Breakfast passed uneventfully, but two MacGregors arrived with a Fletcher escort soon after the midday meal. Caitrin needed only a glance to see they were exhausted and half frozen. She ordered the MacGregors to the healer for care, and took the Fletcher to her solar for his report.
“The snow is blinding, Lady Fletcher,” the man told her. “Those men didna want to come in, but they were near to falling from their mounts by the time we reached the stable.”
“They escorted Lady Madeleine from MacGregor, then turned immediately for home. Then rode back here and out again. No wonder they’re spent. Ye havena found the missing man, then?”
He shook his head. “Nay, lady. Our lads are still trying, but may have to bring the rest of the MacGregors back here soon.”
Caitrin nodded. They were all hardened warriors, but midwinter was upon them. “They’ll be welcome and we’ll care for them as they need.” She wanted to ask about Jamie, but surely this man would mention him if there was anything she needed to know. “Very well, go get some hot food and some sleep. I hope the rest will return successfully soon, and ye willna need to go back out.”
He thanked her and left her solar. She remained at her desk, deep in thought. Where along their route could a man have gotten so thoroughly lost?
Jamie followeda ridge that led down to the next glen, cold but determined to keep going. Snow still swirled around him, all but blinding him to his surroundings. A man unfamiliar with the lay of the land might easily have confused this for the route the others took and gotten separated. But he recognized this ridge, and his mount knew it, too. They went slowly, careful of obstructions that might prove to be a hazard—or a body. Slick spots worried Jamie the most, but his horse was sure-footed and as long as they descended with care, it would keep to the track they followed.
Jamie was losing hope of finding the missing man. If he hadn’t gone this way, and no one else reported finding him, he would have to assume the man had succeeded in reaching MacGregor separate from his other escorts, or else they would find his body, or what was left of it, after the snow melted.
Lady Madeleine would be devastated. So would Caitrin, for her sake, and for the man’s. His loss would spoil the Yule celebration for two clans.
The track leveled off at the glen below it and Jamie paused. The man could have gone anywhere from here. Across the glen. Along it. Or he had never been here at all.
Jamie was tempted to turn back. Caitrin would be furious to hear he, too, had gotten separated from the men he was supposed to be riding with. He wasn’t certain when or where exactly it had happened. He’d been so intent on the search, he hadn’t noticed he was alone until he reached this ridge.
The others knew his reputation as a Lathan scout. They were counting on him to be the one to find the missing man, andhe’d let himself wander away from them. He shook his head. Go back? Or go forward?
A weak cry made the decision for him. Forward, slowly.
“Magnus!” Jamie called the man’s name several times, but heard no response. Had he imagined the earlier cry? He didn’t think so.
Ahead, through the swirling snow Jamie spotted a large pine. Its branches spread over a clear patch around its base, keeping the snow from reaching the ground. Was there something there? He urged his mount closer, slid off and ducked under the branches onto a carpet of needles. A man lay there, shivering, partly buried in the needles he’d clearly tried to form into a blanket.
“Magnus?” Jamie dropped to his side.
The man’s eyes opened, then widened. “Ye found me. I thought I’d die here.”
“Where’s yer mount, man?”
“Scared off by a pack of wolves. Threw me, but the wolves chased the horse or I’d be dead now.”
“Are ye hurt?”
“Aye. Leg, shoulder, wrist. Maybe more. So cold, I canna feel much.”
“A blessing then. Let’s get ye up and on the way back to Fletcher.”
“Aye,” Magnus answered, but the attempt to stand was more than he could bear. He choked on a scream and passed out.
Magnus wasn’t as heavily muscled as Jamie, nor as tall. Jamie caught him and lifted him into his arms like a child, carried him to his horse, then stopped. How would he secure the man up there? He looked around for something the horse could get close to that would allow Jamie to mount, then pull Magnus up, but the only thing he could see through the snow was the pine, and its branches draped too low to be helpful. If Magnuswas conscious, perhaps he could stand and hold on to a branch long enough for Jamie to reach for him from atop his horse, but nay. No sense wasting time thinking about it, not until Magnus woke up—if he ever did.
Jamie remembered one of the Fletchers pointing out caves in the wall of the ridge he’d just come down. One he recalled had an opening that he thought his horse would fit through. The others he’d seen were too low, though they were supposed to widen past the entrance. He could carry Magnus that far, get him under cover and warm, then go for help.
Jamie trudged through the snow covered glen, leading his horse, Magnus a dead weight in his arms. “Dinna ye die on me, man. I’ll nay carry ye so far to find ye gone, I willna!”
Another day had passedand Caitrin’s hope was fading. The searchers had been out the entire day and returned after dark the night before but without the missing man, and worse, without Jamie. She had consoled herself that Jamie was a formidable man, and if he’d found Magnus, surely he’d sheltered with him and kept him somewhere safe overnight. She’d expected him to ride up to the Fletcher gate at any time during the day, but he hadn’t.
More men had gone out before sunrise to look for him, helped by the snowstorm blowing itself out overnight. Clouds and fog persisted, but they thinned late in the day and weak midwinter sunlight pierced them in a few places.
Where was Jamie? Why wasn’t he home? Yuletide was no time to be away. She wanted him here. She needed him here.
The entire clan was walking on their toes around her, and she knew it, but anxiety, nay, fear kept her short-tempered andpacing. She’d tried hiding out in her solar, but she’d felt confined in there. Yet the great hall seemed cavernous and sad, so she’d walked the bailey, even gone to the stables several times with the intent to ride out herself, but common sense held her back. There were men out looking for Jamie and the missing man. She would not add to their burdens. And the clan could not withstand the sudden loss of both her and Jamie, not with her da in his condition. They were needed here.Shewas needed here, and she needed Jamie.
