Highland Rake

by Terry Spear

  The rogue appeared truly smitten!

  Alana moved around the pallets, and that got her brother's attention. He quickly stood before a tapestry hanging against one wall and motioned with his hand.

  She hurried to the wall, lifted the edge of the tapestry, and saw a small door only about three feet tall. She'd have to crawl through it. In long skirts and holding a candle, not to mention trying to hold the heavy tapestry aside while she attempted everything else, would be a trial. At least she could stand up in the stairwell.

  Somehow, she managed to use her back to hold the tapestry away from the door, bunched her skirts on top of her lap, and hoped her brother wasn't watching her. Once she was in the corridor, she was actually able to crouch through in a really strange walk, which she could feel straining her legs right away.

  She only took a few more steps before she found herself at the stone stairs leading downward into the blackness, winding around in a circular fashion like all stairs did as if even hidden inside the walls it was used for defense, the person at the top of the stairs being able to yield his sword much more easily at the one coming up the stairs.

  "Connell," she whispered, not liking that she didn't know where she was going.

  "I am right ahead of you, lass. Keep going."

  "Where will we come out?"

  "My chamber."

  "You had a secret passage straight to my ladies' chamber?" She couldn't help the annoyance in her tone of voice.

  "Nay, lass. What do you think of me?"

  "That you are a rake, Connell. As you always were."

  He snorted. "This leads to a hall that connects with several chambers. But we will come out through my chamber was my meaning."

  "Oh." She didn't regret what she had said. How else did he know about the secret passageway that led to the ladies' chamber?

  "I was exploring the castle when I was a wee lad," he said, as if he surmised what she was thinking

  "Och, Connell. You dinna expect me to believe that, do you?"

  "The truth?"

  "Aye, if you can manage it." Mayhap she shouldn't have asked.

  "Do you remember Lizzy?"

  She furrowed her brows. The lass was the first maid who served her when she was ten summers. The girl was about Connell's age, she believed. "Aye."

  "She knew about the secret passages."

  "Truly?"

  "Aye. She was my first, you know."

  Alana snapped her gaping mouth shut. She didn't want to know this.

  "'Twas no' my idea, but hers. She was a wild one."

  "Why did she leave my service?" Alana shouldn't ask, but now she had to know.

  "Our uncle was afraid I would have to wed the lass before long. Yet I wasna the first to be with her. Which was another reason our uncle wished her to be gone. He was concerned she might influence you to begin to take lovers as well."

  She frowned at her brother.

  "'Tis no' always me who is pushing to go to bed with a lass. Some of the lasses are more than insistent."

  She gave a quiet laugh of disbelief. "As if you had ever needed any encouragement."

  "Ask Dougald. He knows the way of it. Half his conquests were no doubt no' his own, but some lass's as she forced herself upon him."

  She couldn't help it. She laughed under her breath. "Oh, aye, I can just imagine."

  "'Tis true. Here is the door to my chamber."

  "Is anyone in there?" she whispered.

  "The two lads who are with the MacNeill clan. They were sleeping when last I checked."

  She pushed open the door, thankful that it didn't make any noise.

  Tavis and Callum were sound asleep on pallets, and she quickly moved past them to reach the door.

  "My lady?" Tavis whispered, nearly giving her a heart attack. She turned slowly to see the lad wiping the sleep from his eyes. "What are you doing in here?"

  "I…I worried about my husband. He hasna come to bed."

  Tavis frowned and looked at Callum sleeping on the other pallet. "And you thought he was here? He was still with your uncle last I know."

  "My uncle went to bed long ago."

  "Let me see if anyone is in the hall." Her brother walked through the door.

  "You canna be wandering around the castle all by yourself, my lady. I will go with you," Tavis said.

  Callum stirred, sat up, and rubbed his eyes. His eyes widened as he saw Alana in the chamber. "My lady," he whispered, frowning.

  She held her finger to her lips to silence any further discussion.

  Connell walked back through the door. "Something is the matter. My chamber is being guarded. Only one mon, but that is enough. You canna pass this way."

  Now what? She didn't want the lads to know she'd slipped into the chamber through a secret passage, but she had to find a way to see if Dougald was truly in the dungeon. She couldn't believe it. Unless he had been caught dallying with a maid and her uncle threw him down there. Then afraid the lads or Dougald's men would attempt to free him if they learned of it, her uncle had placed the lads under guard, without their knowledge, and sent Dougald's men to the barracks to sleep, without them knowing what had happened to him.

  If Dougald had been with a maid, she'd give him a piece of her mind and leave him down there. Then she'd have a few choice words with the maid. She'd be sure to let any woman know that if they had any notion of securing her husband's affection, they'd find themselves without a job and home. As for Dougald? He could stay down in the dungeon until he begged her to have him freed and promised to mend his ways.

  "I am looking for Dougald. My…" Och, she couldn't tell the lads that her brother had told her that Dougald was missing. "I heard rumors he might be in the dungeon." Then how could she tell the lads she knew a guard was at the door? Her brother was a big help, yet trying to explain how she knew things when she should not…

  The lads' eyes grew round, and they looked at each other. Tavis said, "I will dress and come with you. You will need protection and help with the guards to free him."

  "I am coming also," Callum whispered.

  Connell folded his arms and grinned. "You would make a great leader of men, Alana. The lads are falling all over themselves to aid you."

  She wanted to say that he'd better be correct about Dougald. It was one thing to go looking for her husband on her own without anyone to witness it and then discover Connell wasn't right in his assumption. Quite another if she had an audience. Although she wished her husband was not down there, either.

  "A guard is posted beyond the door. I will step inside the secret passage and wait for you." She pulled the tapestry aside.

  The lads' mouths hung agape.

  Tavis managed to say, "I wondered how you got in here if you were able to get by a guard. I guessed mayhap he was away from his post for a moment." He frowned. "But then why did we have a guard in the first place? And how would you know he had returned to his post?"

  Both of the lads watched her, waiting for an answer.

  She sighed. She did not like making untruths, although telling the truth could be troublesome. "My brother told me a guard is posted at your door. Why, I dinna know. Be quick," she said, then pushed the small door open, and hid in the secret passageway.

  She didn't bother closing the door again hidden by the tapestry and heard Callum whisper to Tavis, "She is of the fae. I told you so. She will bring us good luck."

  The rustling of the wool and straw on the pallets and the pulling on of tunics and their plaids followed. "Aye," Tavis said, sounding wise for his years. "But I was the one who first saw her. Think you we can convince Dougald to allow us to guard her always? Between the two of them, we shall always have an adventure on our hands."

  "Aye," Callum said. "If we do good with breaking him out of a cell, I think he would agree, dinna you?"

  "Aye."

  She shook her head. She would prefer sleeping soundly in her husband's arms at night and not having "adventures" such as these to break him out of a cell in t
he dungeon.

  Boots tromped toward the hidden doorway, and Tavis lifted the tapestry and peeked into the passageway where Alana was standing a little ways away holding the candle. "This way," she said.

  As she followed Connell, she wondered which chamber he would try next. He said to her, "Stay. I will be right back."

  She couldn't tell from the passageway which rooms would be connected. The lads were right behind her, taller than her, breathing down her neck, the heat of their bodies warming her in the chilly passageway.

  "What are we waiting for?" Tavis whispered to her.

  "To see if anyone is in the chamber first."

  "Oh."

  She forgot how odd it must be for others to wait for a figure they could not see who was helping them on a quest. Connell returned and shook his head. "Our uncle has moved MacDonald and his two sons in there."

  "One of the maids told me they were staying in the barracks," she said.

  "They were moved there initially, but told later they could retire in the castle. I wonder what our uncle is up to." Connell rubbed his chin that was still shaved, and she supposed it would always be that way until he found his way to his new home.

  "You dinna think our uncle wishes to turn me over to the MacDonalds, do you?" she asked her brother.

  Tavis said behind her in a hushed voice, "He canna. You belong to us!"

  She smiled at the lad's words, but she said to Connell, "Too risky to go through that room. Let us find another."

  "I dinna know what our uncle is planning. I hate to tell you, but they didna have a guard posted at their door."

  "No guard? Why would they have no guard?" She waved at him to not speak. "I dinna need to know. We free Dougald, gather his men, and leave at once for Craigly Castle."

  "How will we get the MacNeill men out of the barracks without the Cameron and MacDonald men knowing?" Tavis asked. "I assumed we would only be facing one guard in the dungeon and Callum and I can take care of him. But taking on all of the other men would be hard to do."

  "Dougald will come up with a plan," Alana said. She was not the military commander of troops. She'd leave battle plans like that to the men who knew how to manage them.

  Connell went through the hidden door at another room, and she paused, expecting this time they would find an unguarded chamber. She had hoped they'd be out of here by now, yet she felt some comfort in being hidden in the passageway, and some apprehension at being discovered and still being stopped.

  Connell quickly returned. "This chamber belongs to Turi, but he is not within."

  She thought it odd. Why would he not be in bed at this late hour? "No guard?"

  "Nay."

  Not that she thought he would have anyone guarding his room. "All right. We will use his chamber." Though she hated to. She'd always cared for the man, who had been like a father just as her uncle had been with her. Everyone was fond of him, which was why when her da died, his advisor became her uncle's advisor and no one questioned it. So she didn't feel comfortable sneaking through his chamber like a thief.

  When she and the boys were in the room, she hurried to the door, but Tavis quickly moved in front of her. "Allow me." He was armed with his sword and dagger, as was Callum, though she didn't want either of the boys fighting her battles.

  He opened the door and seeing no one, motioned for her and Callum to go with him.

  After they entered the corridor, Callum shut the door, and they hurried off to the stairs that would lead them down to the kitchens and then to the dungeon.

  In all the years she'd lived here, she had not once left her chamber in the middle of the night to roam through the keep, and it felt eerily spooky. Particularly when she saw two maids who had died from a fever this past spring near the kitchen, and they both watched her curiously.

  Please don't speak to me, she pleaded silently to them, tearing her gaze away from them as if she didn't see them. Connell glanced at them and smiled and winked. Och, Connell.

  Even now her brother couldn't quit flirting with the lasses.

  "Where are you going?" Seana asked behind them, giving Alana a start.

  Chapter 25

  "Seana," Alana said in a hushed voice as they neared the dark kitchen, surprised to see Dougald's ghostly sister following them. Had she come to check on Alana in bed and found her gone? Or had she been searching for Connell to see what he was up to? "Connell thinks Dougald is in the dungeon."

  Seana's brown eyes grew round. "Where is it?"

  "We are going there now."

  The two ghostly maids were still watching them, and Seana cast them a narrow-eyed look like they'd better leave or else. They quickly curtseyed to her—the word must have gotten out she was a lady and even in the spirit world rank must have counted, or they were used to such courtesy—then they vanished.

  Now if they could have used all the ghosts roaming around tonight to help free Dougald from the dungeon—if that's where he was—they'd have no trouble.

  Callum whispered, "Who are you speaking to now, my lady?"

  "These are your guards?" Seana asked. She glowered at Connell. "Dinna think I didna see you making eyes at the maids." She shook her head.

  "Lady Seana has joined our party," Alana said to Callum.

  Connell said, "I only smiled at the lasses. Did you want me to scowl at them? Why should I?"

  Seana frowned at Connell. "There is smiling and then there is smiling. The kind you do is the kind that gets you into trouble, Connell Cameron."

  Alana rolled her eyes. How was she to rescue Dougald if she had to quell the bickering between her brother and his sister?

  They'd barely passed the darkened kitchen and had quite a ways to go before they reached the stairs leading down to the dungeon, when a force of several men dashed out of the room, startling Alana. She cried out. Men rushed up the dungeon stairs, as evidenced from their heavy tromping boots on the stone steps as they moved in their direction and quickly surrounded Alana, Callum, and Tavis.

  Her uncle was among them and stared down at Alana, then looked at the lads and scowled deeply. He folded his arms. "How did the three of you get past the guards?"

  "Where is Dougald?" she demanded. She had never acted in that manner toward her uncle. She was always very considerate when she was with him in front of his men. She couldn't help herself. If her uncle was in the wrong, or even if he was in the right, she wanted to know what was going on.

  Then she spied Turi standing among the men, looking more than concerned. But she was not about to be sent to bed without an explanation, and if Dougald had done no wrong he was retiring to bed with her.

  "Come with me, Alana," her uncle said, then motioned for his men to take the boys back to their chamber.

  She saw then that they'd quickly been disarmed. She hadn't wanted any harm to come to them, so she was glad they hadn't been given the chance to fight.

  "No," Tavis said, bullheadedly. "We stay with Lady Alana. She is one of us now. You canna hand her over to the MacDonalds."

  Cameron chuckled. "I didna intend to, lad. Return to your chamber and stay there or I will lock you in a cell down below."

  "Go," Alana implored. She didn't want the boys locked in the dungeon, and she was heartened to hear that her uncle did not intend to give her up to the MacDonalds. "Why is Dougald in the dungeon?"

  She shouldn't have asked her uncle in front of her clansmen when she was so angry.

  "Alana," he said, reaching for her arm.

  She stepped back out of his reach.

  He frowned and turned to his advisor on battle matters, Bran. "Take her to my chamber and keep her there."

  She could have fought her uncle, the men, every one of them. But she knew in the end, it would be of no use.

  She opened her mouth to speak, but her uncle cut her off and said to Bran, "Now."

  "Aye, my laird." Bran grasped her arm and took her away with two men leading the escort and two following behind.

  When she was beyond her uncle's he
aring, she scowled up at Bran. "You can release me now. I willna be running away."

  He smiled down at her. "I agree." But he didn't release her, either.

  "What is this all about?"

  "When the laird is ready to tell you, Lady Alana, he will." Bran took her to her uncle's chamber, once her da's.

  "I wish to be returned to my own chamber so I may sleep."

  "It isna your uncle's wish."

  "I canna sleep in his bed. I am tired."

  He chuckled. "If you hadna left your bed, you could be asleep in it."

  Two of the men inspected her uncle's chamber before they allowed her to enter. She thought it odd. Why would anyone be hiding in her uncle's chamber?

  "Tell me this then," she said, taking a seat on a cushioned bench, when two of the men were posted outside the room and the other two inside along with Bran, "what has Dougald done to earn him a stay in a cell?"

  "He hasna done anything wrong, my lady, but continued to be the heroic individual he has been all along with regard to you."

  She folded her arms and scowled up at him. "Then why is he in a cell!"

  "I canna say for certain, only that your uncle had a plan, and he knew MacNeill would no' go along with it."

  She noted then that neither Connell nor Seana had joined her. Where were they now? If only they could let Dougald out of his cell.

  Still, she was furious with her uncle, and she would let him know it as soon as he came to see her.

  ***

  "Alana! Cameron, God's wounds let me out of here!" Dougald shouted, after hearing Alana scream. He knew she'd been startled, not hurt after he'd heard the words spoken near the kitchen. He'd listened quietly, trying to hear what was being said.

  Bran was escorting her to her uncle's chamber, the lads to the one they shared, and guards would be posted. But he'd heard her uncle say he didn't intend to give her up to MacDonald. Which was a relief.

  Gunnolf yanked at the bars and said, "I believe we are down here so he could see who would come to rescue us. Seems your lass and the lads were the only ones brave enough to do so."