossed a dark look at the big, ring-bearded man sitting his horse a few paces away. “I’ll no’ traipse about in guiser trappings, looking the fool.”
“’Tis Yule.” A corner of Grim’s mouth hitched up. “Mischief and mayhem is expected.”
“Snatching lassies from their own fireside isn’t.” The very idea made Callum scowl even harder at his cousin. “I’m a sea-reiver, no’ a stealer of women.”
“You’re saving her, remember that. Such snatchings are common during Yuletide revels in these parts. ’Tis part of the fun. She willnae be afraid.”
“She will be when she finds out she’s heading to the Skerries.”
“Perhaps,” Grim admitted. “But by the time you bring her to the ship, you’ll have soothed her.”
“No’ if I look like some cross-grained creature from a peat bog.” Callum turned his horse a bit, leaned toward his cousin. “I say we wait till her household settles and then I’ll circle round to the castle’s seaward side, climb the cliff path, slip inside, and then carry her away when she’s too sleep-muddled to notice.
“We ken her room,” he reminded Grim. “She was at the windows when we swept round the headland.”
“Thon lass could’ve been anyone. A guest or even a servant.”
“Nae, ’twas her.” Callum was sure.
And if the moon-and-starlight hadn’t lied, she was the maid Ula described to him back on Skerray.
A possibility that jellied his knees.
“Whoe’er she was, you cannae carry her or any lass down the cliff.” Grim frowned. “Lady Alanna keeps a patrol on the battlements. They’d see you. Worse, if she squirmed, you could drop her.”
“True enough.” Callum glanced through the freezing mist toward the stronghold, so high on its sea-lashed cliffs.
A stout gatehouse gave the only entry, with thick, battlemented walls stretching along the headland on either side, the whole seeming to rise straight up from a line of boulders, the rugged landscape as fierce and forbidding as Seacliffe’s frowning walls.
Walls that shouldn’t stand so proud when Draugar Hall was a crumbling ruin.
“So-o-o…” Callum’s entire body tightened, annoyance heating his blood. “Shall we storm the gates? Barge through the merrymakers in the lady’s bailey, invade the sanctum of her great hall?” He narrowed his eyes at Grim, tamped down the urge to spur forward and knock the great ox off his steed.
Instead, the image of the lass at the tower window flashed through his mind again and his stomach knotted. More unnerving, his heart gave an odd lurch and something told him he’d march into the yawning maul of hell to save her.
“As the King and his band of Stewarts sent you, there’s surely a plan.”A fool one, nae doubt.Callum kept that last to himself and tossed another look at Seacliffe, noting the glow of bonfires in the bailey. Just as telling, wind brought the sound of laughter, song, shouts, and barking dogs.
