“My sister Alison lives at Blackadder Castle,” she said. “Her husband is the infamous David Hume.”
Sybil would feel safest there. David was a powerful Border laird and the only man connected to her family that she still trusted without reservation. For a moment, her thoughts strayed to her brothers, and she had to swallow against the bitter disappointment that closed her throat.
On her list visit, Alison and David urged her to stay with them until the trouble passed. She should have listened to them. But she had been so confident that, regardless of what happened, her many friends at court would protect her. Ha! What a fool she had been.
“The Hume lands lie behind us in the wrong direction,” Rory said, shaking his head. “Worse, they’re far too close to Edinburgh.”
Disappointment swelled in her chest, but she said, “My sister Janet lives north. She is the lady of Glamis Castle. You can take me there.”
Though Sybil loved Janet dearly, Janet was the youngest Douglas sibling by several years and Sybil was not as close to her. Also, she did not know Janet’s husband well. Glamis was a great lord with sufficient power to protect Sybil, but would he?
“To reach Glamis Castle, we’d have to pass between Edinburgh and Stirling—right under the noses of both the queen and the regent,” Rory said. “We’re not going that way. For your safety, we’re taking the less-traveled route to the west, then north.”
Was he trying to thwart her? She had only one sister left.
“We travel west? Well, it just so happens that my sister Margaret lives to the west,” she said, propping her hand on her hip. “Will ye take me to see her, or are yedetermined to refuse me?”
***
Rory did not like it one bit. Yet he could not deny that Sybil might not see her sisters for years, and he understood why she was willing to take the risk.
“Who is this sister’s husband?” he asked, regretting it already.
“A distant kin,” she said. “William Douglas, the 7thBaron of Drumlanrig.”
“Your uncle’s wife attempted to hand ye over to the queen,” Rory said. “How can we trust that Drumlanrig will not to do the same?”
“He’s a Douglas, and my brother is still his chieftain,” she said. “He has no choice but to protect me.”
Her brothers and uncle had an even greater duty, and they had thrown her to the wolves. Still, this Baron of Drumlanrig lived a healthy distance from the antics of the Scottish court, and as a Douglas, he was unlikely to risk drawing attention to himself by sending messages to the queen.
“I’ll take ye, but—”
Before he could finish, Sybil jumped up and threw her arms around his neck.
“Thank you!” she said, and her face was aglow as she smiled into his eyes.
By the saints, how did anyone refuse her? He could to protect her but feared that otherwise she would always get her way. If it meant seeing her this happy and in his arms, perhaps that was all right.
Her mouth was only inches from his, tempting him to kiss her again. Her safety must come first, however, so he set her feet firmly on the ground and laid out his conditions.
“I will take ye to Drumlanrig Castle, but we shall not enter the gates until I am certain the queen’s men have not arrived before us,” he told her. “If I say ’tis not safe, ye shall not argue.”
Sybil nodded her agreement, but he caught the shadow that briefly clouded her eyes. What was it his bonny bride was not telling him?
CHAPTER 7
“We must be getting close to Drumlanrig Castle.” Sybil’s pulse leaped. “I recognize this wood. I hunted here with my brothers when we visited.”
Now that she was about to reach her safe haven, an unaccountable sadness weighed on her heart at the prospect of parting with her Highlander, of never seeing him again. She had barely known him two days. And yet, after what they had been through, it did not feel right that he would be gone from her life forever.
Too soon, her sister’s home appeared in the distance. She was not ready to bid him goodbye.
“That’s Drumlanrig, there, across the river,” she said, pointing at the tower castle. “Let’s walk the rest of the way.”
Rory lifted her to the ground. Before he released her, he studied her with his piercing green eyes until she wondered if he had guessed her true purpose in coming to her sister’s.
“You’re certain ye can trust your sister’s husband?” he asked.
