Page 67 of The Cursed Highland Bride

Sighing, Katarina attempted to stand up but only made it as far as her hands and knees. Crawling over to the man’s prone form on the floor, she attempted to find the knife. “He has landed on it. I need help rolling him over.”

“Is he dead?” Leonor asked, her voice trembling in fear.

Katarina reached up to the man’s face and felt for breath. “I do not know, but I do not feel the warmth from his breath.”

The girls moved forward tentatively, afraid that he would leap up and grab them, but he did not move. The three of them managed to roll him over, his face falling into the faint light from the corridor. Katarina gasped. “What is it?” Idalia asked, moving back slightly in case the man was waking up.

“It is him,” Katarina breathed in shock.

“Who?” Leonor asked, peering closer at the man’s face in the low light.

“The man who killed our mother.” Taking the knife out of his torso, she brought it up to below his chin just as he had done to their mother and drew the blade across his throat. Blood poured out over the blade and her hand, hot and wet. The smell of copper filled the room. “He will never hurt anyone ever again.” She wiped the blade clean on his shirt before she stood and moved toward the door.

“Where are we going to go now?” Idalia asked as her sisters helped her to steady herself.

Katarina did not know the answer to that. Every fiber of her being wanted to say that they would return to Orkney, to return home, but she could not do that. Dunn had once again chosen another woman over her, and she could not allow herself to return and relive the humiliation. “I do not know. What I know now is that we must leave this place with all haste.”

The girls stumbled out of their stone cell and into the dimly lit corridor beyond. The passageway was also made completely of stone, just as the room had been. There were no windows to tell what time of day or night it might be. A small candle sat on a stool, flickering just outside of the door. Idalia picked it up, and they continued walking toward the door at the end of the hallway. A small ladder led to a door hatchway in the ceiling. The girls stopped to listen for sounds above them.

“We have no way of knowing how many men are on the other side of this door,” Leonor whispered, her tone worried.

“We have no other choice,” Katarina reminded her. “We cannot remain down here forever. Eventually, someone will come for that man back there, if not for us. When they find him dead, they will kill us as well.”

Nodding, the girls agreed that they should move forward regardless of the risks.

Katarina reached up and tried the latch. It moved easily and with little noise. She pushed up on the wooden door and eased it up slightly. Standing on the ladder, she peered through the crack in the door. She found a small room with a table and chairs, a fireplace, and a small bed. She listened carefully but heard nothing other than the fire crackling in the hearth. Taking that as a good sign, she pushed the door the rest of the way open. The sisters climbed up out of the hatchway into the warmth of the room.

“What is this place?” Idalia asked, looking around them.

“Where is this place?” Katarina murmured, walking over to the only door in the wall. She eased it open a crack and peered out to see early morning light peaking over the horizon.

The girls slipped out into the world beyond and attempted to get their bearings. Katarina knew they had to still be on Morgan lands as it had been a Morgan man that she had killed in the cell below. She turned around, looking all about her to see if she could find an identifiable landmark in the dim early light. The stars had already faded and could offer her no help as far as navigation went. The birds, which normally would have been singing their glorious songs, were silent. The hairs stood up on the back of Katarina’s neck. Something is not right.

A distant shout went up to their left and then another. Within mere moments, the sounds of men in battle, sword against sword and man against man, filled the air. Katarina picked up her skirts and started running toward the sound. She was still a bit wobbly from the attack and without sufficient sustenance, but she did not let that stop her. Her sisters called after her, but she kept running. She had to know. She had to find out. She crested a slight slope to find the very thing that her heart had feared and hoped for in equal measure.

“Who are they?” Leonor whispered in awe at the scene before them.

“They are my husband’s men. They are my men,” Katarina answered with pride.

“Your men?” Idalia breathed in wonder.

Spread out before them were the fighting men of the Clan Leòideach. She searched the faces before her but did not find Dunn among them. She found Tor battling three men on the edge of the battlefield. She had seen him take on such a number before in practice, but he was not faring as well now. “I must help them,” she decided, taking up her knife and moving slowly forward down the slope. “Stay here, hidden. I will return for you both.”

“Katarina!” Her sisters attempted to argue with her, but she was already gone.

Moving as swiftly as possible given her weakened state, Katarina moved toward Tor’s attackers. Her only advantage was if she was able to sneak up on them without being noticed and take one of the enemy soldiers down to even out Tor’s odds. “Katarina,” Leonor whispered over her shoulder, grabbing her by the arm and hauling her back away from the battle.

“Leonor, I told you to hide.” Katarina looked over her shoulder and saw that both of her sisters were standing there. “Idalia, I told you to hide as well.”

“You could be killed for these people. What do you owe them that you would risk your life for them? You were forced into marriage. You were forced into living among them. Why are you willing to die for them?” Leonor gestured toward the battle before them. Men were fighting for their very lives below the walls of the Morgan stronghold and upon the ramparts. It was a bloody awful sight to behold.

“I have to help them,” Katarina answered her. “I cannot explain it all now, but I must help them.”

“You love the man they forced you to marry,” Leonor observed. “Don’t you?”

“I do,” Katarina whispered, tears filling her eyes. “But even if I did not love him, I care about these men, one of whom is his brother. I must help him now, or he will die.”

“We are not going to let you do this on your own. You need our help,” Idalia informed her. “What is your plan?”