Chapter 14
Footsteps again.
This time, Megan was ready. The footsteps on the stairs and the door opening and closing had bothered her all day. She was sure that it wasn’t Ryder’s door that she was hearing, so it could only be Alaina’s.
Megan was still dressed, wearing a plain gown and a dark gray wool cloak, the kind that would help her fade into oblivion wherever she was.
She hadn’t really expected to hear the footsteps again.
After all, footsteps at night in a keep this extensive and heavily populated weren’t surprising.
There was something about these footsteps, though, that made her wary.
As soon as she heard the footsteps—carefully muffled as if somebody was trying their best to stay quiet—she snatched up her bow and arrow quiver, slinging both on her shoulder, and slipped out onto the stairs.
She hurried downward, not entirely sure what excuse she’d give if somebody stopped her and demanded to know what she was doing, sneaking around the Keep at such a late hour. It had to be well past midnight.
She reached Alaina’s landing and froze. Two guards were slumped there, snoring loudly.
One had fallen asleep while crouched on the stairs, leaning against the stone wall and using his pike to prop himself up.
The other sat on the landing, legs sprawled out comically.
Mugs sat between them, but even from where she stood, Megan could see that they contained milk and weak ale respectively, not wine or anything that could get the men drunk.
Even so, they were firmly asleep. Megan suspected she could give each of them a kick without waking them.
Swallowing back a rush of fear, Megan hurried down to Alaina’s room. She didn’t know what she expected to hear, but her mind whirred, her imagination producing the most horrific possibilities anybody could think of.
Her hand was inches away from the doorknob when she heard an unfamiliar voice.
“We have to go now; we’ll be late!”
“I’m ready, am I nae? Quit yer worryin’, lass.”
That was Alaina’s voice. Footsteps approached the door, and Megan was just able to leap back around the curve of the staircase before the door opened.
A girl whom she did not recognize came out first. She was dressed like a maid, one that Megan hadn’t met yet.
The girl was about fifteen or sixteen, with blonde hair trailing half-loose over her shoulders.
She wore the same sort of drab gray dress that most of the serving girls wore, but she had braided blue and red flowers into her fair hair in a careful, lopsided way.
Alaina stepped out of her room next. She wore a canary-yellow wool dress, carefully hidden under a bland earth-colored cloak. Her hair was left half-loose too, with similar flowers braided into it.
The maid held out her hand, and Alaina took it, the two of them hurrying away down the stairs.
Megan was forced to stay where she was. She couldn’t be seen, but she already knew, without thinking too hard about it, that she was going to follow them.
She tiptoed down the stairs after the two girls, stepping gingerly over the legs of the sleeping guards. Hadn’t there been three guards? Three was a good number. Three would keep each other awake. If they were attacked, the third guard could flee to warn others.
Maybe the third guard had gone to answer a call of nature. It didn’t really matter.
It briefly crossed Megan’s mind that she should warn Ryder. She could easily find a guard and tell him what was happening.
But if Alaina finds out, she’ll never trust me again. And in the time it takes me to find a guard, I might lose sight of them. I still daenae ken what they are tryin’ to do.
What if she is tryin’ to escape?
This was a chilling thought. Fleeing the safety of the Keep would be disastrous for Alaina. Even without the threat of her mysterious kidnappers, the world was a thoroughly dangerous place for a young girl, especially one as pretty and naive as Alaina.
And she is naive, Megan thought furiously. She thinks she understands how the world works. How can she, when she’s spent her life trapped behind Keep walls?
She was careful to stay well back. In the empty Keep, sounds echoed and traveled. When the two girls trotted through a cavernous hallway, Megan had to stay right back by the doorway. If she followed them now, a glance over their shoulders would give her away, to say nothing of her footsteps.
After a moment’s thought, Megan cursed quietly to herself and bent down to unlace her boots. The stone floor was icy cold and hard under her stockinged feet, and she did her best to ignore it. At least her steps were quieter.
She hurried through the hall as fast as she dared and skidded out of the room just in time to see the edges of the girls’ skirts disappearing down another corridor.
The next few minutes saw Megan get thoroughly lost. She had only explored the main parts of the Keep, but Alaina and her mysterious friend stuck to servants’ corridors and narrow, meandering hallways. More than once, Megan thought that she was lost in the maze-like halls.
Then, quite abruptly, the girls stopped before a narrow, iron-studded wooden door, set innocuously in the wall.
“It will still be unlocked when we get back, will it nae?” Alaina whispered.
“Oh, aye,” her friend assured her. “Susan is stayin’ back and keepin’ watch for us tonight. She was disappointed to miss it, but we’ll do the same for her when it’s our turn.”
“Aye, that’s fair.”
The maid opened the door, and a sliver of moonlight fell over the hallway floor. The courtyard must be directly outside. They slipped noiselessly through the door, leaving Megan alone.
They’re plannin’ to leave the Keep, she thought, swallowing hard. She briefly considered her options here—they were not overwhelming. Simply put, she had three choices.
One, she could go back to bed, pretend she had seen nothing, and pray that Alaina was in her bed in the morning. That wasn’t much of a choice at all.
The second choice was for her to go now and wake Ryder, then tell him what was going on. That would be a waste of time, because by the time they returned here, Alaina would be long gone.
Now, she really only had one choice, and it was not a good one.
I have to stop them.
Easing open the door, she peered out.
About four youths were waiting in the courtyard.
She didn’t recognize any of them, although a blond boy of about seventeen seemed vaguely familiar.
He was taller than most men Megan had seen at the Keep, and fairly strong-looking, too, even though he couldn’t have finished growing yet.
There was another, more petite boy, wearing the loose gray clothing of a servant, and he seemed a few years younger than the blond one.
A pair of girls huddled together, black-haired and pinch-faced, resembling each other enough to be sisters.
Megan estimated that they were fourteen and fifteen, respectively.
The youths seemed to be waiting for something.
They had horses, four of them—all saddled up and ready to go.
When Alaina and her friend scurried out of the shadows, the four youths brightened. The sisters hurried forward to meet them, talking in the high, hushed voices of girls trying and failing to be quiet.
“We thought ye weren’t comin’,” the blond boy spoke up when the girls stopped chattering. “Stephen was tryin’ to convince us to go without ye, but I said nay.”
The other boy, Stephen, huffed in annoyance. “I was only suggestin’. Daenae be mean, Hamish.”
“Aye, Hamish, daenae be mean,” Alaina’s friend said with a giggle. “Come on, we’d best get goin’.”
“I couldnae have come earlier,” Alaina explained. “It took the guards at me door ages to drop off. We’ll be back before dawn, will we nae?”
“Oh, aye,” Hamish assured her. “Right, Stephen, ye can take Mary on yer horse. Luce and Tina can have a horse each, and ye can ride with me, Alaina. This is me horse,” he added, visibly proud, and gestured to a large black stallion. Alaina’s face lit up.
“That sounds wonderful,” she whispered, then seemed to realize that it was too much of a reaction for a simple horse ride. Clearing her throat bashfully, she ducked her head, hiding her face behind a curtain of hair.
The youths began preparing to mount up. When the blond boy, Hamish, laced his fingers together for Alaina to climb up onto the horse’s back, she realized that something had to be done.
In another moment, they’d all be ready to ride straight out of the Keep.
She was willing to bet that if they’d gotten this far and prepared so well, they knew how to get beyond the walls.
There were doors and entrances everywhere, and even if the main Keep doors were firmly barred, surely there’d be some way for them to slip out.
Either way, she was running out of time to intervene.
Megan shouldered the door open and stumbled out into the courtyard, panicked.
“Wait!” she cried. “Stop! What are ye doin’?”
The youths flinched, spinning around, wide-eyed to face her.
The girl who’d come to fetch Alaina—Megan thought she was Mary—gave a terrified gasp.
“It’s the Laird’s betrothed! It’s Lady Megan!”
Panicked gasps echoed through the group. Stephen, who had already mounted his horse, started to wriggle his way down frantically.
Alaina came stumbling toward Megan, eyes wide.
“What are ye doin’ out here?” she breathed, dropping her voice. She glanced over her shoulder at the others, offering a weak smile. “Everythin’ is fine; she’ll nae tell tales. Will ye, Megan?”
“I daenae ken,” muttered one of the girls. They seemed to be backing away, probably planning on making a mad dash for safety.
Alaina whipped around to face Megan again, eyeing her balefully.
“Ye followed me,” she hissed. “Are ye spyin’ on me? Did Ryder put ye up to this?”