Chapter Two
“Duncan, I still say you are daft to be comin’ here at all.”
Duncan MacKeefe rode alongside his clan member, North, glad for the company but tired of hearing him say what a stupid thing he was doing.
“I’m comin’ to save Lady Linnette from the beast her father has betrothed her to and is forcing her to marry,” he explained once again.
“She told me about Lord Thomas Payne in her last missive. I just hope I am no’ too late. ”
North snorted. “If Lady Linnette wasna a good friend of Matilda, I never would be accompanyin’ ye on a mission that is sure to end badly.”
“Ye ken how I feel about Lady Linnette. She has had my heart meltin’ for a while now, especially this past year.
” Duncan smiled as they rode through the night, no torch but only the full moon overhead to guide them.
“I’m goin’ to ask her to marry me. We discussed it before, so I ken she’ll say yes.
That way she willna have to wed a man she doesna want. ”
“That’s no’ how it works and ye ken it,” said North, pushing back a strand of his long, black hair from his eyes. “Her father is marryin’ her off for alliances. Plus, ye ken Lord Whitby hates all Scots.”
“That is only because he’s been convinced by Lord Payne that all Scots are no good. That’s what Linnette wrote in her missive. She said that Lord Payne has tainted Lord Whitby’s mind.”
“Ha!” spat North, riding alongside Duncan. “It doesna take much to taint a Sassenach’s mind against a Scot. Especially against a Highlander. Ye’ll never get away with this and ye ken it.”
“Haud yer wheest,” grumbled Duncan, warning his friend to keep still his tongue. “Ye married a Sassenach or did ye forget? It can be done. Now dinna say another word about it. I am here to meet Lady Linnette and take her back to Hermitage Castle with me. As my wife.”
“Ye do that without her da’s consent and ye ken it’ll only start another feud between the Scots and the English.”
“That is the chance I am willin’ to take. For the lassie I love.”
“‘Love’? Listen to yerself, ye fool,” grumbled North. “Ye kissed the girl once on the moors and now ye’re in love?”
“Thrice we’ve kissed now,” he corrected North. “I’ve met with her in secret three times now on the moors. It is kind of excitin’, really.”
“Duncan, ye are…”
“Hush!” Duncan stopped his horse and held up his hand. “I think someone is comin’ through the fog. It might be Lady Linnette. I am sure she’s been here every night waitin’ for me since she sent that missive.”
“I don’t see anyone.” North narrowed his eyes and peered through the fog. The sound of a woman wailing from somewhere up ahead echoed out into the night. “That sounds like a lassie cryin’.”
“God’s eyes! Linnette must be in trouble.
I’ve got to help her.” Duncan yanked his sword from the scabbard, holding it tightly, riding fast toward the person he’d seen in the fog.
“Linnette, I’m comin’,” he shouted, rearing back his horse as he came face to face with another rider.
Actually, this man had no face at all. He didn’t even have a head!
“What in the clootie’s name,” he said under his breath.
The headless horseman reared up his steed and the animal pawed the air, neighing loudly. Duncan had to hold his horse steady since it wanted to turn and run.
The rider atop the horse held a sword over his head…or where his head should have been. Duncan’s mouth fell open and he just sat there watching, unable to move. North approached atop his horse from behind him.
“What the hell is goin’ on?” asked North.
Duncan turned to look at him, thinking his friend was either blind or just acting daft.
“Dinna ye see him, ye fool?”
“See who?” North held his sword at the ready, looking back and forth through the dense fog.
“The headless horseman. Right there!” Duncan turned around and pointed, but the rider he’d just encountered had mysteriously vanished.
“There’s no one there,” said North, slowly lowering his sword. “And ye call me a fool?”
“He was there. I just saw him,” Duncan tried to explain. “A headless rider, just like the myths say.”
“They are just myths and I think ye are spooked, good friend.” North slid his sword back into its scabbard and yawned. “We need to find a place to make camp for the night. Plus, I’m hungry and tired of ridin’.”
“The cabin where Lady Linnette and I meet in secret is just up ahead. We can stay there.” Duncan replaced his sword as well. “And I really did see the legendary headless rider.”
“Ye’re tired and hungry as well as I am. Ye didna see a thing,” said North.
“Dammit, North, I tell ye, he was right here. And ye heard the lassie cryin’. Ye ken the myth as well as I do. Ye ken it is true.”
“The only thing I ken for sure is that ye are startin’ to sound like one of the legendary Madmen MacKeefes back in the Highlands.”
“I’m no’ mad,” Duncan ground out.
“Mm-hmm,” North answered with another yawn. “Show me where to find this cabin because I’m too hungry to ride much farther and too tired to care about silly legends that are no’ true.”
“It is true,” mumbled Duncan, seeing that there was going to be no way to convince North of what he’d really seen. Or was North right? Had Duncan been tired and imagined the whole thing? Mayhap so, and he was just turning into some kind of Madman of the Moors.