Page 74 of A Virgin for the Icy Highlander
“Back to school,” Grace replied. “You can’t breathe a word until I am certain. If Hunter asks, youmustsay exactly what I have said—that I will explain everything when I return. After all, I may be wrong.”
And I dearly hope that I am.
“I will stay,” Lilian volunteered, “and I will hold my tongue, but I do not think you should go alone.”
Maddie made a noise of agreement. “Neither do I, which is precisely why I’m coming with you. And I will hear no arguments, or else neither of us will go, and it will be Ellie who suffers.”
“Very well,” Grace muttered, “but I was not planning to go alone.”
Maddie frowned. “The Laird and Thomas aren’t here.”
“I am aware. In their absence, there is only one other person who can be of use to us, for we shall need someone who knows how to fight. Rather, someone wholookslike he could kill a man with a single blow.”
Grace grabbed Maddie by the hand and pulled her out of the room and down the hallway while Lilian looked on with her own task to fulfill.
28
The road to Horndean was steeped in inky shadow. The cold nights were as long as the days were short, offering no hint of the hour. Yet, Grace knew that it took around two hours to get from Castle MacLogan to the school, and they had proven to be the longest two hours of her life.
The reluctant attitude of their escort hadn’t helped matters, though he was the best they could get. Grace had to keep reminding herself of that as Oscar voiced his skepticism for the hundredth time.
“I dinnae expect ye to understand our ways, but this is all for naught,” Oscar said, as if talking to a child. “It’s Laird MacRannock who’s taken her. And while we’re rattlin’ down these country roads, Hunter will undoubtedly be ridin’ back to the castle with his daughter, and when he gets there, it’ll be me he strings up for lettin’ ye rope me into this pointless endeavor.”
Maddie shot him a dark look, also for the hundredth time. “Or Ellieisthere, Grace is right, and Hunter will thank you for listening to her.”
“Aye, and sometimes the most obvious answeristhe answer,” Oscar replied. “Did he tell ye that MacRannock men ambushed him in the woods? Did he tell ye that they threatened to start a war again?”
Grace balled her hands into fists. “It doesn’t matter if they did. They aren’t the ones who took Ellie. They would have left Hunter a note, not me.”
“That part, I cannae explain,” Oscar conceded as he raked a hand through his hair. “It might be that they wanted to lureyeout of the castle, too. Take me friend’s bride and his daughter in one swoop.”
Maddie clicked her tongue in exasperation. “Then why have we been traveling for an age, and no one has attacked the carriage? Grace is right here for the taking, but—oh, what is that? Not a single hoofbeat following us!”
“Ihavebeen lured,” Grace said, somewhat diplomatically, “but it is the only way to retrieve Ellie. I don’t know why my brother has done this, but I suspect the wedding has something to do with it. He took Ellie to lure me out because he knows what my father will do if he hears of this. This is how he means to stop it from happening.”
This is how he means to ruin everything, as he has always done.
Settling back into his corner of the carriage, Oscar closed his eyes. “Wake me up when ye decide to see sense and go back. Yer assumption is absurd. Nay braither would go to such trouble. Theactualreason nay one has attacked the carriage is because they saw me gettin’ into it. MacRannocks might be fools, but they’re nae eager to die.”
“You have a very high opinion of yourself,” Maddie muttered.
Oscar chuckled. “Aye, for good reason. If ye saw me swing a sword, ye’d understand. Och, I’d likely have to catch ye when ye inevitably swooned and fainted.”
“I have neverswooned,” Maddie retorted, before flashing a look at Grace that seemed to say,Can you believe this oaf?
“Aye, ‘cause ye havenae seen me in the training yard,” Oscar replied, grinning.
Grace was spared from having to intervene, for her own sake as well as Maddie’s, by the carriage slowing to a standstill. Peering out of the window, she saw the familiar lanterns that lined the driveway of the school. Just as she had asked, the driver had halted halfway down, though she doubted it would offer much in the way of the element of surprise.
“Come on,” she said, opening the carriage door and stepping out into the icy blast of the cold night.
Maddie moved to join her, but Grace shook her head. “Not you, Maddie. I need you to stay here and keep watch. I don’t know how many people we might be facing, so if you see anyone else arrive, you must scream as loudly as you can.”
“Are you quite serious?” Maddie frowned, as if trying to decide if this was just Grace’s way of trying to keep her out of harm’s way.
Grace nodded. “We know there are at least three. I don’t want us to be trapped, unable to escape back to the castle with Ellie.”
Maddie sat back down and expelled a frustrated breath. “Very well, I will keep watch.” She shot Oscar a look. “But if any harm befalls my friend or Ellie that you don’t prevent, I shall show you how wellIcan fight.”
