Chapter 17
Ailis ran with no thought for her safety or where she was going. She flew through the courtyard like a madwoman, skirts billowing behind her, but there was no one to witness the scene at such a late hour.
No one stopped her as she careened through the gate, the guards above too busy discussing the upcoming festivities to notice that the bride had fled.
She found the steps in the hill that Killian had led her down and descended as fast as her trembling legs would carry her, not sparing a thought for how dangerous it was in the dark. She could easily have fallen and broken her neck, but at that moment, she didn’t care about such things.
Running on, more than she had ever run before, she crashed through shadowed woodland, disturbing the night creatures that were just beginning their day.
A fox darted across her path, but she barely stopped at the sight of it. An owl hooted a warning that she ignored, a hedgehog balled itself into spiny defenses as she narrowly avoided kicking it, and a badger snuffled for its breakfast, unbothered by the sight of a frantic woman.
By moonlight, Ailis found the edge of the cliff. The same spot where she had thought Killian was going to push her.
I cannae do this. I cannae have all this weight on me shoulders. I daenae ken how to carry it.
She bent at the waist, gulping in the air.
The night was cold, her breath pluming, but her body was fever hot. Whether as a consequence of the run or her mounting fear of what was to come, she didn’t know, but she burned as if she had taken ill.
Sweat slicked her brow, beads of it trickling down the sides of her face and down the back of her neck. And the beautiful gown clung to her uncomfortably, sticking in all the wrong places.
The sea…
Through blurry eyes, she peered down at the winking expanse, somehow inviting beneath the silvery moonlight.
She remembered the bone-deep cold of the water during her lesson with Killian and how it had chased away all other thoughts.
That was exactly what she needed, to shock herself into a sense of calm, however temporary.
With a shaky breath, she wrapped her skirts around her thighs and tied them until they resembled a pair of short trews, and headed down to the cove.
And when she reached the bottom, she kicked off her shoes, peeled away her stockings, and strode across the cold sand to the water. The initial shock of it was a lightning bolt through her entire body.
As she waded in deeper, determined to be entirely numb, she felt her mind being blissfully disconnected from everything else, blown out like a candle until there was only the cold and the dark to think about.
“What do ye mean, she’s nae in her chambers?” Killian set down his spoon, his appetite vanishing.
The maid bowed her head, fidgeting. “She… said she needed a moment, me Laird, but she didnae come back.” She cleared her throat. “Paisley is out lookin’ for her, and she’s enlisted some of the guards, but nay one can find her yet.”
Killian sat back in his chair and took a moment to gather himself before he lost his temper. Indeed, he just needed to think for a second before he began to worry.
“If nay one has seen her, then she must be in the castle somewhere,” he said evenly. “Has anyone checked the dungeons?”
The maid shrugged. “I daenae ken, me Laird. Paisley just told me to come and tell ye that yer bride is missin’.”
Unease coiled in Killian’s empty stomach. If Paisley was the one who had insisted on him being alerted to Ailis’s absence, then that was rather serious. The healer wouldn’t disturb him for nothing.
“Thank ye for tellin’ me.”
He pushed back his chair and took off, uncertain of how much time had passed between Ailis ‘needing a moment’ and being told that she was missing.
He went to the barracks first, waking everyone with his booming roar.
As the startled soldiers rubbed their eyes and reached for their weapons, no doubt thinking that another battle was afoot, Killian instructed them to search the castle high and low for his missing bride.
Although he didn’t use such affectionate words; they wouldn’t search as well if he had.
“Find the captive,” he commanded. “I want her in me study before dawn. There’ll be a reward for the man who finds her.”
At that, the soldiers jumped up and dressed quickly, eager to win their new Laird’s favor.
Meanwhile, Killian ran to the stables, put a halter and a fleece on his stallion, and rode out bareback. There was no time for saddling the beast if Ailis was out there in the dark, where Ainsley’s men might still be lurking in the trees, keeping watch on the castle.
I willnae lose her to ye. Ye cannae have what’s mine.
At the gates, he brought Beithir to a halt and shouted up to the towers that flanked the portcullis, “Have ye seen the lass?”
The guards looked down, sheepish looks on their faces.
“McBain thinks he saw someone,” one answered. “Nae more than an hour ago.”
Anger spiked in Killian’s chest. “Ye saw someone leave and ye didnae think to stop ‘em or ask what they were doin’?”
“Apologies, me Laird,” the guard said.
“Aye, well, ye’ll need more than an apology after this, if I find that she’s out there,” Killian snarled. “I want ye to search everywhere. If she’s nae found, it’ll be yer heads.”
He clicked his tongue and tore through the gates, cursing the guards for their laziness.
If it had been the other way around and an Ainsley soldier had sneaked through the gates, it could have cost lives.
There would be severe punishment; they could count on that. But first, he needed to find his bride.
If it were her who came through the gates, where would she go?
He thought of the river and the platform that took people back and forth. Surely, she wouldn’t be able to pull it by herself if she had decided to return to Castle Ainsley.
Instead of heading directly for that crossing point, something made Killian turn toward the coast and the cliffs.
He had to be thorough. If he got it wrong, he knew he might lose her in a thousand possible ways. Yes, the crossing seemed like the most likely place he would find her, but what if she had gone into the woods to see if Murdock was still there?
What if she had gone to seek news of her niece? What if she had gone to offer herself as a sacrificial lamb, after coming to realize that the wedding might not lead to even a shred of peace after all?
She wouldnae do that without speakin’ to me first, would she?
He had so many plans running at once, and if she went back to her family home, they would all fall apart. Surely, she would do him the courtesy of letting him know that it was all for nothing?
He rode through the woodland at a slow pace, his keen eyes squinting into the gloom to see if there were any clues.
If only the creatures and the trees could talk, then his search would be far simpler. But the oaks and alders and rowans, and the badgers and hedgehogs and owls, held onto their secrets as they watched him pass by.
However, when moonlight pooled over a footprint around the size of a woman’s foot, and fresh too, his heart lurched. He was on the right track. She had come through this way.
There were more footprints ahead, cutting a clumsy line through the forest, straight toward the cliffs.
Killian squeezed his thighs and urged Beithir into a faster lope, man and horse arriving at that lip of jagged rock a few minutes later.
With his hand to his brow, as if that might help him see better, he surveyed the landscape, wishing that the moon would come out from behind the clouds again.
It would rain soon, he could smell it in the air, and he hoped to find her before it began to pour. Trying to locate someone in the dark was bad enough, but with the blur of a deluge, it would be doubly difficult.
That was when he saw her.
A splash alerted him to a figure in the water, almost at the invisible border where the cove met the open sea. Fabric floated around her like seaweed, her arms thrashing, fighting against the current that grew stronger at the mouth of the cove.
He knew of that dangerous undertow, but she wouldn’t. She hadn’t reached that far during their lesson, and he hadn’t thought to warn her.
Heart thundering so hard that he could feel it in his skull, Killian jumped down from his horse and ran for the cliff steps.
He bounded down them faster than he ever had before, and hared across the beach while pulling off his shirt and unbuckling his belt, for he wanted nothing to hinder him in the swim to save her life.
He paused on the shoreline for half a second to wrench off his boots, then ran straight into the bitterly cold water, the night temperature so intense that it felt like fire licking his flesh, burning him.
He didn’t care, wading in up to his waist before he dove beneath the surface and swam with everything he had.
The current tried to fight him too as his hands cut cleanly through the surface, his legs kicking fiercely, but the tides were no match for his determination.
With all the fear coursing through his veins, doubling his strength, he did not doubt that he could have swum all the way to Denmark if he had wanted to.
Up ahead, Ailis had just disappeared beneath the water. With each couple of strokes, her pale face popped up again like a beacon, before she was dragged under once more.
I’m here, lass. Just keep yer head up a moment longer.
But he knew she would start to tire. There was nothing more dangerous than being trapped in treacherous waters. Even the strongest of swimmers, when they began to tire, could meet a watery death.
With one final effort, his fingertips straining toward her, he touched the floating skirt of her dress. He grabbed it and pulled her to him, reeling her in like a selkie in a net, though the tug made her thrash harder, her gasping breaths making his heart ache.
Clearly, she didn’t realize that help had arrived.
“It’s me, lass,” he crooned, wading through the water as he managed to grab an arm. “It’s me.”
Ailis ceased flailing and flapping, her terrified eyes glinting in the gloom as she turned her gaze to him. “Killian…” she managed to rasp as a wavelet slapped the back of her head.
“Aye, I’m here,” he told her, pulling her all the way in. “I’m goin’ to get ye to shore, but I need ye to cling to me back. Can ye do that?”
She nodded, spluttering, her arms eagerly looping around his neck.
Not yet allowing himself to feel relief, Killian turned around. Following his instruction, Ailis wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms squeezing his throat a little too tight, but he could handle that as long as she was safe.
With his bride secured, Killian began to swim, just as the heavens opened. The water began to dance with the heavy patter of rainfall, churning up the somewhat peaceful cove, as if the sea itself was none too pleased that he had stolen away a sacrifice.
She’s mine, he vowed as he powered through the current. And nay one will have her but me.