Page 14 of Proven By The Highlander (Highlander Forever #15)
CHAPTER 14
T he situation troubled her for the rest of dinner, and she headed up to bed shortly after she’d finished early, saying she wanted to make sure she got enough rest while the lingering traces of the infection were still in her system. But rest was hard to come by. She lay for a long time, staring at the ceiling, gnawing on her lower lip. There had to be another way… something that lay between letting Caelan hurt the Monster and locking him up. When she fell asleep, her mind kept chewing on the problem in a series of worried, stressful dreams.
She came wide awake before dawn, and whether she’d been working on the problem subconsciously or not, she found that she knew exactly what she needed to do. Caelan hadn’t been crazed. She remembered a man who was wary and haggard, but clearly possessed of his wits and capable of being reasoned with. But he wasn’t going to react well to a whole gaggle of guards turning up to take him into custody. Neither could he be left out there to wander around, hunting for the Monster.
The answer was obvious — she had to go and find him first. She’d met the Monster, she and Nancy had discussed it at length, and she knew what he was going through with the loss of his brother. Surely she’d be able to talk sense into him, if she could only reach him before the men did.
So she rose while it was still dark, fresh determination burning in her. She dressed herself quickly, cinching the dress tightly around her waist, then adding the thick riding cloak from her closet that Ivy had given her as a gift when she’d mentioned that she knew how to ride. In the glass, she looked capable and ready. The question remained, of course, as to how she planned to find Caelan. Loch Ness was a huge place, and the fact that he’d avoided being captured or even seen for this long meant that he was probably adept at hiding.
That, or he was good at hiding from the guards. Maybe if he saw her, he’d be less likely to stay hidden. Something told her that he’d listen to her, some gut instinct deep in her belly. It wasn’t rational, of course, but neither was the fact that she was here in medieval Scotland, trying to protect the Loch Ness Monster from a man who thought it had eaten his brother. At a certain point, you just had to roll with the punches.
So it was that she strode across the courtyard just as dawn was breaking, the gray sky and cold wind sending shivers of chill and anticipation down her spine. There by the gate, she could already see the search party gathering, men in armor muttering to each other as they readied their horses and stamped their feet to keep warm. There were half a dozen of them in total, six pairs of slightly suspicious eyes falling on her when she squared up to the closest of them — Graeme and Hamish, who were the only ones in the group who’d offered her a smile.
“Good morning, Leanne. You’re up rather early.”
“I want to join the search party,” she said firmly, not letting her gaze drop in the face of the surprised expressions of the men. “I think I can help.”
“How’s that, lass?” Graeme didn’t sound annoyed by the suggestion, exactly, more curious. She took that as a good sign, pressing on.
“I can ride, for a start, so nothing to worry about there.” A few of the women had told her that they’d never been on a horse before they’d arrived, and she didn’t want the men thinking that they’d have to teach her to ride. “And I think I know how to find Caelan — or at least how to start looking.”
“You know where he’ll be?” one of the guards asked, raising an eyebrow. “You know how to predict his movements?”
“Not his,” she said with a shake of her head. “The Monster’s. Based on its movement patterns, we can narrow down where he’ll be.” She took a deep breath. “In exchange, I’d like to ask that I speak to him first before you take him into custody. I might be able to talk him into backing down regarding the Monster, without any need to lock him up.”
The men murmured amongst themselves, a few of them giving her incredulous looks. She waited patiently for them to fall quiet again, hoping like hell she wasn’t making a mistake here. From what she’d gathered, attitudes to women in the Keep were a little more progressive than the average sixteenth century people, which certainly had something to do with the efforts of the fiercely competent twenty-first century women who made their homes here. There was no reason to think these men would assume she was incapable based on her gender. Then again…
“It’s a good thought,” Graeme acknowledged. “Basing our search on the way the creature moves… insight on that could be helpful.”
“And I’d be as keen as the next man not to have to drag Caelan in,” Hamish said with a shake of his head. “There’s no honor in taking in a brother by force.”
“All due respect,” one of the guards said through gritted teeth, “I don’t see why we should take along some lovestruck girl just because she asks. It’s a liability. She’ll only slow us down.”
She felt her jaw clench, felt the anger freeze her body solid… but something told her that lashing out at the man in response would only serve to prove his point that she was a liability. Instead, she looked to Hamish, hoping like hell that either he or Graeme would overrule the other guard.
Hamish sighed, looking apologetic as his gaze shifted from Leanne to the huddled group of guards. “We’ll put it to a vote,” he said finally.
But from the expression on his face, Leanne could tell there wasn’t much hope here… and sure enough, the other four men voted against her. Trying her best to hide her fury, she responded to Hamish’s apologetic gesture with a tight-lipped smile, then turned on her heel and stalked back into the keep. At least she hadn’t let her tears of frustration spill while she was in their company. That, at least, was a victory… even if the rest of the conversation hadn’t been.
She ate a surly breakfast in the dining hall as the sky through the windows continued to lighten, and after breakfast found herself at a loose end. She’d really been hoping the men would let her go with them… that she’d be able to find Caelan and talk him out of his vengeful campaign against Nessie. The frustration seethed in her, making her disinterested in doing anything but fuming in her room … and a new scheme began to hatch as the morning wore on. A more dangerous scheme, perhaps — but they’d really given her no choice, hadn’t they?
She spent the afternoon napping in her room, claiming she still wasn’t feeling a hundred percent when her friends came to visit her. She waited until everyone had headed into the dining hall for dinner, lingering at the top of the stairs until she could see that the entrance hall was deserted. And then, riding cloak around her shoulders, holding her breath, she crept through the hall and out across the darkening courtyard.
It was the work of a moment to let herself into the stables, thinking back to her long afternoons at pony club with a grin. She’d always hated all the lessons on equipment, preferring to actually be out with the horses themselves, but now she was grateful she knew what she was doing as she grabbed a saddle and bridle and quickly tacked a horse up in its stall, ducking low every time a groom walked past outside. Finally, the horse was ready to go. She checked the coast was clear, then took a deep breath. This was the trickiest part of her plan — the part where things could go wrong.
With all the fake confidence she could muster, she rode across the courtyard toward the gate, which to her relief was still half-open from an earlier arrival of men returning from their routine patrols. She was out beyond the gate by the time one of the guards called down from the top of the wall, sounding curious… and she turned back, lifting the cloth-wrapped bundle she had set in her lap for this very purpose.
“Going to meet Maggie!” she called. This was a lie she’d rehearsed based on the fact that all the other women had seemed to have made a visit to Maggie at some point in the early part of their stay here. The guard nodded easy agreement, and she felt relief spreading through her.
“Give her our best,” he called, lifting his hand in acknowledgment.
And with that, she was away, urging her horse down the land bridge and toward the forest beyond. She made sure to turn in the direction of Maggie’s cottage when she reached the end of the bridge — she’d done her research here, after all. They’d realize she was missing soon enough, and no doubt realize once they checked with the guard that she’d been lying about visiting Maggie. But by then, she’d be well away… and with any luck, she’ll have found Caelan and said her piece.
If not… well, then she’d be a fugitive just like Caelan was.