Once Upon A Haunted Castle: A Celtic Romance Anthology

by Eliza Knight

  It took little time to read his message and his plan and to understand her part in it. It took much longer and more effort to tamp down her anticipation and to appear well-prayed and ashamed when she left the chapel and returned to her chamber.

  The night and next day took months to pass, or so it seemed. Finally, the sun slid below the horizon and no moon rose and Isabel did as Alex bade her do. When both the leman and the guard lay soundly and deeply asleep, she waited for his arrival.

  Chapter Four

  Alex crept out of the storage chamber off the kitchen, making sure he avoided any of the servants who yet toiled there. Brodie followed behind him, his sure steps and presence giving Alex more confidence in this plan than he felt right now. Even knowing the others waited outside the gates to help their escape did not help.

  Making their way from here up to Isabel’s tower room was not a sure thing and filled with any number of dangers and challenges. He cleared his thoughts of all but one—his wife needed him.

  As Lara described, most of those living here in the keep were at their rest and few awake. Due to the arrogance of The MacLeod, few guards stood watch here within his hall or anywhere but the doors leading in or out. Alex and Brodie silently strode along the dark-shadowed walls and up steps until they reached her chamber.

  No guard stood there waiting for them.

  ’Twas either a very good or very bad thing. Only opening the door would reveal the truth. Alex offered up a quick prayer in case the Almighty was listening and lifted the latch. Easing the door open, he heard Brodie behind him, waiting and prepared for whatever lay behind it. Dagger in hand, Isabel stood just inside, her eyes blazing and her body ready to fight, like an avenging angel.

  His avenging angel.

  “Isabel,” he whispered as he and Brodie entered and closed the door behind them. “Isabel.”

  She dropped the dagger and ran into his open arms. Alex held her, just held her, feeling the breaths entering and leaving her body and letting her heat warm him. He slid his hands up, tangling his fingers into the mass of long, blond curls to draw her head back, and stared at her face.

  “Are you well, lass?” he asked. He searched her features and noticed the dark circles beneath her green eyes and the paleness of her skin. “I heard what your father did to you.”

  “Now that you have returned, it matters not,” she whispered before lifting her mouth to his.

  Alex accepted and took possession of her lips, slanting just so that she opened to his tongue. He tasted her and suckled her tongue when she offered it to him. She had been crying for the saltiness of tears lay on her lips. But mostly, she tasted like. . . home.

  “Alex,” Brodie growled. “We have no time for this.”

  Alex pulled away from Isabel and nodded. Glancing behind her, next to the bed on the floor, he saw a woman and a man, trussed up like suckling pigs ready for the roast. They did not move at all and barely breathed. Alex smiled at his wife.

  “You did well,” he said. “How long have they been asleep?” The potion Lara had passed to Isabel would make them sleep like the dead for hours and hours, she had promised.

  “Nigh on two hours,” she said. “I am afraid my tying skills may not keep them thus.” Isabel nodded at the guard. “He is so heavy that I feared I would never move him there.”

  Brodie walked by Alex and crouched next to the two, tugging at the bonds and gags Isabel had placed. He stood and shrugged.

  “They’ll do just fine, lady.” Brodie nodded at the door. “We should go. Now.”

  Alex grabbed the leather satchel at her feet and tossed it to Brodie. As he picked up the cloak there on the bed, he noticed that she wore the same gown she had worn when they spoke their vows. Plain, it would garner no attention from anyone seeing it. After he wrapped the cloak around her shoulders, he gathered her in close. Though she tried to hide the pain, he saw it in the tightness around her eyes and mouth.

  “I should have been here,” he whispered, easing his hold and pressing his lips against her forehead. “I should have stopped it.”

  She slid her hand into his and squeezed it. “You are here now.” Brodie lifted the latch and checked the corridor outside.

  “Come.”

  Alex supported Isabel during the fast-paced run from her chamber, down the stairs and through the long corridors back to the kitchen. She struggled to keep up with their long-legged strides, but never complained or slowed. They reached the kitchen and the storage chamber where he and Brodie had hidden and crept back inside it.

  “Why are we stopping here?” Isabel asked, taking in deep breaths as she spoke.

  “We will go out as we came in,” Brodie explained. “At first light when the gates open.”

  “I can show you another way out.”

  Alex glanced at Brodie. They’d planned to hide her in the same wagon they’d used to get into the castle yard and leave as soon as the gates opened in the morn, rousing little suspicion or concern. But every moment they remained here raised the possibility of being discovered. Or that the potion would wear off sooner than expected.

  Alex smiled and nodded at his wife. He trusted her to ken a better way. “Show us.”

  She could not stop touching him. Now that he was here, Isabel held on to his hand or his arm. In her confusion and pain after the whipping, she had thought of him and him alone. It would be a long time before she would convince herself to loosen her hold on him. Or to stop staring into the blue depths of his eyes. Or to lose the need to kiss him.

  “This way,” she said, nodding to Brodie to open the door.

  It hurt to move quickly. It hurt to wear the heavy, dark cloak that would hide her features and protect her from the cold outside. But, none of that could slow her down or they would both, they would all perish. She stopped and faced the large, rough man who accompanied Alex. He was not what she had expected after Lara’s words of praise, but he had carried the message and brought Alex here.

  “Brodie?” He nodded and watched her expectantly. “Lara cannot remain behind. My father will kill her for helping me, us, when he discovers this.”

  “Aye, ye are right on that, lady. Lara waits now at our meeting place. I wi’ see her safe.”

  Alex chose his friends well. She nodded and led them to another storage chamber. There, hidden in the stone wall, was a secret doorway. She counted the stones as her mother had told her to do and pushed on a round one at the top corner of the wall. A soft grating sound was the only noise as the passageway was revealed to them.

  Her mother could not openly help Isabel, but in revealing this to her one night as she sat at Isabel’s bedside, nursing her bloodied back, her mother had given her a way out of whatever her father planned. Shocked by even that attempt on her mother’s part to circumvent her father, Isabel was glad of it now. Once Brodie lit the torch held on the wall inside, she allowed Alex to go ahead, using him for support on the dark steps that led down beneath the keep.

  Isabel thought on her mother’s words as she walked down through the dark place. This had been carved out of the bedrock of the headlands on which Dunvegan sat at the same time that the oubliette had been dug—that structure hiding this one. Only the chieftain and his most trusted aides knew of this.

  And apparently his wife.

  They reached the end of this chamber and found another doorway. When Alex pulled it open, they were met by the salty smell of the sea. A sea cave would lead them to the cliff side of the keep and escape. But, according to her mother’s words, this path was arduous and long and Isabel could feel her strength waning and each step she took brought collapse closer.

  “Rest here, love,” Alex said to her, drawing her to his side and letting Brodie pass. “Go ahead and see what lies there.” Isabel slumped against him and gasped when her back hit the stone wall.

  “Is there anything I can do?” he asked. Concern laced his words and his gaze.

  “Nay. The worst is past, but the skin is tight and yet pulls when I move.”
>
  “I will kill him.”

  She startled at his vehemence. “I do not think either of us can do that, no matter how much we might want it.”

  “Well, he will never touch you again, Isabel,” he swore. “I will make certain that you are safe.”

  That brought them to the heart of the issue—what would they do once they were away from Dunvegan?

  “Where will we go, Alex?” she asked. “What will we do, if we escape?” She brushed her hair back from her face and searched his.

  “When we escape.” He reached up and touched her cheek, smoothing her hair again. “We will escape. And we will be together. I vowed before God to be at your side, Isabel.”

  “What did your father say when he heard that we were wed?”

  She knew the answer before he said a word, for the guilty look in his dark blue eyes shone there. Their marriage was yet a secret from his family as well as hers. Isabel closed her eyes and then tried to release her frustration and fear as a breath.

  “My father will take us in if for no other reason than to thwart and anger yours,” he assured.

  The thought of facing The MacDonald’s ire and his wrath did nothing to ease her mind or heart. She had thought that Alex’s return here to rescue her meant he had explained their marriage to his father and his family would accept it and her. Feuding families often married to settle issues and this could be simply one of those. She had hoped. She had prayed. The gentle touch of his hand, lifting her chin so that their gazes could meet, made her open her eyes.

  “You are in pain and exhausted. When we get out of here and you are rested and recovered, we will sort it all out.”

  Isabel was in pain and nights of sleepless tossing and turning had sapped whatever strength she might have had before her father’s punishment. The constant fear that her father would discover her secret made her fret through every hour of each day.

  For, in spite of her fear that she had lost the bairn inside, she now suspected she had not. Unable to speak openly or ask questions about such things, she could only rely on memories of bits and pieces she had overheard discussed by other women about it. Now, with Alex here, it felt wonderful to have someone else who could take on her burdens and help ease her fears.

  Isabel slid her arms under his and rested her head against his strong chest. Her whole body relaxed and even the pressure on her back did not bother her when he embraced her.

  They were together. She breathed in his scent, slowly savoring him.

  They were together. Isabel stroked her hands up and down the muscles of his back, accepting the strength he offered in his arms.

  They were together.

  She only knew she had slept when his whispered words woke her. It was time to leave Dunvegan behind and begin their life together.

  Chapter Five

  Alex helped Isabel along the wet path. They needed to reach the top of this embankment of rock before the sun rose or they would be seen. Exposure now meant death. Brodie led the way, testing each step and gaining a new foothold before moving forward. No one spoke aloud and, other than a few whispered words of encouragement, they climbed in silence.

  Even though they’d left hours ahead of when they’d planned, it was taking longer than he expected it would to cross the rocks from the mouth of the cave to higher dry land. Still, they would arrive from the other direction and be able to approach the meeting place without coming through the village or from the keep. A good thing to be sure.

  Finally, they reached the top and he supported Isabel while she caught her breath. She had not complained once, not even when his hold slipped and his hands pressed into her back. When they could stop, he would see the extent of the damage her father’s callousness had wrought. But for now, he simply held her and helped her take each step.

  Her expression when she had asked about his family’s reaction to news of their marriage still haunted him. Alex would explain it all to her. And beg her forgiveness for not being at her side sooner.

  “Alex.”

  He stopped and waited for Brodie. The man had walked ahead of them to see if there was trouble. He appeared like a ghost out of the swirling mist that formed over the sea and rolled up onto the shore and out through the glens towards the mountains of Skye. Alex shivered at the sight, as though someone had walked across his grave.

  “No trouble,” Brodie said in a quiet voice. The fog intensified sounds rather than muffling them, so they took care not to make too much noise. “The men are ready.”

  “What will we do?” Isabel asked him.

  “Your father will search for you first in the keep and then the village. If he does not find you, he will then expand outward to the nearby villages and towns. If someone, anyone, connects you to me and the MacDonalds, he will look to the sea and to the south towards our lands when he discovers you missing.” Alex pointed into the distance towards his home in Sleat.

  “So where can we go?” He smiled at her question and nodded at Brodie.

  “We go deeper into MacLeod lands.”

  “Alex, no,” Isabel began to argue with him. “There is no place we can hide from him if we remain here.”

  “Nay, not here, love. East and then north and west to the other part of Skye that used to be my clan’s. There is a place where Brodie can meet us once your father follows the trail my men leave behind.”

  With the exception of this area and Sleat where his family lived, most of this isle had been fought over and changed hands for centuries. What had belonged to the MacDonalds was now controlled by the MacLeods and the opposite as well. Whether by fighting for it or being granted it by kings and conquerors mattered not and Alex had no doubt that it would continue to happen over the next generations of both clans. Castles, ports, lands and wealth moving back and forth as loyalties, feuds, battles, kingdoms and treaties continued to shift over and over. ’Twas simply the way of things here.

  He led her over to the small group gathered by the path to the village. Brodie and three others waited with horses. A young woman who must be Lara stood there, very close to Brodie’s side, Alex noticed. The bag Isabel had packed was tied to one of the horses.

  “Lara,” Isabel said as they approached. “My thanks for your part in this.” She reached out and hugged the maid.

  “And mine as well, lass,” Alex offered.

  “Yer lady mother was the one who sent me to find this one, Lady Isabel.”

  Isabel startled at this news. With no knowledge of who had instigated the first contact, Alex would still never have guessed that Lady MacLeod would have helped.

  “My mother?” Isabel glanced from Alex to Brodie and back again. “How? Why?”

  “She heard ye whispering things in yer prayers those nights when she sat at yer bedside. Sent me to look for him,” she nodded at Brodie.

  Of all the things the servant could have said, that news of her mother’s part in this shocked her. Never had she intervened on her daughter’s behalf before. If Isabel thought her mother’s revelation about the secret passage had been a significant thing, then this news was something even more impressive.

  But then Isabel realized the scary possibility that she had not kept her own secret during those terrifying and tormented days and nights after the whipping. What else had she spoken during her fevered hours?

  “How did she ken to send ye to me?” Brodie asked Lara. Isabel could tell his suspicions were raised now. He nodded to his men to mount up, clearly expecting betrayal or discovery.

  “The lady said to look for a ruffian with red hair who stood waiting near the bay where the boats come in. She said ye would be wearing black,” Lara said. Her nervous gaze moved around those gathered there. “She told me yer name. Then when Lady Isabel asked for my help, I knew who ye were.”

  “How in bloody hell would she ken so much?” Brodie whispered through clenched jaws.

  “I told Isabel about you, Brodie.” Alex nodded at his friend, his very angry friend. “I told her if she had need of me to get
word to you.”

  “So, the damned MacLeods ken me and ken what I do here then?” Isabel stared as the huge man clenched his fists and tightened his body, preparing for a fight.

  “Nay, Brodie,” Lara said, stepping right up in front of the warrior even as Isabel wanted to warn her away. “The lady and her mother and me. We are the only ones who ken ye.” She placed a small hand on his very large arm. “Ye can trust me.”

  Silence reigned for a long few moments while this settled on all of them. Isabel reeled at the idea that her mother had helped her in such ways, especially knowing what her father would do if he discovered her actions. Telling her of the passageway under the keep was a bad thing, but actually aiding her in sending a message to Alex was quite another. Her father would see each of these actions as nothing less than a complete betrayal of him.

  “I think we need to be on our way,” she said quietly. There would be time to think on all the surprising bits once they got to safety. “The morning guard will arrive at my chamber door soon and we must be away from here before that happens.”

  They said their farewells and Alex helped her up on one of the horses there. It hurt. Every part of her hurt. But, she could not let it slow them down now. She had survived and would do everything she could to remain that way.

  Brodie ordered two men to stay in Dunvegan village to keep watch and then climbed up on his massive horse. With a nod at Alex and then at Isabel, he reached down and pulled Lara up behind him on the horse. From her tremulous expression, Isabel doubted the girl had ever ridden at all, but she clutched the huge warrior in her arms and nodded at Isabel with a smile.

  Then it was time for her and Alex to leave. She peered up through the swirling mist at Dunvegan Castle behind them. Would she ever return here? Sadness pierced her heart at the thought of leaving home forever. In spite of her father’s harshness, she had family here and friends whom she would most likely not see again.