Page 18 of A Celtic Secret
“I think so.”
“You don’t know so?”
“I’ve lied once already,” she confessed. “I told Raghnall I liked his great hall when I didn’t.”
He could not agree more. It was everything she wasn’t. “’Twas a lie then.”
“So it seems.” She paused a moment before going on. “I couldn’t have been married to him.” Despite the tension in her voice, she relaxed even more in his hold. “It just doesn’t seem....” She shook her head. “If I had been married to Raghnall before, wouldn’t he have known my secret the moment we touched? Wouldn’tIhave known?”
One would think.
Riona went to speak again but stopped as though she heard something through the rain and wind.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I need to keep moving.” She shivered and grew tense again. “He’s not doing well.”
“Who?”
“The one who woke me.” When she pulled away this time, he let her go. “He needs my help...and wants me to get out of here.” She frowned. “I almost get the sense he’d rather me go than bother with him. That it was all a ploy to get me down here...to you.”
He wrapped his cloak around her shoulders when she shivered again. “Then it must be Raghnall playing a trick.”
“No.” Riona thanked him and shook her head. “It’s not Raghnall. I’m certain of it.” She flinched a little when she looked at the castle. “I might be ready to get out of here, but not without helping him first. And certainly not without Luna.”
“Where is this man you speak of, then?”
“I’m not sure.” She eyed the area. “He said I’d know where to find him. Where to...”
“What is it?” he prompted when she trailed off.
“That way.”
She started out of the conclave, but he stopped her.
“Whatway, lass?”
“Toward the courtyard.”
He shook his head. “We cannot go that way if we mean to escape tonight.”
“We?” He caught her expression of surprise in lightning flashes. “You’re coming with me?”
“Nay,youare coming with me.” He made things clear. “I will see you with no one but me until we figure out this connection betwixt you and the enemy.”
“Seeing how you aren’t the enemy after all?” she said slowly, narrowing her eyes.
“Nay, I’m not the enemy.”
“Yet it sounds like you’re kidnapping me from a guy who already kidnapped me.”
“’Twould seem that way,” he gave her a pointed look, “had you not willingly gone into his arms, to begin with.”
“Ididdo that,” she conceded and sighed. “And it had seemed like a good idea at the time. Get behind enemy lines and....” She frowned and looked in the direction of the courtyard again. “I need to go to him, Declán. He’s running out of time.”
“You will never make it out of here if you go through the courtyard.” He shook his head. “Raghnall’s warriors are everywhere.” He considered what she might be trying to get at. Where she really wanted to go as there was very little in the actual courtyard. “Could it be beyond the courtyard? One of the surrounding buildings?”
“Yes,” she replied without hesitation. “Directly on the other side of the courtyard.”
