Page 42 of Claimed By the Heartless Highlander
Children, as Jack had reminded him a few nights ago, often picked up on the moods and behaviors of those around them.
Still, he would offer his daughter what comfort and reassurance he could. Perhaps he’d even suggest she has an extra honey cake and choose one of the puppies as her pet when they were a bit older.
A puppy would keep her mind off Ailis and make her happy. She was certainly old enough to start learning how to care for young animals.
Plan in mind, he made his way to the kennels. He was fairly certain that was where his daughter had disappeared. If not, he’d search the gardens, her rooms and the kitchens. Then he’d check in Ailis’s room and the library, where Lily’d taken to spending most of her time when she and Ailis weren’t outside.
Lily wasn’t in or near the kennels when he arrived. He was about to go search the gardens when something made him pause and take a closer look at the ground near the litter.
There, in the dirt, were clear signs of a child’s footprints, along with an impression that suggested she’d been sitting there for a while. Duncan frowned.
Lily was the only child in the castle at present. He’d suggested the servants who had children leave them at home or in the care of another while they were occupied with their duties. The footprints were clearly fresh, which meant Lily had definitely come this way.
But Lily loved the puppies. Most of the time, she had to be coaxed, cajoled, or all but dragged away from them. Which meant someone else had to have taken her somewhere.
Duncan examined the ground more closely. Sure enough, there were signs of another person and places where larger boot prints scuffed the ground around Lily’s smaller ones. Someone had been with her, and from the looks of it, the person had stood quite close, as if talking to her.
That wasn’t so unusual, of course. Lily was the darling of the castle. Most of the guards were friends with the lively youngster and thought nothing of conversing with her. The sight shouldn’t have made alarm bells ring faintly in his head.
Except that most guards would stand back where they could keep proper watch, even when talking to Lily, unless they had a partner or someone else was with her. But he’d been trying to talk to Ailis, and Jack had been supervising the carriage and the guard rotations for the day.
And no guard would have taken Lily away from one location to another without letting him know. It was one thing when she ran off on her own—something she was far too inclined to do—but any guard watching over her would have left word of her whereabouts.
The faint alarm bells grew into a sense of unease deep in his belly. Duncan crouched down to look closer at the footprints before rising to follow the faint trail.
Lily’s shoes, walking side-by-side with an adult, and closer than normal. She was practically walking on top of the person’s feet. Duncan followed the trail and felt his blood turn to ice as he realized where the footsteps were headed.
The trail led straight toward a small, disused side gate, which led out into the moors. Hunting parties used it to take the dogs out without getting their noses muddled with scents from the village, and servants went that way for berry-picking in spring and summer.
There should have been a guard at the gate, and Duncan felt a surge of anger as he realized it was unprotected. He started toward it, ready to pour his fury out in full force if some fool of a guard had slipped away from his post for a moment.
“Duncan?” Jack appeared beside him, his face filled with concern. “Ye look ready to murder someone. I ken ye’re nae happy about Ailis leavin’, but?—”
“Lily’s missin’.” Duncan let out the words in a harsh snarl that cut through Jack’s soothing prattle like a hot knife through soft cheese.
The younger man actually stumbled. “What?”
“Lily’s missin’. She went to the kennels after sayin’ farewell to Ailis, but when I came to find her, she wasnae there. There are signs she was, and she headed toward the gate with someone wearin’ heavy boots—like a guard.”
Jack put a hand on his shoulder, and Duncan shook him off with a growl as he fought back the red rage that filled him.
Jack’s expression tightened. “Och, Duncan, ye ken she’s always wanderin’ about with the guards. They could have gone anywhere…”
“Nay guard would take her away from where she is without tellin’ me. Especially since I gave the order seven days ago.” Duncan gritted his teeth. “And nay guard would be leadin’ her toward the walls.”
Jack frowned, following his gaze along the trail of footprints. “’Tis strange, aye, but mayhap she coaxed them into takin’ her to where she could watch Ailis leave. Or even… ye ken Ailis has taken Lily with her afore. Mayhap she sensed that ye were out of sorts and thought she was helpin’ by takin’ Lily?”
Duncan continued toward the small gate. “She wasnae in Ailis’s carriage. And Ailis kens I wouldnae want her to take Lily beyond the walls.”
“Never stopped her afore.” Jack hurried to keep up with him. “Surely it wouldnae hurt to send a note to Laird MacDean to see if she turns up with yer betrothed.”
“Shut up.” Duncan reached the gate and tested it. It was open, and he cursed loudly. “The gate shouldnae be open… and where’s the guard?”
Jack looked around. “I dinnae ken. Might have needed to relieve himself or somethin’ of the sort.”
“There should be a stand-in in that case, even if ‘tis only the stable boy.” Duncan flung the gate open and stormed through it.
A few feet away, he found a guard slumped down and barely breathing. There was an ugly wound on his head, and the tartan sash he should be wearing was missing.
