Chapter Nine
“Where is the wretched child?”
Annys bit back a smile as she heard the annoyance in Joan’s voice. Her son had a true skill for arousing that emotion in Joan. Joan’s children were quiet, well-behaved little boys, unless they played with Benet. She looked up from her sewing to smile at Joan.
“Has my son led your lads astray again?” she asked.
“Nay yet. He was meeting with them to play ball but they have been waiting for near to an hour they said and he hadnae come.”
A closer look at Joan revealed that worry was behind her annoyance and Annys felt an icy chill flow down her back. “Mayhap Benet got distracted doing something with whichever mon was charged with watching him today.”
“Nay. That was Sir Gybbon. He thought the boy was with mine. Said the lad needed to go to the garderobe first and then said he was meeting my lads right here in the bailey. Weel, my lads finally came to get me because they couldnae find him.”
Annys tossed her sewing aside, leapt to her feet, and started out of the solar. “Then we must find Sir Gybbon now.”
“He waits in the bailey with my lads,” said Joan as she hurried after Annys. “Ye cannae think something has happened to the wee lad. Everyone was watching o’er him. He hasnae gone a step in any direction for a sennight without someone kenning exactly where he is.”
“It appears that this time he may have eluded that constant watch.”
Annys told herself to control the fear welling up inside of her. A clear head was needed now. One could not plan if one’s head and heart were both lost in the fog of fear. But terror was gnawing at her and it was difficult to fight.
She saw Sir Gybbon pacing in front of Joan’s sons.
The young man looked both upset and angry.
A part of her wanted to yell at him but she silenced it.
He had done as he had been told. This was not his fault.
She was certain of it. He had simply allowed Benet to go to the garderobe.
Somehow the boy had been snatched or led away from there.
“M’lady, I dinnae ken . . .” Sir Gybbon began, his blue eyes dark with guilt.
“Nay, dinnae apologize,” she said and patted his arm.
“There is no need. No one said ye should follow the lad right into the garderobe. He was also inside the crowded keep. Nay a place we thought extra eyes needed to be.” She turned to Joan.
“What we need now is for everyone to search the keep,” she told her, and Joan quickly began to order people inside to hunt for Benet.
“Do ye think he is hiding in there?” asked Sir Gybbon.
“I hope he is. I hope he is just being a naughty boy and thinking he is doing something funny by hiding on us.” She lowered her voice so that no one else could hear her but Gybbon. “My fear is that the one who poisoned my husband has betrayed us again.”
“Och, nay.” He dragged his hands through his thick black hair. “Mayhaps watched closely for those few times when the lad was alone.” He grimaced. “Such as when he had to visit the garderobe. But, how would he get the lad away from here with none of us seeing anything?”
“Every keep has a bolt-hole, Sir Gybbon. Recall I mentioned one when we took your prisoner to his cell. ’Tis nay a secret for all it can be locked from inside the ledger room.
David felt it unfair for only a few chosen ones to ken how to escape an attack so most all here ken where it is.
Joan and Dunnie both ken where the extra keys are hidden.
I suspect David told Nicolas as weel, giving him one to hide.
There is another bolt-hole just for the laird and his closest kin or guards, but, if someone took Benet, it wouldnae be so verra hard to get him outside the walls through that bolt-hole if they uncovered it as it is nay locked.
I can only pray that didnae happen for it would mean that they could have already gotten him far away from us. ”
Sir Gybbon gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
Annys knew it was intended to reassure her.
It did not, but it did stop her from racing into the keep yelling Benet’s name.
Someone needed to stay in one place so the searchers could quickly report to her whatever they might find.
She soothed her need to join the search by reminding herself that Joan, and several of the younger girls, knew every one of Benet’s hiding places.
There was no need for her to direct the search.
One by one her people came out to say that they had found no sign of her son.
Each report was a blow to the heart. Annys forced herself to thank the person reporting, say something comforting, and then calmly wait for the next person to report.
Joan was the last one to walk up to her and it took every scrap of strength Annys possessed not to fall to the ground and weep at the look upon the woman’s face. Joan had not found her child either.
“He isnae in there, Annys,” Joan said, her voice thick with tears.
When Joan moved to embrace her, Annys held out her hand to stop her advance. “Nay, I will break. I will fall to the ground and be of no use to anyone.” She looked at Sir Gybbon. “Where are Sir Harcourt and the others?”
“They went to ride the boundaries, to talk to people, see what may or may nay be happening,” he answered. “Been some reports of cattle and sheep being stolen. At least one place found where someone was certain one of the stolen animals had been butchered.”
Annys clenched her hands in her hair, barely stopping herself from tearing at it like some madwoman. “The bastard has ceased playing with us.”
“Thought that myself when the village was fired,” said Sir Gybbon. “That was so quickly stopped, the damage so slight and quickly mended that I decided I must be wrong. I now wonder if what drew the others away was naught but part of a plan to grab the wee lad. Fewer people watching the lad today.”
“Of course. I would ne’er have thought Sir Adam capable of devising such a clever plan, an almost intricate one, but he may have one or two men with him who are more sharp-witted.”
“True.” Sir Gybbon signaled to Gavin, drawing the tall, thin youth to his side. “Ye need to hie yourself to Sir Harcourt and tell him someone has taken the boy. Fast as ye can, lad. Go now.” He looked at Annys. “Where does that bolt-hole come out?”
Silently thanking the man for giving her something to do, Annys took him to where the tunnel beneath the walls of Glencullaich came out.
He carefully studied the ground and Annys found herself doing the same.
It looked very much as if someone had dragged something, or someone, along until he reached a place just beyond the tree line where two horses had waited.
Footprints clearly marked that person’s return to the bolt-hole.
Someone she did not ken about had a key.
Someone had handed her child over to the enemy, someone from within the keep itself.
Annys felt a stinging in her palms. She slowly opened her clenched hands and winced at the marks her nails had left in her palms. Several of them seeped blood. She needed to rein in her fear and anger. Neither would help her find Benet.
“I would like to go into the bolt-hole from the other end now, m’lady,” said Sir Gybbon.
“Do ye think ye will find anything to help us?” she asked as she led him back to the keep.
“Cannae tell until I have a look.”
“Then look, please. We need to find the traitor within these walls.”
Although she could only hear the tone of his words as he answered since he was already dropping down into the tunnel, she knew it was an agreement.
It had just been a particularly profane one.
Annys wished he had not hidden his words.
She would like to use a few curses, she decided as she followed him into the tunnel.
Soon she held the torch so that he could better study the ground as they walked along.
Sir Gybbon retrieved the torch when they reached the end and Annys climbed out first. He was just climbing out of the bolt-hole when the sound of swift horses reached her ears. Annys spun around and saw Harcourt and his men returning with a gratifying speed.
She knew exactly when Harcourt saw her and Gybbon for he and his men turned their mounts to ride toward them.
Her heart pounded with hope and she realized she was expecting him to fix this.
Annys cursed that weakness, sternly reminding herself that he would not be staying with her and she could not start to depend on him so much.
This time, however, she would take whatever help he could give, do whatever he asked of her, if he just brought their child back home safely.
“What has happened?” Harcourt asked as he reined in, swiftly dismounted, and went to Annys.
“I begin to think we need that question engraved on the coat of arms,” she said in a shaking voice. “Benet is missing,” she replied and felt every word as a stab straight to the heart.
He pulled her into his arms and Annys did not resist. She wrapped her arms around his waist and held on tight, trying to draw some of his strength into her own body.
There was no doubt in her mind that Sir Adam had taken her child.
She could only pray that he did not actually have his hands on Benet yet.
There was just one reason Sir Adam would want her baby.
Benet gained the man nothing unless he was removed as the laird of Glencullaich.
Annys prayed her baby was not being led to the slaughter.
“I willnae waste time asking if ye have searched for him,” Harcourt said, knowing full well that Annys and her people knew every single place the boy would hide and would have turned over every stone in the place looking for the boy. “Why are ye here?”
“Someone took the boy out this bolt-hole,” said Gybbon.