Alana almost gasped. How had Alice learned of Bruce’s interest in their union?
“I dinna realize there was to be a union betwixt us,” Iain said coldly. “I am protecting ye, Alice, and I am protecting yer sister and yer mother, too.”
“No. You are keeping us from Sir Alexander as he lays on his deathbed!”
Alana could not stand to hear any more. She left Godfrey’s side, hurrying to Iain and touching his arm. “Iain. He is my father, too. I must see him. We all must go!”
Iain turned to her. “Alana, I cannot allow it.”
Suddenly it was as if they were alone in the hall. She laid both her hands on his chest. “I am asking, no, begging. Take Joan and my sisters to our father. Delay the attack on Elgin. Take me to my father.”
Iain inhaled, his gaze locked with hers, his expression grim. “They would take ye prisoner,” he finally said. “Buchan would have ye locked away for the rest of yer life!”
“I don’t care!” she cried, for in that moment, she was desperate.
“I care,” he said. “No one goes to Elgin, except for me.”
Margaret sank onto a bench and began to weep.
* * *
OUTSIDE,THEAPRILmorning was sunny and bright, but Alana felt chilled to the bone as she stood beside Iain as he prepared to mount his steed and ride to war. The front gates were open, and she could see his Highland army, two hundred strong, milling about the ridge. His banner with its red dragon flew above it.
“Ye will forgive me,” he said.
Alana could barely speak. She felt dazed. Her father was dying, Alice had heard about the marriage and Iain had denied them a visit to Sir Alexander. She found her voice. “I will probably forgive you, one day,” she said hoarsely.
He seized her arm and pulled her close, kissing her roughly on the mouth. “I am going to war. I will think of ye every day, Alana.”
“And I will think of you, every single day.” His refusal to allow her to see her dying father did not affect her love. Nothing could affect her love for Iain, she thought. “And I will pray that God keeps you safe.” She felt almost no emotion now—she felt nothing but the need to see her dying father one final time, even if it meant risking capture by her uncle.
Shehadto see Sir Alexander before he died. There was no choice. He was her father, and she loved him, in spite of everything.
“I am keeping ye safe, Alana,” he said.
She could not smile at him. She knew what she must do. Part of her was afraid—of course she was. She had no wish to be captured by her uncle. Still cold, she hugged her light wool mantle closer to her chest.
He leaped astride his horse and galloped from the keep.
Alana did not wait to see him ride all the way through the entry tower; she whirled and ran into the hall, refusing to think, filled with determination. Joan sat at the table, weeping. Margaret held her hand tightly, red-eyed. Eleanor sat on her other side, offering comfort. Alice was standing with Godfrey, and they both whirled.
Alana halted. “We will ride to Elgin in an hour,” she said. “Godfrey, you will guide us.”
He paled.
* * *
NOONESPOKEduring the hard ride to Elgin. They kept to the main road, but were prepared to veer from it and into the woods at the first sign of any other travelers—or of any soldiers. At noon, Alana insisted that they pause briefly to rest, for it was clear to her that her sisters and Lady Joan were not up to the task of such a rapid and hard ride. And in the midafternoon, they heard thunder in the near distance.
Godfrey halted everyone abruptly. Thunder boomed again. Alana flinched, in that moment realizing that it wasn’t thunder that they were hearing—it was the battering ram.
Iain had begun his siege.
The other women realized it, too, as they looked at one another with fright. “How will we get in during a siege?” Joan asked hoarsely. Her eyes were red from weeping. She had not been able to stop crying since they had left Brodie.
Now they could hear the frightened whinnies of horses, the shouts of men. They had not expected Iain to attack so swiftly. Alana rode up to Godfrey. “She is right. How will we get in?”
Godfrey gave her a look. “He will probably grant you anything.”
