“Robbie,” she yelled, gasping for air, hardly aware of the tears streaming down her cheeks as she ran. She needed Robbie. He’d know what to do.
And then he was there, lifting the boy’s weight from her arms, guiding them back to the safety of her cottage as the terror gripping her heart quickly turned to fury.
“Isabella! You must calm yerself or you’ll wake the lad.”
They’d tended to Jamie’s scrapes and bruises as best they could. It was the wounds they couldn’t see that worried Robert now.
Both Jamie’s and Isa’s.
“I am calm,” she hissed, stabbing her poker into the fire with a force that sent sparks flying. “I’m sure his little rib is broken and I just canna see how Roland could be such an animal as to do that to a wee lad like Jamie.”
Robert had wondered that himself.
“Do you believe me now that it’s no safe for you to stay here? No you or the boy, either one. When he wakes, we can be on our way to MacQuarrie Keep.” Where his family could see to their safety when he was no longer able to.
Isa whirled, throwing the poker to the hearth. “Do you think I can simply turn my back on this? You heard what he said of Roland. If it’s true—if that whoreson has murdered my grandfather—I canna let him get away with that any more than I can allow him to go unchallenged for what he’s done to the lad.”
Robert didn’t question the truth of what the boy had said in the least. It was, in fact, because of what Jamie had told them that Robert felt so much urgency. He had to make her see reason.
“There’s more. Things I dinna tell you. The night of yer grandfather’s wedding, when those men waylaid me, the reason I dinna want to spread any alarm was that I suspected Lardiner was behind it. I kenned the truth of it then that he’d do anything, even murder. It’s why I tried to convince you then of the need to come away with me.”
If only she would agree. He didn’t want to hurt her by telling her what he’d found before meeting those men in that dark hallway.
But it seemed her stubbornness knew no bounds.
“Suspicion is one thing. What we see with our own eyes, what that beast had done to poor Jamie, that is something else altogether. Roland might batter a wee child, or push an old man already in his cups down the stairs, but he’s a lowly coward. He’d no lay his hands on me.”
She left him no choice.
“Yer wrong about the man. I’ve good reason to believe he laid his hands on yer friend, Auld Annie. I’d gone to her room that night, hoping to speak to her again. But when I arrived, I found her dead. Strangled, by the looks of it, though the maid who walked in on me assured me she’d died of her sickness in her sleep.”
“That canna be. She was no sick when I saw her. Only frightened.”
“Exactly. They murdered her. I saw her body with my own two eyes. It was coming out of her room I was attacked, but when Jamie found and wakened me, I’d been moved to another part of the castle.”
It broke his heart to watch the pain wash over her face, but she had to know, had to understand how important it was for her to get away from here. Surely she’d see reason now.
“You saw this? At the castle, before we left? And you dinna tell me? Surely you had to realize I would want to hear of this travesty against Auld Annie.” Her face had lost its color, as if shock were setting in.
“That’s exactly why I dinna tell you. Yer safety was more important to me than any revenge you might seek.” And with her temper, he didn’t doubt for an instant she’d want justice for her old friend.
“It’s no a matter of revenge. Roland must be made to pay for his crimes.” The color that had drained from her face when he’d first told her about Annie flooded back, washing her cheeks a deep dull red.
“Isa. Think about what you say. With Lardiner in charge, you and I alone canna take on the whole of the MacGahan clan. You canna ask that of me. Think of the boy. Let me get you both to safety. You and Jamie. Once we reach MacQuarrie Keep, I’ll lead men back here if it’s what you want, but listen to reason for now, lass.”
She glared at him, eyes glassy with unshed tears, her lips pressed into a thin, tight line. Then, as if a door had opened, her expression blanked before turning into a small, sad smile.
“As you say, Robbie, I canna ask that of you.” She wiped her hands down the front of her shift and crossed to him, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “We’ll need to make sure enough feed and water is left for the animals to carry them over until yer people can come back for them.”
Finally! He gathered her into his arms, covering her mouth with his for a kiss she met boldly. He knew she hated to leave her home, knew it saddened her. But this was the only viable option, and he thanked the saints she’d seen the truth of that at last.
“I’ll see to the animals. You gather rations for us to carry on our journey. Though it will add an extra day, I’m thinking we’d best go the long way around to avoid Castle MacGahan.”
He stopped at the door, glancing back to reassure himself it was real. She had already spread out a cloth and even now placed two loaves of bread in the middle of it.
“Go on with you, Robbie. We’ve much to do this day. Both of us.”
With a sigh of relief, he strode out the door toward the stable. For the first time since he’d arrived in this century, he felt as though the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders.
