Page 18 of Abducted By the Highlander
“He’ll let ye go. There’s no reason for him to risk discovery by ransoming ye, my lady. The last thing Darragh wants is to drawattention to his clan.”
“Do ye think ye’ll be able to take us to Creagdoun on the morrow?”
Although the earl had a network of spies across Argyll, there was no way of knowing how long it would be before he received word on how to deliver Roisin to safety. But first he needed to send a message without rousing any suspicion.
None of which he could share with her.
“No,” he admitted reluctantly, and watched the hope leach from her face.Goddamn it. He didn’t want her to think he was keeping her from her kin for the hell of it. It was safer to remain silent, but he couldn’t do it. “I can’t risk Darragh suspecting ye’re connected through marriage to a powerful Campbell, and he will guess if I push for yer release too soon. I’m only talking a matter of days, Lady Roisin. Once he sells the horses, his focus will shift from ye.”
It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the full truth, either. If he pushed Darragh too hard, too soon, it wouldn’t be on Roisin that Darragh’s suspicious eye would fall.
It would be him. And if Darragh acted on those suspicions, it would leave Roisin without protection.
“But what if Darragh hears rumors that Alasdair Campbell is searching for me? It won’t take much for him to guess the truth, will it?”
“Alasdair?” He’d been referring to William, her brother-through-marriage. Although certainly Alasdair, as the earl’s favored half-brother, was a force to be reckoned with, there was no reason for—
“Ye don’t know, do ye?” There was a note of despair in Roisin’s voice, and he had to battle the instinctive urge to take her hand in a fruitless attempt to comfort her. “My sister, Freyja, wed Alasdair a little over a year ago. Alasdair is now Baron of Glenchonnel.”
An odd, echoey sensation filled his head, as though he were no longer connected to his body. For the last year, he’d done the earl’sbidding, hoping that, in the end, he could return to his former life.
But his former life didn’t exist anymore. He’d pushed through each day holding onto the memories of his friends and family to keep him from the edge of the abyss, but his two closest friends’ lives had changed irrevocably, and he hadn’t known a thing about it until now.
All the questions he’d forced to the back of his mind just so he could survive this cursed existence crawled to the surface. What else didn’t he know? How did his sisters fare? Was his father even still alive?
Will I ever escape this hell?
“Hugh.” Roisin’s whisper dragged him back to the present, where her hand hovered a hairsbreadth from his chest. But she didn’t touch him, and when he sucked in a harsh breath, she hastily wrapped her fingers around the writing case she still clutched against her breast. “Are ye all right?”
“Aye.” He attempted a reassuring smile but wasn’t sure he succeeded since Roisin still gazed at him as though she feared for his sanity. Brutally, he shoved his fractured thoughts into a dark corner of his mind where, with luck, they would wither and perish. “I didn’t know.”
Dammit, he hadn’t meant to admit that, but the concern in her eyes had been his undoing. The last time he’d seen Alasdair was just over a year ago, on the day the earl had told him of his mission. Alasdair, he recalled, had appeared in fine spirits. And according to Roisin, Alasdair had wed her sister shortly afterwards.
By the command of his half-brother?
“They’re very happy together.”
Were they? Or was Roisin just saying that? He forced another smile to his face before she saw more in his eyes than he wanted her to. “That’s good.”
Except now she was related to two powerful Campbells, one of whom was blood-bound to the earl himself. If Darragh ever discovered Roisin’s connections, Hugh was certain the older man would decideshe was worth ransoming, no matter what objections Hugh might make.
“I don’t understand.” Once again, she raised her hand, and her fingers came perilously close to touching his chest before she appeared to realize what she was doing, and she snatched her hand back. “I thought ye were good friends with both William and Alasdair. What happened, Hugh? Why are ye living like this?”
If only he could tell her. Just so she knew he wasn’t a traitor to his own clan, but it was a fool’s dream. The truth would do nothing but put her in peril, for although he didn’t know her well, he knew enough. Lady Roisin wasn’t the type of woman who could lie without blinking in the face of danger. If Darragh, or anyone else in the camp questioned her, it was best she had nothing to hide.
Nothing but the fact her sister was married to the Earl of Argyll’s half-brother.
He stifled a groan. There was nothing he could do about that, but the chances of anyone asking her directly about her sister’s husband was remote.
And she still waited for his answer. An answer he could never share with her.
“I fought for a while in Eire.” There was no harm in telling her that. Everyone in the camp was aware he’d met Symon when they’d both been redshanks. “And afterwards, Symon invited me to stay with his kin.”
It was obvious she had more questions, especially since he’d completely sidestepped those she’d already asked him, and he hastily bowed his head. “I shan’t keep ye any longer. I shouldn’t wish ye to catch a chill.”
With that inane comment, he backed out of the tent and exhaled a relieved breath, before casting a stealthy glance around the camp. Fortunately, Darragh was nowhere to be seen, and no one was paying him any attention to comment on how long he’d been inside the tentwith Roisin.
He needed to be careful. He couldn’t afford to draw any more unwanted attention to either himself or her, not when her freedom rested on him keeping on the right side of Darragh.
