Wee William ran a hand through his hair and let out a whoosh of air. There was too much happening at once. His primary concern at the moment was the safety of his wife and her brother and sister. He had to find Horace Crawford before he worried over anything else.
“Angus wants the two of ye to join us in findin’ Bree,” Caelen told them.
Wee William needed no time to answer. “Nay,” he said harshly. “I need to be with me wife now. I canna leave her while that bastard still breathes.”
“What bastard is that?” Caelen asked.
Duncan answered for his friend. “Someone from both Aishlinn and Nora’s pasts. He’s Aishlinn’s step-brother and Nora’s former husband.”
Caelen’s brow quirked upward. “Former husband?”
“Aye,” Wee William answered gruffly. “Former husband. Her marriage was annulled not long ago. But he’s back and I can only imagine that he seeks revenge.”
Nial was just as confused as Caelen. “Revenge fer what?”
“Fer takin’ her out of England I suppose,” Wee William offered.
Caelen was growing frustrated. “Very well then, we can deal with that whoreson after we deal with Bree.”
Duncan nodded his head in agreement. “I agree. If Bree has run off with Gillon, we must stop them before they do anything stupid. We can keep our wives safe, here in the keep, Wee William.” Duncan turned his attention back to Wee William. “We will put Daniel and David in charge of the search for Horace. They ken what he and his brothers look like.”
Wee William thought long and hard. His wife needed him, but at the moment, she was too angry to even be in the same room with him, let alone have a thoughtful conversation. Bree was young and innocent and there was no telling why she had left with Gillon or why they had yet to return. If his instincts could be trusted, then Bree was in serious trouble. He could not imagine her leaving with Gillon voluntarily. And if she had, the foolish girl was in way over her head. He did not trust Gillon Randolph any more than the men who now stood before him did.
“They’ve got at least a four hour head start on us,” Caelen told them. “I canna believe Bree would have left on her own without tellin’ anyone. I think Gillon has taken her against her wishes.”
As much as he hated the thought of leaving his wife at the moment, Wee William knew he must do what he could to help find Bree. Nora, he reckoned, would be safely tucked away in the keep. They would put guards on her and the children as well as Aishlinn. There would be no way anyone would let Horace near any of them.
“Fine,” Wee William said, frustrated with the entire situation. “Let us get Bree and get back here so that I can deal with me wife.”
He started toward his wife’s room when Duncan stopped him. “Nay, Wee William. I’ll tell your wife and ye’ll go tell mine. Neither of them wants much to do with us at the moment. Aishlinn is far less likely to bash you over the head than me.”
Believing Duncan’s assessment of the situation to be more than accurate, he agreed.
“Give us a few moments lads,” Wee William said as he headed down the hallway toward Isobel’s chambers. “Tell Angus we’ll be below stairs shortly.”
Twenty-Seven
Wee William was going to kill him. David was certain of it.
He had only stepped away from Nora’s door long enough to relieve his bladder. When he returned he found the door to her room slightly ajar. At first he was not alarmed to find that Nora was not in her room. He had assumed she had stepped down the hall to see Elise and John. The alarm bells in his head did not go off until he found that neither Elise nor John had seen her.
By the time he had searched the keep from top to bottom only to come up empty handed, his life began to flash before his eyes. He wasn’t ready to die yet, but die he would if he did not find Nora.
“Wee William is going to kill me!” He was declaring this fact to his brother Daniel, as they were heading out of the castle.
“Aye,” Daniel agreed. “It has been nice havin’ ye as me brother all these years.” He was fully prepared to say his goodbyes to his brother. He too had no doubt that Wee William would kill David the moment he learned his wife was missing.
“Where the bloody hell could she be?” David seethed as they made their way through the crowds of people enjoying the festival.
“It makes no sense,” Daniel offered. “She kens that we have no’ yet located Horace. Why would she leave the damned keep?”
David had no answer, just a heavy sense of his own impending death should they not find her.
Nora was furious. She set off to do that which should have been done months ago. If my current husband cannot kill my former, then I’ll do it myself, she thought as she made her way around a group of people assembled to watch a man juggling two knives and an apple.
She had the sgian dubh tucked safely inside the pocket of her dress and was currently making her way through all the people who were enjoying the festival. They were all oblivious to her or what she hoped was about to happen.
She spotted Nigel first. He was standing at the end of the stables looking as nervous as Nora felt, with his eyes darting from one place to another. Nora followed his gaze to Donald who stood at the other end of the stables.
Good, she thought. Where there is one Crawford brother, the other is not far away.
Nora wrapped her fingers around her sgian dubh, noting how sweaty her hands were and cursing herself for being so nervous. She convinced herself that she was doing the right thing in seeking out Horace, to kill him before he had a chance to kill her or harm any one else.
For a fleeting moment, she wondered if God would forgive her for what she was about to do, then decided it no longer mattered. The world without Horace Crawford would be a much safer place.
She continued to scan the throngs of people hoping and praying that she would find Horace before he found her. There were so many people milling about that it made her task all the more difficult. But she refused to be disheartened. Neither would she let the mere thought of Horace Crawford terrify her to the point that she threw up.
Nay, she was going to finally be free of him. She was a woman on a mission. A mission to rid the world of the cruel, perverse, uncaring man. She cared not what Wee William, Angus, Aishlinn or anyone else thought of her when they learned she had killed the man who was the bane of her existence. She was willing to risk hanging or imprisonment, even banishment, if she could save just one other woman from the likes of Horace.
Whatever punishment lay in her future would be worth that one moment when she saw the life fade from his eyes. She’d be Horace Crawford’s widow if it was the last thing she did.
Nora began to grow uneasy, for she had walked through the courtyard and grounds twice now, and had not found Horace anywhere. Nigel and Donald hadn’t moved from their posts at the stables. She continued to clutch the tiny dagger as she headed back toward the keep. He had to be here, somewhere. He would not have left without his brothers.
Nora paused next to a stand where a woman was selling her woven wares. As she stood, nervously looking through the crowd for Horace, she felt something small, sharp and pointy press against the small of her back.
“Are you looking for someone in particular, whore?” a voice whispered in her ear as a hand grabbed her arm and squeezed it.
She felt her knees buckle, but held on.
“Aye,” she swallowed, doing her best to hide the fear that came with the sound of his voice and his touch. “I was looking for you, you stinking bastard.” She prayed she sounded fierce, like a Highlander, like a woman who could take care of herself.
Horace made a tisk tisking sound as he pressed the knife more firmly against the small of her back. “You sound like a bloody Scot when you talk that way, Nora. Very unbecoming.”
She wanted nothing more than the take her sgian dubh and thrust it firmly into his throat, but his hand gripped tightly around the arm that held it. Her mind raced for a way out of her current predicamen
t but fell quite short. He’d stab her before she had a chance to do anything.
“Do you wish for John and Elise to live?” Horace asked as he leaned in more closely to her ear. The feel of his hot breath on her skin made her flesh crawl and the nausea to return to her stomach. Fear pricked her skin at the mention of John and Elise. She would die before she let him harm either of them.
It would be worth the sacrifice. She knew that John and Elise were both tucked safely away in Isobel’s chambers. She also knew Horace was not stupid enough to try to get to them. For now, she would let him think she was frightened. She wanted to know why on earth he was here.
“I know well that they are here and inside the keep. It would not take much to send Donald up to them. Donald’s had his eye on Elise for a time. Of course, I keep telling him he needs to wait until she is older before he takes her as his own wife. I think one and ten is old enough. What say you?”
Her stomach roiled at the thought of Donald Crawford laying his hands on Elise. If she had to kill both Horace and Donald to stop that from happening, she would.
“If Donald lays one finger on Elise, I’ll kill him with my bare hands.” She didn’t need to hope she sounded fierce. She was startled at just how fierce and determined she sounded.
Her words angered Horace. He squeezed his hand more tightly around her arm. “I’m going to kill you, Nora. You know that. One way or another, you’ll die. But first, I want what was stolen from me.”
“What are you talking about? I stole nothing from you.” She wondered briefly if he hadn’t lost his mind.
“I found the hole in the cellar, you stupid bitch! I know something was hidden there. I know it had to be something of great value, or else those stinking Highlanders would not have travelled so far to steal it from me. Now, where is it?”
Nora could not contain her laughter. It escaped before she had the thought to rein it in. She stopped laughing however, the moment he yanked on her arm and pressed the knife so hard against her back, that she felt it rend a tear in her dress. Horace was not in the mood for laughter.
“The treasure they took was more valuable than gold,” Nora bated him. “The value is something that you will never understand, Horace.”
“Quit speaking in riddles and tell me what they took and where it is!” He seethed.
Nora took a deep breath before answering. “The treasures? Nothing more than candlesticks and a trinket box, you fool! The only one who values them is Aishlinn. The Highlanders came to get them for her, because they care about her. They love her. And that is what you’ll never understand, Horace, that love means more than all the gold or silver in the world.”
For a moment, Horace felt as though the earth had been pulled from under his feet. He simply could not fathom anyone travelling such a distance and going to so much trouble for mere baubles and trinkets.
“You lie, Nora!”
Nora shook her head. “Nay, Horace, I tell you the truth. They were Laiden’s candlesticks and her trinket box that I kept hidden in the cellar. In case the rumors about Aishlinn had been false. And to keep you from selling them.” Nora knew Horace would never understand such things as love, loyalty, or kindness. His heart, she reckoned, was too black to let even a glimmer of light into it.
His heart began to beat faster. “I do not believe you.”
“That is because you cannot understand it. Not everyone is filled with greed or malice or hatred like you, Horace. I tell you the truth. There are countless treasures in our lives and none of them have a thing to do with gold or silver or coin.”
If he had not feared being killed within moments, he would have stuck his knife through Nora’s back and left her to die. There were far too many people around them to get away with killing her here. Large beads of sweat began to form on his brow while his heart pounded with hatred and fury.
“Horace, I’ve told you the truth of it, I swear on the lives of Elise and John that I have.” Nora told him.
There was no doubt in his mind that Nora spoke the truth. He had sold his farm and everything he had left to his name, and for what? Candlesticks and a trinket box. Memories and baubles. The kinds of things that only a woman would hold dear or priceless.
The fault he would lay at the feet of Nora and Aishlinn, and women in general. Were it not for women, the world would be a far simpler place. He imagined a world where only men roamed above it and women were held below only to be used for breeding purposes. His life would be so much simpler and far better if he could live it without women.
He could feel Nora trembling with fear. Her fear acted as a balm to his wounded pride. Nay, he might not have found the treasure of gold he had come for. Nora might think him incapable of understanding the value of things other than coin and gold but she would be wrong. While she found value in those things he despised the most—love, memories, and kindness—he found value in far darker and more painful pursuits.
“Horace, let me go now and be on your way. You’ll find nothing but your own death if you try to bring harm to any of us here.”
It was Horace’s turn to laugh. “Do you think I am daft? I know the moment I let you go, you’ll cry out and I’ll be dead before I can reach the gate.” He looked toward Nigel and Donald and motioned them to come to him. “Nay, wife, I think not.”
An overwhelming sense of dread washed over Nora. Horace was insane and there was no telling what his plans for her were. “Please, Horace, I’ll tell no one you were here, if you’ll just let me go.” But the moment your back is turned, I’ll run my knife through it again and again until you breathe no more.
Nigel and Donald approached. Nora thought both men looked apprehensive.
“Nigel,” Horace said. “You will stay behind until we are safely beyond these grounds. If Nora makes any attempt at escape or to cry for help, you know what to do.”
Nigel looked as though he had swallowed something quite bitter. “You cannot be serious Horace.” His voice was unsteady.
“I am quite serious. Make your way into the castle. Watch through the windows. If Nora does anything to call attention to us, you will kill both John and Elise.”
Nora felt her heart fall from her chest. It had been quite easy for her to leave her own room unnoticed. What if those men watching John and Elise were as lax in their duties as David had been? She could not risk the possibility that Nigel would be able to find a way to get to the children. In an instant, she made the decision to allow Horace to take her away from the keep. Once they were out of Nigel’s line of vision, she would make her escape.
She remained mute as her fingers continued to tremble with fear. She took slow, deep breaths to keep from throwing up. This was not going as she had planned, but she refused to give up hope. Soon, she told herself, soon she would have the opportunity to run her dagger through his chest. She simply needed to remain calm. As long as she kept her wits about her, she would be able to extricate herself from the situation.
Horace pulled her in to his side as if they were long lost friends. He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “Nora, we’ll be leaving this place now. I advise you to remain quiet if you wish no harm to come to those brats of yours.”
Nora could only allow him to lead her away on shaky legs. With each step she took away from the keep, she became more fearful What if she could not get her dagger out of her pocket in time? What if the first thrust did not harm him enough to allow her to run away? What if no one noticed her missing until it was too late?
She began to wish she had begged Wee William to stay with her, to work things out. But she had been far too angry with him for lying. She still was not convinced that her marriage to Horace had been properly annulled. What if what Father Michael had done was not enough in the eyes of God or the law? What if she really were married to two men at once?
As they walked away from the keep, her mind raced in far too many directions at once. She worried over the safety of John and Elise as well as Aishlinn and her babe. What if Horace killed her
and returned to kill Aishlinn? She could not risk trying to escape just yet. She had to get Horace and his brothers away from the keep, away from those that she loved before she could take the chance to kill him.
She was furious with Wee William for not being honest. She knew he had meant well, but had he been honest, then mayhap she could have prevented this. How, she could not think at the moment, but certainly she could have been better prepared.
Soon, they were walking through the gate. Her mind was a blur of thoughts and worries, her heart heavy with fear and a longing for Wee William. Mayhap he would return soon and realize what had happened. Nora knew without question that her husband would come for her. Her only worry was that he’d not find her in time.
David felt an overwhelming sense of anger and dread when he finally caught a glimpse of Nora. He had been looking out the window from the second floor of the keep when he saw her pass through the gate.
By the time he made it down the stairs and out of doors she was gone.
He found Daniel just outside the keep.
“Horace has her,” David said to his brother as he ran inside the stables. “I saw one only of the brothers with them.” David went to a stall at the far end of the stable and led his horse, a beautiful bay gelding out of his stall.
“The third could still be here or mayhap he awaits with horses beyond the keep.” Daniel offered as he watched his brother hastily saddle his horse.
“Ye try to find the other brother. Check on Aishlinn and the children and double their guards. No strangers are to enter Isobel’s rooms,” he said, checking the straps of his saddle.
“Send someone to find Phillip, Garret, and anyone else ye can find to help. I’m going after Nora.” David led the horse out of the stables as he gave more directions.
Wee William's Woman, Book Three of the Clan MacDougall Series Page 36
