Page 108 of Highlanders for the Holidays
Roderick’s heart nearly stopped in his chest. Lily was gone. She must have left in the night, with drunken Highland warriors at every turn. Anything could have happened to her. She could be lying in a field, raped and bloody.
“Good God,” he said, “I must find her.”
“I sent men all over the island looking for her earlier,” Alexander said with an icy glare, then he added through his teeth, “While you slept.”
“She may have boarded that Spaniard’s ship,” Roderick said, anxious to be on his way. “I’ll go after her.”
“No need,” Alexander said, drumming his fingers on the arm of his elaborately carved chair. “I already have her.”
Praise God.Relief coursed through Roderick’s limbs. “Where is she? Is she all right?”
Alexander slammed his fist on the arm of his chair and roared, “I’m not accustomed to being disobeyed!”
Roderick had been so worried about Lily that he had failed to appreciate that the Lord of the Isles was enraged.
“I honored that English lass by welcoming her to the great clan MacDonald, and I made clear my wish that the two of ye wed.” Alexander got up and paced the room with his hand clenched around the jeweled hilt of the dirk at his belt. “Yet I must send warriors searching every path, every cottage, every boat, looking for the wretched lass.”
“I understand Lily has tried your patience, but she’s a Sassenach and doesn’t understand our ways.”
“She was found on the Spaniard’s ship,” he spat out, “dressed as a lad.”
“Let me speak to her,” Roderick said. “I’ll persuade her that she must respect your commands.”
“Your skills under the blanket must not be up to your reputation, as ye failed to persuade her yet,” Alexander said. “But perhaps she’ll find ye more appealing after she spends some time in the dungeon.”
Roderick staggered back a step. “You’ve locked Lily in the dungeon?”
