For now.
Reginald’s fury was obvious as he continued to berate the officers after they had recounted their tale. He ranted and raved about how his men and the mercenaries should have been better prepared; how they should have had scouts on the lookout – even though they did, according to the officers.
Reginald was especially enraged at the money he had wasted on the mercenaries and the loss of the majority of his fighting force. It would cost him a great deal to regain the men he had lost. It also left him at a disadvantage, should any of the neighboring Scottish clans decide to attack him; his forces were at their weakest. They would not survive or win a siege without more soldiers.
It was at this point that Reginald’s train of thought took a dangerous turn, in Vivien’s opinion.
“That’s just it,” he said, staring out of the window.
“Lord?” the one officer asked hesitantly.
“I wonder if we could turn this MacBride into an ally?” Reginald mused; Vivien almost gasped – what was Reginald thinking?
“He has proven himself to have some form of intelligence, albeit a problem for me and probably not up to the standard I usually expect from an ally.” Vivien cursed Reginald in her mind. His arrogance was a disgrace to all Englishmen. “But,” he continued in the silence that held between the officers, “If I could somehow convince him to become a turncoat and have him feed me information on the movements and workings of our neighboring clans… well… wouldn’t that just be an amazing achievement. One I think the crown just might notice.”
“That would be helpful indeed,” the officers nodded in unison.
“How to achieve this goal, though?” he quirked his eyebrow, a frown furrowing his forehead.
One of the officers drew a deep breath, preparing himself to say something.
“I think we may have the answer. We managed to take a prisoner, Lord Stone,” he straightened his backbone in an apparent effort at trying to look confident in his suggestion. He failed miserably, Vivien thought, as his shoulders slumped at the look of thunder on her husband’s face.
She felt her heart stop in her chest as her palms began to sweat at her sides. She prayed that it was not Kieran. She would not survive it if something happened to him. Vivien could feel the blood draining from her face as her entire body began to tremble with fear and panic.
She moved closer to the door and accidentally bumped it. To her surprise and joy, she found that it was unlatched. She moved to the side so that she would be out of sight, as she pushed the door open a few more inches so that she could hear better.
“A prisoner, you say?”
Reginald holding some form of leverage over Kieran was the last thing he needed. Vivien could only hope that it was not someone of great importance within the clan. But she also knew that Kieran was unlikely to let Reginald kill a member of his clan without trying everything in his power to save the person.
“Yes, Lord. He was one of the men who was with this Laird MacBride that day he came to see you.”
“Is that so?” Reginald pursed his lips, holding his chin in his hand as he paced the length of the room, lost in thought.
“We thought he might be of value; he was always close to the Laird while they waited, as though he holds some position of power within the Scotsman’s clan,” the officer continued, some color returning to his face. He must have felt proud and confident at that moment, Vivien thought, as she fought down the tears that were prickling her eyelids.
She wondered who it was, but there was only one way to find out.
She had to take a trip down to the dungeons somehow.
“Now that is interesting,” Reginald grinned, his expression as terrifying as his tone.
* * *
Bailey was indeed missing.
Kieran could not help but feel responsible. It seemed that every time he tried to do something, Bailey paid the price for his decisions. He had barely healed from the altercation in the forest, and now he was missing.
Or worse yet, kidnapped.
Kieran had organized search parties to look for his best friend, they had scoured the land all around the castle, but there was no sign of him.
Tilly was frantic, constantly asking Kieran for an update, causing his guilt to increase tenfold each time she did so.
He already struggled to sleep at night, with all of the anguish he felt over the original skirmish, then the deaths of so many Englishmen, and now, he could add Bailey to the list of terror he felt once again.
Several days later, Kieran was alerted that an English messenger was at the castle gates with a note for him from Lord Stone.
