Page 105 of The Splendor of Fire
Knowing he would never make it by nightfall without a miracleanyway, Léo dismounted, almost being carried away before his right leg made it over the saddle. Eoghan caught the reins and led the horse away, and then in an easy circle.
Desperate, sweating, and filled with horror, Léo looked at Angus. “How did she get word to you?”
“Walked to Dunvegan last night when Niall returned. Fingon found her in your room the day you left for Kylerhea. Found a Psalter she’d left for you with her name in it.”
Frustration built in his chest. She’d been careless and gotten caught, just as he feared she would.
Eoghan nodded to them. “Stride is good in the front and in the hind.” Coming closer he checked the fit of the saddle.
Léo made a frustrated noise, wanting only to ride for Dun Ringill, wishing his own destrier was on Skye. “I’ve already checked it. It isn’t the saddle.”
Eoghan held onto the saddle and mounted in a slow, easy motion. Thorny began to move his hind and Eoghan loosened slack into the outside rein. As he sat, the gelding’s ears pinned back and his tail began to swat, turning tight circles against the stranger on his back.
Eoghan corrected him, leading him in a circle the opposite direction. Tail swishing, Thorny picked up his back foot and stomped. When he became quiet again, Eoghan gave him a chance to go forward. Immediately the horse began to move into a buck. Eoghan picked up the inside rein, softened the horse’s nose, and moved the back hip so he couldn’t buck.
The horse snorted. Eoghan gave him the chance to go forward again and he bucked several times in a row.
Squirming, Léo struggled to hold onto his temper. “I told you.”
Ignoring him, Eoghan repeated the exercise, correcting the buck by softening the nose toward the ground, moving the back hip. For fifteen minutes he continued working with the horse, giving him a chance to move forward, and each time he bucked, Eoghan softened the nose and moved the hip. Realizing he wasn’t getting anywhere by continuing to buck, Thorny began to walk forward, and then relaxed.
It was the first time Léo had ever seen the horse act like a normal rouncey.
Angus looked at the position of the sun and fidgeted. “Before you go, know what you’re in for. She got attacked, Léo.”
Anger burst through him hot and fast. “How badly?”
“Two black eyes, her lip was torn open. Otherwise, hale. Spirits higher than ever. She said she felt fine. They wanted her to confess to a relationship with you, but she would only admit she gave you the Psalter in prison.”
Now out of his mind with fear, he yelled at Eoghan. “Let’s go! I need to go!”
Angus continued. “We couldn’t keep her at Dunvegan, she snuck back when she realized we wouldn’t let her leave. Climbed out of a fifth-story window over the loch, no less.” Léo cursed himself for helping her conquer her fear of water. “We sent for Hector on Mishnish, thinking he could get her out of Dun Ringill if something happened to you. She brushes danger aside like it doesn’t exist. It’s terrifying.”
Across the field Eoghan led Thorny in a large circle around the pasture, then took him into a trot, then a canter, then a gallop. Leading the reformed horse back to them, he dismounted. “Somewhere along the way he learned if he bucks and skitters someone will get off him. Look, he isn’t afraid. I could see it in his eyes. He just doesn’t like you, sorry to say. He doesn’t like anyone. Typical gelding.”
Heart pounding, breath coming in bursts, Léo mounted on the now-steady horse.
Eoghan handed him the reins. “Get going. Have your inside rein ready if he starts to buck, correct it immediately. Don’t let him think about it or get away with anything.”
Angus called to him as Léo turned the horse. “We’re at Father Allen’s cottage on Breacais. Get her out and come to us, we’ll be waiting there with Sea’s bìrlinn.”
Léo nodded and spurred the horse into a walk, then a trot, then a canter, then a gallop. Flying over the hills now, the little rouncey proved how solid and strong he was. He may make it in time.
His heart sank. Even if he did, he knew Moira wouldn’t go.
Chapter 31
DUN RINGILL CASTLE - SEPTEMBER 25, 1385
The sun outside the solar faded to orange and still Léo hadn’t returned from Kylerhea. Gripping the arm of her chair, Moira watched as it sank toward the horizon.
Niall circled the solar, his unwashed smell making her stomach turn. “You’ll do as you please, will you? Live in my keep, eat my food, and reject every advance? What were you doing in his room?”
The back of his closed fist connected with her lips and the taste of blood filled her mouth as her head jerked backward. His fists grabbed the neck of her gown and wrenched her off the chair, tearing the seams as he shook her. “Have you lain with him?”
Furious, Moira shook her head. They had been through the same questions for days. She wanted to fight back, needed to fight back against his bullying, but she knew for the sake of the mission, she couldn’t.
Across the room, Ardis raised her head, both eyes blackened, nose crumpled at an unnatural angle. “Leave her alone. I know she hasn’t.” Fingon’s fist connected again with Ardis’s smashed nose and she cried out.
