Aidan (17 page)

“She made fool
s out of us,” shouted another guard, pointing to Effie. And then they all started shouting and moving toward her. Effie backed up toward the wall of the castle and held out her hands, wishing he had a weapon. But the guards had seen to it that all the weapons were kept far away from her.

“I’ll fight te the dei
th,” she shouted. “Do whatever ye want, but I swear I’ll take down whoever comes fer me.”

“Kill her,” said Lord Ralston with a wave of his hand. “Kill her sister as well. I don’t want to see
any MacDuffs in my sight ever again.”

One of his guards pulled his sword from his scabbard and walked forward. Effie felt her heart beating furiously and w
ished she had thought to try to at least steal back her bow and arrows from the cart before she’d hopped off. Her sister cried in the cage above her head, and all Effie could think of, was what would her grandmother have done in this situation? Then an idea came to her, and she called out to Lord Ralston.

“Stop! Ye dinna want
te kill me. Becooz if ye do, ye’ll ne’er find the Stone o’ Destiny. But if ye set me sister free, I’ll tell ye where it is.”

The guard
looked over at Lord Ralston who was walking away, but stopped in his tracks when he heard what she said. His head raised and he turned around toward her.

Then he walked back to her slowly, and with a wave of his hand, dismissed his guard.

“I’ll handle this,” he said, then looked at her and smiled maliciously. “So you are saying that although we had a deal, you didn’t trust me?”

“I – I never said the
t.”

“So, if you trusted that I’d s
et your sister free, then where is the damned stone?” he asked.

“I dinna th
ink she kens where it is,” Tasgall interrupted.

“Aye, I do,” she said, still hold
ing her dagger in front of her.

“Well, let’s find out the truth, shall we?
” Lord Ralston motioned to one of his guards. “Get the girl out of the cage and bring her to me.”

Effie was happy he was taking her sister from the cage. She figured she would make up a place where the stone was, and it would buy her some time until she could think of a plan.

The guard lowered the cage with the ropes and pulley, and took a key from his waist and unlocked her sister’s cage. Then he reached inside and pulled her out roughly, throwing her on the ground at Lord Ralston’s feet.

“Now, let’s find out where the stone is.” Lord Ralston grabbed Coira by the hair and shoved the sharp edge of his sword under her chin. Coira’s eyes closed and she w
himpered.

“Nay, dinna hurt her!” Effie took a step forward, but stopped when Lord Ralston scraped her sister’s neck and bl
ood trickled down her neck.

“So, tell me where the stone is, and my guards will go get it. But if you lie, then both of you will die.”

“It’s . . . it’s . . ” she was trying to decide just what to say, when a low voice from the top of the battlements called out.

“She di
sna ken, becooz I was the one te steal it.” Aidan stood atop the battlements with his hands on his hips. A ray of sun broke through the clouds just then, illuminating the area around him, making him look like Effie’s guardian angel.

“Aidan,” she said softly, knowing that what he was doing was mad. There was no way he could take on an entire English army, and though she was happy he’d returned to help her, he was going to get killed in the process.

“If ye want te ken where it is, ye’re goin’ te have to catch me te find out.”

“Get him!” shouted Lord Ralston
, letting loose of Coira, and walking toward the battlements. “Bring the bloody Scot to me anon.”

A chase broke out, the guards running in
a frenzy toward the battlements, and for the moment forgetting about their prisoners. She saw Aidan’s head disappear behind the tall merlon of the wall as the guards shouted and rushed up the steps. Lord Ralston was making his way over there as well, and Effie knew Aidan was doing this to distract them so she and her sister could escape.

“Get up,” she told her sister, pulling her to her feet.

“Who is thet, Effie?” asked Coira, shading her eyes and looking upward.

“No time te explain,” she said, dragging Coira across the courtyard, and toward one of the guard’s horses. “Can ye ride?” she asked.

Her sister stumbled and Effie caught her. She could see how weak she was, and knew this wasn’t going to be easy.

“I can barely stand,” cried Coira. “Save yerself, Effie, dinna worry aboot me.”

“Nay. I’ll ne’er leave ye, now put yer foot in me hand and get atop this horse and make it quick.”

Aidan looked down from the battlements, seeing Effie and a girl that he guessed to be her sister getting atop a horse. So she hadn’t lied to him about that part after all.

He had followed the wagon for the last two days
, and hid the stone where nobody would ever find it. He decided he couldn’t leave Effie with those English curs after all, even if she had betrayed him. He’d watched at night to make sure the guards didn’t accost her, and all the while he’d followed in the shadows, struggling with what to do. And before he knew it, they were at the castle. He knew Effie would not be allowed to just walk away with her sister, even if she had delivered the real stone to them. No English lord who was deceitful enough to steal the stone in the first place would keep any promises he’d made to a Scottish lassie, whether she was betraying her country or not.

He was glad Effie
figured out what he was doing by distracting them. Now he just needed to make sure the English didn’t look away from him until the girls were out of there and riding to safety.

An arrow whizzed past his ear
and he stepped to the side, watching it bounce off the stone wall just behind him. “Is thet the best ye can do?” he called out, hopping over the wall of the battlements just as the guards rushed him. He gripped on to a banner hanging down the side of the castle, and used it to slide to the ground. Once there, he picked up a torch stuck into the wall, and spying a small fire in the courtyard, he rushed over and dipped it in. Then, looking around, he spotted a wagon full of hay and threw it in, catching it afire to cause a bigger distraction.

Once the fire took the attention of everyone and they rushed around trying to put it out, he knew the girls must have had enough time to make it out the gate. He’d left the horse he’d pilfered from the guard hidden just outside the castle in the woods, and he would just sneak away now and join Effie and her sister.

He turned to go, and was met by the end of Lord Ralston’s sword.

“Going so soon?” he asked. “I think there’s something you need to tell me first.”

Aidan swiped the man’s sword away with his bare hand, getting cut in the process, and grabbed his own sword from his weaponbelt quickly. His sword clashed with Lord Ralston’s as they fought each other, and then to his dismay, a dozen guards rushed up with weapons drawn and he knew there was no way he was going to escape.

“Drop the sword, Highlander,” said Lord Ralston,
“and mayhap I won’t kill the girls.” Aidan’s eyes shot upward to meet Lord Ralston’s, and the man lifted his mouth in a half smile. “Aye, I knew what you were doing the moment I saw you atop the battlements. Did you really think you’d get away with this?”

Then two guards pulled Effie and Coira forward, and Aidan’s heart dropped in his chest to think they hadn’t been able to escape
after all. He didn’t want the girls’ lives endangered, and so he threw his sword to the ground.

“Aidan, I’m sorry,” said Effie.

“Nay, it’s me fault,” said her sister. “If I wasn’t so weak and frail I’d have moved faster and we’d have gotten away.”

“Effie, I’m sorry I
that didna believe ye aboot yer sister,” Aidan told her.

“Enough with all the sentimental rubbish,” snapped Lord Ralston. “Now put them all in cages until we can put out this fire and get things back in order.
Mayhap after hanging there like carrion in the sun, the Scot will tell us what we want to know.”

“I dinna care what ye do
te me,” said Aidan, “I will ne’er tell ye where I hid the stone.”

“You know, I changed my mind. A cage is too good for you. Put him in the stocks instead,” he commanded his men. “And then, come morning, you will be in a wonderful position for watching as I take the lives of one girl and then another, until you decide to tell me the location of the Stone of Destiny.”

Aidan was grabbed on all sides by several guards as they pushed him forward toward the stocks, holding his arms behind him. He stopped when he got to Effie, and could see the tears streaming down her face. They just looked at each other and he knew he might never have the chance to hold her in his arms again. She hadn’t believed that he loved her, and though he knew he had often said it in the throes of passion, this time was different. This time he knew it was love. Because if it wasn’t, he never would have followed and be willing to lose his life to save Effie – his dream angel.

Chapter 17

Looking down from her hanging cage, Effie’s heard about broke seeing Aidan bent over and locked into the wooden stocks. His hands through two holes, and his head through another, he couldn’t move. And after awhile, it would be hard to stand in that position as well.

It was night now, and some of the English soldiers had been drinking, when one of them came by a
nd threw his tankard of ale in Aidan’s face. She saw Aidan flinch and close his eyes and grit his teeth, but he didn’t say a word. From her position in the cage she could see a muscle in his jaw twitching in anger.

“What’s the matter, are ye still thirsty?” laughed the guard, slapping Aidan across the face. Once again, he stayed silent, but Effie knew
if she didn’t intervene, something bad was going to happen.

“Excuse me,” she called down to the guard. “Can ye go inside and find me and me sister a scrap
te eat?”

“You don’t deserve anything for what you did.” The guard was going to torment Aidan again, so she stood in the cage and hiked up her skirt, knowing full well the man would be able to see underneath.

“Are ye sure ye couldna find me a little . . . somethin’?” she asked. It worked. The drunken guard stumbled over to her and stood just under the cage, staring upward, his eyes fastened on her legs. “I’d be e’er so grateful te ye once I get outta this cage, if ye ken what I mean,” she said in a husky voice.

“Aye,” he said smiling and wiping his nose on his sleeve. “I’ll get you something, now just stay right there and wait.” Then he started laughing at his own jest and hurried off into the keep.

She quickly scanned the grounds below, not seeing any other guards at the moment. There were a couple atop the battlements, but by the way they were laughing and out of sight, she figured they were well in their cups and probably playing cards or dice.

“Coira,” she said in a low voice, “are you all right?”

“Oh, Effie, I dinna ken if I will live another day. I am weak and hungry and I think I am falling fast te a fever.”

“Dinna worry. I’m sure Aidan has a plan.”

“Is he the Scot in the stocks?” she asked.

“He is,” said Effie. “He is a wonderful man. And I willna let him die trying
te help us.”

Aidan heard every word Effie was saying to her sister. He licked his lips, trying to get the last drop of ale that slithered down his face after the guard threw it at him. He was parched and hungry, and his skin felt burnt from the hot sun earlier that day. His legs cramped from standing in this position, and to make matters worse, his nose itched and he couldn’t reach it.

“Effie?” he called up to her in a soft voice. “I’m sorry aboot all this.”

“Nay, it is me fault, Aidan. And I only wish I could change it all and be back in yer arms at the MacKeefe camp right now.”

“Ye do?” he asked.

“Aye,” she said. “I miss ye, Aidan. And I miss yer friends and yer sister and even thet pesky little squirrel o’ yers.”

“He has a squirrel?” asked Coira.

“And his friend, Onyx has a wildcat,” Effie told her. “And if we ever get outta here, I’ll tell ye all aboot it and ye can meet them all.”

“
Effie, we are goin’ te die, arena we?” cried her sister.

He looked up to see Effie reaching out of the cage and trying to touch her sister. Their fingers almost reached, but just fell short.

“Dinna talk thet way, sister. We’ll survive. Somehow.”

Aidan could see the love between the two girls, and also that Coira was not faring well from being in the cage in the elements for days now. He thought it was ironic how Isabel MacDuff was put in a c
age for helping Scotland, and now her granddaughters were in cages as well, but for helping the English this time.

He kept thinking of his dream with Effie and the English
soldiers, and how she’d had a tail. He should have realized right then and there that she was trouble. But if he had realized it, then he wouldn’t have gotten to spend time with her. He still didn’t trust her any further than he could throw her, but he knew that she and her sister didn’t deserve to die for what they’d done. It did seem now that Effie was only trying to steal the stone to save her sister. Coira started crying again, and Effie tried to calm her. Aidan had enough of this, and knew it was time to do something about this situation.