Page 94 of Laird of Secrets
“She is just a child, speaking out of turn,” Fiona said, and sent the three children to the back of the cave into shadows. As she turned away with them, Dougal noticed that she motioned surreptiously to him, tipping her head and pointing to the back of the cave. No one saw but himself.
Frowning, Dougal nodded slightly to tell her to stay back with the children. He needed to know they were out of range of any harm, if it came to that.
“Child, what do you know?” Eldin barked.
“She is a bairn, and sometimes ill-mannered,” Dougal said. Lucy opened her mouth indignantly to speak, but Fiona clapped a hand over her lips again. “Enough, Lord Eldin,” Dougal continued. “You cannot win. Your bargain would ruin the fairy whisky and take away what is special about it. Is that what you want?”
“You would say anything to protect that brew,” Eldin said.
“Give over the gun.” Dougal drew his own pistol then, and cocked it ready.
“Kinloch is an excellent shot,” Hugh said. “I would beware, sir.”
“He would be guilty of maiming a revenue officer if he tried,” Eldin said. He lifted the pistol once more, not relinquishing it. “You forget that I am also a customs officer appointed to this region. MacGregor of Kinloch, I arrest you now in the name of the king for smuggling, and for a treasonous plot to steal revenue from the crown.”
“Nick, please do not do this,” Fiona said.
Eldin ignored her. “Put away your gun, Kinloch, or be shot—and others with you. I would call it a good bargain indeed, to catch such a scoundrel.”
“Did you know he had authority here?” Dougal demanded of Patrick.
“He is named an officer by title only. He paid for the position. He never rides out.” Patrick scowled. “But he has the authority. Blast it, Nick.”
“Do not be a fool, Eldin,” Dougal said. “There is far too much at risk here.”
“I do not care about risk. I ceased to care long ago, when the heart was taken from me. It needs fairy magic to replace it,” he said in a low and dangerous voice. “Fairy magic of great strength, if I am ever to reclaim my heart and soul.” He glanced toward Fiona. “You wanted to know what happened to me? What I want? I want to feel again.”
Dougal looked toward Fiona, too. And stared. The back of the cave was dark. Empty. She was gone, and the children with her. Eldin noticed too.
“Fiona!” Eldin stepped toward the cave. As he turned, Patrick threw the lantern toward his cousin, striking him hard on the shoulder, spilling sparks. It tumbled to the floor, but miraculously the light, lesser now, still glowed.
Eldin turned, fired the pistol. The ball buzzed past Dougal like a metal bee, hitting the rock wall with a sharp reverberation that seemed to blast through his ears, his skull. And then he heard a great rumbling sound that shook the walls, and grew.
Part of the sheer rock wall began to crack, then split, as the noise grew, the rumble now peppered with the hiss and sifting of dirt and smaller rocks.
“Fiona!” Dougal called, just as Patrick and Hugh together threw themselves toward him in a heavy tackle, taking all of them back toward the upper slope of the walkway. Somewhere among them, Eldin tumbled too, as limestone walls began to collapse, spitting rock and shards of stone.
* * *
“Hurry, this way,” Fiona said frantically, leading the children along. “Quickly!” She glanced over her shoulder, through the narrow crevice she had discovered in the back wall of the cave. The golden glow of the torch Patrick held was still visible, and she could hear the men arguing.
Rushing the children along, helping them pick their way through a slim channel in the rock that led onward, a narrow corridor that angled upward, she kept glancing backward. The walls were damp stone, and the uneven floor of the snaking, narrow passageway was so wet in places that she stepped nearly ankle-deep in water more than once, and heard it rushing somewhere ahead of them. “Walk carefully,” she whispered to the others.
A little further on, she felt fresh air and increasing moisture. Ahead was an opening, she was sure, if they could find their way out of the maze. She prayed the exit would be large enough; there were crevices and fissures throughout the rock.
The sound of water had caught her attention her when she and the children had been in the small cave, and she had seen a crevice with a little trickling water. The walls were honeycombed with cells and passages, so it was not surprising to find water here and there. But it could be coming from the loch overhead rather than a stream that would lead out to the hills.
Where this slim corridor would lead, she could not say. She wanted to get the children away, no longer bargaining pieces for Eldin. As for the earl, Dougal and the others would deal with him.
“There is light ahead, Miss MacCarran,” Annabel called, pointing. They were walking sideways now, the passage that narrow as they edged along with their backs to the wall, their feet constantly wet.
Looking ahead, she saw a pale blue light filtering ahead. Though the channel was almost impossibly narrow, they slid and pushed and managed to pass through, step by sliding step. As the outer light grew stronger, she saw more than the glisten of wet limestone walls. She saw the unmistakable gleam of gold.
As they edged along, the water became a stronger flow. Jamie said the loch would crash down over them any moment, making the girls whimper. But something in his voice made Fiona smile, even in so odd a place and time for it. Jamie, she realized, was not afraid. He was teasing the lassies and enjoying it.
“The loch is not overhead in this section,” she told them. “The passageway through the rock is going upward, see. We will be above the level of the loch by now. Climb with me, now, and go carefully.”
“We are walking through a stream,” Lucy said. “My feet are wet.”
