Page 60 of A Bride for the Kilted Beast

“What d’ye mean?” Diarmaid demanded, his blood turning to ice, his first thought being that Odhrán had carried out his threat to kidnap her. “Where’s her guard? There should be two men with her at all times.”

The man looked shamefaced. “We were watchin’ her, m’laird, but then she started playin’ with the children, and we sort of⁠—”

“Ye were nae payin’ attention tae yer duties!” Diarmaid barked, his breath quickening. “Have ye checked inside the castle?”

“We’ve checked, and she’s nae anywhere in the castle, m’laird,” the soldier replied in a chastened tone.

“Come with me,” he commanded the soldier, forgetting all about Finian as he ran from the room, the soldier at his heels. “Go and get Ciarán and tell him to get more men for a search party. We need to find her now!”

Ten minutes later the search party convened in the main courtyard.

“Go in pairs and search every part of the grounds fer her,” Diarmaid told them all urgently. “Me and Ciarán will take the gardens nearest the east gate. Find out where she was last seen and report back so we can concentrate on that area. Go!”

The men split into pairs and rushed off to different sections of the castle grounds. The brothers ran to the eastern side of the castle, searching high and low as they went.

“I pray tae the gods Odhrán’s nae got her,” he told Ciarán as they ran side by side into the gardens. They looked in vain for a while, with Diarmaid’s panic growing every minute. Then, they saw the small east gate was open and ran outside. The castle children were playing in the field beyond. They were not supposed to be there, for it backed onto a wooded area that was out of bounds because it was full of hunter’s traps and very dangerous.

“Bairns! Come here,” Diarmaid shouted to them. The startled children stopped their game at once. Looking scared, they obeyed and ran to him. Rufus was at their head as always.

“We’re sorry, m’laird, we didnae go intae the woods,” he said, his small face anxious.

“I dinnae care about that,” he told them. “Have ye seen Miss Lillie? We cannae find her.”

“Aye, she was here just now, playin’ hide and seek with us, but now, we cannae find her,” the boy admitted.

“Which way did she go?”

The lad shrugged, apologetic. “I dinnae ken. I was countin’, nae lookin’.”

“I think she went that way, tae find a place tae hide,” Shona spoke up, pointing to the edge of the woods.

“Help us find her. Look over in that direction,” Diarmaid told them hurriedly, pointing one way. “Ciarán, ye go that way,” he said, pointing another. “I’ll go over there.” The children and his brother raced off, while Diarmaid headed in the direction Shona had indicated, to the edge of the thick woods, his gut churning with fear.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Not for the first time in her life, Lillie admitted to herself, she was regretting her foolhardy actions. She had known very well it was forbidden to venture into these particular woods, and she knew the reason why they were out of bounds. And now, she was sorry she had ignored the warning.

Another thing she was sorry for was having given her guards the slip. Today, it was Arthur and Roy on guard duty, and as with all the men who were assigned to it on rotation, she was on very good terms with them. That was her way of making the constant watch bearable for all of them.

She had also found it a good way to lull her guardians into a false sense of security. Trailing after her as she went about her innocent doings in and around the castle often meant the men would become bored and distracted, and therefore, somewhat lax in their scrutiny of her.

This was especially the case when she was playing with the children. Often, on those occasions, her guards were within her sight, but she was not always within theirs. Over time, she had almost perfected the art of fooling them, usually harmlessly.

But not now. Now, she fervently wished Arthur and Roy had been more vigilant.

It had begun innocently enough, as a game of hide and seek with the children, in the gardens near the east gate, and the prohibited woods beyond. While Rufus was counting, Lillie, along with the rest of the children, had scrambled to find a good hiding place. The obvious ones had already been taken, so she had cast a little further afield, to the edge of the woods.

It was thick with trees and undergrowth in there. She had hesitated, reminding herself she should not enter the woods proper because of the dangers. But surely, what harm could it do to choose to hide behind a tree close to the edge, just a few yards away from the others?

So, feeling pleased with herself, she had headed that way. However, small and slender as Lillie was, the saplings and scrubby bushes at the very edges had offered no opportunity for concealment. She had needed a thicker trunk to hide behind.

So, she had ventured a little further in amid the trees, being careful to remember her way since she had not been there before and did not want to get turned around. She smiled to herself, feeling confident she would not, for she could still faintly hear Rufus counting in the distance.

Then, in a painful and humiliating repeat of what had happened to her after running from Diarmaid, the ground had suddenly fallen away beneath her feet, she had plummeted several feet, to land jarringly at the bottom of a square, steep-sided pit, covered in grass and branches.

Why? Why this again? Why me?

Such were Lillie’s thoughts as she sat up, shaking off branches, spitting grass, leaves, and pine needles from her mouth and hair. Her body was bruised, to be sure, but it was her pride that had taken a worse battering, and her cheeks flamed with embarrassment. It was utterly humiliating that this was the second time she had fallen into a hunter’s trap. How would she explain herself to everyone? To Diarmaid?