“Och, watch yourself, lass!” came a gruff voice as a man carrying a saddle came very close to knocking her down when Magdalene bolted inside. She barely managed to sidestep him, the telltale squish of horse manure beneath her leather slippers making her groan.
After the glare of the cloudy sky, the interior of the massive stable with its rows of stalls looked like a tomb, and she used the dim lighting to her advantage by slipping into the closest empty stall she could find. The dark wool of her cloak giving her added cover, Magdalene huddled in the corner and peered out from the narrow slats.
Watching. Waiting.
Her heartbeat thundering in her ears. The pungent smell of hay and manure threatening to make her sneeze. Stable boys and armor-clad warriors she didn’t recognize passed to and fro as she kept her forefinger pressed beneath her nose.
Only then did she wish she had stayed put in her mother’s tower room, the folly of her plan settling over her as still Gabriel didn’t come…the moments passing by.
Where was he? Had Seoras insisted that he remain with the others as Gabriel had attempted to slip away? Had Conall been waylaid somehow? Surely he had sensed her urgency and that only a matter of great import would have caused her to try and search out her husband!
Magdalene blinked against the dust in the air, horses snorting and whinnying all around her. The day was growing late and they were clearly restless and hungry. When Gabriel still did not come, she began to think that she should return to her room, for surely by now, that maidservant had awoken.
Mayhap even raised an alarm to have found Magdalene gone, yet she was supposed to be a lunatic after all. What made more sense than her running off? Such an antic only added credence to her ruse, which she planned to tell Gabriel for she doubted that he would be pleased to seek her out in a stable—
“Magdalene? By God, woman, where are you?”
Her heart jumping to hear his voice raised in a tense whisper, she darted to the stall opening just as he strode by, her hand darting out to touch his sleeve.
“Gabriel, in here—oh!”
If his voice had held tension, his grip upon her arms was like a vise as he lifted her bodily and carried her back into the corner of the stall, though in the next instant he crushed her against him.
“Woman, what in blazes?”
“Forgive me, Gabriel, I had tae see you!” Her outburst more an impassioned whisper, she shifted in his arms so her ear wasn’t pressed so painfully against his leather armor. “Listen carefully, please! Remember that maidservant who appeared at the door just before you left? Cora, Seoras’s wife, sent her tae fetch me tae her chamber! Oh, Gabriel, I’ve such terrible news. I didna know when you’d return so I might tell you—”
“Shh, Maggie, wait—wait!” he cut her off, drawing her deeper into the stall.
He still held her close as an outcry of alarm could be heard out in the bailey—a young woman screaming to anyone that might hear that Lady MacLachlan was missing—och,shewas the one missing!
“What news?” Gabriel urged her with a tautness in his voice as if sensing she wouldn’t have taken such a drastic measure to find him if it wasn’t important. “Maggie?”
“Your brother, Malcolm—Cora said Seoras had him murdered! One of his men named Tavish committed the deed. She hates Seoras, Gabriel! Cora told me that the Campbells were soon to rise up against him—her people, her clan!”
Magdalene felt as if she were babbling now, Gabriel grown very still while she kept her voice to a breathless whisper and did her best to share with him everything Cora had told her.
Everything except how much she loved him, the hue and cry outside growing louder as a man bellowed near the entrance, “Why, I saw her run into the stable! I was carrying a saddle and nearly struck her—och, she must still be in there!”
“No more, Maggie, say nothing more,” was all Gabriel bade her in a dead-sounding voice she didn’t recognize before he lifted her off her feet and carried her from the stall.
A few powerful strides and they were outside in the bailey, Magdalene blinking against the rain pelting her face as Gabriel roared, “I’ve found her! One of my captains came tae tell me my wife escaped from the tower and ran for the stable—but what else would a crazed woman do? Mad Maggie is found!”
“Good! Leave her and rejoin us!” Seoras shouted from a high rampart, a chill plummeting to her toes at how Gabriel’s face had hardened at the sound of her brother’s voice. “The servants will escort her back upstairs—and this time, they had better watch her more carefully!”
Gabriel gave a terse nod, but he didn’t set her down until they had reached the entranceway that Magdalene had fled from no more than a half hour past—though it had seemed an eternity while she’d awaited him so anxiously in the stable.
Right there to greet them was the red-haired maidservant, her face flushed as she glanced with apprehension at Seoras striding along the ramparts with his entourage and then back to Gabriel.
“We’ll see to her, Laird, forgive me!”
He didn’t respond, his gaze as hard as his expression as he gave Magdalene over to the girl and several other maidservants who had gathered, which made apprehension sluice through her.
God in heaven, had he not believed her? As if reading her mind, he brushed his fingers across her cheek so fleetingly that she might have imagined it—and they held tension, too.
“See that she’s brought tae me for the feast,” was all he said before he strode away, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword.
His knuckles white.
