Page 51 of Highlander’s Bride

Only, as Raghnall and she worked together on removing the rocks, the image of her dead body in the arms of a medieval man whispered in her ear that there wouldn’t be a happy ending today.

That she may never see her family again, after all.

She didn’t know how long they worked. Her fingers became bruised and scratched, her fingernails chipped and torn.

Raghnall had had to change two torches already, and she felt even guiltier that she was taking him away from fighting for his family.

But then Seoc appeared in the basement. “Raghnall!” he cried, and both Bryanna and Raghnall looked up at him. “Yer brother the laird, he is asking for ye… Dornie fell. And now a whole fleet arrived…and they have fire arrows.”

Chapter 25

“Where’s Angus?” Raghnall barked at Seoc, looking wildly around the inner bailey.

The lad and he had just come out of the main keep, and daylight hurt his eyes. Many Mackenzie warriors crouched behind merlons on the walls as arrows, some of them aflame, rained down on the castle. This was not a place for a lad.

“Damnation. Stand behind me,” he commanded, pushing Seoc between himself and the wall of the keep. “Tell me where Angus is and go back into the keep.”

Seoc picked up a small, wooden shield that was propped against the wall and showed Raghnall his dagger. “I’m nae going to hide. The laird is on the outer wall, on the tower facing Dornie.”

Raghnall spat out an oath as he grabbed Seoc by the shoulder and dragged him back into the tower. When the door behind him closed, sinking the storage space into semidarkness, he pulled a shield down from the wall and a bow and a quiver of arrows.

Then he looked the lad straight in the eyes. “Stay here, I say.”

Seoc’s gaze shot daggers at him. “Why? Because ye’re my da? Ye’re no one to me, nae even my stepda.”

There, two small eyes in the darkness, burning with the anger of two coals, declaring all the hatred and all the blame he had for Raghnall.

He wasn’t grateful. He didn’t think Raghnall was helping him.

He didn’t want to do anything with Raghnall.

He blamed him for his mother’s death, too.

Darkness opened up deep in Raghnall’s soul. “I wish I could turn back time, lad, and save yer mother. I wish I could have been yer da, yer true da. But ’tis impossible to go back and change things. And so I have to live with my guilt for the rest of my life, hoping it will be a short one. But nae matter what ye think of me, I am here for ye, and I will provide ye with the future ye deserve. The future I should have always given ye.”

Seoc’s eyes watered. “I dinna need anything from ye. Ye canna bring my ma back to life.”

Raghnall’s head hung. “Nae, lad, I canna. But I can make sure ye’re nae following her into the grave. Stay here.”

When Seoc didn’t say anything, Raghnall took it as the lad’s quiet compliance, nodded, and sprinted out of the keep. The sounds of a battle assaulted him as he loped through the inner bailey: cries of pain, clashing swords, urgent commands. It smelled like smoke and singed animal skin—no doubt fire arrows had landed on the hides covering the roofs. As he ran, he raised his shield above his head, and arrows thunked against the wood and stabbed the ground around him.

But just as he crossed the inner bailey to run through the still-open gates and into the outer bailey, he stopped dead. In the outer bailey, Mackenzie men were retreating. They descended from the outer walls, supporting their wounded sword brothers. And those who could, turned around from time to time and sent arrows into the Ross army.

Ross warriors poured through the gate into the inner bailey, chasing the Mackenzies. The enemy had taken Dornie and the outer bailey.

As the Mackenzie warriors took refuge in the inner bailey, Raghnall saw Angus among the last of them. The laird hurried, supporting a wounded man and holding his shield over their heads.

“Retreat!” Angus yelled. “Retreat!”

“Retreat!” James echoed. He was up on the inner wall, his bow in his hands, shooting one arrow after another. Catrìona stood next to him, shooting, too. Then Raghnall spotted David, who was one of the last warriors, making sure the rest were in front of him. Even Eanar hurried back inside, holding his shoulder.

And then Raghnall saw through the open gates that the enemy had climbed the outer walls.

“How did they get in?” shouted Raghnall as warriors were passing by him, but no one bothered to reply. “What happened?”

Still, no one replied. Guilt churned in him—if he hadn’t been making love to Bryanna in the tower, he would have seen the enemy coming sooner and sounded the alarm.

As the men closed the inner gate, Raghnall saw with cold, slippery horror that hundreds of enemy warriors poured through the outer gates like they owned the place.