Return Of The Highlanders: The Guardian Part 29

Leaving Alex to watch over Duncan, he started up the treacherous steps of the sea cliff. He thought of all the times they had raced up and down these steps when they were lads. As men, the two years between him and Connor made no difference. But as a lad, Ian had looked up to his older cousin. Though as brave as anyone, Connor had always been the most sensible of the four of them. They lived to manhood only because Connor managed to discourage their most foolhardy adventures-or at least some of them.

When Ian neared the top of the bluff, he looked up to see Tearlag and Duncan's sister Ilysa clutching their arms against the wind and peering over the side.

"I saw ye coming," Tearlag called out, and he knew she was referring to the Sight for which she was well-known.

The women rushed him inside and directed him to lay Connor on blankets they had already laid out before the fire. Ilysa went almost as pale as Connor when she saw the condition he was in.

"Go fetch the others," Tearlag said, waving him off.

When he returned to the boat, he was relieved to find Duncan was awake and able to hold onto Ian's back. He was a huge man, though, and Ian nearly lost his balance more than once on the slick rock steps. The wind was blowing a thin, icy rain now. By the time they reached the top, Duncan was shivering violently. His body, already taxed to the limit, could not take the cold and wet.

Ian banged through the cottage door and staggered across the room to deposit his burden onto Tearlag's bed. It was a box bed built into the partial wall that separated the main room of her cottage from the byre, where her cow was mooing in complaint.

Ilysa threw a blanket over her brother while Tearlag shoveled a hot stone from the fire to place at his feet.

Without pausing to rest, Ian returned to the beach for Alex.

"I can walk up, if ye give me a hand," Alex said.

"No, I'll take ye on my back," Ian said. "It'll be quicker, and I'm in no mood to argue."

Alex didn't like it, but that was how it was going to be.

Ian grunted as he hefted Alex onto his back. "G.o.d help me, the three of ye must eat like horses."

Ian's legs were cramping by the time he reached the cottage the third time. Alex insisted on sitting in a chair. He made no complaint, however, when the women whisked a blanket around his shoulders, a warming stone under his feet, and a cup of hot broth into his hands.

Ian sat down heavily on a stool by the table. He had succeeded in getting all three men here alive, though Connor was hanging on by a thread and Duncan was not much better. Ian was grateful that both women were skilled at healing, though he suspected there was little that could be done now except keep the men warm and feed them broth.

And pray.

"Ye mustn't tarry," Tearlag said, fixing her good eye on him. "Your wife is in danger."

Sileas. He jumped to his feet, feeling as if he'd been kicked in the stomach.

"What can ye tell me?" he asked.

"Only that she's very frightened," Tearlag said.

"Take this," Ilysa said, shoving a wrapped cloth of oatcakes into his hand as he went out the cottage door.

The heavens opened on his return trip, soaking him to the skin. He shouted in frustration when it forced him to bring down the sail and row. As he strained against the oars, his heart seemed to race in time to the rain pelting his face.

If Sileas had not left the dirk with Niall, she would stab Angus with it now. The foul smell of the man surrounded her, suffocating her as they rode. She looked down at the ma.s.sive thigh rubbing against hers and imagined plunging her blade into it over and over again. Every time he moved the arm around her waist up to press against the undersides of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, she rammed her elbow into his ribs.

Angus made no sign he noticed.

"How many little girls have ye raped since the last time I saw ye?" she said, and jabbed him again.

"I don't count them," he said, sounding amused. "Shame ye have grown up, Sileas. You'll do, but I liked ye better before."

"Ach, ye are a disgusting beast! Ye will burn in h.e.l.l for sure."

"I confess to the priests," he said. "When I hold a blade to their throats, the penance is no so bad-except for that d.a.m.ned Father Brian. He's a self-righteous b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"My husband is going to kill ye before ye have a chance to confess again," she said. "Ye will die with your soul black with sin."

"Your marriage is a sham, and everyone on Skye knows it." He leaned down until his filthy whiskers touched the side of her face and his breath choked her. "But you'll soon have a real husband-the kind who knows what he's supposed to do with a wife."

The taunts she had used to hold back her fear left her. Ian would come for her, but when? He thought she was safe, in Grdan's care. How long would she be inside Knock Castle with Angus and Murdoc before Ian learned she was there?

As if to dampen her hopes, a cold rain began to fall.

As Knock Castle rose out of the misty rain on the headland, fear weighed down on her chest, making it hard to breathe. She had not been inside the castle since the day she escaped through the tunnel after Murdoc beat her. As they crossed the drawbridge, she looked up at the ma.s.sive iron and wooden gates and shivered. Dear Lord, how would Ian ever get her out?

Sileas wondered if the ghost of the castle would appear to her as she used to. The legend was that the Green Lady, as she was called for the pale green gown she wore, would smile or weep, depending on whether good news or bad was coming to the family who occupied the castle.

The ghost had always wept for Sileas.

CHAPTER 34.

By the time Ian finally neared the sh.o.r.e below his parents' home, the muscles of his arms and shoulders felt ready to tear from the bone. He narrowed his eyes to peer through the freezing rain still pelting his face. Someone was on the beach waving his arms.

It was Niall. Ian's heart dropped to his boots. Tearlag was right. Something had gone wrong. He jumped out of the boat and splashed toward sh.o.r.e, hauling the boat with him, as Niall waded into the rough surf to help.

"They've got Sileas," Niall shouted over the wind and rain whipping around them, as he grabbed the other side of the boat.

"Who has her?" Ian shouted back.

"The MacKinnons and her step-da," Niall said, and Ian could see that his brother was near tears. "Angus was with them."

Ian slammed his fist against the boat. G.o.d, no!

As soon as they had lugged the boat above the tide line, Niall told him in a rush of words what had happened.

The MacKinnon devils had taken Ian's wife-and almost killed his brother.

"I tried to save her," Niall said in a choked voice.

Ian clenched his jaws against the rage surging inside him and squeezed his brother's shoulders. "I know ye did."

"Ian! Niall!"

At the shouts, Ian looked up to see Grdan running toward them along the path above the sh.o.r.e.

"Tell me the MacKinnons did not take her," Grdan called out, as he scrambled down the bank to them.

How did Grdan know it was the MacKinnons? Murder pulsed through Ian's veins. He pulled his dirk and started toward Grdan. "What do ye know of this?"

Niall held Ian's arm. "Grdan wouldn't harm Sileas. Let him talk."

Grdan had the wild eyes of a distraught man, and he had come to find them. Ian lowered his dirk, but he did not put it away.

"When Sileas came to talk to me last night, my mother thought she was making plans to leave ye-to marry me," Grdan said, looking pained. "She sent the boy who works for me out in the night to Knock Castle. She gave him a message for Murdoc, telling him that the four of ye had brought Sileas back from Stirling and were here at your folks' house. The boy just told me about it now."

After Niall told Grdan what happened, Grdan sank to the wet sand and held his head. Ian left him on the beach without a backward glance. d.a.m.n Grdan and his mother.

"Murdoc will have Sileas inside Knock Castle by now," he said to Niall, as they headed up to the house. "I've got to get her out."

Ian clenched his fists, remembering the scars Murdoc put on her back. He was going to kill him, regardless. But if Murdoc had laid a hand on her, he would tear him limb from limb.

"Ian," his brother said, turning worried eyes on him. "She let Murdoc believe that ye don't care for her and that ye never... well, that your marriage was not completed."

Ian waited for the rest.

"He intends to wed her to Angus."

The thought of Angus's meaty hands on Sileas's delicate skin made his own hands shake with fury. He had to rescue her-and quickly. If he did not save her before Angus raped her, he would never forgive himself. Never.

He could not allow his rage to cloud his thinking. He forced himself to focus his thoughts on the problems before him. The first thing he had to do was make a plan to get Sileas out of Knock Castle. Then, once he had her safe, he needed to save his clan from Hugh. With the others injured, there was no one else to do it.

He took what comfort he could from her whispered message to Niall. Tell Ian I'll be waiting for him. She believed he could not fail her.

He'd always had Connor, Duncan, and Alex at his side. As bairns, they played together. As lads, they learned to sail and to swing their first claymores together. As men, they fought side by side. Through the years, they had taken countless foolish risks together and saved each others' lives. They watched each others' backs.

Now, when Ian needed them more than ever before, he was on his own.

"Ye have me and da," his brother said, as if reading his thoughts.

Ian almost laughed. If he added Father Brian, he'd have a new foursome. But a one-legged man, a fifteen-year-old lad, and a priest were poor subst.i.tutes for experienced Highland warriors in their prime.

"Should I gather what men I can?" Niall asked.

"Men were willing to fight with us because they believed Connor could be our new chieftain," Ian said, shaking his head. "Hugh will be spreading the word that Connor is dead or gone. Until Connor is on his feet again, it would put him in danger for us to let it be known he survived the attack."

"Then what will we do?" Niall asked.

"We'll do what Highlanders always do when our enemy is stronger," Ian said, meeting his brother's eyes.

"What's that?" Niall asked.

"We'll use deceit and trickery, of course."

CHAPTER 35.

Mice skittered out of the rushes as Murdoc dragged Sileas down the length of the room. The castle's hall was even filthier than she remembered.

"Get some food on this table!" Murdoc shouted at a woman cowering in the corner. He kicked at two dogs fighting over a bone and turned to Sileas. "We'll have the wedding after we eat."

"Ye can't do this," Sileas said. "I am already wed. And it was no trial marriage-a priest wed Ian and me."

Murdoc's lips curled into a sneer. "So ye believed that drunk your chieftain found was a priest?"

Sileas was stunned. "Of course he was."

Even as she said it, she remembered how the priest fumbled through the words and the threat in the chieftain's eyes when he looked at the man. Other things fell into place that had been buried beneath worse memories of that day: the priest tripping over robes that were far too long for him; his attempt to follow, rather than lead them up the stairs to sprinkle the bed with holy water-before Ian threatened to toss him down the stairs.

"Ye are as easily fooled as your mother was," Murdoc said.

She was indeed a fool.

"Ian and I said vows to each other, and that makes us husband and wife under Highland custom." She swallowed. "And no matter what ye heard, I could be carrying his child."

She instinctively put a hand over her abdomen as the truth of her words struck her.

"Ye think I care whose child it is?" Murdoc shrugged. "But if Angus doesn't want to claim your brat as his own, well, babes die all the time."

She gaped at him openmouthed. She hadn't believed even Murdoc capable of such evil.

"If ye aren't pregnant now, ye soon will be," Murdoc said. "One way or another, ye are going to give me the MacKinnon child your mother should have. We need that child to have a clear right to the castle."

"I promise ye, Murdoc, ye will never have your hands on a child of mine."

"Don't think ye can escape this time, because I've blocked the tunnel." He gave her a hard shove. "Go help get food on the table. The men are hungry."

Ian pulled his plaid over his head as he pa.s.sed within sight of Dunscaith Castle on his way to the church.

Luck was with him, for he found the priest alone on his knees before the church's simple altar. "Sorry, Father, but this cannot wait."

The priest crossed himself and got to his feet.

"Are ye that desperate to confess your sins, Ian MacDonald?" Father Brian asked, as he brushed off his knees.

"No, Father. I haven't time for it."

"I thought as much," the priest said. " 'Tis a shame, for I suspect it would be a good deal more interesting than what I usually hear."