Page 29 of Highlander Unraveled
I ran a hand through my hair, feeling a cold sweat break out at my temples and along my spine. We were leaving within the hour. I had to go upstairs. Had to tell her what was happening. She needed to get dressed, to pack. I needed to pack. We needed provisions. There was much to be done, and I wasn’t doing any of it just standing there.
“My laird?” Tomas, my steward, appeared from the darkness of the corridor, approaching with hesitation. His eyes shifted back and forth as he warily approached me. “Is ought amiss?”
I cleared my throat, shoving all the emotions tangled inside me somewhere else. “Lady Moira and I will be leaving within the hour with a dozen men.”
“What’s happened? Pardon my asking, my laird.”
I waved away Tomas’ manners. I’d yet to make any of the warriors a second in command, so while I was gone, Tomas was in charge.
“The Guardian has called me to service. I hope we will not be gone long. The clan is to come to ye should they need anything.”
“Ye’re leaving me as acting laird?” Tomas raised a brow. No doubt, he thought it was odd that I’d yet to name a second, but he had to understand.
“Aye,” I said with conviction.
Tomas nodded solemnly. “I will do my best in honoring your wishes, my laird. And what of Ranulf?”
I let out a deep sigh. “Can ye handle him? Keep him training? Or is it best for him to remain detained in his chamber? I dinna want the lad to cause trouble for ye. There will be enough of that.”
I loathed the fact that I had to lock my own son up. But he was a danger to himself and others, Moira in particular. I’d seen the sneers he’d passed her way. Heard the threats he’d hissed about burning her at the stake. The lad had attempted to take my head more than once during training, not to mention when I’d had to challenge him in front of the clan at Gealach. I felt bad for him, too. He thought I’d dishonored his mother. He didn’t know the truth. Poor lass. God rest her soul.
Though Ranulf hated me, I thought he might also resent that Moira had been my replacement for his mother in my mind. Perhaps when he’d learned that I’d loved Abi, he’d thought I sullied her name by loving another. Who knew? I’d contemplated the reasons behind his anger for so many hours, I could have watched the seasons turn.
“I can handle him,” Tomas said.
“If ye find him to be unmanageable, ye have my permission to keep him in his chamber. Be sure that there are two guards with him at all times. He’s been waiting for a moment to escape. With my absence, will likely come his courage to see it through.”
“Aye, my laird. What else may I assist ye with in your absence?”
I could barely think. All I wanted to do was go upstairs and grasp Moira in my arms, but Tomas, and the entire clan, depended on me to keep it together. “The normal duties. Keep track of the plantings and harvest. Market day. Ledgers. Dispensing of coin if necessary. If need be judgments for the crofters, but if it can wait, please let it. If any messages come, and they are urgent, please forward them on to Gealach.”
“Aye, my laird.”
“As soon as I ascertain the situation at Castle Gealach, I will send word so ye have a better idea of when we will be returning. ’Tis my sincerest hope that we are returned within a fortnight, a month at most.”
Tomas pressed his hand to his heart. “The clan and lands will be in good hands, ye have my word. I shall honor ye, my laird. Ye and our lady.”
“I never doubted it.” Tomas was the only man I’d learned to trust fully. There were a few guards, aye, but many more that I questioned their loyalty. Most of the men had known me previously, but of those men, at least half believed I’d abandoned the clan when I’d left after my uncle’s death, years before. But they didn’t understand. How could I have stayed when I feared his death was on my hands?
When I returned from this trip, I was going to have to put each and every one of them in their place. They needed to respect me as their laird or find another clan that would accept them. No longer could I walk around wondering who was loyal and who held a secret grudge. I was laird. I needed to act as such.
Tomas stared at me a moment longer, expecting something more. I’d been putting off going upstairs and now it was obvious I was putting off dismissing him, too.
Mo chreach. I needed to go to Moira. Needed to tell her what happened. Already a good quarter hour had passed. We had even less time to get ready to depart now.
“That is all, Tomas. If ye would see a bag of provisions packed for us and the men?”
“Aye, my laird.”
I didn’t wait for Tomas to leave, I turned my back on him and took the stairs three at a time, reaching the level that housed our bedchamber. The door was locked and I pulled the key from around my neck to unlock it.
Moira lay on the bed, a mischievous grin on her delicious lips as she sat up to take me in.
“You weren’t able to last very long,” she teased, but then, taking note of my grim look, she sat straight up, her face paling. “What’s happened?”
Rather than beat around the bush like I wanted to, I simply came out with it. “Emma is missing. The messenger says it’s as though she vanished. No clue as to who could have taken her.”
“Missing… Vanished.” Moira frowned, but her mind connected the meaning behind those words a lot faster than mine had. Her gaze jolted upward to meet mine, and her visage paled another shade. “Oh, no…”
