Page 54 of The Cursed Highland Bride

Adamina gasped from behind him in dismay. She moved to allow him the support of her shoulders. “Lean on me.”

“I can walk,” Dunn argued, needing to prove it to himself as much as anyone else. “I dinnae need ye tae aid me.”

“Ye will do as I say,” Adamina commanded.

Right as they reached the courtyard, a man came running through the gates, panting. “Ian?” Dunn greeted in question. The man seldom left his post.

“My laird,” he panted breathily. It looked like he had run on foot all the way from the beach. “Her Ladyship came tae me for a horse. I gave it to her, and she rode south in the same direction as ye came from before. She had been gone sometime when the horse came running back without her. I kenned that something had befallen her and came tae ye with all haste.”

“They have her,” Ewan murmured under his breath.

It took all of Dunn’s strength not to punch him in the face for stating the obvious. He knew it was not Ewan’s fault and that he should not take it out on him, but just hearing that his wife was in the hands of the enemy made his blood boil. “Gather the men,” Dunn barked.

“Aye, my laird.” Ewan left to obey.

“Bring me a horse,” Dunn instructed Ian, who nodded and headed for the stables.

“Ye cannae ride, brother,” Tor reminded him. “Ye can barely walk.”

“I will do whatever it takes.” Dunn pushed himself away from his sister’s support and held himself as upright as he could manage with the pain of his wound coursing through his torso.

Before Ian could bring Dunn his horse, a cry of alarm went up from the castle watch. “Sails upon the sea!”

Dunn whipped his head around to the men on watch to see which direction they were looking. All of them were staring out across the sea toward the mainland. Hobbling as fast as he could, Dunn walked out of the castle to the cliff’s edge. Sails dotted the seascape, all boats pointed toward Orkney. “They are coming. The Morgan army is coming.”

“Nae one will be leaving now,” Tor breathed as he joined Dunn on the cliff. “We will need every man.”

Dunn gritted his teeth in fury. “Ready the men. We are going tae war.”

* * *

Katarina awoke with blinding pain in her skull. She groaned and attempted to sit up, but the world seemed to be spinning all around her. She felt something soft under her head, and when she turned to look up, Katarina saw right into the eyes of her sister Idalia. She turned her head at the sound of a sob to find Leonor bending over her as well. Katarina let out a cry of joy at seeing them. They were thinner and paler than when last she had seen them, but they were alive. That was what mattered.

The three sisters clung together and cried, holding each other as if they feared of ever letting go again. “We need to get out of here,” Katarina sobbed out as she caressed each of their cheeks in turn.

“We cannot. We tried many times, but there is no way out,” Leonor whispered while stroking her sister’s head.

“Help me sit up,” Katarina requested, taking their hands for leverage.

Looking around, she saw a room made of stone, looking much like the cell they had been held in before but without the iron gate door or barred window. This room had a solid wooden door and no windows at all. There was no obvious weakness to be exploited in the room’s architecture. Whoever had built it had intended to keep people in or out based on need.

“Help me to the door.”

“We have already tried that, Katarina. The damn thing will not move an inch. We have thrown ourselves against it over and over again until we were bruised.” Leonor raised her shirt sleeve to show Katarina that she meant it. Her skin had an array of bruises in various stages of healing.

Idalia did the same and showed a matching set of bruises. “We have tried everything. There is no way out.”

“Every room has a way out. We simply have to find it.” Katarina studied the wooden door closely, giving special attention to the latch and hinges. She looked around the room to see if there was anything that could be used to beat it down, but the space was bare except for her sisters and a few blankets. “This is how you have been kept since we last parted?”

The girls exchanged a look. “We did not always have blankets,” Idalia admitted. “That changed after Leonor was ill for a time. Laird Morgan was angry that she nearly died under his care when we were his only leverage against you. After that, we were allowed blankets and better food.”

“I am so sorry,” Katarina sobbed, as they clung to each other once more.

“We are together now,” Idalia reminded her.

“Why are we together now?” Leonor asked, attempting to get her tears under control. “What happened?”

Taking a deep breath, Katarina set about attempting to explain what her life had been like since she last saw them. She told them about her marriage to Dunn, his family, his lovers, Orkney, her training, the visit to the Morgan stronghold, the threat that she had discovered against Dunn and his men, and their flight from the castle to save their lives. When it came time to tell them about burying their parents, Katarina hesitated. She did not know how much to tell them of what she had found.