Page 77 of Highlander’s Captive

She sneaked out. The castle slept. The only ones who were supposed to be awake were the watchmen on the walls, but Amy decided to walk as calmly and as confidently as she could. She was the lord’s wife, after all. She could walk in the middle of the night whenever she wanted.

Right?

She opened the door of the eastern tower and peeked inside. Two guards were leaning against the wall, sleeping. Hamish sat with his sword out next to one of them. As he saw the door move, he jumped up, but he lowered his sword when she appeared.

“Come, lass, we dinna have much time.”

Amy closed the door behind her. “What did you do to them?” she hissed.

“Only a sedative. They will wake up soon. Come.”

Hamish had a sedative?

“Where the hell did you get that?” she asked.

Yet another layer of Hamish she didn’t know. She carefully looked him up and down, watching for any signs of aggression or a hidden malice. But she found none. He was calm and matter of fact. The same Hamish she’d known since she’d come here. He’d been the only person who was kind to her back then.

He took two of the torches, handed one to Amy, and hurried downstairs. “I kent herbs from the woman who raised me, the farmer in Skye. Put some in their dinner. They’ll wake up soon after a good sleep, with a little headache ’tis all.”

“You have some interesting hidden skills, Hamish.”

He glanced back. “Dinna fash. I’m on yer side, lass, like I said. Come on.”

“But why do you want to help me?”

“I want to free ye, lass. Isna that what ye want?”

“Well, yes, but aren’t you supposed to serve Craig?”

“I canna stand when an innocent woman suffers.”

He opened the door to the back storeroom.

“Let us search,” he said.

She entered. Search for what? The rock was right there. What was he looking for?

Maybe to travel in time, she needed something in addition to the rock? Maybe it had fallen off or something, or she hadn’t noticed it was there. Or maybe there was some other thing that needed to be triggered before the rock would work.

She moved the torch around. “Do you know what we’re looking for?”

“Nae. We’ll know it once we see it, I suppose.”

Amy looked around. Her whole body tensed, the ceiling pressing in on her. It was as though her lungs had less capacity to breathe down here. She looked near the rock, swiping the wall and stones around it with her hands, then moved farther to the back of the cave.

Hamish was looking on the opposite side.

She searched behind the pile of timber, which looked much smaller now—a lot had been used for the scaffolds. There were more rocks, and the wall seemed to be rougher, less finished. One rock looked flat and resembled the time-traveling rock in some way. Only, it had no carvings. She ran her hand over the surface.

Then she looked closer, under the rock.

There was a gap. It smelled earthy, like mud. And there was a tiny draft of cool air.

Amy laid the torch on the floor and pushed.

It moved, revealing stairs underneath and a pitch-black entrance.

Hamish was already next to her, shining the light into the hole. He looked jubilant.