Whatever the answers were, one thing was clear to Katherine; she could not hold out any hope for rescue. She assumed that Aitken had immediately sent out a messenger to report her imprisonment to the Oliphants. But what could they be expected to do? Laird Alex was too shrewd a leader to risk war for the sake of a lass from some enemy clan.
No matter how Bryan might beg him to do so.
Katherine wanted to pray that Bryan might come to save her, but she did not dare, for she knew the danger of it. If he attempted to infiltrate the stronghold on his own, he would almost surely perish. And would he even try, if it meant disobeying the laird he’d dedicated his life to serving?
No. This dark and dismal dungeon was her fate for as long as it was her father’s whim, and who knew how long that might be? The madness that smoldered in his hollow eyes like a pair of baneful coals sickened her soul, and she no longer recognized the man who had raised her. He had been stern and aloof back then, certainly, but not this demented ghoul who had ordered her locked away.
Would she be beneath the stronghold for weeks? Months? Years, perhaps, with only vermin to keep her company?
“What is to happen now?” she asked herself hopelessly.
Unbeknownst to Katherine, a relatively short distance from her place of captivity, Bryan Black was asking himself the same question.
He’d journeyed through the day and night, and most of the next day again. The trip had taken far longer than it normally might have, for he was forced to avoid all main roads. He could not take the chance that anyone at all might see which direction he was riding, guess his purpose, and relate it to Laird Alex—or worse, to Angus.
He knew the McGregors might already be prepared for him; that indeed, Katherine’s imprisonment might even be intended as a very specific trap for the Oliphants in general, and for himself in particular. There was every possibility that the McGregors were expecting some type of rescue, and that they might have fortified their sentry posts and defenses all the more as a result.
So he knew he could give them no reason to build them up even more. The task ahead of him was difficult enough already. Bryan loathed the stops he had to make along the way to rest himself and his horse, for he was impatient to have the matter over and done with. Every second that ticked away was another moment that the love of his life was trapped in the most horrid conditions imaginable, and he could not bear the thought of that. Even so, he knew that these stops were unavoidable. He would need his steed in the best shape possible in case a hasty escape was required later, just as he would need to be at his best himself in case he was met with any sort of resistance upon his arrival.
Therefore, he had no choice but to allow himself and his mount to recover periodically. And each time he did, he had toforce himself to sit still instead of pacing fretfully and imagining every dreadful outcome he might face.
At last, he found himself within viewing distance of the McGregor Stronghold. Most of the land around the structure was a flat and grassy expanse. The forests that had once surrounded the stronghold had long since been cleared, to prevent an enemy army from hiding in the foliage as they drew closer.
Thus, Bryan had to shimmy up one of the trees closest to the edge of the woods so that he could get a better look at the stronghold’s defenses. He did not dare make his move until night fell again; he could operate under cover of darkness. Until then, though, he intended to take in as much as possible in order to plan his approach. Unfortunately, from his vantage point at the top of the tallest tree he could find, Bryan couldn’t see any promising way inside.
The walls were not as high as those of Castle Oliphant, but they were still far too tall to climb, especially since the guardsmen stationed atop them appeared quite vigilant. There were bound to be narrow tunnels at the bottom of the wall to keep rainwater from accumulating within the walls and flooding the courtyard, but Bryan could not make them out due to the tall grasses growing in front of them. Even if he could, he found it unlikely that he’d be able to fit through one of them.
However, he climbed down and found another tree that would give him a view of the stronghold from a different angle. And another. And another.
All of that searching for trees and climbing them took up most of the afternoon’s remainder, and by the time he had finished, he found himself no closer to discovering a reliable way in.
Even if he could manage that, what then? He had to assume that guards had been placed at multiple points within, betweenany entrance and the dungeon. Alex had not been wrong in assuming that all of this was a trap laid by Angus, and Bryan hated that he was walking into it willingly.
He hated the idea of walking into it blindly all the more.
This quest was beginning to seem more and more like suicide, yet Bryan realized that this still would not turn him away from it. If he was meant to meet his end here, so be it. At least he would have done so in an attempt to see Katherine again. Maybe, if he could make it far enough before being taken down by Angus’s men, his last sight in this world might be her face.
That was reason enough to continue this lunatic mission, and he prepared for his own imminent demise at the points of McGregor blades. Perhaps he even deserved it, he thought, for turning his back on his laird to follow the dictates of his own foolish heart.
“Ye must know it won’t work.”
The soft female voice from below startled Bryan so sharply that he nearly lost his grip on the tree and fell the rest of the way. His boots skittered against the trunk, knocking down a brittle shower of loose bark.
When he managed to get his footing again, he slid down to the grass, peering around in the gloom. “Who are ye?”
But his mind was already telling him that the voice was familiar, which was confirmed moments later, as Romilly stepped forth from the shadows of the forest floor. She looked quite different than she had the last time he’d seen her. Her face was clean, her hair was braided, and she wore fine clothes meant for riding, though Bryan saw no horse but his own.
She was deathly pale, though, and her eyes were wide with fear and uncertainty. She wrung her hands and shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
“There’s nae need tae be scared of me,” she continued in a trembling voice. “Despite being in the dark woods with a woman known tae be murderous, that is. I’m nae armed.”
“Yet still plenty dangerous, I’d wager,” Bryan retorted, his eyes narrowing
His mind replayed all of their previous awful exchanges down in the Oliphant dungeons; the way her eyes had blazed through the bars with fury, the promises of agony and revenge she had hurled at him every time.
Did she now mean to make good on those threats? There was nothing stopping her. She had caught him squarely, and could easily raise the alarm. Her voice would carry to the walls of the stronghold, even from this distance.
But if she had intended to spring a trap for him, why would she have come alone?
