Page 24 of Trapped with the Vicious Highlander (Falling for Highland Villains #5)

CHAPTER 24

Brodrick grabbed the wine glass and downed its contents. It had been a day since Ava left the castle, and yet he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Everything reminded him of her. The table, the walls of his study, the candlelight. He couldn’t stare at the moon for long without thinking of the intimate moment they had in the courtyard.

Had he made a mistake? Had he been too stoic and proud to admit his feelings? All he told Ava was not to leave. But maybe if he had tried harder, if he had managed to speak to her, to let her know that he had fallen in love with her, she would have stayed.

That thought alone made his heart squeeze painfully.

The study door creaked open, and Darach stepped inside, a tense look on his face.

“M’Laird,” he called. “Some of the men are hopin’ to speak to ye.”

Brodrick didn’t look up at him. “Who?”

“Blake Mason and a few other men.”

“I will speak to them later. Tell them I am quite busy now.”

“M’Laird—”

“I didnae stutter, did I?”

Darach nodded and stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him, leaving Brodrick to his thoughts once more.

Several questions plagued his mind. Should he have let her go? Should he have confessed his love for her early on? Should he saddle a horse and ride nonstop to the orphanage?

His mind wouldn’t stop assessing scenarios and his heart wouldn’t stop pounding in his chest.

He didn’t like this. He was never one to deal with uncertainty and fear of the future, but now here was, knee-deep in it. He hated every second of it. He hated every second without Ava.

Without her familiar scent, her sharp words, and her sharp green eyes, everything felt odd and different. So different that he couldn’t believe he had been living before Ava came into his life.

The door opened again, and Brodrick threw his head back in despair. “Darach, did I nae just say?—”

“I cannae find her,” Flora’s voice cut him off, forcing him to snap his head back down and look straight at her.

She was standing by the door, fear and alarm written all over her pale face.

Flora was rarely ever terrified. She’d had her fair share of harrowing experiences. But something about the look on her face told Brodrick that this wasn’t an ordinary matter. Something had happened. Something terrible .

“I have looked everywhere—the Great Hall, the courtyard, her room. I cannae find her anywhere, Brodrick.”

Brodrick rose from his chair, already knowing who Flora was referring to but daring to ask anyway. “Find who?”

Her breath hitched. “Margaret.”

A sharp breath escaped his lips. “What?”

“I cannae find her, Brodrick.”

As if the words triggered something inside him, his features smoothed into a stoic mask, and all the thoughts that haunted him, he gathered and shoved into a box in the recesses of his mind. There was now a more pressing matter, and he didn’t need anyone to give him the push.

He hurried out of the study with Flora, a look of utter despair etched on his face. One he had tried to hide to no avail.

“When did ye last see her?” he asked as they headed down to the courtyard.

“The kitchen. I gave her some bread and asked her to wait for me so I could bring some honey. Then, I turned around and she was gone. I have checked almost every room in the castle, Brodrick. I dinnae ken where she is. I cannae?—”

“We’ll find her, Flora,” he cut her off, unsure if he was convincing her or himself.

It didn’t matter. They needed to find Margaret.

He started at the surgery, where Irene informed him that she hadn’t seen the child in quite a while.

“Have ye checked the courtyard? She might be hidin’ beneath the swing.”

Brodrick nodded and turned around, feeling his heart speed up. This was most definitely not how he had intended to spend his first day without Ava. He already lost one girl in his life, he wasn’t prepared to lose another.

But where could she possibly be?

With Flora hot on his heels, they proceeded to check almost every room in the castle. He walked with even more haste after checking a room and finding it empty or devoid of Margaret. After checking almost eleven rooms, it began to dawn on him just how much of a problem this was.

Where the devil was his daughter?

Darach joined in the search as well and proceeded to lead the men to another wing of the castle. They returned just a little over half an hour later with the same bad news. Flora was already beside herself, shedding tears of fear and worry.

Brodrick stood in the middle of the Great Hall, trying his best to mask his desperation and fear. This was not happening, not now. Not after everything he had gone through to find her. The world couldn’t be this cruel to him, taking his daughter from him just mere weeks after he found her.

He rubbed his forehead, trying desperately to think.

“She must have slipped off somewhere. Someone must have seen her walk past them.” Then, he turned to Flora, whose eyes were already red-rimmed and puffy. “Ye said the last place ye saw her was the kitchen, did ye nae?”

Flora nodded.

“Then let’s head there again and see if anyone else saw anything.”

Flora, Darach, and Brodrick headed to the kitchen, the atmosphere thick with the words they had left unspoken. Brodrick could feel it. He knew what they were thinking. He was thinking it, too.

Had she been taken again?

They arrived at the kitchen, and he pushed the door open only to be greeted by the sight of maids walking around, doing one thing or another.

He moved towards one of the maids, a slightly plump woman in a deep blue dress, who had her back turned to him, and gently tapped on her shoulder.

She turned around, and he felt the blood drain from his face.

It wasn’t some random woman.

It was her . Ava.

He swallowed.

“Greetings, My Laird.”

They both continued to stare at each other for the better half of a minute, one waiting for the other to start speaking.

Brodrick was unable to take his eyes off her no matter how hard he tried. Did she return? Had he imagined the entire thing in his head in the first place, and she had not even left?

“What is happening?” Ava asked gently, beginning to realize that three anxious-looking people were standing before her.

“We’re lookin’ for—” Darach began, but Brodrick held up a hand, shutting him up almost immediately.

“Looking for what?” Ava prompted, slight worry lacing her voice.

Brodrick leaped into action almost immediately. He moved closer to her, looking her right in the eyes. “Ava, I cannae stress how important this is, but did ye see anyone leavin’ the castle on yer way here?”

Ava’s eyes glazed over as if she was trying to remember. “I did see a young blond man in a carriage ride past me. I remember because his horse hit one of my boxes and he didn’t even wait to help me pick them up.”

Brodrick staggered backward.

Young. Blond.

“Laird MacMungo?” Flora asked, before Brodrick could even form the words. “What would he want with Margaret?”

“Margaret?” Ava echoed.

Brodrick could see it. Her ears were perked up, and her pupils dilated. She was starting to panic.

“What has happened to the child?”

“We think whoever ye saw?—”

“Laird MacMungo,” Flora interrupted.

“We dinnae ken that,” Brodrick fired back, then turned to Ava again. “We think whoever ye saw… took her.”

“ Took her?” Ava gasped.

Brodrick was no longer able to answer questions. Instead, he turned to Darach, a determined look on his face. “We’ll comb the path and see where the tracks lead to. Fetch the horses from the stables.”

Darach nodded and hurried out of the kitchen. Brodrick was about to follow him when Ava declared, “I’m coming with you.”

“Nay, ye’re nae,” he said without a second thought.

“I am. It’s Margaret we’re talking about here. I need to make sure she’s all right.”

“That is what I’m doin’. Ye dinnae need to come along.”

“Brodrick—”

“Ava, please!” His voice was curt and sharp, almost betraying the fear he had managed to hide since he heard the news.

He had managed to remain calm for the past hour. Now wasn’t the time to break.

Ava froze, taken aback by his outburst.

“Look, we dinnae ken where she is, and we dinnae ken what’s waitin’ for us out there. I willnae be able to focus if ye’re also in danger.”

Darach returned to announce that the horses were ready, and without a backward glance at Flora or Ava, Brodrick bolted out of the castle and towards the horses. Before he knew it, they were riding out of the courtyard and following the tracks in the dirt path.

He took the lead, and Darach followed closely behind, his eyes peeled for anything that looked out of the ordinary.

They moved with incredible swiftness, wading through leaves and gnarled branches. The tracks in the path grew fresher, and then Brodrick heard it—the distant neigh of a horse. He nudged his horse in the direction of the sound.

A well-hidden cabin came into view, along with a horse tied to a fence. Brodrick turned to Darach and, with a wave of his hand, directed him to the back of the cabin, signaling for him to secure the other way out. Then, he jumped down from his horse, his hand steady on the hilt of his sword, and advanced towards the cabin.

While he tried to move quietly, there was not much he could do but hope that whoever was in the cabin could not hear the sound of the leaves crunching under his boots.

He approached the entrance of the cabin and knocked gently. He waited for a response, but it didn’t come. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he knocked again.

Still, no response.

He stepped back, took a deep breath, sent up a prayer, and then kicked the door with the heel of his boot as hard as possible. He’d broken down so many doors that he was practically a master at it by now.

The door gave way, and he stormed inside, his eyes searching the empty space before him.

Then, he saw her. His daughter.

She was tied to a chair facing the wall, a thick rag stuffed in her mouth.

Good Lord.

He hurried towards her and pulled the rag out of her mouth. He watched her take a deep breath and cough almost at the same time. He began to undo the rope while she looked up at him, unable to say anything but one word.

“Faither.”

It had come out of her mouth earnestly, the word laced with pure relief. Brodrick faltered for a second before he resumed undoing her bonds.

It was the first time Margaret called him Faither .

He could see it in her eyes. She knew she was safe. She knew he would always protect her. And that he would always be there for her.

“Ye’re safe now, child,” he crooned, finally undoing the last of the rope.

As he lifted Margaret off the floor, a young man with blond hair stormed out of one of the rooms in the cabin, brandishing a sword.

Definitely not Laird MacMungo.

Brodrick reached for the hilt of his sword as the young man’s eyes settled on him, a tense feeling settling steadily into him.

The young man charged, his grip tight on his blade.

Before the man could reach Brodrick, Darach swooped in, running straight into him and knocking him off his feet.

“Kill him.” Brodrick’s order was clear and direct.

No one would ever try to take his daughter and live to tell the tale ever again.

He carried Margaret out of the cabin, refusing to expose her to the horror that was most definitely about to happen.

“Ye’re safe now child,” he kept repeating, heading straight to his horse, the word Faither echoing over and over in his ears, his mind, his body, his soul.