Page 65 of Abducted By the Highlander
“Yer escort awaits, my lady.”
Why was he suddenly using her title? They were still too far away for anyone to hear them, and it made her uneasy. But when she looked back, she saw four of the earl’s men were fording the river, and the water was not much higher than their horses’ fetlocks.
She glanced at Grear and gave her an encouraging smile before she urged her mare forward, and they crossed the river with the men flanking them.
Freyja instantly rode to her side and grasped her hand. “Thank Eir ye are alive,” her sister said, before she gave a loud sniff and blinked rapidly. “What a terrible ordeal for ye, Roisin, ye poor wee lass. But do not fear, ye’re coming home with us and will be coddled until thisdreadful nightmare is nothing but a distant memory.”
She squeezed her sister’s fingers, which was all she could manage around Ecne’s basket. “’Tis so good to see ye again, Frey. But my ordeal was not nearly as terrible as it might have been, had Hugh Campbell not been by my side.”
“Aye, we owe a debt of gratitude to Hugh, and that’s a fact,” Freyja agreed. “If we hadn’t heard from him so swiftly after ye vanished that he had rescued ye from the despicable brigands, I fear Isolde herself would have gone out searching for ye like an avenging shieldmaiden.” Freyja glanced at Grear who was next to her. “’Tis very good to see ye are safe, Grear.”
“How is Isolde?” Anxiety gnawed through her. But Freyja dispersed the worry that had plagued her for the last two weeks with a wave of her hand.
“Strong and healthy. As I’ve said, we had to convince her to put down her claymore and let the earl and Hugh arrange for yer escape. Alasdair—” she turned to her husband, “Can ye take sweet Ecne’s basket? I’m certain Roisin’s arms must be aching.”
Her armswereaching. Indeed, she could scarcely feel them at all. They had gone numb, but she wasn’t certain she liked how Freyja had just announced it to the entire company. But she didn’t object when Alasdair, with a kind, welcoming, smile, took the basket, especially when he placed it with Grear, whom Ecne adored.
Something Freyja had said snagged in her mind. “How soon did ye hear from Hugh?”
“The earl got his message two days after ye were due at Isolde’s, which is astounding when ye think of it. So we knew very soon that Hugh was protecting ye.”
Two days. He must have sent his message the day they went to the town when she had written a letter to Isolde. He hadn’t sent her letter. But he had notified the earl. Why had he been more concerned that her letter might be intercepted than he had been about his own missive?
There was something she couldn’t quite put her finger on, but it scratched below the surface, like a burr caught beneath her skin. She looked over her shoulder for Hugh, who had been very quiet since they’d crossed the river—
He wasn’t there.
Panic gnawed through her as she searched the tree line, but there was no sign of him. Why hadn’t he crossed the river with her? Why in the name of God had he returned to Darragh?
“Roisin,” Freyja said and by her tone, it was apparent she was repeating herself. “The earl is eager to make yer acquaintance before we leave. Do not be distressed, ye only need to greet him. He doesn’t expect ye to converse.” Her sister smiled and gave her hand a comforting squeeze, but Roisin wasn’t concerned about greeting the earl.
“Before we leave?”
“Aye. We shall return home to Dunochty. It’s closer than Creagdoun, and when ye are fully recovered, we shall visit Isolde. I shall send a message to Amma, and she’ll meet us there. She stayed at Sgur on the slender chance ye might turn up there.”
Roisin glanced at the earl, who sat astride his stallion and had the proud bearing of a man used to giving orders and having them obeyed without question. Once she’d imagined asking Freyja to request that Alasdair intercede with the earl on Hugh’s behalf, but how could Alasdair do that when he had no idea what Hugh had been through?
She didn’t know everything he had endured since she had last seen him on Eigg, but at least she knew enough to let the earl know that whatever Hugh had done, he had more than atoned for it.
Alasdair came to her side, and the three of them approached the earl where Alasdair made the introductions. The earl smiled kindly at her, and the obscure notion crossed her mind that he looked at her as though she were a bashful bairn.
“We are all greatly relieved ye are safe and well, my lady,” he saidafter he’d gallantly kissed her hand. “Ye may rest assured all involved in this matter will be brought to justice.”
The man behind it had already been brought to justice, but she knew her manners. “Thank ye, my lord. I trust the brave men that accompanied me from Eigg have been discovered?”
The earl gave a grave nod. “Indeed they have, and they have been given all due respect as befits their sacrifice.”
Freyja was by her side, and she passed a few words with the earl before she turned her mare around, clearly expecting Roisin to follow her lead.
She remained where she was. “My lord,” she said, and even though her heart thundered in her chest and she felt lightheaded with nerves, her voice was steady. “If not for Hugh Campbell, my maid and I would have been taken by mercenaries hired by Fergus MacGregor. He was full of vengeance for the death of his half-brother, Alan, and if Hugh hadn’t been there, I fear I would now be dead.”
Freyja gasped, although whether she was shocked that Roisin had spoken more than the bare minimum protocol required to the earl or by her assertation that she knew quite well Fergus intended to kill her, Roisin wasn’t sure. The earl, on the other hand, after raising his eyebrows in clear surprise, appeared intrigued rather than irked by her remark.
“I fear that also,” he said. At least he hadn’t tried to tell her she was being hysterical and despite her low opinion of him, she had to give him credit for that. “We owe Hugh a great debt, and that’s a fact.”
Encouraged by that admission, Roisin pressed her advantage. “Indeed, and Hugh didn’t just keep me safe. He ensured Fergus MacGregor would no longer be a danger to any MacDonald or Campbell.”
“Did he, now?” The earl’s eyes bored into her, as if she had just disclosed something he hadn’t known. “Ye are well informed, my lady.”
