“In that case, permit me tae lead the way.” Bryan offered her the crook of his arm, as though inviting her to dance with him.
She accepted his arm, and he took her to the set of winding stone steps that led down to the main floors of Castle Oliphant, and beyond, into its deepest dungeons.
When they crossed the threshold that took them beneath ground level, Katherine could have sworn she felt a chill press in on all sides, like the cool of the grave. She was also surprised to feel the muscles in Bryan’s arm swiftly tighten and quiver beneath her grip, as though he had been plunged into a barrel of ice water.
She reasoned that this might have had something to do with the screams.
The sounds of them echoed and collided with each other in the stone passages up ahead; shrieks of pain and groans of dread, curses, and blasphemies muttered and whispered and roared, like the damned cries of Hell itself.
Katherine found herself listening keenly, trying to determine whether her sister’s voice was among them. As far as she could tell, it was not.
She turned to peer at his face, and even in the encroaching subterranean gloom, she could make out the tightness of hisexpression. He had the look of a man who was desperately trying not to show emotion.
“Surely ye have been down here many times before?” she inquired, frowning with confusion.
The question seemed to almost startle him, as though he had momentarily forgotten who was with him or what their reason was for visiting the dungeons in the first place.
“Aye, many times,” he confirmed with a shaky nod. “And yet my wits seem to desert me anew each time, as ye have apparently noticed.”
Katherine patted his arm gently. “There is no shame in it. All men have things which they fear, and many are not nearly so reasonable or understandable as this dreadful place. Fear of captivity is common enough, particularly among those who inflict it upon others.”
His eyebrows went up, and he laughed in spite of himself. “Ye claim that my fear comes from some silly sense ofguiltwith regard tae Romilly’s imprisonment? As though she does not deserve such a fate for the vile acts she committed?”
She held up a hand placatingly, privately appreciating how easily she was able to provoke him when she had a mind to. She hoped this might come in handy later, but more than that, she simply enjoyed bringing a look of consternation to that self-confident face of his.
“I make no such judgments, and the very last thing I would wish tae do is insult or offend ye,” she replied smoothly. “I merely point out that the work of a jailer is difficult indeed. Tae subject yerself tae such heinous conditions.” She made a show of shivering. “My sister is lucky, indeed, tae have one as sensitive and caring as yerself in charge of her keeping.”
“So,” he said, firmly changing the subject, “how did ye pass the time? Were ye able tae find anything in the library tae take tae yer room with ye?”
“I was unaware that I was permitted tae do so,” she answered, “but now that I know, perhaps I shall avail myself of it before I retire for the night. With yer kind indulgence, of course. Now, will ye likewise tell me how ye have been occupied this afternoon? Plotting the downfall and demise of my people, I expect?”
“Quite the contrary,” he corrected her. “Considering every plot available tae me that might prevent any bloodshed between us whatsoever. Ye have had a chance tae see our lands and people, Lady Katherine. Do we appear tae be such warlike beasts tae ye? Do we sound, and act like animals, eager to maim and destroy our neighbor?”
She scoffed. “I have barely been here a day, Captain. And while this place and its people do seem pleasant, far more so than I might previously have believed, given all my father told me of the Oliphants. I would be a simple-minded thing indeed if I allowed my opinion of yer clan tae be swayed so easily.”
“Fair enough,” he conceded. “Come, we have almost arrived.”
They had reached a long corridor of dank and dripping stone, fashioned wide enough so that those who walked freely on the far-right side of it could avoid the grasping hands and flying spit from the prisoners caged on the left. The horrendous noise felt like ragged fingernails scraping Katherine’s eardrums, and it took all of her self-control to keep from clapping her hands to the sides of her head as tightly as she could.
There were over a dozen men occupying the narrow caged chambers. They were dressed in rags and tatters, their flesh was ghostly, their teeth were yellow, their hair was tangled and filthy, and their eyes were as wild and inhuman as those of a frenzied flock of bats in the moonlight. Their pleas and threats mingled together into a single howl that was at once pitiable and monstrous.
“Now ye see why I tend tae shudder whenever I have tae come down here,” Bryan remarked.
Katherine nodded slowly. The idea that her sister was confined in this awful place, surrounded by this terrible din all day and night—to say nothing of the noxious smells which filled the air—was almost more than she could bear.
At last, they reached the cell at the farthest end of the dungeon, where Romilly stood at the bars, waiting for them.
“Ye must pass all of these other cells to get to hers every time ye speak with her?” Katherine sounded horrified.
“Aye.” Bryan’s tone was grim. “I sometimes wonder if Laird Alex arranged it that way merely tae bedevil me.”
Katherine stared ahead at Romilly, her eyes still adjusting to the shadows of the dungeon.
Her older sister's condition was not quite as dire as Katherine had imagined; all of her teeth were still in place, and though her clothes were soiled and tattered, and her hair was a matted mess, her face was much the same as it had been the last time Katherine saw her. It was mostly Romilly’s eyes that had changed, for their sockets had turned deep and hollow, and what burned from within them appeared to be the worst sort of madness.
Had this place transformed her so grievously that it had infected her with that grotesque insanity which now seemed to hold her tightly in its grip? Or had it always been lurking within her, looking for an excuse to come out and show itself?
The thought was an ugly one, and Katherine did her best to push it aside, choosing instead to focus on her happiness at seeing Romilly again at all.
