Page 103 of The Forest Bride

“They do not feel safe here?”

“English,” he said curtly. “I will go ahead of you here. The way can be slippery, so be careful. Andrew, see to the lady.” He moved on with long, sure strides.

Margaret scanned the gorge and the moors beyond the trees. Where was Duncan? As they walked along, she held the hems of her gown and cloak out of puddles, looking all around her even as she stepped carefully.

“Look over there.” Andrew pointed. “Is that Duncan?”

She gasped, seeing two men moving along the rocks beyond the falls. A smaller person was with them, skirts billowing. “Lilias!”

She hurried up the rocky incline, the river rushing to her left, the waterfall increasingly noisy ahead. Iain Campbell had seen the three figures ahead too. He half-ran along the ridge toward them.

“Meg,” Andrew said then. “Look through the trees.”

She did, glimpsing men on horseback moving across the moors that paralleled the river and gorge. Taking up her skirt hems, she climbed faster, accepting Andrew’s help. The water rushed and burbled, the mossy stones were damp and slick, and she grabbed handholds on rocks as she went upward to attain a clearer view.

Riders were coming out of the narrow western neck of Glen Fada, the long glen to the east. Two—three, Margaret counted, seeing steely flashes in the gray light, and a knight in a red-and-white striped surcoat on a black charger.

“De Soulis,” she said.

“Who?”

“He is working with Menteith. I have business with him,” she added.

“He may have business with Sir Duncan first. Look, the riders are heading toward the river. I hope Sir Duncan sees them.”

“Sir Iain will warn them.” As she spoke, Iain Campbell glanced down and motioned for Margaret and the two of them to stay where they stood and not come forward. The air seemedfilled with tension, the powerful rush and noise of the falls ahead adding to that. Margaret stood, back and shoulders straight, tense.

The leader was indeed De Soulis. She saw him stop and gesture to his men, one of whom dismounted and ran toward the gorge. The jagged barrier rose dark and formidable, and the man climbed halfway and came running back. De Soulis shouted. She could not hear his words.

Glancing toward where she had last seen Duncan and the rest, she saw no one there now. In the opposite direction, Sir William seemed agitated as he rode toward the tree-lined gorge.

She could stand it no longer. “Wait here!”

“Meg, stop!” Andrew reached but missed as she moved away.

“I must speak to him,” she said. “If he sees me, he will be distracted, and the others can get away. Stay here,” she insisted. “They might recognize you as one who got away from the ambush.”

Skirts gathered, she took the rocks carefully along the gorge, then hurried across rumpled green turf toward the knights on the moor.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“God’s very bones,”Lennox said, look towards the glen. “Is that your lady?”

“Where?” Duncan turned with Lilias in his arms; the girl had hurt her ankle and needed aid. He saw Margaret crossing the moor at a fair pace, her coppery hair bright in the pale light. “What is she doing here?”

“Looking for you, most like, and our wee princess.”

“I am not a princess,” Lilias insisted.

“You are a princess to me, and precious too,” Lennox said. “Look there, that rascal De Soulis is riding to meet her.”

Duncan swore under his breath. “I have to get down there. Take Lady Lilias back to Brechlinn.” He handed the girl into Lennox’s arms. “Go with the earl. He will take you to safety.”

“Are you going to fetch Margaret Keith?” she asked. “Was she captured too?”

“She was safe with me, lass. I will make sure she stays that way.”

“That man was with Sir John,” she said.