He pushed her up another stair. “Go to the loch.” He paused to offer her a brief smile in the midst of the chaos. “The loch where ye like to swim. I will come fer ye, my love.”
A look of horror passed over her features as a stranger came up behind him and lifted his blade. She didn’t have time to scream before Constantine turned and in a split second sliced his blade across the stranger’s belly.
Before this opponent hit the floor, another was upon him. He spared her a worried glance then fought his new opponent.
Ismay knew she was distracting Constantine by being there, so, with almost crippling reluctance, she hurried up the stairs, afraid to look back lest she see him fallen on the stairs where he had carried her to his room. If he died, she would drown herself in the loch.
She made it to the second landing and was met by John MacBain and Hilary.
“My kin will never fergive ye, John!” Hilary shouted at him. “Nor will I. Do ye understand? I will never—” Hilary’s words were cut short when she turned and saw Ismay at the top of the stairs.
She hurried to her. “Ismay! Are ye hurt?”
Ismay shook her head and turned to MacBain. “What is the meaning of this?”
He came forward and pulled a dirk from a hilt hanging at his side. “Hilary tells me ye are happy here. That is no’ fer me to decide. Our chief wants ye set free to be kept safe in our care.”
“In yer care?” Ismay echoed.
“The Chattan.”
Ismay backed away. “Nae! I winna come with ye.”
“Lass, the chief doesna care if we kill the Lochiel,” MacBain told her. “In fact, he wants us to kill him. But I can promise ye that if ye come with me, he willna be hurt.”
Go with him? Nae! She couldn’t. She heard someone’s voice from below stairs where the men were fighting. The voice shouted “Lochiel!” It was Geoffry. She turned to run back down the stairs to see what was going on. MacBain took her arm and stepped close to her.
“Come with me and the Lochiel willna be harmed,” he said against her ear.
Her eyes opened wide. If going with him was the only way to save Constantine from two hundred men, shewould obey.
“John, I beg ye, dinna take her,” Hilary cried. “Constantine was the one who agreed to our union. The elders denied us.”
“I must obey my orders, my lady.” With that, he ended the conversation and still holding Ismay by her arm, pulled her down the stairs.
Ismay struggled to be free to run to where she saw Geoffry. Her eyes scanned the myriad of faces for Constantine. Where was he? There wasn’t much time to gain her freedom before the gaping doors appeared before them.
“Constantine!” she screamed out.
Geoffry’s wide gaze met hers for an instant, and then he looked down, toward his feet.
Ismay couldn’t see what it was at first. But then there came a free space between the legs of a dozen men. She stopped, never wanting to move again at the sight of Constantine’s body lying limp at Geoffry’s feet.
Should she scream his name again? She didn’t have the strength. It drained from her more and more with each passing moment. Her knees gave out beneath her. MacBain lifted her over his shoulder and as he hurried out of the castle, she finally screamed her husband’s name.
*
Ismay’s eyes openedwith the shock of what happened flashing across her dreams.
Constantine was dead. Even her nostrils attested to it, burning from the dank odor decay.
She buried her head into the bed and wept.
Bed? She lifted her head and looked around. The room was small and empty save for the bed and a chair. The walls were empty, as well. Where was she? She looked down at herself in her clothes. Whobrought her here? Immediately, Hilary’s contorted face appeared before her. John MacBain! Where had MacBain brought her?
Her heart jolted. She wanted to forget, but her heart wouldn’t allow it.
Constantine was dead.
