The battle of wills continued in a silent stare, and when it was done, it was the ruthless Enforcer who let out a not-so-muttered curse and turned away.
Patrick tried—not very hard—to cover his smirk at his brother-by-marriage, but Annie knew that expression wasn’t going to last long. Not with what Annie had to say.
She was right. By the time she was finished presenting her solution, it was Patrick’s turn to be furious.
“No! I won’t hear of it. You aren’t moving to Ireland. What the hell is he thinking to take you into that kind of environment? It’s dangerous there!”
“It’s dangerous here,” Annie reminded him.
“But you have me to—”
He stopped when he saw her expression, remembering what she’d said about protection. Instinct was powerful, and she knew Patrick—and Niall for that matter—would always attempt to protect her. But with time and more practice, she hoped to convince them that her protection wasn’t just up to them.
Not that she and Niall wouldn’t exchange words on the matter.Plentyof words, and some that were likely to be not very ladylike. She’d learned more than hitting a target with the knife from observing the squires.
“You and Lizzie and Iain are the only family I have left,” Patrick said, trying a different tack. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t lose me,” Annie said. “Ireland isn’t the other side of the world.”
“It might as well be,” Patrick said with as much belligerence as his brother-in-law had exhibited a few moments before.
“You can’t expect Annie to stay with us at Edinample forever,” Lizzie interjected with a hand on Patrick’s arm that seemed to deflate his anger. “She has to live her own life.”
“I don’t want to lose my brother any more than you want to lose your sister,” Caitrina added gently. “But what Annie says is true. Niall cannot stay here after what he’s done, and Ireland is as good a solution as any. Perhaps Argyll and the king’s men can be appeased by his exile—at your insistence, of course.”
She said the last to her stewing husband, who was obviously still furious at being deprived of his prey. “We’ll see.”
She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “I have all the confidence in you in the world.”
He didn’t say anything, but Annie could see the flicker of a smile hover around Jamie Campbell’s mouth. And his eyes when they fell on his wife were filled with something that could only be called tenderness.
For a moment Annie felt a pang of envy at what Niall’s sister had found—even if it was with a Campbell. If they didn’t hurry up and agree to escort her to the coast, she was going to lose her chance to have the same.
“Are you sure you want to do this, Annie?” Patrick said.
She felt the weight of all eyes at the table upon her. She didn’t hesitate this time. She nodded. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”
* * *
Niall wasn’t at Greenock. Nor was he at Dumbarton, Dunoon, or any of the other ports around the River Clyde or the Firth.
With each stop, Annie’s panic rose—no matter what assurances Jamie Campbell and her brother gave her. Not surprisingly, Patrick had insisted on accompanying them—and on bringing his own men. The reluctant brothers-in-law worked surprisingly well together, and Annie wondered whether the occasional argument was more out of habit than out of any real animosity. Clearly, there was mutual respect between the two men even if they didn’t want the other to see it.
“Don’t worry, lass,” Jamie Campbell said with surprising kindness after their latest disappointment at Dunoon as they walked back to the place where they’d left their horses. They’d talked to every captain at the pier, but no one had seen him. “He might have gone farther south to avoid Campbell strongholds.”
“But they areyourstrongholds,” Annie said. “And your brother Duncan’s. Niall would feel safer here because of that. No matter how angry you are with him, he knows you won’t betray him.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Jamie said.
But oddly she was. “He knows this area like the back of his hand, as it’s so close to Ascog Castle on Bute. Are you certain he did not go there to say goodbye to his brother and sister first?”
Jamie shook his head. “Caitrina would have let us know by now.” Jamie had sent his wife home with a large contingent of men who’d caught up with them a few hours ago. They’d been hunting Niall for almost two days now. “He is probably biding his time in the forest, watching the channel for a smuggling vessel. He’ll want to travel at night to avoid questions, and the salt smugglers from Ireland are active in this area.”
With the high taxes imposed on the salt that was needed to preserve meat and fish for the long Scottish winters, it wasn’t surprising that smugglers from Carrickfergus had taken advantage. Scotsmen considered avoiding the excise man a God-given right and duty.
“I hope you are right,” Annie said.
“He is,” Patrick assured her. “Eoin tracked him in this direction, didn’t he?”
