Highlander's Reckoning (The Sinclair Brothers #3) (21 page)

Rona bent and vomited. She would have fallen on her
face if it hadn’t been for Warren’s man holding her at a disdainful distance by
the arm.

“Leave them,” Warren said from atop his warhorse.

“And shall we send a messenger to Loch Doon?”

Warren considered this for a moment. “No, let Daniel
Sinclair worry for a few days. We’ll send a message then, perhaps after he’s
found these bodies and imagined the worst for his woman.”

The soldier nodded and moved to his horse. He
mounted and then dragged Rona up so that she was folded face down over the
front of the saddle. The horse began to move, and she was sure she would throw
up again as her stomach pressed into the saddle. Yet there was nothing left
inside.

Tears flowed silently from her swollen eyes as they
rode. Darkness began to settle in the woods, and she thought of Daniel, waiting
expectantly for her back at Loch Doon. She thought of Patrick and Harold, murdered
without a care and left in the open forest. She thought of Meredith and prayed
that she’d hidden and was now safe, along with her and Burke’s babe.

The moonless night stretched before her as they
continued to travel southeast. The darkness swallowed her prayers and tears.

Daniel paced along the battlements that ran atop
Loch Doon’s curtain wall. The moonless night gave him little light by which to
see, but the stars reflected off the loch’s surface enough to show him the
waters were calm—and empty.

Oh, they were going to get a piece of his mind when
they returned. First, he would hide both Patrick and Harold for defying his
direct order to see that they returned before dark. Patrick was still young
enough that Rona could have overwhelmed him with demands to stay longer. He had
no doubt that his wife would be able convince the green lad of just about
anything. But Harold should have known better. The stoic, experienced warrior
shouldn’t have taken any guff from Rona.

Then he would have to deal with his wife. How could
he be expected to trust her when she refused to follow the most basic requests?

He nearly growled under his breath. He thought when
they’d talked through their latest disagreement and come up with yet another
compromise that they were actually making progress together. But now they were
back to this—with her nowhere in sight long after sunset, and him here waiting,
worrying, and stewing.

Just then he caught a ripple across the star-filled
loch. A small boat was making its way from the village to the castle. He
breathed a sigh of relief but hardened himself for the fight that was sure to
ensue once the party reached the docks.

As he descended the stairs from the wall to the
courtyard, he saw Burke emerge from the great hall. The rest of the castle’s
residents were taking their evening meal in the hall, and light and noise
spilled into the yard briefly as Burke slipped out and closed the door behind
him.

Burke caught sight of Daniel and nodded.

“Still not back yet?”

“A boat is just arriving. I’m of a mind to meet
them,” Daniel replied darkly.

Burke nodded and fell into step at Daniel’s side as
they crossed out of the yard and toward the docks.

“I have a few questions for Meredith as well,” Burke
said tightly. Daniel shot a glance at him and realized that his cousin was
worried for his pregnant wife.

“Don’t be too hard on her,” Daniel said quietly as
they reached the docks. “In all likelihood, my wife browbeat the entire group
into overstaying. She has a knack for getting her way.”

Burke smiled wryly and turned his attention to the
small boat as it drew toward the dock.

As the rowboat approached, however, Daniel’s stomach
slowly started to twist. It wasn’t until the boat bumped into the dock that he
was forced to admit the truth. There were only two people in the boat: the
oarsman and a woman—Meredith.

“Burke!” Meredith screamed as she stumbled from the
boat onto the dock.

Burke rushed forward and scooped her into his arms.

“Meredith, love, what has happened? Where are the
others?”

Meredith burst into hysterical sobs. Daniel’s skin
prickled in foreboding and he felt a stab of fear in his gut.

“Get her to the castle!” Daniel barked.

With Meredith in his arms, Burke strode quickly up
the dock and toward the castle. Daniel kept pace with him, Meredith’s
panic-stricken cries filling his ears. Something terrible had happened. His
throat tightened and his pulse hitched.

They burst into the hall, and the merriment died
around them as they crossed toward the spiral staircase. The men taking their
evening meal gaped at them, falling silent and staring in confusion. Out of the
corner of his eye, Daniel saw Robert and Garrick, who were seated at the high
table on the raised dais, bolt to their feet and follow them toward the stairs.

Burke took the stairs two at a time, pausing only
long enough to kick his and Meredith’s chamber door open. By the light of the
fire burning in the chamber’s brazier, Daniel could see that Meredith was
disheveled and panicked. Bloody hell, what had happened? And where was Rona?

As Burke set Meredith down gently on their bed,
Robert and Garrick stepped into the chamber and closed the door behind them.

“What happened?” Robert demanded.

“We don’t know yet,” Daniel bit out.

Burke was trying to disentangle himself from Meredith,
but she clung to him, her arms around his neck and her fingers digging into his
shirt. Daniel noticed that her hands left dirty smudges on the white linen.
There were twigs tangled into her dark hair, and several red scratches stood
out on her pale face and neck.

Burke gave up trying to disengage her and instead
scooted onto the bed next to her.

“You have to calm down, love,” he whispered to her.
“Breathe. That’s it, nice and slow. Just breathe.”

Meredith took several shaky breaths, and her sobs
began to quiet. Even though it was clear the lass had gone through something
terrible, Daniel had to clench his fists at his sides to stop himself from
harshly demanding to know what was going on.

“That’s better, love,” Burke said, smoothing
Meredith’s hair. “Now, can you tell us what happened?”

Meredith forced herself to speak through trembling
lips.

“We were walking in the woods…I don’t know where…”

Daniel turned to his brothers. “They were going to a
cottage in the Galloway woods where Rona likes to visit some friends,” he said
by way of explanation.

Meredith took another deep breath and went on.

“I got sick, so I stopped. They went on a little way
ahead. Then…then I heard…I heard Rona scream, and the sound of horses…”

“Did you see how many there were? Were they wearing
armor? Did they bear a particular coat of arms?” Daniel interjected, panic
stabbing him.

Meredith shook her head and lowered her eyes.

“I hid. I hid like a coward.” She broke down as a
bereft sob shook her.

“Nay, love, you’re not a coward,” Burke soothed,
tilting her chin up so that she looked into his eyes. “You saved yourself and
our babe, and you made it back here to tell us what happened. Go on.”

Meredith swallowed and gave a little nod.

“I hid in some bushes, but I could hear them not far
off. There were shouts from many men, and the sound of metal on metal. I heard
Rona scream again, but then things fell quiet for several moments. Then a man
cried out, and I heard Rona again. Then all I could hear was the horses
retreating, and the forest went silent.”

“Christ,” Garrick breathed, raking a hand through
his hair.

“That’s not all,” Meredith said, her face contorted
in horror. “I stayed in the bushes for a long time—I don’t know how long. But
it was growing dark by the time I came out. I went toward where the sounds had
come from. I saw…” She struggled to choke out the words. “I saw…a pile
of…bodies…”

She squeezed her eyes shut as if she were trying to
get the image out of her head.

Daniel’s stomach plummeted even as his chest seized
painfully.

“Did you see…was Rona…” He couldn’t even speak the
words.

Blessedly, Meredith shook her head quickly. “I
didn’t see her there. They must have taken her. But Patrick and Harold…”

She didn’t have to finish the sentence. Daniel’s
intuition about the two men had been right when he’d selected them to accompany
Rona and Meredith into the woods. They’d fought and died trying to protect the
women.

“There were others, too,” Meredith went on, running
a shaky hand over her eyes. “Men in chainmail.”

“Englishmen,” Garrick said darkly.

“And the ground was all churned up from the horses.
There could have been as many as a dozen of them.”

“How do you know…” Robert began with a look of
surprise at Meredith’s words.

“She’s very good at following animals by the tracks
they leave,” Burke said quietly to him.

“But I’m apparently not good at following human
trails,” Meredith said, bereft. “I got lost trying to get back to the village.
I tried to get here as quickly as I could, and I went too fast…”

“Nay, love, nay. You’re here. You made it. You
delivered the news.” Burke kissed her hair and wrapped her in his arms. Tears
still streamed down her pale, scratched cheeks, but her sobs were quieter now.

Daniel’s whole body was taut with fear.

“We have to go after her. Now,” he said and began
pacing the chamber.

Before anyone could respond to him, Jossalyn burst
into the room.

“I went down to the hall for the evening meal after
my bath, but it’s chaos down there. Someone told me—”

She caught sight of Meredith, bedraggled and sobbing
on the bed, and bolted toward her. Jossalyn took one of Meredith’s hands in
hers and looked around, shocked.

“What happened? The babe?”

In a low, calm voice, Burke repeated what Meredith
had just told them. As the story unfolded, Jossalyn grew paler, her eyes wide.

“You think it’s…it’s my brother?” she asked when
Burke concluded.

“We can’t know for sure until we see those bodies in
the forest, but I’d stake my life on Warren being behind this,” Robert said
darkly.

“Then why aren’t we out there now?” Daniel barked.
“We’ll take all the castle’s men, plus the Highland warriors, and find the
bodies. We can continue on from there to Dunbraes.”

His brothers and cousin exchanged a look, and he
knew with a sinking sensation they wouldn’t follow his plan.

“They took Rona alive, Danny,” Robert said quietly,
carefully eyeing him. “That means they probably want to ransom her.”

“Or they took her because they want to rape and
torture her to death!” Daniel bellowed. His blood roared deafeningly in his
ears, and he glared at the men one at a time.

“What would you do if it was one of your wives?”

“I wouldn’t be able to think straight,” Robert said
levelly, “which is why I would turn to you to help me make a plan rather than
charge off into the woods in the dead of night.”

Daniel inhaled sharply and was about to shout a
response back at his elder brother when Robert cut him off.

“We can’t lead a half-formed attack on Dunbraes,
either. The castle is nearly impenetrable. We need to wait for the Bruce and
his army before we can launch a full-blown attack.”

“I’ll not wait a week or more for the Bruce to get
here!” Daniel shouted. “We all know what Warren is capable of, if indeed he has
her.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jossalyn
shudder at his words. He rounded on her.

“What will he do to her?” he barked.

“Easy, brother,” Garrick said lowly, taking a step
toward Jossalyn.

Jossalyn met Daniel’s eyes, and icy fear replaced
the fiery urgency in his blood.

“Raef is…a violent man,” she breathed. “He has no
qualms about hurting women.”

Daniel bellowed a string of expletives. Before he
knew what he was doing, he found himself standing in front of the chamber door.
He slammed his fist into the thick wood, barely registering the pain through
the haze of fear and desperation hanging around him.

Suddenly Robert and Garrick spun him around and
threw him against the door, pinning him. He struggled wildly against them like
a rabid animal.

“Let me go! We must go after her!”

He writhed and pulled, thrashed and bucked against
his brothers, but they held him fast to the door, restraining his arms and
throwing their shoulders into his chest.

He wasn’t sure how long he struggled against them,
but suddenly he felt drained. More than drained. He was empty, hollow, nothing.

He went slack, and his brothers released him and
slowly stepped back. Both were panting with the exertion of subduing him. His
back slid down the door and he slumped onto his heels, spent.

“We cannot wait for the Bruce, even if he is only a
week away,” Garrick said quietly to Robert.

Daniel raised his head enough to look up at his
brothers. Robert stared down at him for a long moment, contemplating Garrick’s
words. Finally, he spoke.

“Aye, we cannot wait,” Robert said, his face dark.
“If it were Alwin or Jane—” He didn’t finish, but squeezed his eyes shut and
shook his head slightly.

Though his brother’s words should have heartened
him, instead Daniel felt numb inside. No matter when they got to Rona, it
wouldn’t be soon enough. She had been taken, probably by the most ruthless, vengeful
Englishman in all of Scotland. Warren saw Scotland and its people as a scourge,
a plague against order and control, and he had a personal vendetta against the
Sinclairs. What would he do to Rona to exact revenge?

Robert and Garrick stepped forward and lifted him to
his feet.

“Don’t let the fear overtake you, Danny,” Robert
whispered to him. “Rona needs you. She needs you to think clearly, to help us
make a plan.”

Daniel shook his head, trying to clear his mind from
the panicked fog obscuring his thoughts.