There was only one place she could go…one place she would seek refuge and never leave if the nuns would take pity on her and allow her to stay.
The convent Roger had told her about that harbored Magdalene before she was married by proxy to Gabriel MacLachlan…a love story that mocked Julianna now and made her sob in despair.
The memory of Roger’s fervent words through the door making her clutch the reins with trembling fingers as Douglas Castle receded into the mist and torrential rain.
Juli, I dinna believe you no longer love me.
God help her, it was true, she loved him still…but it was a curse to her now.
Her parents’ faces drifting in front of her…and Alain’s face, too, heartrending pain gripping Julianna as she urged the mare to gallop faster.
CHAPTER19
“What are you saying, man? My wife rode out an hour ago?” Incredulous, Roger wiped the rain from his face as the burly guardsman glanced nervously at the other men flanking him and then back, nodding.
“Aye, Laird, she claimed she was joining you in the village.”
“You let her pass? Without anyone accompanying her?”
No one answered him, which made Roger swear under his breath as he veered his horse around and looked out through the gates into the thickening mist. The rain had stopped, but a storm threatened from the dark clouds scudding across the sky that made it look more like dusk than late afternoon.
“Did you see which way she went?”
Again, an uncomfortable silence until one guardsman stepped forward, shaking his head. “The rain was heavy, Laird, and it looked like she rode toward the village, but then she disappeared into the mist and we lost sight of her—”
“Which horse did she take?” Roger cut him off, the men’s faces as grim as he felt at this news, every moment that passed filling him with dread.
“A black mare…and she wore a dark blue hooded cloak.”
“Aye, Laird, and she looked distraught,” interjected another guardsman. “No sooner had she cleared the gates when I swear I heard her burst into tears.”
“Ah, God, protect her.” Roger wheeled his steed around in a flurry of mud to face the six men who had ridden with him into the village, his terse commands filling the air. “You two, ride tae the south in search of my wife while the three of you go north. Alec and I will ride west—are you ready, man?”
A somber nod his captain’s answer, Roger kicked the massive stallion King Robert had given him into a gallop, his men setting out behind him and splitting off in different directions.
Already the air was growing colder, which meant a treacherous night ahead that could become life-threatening for Julianna if they didn’t find her soon.
His jaw clenched, his heart pounding, Roger wished they had dumped William’s body into a shallower hole at the churchyard that might have gotten him back to the castle in shorter time.
Every moment counting…Julianna out there alone, distraught, mayhap disoriented in the mist and rain, which was coming down again in sheets.
Thunder rumbled, too, the heavy clouds brightening for an instant in a jagged flash of lightning—and then darkening again.
The only encouraging thing for Roger that such foul weather would hopefully keep any thieves and other miscreants off the muddy roads, which made him lean forward in the saddle and ride faster.
“Juli…why?” he said hoarsely under his breath, raw emotion tightening his throat. Mayhap she truly hated him now after all—God help him, no! He wouldn’t allow himself to think it.
With Alec’s lunging gray steed close behind him, Roger narrowed his gaze against the stinging rain and forced himself to focus only upon finding her.
The woman who had made him feel again, love again, live again…
* * *
Shivering uncontrollably,Julianna slowed the mare to a walk…both of them exhausted from the long ride.
Already it was growing dark and cold…so cold. She knew she would have to find cover somewhere for the night…the ominous howls of wolves in the distance making the agitated mare snort and toss her head.
Yet where? Dense trees flanked the dirt road that had become a muddy morass, though the landscape did look familiar to her from what she remembered of the ride from Dumbarton days ago.
