Chapter Ten
Elise fumed all the way back to the keep.
She’d been so sure she was onto something, so sure she had finally, finally, made a breakthrough.
But no. Mr. I-Know-Everything hadn’t responded the way she’d expected and had forbidden her from looking into it any further.
Forbidden! As if he had the right to tell her what to do!
She stomped up the track that led up from the beach, splashing through puddles left by the recent rains without really noticing, and ran through what she’d learned.
Jamie already knew the pattern of the attacks.
He’d already scoured the island, searching for the pirate base and found nothing.
Was he right and the pirates weren’t here after all? Had she gotten it wrong?
It was possible, of course, and she would normally have accepted Jamie’s explanation. But her MacFinnan instincts were still screaming at her. Something had been nagging at her ever since she’d arrived here. Perhaps this was it.
By the time she reached the gates and stepped through into the courtyard of Dun Arach she was so lost in thought that she almost walked straight into the horse that was being led from the stable by Bryn and Martin.
“Lady Elise!” Bryn called sharply, startling her out of her thoughts and making her look up just in time to avoid walking straight into the horse’s rump.
“What? Oh, sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
Bryn and Martin shared a look. “Um. Are ye all right?”
The two stable lads were dressed for riding, and she guessed they were taking the white horse out to put it through its paces.
As she looked at them, an idea began to form in her head and a smile crept across her face.
Jamie had forbidden her to go out alone, hadn’t he?
He hadn’t forbidden her to go out at all.
She walked over and clapped her hands to Bryn and Martin’s shoulders. “Right, lads. How do you fancy going for a little ride?”
*
Jamie paused in the doorway to the main keep and took a deep breath. The smell of roasted meat and thick gravy met his nostrils, setting his stomach growling. It seemed an age since he’d eaten breakfast and he’d been working down in the boatyard all morning. Such labor worked up quite the appetite.
He pushed through the door into the great hall eagerly—and not just at the prospect of food.
Elise would be here and he sorely needed to talk to her.
Their argument earlier had been playing on his mind, and he desperately wanted to smooth things out between them.
He needed to…what? Not apologize, exactly.
After all, he’d been right not to allow her to go riding off on her own, but perhaps he’d not handled it as well as he might have.
He knew he could be gruff and impatient at times, especially when feeling high emotion, and Elise MacFinnan definitely provoked emotion in him.
He hated that things were tense between them.
The discomfort itched between his shoulder blades like a wasp sting.
So, if he needed to tell her he was sorry in order to make things right, he could swallow his pride and do that, couldn’t he?
So, as he stepped into the great hall—finding it busy as it always was for the midday meal—his eyes swept the room, searching for one dark-haired figure in particular.
But there was no sign of her. Over on the far side of the room, a messy pile of ledgers and rolled documents were scattered across a table, but there was no sign of the woman herself.
He frowned. Where was she?
“My laird?” Andrea said, coming to his side. “Will ye not be seated? We’ll be serving the meal shortly.”
Jamie turned to his housekeeper. “Where is Elise? I was told she was studying in here.”
Andrea nodded. “Aye. She was. Phillip brought a whole load of documents for her.” She nodded to the pile on the far table. “But that was a while ago.”
“So where is she now?”
“She’s gone out riding. Went with Martin and Bryn to exercise that new filly they’ve been training.”
“She’s done what?” he exploded. People glanced in his direction at his sudden outburst, but Jamie didn’t care. “She’s gone riding?”
Andrea blinked, looking a little flustered. “Aye. Is something wrong, my laird?”
“Aye, there is something bloody-well wrong!” he growled.
Pausing only to grab his claymore from its rack by the wall, he strode from the great hall.
What had the idiotic woman gone and done now?
Ignored his direct command is what she’d gone and done!
So she’d gone with Martyn and Bryn to help train a horse, had she?
Was he really expected to believe that? She’d gone looking for this pirate base—after he expressly forbade her from doing so—and had somehow roped Martin and Bryn into her schemes!
As he took the steps down into the courtyard and stomped his way across to the stables, people scurried out of his path, obviously sensing the dark mood he was in.
Fury pounded through his veins, and he could tell from the ache in his forehead that he was scowling like a thundercloud.
So be it. He was not used to being disobeyed, and he didn’t like it one little bit.
But, he had to admit, as he flung the door of the stable open and strode inside, it wasn’t just anger that sizzled through his veins. It was fear. Fear of what might happen should Elise find what she was looking for.
If anything happened to her…
Hurrying over to Tempest’s stall, he led the old roan stallion out of the stable and into the courtyard.
Urgency boiled through his veins, so he didn’t bother with a saddle, instead vaulting onto Tempest’s back and guiding him with his knees.
The two of them had known each other so long now that nothing else was necessary.
He paused at the gates only long enough to question the guards about which direction Elise and her companions had taken. Then he sent Tempest into a gallop in the same direction, lying low over the horse’s neck and clinging onto his mane, clods of mud flying from beneath the horse’s big hooves.
It wasn’t difficult to follow Elise and her companions.
He found their tracks easily enough—three sets of hoofprints in the mud.
They seemed to be taking the main coastal road and making no effort at stealth or speed.
In fact, even with their head start, it took only half an hour of hard riding before he spotted them in the distance.
They had halted at the top of a rise which fell away sharply into a cliff with a shingle beach below.
Here the road ran dangerously close to the edge.
Elise had dismounted and was standing perilously close to that edge, peering down.
A voice came to him on the breeze, Martin’s voice he thought, perhaps warning her of the danger of getting too close.
Elise, of course, took no notice, but continued to gaze down at the drop below.
After a few moments, she gave it up and walked back to the others.
She was just about to remount her horse when she spotted him in the distance.
Her head came up and her shoulders squared as though preparing for a fight.
Seeing the direction of her gaze, Martin and Bryn pulled their horses around and their eyes widened as they spotted him. Jamie thundered up to the three of them, pulling Tempest to a skidding halt.
“What, by all that’s holy, do ye think ye are doing?” he yelled.
Startled, Bryn and Martin glanced at each other. Their mouths worked but no words came out.
“I…um…we…” Bryn managed after a moment.
“Don’t yell at them!” Elise snapped. She moved to stand in front of the two stable hands and glared up at Jamie. “They came because I asked them to. If you have a problem with that, you can talk to me about it!”
She was bristling like a wildcat. Her shoulders were tensed, her hands clenched into fists, and her eyes flashing.
To Jamie, she’d never looked more beautiful.
She fairly crackled with strength, but not because of her spellweaving powers.
No, this strength was all Elise, the power of a strong, fearless woman defending those who needed defending.
He felt his anger begin to falter, and now all he wanted to do was jump off his horse and pull her into his arms. Instead, he met her furious glare and snapped, “I told ye not to leave the castle.”
“No, you didn’t. You told me not to go out alone.” She waved her hands at Bryn and Martin. “Does it look like I’m alone?”
He growled low in his throat. “Word games. Ye know exactly what I meant. Ye promised that ye would do as I bid and then did exactly the opposite!”
“Well, I wouldn’t have needed to if you actually listened to me!”
“Listened to ye? And let ye go riding out alone on the strength of what? Some…feeling? When there are pirates who would put an arrow in ye if they saw ye? Talk sense, woman! It’s my duty to protect ye!”
“And it’s my duty to save this island! How can I do that from behind the walls of a god-damned castle?”
He opened his mouth for another angry rejoinder, but then snapped his mouth closed. She had a point. He’d been so consumed by his duty that he’d given very little thought to hers. He sighed, letting his shoulders sag and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.
“Fine. We can discuss this back at Dun Arach. Let’s go.” He began to turn his horse but stopped when he realized that Elise hadn’t moved a muscle.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not going anywhere.” She had a stubborn look on her face. Her chin was tilted at an angle that clearly said she wasn’t going to budge an inch.