Toran rubbed his chin and gave Jamie a grin. “Good shot. Did ye enjoy yer time with Caitrin?”
His smirk told Jamie he knew what Jamie had been up to in offering to escort her. “I did,” Jamie answered succinctly, grabbing a length of sheeting to dry off with. “Until we heard strangers’ voices in the woods. We headed back to the keep.”
“Strangers?” Toran scrubbed sweat from his face and neck, eyeing Jamie.
“Men. Several. We didn’t stick around to find out how many. We went one way, and from the sound of it, they were headed away from the glen, so we didn’t see them.”
Toran frowned. “Ye told?—”
“The guard captain, aye, of course.”
“Damn. That could have gone very badly.”
“It didna. Let’s leave it at that, aye?”
Late that afternoon, the laird called Jamie to his solar.
“I dinna want ye tofashovermuch,” he began, “but yer sister is missing.”
Jamie felt an icicle plunge into his chest. The voices in the woods filled his mind and he sank into the chair opposite the laird’s desk.
“How long?”
“Since early this morning. The healer sent her to search for something she needed. She says Netta should have been back hours ago.”
“Caitrin and I just brought a basket full of…” Damn, the bramble leaves. Is that what she’d gone for? The leaves they were meant to gather yesterday? Jamie’s belly roiled with guilt and bile rose in his throat.
He stood, unable to sit any longer. If he didn’t get out of here soon, he’d be sick in the laird’s solar. “Who’s looking for her? I need to help find her.”
“Ye need to stay here, lad. I have men searching for her. I dinna want them to have to search for ye, too.”
“There were men in the woods yesterday. Voices I didna recognize.”
“Aye, the guard captain told me what ye reported to him. We will find her.”
Jamie’s belly gave another lurch and he felt cold sweat break out on his forehead. “Ye willna if those men took her.”
“We dinna ken that, lad. She may have fallen and gotten hurt, and is waiting, kenning we’ll look for her. Our men will find her and bring her to the healer. She will be well.”
Jamie hoped the laird was right. But some sense he couldn’t name told him her disappearance was connected to the men he and Caitrin heard the day before. He was glad he’d gone with herand had gotten her away before anyone found her. They could both be thankful for that. Now, if only his sister was as lucky and the Lathan warriors found her. Night would fall soon, and predators would roam the woods in the darkness.
Without another word, he left the solar and ran for the gate, the movement and anticipation of doing something, anything, to find his sister, helping to settle his nerves. Despite the laird’s assurances, he would search for Netta. But when he reached the bailey, the gates were closed.
“No one in or out,” the guard told him. “Nay ’til the searchers return.”
“I go to join them,” Jamie insisted. “Open the gates.”
“The laird specifically forbid us to allow ye to leave,” the man told him.
Jamie froze where he stood, certainty washing through him that the Lathan feared the worst and was keeping Jamie from being the one to find his sister’s body. It was one thing to be lied to and coddled as though he couldn’t be trusted in the woods. It was another to be locked in like a child, unable to help his sister in her time of need. His stomach twisted again and its contents threatened to erupt, but he held it down, anger tightening his muscles and locking his jaw. He spun on his heel and climbed the steps to the wall walk.
The view of the glen and the edge of the woods was unchanged. Late afternoon sunshine filled the glen and lit the tops of the trees. No one was visible. Not the searchers and not his sister. Tension made his hands shake as he lifted them to grip the bulwark he peered over. The men must have gone deeper into the woods. Perhaps even where he and Caitrin had heard the voices. If she hadn’t heard them before they got too close, if he hadn’t been with her, she could be missing, too. The thought of both Caitrin and his sister missing—gone—brought tears to his eyes that he’d held inside since the laird delivered the newsabout Netta. She’d been missing for hours, and the daylight was waning. He pounded his fists on the wall, hating the feeling of helplessness that hollowed his chest and churned his belly. He should be out there, too, searching. Instead, Jamie stood vigil until the sun set, then went down the stairs into the great hall. Toran met him there.
“I heard. I’m sorry, Jamie. They’ll find her.”
Jamie shook his head, unable to speak. He took a breath. “The sun just set. What are her chances in the dark?”
Toran’s expression was grim, his mouth set, and his brow furrowed. They both knew the risks. “If she has yer luck, she’ll be fine.”
