Chapter 11
“Have we made it?” Natalie asked, stepping down onto the stony shore. Above her the ship loomed, its mast lost in the fog. Wallace was climbing down the rope ladder, he stopped halfway down and looked about him.
She felt as if they were being watched. “Are we safe?”
“Hard to say,” he said. “In this fog, I can see little.” Jumping the rest of the way, he landed next to her. “Though I do not like it.”
“Me neither,” she replied, her hand slipping into his. A scream reached them from somewhere further inland. Wallace automatically took a step in front of Natalie, shielding her while the captain made his way down to join them. “Can we sail somewhere else?”
“Not until I fix the damage that rock caused,” the captain said, running his eye along the hull. “We are lucky the water is deep right up to the shore else we might have been halfway up the beach rather than standing here.”
“And where is here?” Wallace asked. “This is not the mainland.”
“You’re sure?” the captain asked. “What makes you so certain?”
The scream sounded again, this time accompanied by drums. “That,” Wallace said. “I ken that sound. That’s the Frazer war cry.”
At the same moment he spoke men emerged from the fog in front of them. They looked brutal, their faces covered with mud. All held wicked looking weapons. Natalie counted at least two dozen, all of them looking at her.
“I am Wallace MacGregor,” Wallace said, squeezing her hand lightly. “And I did not come here seeking trouble.”
“Trouble has found you nonetheless,” one of the men opposite said. “Take hold of them.”
Wallace tried to fend them off but there were too many. After he’d sent the first two flying with his fists, the others piled in as a group, grabbing hold of him, and pinning his arms behind his back.
More men grabbed hold of Natalie. She frantically looked around her for help that wasn’t coming. The captain was nowhere to be seen. Had he betrayed them?
One of the men came forward from the others, sneering at them from under a Roman nose. “Send a pigeon to the laird,” he said. “We have two uninvited guests on our island.”
A cheer went up and Natalie could only fight to free herself as she was dragged off the beach, Wallace close behind.
A hood was thrown over her head and then she could see nothing but darkness.
“Dinnae worry,” she heard Wallace whisper to her. “I will get us out of this.”
“I’d like to see that,” one of the men shouted. “With your limbs bound, your eyes covered, and a sharp knife to your throat. Just how are you planning to get yourself free?”
Wallace didn’t answer.
Natalie felt herself stumbling regularly. Unable to see, she had no warning of rocks or dips in the land and soon she was being carried instead of walked. The fight faded from her as she tired and still they went on.
She had no idea for how long but after an interminable time breathing in the musty bag that covered her face, she found she could move it by pushing her head back. It eased upward, sliding free after a final twist of her neck.
She caught a glimpse of the path they were following before the bag was back on. The fog was lifting, not that it mattered anymore.
They walked further until finally she was set on her feet and the bag was pulled from her head. She had time to see a wooden hut door as it was opened before she was shoved inside.
“Get comfortable,” a voice called in as Wallace was tossed through after her. “You’ll be there for some time.”
The door slammed shut and a heavy plank secured the other side. Wallace put his shoulder to it but it didn’t budge. He tried again, grunting with the effort. Dust fell from the ceiling but the door did not move.
He stepped back to try again but Natalie grabbed his arm. “Don’t bother. You’ll only hurt yourself.”
“We must get free.”
“I agree but breaking your shoulder is probably not the way to do it.”
He turned and looked at her, scratching his forehead. “You do not appreciate the danger we are in. The Frazers don’t let anyone on Thistle Island. If we’re lucky they’ll torture us before execution.”
“And if we’re unlucky?”
“They’ll just set fire to this hut with us inside.”
“Fantastic.” Natalie slumped down onto the floor, putting her head in her hands. “All I wanted was to find out a bit about the Middle Ages. I never asked for this.”
“This is my time,” Wallace replied, kneeling next to her and placing a hand on her knee. “Danger lurks around every corner. No one can be trusted. Especially not a highlander.”
“Are you saying I shouldn’t trust you?” she asked without looking up.
“I am not a Frazer or a MacCallister. I am a MacGregor. We are an honest clan.”
“Yeah, but you’d say that even if you were a liar.”
“I am no liar.”
She sighed. “It doesn’t matter. Listen, do me a favor and just don’t talk to me for awhile.”
She glanced up, seeing him moving away, his hands running around the edge of the door, trying to bend the wood. She left him to it, sinking into her thoughts.
How had it come to this? She had been writing a book about the MacGregors and idly dreaming about meeting them and this was how fate had chosen to fulfil her dream for her?
She was trapped in a wooden hut on an island miles from anywhere, centuries from her home. Not only that but she was developing feelings for a highlander. If that wasn’t the most ridiculous part in all this, she didn’t know what was.
She thought it must be the intensity of the situation, the fact they’d been stuck together for so long she was bound to develop some sense of connection with the man, even though there was definitely something he was hiding from her.
“What aren’t you telling me,” she said, causing him to pause from his attempts to break the door down.
“What?” he asked, barging into the door once again. “What are you talking about?”
“There’s something you’re not telling me about all this. What is it?”
He shook his head. “I have kept no secrets from you.”
“You have. I know you have. What is it? Is it about what the captain said?”
“I dinnae ken what you’re talking about.” He shoved the door again. In the distance drum beats began. “We are running out of time.”
“Then I want to know. What the captain said. About wooing me. Was he wrong? We can talk about it if you want to.”
“There is nothing to talk about.”
“So he was wrong, was he? When he said you had feelings for me?”
“Let’s get out of here first, then we’ll talk.”
He took a step back and then charged for the door with all his strength. Just as his shoulder was about to connect the door opened and he flew out, crashing headlong into the person on the other side.
He sprung to his feet a second later, grabbing hold of the figure and shoving them inside. “The dagger,” he said to Natalie, “Quick.”
“Wait,” the figure hissed. “I am here to help you.” A hood was pulled back to reveal a woman in her fifties, gray streaks running through her dark brown hair. “You must hurry if you are to get away.”
“Who are you?” Natalie asked, looking at the woman closely. “Why are you helping us?”
The woman grabbed her hands and squeezed them. “You are the one who can join the clans together, save us all from the darkness. You must not fail.”
She turned to Wallace. “Not all Frazers are allied with the darkness. Some seek the light. Come, I will take you to your ship but we must hurry. They are lighting your funeral pyre even as we speak.”
She put her hood back up, beckoning for them to follow. They struggled to keep up as she darted through long grass and between straggly brambles, passing down a steep hillside away from the sound of drums, the noise slowly fading away.
Natalie was soon out of breath, finding herself falling far behind the other two. At last Wallace stopped, turning back to look at her.
“Come on,” he said. “Hurry up if you value your life.”
“I can’t do it,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m dying here.”
“You will be if you stop,” he said, marching over to her and grabbing her around the waist, tossing her over his shoulder.
She was too shocked to say anything as he took off running. It was all she could do to hold on, her limbs flailing as he sprinted after the hooded woman.
He kept one hand around her hips, the other shoving branches aside as they made their way through a copse of trees and then out the other side.
The last of the fog was drifting out to sea. Before them was the shoreline, the captain climbing the rope onto his ship as the tide began to pull it out onto the water.
“About time,” he called out. “Another minute and I’ve have gone without you.” He frowned. “Scarlett, is that you?”
The woman pulled back her hood. “It’s been a long time Colin.”
“It’s Captain. The name’s Captain.”
“The name you were given was Colin. I always liked that name. Now you two get onboard and get going.”
“Thank you,” Natalie said, turning to face Scarlett. “For all your help.”
“Your turn to help us all,” she replied. “Wallace, the barefoot man must not get the key if we are to stand a chance. You must unlock the door in the rock. Through it you will find the thing you need most in the world. God be with you both.”
They climbed the rope ladder, leaving her on the shoreline. She waved up at them. “The beacons say the ships hunt you to the north. Circle south before you reach the mainland. As for you, Colin. If you survive, come visit sometime.”
“Maybe I will,” the captain called back to her. “Farewell.” He waved as the wind caught and they began to move further out onto the water.
Natalie walked to the stern of the ship, looking out at the water, seeing the pursuing army on the horizon. Had they been spotted? She hoped not.
She turned away, refusing to look. She had not had a single moment to catch her breath since she arrived here. She had made a mistake coming here. It was a mistake to wish to see the past. The present was dull but at least it was safe.
Wallace had disappeared inside. The captain was at the helm and she joined him.
“Was that your love?” she asked.
“It is a tale I will tell someday if we make it through all this,” he replied. “For now, you should be thinking of your own tale. How is that going to end?”
“I’m going to go home,” she replied. “If I can ever get there.”
“Is he going to go with you?” He nodded toward the cabin.
She shook her head. “I don’t know what he wants.”
The captain lowered his voice. “I’m going to share something with you that I want you to keep to yourself.”
“I already know your name’s Colin.”
“Not that. How much do you know about the MacGregor curse?”
She shrugged. “Not much.”
“Jock MacGregor was held in chains in the MacCallister dungeon by a curse so strong it could never be broken. Until Wallace came along. He freed his father but enslaved himself.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Aye. He was bound in those chains until he could find someone to take his place. Then you appear and what does that tell you about why he’s shut himself away in the cabin?”
“What are you telling me?”
“That you might want to watch him carefully around dungeons lest you find yourself bound in accursed chains with no way of escaping them.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I’ve spent a spell or two in MacCallister Castle. They talk so loudly there I’m surprised the mountaintops don’t hear the tales. Everyone knew about the curse and that they had a MacGregor in their dungeon.”
“Are you saying I shouldn’t trust him?”
“I’m saying you must decide who he is and who you are like I had to decide who I was.
Colin Peabody the bean farmer or captain of my own ship.
Don’t let his words fool you. It is only what he feels in his heart that has kept you safe up to now.
The lairds of the highlands are cruel and cold and yet here you are, keeping company with one as content as anything. You happy?”
“I wouldn’t say I was happy.”
“Nor is he.”
The cabin door opened and Wallace emerged. If he’d been listening to their conversation, he made no reference to it when he spoke.
“I ken what we must do,” he said. “I have made my decision.”