Page 9 of To Claim His Highland Bride

Rowena searched her memory for locations that had a wooden hut close to Dunvegan but could think of no such place. As she frowned, Bryce’s smile increased.

“You are on Gairbh Eilein.”

Rowena started at the revelation, then just as quickly hid her surprise. “The rocky, seal isle in the loch?” The small isle was visible from the castle’s rear courtyard and towers. Bryce might have successfully abducted her, but his choice of hideout would be discovered by her brothers in no time at all.

“They will never find you,” Bryce mocked. “This hunting hide hasn’t been used in years and its location on the north-eastern shore makes it impossible to see from Dunvegan.”

Rowena scowled. Not if she set it on fire. Which she intended to do the first chance she got.

“No one is coming to rescue you. Not even Marcus, who has no idea this place even exists.”

Her anger flared at the suggestion that he could outsmart his own cousin and her brothers. “You won’t get away with this. I’ll scream and keep screaming until someone hears me.”

“One sound out of you and I’ll kill you first, and then Marcus. I’ll take everything he has earned on his voyage as my own.” The dark look in Bryce’s eyes and the dagger at his belt confirmed his words were no empty threat.

Rowena swallowed roughly and forced her panicked wits aside. She did not want to die now that Marcus had finally returned home. “I won’t scream.”

“Clever girl.”

“What happens next?” she asked, once more testing the rope at her wrists, hoping she’d eased the knot with her teeth in the brief moment she’d tried, but the knot held firm.

“We wait for Marcus to come to Dunvegan in search of you. When he does, he will receive a note requesting a ransom be paid for your safe return.”

Rowena’s heart clogged her throat. He hadn’t come for her when she thought he would. “What if he refuses to pay the ransom?”

Bryce reached for his dagger and brought it to rest against her chest, right above her heart. “Then I’ll have no choice but to take from him what at one time he could not live without.” Bryce’s dagger moved from her chest. He tugged the ends of her hair near her shoulder and sliced off a handful. “I’ll need this as proof that I have you.” He removed a kerchief from his sporran and placed the hair upon the cloth before folding it again and returning it to the pouch.

Rowena’s earlier certainty that Marcus would come for her faltered. Her fingers clenched and released as she fought the sense of abandonment that threatened to choke her. Her three brothers had forsaken her when they’d left home five years ago. Even her own parents had deserted her. Her father after he had injured his head in a battle and had become a cruel, abusive stranger. Her mother when she had died due to her father’s brutality. And now Marcus would neglect her as well.

Rowena swallowed roughly, halting the thought before it could fully form. Marcus had not abandoned her yet. There was still hope that he was alive and that he would come for her. She lifted her chin and met Bryce’s steely gaze. “Marcus will pay the ransom.”

“You’d better hope he does, or tonight could be your last night upon this earth.”

Despite the fact that time was running out for her, Rowena held her head high. Marcus would either pay the ransom or she would have to find some way to escape.

There was no other choice.

Chapter Four

The early morning sunshine had yet to burn through the mist that gathered in pockets along the shores of Dunvegan Castle. Marcus and seven other men brought their boat to a stop in the shallow surf. “Wait for me here,” Marcus called to his men as they lifted the oars. “This shouldn’t take long.” As he jumped into the water and made his way to the rocky beach, he went over in his mind what he would say to Rowena.

He looked up and down the shoreline, half expecting to see her waiting for him. When he’d left her six months ago, she’d stood on this very beach with tears in her eyes. Had he expected his return to be met with the same emotion? Irritation shot through him at her absence, until he reminded himself he should be pleased at this turn of events.

Perhaps she had changed her mind about him. If she had, it would make his uncomfortable task that much easier. He’d decided late into the night that he would be honest with Rowena. He would tell her his duty to his men’s families took precedence over any attachment they had, and he would admit that his feelings had changed while he’d been away at sea.

He wasn’t expecting hysterics from Rowena at his confession. She wasn’t that kind of woman. Now he wondered if she would be troubled at all to learn about his change of heart. Forcing his expectations aside, Marcus made his way over the wet, algae-covered rocks only to stop a heartbeat later, when a man, dressed in a black tunic and breeches, stepped out of the natural outcropping of the large basalt rock on which Dunvegan Castle perched. He recognised the man immediately as his cousin, Bryce.

“Why are you here?” Marcus snapped. His cousin was the last person he’d expected to greet him upon his return.

Bryce laughed, the sound of the sea muting most of it. “I can see you running through every scenario of my presence here in your eyes. You always made it so easy to read your thoughts, dear cousin.”

“Where are Alastair, Tormod, or Orrick?” Why hadn’t the MacLeod brothers been the ones to challenge him on their beach? “Where’s Rowena?” Marcus’s gaze went over Bryce’s head to the golden stones of Dunvegan Castle. No guards perched on the towers, and no sound came from the rear courtyard overhead.

Uncertainty tore through him. Something had happened. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Only a hundred or so men remain at Dunvegan. The rest have gone off in search of your dear Rowena.” Bryce smiled, looking absurdly pleased with himself.

“What did you do?” Marcus’s eyes narrowed as he grabbed Bryce’s throat.