Amaline was still thinking about Jamison being summoned back to Scotland, forcing herself to push that thought aside with Thad’s question. “Aye,” she nodded. “I want to see Madeline and the gate sergeant says that you have the keys.”

Thad lost his smile again. “I am not sure she is allowed visitors, my lady,” he said. “Let me ask Jamison before I consent.”

Amaline shook her head quickly. “He is outside of Havilland’s room, yelling at her to open her door,” she said.

“I do not think he would take kindly to your question. Please… I just want to give my sister this cloak, as it is very cold. Won’t you please let me in to see her? I will only stay a minute.”

Thad eyed her, considering her point. It was true that Jamison might not take kindly to being interrupted when all of the knights knew he was in the middle of a serious personal crisis.

Beaux MacKay had told both Tobias and Thad what had transpired earlier in the day and how Jamison had forced them to divulge George Munro’s desire that Jamison should marry his dead brother’s betrothed.

It wouldn’t have been so bad had Jamison not forced them to say it in front of Havilland, who understandably reacted poorly to the news.

Now, Jamison was dealing with a goodly amount of turmoil while Beaux, Kendrick, Caspian, and Tobias sat in the great hall and drank, waiting for Jamison to emerge from the keep.

But that might take a long time. Certainly, Jamison didn’t need to be bothered with something like this if all Amaline wanted to do was give her sister a cloak. Thad didn’t see any harm in it. Looking into the young woman’s eager face, he relented.

“Very well,” he said. “Come along.”

Amaline did. Heart pounding, clutching the piece of wood in her hand, she walked alongside Thad to the gatehouse, purposely falling back behind him as he went down the stairs first. She didn’t know when she’d have another chance to catch him off guard as she could now, for he certainly couldn’t see her pull out the piece of wood as she came down the stairs behind him.

If she was going to do this, now was the time.

She summoned her courage, her stomach in knots at the thought of failure.

She couldn’t fail! They were almost to the bottom when Amaline lifted the wood and cracked Thad over the head, so hard that he fell down the last two steps and landed in a heap, still as stone.

Rushing upon him, she rolled the unconscious knight over onto his back and searched him, finally coming up with the ring of iron keys in the pocket of his tunic.

Grabbing the keys, she rushed to the cell where Madeline was just starting to wake up.

Exhausted, Madeline had slept on and off for most of the day, as there was little else to do in the nearly pitch-black cell.

She had been dead asleep when she’d been awoken by a grunt and what sounded like a fall.

Suddenly, Amaline was opening her cell and when Madeline realized this, she scrambled to her feet, rubbing her eyes in disbelief.

“Ammie!” she gasped. “What have you done?”

Amaline didn’t have time for any questions. “Quickly,” she said, thrusting the cloak at her. “Put this on and go. Go through the postern gate and leave. You promised you would never come back here!”

Astonished, Madeline took the cloak, still a bit groggy from sleep and having no real idea what had just happened. She looked at her sister, her eyes wide.

“But… but why?” she said. “Why would you…?”

Amaline was terrified they would be found out or that Thad would soon regain consciousness. She yanked her sister by the arm, pulling her from the cell.

“Put the cloak on,” she told her again, snappish. “Get out of here, do you hear? I have given you your freedom and if you do not leave now, it will more than likely cost me mine if we are discovered. Go, Madeline! Do not ask questions, just go!”

Madeline didn’t have to be told twice. With shaking hands, she pulled on the cloak, a heavy dark thing, pulling on the hood so no one could see her face.

She went to hug Amaline but her sister stood back, unwilling to be embraced.

She was fearful and uncertain, and in truth, angry.

Angry at the entire situation. She simply wanted Madeline gone.

“Ammie,” Madeline’s features softened with sorrow when Amaline rejected her embrace. “Thank you for doing this. Thank you for saving my life. But what will you tell Havi and Jamison? They will punish you when they discover you have released me.”

Amaline yanked her sister towards the stairs. “Since when do you care about me?” she asked. “You only care about yourself or else you would not have asked me to do this.”

Madeline took the first step but she didn’t leave; she looked at her sister seriously. “Then why are you helping me?”

Amaline sighed heavily, shaking her head. “I am not sure,” she said honestly. “Mayhap… mayhap I do not want to see your head cut off. Mayhap Jamison is lying and you really have done nothing wrong. Or mayhap you are lying and I am a fool. I do not know! Simply go and never come back!”

Madeline didn’t know what to say. Perhaps there was nothing really to say. Amaline was risking her own freedom to help her escape and she didn’t take that lightly. She began to feel guilty for it but not guilty enough to go back into her cell. She was free and she intended to stay free.

“Thank you, Ammie,” she whispered. “I shall not forget this.”

Amaline didn’t say anything. She simply watched her sister run up the stairs, bound by the cloak, and disappear into the coming night.

Amaline thought her escape would be rather easy considering that, out of respect to Havilland, Jamison hadn’t told many of the soldiers about Madeline’s imprisonment. That would be his undoing.

Madeline would be able to slip by men who would recognize her but think nothing was amiss. Still, the fact remained that Thad would know Amaline had set her sister free. He would tell Jamison and she would be punished, now for her own particular brand of treachery.

Amaline had to think of a believable explanation.

When Thad finally regained consciousness a short while later, it was to Amaline’s concerned face.

She was patting his cheeks, trying to wake him.

When he looked around, groggily asking for an explanation, Amaline proceeded to inform him that he had slipped on the stairs and knocked himself out, and when she used his keys to open the cell to provide Madeline with the cloak, her sister had overpowered her and run away.

Amaline made a good show of being quite upset about the whole thing, but deep down, Thad didn’t believe her. He was fairly certain it had all been quite planned and he had the bump on the back of his head to prove it.

*

“If we leave this week, we should make it back tae Foulis by late spring,” Kendrick said. “I’d like tae spend more than a few days here but we must return as soon as we can. There is no knowing what has happened in our absence.”

He was speaking to Beaux and Tobias as Caspian, exhausted beyond all reason, was sleeping with his head down on the table.

In fact, all three Scotsmen were exhausted but Caspian was the only one who had succumbed to sleep.

The others were fighting it, awaiting Jamison’s return to the hall.

There was still a great deal to discuss.

But there was a sense of disappointment, too.

Disappointment that Jamison’s happiness with Lady Havilland had been so cruelly damaged.

Of course, Jamison was to blame for that, not allowing his father’s message to be delivered in private, but it didn’t matter now.

Lady Havilland was heartbroken and Jamison right along with her.

Beaux had been trying to figure out how to make it all well again, to ease both Jamison and Havilland, but it simply wasn’t possible.

Jamison was to marry Agnes MacLennan and there wasn’t anything anyone could do about it.

If they wanted to end the blood feud, it had to be that way.

Beaux kept rolling that over and over in his mind; it has to be this way.

It must be this way. He seriously wondered if Jamison was going to obey his father’s wishes in this.

He would risk a continued feud by not marrying Agnes.

Would his life-long happiness be worth pleasing his father?

Beaux had known Jamison a very long time and the man was stubborn.

He also knew very much what he wanted in life and if he wanted Lady Havilland that badly, Beaux could easily see him defying George for the privilege of calling that beautiful woman his wife.

Some things were worth fighting for.

As Beaux pondered Jamison’s wants and desires, Tobias was pondering something completely different.

He’d been near the arena, preparing the coming games, when he’d seen Jamison and the three Scotsmen come through the gatehouse.

He’d seen Havilland go to meet them and he also saw her run off with Jamison on her heels.

Only then had he left his men at the arena to go and see what had happened, being informed by Beaux of the reason for their visit to Four Crosses.

Tobias was a horrible person in that he was glad they’d come.

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