Page 75 of The Laird’s Wrong Wife

Oscar took Ceana by the waist and lifted her into the saddle. His hand lingered on her until she found her balance. He then mounted his own horse and placed her beside him within the center of the first formation. Two trusted guards closed in behind her, while Lennan took the other side.

He could see Mairi and the children watching from the inner steps, Paisley holding Tommy’s hand. He gave them a quick nod.

The gates opened, and they turned onto the road to Morrag. Ceana brought her mare level with his and held his gaze.

But too soon, Oscar looked away and dropped his hand. “Ride!”

CHAPTER 19

Ceana dragged herself upright in the saddle and fixed her gaze on the rise ahead.

A dull pain throbbed on the inside of her thighs. Her palms felt raw beneath her gloves, and her eyes stung after two nights of fitful sleep.

Bryce’s men held the north road, forcing them along the slower western route. Oscar had insisted on watering the horses and replacing the hardest-ridden mounts where fresh ones could be found. Her mare remained steady beneath her, even as her own body threatened to fold.

A line of blackthorn appeared along the slope. Beyond it stood a weathered stone she had passed hundreds of times while riding from Morrag. She touched Paisley’s embroidered ribbon and searched the higher ground for Morrag banners.

An overturned cart blocked half the track. The blue-painted boards belonged to a woman who brought sacks of barley to the castle kitchens every autumn. One wheel had split, and scattered grains lay deep in the mud beneath hoofprints. Further ahead, a cow stood beside a broken fence with blood darkening one flank. The nearest door hung from a single hinge.

Oscar raised one hand, and the men slowed down at once. The riders separated across the slope while the bowmen moved toward cover. Ceana guided her mare to the rise beside him, bracing herself as Morrag Castle came into view below.

A cluster of arrows covered the timbers of the north gate. The outer livestock fence had been trampled into the earth, and smoke rose from a burning pyre on the eastern side. Gilmore men crowded the main approach beneath Bryce’s banners.

Along the western wall, Morrag men fought in the narrow lane leading to the lower-side door. Their line had been forced close to the orchard, where little gaps in the old stone wall exposed the slope behind them.

Above it all, Morrag’s banners remained fixed on the battlements. Ceana gasped lightly when she saw them. Her family could be alive.

A horse screamed near the northern gate while steel struck steel within the western lane, followed by a hoarse command from somewhere near the opposite end.

She knew that voice. Bryce had shouted at her father across the wedding hall with the same raw authority. She could not forget how she felt when she first heard it.

Hearing about the war was one thing, but seeing it firsthand was entirely another, and it did not sit well with her. She could understand at that moment why Oscar had wanted her to stay at MacKane Castle.

Movement sounded among the shrubs below the ridge as two MacKane scouts rode forward, then dismounted beside a man struggling uphill with one arm cradled against his chest.

“Niall,” Ceana gasped.

She urged her mare down before Oscar caught her reins and kept her at his side.

Niall reached them with blood soaking the sleeve of his tunic. A strip of green cloth had been tied around his brow, and Ceana recognized it as one of the scarves her mother kept for the guards during winter watches.

“Lady MacKane.” Niall bowed his head, breathing hard.

The title tightened her fingers around the reins. She had been taken as Laird Morrag’s daughter. Now she was seen only as Oscar’s wife.

“Does the castle hold?” Oscar asked.

“Aye, me Laird. We still have the walls.” Niall glanced toward the western lane. “I came through the lower path before Bryce’s men pressed closer.”

“Me faither?” Ceana prompted. “Me maither?”

“I didnae see them before I left, me Lady. I cannae tell ye more.”

She swallowed and looked toward the path he had come from. “Have ye seen Angus?”

“Nay, Bryce gives the orders. His standard has moved west with the reserve.”

Oscar released Ceana’s reins and studied the slope. The visible track descended toward the orchard before curving toward the path that led back into the castle.