“Well someone did.”
“Aye”, he agreed. “Someone did.”
Her mind finally caught up with what he’d said about speaking the truth, and she gasped. “What did I say?” For the life of her, she couldn’t remember. God, what had she told him? Everything?
He shrugged. “Nothing of use. I’m afraid we’ll have to move on to more persuasive methods.”
Relief that she hadn’t spilled her guts to him warred with concern for whatever his ‘more persuasive’ methods might be.
There was a light knock on the door. Namet poked his head in. “Bridei?”
“Aye?”
“The old man is gone.”
Nessa felt her stomach drop to the floor, her headache and whatever she’d confessed the night before suddenly all but forgotten. She tried to jump to her feet, forgetting her bound wrists and landing back on her bottom with a thud.
“Gone where?” She struggled frantically against the ropes, as if she could actually get herself free and run out to look for him. “How could you lose my uncle? What’s going on? Tell me!”
Namet ignored her, keeping his attention stoically on the King. “Petra went to check on him this morning, and he was gone. His bindings had been cut.”
Bridie’s eyes flashed fire. “Could he have cut them himself?”
Namet pressed his lips together in a hard line. “No, I don’t see how he could have. He must have had help.”
The King’s nostril’s flared in anger. “Find him. And whomever cut the bindings.”
Namet nodded, and Nessa soon heard his footsteps receding down the hall. Bridei turned his entire attention to her. His fists were clenched at his sides, and his expression was dark and stormy. “What do you know of this?”
Nessa felt a frantic, clawing sensation in the pit of her stomach. Her uncle was somewhere out there on his own. And without him, she was stuck here, possibly forever.
“Nothing. I don’t know anything! I was here all night; you know I was because youpoisonedme!” (And she would have to revisit that one later.) “But you have to find him! Please…he’ll never make it out there by himself—he’ll be killed!”And he’s my only way home. What if I can’t get back without him?
If Angus was gone, she mightnevermake it back home on her own. She might not ever see her grandmother or Nathan again. The cold chill of fear skittered up her spine, followed by the edges of a deep sorrow for what she might never have again: the comforting support of her grandmother, and the hope of a future with a good man that loved her; the farm that she loved and even the business she had been carefully building. If only she could go home again, she would never take all those things for granted again! The lump that formed in her throat was so tight she felt like she was choking on it. It wasn’t long before the tears came. Damn it! She didn’t want to cry. Especially not in front ofhim.
And he was looking at her as if she had grown an extra head.
“Are youcryinglass?”
“What, is there something wrong with your eyes?” she snapped.
He narrowed his eyes as if in thought. “For your uncle?”
“Aye!”And so much more. “He can’t be out there on his own. How could you have lost him? Find him! Andgoddammituntie me!”
“Stop crying”, he ordered. “For all I know that man isn’t even your real uncle.”
“You can’t tell me to stop crying. It doesn’t work that way. I’ve been here for two days and it feels like forever and I’ve been tied up and my head hurts and now my uncle is gone. I can cry if I bloody well want to!”
She sniffled, looking up at him. “And how do you expect to learn anything about me if I’m stuck to this bloody post? It’s not like I’m going totellyou! You’ll have to kill me first, and then you won’t know anything at all!”
And now she had to search for Angus god-knew-where before she even had the possibility of going home.
He watched her for a moment, and she could tell he was actually considering what she had said. “You have a point, lass. Actionsdospeak louder than words.”
She glared. “Aye, they do. And I’ve donenothingto you.”
“I don’t know that though, do I?” He turned and paced the room for several moments. “You can come to the fires tonight.” He must have seen the sudden panic in her eyes because he clarified, “It’s Beltane. We celebrate.”
