Page 99 of Auctioned to the Cruel Highlander
Ciaran reached the lower hall and found his brother racing in from the yard, boots dirty, face set hard.
“What happened?”
Hector stopped in front of him. “We cannae find her.”
Ciaran’s whole body had gone rigid. “Find her, then.”
“We are trying.”
The answer only made his panic sharpen.
Ciaran dragged a hand over his face and forced the words out in better order. “When was she seen last?”
“Early. Before full light.”
He turned away one step, trying to think past the pounding in his head. Ava hurt. Ava angry. Ava waking with the same wreck between them that had driven them apart by the loch.
A sick, desperate hope pushed up through everything else.
“She wanted space,” he said. “After last night. She may have ridden out to clear her head.”
Even as he said it, he heard how weak it sounded. He held onto it anyway because the other possibilities were worse.
“She may have taken the northern path or gone to the lower ridge. She kens the grounds well enough by now.”
Hector stared at him. “Nay.”
Ciaran spun back. “What?”
“Nay, she didnae simply ride off alone in a temper.”
His hope cracked.
“She took a horse at first light, aye, but she didnae go without protection. Two guards rode after her.”
Ciaran felt the ground hold too steady under him. “Why?”
“Because yer wife is the daughter of a laird whose hall just burned, and because there is still unease enough in this castle that nay one thought it wise to let her ride out unguarded?”
That answer would have satisfied him under different circumstances. Now, it only made the next question worse.
“Then where is she?”
Hector’s mouth tightened. “That is the point. They lost the road. Either she took a wrong turn or was driven off it. We have men out looking already.”
Ciaran took one step toward him. “Lost the roadhow?”
“We havenae gotten all of it yet.”
“And what exactly haveyegot?”
Hector held his gaze steadily. “There were track breaks near the birch line and some struggle that suggests she was…” he trailed off.
Ciaran knew where that response was headed, and he hated desperately that he did.
Nay. Nay,this cannae be it.
Bruce, on the other hand, had fallen silent. He stood near the wall, his ears pinned against the back of his head, his small body vibrating with the same alarm that gripped every person in the hall.
