“Oh, aye?” Samuel shouted, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Well, for yer information, ye wee tyke, milady is no’ here. She left tae be wi’ her family in Glasgow as soon as she buried her father, so ye can a’ go back tae the holes ye crawled oot o’!”
The scruffy man threw his head back and laughed heartily, then said: “An’ ye expect us tae believe that? Ye must be even more stupid than ye look!”
“I have no time for this,” Samuel said scathingly. He turned away and went inside, and the scruffy brigand lowered his flag and began to ride away. He had advanced no more than a few yards, however, before an arrow sang through the air and buried itself in his back. “There is yer answer!” Samuel shouted scathingly.
As soon as Cora heard the news, she wept, as she had been doing since the night after the battle. “Let me go to them,” she said tearfully. “I am only one person. There are hundreds in this castle. I will go to them and stop this.”
“Milady,” Samuel said patiently, “do ye think these thugs will keep their word? They say that they only want ye, but as soon as they have ye, some villainous piece o’ manure will marry ye, then they will be a’ over this place like a storm o’ bees. They will be lootin’ an’ rapin’ an’ killin’ as they please. After that, this castle will be their base, an’ they will make war on the whole estate an’ everythin’ around it. Ye must go. There is an escape tunnel under the dungeons. I will send two guards wi’ ye. Go now, this minute.”
“If you soldiers stay here, you will die,” she said firmly. “There are only a dozen of you left, and I will not have you lose your life for nothing. Come with me to fight another day.”
Samuel hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Ye are right, milady,” he agreed. “I hate tae run fae a fight, but we will come back tae purge Inchrigg fae these vermin!” His voice was a deep growl of hate.
A few moments later, Cora found herself saying goodbye to Hester. “Come with me,” she begged.
Hester shook her head, although there were tears in her blue eyes. “I will be more useful here, milady. Somebody has tae help get the children out. Go, an’ God be wi’ ye.”
The escape tunnel was damp, musty, and dark as soot, but with a guard behind her and one in front, each carrying a lantern, Cora felt fairly safe until they emerged out of the darkness of the tunnel into the full light of day. She felt vulnerable and afraid, but the tunnel had been placed so cunningly that its entrance did not appear until they were quite a way under the shadows of the trees.
No one spoke as the guards led her into the forest, and they could hear nothing but the gentle sound of birdsong and small creatures in the undergrowth. Cora had no way of measuring the time they had been walking, but she was sure that twilight was not far away when one of the guards stopped and gave her a lantern. He pointed to something pale at the edge of the forest, and as she peered at it, it resolved itself into the shape of a horse.
The guard pointed at it. “Milady,” he whispered urgently, “we must leave ye here. We are needed back at the castle, an’ we must be back before nightfall. A horse was smuggled out for ye yesterday because the captain o’ the Guard thought somethin’ like this might happen. His name is Geordie. Good luck, milady.”
Cora thanked the guards and walked over to the horse, who had been tied by a long rein to a large tree. He was cropping the grass contentedly but looked up and nickered as he saw her, seeming to be a very peaceable animal. He was already saddled, so she mounted and rode cautiously out of the clearing towards her friend Minetta’s castle. She lived at Rosnablane Castle with her older brother Clyde, whom Cora had not seen for years, since he spent much of his time on the battlefield. Minetta was her best, most dependable friend, and they had known each other since they were ten years old.
Twilight had already begun to fall by the time Cora reached Rosnablane Castle. A thin rain had begun to fall, and Cora was so tired she could hardly sit straight in the saddle. Presently, however, she saw the bulk of the huge building towering over the surrounding landscape. It was three hundred years old and one of the mightiest fortresses Cora had ever seen. She hoped that she would be safe behind its hundred-foot-high walls with its garrison of well over a hundred guards, and she hoped to beg assistance from its formidable Laird Munro.
3
Clyde Munro had also been through the wars. He went into the parlor, where Minetta was sitting and sewing, then regarded his sister for a moment. She was all he had left in the world, and if anything happened to her, he would die, since she was all he had left of his beloved mother.
Presently, she looked up and sighed with relief, then threw herself into his arms. “I am so glad you are back! It has been so long, I thought you were not coming at all!”
“I have spent the last three days burying my fallen men, and telling the news of their deaths to their families,” Clyde growled. “Those Sassenach swine killed twenty of my best guards, but I am willing to wager that we slew many more of them.” He poured himself a tumbler of whiskey and threw it down in one swallow. “But Minetta, you must not go out riding again, even with a guard. You would make a very valuable hostage to those—” He used an obscene word that she had never heard him use before, and it shocked her into a horrified gasp.
“I am sorry, Minetta. I am just so angry.” Clyde’s thick brows were drawn down in a fierce frown, and his deep green eyes had darkened with anger. He tossed down another glass of whiskey as he leaned on the mantelpiece, looking into the fire.
“I have something to tell you,” Minetta said quietly. “It is about Loraine.”
Loraine was Clyde’s betrothed and the woman he adored.
Clyde’s head whipped around sharply. “Has something happened to her?”
“No, not exactly,” Minetta sighed. She could delay the bad news no longer. “Clyde, she has ended your betrothal. A letter arrived by messenger the day before yesterday addressed to me, saying that she had met someone else and could no longer go on with your marriage.”
“Wait...” Clyde looked puzzled. “Why did she address the note to you?”
“Likely because she knew you would not be here,” Minetta replied. Her green eyes, so like Clyde’s, filled with tears. “I am so sorry, Clyde,” she whispered. “She says she thought you were dead.”
“And did she mention the name of her new paramour?” he demanded angrily.
If he had not been her brother, Minetta would have been terrified of Clyde at that moment. He stood like a colossus, over six feet tall and with enough strength to wield a heavy claymore or lift a fallen log by himself. From the top of his light brown hair to the tips of his toes, every part of him was muscular, from his broad shoulders and massive chest to his bulging upper arms and powerful thighs and calves. Minetta had never been frightened of him when he was angry because he had never taken his fury out on her, but she pitied whoever got in his way at this moment.
“Baron Sutherland,” she replied, her voice trembling a little.
The baron, who was one step above a laird in the ladder of the nobility, was as rich as Croesus and at least twenty-five years older than Loraine.
“He must have forced her somehow.” Clyde’s voice throbbed with rage. “Or else she would never have done this to me! Where is the letter?”
