Chapter Eighteen
Constantine neared TorCastle and threw off his unused weapons and travel bags and quickened his steps the rest of the way to the doors. He no longer cared about the warnings blaring through his head that he should not care again. Nor did he care about what others thought of him offering his heart to another.
He had waited long enough to see her and to see that she was safe. The man her mother had promised her would come after her. Now was more important than ever to make certain Ismay was safe. He could not get home quickly enough.
But before he reached the doors, Hilary MacDonald burst from the castle. After she made certain her betrothed still lived, she cried to Constantine that Ismay had left.
At first, he was certain he didn’t hear her right. Then he prayed he hadn’t.
“What did ye say?” he asked numbly.
“She’s gone, Lochiel.”
Before she said another word, Alison’s parents left the castle to meet him.
When he saw them, Constantine assumed if Ismay had any reason to leave, it had to do with these two, who were supposed to have left days ago.
He stormed toward them with rage in his eyes. Lady MacMillanstepped back and covered her neck as if he meant to rip it out. “What did ye say to her to make her leave?
“Lochiel,” Lady MacMillan dared to bite out. “Yer dear Miss Drummond didna run away because of us. She left because she got wind of a man searching for her close by. Ye were not here once again to protect the woman in yer life.”
For just an instant his eyes darkened on her. Leave it to her to point out another failure. He felt something rise up in his belly. Lady MacMillan hated him. He didn’t blame her, but he was sick and tired of the enormous weight of guilt he carried. If Alison’s mother had such hatred in her heart against him, there was no longer any reason for her or her husband to visit.
“I told ye both to leave Tor. If ye are not gone by the time I return, I will use force to evict ye.” He slipped his hard gaze to Bethia next. “Ye go with them.”
Without another word, he turned to cast his cousin a glare only slightly less dark. “What happened, Hilary? Where did she go?”
“I dinna know where she went, cousin. She found out that bastard MacRae had been at the Doomsday Tavern. We planned on not letting him inside the castle, but she ran away in the night.”
Constantine felt his knees quake beneath him.She left in the night. He covered his face with his hand. “Did anyone go with her?”
“Not that I am aware of,” Hilary told him. “But Hugh seems to have disappeared the same night.”
Hugh? Constantine’s guts seared inside him. If the steward hurt her, he would kill him. “What night was it? How long ago?”
“Three nights now.”
Constantine thought he was going to be sick. They were three nights ahead of him. According to Hilary, no one knew in which direction she traveled.
She’d found out that MacRae was at Lewis’s tavern. So then, Constantine reasoned, it was definitely MacRae he had metnear Clumes. But that meant MacRae was moving farther away. Still, Ismay didn’t know. She was afraid and she ran. Rather than leap on his horse and guess the way she went, he thought about it for a quarter of an hour, fighting off Lady MacMillan’s words in his head. He hadn’t been here for Ismay just as he hadn’t been here for Alison.
The urgent need to find her helped him battle the guilt. Where was the nearest convent? Did Ismay know about it?
After thinking on it, he saddled his fastest horse and took off, riding northeast. He didn’t go far when he suddenly stopped short. Dangling from a low branch before him was a parchment waving in the cool breeze. He rode closer and looked at the writing.
L,
Go southeast.
H
Constantine read it again. It had to be from Hugh. The steward was one of the few living at Tor Castle who could read and write. Still, it could have been written by some other traveler. But theLit was addressed to had to be Lochiel, and southeast was the way Ismay was traveling.
Constantine turned his head to look that way. It was the direction of Ben Nevis—and his house. Was Ismay heading to the house he’d built? Was she mad to try to go alone? She knew the man she almost married was on her tail. How did she know he wasn’t also going that way?
He whirled his horse around and flicked the reins. Just let her have arrived there safe and sound, he prayed as his mount’s hooves tore up the dirt behind him.
He stopped at the first inn he came to, near Torlundy and asked the innkeeper if he’d seen a lad with burnished autumn hair. He didn’t want to waste time traveling the wrong way because he was wrong about a missive he’d found. The innkeep had in fact given a lad of thatdescription a meal and a room.
