CHAPTER 13
“What do you mean, she’s gone?”
Ned grimly handed him a damp, rumpled square of paper. Filled with dread, Alex forced himself to take it.
MacDunn,
I shall always be grateful to you for pulling me from the fire and bringing me to your home.
For one brief moment, I almost belonged somewhere.
Gwendolyn
Fear clenched his chest, making it difficult to breathe.
He turned from his training warriors and raced into the castle, taking the stairs three at a time in his haste to reach Gwendolyn’s chamber.
The door flew open with a thundering crash as he entered, absolutely determined that he would find her obediently resting in her bed.
The chamber was empty, the bed untouched, except for a few feathers that were clinging to the plaid. Frowning, Alex went over and studied the pillow. More feathers were protruding from a small slash in the center of the cushion.
“Where did you find this note?” he demanded as Ned, Cameron, and Brodick entered the room.
“She must have given it to me,” replied Ned. “Last night.”
“What do you mean, ‘must have’?” asked Cameron, quickly scanning the note with Brodick. “Can you not remember?”
Ned shook his head in frustration. “Late last night I saw her emerge from this chamber dressed in a dark cloak. She told me that she needed a special herb she had seen in the courtyard, to use in an elixir she was making to ease Clarinda’s pain.
I asked her if it couldn’t wait until morning, and she said this particular herb must be gathered at night, or else it lost its healing powers.
And so I agreed to go with her. She searched the grounds in vain, then told me there was a place where the herb grew in abundance just beyond the castle walls.
I told her it wasn’t safe to leave the courtyard, but she pleaded with me, saying Clarinda had suffered greatly while birthing her bairn and that if I were Cameron I’d not be so heartless as to deny her request. And then she added that with the storm raging so hard, Robert and his warriors were likely halfway back to MacSween lands.
Finally I relented, and ordered Garrick to let us pass through the gate.
” Remorse shadowed his face. “I know it was wrong, Alex.”
“Go on,” Alex said tersely, uninterested in the issue of blame.
“Once we were beyond the walls, Gwendolyn withdrew a skin of wine from her cloak and asked me if I would like a drop, to keep me warm. I swear I took no more than a swallow or two, but it must have been drugged, for soon I could barely keep my eyes open. She suggested I sit beneath a tree and rest while she collected the herb.” He gave a helpless shrug.
“The next thing I knew, I woke up with the sun shining in my face, and Gwendolyn was nowhere to be found. She must have placed the note in my shirt when I was asleep.”
Pain webbed through Alex’s head, making him feel dizzy and unfocused. Gone. She was gone. But where? And why? He rubbed his temple as he scanned the letter again, searching for some clue, some explanation as to why she would suddenly leave in the middle of a storm.
For one brief moment, I almost belonged somewhere.
Is that what she thought? he wondered helplessly.
His son adored her, Clarinda would have no other by her as she birthed her child, and although his clan had often tried to drive her away, ultimately they had been prepared to fight to the death for her against Robert.
How could there be any question as to whether she belonged here?
“Clarinda will be devastated when she learns Gwendolyn is gone,” reflected Cameron. “She has come to feel like a sister to her.”
And David would be heartbroken, Alex realized dully.
Which of course Gwendolyn must have known.
He thought of her emerging from David’s chamber the previous night, her gray eyes shimmering with despondence.
At the time he had attributed her melancholy to weariness, coupled with the rawness of emotion a woman might experience after helping to bring a new life into the world.
He was a fool, he realized. The despair in Gwendolyn’s expression was one he should have recognized instantly, for he had seen it often enough as Flora lay dying.
It was the tormented look of a woman who must leave those she loved behind.
That was why she was so adamant that he promise to speak to Elspeth about her methods with birthing mothers.
Gwendolyn had known she would not be here to help them herself.
He closed his eyes, damning himself for his blindness as he recalled her exquisite touch skimming along the contour of his jaw.
She had been saying good-bye to him, and he had been too consumed with lust to recognize it.
“ ’Tis strange that she would choose to leave in the middle of a storm,” Brodick said, frowning. “I mean, why couldn’t she have waited a day or two, until it was over?”
“Gwendolyn conjured up that storm to keep Robert from burning the cottages,” Ned pointed out. “I don’t suppose it bothered her much, since it was her spell that made it.”
“Odd, though, that Robert hasn’t paid us a visit now that the storm is over,” Brodick reflected. “Do you suppose he really has gone home?”
A sickening realization began to swirl through Alex.
“By what I’ve seen of him, I’d not think Robert is the type to give up so easily,” Cameron observed. “Surely the lass must have realized he and his men might well be camped somewhere in the woods. Was she not afraid of getting caught?”
“She wanted to be caught,” Alex said, his voice hollow. “That’s why she left.”
“That makes no sense, Alex,” protested Brodick. “She knows Robert will burn her, and she knew she was safe here. Why on earth would she want to be caught?”
Alex stared vacantly at the note. I almost belonged somewhere.
Moments before Robert arrived, she had told him of what her life had been, living completely ostracized by everyone.
Yet when Robert attacked, the MacDunns had not turned her over as she had feared they might, but instead had fought to defend her.
It seemed Gwendolyn could not accept the MacDunns risking their lives for her.
That was why she had climbed onto the parapet and challenged Robert to shoot her, hoping to bring an end to the battle.
And that was why she was offering him her life now.
She was trying to protect Alex’s people.
“Look at this,” said Brodick, fishing a scrap of paper from the hearth.
The note was badly burned, but the dampness of the ashes had extinguished the flames before the paper was completely consumed by them. Holding it gingerly between his fingers, Alex read:
mad fool’s head has been hacked from his body and placed in the hands of his precious son.
Their fate lies within your power.
Robert
“Christ,” he swore, his fear suddenly shadowed by the magnitude of his rage.
“Robert threatened her with killing me, to force her to go to him.” He crushed the paper within his shaking fist and hurled it into the hearth.
“Divide the men into two forces. Half will remain here to defend the castle. The others will ride with me.”
Cameron stroked his beard as he stared at the scorched ball lying in the ashes. “How do you suppose he got a note into her chamber?”
“That’s a good question,” snapped Alex, striding out of the room, “and I damn well intend to find out.”
“Gone?” repeated Owen blankly. “Gone where?”
“She can’t be gone,” Lachlan said, looking genuinely crestfallen. “I’ve made a special wine for her.”
Alex shoved his dirk into his belt. “You will have to save it, Lachlan, for when I bring her home.”
“But why would the lass want to leave us?” Owen asked. “I thought we were all getting along splendidly.”
“I found a note from Robert in her chamber saying if she didn’t surrender to him, Robert would kill me,” Alex explained.
Reginald grabbed for his sword and roared, “By all the saints, I’ll mince the swine so fine, the frogs will have to lick him off the ground!”
“You mean my uncle was in this castle?” asked Isabella, her face paling.
There was a moment of stunned silence.
Farquhar belched and gazed blearily about the great hall. “I don’t recall seeing Robert skulking about.” He sighed and buried his face back into his cup.
“If one of those bloody MacSweens got in here, it wasn’t through the gate,” Garrick assured Alex. “Me and Quentin kept a careful watch, and the only people who went through last night were Ned and Gwendolyn.”
“What about during the day?” Brodick asked. “We had the gate open while we inspected the outer wall.”
“Well, now, that’s true enough,” agreed Garrick. “But you can’t expect me to recall everyone who passed through during the day—especially since many of you had your heads covered to protect you from the rain.”
“I don’t, Garrick,” Alex assured him. “What I want to know is, did any of you notice someone entering or leaving Gwendolyn’s chamber yesterday?
” He scrutinized the faces assembled before him, searching for a flicker of reaction.
His gaze fell hard upon Elspeth, knowing she had every reason to want Gwendolyn gone.
But her expression remained utterly flat, betraying no hint of either guilt or intrigue.
“Alice?” he prompted, suddenly detecting a shadow of uncertainty cross the cook’s face.
Alice regarded him nervously.
“Did you see someone in Gwendolyn’s chamber?”
“I was taking her a tray,” Alice said, wringing her apron with her hands. “I knew the lass had been helping Clarinda birth her bairn for most of the day. I thought she might need a wee bite to eat.”
“That was very thoughtful of you,” commented Alex. “And so you went into her chamber?”
She shook her head.
“You left the tray outside the door?”
She shook her head again.
“Then what did you do with the tray?” demanded Alex, struggling for patience.