“I need privacy to dress,” she said, interrupting his untoward thoughts.
She glanced meaningfully toward the door, and yet his feet failed to carry him out. He was still imagining her lifting her night shift to reveal slender calves and thighs that stretched to…
When his gaze reached her primly folded hands, he snapped his gaping mouth shut.
This time, she gave him a stern look and pointed toward the door.
“Ye don’t need help with the hooks on your gown?” he asked. “I’m good at that.”
“I’ve no doubt you are,” she said, and it did not sound like a compliment. “But I can manage on my own.”
###
Margaret’s heart was pounding in her chest so hard that she thought the Highlander must hear it. She was terrified he would discover Ella and Lizzie. Praise God for Lizzie’s quick thinking—she must have heard the voices and hidden Ella with her in the loft. Lizzie even had the wits to pull the rope ladder up behind her.
The Highlander grinned at her as he finally backed out the doorway. As soon as he closed the door, Lizzie’s head popped through the opening overhead. When Margaret put her finger to her lips, Lizzie nodded, then dropped the rope ladder and scurried down with Ella in one arm.
Margaret took Ella, who was furiously sucking her thumb, into her arms and held her close. She glanced up just in time to see Lizzie start toward the door with a small dirk in her hand.
Good heavens, Lizzie meant to stab the Highlander. Margaret grabbed Lizzie’s arm to stop her. Then she conveyed her plan to Lizzie with gestures, pointing to herself and Ella and then to the door.
You’re going with him?Lizzie mouthed.
Margaret bit her lip. She wished she had more time to think it through! But she’d wanted to find a man to take her to the Highlands. Now one had found her—albeit a kidnapper—and she was going to use him to get away.
When she nodded that she was going, Lizzie’s eyes lit up, as if Margaret was embarking on an exciting adventure rather than making a desperate escape that could end very badly indeed.
“He’s a Highlander and verra handsome,” Lizzie whispered, as if these were redeeming qualities that made this ridiculous plan worth the risk.
“When we travel through MacKenzie lands, I’ll try to escape and find Sybil,” Margaret said in Lizzie’s ear. MacKenzie lands stretched from sea to sea across the Highlands, so they ought to pass through them.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when a deep male voice called through the door.
“Are ye having trouble with those hooks, lass?”
“Nay! I’m nearly ready.” Margaret quickly donned the servant’s gown and cloak she had borrowed—or rather, stolen, now that she could not return them. She felt bad about that, but it could not be helped.
“What if ye can’t get away from him?” Lizzie asked in a low voice as she fastened the hooks at Margaret’s back.
“Then I’ll be a hostage.” Highborn female hostages were usually treated well, even as guests.
Weren’t they?
“If you’re waiting for Archie to pay a ransom,” Lizzie whispered, “ye could be gone a long time.”
That was her best hope. The longer she was away, the better her chances of avoiding her brothers’ schemes altogether. It may be wrong to wish they would be forced into exile again, but she did.
She retrieved the basket from where Lizzie had shoved it under the bed. Ella immediately climbed into it and curled up, still sucking her thumb, which gave Margaret a sick feeling that Ella was accustomed to hiding in the basket. The poor child!
“Shhh,” she warned Ella, then kissed her forehead and gently pulled the blanket over her head.
She could not hide Ella from the Highlander for long. Her hope was to delay the discovery until they were too far away for him to want to turn back. Luckily, Ella was an unusually quiet child—Margaret could not let herself think about why that was now—and the night was dark. If she could just get Ella out of the cottage without the Highlander seeing her, her plan should work.
Margaret blinked back tears when she and Lizzie embraced to bid goodbye.
“I’ll miss you. Tell Alison not to worry,” she whispered in Lizzie’s ear. “I’ll send word when I can.”
Lizzie held up her dirk, then dropped to her knees and strapped it to Margaret’s thigh before she could object.
