Annie. Where was Annie?
He started to leap up and then fell back as dizziness swept over him. Damnation! Now was not the time to be weak. Niall gathered his strength and rose, more slowly this time. He had to wait a moment for his equilibrium to adjust itself and then looked in either direction. The road was deserted. He glanced up. The moon was low in the western sky and streaks of lavender heralded dawn in the east. He had been unconscious for several hours.
His horse was gone. The brigands obviously had stolen it, but had they abducted Annie as well? A slim sliver of hope that she’dmanaged to ride on to Cairnlarich shriveled when he thought of the time elapsed. If she had managed to escape, she’d have had time to reach the village and return with help. Was she lying somewhere up ahead in the ditch? Hurt? Or even dead? Fear washed over him like a cold bucketful of water as he forced himself to start walking, crisscrossing the road to check both sides, hoping he would not find her body. She couldn’t be dead.She. Just. Could. Not. Be. Dead.Niall knew he was repeating the words in his head to reassure himself, but it was somehow comforting, nonetheless.
He wished he knew who had done this. Brigands who wore hooded cloaks were unusual, but who else would lie in wait along a well-travelled road? Niall cursed roundly at having continued on for the night. He knew damn well they made an easy target after darkness fell. He should have insisted that they stop and take shelter in a copse of trees, hidden from view. Had he not been so intent on reaching the inn and setting the mood to persuade Annie to see his reasoning was right, this wouldn’t have happened.
Niall stopped when he saw the jumbled hoof prints about a half mile from where he’d been attacked. The dirt on top of the road was dry, but loose. He wasn’t the expert tracker that his brother Braden was, but the sky was lightening and as Niall bent down, he counted different hoof imprints of at least six or seven horses. One horseshoe had a missing nail. He straightened. Only three men had accosted him, which meant two more had been waiting around the bend. That was strange too. Usually a band of brigands surrounded whomever they were robbing so no one could get away.
And usually, they didn’t take victims with them. But he hadn’t seen Annie lying in the ditch and her horse was gone. The trail led clearly off the road and toward the woods. Niall started along the path. Whoever the abductors were, they either wereunskilled in covering their tracks or they didn’t care if they were followed. If the latter were true, that probably meant there were a lot more of them lurking inside the forest.
Niall didn’t have the talent for stealth that Gavin had, but he’d learned enough from his brother to know how to shadow. He moved from tree to tree cautiously since he his weapons had been stolen. He didn’t know what odds he would be facing, but it didn’t matter.
They had Annie.
****
Annie blinked in darkness almost as dense as the sack over her head had been. At least, her abductors had taken that off after she’d been pulled from her horse and half-carried, half-dragged across a rocky path full of gnarly tree roots. Perhaps it was just as well that two of the men had a firm grip on her, since her legs almost buckled when she dismounted. She didn’t know how long they’d been riding—the hood had made her disoriented—but it seemed like hours.
She sat on hard-packed ground in a small enclosure that smelled damp, a cave of sorts, made of outcroppings of rocky ledges and boulders. She could hear the men’s voices, so the entrance must not be far away, although she couldn’t see it. She guessed it was still night.
She heard the scuffling of boots and then a lantern flared, the sudden brightness nearly blinding her in the cramped space. Annie shielded her eyes. A moment later, the wick dimmed and she dropped her hands.
Calum crouched down beside her, setting the lamp on the floor, and handed her a small sack which she recognized as the one the cook on the ship had given Niall.
“Your food,” Calum said. “Ye should eat.”
“I am nae hungry.” Her stomach growled just then to give lie to the fact, but Annie didn’t think she could swallow past thelump in her throat. This was food she should have been sharing with Niall. But Niall was… No. no.no. She couldn’t bear the thought that he was truly gone.
“Suit yourself.” Calum cupped a hand under her chin, forcing her to look up, and studied her. “Your hair is much redder than I expected.”
He expected? Annie held herself still, although her mind was moving as fast as a hare being chased by a hound. Had he never seen her, then? That was a blessing.
“Ye are taller than I was told, as well.”
Her stomach knotted, threatening to push itself up to join the lump in her throat. She had no idea who Briana was or what she looked like. Would Calum believe Annie was the Campbell girl? She desperately needed to convince him she was.
“Your source was nae verra accurate, then.”
His eyes narrowed and he released her chin. “Ye need to curb that saucy mouth before ye truly vex me.”
She looked away so he wouldn’t see the apprehension that was probably showing in her face. How many times had her mother tried to instill the need to think before she blurted out words? Annie recalled all too well the threat Calum had made at her earlier remark. He didn’t need to repeat it. She’d seen the lecherous looks on the other men’s faces before the hood had been pulled over her head.
Annie felt a hysterical bubble of laughter rising. After Broderick had taken her virginity and she’d asked when they were getting married, he’d scoffed and said not to think she was that special. Put a bag over a woman’s head and they were all the same…
The hysteric bubble turned into a choked sob which she quickly stifled. She dared not show fear in front of Calum MacDougall.
“I dinnae mean to offend ye. I just doona understand why I am here.”
He stared at her. “How can ye nae ken?”
Oh, Lord. She suspected she knew what Briana’s brother had done to Calum’s sister, but what if she was wrong? Or it was even worse? She couldn’t afford to blunder. “Since I am here, I would prefer to hear your version.”
“Myversion?” Calum practically sneered at her. “’Tis naeversion. ’Tisfact.”
Annie nodded. “Fact, then.” He looked at her suspiciously and Annie held her breath, afraid he was going to realize he had abducted the wrong person, but he finally answered.
“Your fine, upstanding brother—a man with a wife and two bairns—got my sister with child. That fact is plain enough and getting plainer every day.”
