Philip stepped outside. By the time Cam was in the open, he’d vanished. “I wish he wouldn’t do that,” Cam said out loud as he returned to the great hall. He glanced up as he walked, sensing he was being watched. From his bedchamber window he saw Rachel looking down at him. He waved up at her and she returned the gesture.
Why did he care so much what happened to her? It wasn’t just the prophecy. He felt a connection to her, strange when he had known her for such a short spell. Was she a witch? A thief? A traveler through time as she insisted? He could not say what was the truth about her. Perhaps she was all those things, perhaps none of them. She was pretty, there was no denying that. He thought once again of how she’d looked when he burst in on her washing. The paleness of her skin. From nowhere he wondered how soft her skin was, what it would feel like to run his hands along it, to press his fingers into her lower back, draw her toward him, their faces coming together, her breath on his cheek.
He marched into the keep, shaking the thoughts away. This was not the time to swallow a love potion. It was a time for action.
The occupants of the hall rose to their feet as he entered. “Have you made up your mind?” Hubert asked.
“What about the murder of our people?” Hamish shouted.
Hubert turned to his son. “You hush your lips my boy if you wish for them to remain attached to your face. Understand?”
Cam walked to his seat before speaking. He took a deep breath and looked out at the anxious faces waiting to hear what he had to say.
“If you wish to go south,” he said to Hubert. “I will send a body of men to protect you but the MacGregors remain here. If we be the only beacon of light in infinite darkness, we will remain. And if the barefoot man is a demon, if he swallows us whole, we will be assured of a seat at the high table of the Laird of us all. I say we will have greater chance of success if the MacKenzies and MacGregors come together here. What say you to that, Hubert MacKenzie?”
Hubert pressed his hands together as if in supplication. “We will die if we remain here.”
“Where is your backbone?”
“Where was your desire for harmony between our clans when you rejected my daughter’s hand in marriage?”
“Now is not the time to discuss that, Hubert. We have bigger matters to attend to.”
“Now is the time. You are betrothed to that trollop in your chamber. What clan is she even from?”
Cam clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white as he resisted rising to the bait. “She is a MacGregor.”
“She is a Sassenach and you would bind your future to the English over a true blooded Scottish clan?”
“If you fear the barefoot man, that is your right. You need not be ashamed of fear.”
“I am not afraid of anything.”
“Then why do you run south?”
Hamish was up fast but Cam was faster, his sword out and held high to block the blow of the MacKenzie boy. “Are you certain this is how you want to die?” he asked as he pushed Hamish backward. “Is this the hill you want your life to end upon?”
“I will not die here,” Hamish spat. “You will.” He raised his sword and brought it down hard.
Cam ducked back and the sword wedged itself in the chair where he had been sitting moments before. Hamish tugged at it but it would not come free.
Cam looked about him. The MacKenzies were already up, locked in battle with the MacGregors. “She must be sacrificed,” Hamish screamed. “Someone go get her from his chamber.”
Cam looked at his men. They could fend for themselves well enough. He was more concerned about the half dozen MacKenzies slipping out of the great hall. He ran after them, his sword drawn.
“Psst,” a voice said to his left. He glanced that way and saw Philip beckoning him from the end of the corridor.
“I have no time,” he said, already running.
“Cam,” a female voice hissed. He looked again and Rachel was with Philip, her worried face peering from the corner.
He skidded to a halt, running down that way and finding her waiting out of sight from the MacKenzies.
“Are you all right?” he asked, grabbing her hands. “Did they hurt you?”
She shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“I left three armed men guarding you,” he said. “How did you get out of there and down here without them noticing?”
