“I must hurry,” she said, her voice sounding faraway to her own ears.
Concentrating on keeping her walk steady, she made her way into the wood. She felt her senses slowly returning as she followed the path through the wood until it opened up onto the vast moorland. She shivered in the wind and realized she had left her cloak behind.
It was growing dark. Remembering Una’s advice, Margaret kept her eyes on her feet and quickened her pace. As she hurried along,she tried to figure out just how she had been poisoned. She remembered how hot it was in the chamber and the extra peat on the brazier. It would not be difficult to add a powdered poison to the peat that gave off noxious fumes when burned. If Isabel had acted quickly, she could have done it while Margaret talked with Una in the other chamber. She had already shown herself to be a decisive killer.
Margaret came to an abrupt halt when she suddenly found herself on the edge of a deep chasm, a giant fracture that split the earth in front of her. She must have veered off the path, and she had no notion how long ago she’d left it. How could she make such a mistake?
Her heart beat frantically in her chest as she scanned the horizon, searching for the path or a landmark of some kind. But there was barely any light left, and this land of peat and bog seemed to stretch forever in a dark, beautiful sameness.
When she heard a rustling behind her, she whirled around.
Piercing black eyes set against white skin filled Margaret’s vision for an instant before Isabel shoved her. Margaret screamed and flailed her arms as she fell backward into a black abyss.
###
Finn and Lachlan stood side by side staring up the shoreline. Alex was two hours late, and Finn was worried he would not make it.
“We’ll take him to Dornoch Castle,” Lachlan said. “He should be safe there. Even the Sinclairs would not dare to attack a bishop’s home.”
Dornoch belonged to the Bishop of Caithness, the Gordon ally who most likely procured the murder of Duffus of Sutherland as a favor to Alex’s father. It was the closest safe place to take Alex.
“We’ll have to move him from there as soon as we can,” Finn said. “A bishop isn’t good enough to protect Alex for long. He needs an earl.”
Finn did not trust the bishop to withstand pressure from both the Sinclairs and the King’s Council to return Alex to his guardian. And from what Margaret had told him, it would take another earl to challenge George Sinclair for the guardianship.
“Take him to the Earl of Moray,” Finn said. “He’ll see that Alex gets to Huntly Castle, where he’ll be safe in the midst of Gordon lands.”
“Looks like Alex won’t make it today,” Lachlan said, and clasped Finn’s shoulder. “We’ll come back and hope he makes it out tomorrow. Let’s tell the men waiting with the boat to make camp.”
“Wait, there he is!” Finn said, pointing as a figure emerged in the distance, coming toward them at a dead run.
Finn ran down the beach with his new dog yapping at his heels and lifted his cousin off his feet in a bear hug.
“I heard shouts behind me,” Alex said, looking over his shoulder.
Finn and Lachlan pulled him off the beach and onto a trail that cut across the headland to the inlet on the other side, where the boat was hidden.
“I see ye kept the dog,” Alex said as they ran along the trail.
“I’m giving him to Ella,” Finn said. “A bairn should have a dog.”
“She’ll like him,” Alex said. “He’s as raggedy as her doll.”
The first half of the trail was uphill. When they reached the top and Finn had a good view of the shoreline on both sides of the headland, he stopped.
“Lachlan will take ye to Dornoch,” he told Alex. “I’ll keep watch and divert the Sinclairs if need be while ye get away.”
Finn lifted Alex’s cap off his head and put in on, covering his hair as best he could. Though he was considerably taller than his cousin, people generally saw what they expected to see. The Sinclairs did not know yet that Alex had friends meeting him and were likely to follow a lone man running away from them.
“You’re not coming with me?” Alex said.
“Lachlan will see ye safe.” Finn gripped his cousin’s shoulders and gave him a wink. “Remember, I’ve got a bonny bride waiting for me to come home.”
She was waiting to leave him, but Alex did not need to know that.
“Ye ought to get rid of that dog,” Lachlan said, “or he’ll give ye away.”
“Ach, no, he’ll be quiet as a mouse, won’t ye?” Finn said.
