It seemed another moment and the brisk morning air hit her face again when they stepped outside, but this time Lisette wasn’t there to bid goodbye to Conall.
Just as the serving maid had said, Father Philip awaited them with a wagon, his pale blue eyes narrowed in a visible threat.
“Climb in, we must go!”
He held out his arms for Colin and she could do nothing but lift the boy up to him, while the serving woman encircled Lisette’s waist with her big hands and hoisted her bodily into the back of the wagon.Then she climbed in beside her while the priest, holding Colin fast upon his lap, flicked the reins at the same horse he had ridden yesterday, the wagon jerking into motion.
Lisette saw Conall’s warriors who stood guard around the bailey turn startled faces toward them, while others on the battlements peered down to see the wagon heading straight for the gates.
Massive gates that were closed—while Finlay’s raised voice carried to them from somewhere nearby.
“Lady Campbell?Conall said nothing tae me of your leaving the fortress.Is aught amiss?”
“Tell him tae let us out, or you’ll both die!”shouted Father Philip, neither he nor the woman appearing to care now that Colin began to sob as if sensing the horror gripping Lisette.
She opened her mouth to speak, but already Finlay had lunged for the gates and was ordering them open, clearly having heard the priest.
All she could do was stare wide-eyed as they careened past him and a cluster of warriors with their hands upon the hilts of their swords, but what could they do?
The serving maid flashed her knife at them and then pressed it to Lisette’s throat, the priest holding Colin so tightly that he wailed now in earnest.
A few blurred moments, Lisette’s mind spinning, and they were well away from the castle walls as three riders burst out of the trees.
Their faces set grimly as the wagon jolted to a halt.
Lisette told herself that she should scream, or struggle, or do something as one of the men grabbed her and set her down hard in front of him while another seized Colin, the boy crying out in terror.
Yet the priest had no sooner jumped on behind the man holding Colin, the serving maid reaching out to the third rider who drew his snorting mount alongside her—when a whizzing sound came from the castle.The woman fell dead to the ground with an arrow sticking out of her back.
“Ride!”shouted the priest, but he was struck through the neck in a spray of blood by another arrow.Lisette watched in horror as he pitched sideways from the horse, nearly pulling Colin and the second man with him.
The boy’s anguished cries ringing around them, the rider who had grabbed Lisette plunged his mount into the woods with Colin’s captor right behind them—while a high-pitched scream told her that the man at the rear had been struck by an arrow, too.
She could only close her eyes as they careened through the trees at a breakneck pace…while a great roar went up from the direction of the castle, followed by the thundering of horses.
Finlay and some of Conall’s men must be coming after them—please God, may it be so!
Yet the distance was already wide between them, Lisette having no idea where she and Colin were being taken.
Still their captors drove their horses with a relentless purpose, and she no longer knew how long they had been riding for the fear paralyzing her.
The cloak, the cloak!Why would the serving maid have mentioned taking it as if that was what they most wanted—and not her and Colin?
A terrible intuition began to grow inside her, but she had no more time to think when they burst out of the trees and onto a pebbly beach where two ships were anchored thirty feet from shore.
One an ominous black but for its red furled sail…while the other bore a dark-haired woman who rushed to the railing, a smug smile lighting her face.
Ah, God, no…Isabeau.
Chapter21
“God help us,Conall!”
Finlay’s outcry carrying to him over the distance still separating them, Conall didn’t slow the hard pace of his mount until he was almost upon the Highlander and several other riders—all of their faces flushed with alarm.
He already knew something ominous was afoot from the tumult emanating from the castle that he’d heard all the way to the village, borne by the wind—butwhat?
Finlay wouldn’t have ridden out from the fortress if they were under attack, which left Conall pulling up so hard on the reins that his stallion reared on its hind legs, squealing.Finlay didn’t even blink but skirted the startled animal and veered his own mount around so he was alongside Conall.
