He was about to turn away when he looked closer at the riders. He swore aloud, realizing who was missing: Archie.
One look at her brother’s face, and Elizabeth knew—even before she scanned the men who were walking into the Hall behind him for the gangly auburn-headed youth.
“Archie?”
Jamie shook his head grimly.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Lady Helen’s reunion with her husband. The big Highlander took his son from his wife’s arms as if he weighed nothing and enfolded Lady Helen against his leather-clad chest. The deep affection between them reminded Elizabeth of her brother and Jo. She’d thought their love unusual, but maybe it wasn’t as uncommon as she thought.
“What happened?” she asked her brother.
He shook his head, indicating not here. Jamie conferred for a few minutes with one of the most fearsome, imposing-looking warriors of the Phantoms—which was saying something. Though she’d never met him, Elizabeth knew he was the leader of the impressive band of warriors: Tor MacLeod. All ten members of the Guard had answered Jamie’s call to rescue his young brother; it was out of their respect for Jaime that they’d put aside their other duties. It also said much about the king’s regard for Jamie that he’d let them go with the greatest test of his kingship coming in a few months’ time. The coming of the English host in summer was a specter haunting them all.
“I will send word to the king about our delay and speak with Carrick,” MacLeod said in the native tongue of theGall-GaedhilIslanders.
Jamie nodded. “We will reconvene in the morning. Get something to eat, and my steward will direct you to your chambers. We can all use some rest.”
After seeing to the food, Jamie led her into the king’s solar. Seeing his exhaustion, she forced him to sit and fetched him a goblet of wine before taking a seat on the bench next to him to hear what had happened.
He explained how they’d arrived and spent the first day surveying the castle and trying to gather information about the prisoners. They’d learned the Scots were being held in the guardhouse in the tower near the edge of the bluff. MacRuairi had tried to enter the castle with some villagers, but the porter was checking everyone, and he’d had to turn around rather than take a chance at being recognized. Apparently, MacRuairi had a lot of enemies in the Borders. From what she’d heard, the infamous West Island chieftain turned pirate mercenary had a lot of enemies all over.
Jamie had waited until the wee hours of the night to attempt to scale the cliff.
“It should have been easy,” Jamie said, clearly frustrated. “That side of the castle is woefully undefended—I didn’t see one guard in the area the entire night. All we had to do was climb that cliff, toss the scaling ladder over the wall, and we would have been in and out with no one the wiser.” He shook his head. “Even the cliff didn’t look as bad as we thought. It was steep, but there were plenty of foot- and handholds. For the first hundred and twenty feet or so, I thought we would make it.”
“And then?” she asked.
Jamie’s mouth fell in a hard line. “Then we hit thirty feet of sheer rock. I tried, but I could not get more than a few feet up. MacRuairi managed to climb to within a dozen feet, but then slipped and came within a handhold of falling the rest of the way off the cliff.”
Elizabeth’s eyes widened in horror.
“You are to keep that information to yourself, by the way. I doubt his wife would appreciate how close she came to becoming a widow.”
She nodded. MacRuairi was married to Bella MacDuff. The former Countess of Buchan was regarded as a great Scottish patriot and hero.
“We don’t think anyone in the castle heard, but we can’t be sure. A handful of our men stayed at Bamburgh to keep watch, while the rest of us returned to Roxburgh to regroup for another attempt.”
Thank God. Elizabeth couldn’t hide her relief. “You are going back?”
“Aye, and this time we will be successful. I probably should have listened to you in the first place.”
Elizabeth was so shocked at first she didn’t understand. “You should have listened tome?”
“You were right.” Her brother grinned at her expression and tweaked her nose the way he’d done when she was a girl. “Aye, Idoknow how to say those words. It would have saved me a long journey back and forth, if I’d taken him in the first place.”
All of a sudden, she realized what he meant. “Thom?”
Jamie nodded. “Aye. Those rocks would have been nothing for him. I’ve seen him climb far more difficult cliffs with ease.”
Elizabeth shook her head dumbly. “It’s too late. You’ll have to think of another way.”
“There is no other way.” He frowned, studying her. “What do you mean it’s too late?”
Elizabeth bit her lip and made a sheepish face. “I already asked him.”
He exploded off the bench. “You did what?” Well over six feet of angry warrior loomed over her intimidatingly. She combated it by sitting there serenely with her hands folded in her lap. Thom had taught her that. “Damn it, Ella, I told you to stay away from him.”
Her eyes narrowed right back at him. “You are my brother, not my father. Thom is myfriend, and I will see him if I want.”
