Page 16 of The Heather Wife
The lass was indomitable.
Panic surged.
She fled.
Inside the great hall, she found Domhnall MacRae—Calum's father, who had stayed behind to watch over the clan.
The old laird stood with a sword strapped to his hip, gripping it with his one good hand. His left sleeve was tied off neatly, his arm lost long ago in battle.
"I saw Sorcha letting criminals onto our lands," Elspeth gasped, breathless and wild.
Domhnall narrowed his eyes. Silent. Weighing. Then he pointed toward the cellar.
"Go. Hide with the other women and children."
"But—"
"Go."
She obeyed—at first. Only long enough to melt into the shadows. Then crept after him, heart pounding.
She followed him out toward the clash.
What she saw nearly felled her where she stood.
The courtyard was a battlefield. Fires raged on scattered rooftops, set by the raiders' flaming arrows to sow panic and ruin. Smoke curled thick and low, seeping into the keep's heart, stinging eyes and choking breath. Bodies littered the earth—strangers, lowland men with foreign blades—and Sorcha stood at the center, sword in hand.
The blood of those Elspeth had summoned now soaked Strathloch's earth.
A marauder knelt before her, trembling, hands raised high, his sword thrown to the ground at his feet.
"Spare me," he begged. "I'll tell ye who sent us, how we got in—just don't kill me."
Elspeth shrank deeper into the shadows, her pulse roaring in her ears.
What if he saw her? What if he spoke her name?
Sorcha didn't blink. She glanced to Domhnall.
"This one has a tale to tell."
She turned to a nearby clansman and added firmly,
"Put him in chains. Bring him to the cells and watch him close."
But as the wounded man was dragged away, he turned his gaze—and grinned when he saw Elspeth.
"That's her," he said, raising one shaking hand to point at her—his voice hoarse but clear.
"That's the lass who promised us Strathloch's spoils if we killed the Lady of the Keep."
Gasps rippled.
Eyes turned to where the enemy was pointing.
Elspeth took one faltering step back—but her back met the cold stone of the hall's wall.
There was nowhere left to run.
