Sins of the Highlander by Mason Connie & Marlowe Mia

Author:Mason, Connie & Marlowe, Mia [Mason, Connie & Marlowe, Mia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, historical
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2011-10-31T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Drummond watched his guest shove food around his trencher without eating a bite. After he reported Elspeth had been shot in the failed attempt to recover her on the loch, Drummond convinced Alistair Stewart there was nothing to be gained by following Mad Rob any longer. Once they returned to his stronghold with the sad news, Elspeth’s mother had collapsed, too weak with grief to travel home.

“If I call in my men now,” Stewart said as he chased a bit of root vegetable with a crust of barley bread across his trencher, “I can have three hundred ready to march on Caisteal Dubh by month’s end. How many will ye bring?”

Drummond set down his empty drinking horn. “Ye expect to lay a siege with winter on the wind?”

“We canna arrive at the MacLaren’s seat without a show of force at our backs. The only thing a coward like him understands is strength. There’s no point in going to him with a handful of fingers.”

Lachlan didn’t think there was much point in going to Caisteal Dubh at all. Elspeth was probably dead. Mad Rob had likely already consigned her body to the loch.

“What would you have us do if he refuses to give her back? The Dark Castle has never been taken from without,” Drummond said. “There have been rumors of a secret way in, but no one has ever found it. All we’ll do is shame ourselves before our own men when we must go home empty-handed, or freeze to death camping outside the walls.”

“What other choice do we have? Would ye have us do nothing?”

“Ye could send word to the queen.” Lachlan leaned toward his ally. “After all, she is your cousin, is she no’? I dinna think she’ll approve of one of her ladies-in-waiting being abducted from the altar. The right word in her counselor’s ear, and she might well divide MacLaren’s land between us to settle the matter.”

“No amount of land will settle this.”

“Sometimes a man must take the best of a bad bargain,” Drummond said, signaling for his servant to top off Lord Stewart’s ale. Old Normina toddled forward, but Alistair covered the rim of his horn with his hand and waved her away.

Alistair buried his head in his hands. “Why would the MacLaren shoot Elspeth?”

“I dinna think ’twas his intention. It makes no sense for him to,” Drummond said. Stewart had accepted without question his lie about who released the fateful bolt. Lachlan could afford to put a charitable face on the incident. “It was dark, ye ken, but I believe he was aiming at us on the raft, and your daughter put herself in his way.”

“Then he must still mean to return her. He said ye could collect her at month’s end.”

“Since when can the word of a madman be trusted?”

“If he willna give her up, we have no choice but a siege.” Stewart pounded his fist on the table in frustration. “Besides, her mother wishes it. She willna give me peace until I do something to bring Elspeth home.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.