Page 102 of The Scottish Bride
“He is succeeding.” Taking up the reins, Liam cantered over the moor toward the forest. Tamsin and the others followed in his wake.
As Tamsin rode between the twin brothers, no one spoke, their determined gazes straight ahead as they surged onward. Entering the forest, they slowed to a walk on a wide path between oak and hazel, birch and pine. Where the canopy grew heavy and shadowed, they followed narrowing pathways into the forest.
“Malise is furious,I tell you, Liam,” Gilchrist said later. A few of them still sat around a fire contained in a circle of stones, deep in a clearing in the forest. After supper, the comforting smellof roasted meat, consumed with oatcakes and ale, lingered in the air. Though that spoke of home and friends, they planned invasion and rescue.
“He is a madman.” Liam broke a twig and threw it into the fire, crackle and spark rising. Beside him, Tamsin sat quiet. He sensed her worry, felt it in his bones. He wished he could take it away. “Now he has our sister.”
“He saw the banns posted at the village kirk near Holyoak,” Gideon said. “While you were gone, he came to the monastery while you were gone, frustrated with his men’s failure to burn it or to find either of you. He shouted at the gates to be let in, demanding to see Abbot Murdoch.”
“And then?” Liam asked.
“Our reverend uncle came out to calm him. We stood in the yard ready to defend like warrior monks.” Gideon huffed a flat laugh. “Malise finally left, still in a rage, insisting his betrothed was stolen from him and Liam Seton would pay for it.”
“This because of your handfasting?” James Lindsay leaned forward. “It was your decision and naught to do with Malise.”
“He will never accept that,” Tamsin answered.
“He is furious over Edward giving me an order that Malise asked for,” Liam briefly explained. “And he is still furious over what happened between him and Agatha years ago.”
“Was Agatha not in a convent then?” Tamsin asked.
“Not then. She entered the convent after she refused Malise’s offer of marriage,” Gilchrist explained. “He wooed her, but she despised him for a vain and selfish man. Our father refused his suit, and Agatha refused him too. Malise could not tolerate it.”
“How can he still be angry about that?” Tamsin asked.
“One day he waited outside the village kirk,” Gideon said, “and accosted her, trying to convince her. Liam was there and came to her defense. The fight was fierce, and Malise was injured. Worse, Agatha was hurt terribly,” he growled. “Wewanted to kill the man. But Father took it to the magistrate, who fined Malise. When King Edward learned, he was furious with us, not with his favorite young knight.”
“Bad blood, I see,” Lindsay said.
Liam threw another stick into the fire just to watch it pop and burn. “Now he has Agatha, and he wants her brothers to come get her. It is a trap. And I will step straight into it.”
Tamsin laid a hand on his arm. “Please do not—”
“I have to.Wehave to.” He gestured toward his brothers.
“We must take the bait and turn this in our favor,” Gilchrist said.
“When I saw Agatha in that cage,” Gideon said, “I knew I had to leave Holyoak. Our uncle gave me his blessing, and I left with Gilchrist.”
“We all knew you would do that someday,” his twin said.
“But how do we get into Dalrinnie to get the abbess back?” Lindsay asked.
Gilchrist looked up. “Liam could get in as a harper. Wait. Your harp is broken.”
“I have another now—but I will not play it for Malise Comyn.”
“Liam would be recognized,” Tamsin said. “But…tomorrow is Samhain.Oidhche nan Cleas, the night of tricks, when the veil between our world and the spirit world dissolves. People disguise themselves as otherworldly beings. If you did that—perhaps you could get inside the castle.”
They all stared at her for a moment. “Lass, that is brilliant,” Liam said. “All Souls’ Eve, of course! A night of madness and revelry.”
“Perfect,” Gilchrist said. “Bonfires in the village, guisers going about with torches and bells, wearing masks and cloaks, singing and shouting—and threatening pranks.”
“Some of those revelers could bring that celebration to the castle,” Gideon said.
“I could think of a prank or two,” Liam growled.
“But any of you might be grabbed at the gate,” Tamsin said. “Perhaps it is not a good idea.”
