Page 11 of Conquer the Highlander

She had to find a way.

This wasn’t a spur of the moment decision. She’d been planning to flee Culroy as long as she’d been a captive. That big, dirty, salty castle by the sea, where the heavy fog rolled in from the ocean and smothered everything it touched. It was hell.

It always had been.

For as long as she could recall, her intention had been to flee, but it wasn’t so easy. Both Culroy and the Edinburgh townhome of Trinity House were heavily guarded. Several times, Esme thought she might be able to slip out, but she’d lost her nerve because there was no one to help her. If she was caught, she would always be watched, so she didn’t try.

She bided her time.

The time had finally come.

God, is it possible I’ve finally found a way to escape?

It all started when Lady Ayr and her women stopped at a shop that supplied beautiful fabric after they’d left the apothecary’s shop. Lady Ayr made several purchases of lovely fabric, and when they departed the shop for home, Esme pretended to have left something behind.

She made a show of being greatly concerned by her forgetfulness and the carriage she was riding in came to a halt. She assured the annoyed driver that she could find her way back to Trinity House and that he need not wait for her, but the man balked. The streets of Edinburgh were not safe for ladies to travel alone. But there were several impatient women in the carriage and, eventually, he had no choice but to continue on, leaving Esme on the street.

It was exactly what she had wanted.

She rushed back to the apothecary shop. It was empty now, and she could see both brothers in a corner, counting something in one of those glass phials.

Quickly, she made her way towards them.

“My lords?” she said, politely catching their attention. When the old men turned to look at her, she smiled hesitantly. “I was wondering… the man that was here, called Titus… do you know where he lives?”

The apothecary who had been assisting Titus cocked his head curiously. “Yer lady knew him,” he said. “Why not ask her?”

Esme scrambled for an answer. “She does not know,” she said. “She asked me to… she wanted me to find out where he lives. He would not tell her, but she… she has something to give him. Will you tell me?”

She was stumbling over her words because they were spur of the moment lies. She had never been very good at lying. The old apothecary scratched his head.

“He comes with Sir Clegg at times,” he said.

“Who is Sir Clegg?”

“He owns the Ludus Caledonia.”

“What’s that?”

“A great place,” the old man said. “It is where men fight. Sometimes they come here afterwards tae find something tae cure an aching head or an aching belly, so their wives willna know they have been eating and drinking like gluttons.”

Esme was trying not to look bewildered. “They… they eat and drink at the Ludus Caledonia?”

The old man nodded and so did his brother. “It is a place where men fight while still other men wager on them,” he said. “I’ve never been, but I hear they provide their guests with the finest food and drink. It is a place of great entertainment and great debauchery. But if ye are thinking of going there, it is no fitting place for a woman.”

She cocked her head curiously. “Women do not go there?”

“Decent women dunna. Tell yer mistress that if she’s thinking on going.”

Esme’s next question was going to be for directions, but she suspected they might not tell her after warning her away from it. Therefore, she tried to be clever.

“She did not say that she wanted to go, only that she wanted to send him something,” she said. “She will probably send a soldier. Where is this place?”

The brothers looked at each other, since neither one really knew. “South,” the old apothecary said. “In the hills south of Edinburgh, I think.”

His brother, ever-silent, simply nodded and turned back to his ingredients and glass vessels as Esme sought more definite directions.

“South,” she repeated. “The lands are wild and there are many hills to the south.”