“Without the other woman,” the captain said gruffly.
“What woman?”
The man huffed out an impatient breath. “The red-haired lass behind ye.”
“What offense has she committed?”
“I canna speak to that exactly,” he offered. “But the laird has asked that she be brought before him if caught wandering about.”
Kali could not place the responsibility of her disobedience on Raini’s already overburdened shoulders. She set her hand on the seer’s arm and whispered in her ear, “I will go quietly with him. If you can, stay in the cave with the children for a few days, until I send word it is safe to return to the tower.”
“You mustn’t go with these men, for the laird’s displeasure is building against ye. I can feel it in me gut.”
“No man is worse than me sire.” With that, Kali turned and stepped forward. “I am Kali Bane.”
“Aye,” the captain eyed her without malice but quickly hid his kind nature. “Ye will ride behind me, Mistress.”
Kali allowed him to pull her up, and she settled on the horse behind him, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist. The mare sprang into a violent gallop and arrived swiftly at the castle, where everyone in the courtyard halted their labors to gaze upon her with interest of varying degrees. For modesty’s sake, Kali quickly pulled her shawl up and over her hair, which had been loosely braided to keep her curls from blowing in the wind.
The captain dismounted, then helped her down. “I am sorry ye are such a spectacle for our people. Little excitement touches this side of the Highlands. But when it does…”
“Words carry on the wind like ashes,” she said.
“Ye mean gossip.”
She met his dark gaze and smiled. “That’s a harsher way of saying it, I suppose.”
“Come.” He escorted her inside and up to the laird’s solar.
It had been weeks since she had seen or heard from the laird, and she was in no hurry to confront him again. But the captain banged on the closed door, and they were immediately invited in.
As before, the laird left the two of them standing there for several moments, ignoring their presence as if they were more a nuisance than expected guests. Finally, he set down the papers in his hands and glared at her.
“Ye were not where ye were expected to be, girl.”
Kali swallowed her anxiety and lowered the shawl from her head. “I have not exactly broken yer orders, Laird MacKay.”
“Nay?” the old man asked.
“Nay. I have avoided yer people during the daylight hours as expected.”
Laird MacKay drew in a deep breath as if summoning patience. “Captain, where did ye find the lass?”
“On the path to the hills.”
“Alone?”
“Nay, milord. Mistress Raini and the orphans were with her.”
“Thank ye for yer prompt action, Captain. Ye may go.”
The captain hesitated for a mere moment, his eyes catching Kali’s look of horror at the thought of being left alone with the laird. But the soldier bowed and left without saying another word.
“Ye are a presumptuous lass.”
“Presumptuous in what way, sir?”
He poured himself a glass of whisky and took a deep drink before he eyed her again. “Ye have found the most vulnerable of me people.”
