Page 184 of Claimed Highland Brides

“Can ye help him?”

Daividh sat back with a sigh. “Aye, I think so. We have a bigger problem, though.”

“Ye mean who did this to him?” Barclay asked.

Daividh looked up at him, his face bleak as he shook his head. “No. The fact that he accompanied Aileen to Drumacree.”

Barclay’s heart went cold. “I beg yer pardon?”

“Murchadh was Aileen’s escort,” Daividh said as he tried to lift the warrior to his feet. Barclay hurried forward to help.

“We mun’ wake him up then, find out wha’ happened.”

“Aye.”

They hurried him to a bedchamber and laid him out on the bed. Fiona and the housekeeper hurried in with the bag of simples. “We’ll try something simple to wake him up first,” she said, wafting a bag of smelling salts in front of his nose. Murchadh gasped and coughed, his eyes fluttering.

“He’s waking up,” Barclay murmured.

Fiona put a glass in the man’s hand. “Drink,” she ordered.

Instead, Murchadh shot into a sitting position, leaned over the side of the bed, and vomited on the floor.

“Oh, dear.” Fiona murmured.

“Gil…roy,” Murchadh said between gasps of breath.

Daividh leaned down to lend the soldier his ear. “Gilroy, ye said? He did this?”

Murchadh began to fumble in his belt. Finally, he produced a piece of script and passed it to Daividh. The laird gave it to his wife, who read it first to herself, her face paling.

“What is it?” Daividh asked.

Fiona looked up, her face white with horror. “H-He has Aileen.”

“What?” Barclay snatched the script from her hands and read it himself. “No!” he whispered.

Daividh stepped forward and took the script. “Wha’ does he want?”

“He says that if Barclay wants his wife back, he will go and get her, alone.”

Daividh shook his head. “We cannae allow tha’. ’Tis a trap, ye ken.”

“I ken. But I cannae risk her.” He covered his face. “God, she mun’ be so afraid.”

Fiona’s hands began to shake, her eyes wide and scared. Daividh reached out and squeezed her hand. “Dinnae be fashit. We will get her back.”

Daividh turned to Barclay. “Let’s go.”

“Just the two o’ ye?” Fiona exclaimed.

“We’ll go ahead. Send Simon along wi’ a dozen men, just in case.”

Fiona nodded, reaching out to clutch his arm. “Bring her back.”

“I will.” Daividh led the way out.

* * *