Page 46 of Ruining a Highland Healer
"I dinnae think it’s a good idea tae be apart from each other," said Daisy.
Valora could hardly argue. It was safer for the two of them to be together, to work as a team, but it would also take much longer to locate all the women and children and bring them to safety.
"It will be fine," Valora promised her. "There are soldiers everywhere, dinnae fash. They willnae harm ye."
There was a moment of hesitation, and in that moment, Valora thought Daisy would refuse, but in the end, she only nodded and ran off, calling to the women and children that could hear her. With a sigh, Valora turned the opposite way and began to run as well, eager to gather as many people as she could.
"Get inside!" she called to anyone who would listen. All around her, soldiers were rushing, running past her, trying to get to their posts. A few women and children crossed her path—someof them completing tasks in the courtyard, others emerging from the small cottages in the castle grounds. "Get tae the keep! Ye’ll all be safe there."
There were no signs of Keith soldiers inside the courtyard—not yet. But Valora knew how delicate the balance between being attacked and being besieged was. From one moment to the next, they could be cut off from the rest of the world, and there would be no way to defeat them unless Torrin somehow managed to gather his allies on time.
The walls had to hold. The soldiers had to fight. The moment Keith soldiers were inside the grounds, it could very well be over.
Valora ran all the way to the very edges of the castle grounds. Her heart raced, her lungs burned, but she pushed the discomfort and the fear aside. When she reached the servants’ quarters and slammed the door open, she found the women and children huddled in a corner there, their faces pale and their eyes wide with terror.
"Hurry!" she told them, motioning to them to leave the room fast. "Dinnae stay here. Tae the keep! Quickly now!"
In an unruly line, the women and children rushed out of the room, doing as they were told. For a moment, Valora looked around the quarters, making sure that no one had been left behind—looking under beds and tables, in corners, anywhere where a small child could hide and remain unseen.
As she bent down to look under one of the beds, a shadow loomed over her. Footsteps approached, and Valora didn’t need to turn around and look to know that whoever was there was not her friend.
Slowly, she stood to her full height and turned around, her face a stony mask as she came face to face with the enemy. The men who were standing at the door—three of them, all of them armed to the teeth—wore the colors of Clan Keith. There was no mistaking them for anyone else.
"Ye need tae come with us, Miss MacNeacail," one of them, the oldest of the group told her. He was a large man—wide at the shoulders and towering over everyone around him, and Valora could only assume he was the leader of their small group.
Was this their plan all along? Tae attack as a distraction an’ track me down, tell me I must go with them?
Well, if they thought it was going to be such an easy task, they were sorely mistaken.
"I shall go nowhere with ye," she spat, her voice hoarse after all the shouting to get the people’s attention.
"I’m afraid I cannae dae that, me lady," said the man, and it struck Valora as odd how someone who was there to kidnap her could be so polite towards her. "We have our orders."
"An’ I’m tellin’ ye I’m nae comin’ with ye," Valora insisted.
There was a moment when no one moved. The two men behind him glanced at each other in uncertainty, wondering what was next. Valora, though, took advantage of that split second and sprinted to the opposite direction, hoping there was a way for her to escape into the kitchens or back out into the courtyard from the back of the quarters.
Naturally, the Keith soldiers weren’t far behind. Valora didn’t dare look over her shoulder, but she could hear their thundering footsteps as they pursued her, running after her and toppling over every piece of furniture in their way. Every crash made her stomach churn. Every footstep seemed to get those men closer to her, and no matter how fast she ran, she didn’t think she could outrun them. Panic roiled inside her, threatening to take over; and yet, she persevered, doing her best to find an exit.
But then a firm hand gripped her arm and yanked her back towards a solid chest. The leader of the group had captured her and was now trying to hold her still, but Valora kicked and screamed, desperately trying to get free.
There are so many of our soldiers around, someone must hear.
"Calm yerself!” The man grunted, but Valora wouldn’t listen. She used all her weight, all her momentum to try and escape, but the man was too strong. "Grab her!"
At his command, the other two men approached and grabbed her legs to keep her still. Even so, Valora still tried her best, writhing in an attempt to slither free from their grasp. Butthey were all too strong for her; larger and stronger and not as fatigued as she was.
One of the men was quick to shove a rag in her mouth to silence her. Valora screamed around it—or at least she tried to. The sound was muffled, pitiful. No one would hear her like that, especially not when they were engaged in battle.
And just like that, without ceremony, the three men carried her out of the servants’ quarters, leaving her no hope of escape.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The chill rolled down from the peaks that surrounded the glen like a warning. A low mist hung in the air, like a veil drawn over the tall grass. Torrin stood at the bottom of one of the hills, looking up at a starless sky to determine whether or not they should go any further.
All day they had been riding—he, Noah, and a few of his men, selected for their scouting abilities. They were all exhausted, all hungry and cold, and Torrin couldn’t help but think it would be wiser to camp there and continue the next morning.
But he didn’t like the silence. It was not yet fully dark and yet the hawks weren’t flying, the deer had vanished from the ridges, and even the breeze resembled the whispers of the dead, as though they were all haunted by ghosts.
