Of course, he must be thinking about how she’d helped him. Ella turned aside to hide her disappointment in checking her mount’s tack and heard him move away.
“I remember when Annie and Euan taught us to ride,” Muireall said to Ella over her mount’s back. “Would ye have guessed we’d be glad of the skill we now have, to be able to do something like this.”
Ella glanced toward Calum, but he was leading his horse out of the stable, ready to go. Good. He’d accepted their presence. As they mounted up, Ella smiled. Muireall’s reminder was just the distraction she needed. She’d learned, and now was an excellent rider. She was learning archery, and was getting better at it, though not yet as good as Muireall. She could do what she needed. “I remember not being eager to get on these great beasts, but ye were happy to do anything that included spending time with Euan. And he with ye. I recall that he was afraid yer horse would run away with ye, so he made himself yer teacher. I’ll bet that was just the start of things he taught ye.”
Muireall snorted, taking her meaning, then gestured to their weapons. “Or that we’d ken how to use these.” With a shrug, her gaze followed Calum as joined the men waiting outside. “Ye should have taken my advice and asked him about training ye. But perhaps searching for the lads will serve. We’ll all work together to find the lads, but I’ll wager of all the lasses in our group, his attention will be on ye. Ye will spend time with him while he shows ye what he is best at. Ye wanted a way to bolster his pride. Now ye have it.”
“Aye, he’ll be watching me. To make sure I dinna do something he doesna like,” Ella said and mounted up. “I appreciate what ye are trying to do,” she told Muireall, “but just because it worked for Euan and ye doesna mean it will work for me with Calum.”
“We will ken soon enough.” Muireall mounted and gestured toward the stable door. “After ye.”
They rode out of the stable, and the men formed up around them.
Calum, at the fore, turned his horse to face them. “Chances are the lads didna plan to go far on foot,” he said, “so likely didna bring enough water skins or plaids to use if they were delayed until dark—or later. We’ll search nearby first and find their tracks. Keep an eye out for other riders. They may mean trouble. Let’s go.”
As they passed through Brodie’s gateway, Muireall’s face creased with worry. Ella noticed and told her, “Georgie is a good lad and wiser than his years. He’ll keep them all safe.”
They passed the standing stones after a mile or so, without finding any sign the lads had been there. Surely they would not have been able to resist stopping to find the forest spirits spoken of in the tales the lads had heard. Could Kyle have been wrong? If the lads followed the coast, they were now miles from where the searchers were looking for them.
After riding several miles into a heavily forested glen and finding nothing, Calum sent two of their group off at angles to try a different direction. But soon thereafter, he spotted signs the lads came this way.
“Look there, and there,” he said and pointed out the signs he’d seen to one of the men and to Ella, who’d ridden up even with him when he stopped. Black blood and tufts of rabbit fur littered the ground, confirming they were going the right way.
“We’re a long walk from the keep to bring back whatever they find. I dinna think the lads would have planned on doing this,” Muireall said. “What are they thinking, coming this far?”
“This deep in the wood, they’re probably lost,” Calum said. He sent one of the remaining men back to have the ones who split off from the group rejoin them. “I never thought the lads would go so far, either,” he admitted. “Set up a perimeter, make camp,” he ordered. “I’ll scout farther. They may be close.”
As their remaining male escort and the other two female archers moved to do as Calum ordered, Muireall objected. “I should go with ye.”
“Nay, ye should stay here. The lads might see the fire and come in on their own. And ye lot can defend yourselves if anyone else shows up. Ella, ye’ll come with me.”
Ella exchanged a glance with Muireall, who gave her a wide-eyed look that Ella interpreted to mean,this is your chance. Was this wise? She wasn’t a fighter. If they ran into trouble?—
“We’ll no’ be going far,” Calum said, breaking into her thoughts as if sensing she needed reassurance.
“Go with him,” Muireall told her. “Find my brother.”
Put that way, Ella couldn’t refuse. “We will,” she assured her friend, then nodded to Calum. “Let’s go.”
As they headed fartherinto the woods, Calum wondered if he had lost his mind. Ella wasn’t a fighter, and in these trees, an archer’s skills were practically useless. But he wanted to keep her close. To protect her. His senses were alive with the sights and scents around him, the feel of the breeze, the glow from the lowering sun, all heightened by her nearness. Something about being with Ella away from the keep made everything seem brighter and better. Sweeter.
He glanced aside at her. She looked composed. Not at all like a lass on a mission to save a numpty bunch of lads who should not be out of the keep at all, much less this far from it and with night coming on. He appreciated their impulse to help put food on the clan’s tables while many of the men were away chasing raiders, but to go on their own, with no adults? And let themselves get lost in deep woods at sunset? He shook his head.Surely he’d been wiser than that when he was their age. He’d had to keep Euan out of trouble, after all.
He was glad Ella was here. If the lads were lost and confused, Ella’s calm sweetness would help soothe them. Worse, if any were hurt, she might make the difference between life and death for them.
“Should we call out for them?”
Her quietly voiced question told Calum she was aware of the possibility of raiders in the area.
“No’ yet,” he told her. “I still see signs they came this way. Look there.” He pointed to broken branches on a sapling tree and beyond that, several broken twigs on a low growing bush. “One of them has the sense to try to mark their trail, to keep from going in circles.”
“Why no’ simply backtrack, then?”
“I’ve only seen them marking a trail since we stopped to make camp for the night. Either they’re tracking something, or near the camp, one of them realized they were well and truly lost.” Calum gestured upward. “Those leaves block the angle of the sun and scatter the light, as do the clouds. They didna have enough light to help them.” He frowned. “And it’s getting darker under here. We willna be able to track them much farther until morning.”
Ella lifted a hand to her heart. “Muireall will be so worried. We’ve got to find them soon.”
Autumn chill was in the air. The night would be cold and damp. “Aye, we need to.” He held up a hand. “Wait, I hear something.”
