Page 83 of Trapped with the Vicious Highlander
She was standing by the door, fear and alarm written all over her pale face.
Flora was rarely ever terrified. She’d had her fair share of harrowing experiences. But something about the look on her face told Brodrick that this wasn’t an ordinary matter. Something had happened. Somethingterrible.
“I have looked everywhere—the Great Hall, the courtyard, her room. I cannae find her anywhere, Brodrick.”
Brodrick rose from his chair, already knowing who Flora was referring to but daring to ask anyway. “Find who?”
Her breath hitched. “Margaret.”
A sharp breath escaped his lips. “What?”
“I cannae find her, Brodrick.”
As if the words triggered something inside him, his features smoothed into a stoic mask, and all the thoughts that haunted him, he gathered and shoved into a box in the recesses of his mind. There was now a more pressing matter, and he didn’t need anyone to give him the push.
He hurried out of the study with Flora, a look of utter despair etched on his face. One he had tried to hide to no avail.
“When did ye last see her?” he asked as they headed down to the courtyard.
“The kitchen. I gave her some bread and asked her to wait for me so I could bring some honey. Then, I turned around and she was gone. I have checked almost every room in the castle, Brodrick. I dinnae ken where she is. I cannae?—”
“We’ll find her, Flora,” he cut her off, unsure if he was convincing her or himself.
It didn’t matter. They needed to find Margaret.
He started at the surgery, where Irene informed him that she hadn’t seen the child in quite a while.
“Have ye checked the courtyard? She might be hidin’ beneath the swing.”
Brodrick nodded and turned around, feeling his heart speed up. This was most definitely not how he had intended to spend his first day without Ava. He already lost one girl in his life, he wasn’t prepared to lose another.
But where could she possibly be?
With Flora hot on his heels, they proceeded to check almost every room in the castle. He walked with even more haste after checking a room and finding it empty or devoid of Margaret. After checking almost eleven rooms, it began to dawn on him just how much of a problem this was.
Where the devil was his daughter?
Darach joined in the search as well and proceeded to lead the men to another wing of the castle. They returned just a little over half an hour later with the same bad news. Flora was already beside herself, shedding tears of fear and worry.
Brodrick stood in the middle of the Great Hall, trying his best to mask his desperation and fear. This was not happening, not now. Not after everything he had gone through to find her. The world couldn’t be this cruel to him, taking his daughter from him just mere weeks after he found her.
He rubbed his forehead, trying desperately to think.
“She must have slipped off somewhere. Someone must have seen her walk past them.” Then, he turned to Flora, whose eyes were already red-rimmed and puffy. “Ye said the last place ye saw her was the kitchen, did ye nae?”
Flora nodded.
“Then let’s head there again and see if anyone else saw anything.”
Flora, Darach, and Brodrick headed to the kitchen, the atmosphere thick with the words they had left unspoken. Brodrick could feel it. He knew what they were thinking. He was thinking it, too.
Had she been taken again?
They arrived at the kitchen, and he pushed the door open only to be greeted by the sight of maids walking around, doing one thing or another.
He moved towards one of the maids, a slightly plump woman in a deep blue dress, who had her back turned to him, and gently tapped on her shoulder.
She turned around, and he felt the blood drain from his face.
