“Aye,” she answered, “although I cannot say for how long. Could be as little as a day or two or could be a week or more. I do not know how fast she can throw it off.”
“What is the longest ye think it may take?”
“A fortnight, and if it is not gone by then, then something else is wrong.”
Sigimor nodded. “Then we will figure we have that long but hope it is much less, and definitely no riding a horse for a week or more.”
“Aye, definitely none of that.”
“The cart is already here, so we dinnae need to sneak it over here, so that is done. We just need to come up with a way to hide her in it and how to get it to Gormfeurach with as little trouble as possible.” He looked at Gybbon. “And get as much information as we can along with the boy.”
“Do ye think he is still there with that woman?” Jolene asked.
“Ihopehe is. But all we can do is hope he was taken somewhere safe before the cousins rooted him out.”
“Do ye think they have gone to do that?” asked Gybbon.
“I think they went to do that as soon as they failed to get into my keep.”
Gybbon sighed and nodded. He thought the same, feared the same. The town was very small, so he doubted the boy would go unseen for long. He did not have any strong, armed men to watch out for him either. Only a woman that even Mora said could be silly now and then. There was very little to hang a hope on.
“Then we best work hard to dig out as much information as we can.”
“Aye.” Gybbon nodded and then took a deep drink of his cider to hide his sigh and worry. “The moment we start poking about they will start watching us much more closely.”
“Ye think they ken ye are with her?”
“Nay certain of it, but they did use time to speak with me once on the road where they were looking for her. Somehow, they kenned about ye and that her mother would have sent her to ye. So, it wouldnae be much of a leap for them to quickly put that all together and decide I was helping her. I brought Mora and ye more trouble than I thought.”
“Nay, it wouldnae be a big leap at all. But cowards who try to kill and steal from their own kin are nay ones who will come at me in the open. They dinnae have an army with them.”
“They do have the sheriff, I fear, and his men.”
Sigimor shrugged. “Dealt with that mon before and some of his men are kin to mine. Just worry about the lad.
“And when you go to the village remember all the ones those idiots may see as useless so do not question them, but they are just the ones you wish to speak with. The ones who run the shops and the women who hold the houses together. To ones who Robert thinks are not worth troubling himself with. He will see them as no better than dumb animals.”
“Ye are right about that,” Gybbon said. “The mon is arrogant, blindly certain of how important he is. Ye should see how he treats his own brothers. I think they are all afraid of him.”
“Yet they follow him.”
“They do, but nay out of brotherly love or family honor. Out of fear. The youngest is tempting his brother as he actually tried to stop him from killing off all of Mora’s goats.”
Jolene gasped. “What was the reason for that?”
“She could still have a living if she had her goats.”
“Oh. But he did not kill them because his brother stopped it.”
“Only for a moment and he got a good beating for it. Nay, e’en if Robert is successful in getting hold of the boy, Murdoch’s life will be verra short. E’en the other two have warned him. I only saw the looks of warning, but I suspicion they have said something, too.”
“So, what happened to the goats that lived?” Jolene asked.
“Murdoch’s interference allowed some of them to leap the fence and run. Robert decided it was enough, that she wouldnae be able to gather them all up, I suppose.”
“Which shows he has little knowledge of animals. I suspect those goats were well fed, sheltered, and pampered even. Of course they would wander back home.”
“Or to one of the people who cared for them. That may help us find the boy,” said Gybbon.
