Across a Dark Highland Shore (Hot Highlands Romance Book 2) (20 page)

There was a good chance she would drown despite being a good swimmer—she’d spent many a summer splashing around in the lochs—but she had to try.

“Did ye fire the arrow into Logan’s back?”

“Logan revered his uncle Rolph. They hunted together always. It was easy to poison his horse. Logan was so distraught his uncle suggested he go hunting alone to console himself. It was that simple. We hid in a cove of pines, Rolph and I. While Logan’s back was turned to us, we fired the arrow, together. Rolph is stronger than I. My hands covered his while he let the bow fly. ‘Twas romantic.”

“Lady Katherine, yer sick, yer mind has been twisted by yer father’s mistreatment of ye.”

Lady Katherine bent down and brandished the dagger, knicking Isobel’s cheek and drawing blood before Isobel had a chance to back away. Isobel kept moving. “Where are ye going, Isobel? There is nowhere to go. Yer no’ leaving this cave. The waters will swallow ye and then ye will be at peace.” She looked out to sea. “My father told me quite often if only I’d been born a male, I would ha’e been ruling the Campbells when he got auld. He hated that I’d been born a girl. He lost his only son early. He lost his beautiful, beloved Arbella too, his other daughter and my elder sister. She fell from the tower. Arbella was weak, a meek little dove. I wanted to see if she could fly.” Lady Katherine giggled, the sound like that of a mischievous little girl who is merely playing a prank.

“Were ye with Arbella the day she died?” Isobel asked, trying to distract her as she moved another foot toward the mouth of the cave. The waves outside the entrance were crashing riotously against the rocks now, throwing spume high into the air. “I lost my half-brother Calum that way,” Isobel said. “He fell from a tower, too.”

Lady Katherine smiled, as if they were at an evening meal and she was not attempting to murder Isobel. “But I bet ye didna push him from the tower deliberately, did ye? No’ the kind, sweet, little witch called Isobel. The weak, little witch as it turns out. What’s that Arbella? Ye want me to tell her what happened that day? Why no’? She willna live to tell anyone our secret.”

Lady Katherine’s eyes became glazed. “Arbella was so beautiful, e’en more beautiful than I. My father’s favorite. Firstborn. Demure. Kind. Perfect. A talented musician. A writer of poetry, unusual for a woman. All the things I wasna. I
hated
her.”

Water splashed and slapped the wall of stone at Isobel’s back, making Isobel gag. She heard a strange sound, like the one Leith had described to her in the glen—like a giant blowing across the opening of a jug, warning her to get out now!

Lady Katherine brandished her dagger again and now she was even closer to Isobel’s face. “Perhaps I should slash yer face like Leith’s. Ye two deserve each other. But what would be the point now? Yer going to die soon.” Instead, Lady Katherine reached out and touched her face, almost tenderly.

Then she stepped back from Isobel. “I pushed her from the tower. I did it on purpose. It was easy, and I was glad to be rid of her. E’eryone thought it an accident. Now ye see, Isobel, that there is no good in me. ‘Tis why my father could ne’er love me like he loved the son he lost, or like he loved Arbella. ‘Tis why I fell in love with Rolph. We are alike. There is no good in him either. He should be ruler of the Macleans. No’ Leith. And I should be by his side. I will be by his side. But his own brother sent him away. He was tortured by English soldiers who did unspeakable things to him. But he survived. Because he is cruel and strong. There is no weakness in him. He came back. He fell in love with me and we vowed our revenge on his clan. On my own father. For my own father would ne’er want me to marry a man like Rolph. We just had to get Logan out of our way. And then Leith. But Leith started to fall in love with ye.

“Rolph is the man in the robe and the plague mask?” Isobel asked.

“Yea. Poor Mary Alice discovered the secret, discovered it was Rolph in the robe and mask. My own servant, who was supposed to be loyal to me! Rolph lured her here to her death and I finished the task. Rolph is no doubt back in the great hall now, enjoying the festivities, awaiting my return, none the wiser. When he sees me, he will ken yer dead.”

Isobel shivered from the cold sea water and from thinking about the terror Mary Alice must have experienced in the last few minutes of her life.

A wave knocked Isobel over and she went under the water, scrambling to right herself, scraping her hands on the slippery stone wall of the cave.

“Do ye ken there are boulders on the floor of the cave?” The hooded look appeared in her eyes again. “Arbella says I must go now.”

“It doesna have to be this way,” Isobel sputtered. “There is some good in ye, Katherine. I ken there must be.”             

She laughed and the sound was eerie as it echoed against the walls.

“Goodbye, naïve little witch.” And she was gone from ledge above, taking the light with her, leaving Isobel in the cold dark sea waters. Isobel could not reach the ledge for the water was heavy and about her neck now.
This was how Mary Alice had died
. She had discovered the tunnel that Lady Katherine and Rolph used. Rolph had slipped on the robe and the horrible mask and used the tunnel to make it seem like he traveled as a ghost, suddenly appearing and disappearing. There was probably a secret door into the undercroft, and that’s why it seemed like it had been disturbed that day. Rolph had left the mask in the undercroft right before Isobel entered it and he’d disappeared into the cavern.

Water overtook her head and she pushed above it, coughing and sputtering and taking in air. She kept trying to get to a higher ledge of rock but a wave of water kept pushing her back, threatening to eddy and take her down with it.

Her thoughts spun around her. She would swim for the entrance only to be pushed back. She feared being dashed against a boulder.

She thought of sweet Mary Alice, too curious for her own good. She thought of
Leith.
I must survive! She thought of his handsome face and their unexplainable connection. And she knew that she loved him. She thought of the night he’d rescued her, the first time she’d seen his magnificent face, his piercing amber eyes, the jet black of his hair, the proud curve of his jaw.

She was thinking of his face, remembering his touch, when a giant wall of water came thudding into the cave, finally taking her under….

29

Isobel was aware of the utter and deep silence beneath the freezing water as life seeped from her. It was almost peaceful now. Her limbs were leaden and she struggled mightily. Finally, she stopped struggling.

It would be so simple to sink, to find sweet sleep.

Keep fighting
…
keep fighting. Leith is waiting….

A wave pushed her against the cave wall, above the water for an instant, and she gulped in air, only to go under again. She fought the weariness and the cold and then someone was pulling her from the sea, hoisting her onto the rock ledge above, and she thought she was dreaming, for it was Leith.

But the vision was fading and she knew she must be imagining it, the darkness creeping in, the air in her lungs shrinking away to nothing, each breath burning. A hard slap brought her wide awake and she found herself gazing into his gold-amber eyes.

“Leith,” she breathed, grateful for each breath.

“Breathe, Isobel!” She did. It was glorious. She coughed and gagged and breathed in great gulps of air as Leith’s arms went about her. He trembled. “I almost lost ye, Isobel.”

Leith, Leith.
He had pulled her from the sea and from certain death by fire.

“It was Lady Katherine,” she said, her voice weak. “And Rolph. They are mad. They killed Logan. They poisoned his horse and suggested Logan console himself by hunting alone in the glen today. She told me they held the bow and arrow together, their hands touching, when they fired the arrow into his back.” She sobbed. “They want to rule the clan. They lured Mary Alice here after she found the passageway. Rolph dressed in the robe and wore the plague mask and chased me with a sword.”

“We found the sword, the robe, and the mask, in the undercroft where ye first saw the mask,” he said. “If Rolph and Lady Katherine ha’e any sense at all, they will be gone from this keep before I kill them both. The sword was my brother’s. The one that went missing the day he was murdered in the glen.”

“Oh, Leith. I am sorry.” She shivered but she’d never felt warmer. He held her tighter.

“We must go. Ye will stand and we will leave this horrid place.”

Even in the face of death, he was arrogant, commanding, and would brook no resistance. She loved him for it.

She stood on shaky legs. “Aye. Let us leave this horrid place.”

He stroked her wet hair and held her tight. “Isobel, my Isobel, my endearing little witch. I love ye so.”

Her heart exulted at his words and he kissed her warmly. “I love ye, too, Leith Maclean. I love ye madly.”

He held her hand tightly as he led her from the cave, emerging on the side of a hilltop, where Lady Katherine must’ve gone when she’d disappeared.

“But how did ye find me?” Isobel asked. He stopped and they stood on the windy hill, the Maclean keep standing proud in the distance across the moor. His war horse was tied to a nearby birch tree.

“The boy Tomas. Apparently he’s taken a fancy to ye and he followed ye. If he had no’, well, I dunna want to think how close ye came to…. I sent some of my men through the tunnel but I took my horse round the long way, thinking it would be the faster of the two ways once Tomas told me of the cavern and the tunnel and where it led. The waters in the tunnel were rising. Tomas is a vera brave little boy. He followed ye deep into the dark passage and then came back to get me. He doesna speak so he pulled on my sleeve desperately until I would follow him.”

Isobel smiled and leaned in to him. “I told ye ‘twas the right decision to spare his life. ‘Tis ne’er wise to hang a MacKinnon.”

“I dunna hang children, Isobel….” His voice was gruff, offended.

She reached up and caressed his cheek. “I am teasing, my laird.”

“The boy Tomas will be rewarded. He will be returned to his clan or, if he prefers, his mum will be brought here, where they can live in peace, with less struggle, cold, and hunger.”

“And Rory?”

“The plootering lout will also be returned to his clan. It will be a gesture of peace and goodwill. The MacKinnon are no’ in a position to be a current threat. Most of the reiving party is dead. Rory is fortunate that I am a fair man. Besides, I canna abide his presence, having kent he kissed ye. The farther away he is from ye, the better. I dunna wish to fight him for ye, though I am sure I would best him in
any
competition and with
any
weapon he chose.”

Isobel smiled as he untied his horse and helped her onto it, swinging up behind her and covering them both with his plaid.

“Do ye ken that when ye brought me here, Ranulph asked me if I could change into a cat as tall as a Highland warrior or sail the sea in an eggshell or halt a raging snowstorm?”

“Ranulph is a good man but he can be a numptie.”

“Some think witches can shift their shapes into new creatures. But ‘tis a lie. Just tales they make up because they dunna understand my gift and call me witch. They dunna really see me, just a woman.”

“
I
see ye, Isobel.”

His arms held her firmly as he nudged the horse and they started down the hill toward the wide, snow-covered glen they would cross to return to the keep.

30

The men moved along the sea’s edge and up into the woods. They did not walk fast now because they knew their routine well. Their horses were tied to trees a few hundred feet away. The men with murder in their souls concealed themselves in a familiar thicket of birch and blackthorn trees.

Malcolm could not believe his luck. They waited only an hour before they saw the man and woman on horseback. He turned to Keir and Hamish.

“Ready yer arrows. If all three of us shoot, we may ha’e a chance of hitting him.” He pointed to the ridge. “Look there. The Maclean, the great Black Wolf, rides with the witch,
alone
.”

The three men had been watching the keep for days, waiting for just such an opportunity.

“Now he will pay for killing my brother Bothen. He will die the same way, with an arrow in his black soul.”

“What if we also hit the witch?” Keir said.

“Yea, what if we hit the witch?” Hamish echoed. “I thought ye wanted to tie her to a stake and finish the job Bothen started? Would ye no’ rather see her writhe and burn in flame?”

Malcolm smiled. “I ha’e decided that it matters no’ if we hit her today. Either way, she dies. And today is as good a day as any for her to die.”

They readied their bows, for the Black Wolf and his horse were getting closer. “At my word, ye fire. Dunna fart. Dunna breathe. Dunna blink.”

Just then the sun burst through cloud and shone on the jeweled brooches holding their plaids to their shoulders. “Now!” Malcolm said. But right before they fired, the horse turned violently. Two arrows pierced the snow at the horse’s feet, missing their mark. The other found its target….