Lachlan spun around. “Get everybody down to the laundry. Now!”
Christie and Colin broke and ran. Shouted orders ran through the castle. Men and women appeared, some carrying children. Everyone ran in the same direction.
On the far side of the hall, a staircase ran down into the ground. Everyone headed the same way and got stuck in a bottleneck.
Lachlan turned to Ivy. “Get down with the others. You’ll be safe down there.”
“Where are you going?” Ivy asked.
“To the armory. I must rearm, and I must see to the Clansmen afore we flee.”
“Flee!” Ivy exclaimed. “We can’t go out there. They would slaughter us all.”
He cracked a wicked grin. “Aye. We’re no’ going out there as long as they’re here. Now gang ye downstairs with the others. I dinnae want to hear any more arguing from ye. Do ye hear me? Go. Now. We have another way out of here they dinnae ken about.”
He didn’t wait to hear her reply. He took Christie’s arm, and both men ran out going the other way. They had to struggle against panicked crowds, and they headed up a different stairway, straight toward the creature attacking the castle.
Ivy hated to leave. She looked around at the helpless bystanders shoving and sobbing in terror. She didn’t want to cower in the basement with them. She caught sight of Colin standing there, and she touched his arm. “Could I have a weapon, too? Could you ask Lachlan to bring me one?”
He cocked his head to study her. “A weapon—ye!”
“Why not?” Ivy asked. “I guess a woman can fight as well as a man.”
Colin nodded. “Aye. I’ll tell him.”
“Will he give me one?” she asked.
“I see no reason why no’,” he replied. “Heaven kens we have had enough of that in this war.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sadie,” he replied. “She fought, too, and then there were those Urlu witches. They all fought with weapons. I see no reason ye should be any different. Now go below, lassie. I’ll see to your weapon for ye.”
“Thank you, Colin.”
She felt better going downstairs, now that she got that off her chest. So she wasn’t the only woman who wanted to fight, even if they were from her world. She didn’t have to reinvent the wheel here.
She should have expected the men would react this way. They’d seen enough women from her time to expect it by now. She got in line to go down the stairs and found herself standing next to a tall woman about her own age.
The woman caught Ivy looking, and she scanned Ivy up and down before she turned away. Her cold glare unsettled Ivy. She never anticipated what would happen when Lachlan brought her here, especially with all the hounds of hell on their tail.
Ivy started to turn away, too, when the woman’s voice startled her. “You’re the one Lachlan’s been searching for, aren’t ye?”
Ivy whipped around to stare at her. “Yes, I am.”
The woman nodded. She wore her long brown hair piled on top of her head and a plain white apron tied around her slender waist. Her corseted bodice and full skirts gave her an elegant appearance. Her head bobbed on her slender neck. A woman like that belonged in a castle.
Ivy shrank before her. Her pants and shirt, so serviceable crossing the moor on horseback, didn’t belong in this castle. Ivy longed for the dress she abandoned at the crofter’s lodge.
To her surprise, the woman spoke to her again. “I wish the men’d give me a weapon, but they’ll no’ see their way to it. They cannae see a woman fighting with the men.”
“You want a weapon?” Ivy gasped. “You want to fight?”
“Of course,” the woman shot back. “Do ye think I want to stop in here and die from those things without a blade in my hand?”
“Have you asked him?” Ivy asked. “Have you asked Lachlan to give you a weapon? You might be surprised by his reaction.”
“I could never do that!” the woman exclaimed. “He’d have me whipped.”
“I’ll tell you what,” Ivy replied. “When the men come downstairs, I’ll ask him for you. I bet you’re not the only woman in this castle that wants to fight.”
“No, I ken I’m not,” the woman returned. “I ken at least ten of them that want to do something as well, but naught a one of them’ll lift their head to say so. None of them wants to appear unnatural afore the Laird.”
“The Laird? You mean Lachlan?” The woman nodded, and Ivy turned away. “I’ll talk to him about it. If I can have a weapon, I see no reason you shouldn’t.”
The glut of bodies blocking the stairs thinned out, and Ivy and the woman made their way down to the laundry. Stacks of bedding and clothes lay all over the place. The room barely contained enough space for all the people trying to get in.
Ivy stuck out her hand to her new acquaintance. “I’m Ivy. Ivy Tennant.”
The woman beamed at her and shook her hand. “Martha. Martha Crockett.”
“Crockett!” Ivy exclaimed. “I thought everyone around here belonged to Clan McLean.”
“I’m Lachlan and Christie’s cousin on their mother’s side,” Martha explained. “Their mother’s sister married a man from the southland. He took her to his home there, and that’s where I was born and raised.”
“What brought you back here?” Ivy asked.
“I came along to visit me cousins and found meself in this mess.” Martha cast an exasperated glance around the laundry.
Ivy wilted. “I’m sorry about this. This is all my fault.”
“This started a long time afore ye came along, lassie,” Martha told her. “It started with that curse.”
“You’re right,” Ivy agreed, “but I caused the curse, didn’t I?”
Martha cocked her head. “Ye did?”
“Yep,” Ivy replied. “I didn’t cast the spell, but I gave the magic words to the person who did, and now this latest attack is my fault, too. I should just leave. I should get out of here. Those things would follow me and leave you alone.”
“They might follow ye, but the curse wouldnae. Am I right?” Martha asked.
Ivy stared at her. She wasn’t expecting a reaction like this. “I thought you would want me to go. I thought you and all these people would resent me coming here and bringing danger on your heads.”
Martha waved that away. “You’re here, lassie. Lachlan brought ye here, and he must have had a good reason to do that.”
“That’s exactly what he said,” Ivy murmured.
“If ye learn one thing about Lachlan McLean, ye must learn this lesson,” Martha told her. “He makes his own decisions, and no one may second-guess them. If he chose to bring ye back here, ye must accept he did it for a good reason. If ye want to be here, then be here, and dinnae always question if he made the right decision. That’s his business and none of your own.”
Martha turned away, but Ivy couldn’t stop staring at the back of the woman’s head. Ivy already knew that about Lachlan. She knew that from countless hours of watching him handle his Clan affairs. He was his own man, so his decision to bring her here in spite of the danger must have been the right one.
Ivy looked all around her, but her mind wouldn’t accept the reality. Men and women packed the laundry shoulder to shoulder. Excited talking and hushed whispers flew back and forth.
Every person in this room hung on Lachlan McLean’s word. Everyone in this room depended for their very lives on his decisions and his judgment. Now Ivy did the same thing, but she could trust him. She understood that to the marrow of her bones. She always had trusted him.
Lachlan came back, and the whole company came to attention the instant he set foot in the room. His brother Christie and his cousin Colin stood at his shoulders.
Lachlan scanned the room until he saw Ivy and Martha standing side by side. “Ah. There ye are. Now then. here’s what we’re going to do. Listen carefully, ’cuz we havnae much time. Those things are outside, and it’s only a matter of minutes afore they get inside. Now then. Martha, ye ke
n the passage to the river bank.”
“Aye,” Martha replied.
“Ye must gang ye down there and take all these people with ye. The men’ll follow to give ye cover. Once you’re out in the open, ye must make with all speed to Kinlochspelve. Do ye understand?”
“Kinlochspelve!” Martha gasped. “That’s miles away, beyond the loch and over the moors and mountains. Ye want me to take all these people over there, with these monsters roaming the land?”
“Aye,” Lachlan replied.
Martha glanced around. Everyone in the room stared at her. “Ye…ye want me—me!—to take the people down there?”
He took her hand. “You’re the only one as kens the passage. I’m giving ye my charge, lassie. Ye must protect these people for me. Do ye hear? All of ye, hear me. I’m placing this woman at your head. You’re to follow her orders as ye would me own.”
Martha swallowed hard. Ivy came to her side. “This is the moment you’ve been waiting for, Martha. You wanted to fight. Now’s your chance.” She turned to Lachlan. “Give her a weapon.”
Lachlan jumped. “A weapon!”
“Yes. If she’s gonna do this and take your charge, she better have a weapon.”
“Aye. Of course.” Lachlan rounded on Colin. “Give me a weapon.”
Colin slipped a saber into his hand. The scabbard hung by a leather belt, and the fitting clinked when it moved. Lachlan handed it to Martha, who gazed down on the thing with eyes as big as saucers.
Before she could recover from her surprise, Lachlan turned away. “Ye have all got your orders. Move out.”
Martha took a moment longer to rouse herself. Her eyes riveted on that weapon in her hand. Little by little, she raised her gaze to the people all around her. They busied themselves gathering what supplies they could.
Martha moved off into the crowd. Ivy started to follow her when Lachlan laid a hand on her arm. “Stay here, Ivy.”
“What? I thought you wanted me to go with them.”
“No’ yet,” he told her. “We have something to do first.”
The men hung back and waited. Across the laundry, Martha moved between her people. She gave them murmured words of encouragement between sorting out clothes and bundles of supplies to carry.
Ivy fidgeted at loose ends. The men stood around not doing much, either. What was going on? What did Lachlan have in mind, that he needed Ivy to do it?
Martha came over to Ivy and took her hand. “Will ye…will ye help me?”
“What do you need?” Ivy asked.
Martha inclined her head to one side and drew Ivy around a big stack of laundry where the others couldn’t see them. Martha held up a roll of fabric. “Can ye show me how to use…these?”
Ivy unrolled the bundle. It was a pair of pants.
“I dinnae ken how to use them,” Martha whispered.
Ivy blinked. “You’ve seen men putting them on, haven’t you?”
Martha colored and looked away. “Well, as it happens, no, I havnae. The men all wear kilts, ye ken, and I have no brothers. I have…well, I have never lain with a man afore now. I dinnae ken what to do with them, but I can see by your way of moving around I need them the same as ye do. Will ye help me?”
Ivy stared at her. Then she burst into action. “All right. Let’s get your dress off.”
Ivy set to work as fast as she could. She didn’t know how to take Martha’s dress off any better than Martha knew how to put on a pair of pants. Martha knew, though. She unlaced her bodice, shucked off her dress, and stood in front of Ivy in her underclothes.
Ivy inspected her. “All right. Here.”
She held the pants open and showed Martha how to stick one leg after another down into them. When Ivy tied the waistband, Martha smoothed her clothes. “I never thought I’d be wearing a man’s clothes, but I can see Lachlan fancies ye in that rig-out.”
Ivy’s jaw hit the floor. Martha liked Lachlan. Ivy saw that plain as day. Martha probably loved Lachlan. She probably mooned over him and dreamed about him all this time.
Right then and there, Ivy made up her mind. She would never put out her hand for Lachlan. She would never show him how she felt. She would leave him for Martha. Martha deserved him a lot more than she did.
Martha buckled the saber around her waist, and she was ready to go. Lachlan and the men didn’t see her when she came out from behind the laundry to rally her people. Lachlan and his party stood in a circle in heated conversation while Martha made her way to the back of the room. Packed bodies hid her from view.
Her melodious voice lilted over the crowd. “Now follow me, and stick together. If anyone falls behind, we’ll no’ be able to come back for ye. Ye mothers and fathers, ye keep a good hold of your bairns. It’ll be dark down below, so keep alert.”
The next moment, she moved off somewhere Ivy didn’t see. The crowd pressed forward to follow her, and in a matter of minutes, the laundry room emptied out. Only then did Ivy see where they went. A door opened in a hidden corner of the room. It led down a few steps into an underground tunnel beneath the castle. It disappeared into the dark and took all the footsteps and voices with it.
Ivy gazed down into the darkness for a moment. She only knew Martha a few minutes, but she already sensed Martha was a friend, exactly the kind of friend Ivy really needed right now. Now Martha was gone, and Ivy had no idea when she would see Martha again, if ever.
Just then, Lachlan approached her. “Come along. We’re going back upstairs.”
Ivy didn’t move. “I wish I could go with them.”
“Dinnae wish that,” he murmured. “They’ll be safe as long as they move away of ye. It’s ye these creatures are coming after. Aegir’s sending them to bring ye back to him. If ye went with them, you’d put them all in danger. Ye dinnae want that.”
“Then what are we going to do?” she asked. “What do you want me to do? I can’t defeat those things.”
“None of us can defeat them,” he pointed out.
“What are we supposed to do then—give up?” she asked.
“We’ll never give up,” he replied. “We must do something, though. We cannae sit still, or we’ll all go down. That blob thing is covering the whole castle with its body. They’ll starve or suffocate us out afore long.”
“What are we going to do?” she asked. “Even if we could get it off, the others would attack us. Aegir would send more and more of these creatures.”
“I ken it,” he replied. “Come along.”
Desperation and confusion wrestled in Ivy’s mind, but she didn’t argue. After all the people vanished down the tunnel, only Lachlan and the fighting men remained. Lachlan faced his Clansmen. “Now that’s done, Ronald, ye take your lads and stand ready by the back exit. When ye hear me signal, ye make for the river the way we planned.”
“Aye,” Ronald replied.
“Ivy, you’re with me and Christie.” He started up the stairs.
“What are we doing?” she asked.
“We’ll stand by the front entrance,” he told her. “As soon as Ronald and his men are in position, we’ll start outside. We willnae get far with that thing in the way, but we’ll prick it with our swords to get its attention. Once we do get its attention, it’ll leave off the rest of the castle. Ronald and the lads’ll be able to get outside, and they’ll make for the river to meet up with Martha and the others.”
“What makes you think the thing will leave off the rest of the castle?” she asked. “What makes you think it will turn its attention to me and leave them to get away?”
“None of these things gives a hoot for naught but to get ye back for Aegir. Ye ken that. Once you’re outside, they’ll all come running to ye. They dinnae care for any Highlanders or fleeing women. They’re here for ye and ye alone.”
Ivy stopped in her tracks. “You want to use me as bait. You want to dangle me in front of their noses so the rest of them can get away. You bastard.”
He rounded on her, and he didn’t back down an inch. �
�You’re right. That’s precisely what I’m doing, and if ye were in me place, you’d do the same. You’re one person, and so am I. What’s that compared to the lives of a hundred people? Do ye want to go with them and take all their lives? I’m Chief of this Clan, and I’ll no’ stand by to save one person at the cost of all the others, no matter who that one person is. I’d gladly give my own life to save theirs if that’s what it takes.”
Ivy wilted. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I should have thought of that. I just don’t want to go out there. I don’t want to deliberately harass those things to make them attack us.”
“If I’m no’ mistaken,” he replied, “we need do no such thing. We must take their attention away of Martha and her people—nothing else.”
“If you’re right,” Ivy pointed out, “once they see me, they won’t quit until they get me. They’ll destroy the whole castle.”
He nodded. “Quite possibly. We must take the chance and hope for the best.”
Lachlan turned away from her. Ivy glanced around. She didn’t know what to do with herself. She was the cause of this whole situation, and now these men would sacrifice themselves because of her.
When she looked over her shoulder, she found Colin standing behind her. She whispered to him. “Did you get a weapon for me?”
He pressed an axe into her hands without a word. She hefted it in her hands. It was far too heavy for her, but it was better than nothing. She just might do some damage out there.
Chapter 10
Lachlan stopped at the front entrance door. He hadn’t dared look outside since he and Ivy entered the Tower House. He took his cousins’ word those things were still out there. He dreaded going out there as much as Ivy did, but he couldn’t show it. He had to be strong, not just for her, but for the rest of his men.
The more he had to do with Ivy, the more certain he became he’d made the right decision getting her out of Aegir’s clutches. He didn’t care if she possessed no power at all to fight the curse. He wanted her—nothing more.
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