Highland Lover (3 page)

that should be important to her Alana did not know.

“I have a plan now, lass,” Gregor said as he divided the food between them, carefully placing her

share in her lap.

“And just when did ye devise this plan?” she asked calmly, even though her pulse quickened with

hope. “Before or after ye assisted in changing the privy bucket?”

“So sharp for one so wee,” he murmured, grinning. “I was watching the raising and lowering of the

buckets.”

“I noticed that. I cannae see much in that wee flicker of light, but it did seem that ye were most

interested in that.”

“I was studying it all verra closely. It took me a while to decide on the best way to judge it.”

“Judge what?”

“The distance up to that hole.”

“Too far for either of us to reach it.”

“Aye, but, mayhap, nay too far for the two of us.”

Alana took a moment to think about that as she finished the bread she had just filled her mouth with.

“What do ye mean by the two of us?”

“How tall are ye, lass?”

“Five feet.”

“And I am six feet and a few inches.”

“How proud ye must be,” she muttered and then sighed out her irritation, “but how does that

matter?”

“Your height added to mine might be enough to get ye up to that opening.”

“To do what? Gnaw through the thick iron bars?”

“The grate isnae locked or barred.” He could feel her grow tense even though she was not sitting up

against him.

“Are ye certain of that?”

“Aye. Why should they bother? ’Tis too high to reach, or so they believe. And these walls cannae

be climbed. I tried several times ere ye arrived and got naught for my effort save more bruises. I am a verra good climber, but e’en I need the odd niche or outcrop or so to grab hold of as I climb. The

few there are are too far apart and not easily grabbed hold of.”

“So how do ye plan to get us out of here?”

“I think that if ye stand upon my shoulders, ye will be able to reach that grate.”

Alana looked up, envisioning the grate in her mind since it was too dark to see it now. It was made

of a very thick iron. Barred shut or not, it would be difficult for her to move it, especially since she would be standing on a man’s shoulders and not on firm, steady ground. She was also not that fond

of heights but felt she could overcome that unease if offered the chance to escape. Alana was just

not sure this plan gave them much chance.

“’Tis a heavy thing to try to push up and out of the way,” she murmured.

“I ken it, and ’twill be a struggle for such a wee lass, but there is no other choice. I cannae stand upon your shoulders.”

“Quite true. ’Tis worth a try.”

“’Twill probably take several tries because of the lack of light. ’Tisnae easy to do anything in this dark. We should give it a try after we sup.”

“Why wait?”

“If we succeed, ’tis best if we try to leave the keep come nightfall. After the last meal is delivered, we can also be certain no one will be coming down here for hours. If we fail, it will also give us

time to hide all possible sign of what we were trying to do. After having come up with a plan, I

dinnae want it to fail simply because the Gowans caught us at it and secured the hatchway better.”

“Should we attempt to hoard a little food?”

Gregor sighed. “We should, but I still worry o’er attracting the rats.”

“I certainly dinnae want them for company, but I havenae heard much scratching about within the

walls. Mayhap they have given up since ye have been here nearly a week and we havenae left

anything out for them.”

“True. It may also be that, since the Gowans have only recently begun to play this game, the vermin

havenae discovered a way in here. We shall give it a try. Mayhap if we wrap it securely in cloth and

keep it close they willnae sniff it out and come ahunting for it.”

The mere thought of rats crawling about their prison made Alana shiver. She loathed the creatures.

Unfortunately, she and Gregor did need to at least try to hoard a little food for their escape. If they got free of this place, they would have to move swiftly and stealthily, which would make hunting

for any food very difficult. She had little doubt that the Gowans would set out after them. Although

she did not believe the Gowans would follow her and Gregor too far, there would probably be

several days during which she and Gregor would spend a lot of their time running and hiding. For

that they would need food, if only to keep up the strength needed to run fast and hide well.

“’Tis a shame we willnae be able to get the horses,” she murmured.

“Aye,” agreed Gregor. “Howbeit, I think e’en these fools would notice if I tried to slip a horse or

two past the gates.”

Alana laughed softly and then frowned as a sudden complication in his plans occurred to her. “If I

can get up there and open the hatch, how do we both get through it? Once open, I can pull myself

up and out, but I cannae pull ye up after me.”

“Ah, weel, that is a weak point in my plan.”

“’Tis nay a weak point, Gregor. ’Tis a gaping hole.”

“Sarcasm is unbecoming in a female,” Gregor said and grinned when she muttered a curse in

response to that pious and condescending remark.

“So is punching someone offside the head,” she muttered.

He ignored that. “I think we could use one or two of the blankets as a rope of sorts if ye can find

naught to use up there. Once we ken if ye can move that lump of iron, we can tie the blankets about

your waist ere ye climb out of here. If I recall it aright, above us are several things ye could tie the end of a rope to.”

“Ah, that may serve.”

“The first problem we need to solve is how to hold ye steady enough upon my shoulders so that ye

can open that cursed grate. How much do ye think ye weigh?”

“Seven stone, mayhap a little more.”

“I can lift that easy enough, but I have ne’er tried to balance such a weight upon my shoulders. But

dinnae worry. I will catch ye if ye fall.”

Alana did not feel particularly comforted by that reassurance. Six feet was not a great distance to

fall, but the ground was hard. She still had bruises from landing on Gregor when the Gowans tossed

her into the dungeon. Obviously unwilling to damage their prize too much, they had lowered her

down by her wrists first, but it had still hurt when the man holding her had let her go.

For a brief moment, she battled the urge to tell Gregor that she could not do it, but then she lectured herself sternly to banish that surge of cowardice. They needed to escape this place, and not just to

save their families the expense of ransoming them. She needed to get out of the unrelenting dark

before she began to cling to Gregor like some terrified infant. Each time the Gowans brought that

blessed shaft of light and took it away again, she drew closer to that point. Her fear of the dark grew sharper and took longer to shake free of.

It was also necessary to escape the chill and damp of their prison. Alana was surprised that Gregor

was still so hale and strong after spending a week in such a dismal place. The man appeared to be

annoyingly untouched by conditions she knew were slowly robbing her of the good health she had

enjoyed before entering the prison. If fear of the dark did not drive her to attach herself to Gregor like a leech, then the chill creeping into her bones would.

The thought that she was a pathetic weakling settled itself in Alana’s mind. Cold and damp were

ever pervasive, annoyances she had thought herself inured to. She hastily shook that troubling

thought aside. There had always been fires to warm one and dry clothes at hand. They were blessed

with neither in this dark pit. If one could not get warm and dry from time to time, it was only to be expected that the cold and damp would settle in deep and hard. It was also not surprising that

Gregor held up better than she did, for he was much bigger and had more meat on his bones.

“What are ye scowling about now?” asked Gregor as he carefully packed away some of their food, a

simple chore that was proving very difficult to do well in the dark.

“How do ye ken what expression is upon my face?”

“Ye make a little noise when ye are irritated.”

“A little noise?”

“A soft, weel, grunt, or the like.”

“Ladies dinnae grunt.”

“Of course not. My mistake.”

She ignored that remark, for the words were heavily weighted with amusement. “What are ye

doing?”

“Attempting to secure some food. A simple chore. Or it would be, if we had a wee bit of light,” he

grumbled and then asked, “So, what has annoyed ye?”

Alana sighed. “I was just thinking on what a puling weakling I am.” Gregor made an odd choking

noise and she decided it was probably flattering that he would find such a statement amusing. “I

always told myself the dark unsettled me. Weel, I cannae lie to myself anymore. It frightens me. As

for your plan to escape? Standing on your shoulders to try to open a way out of here is a good idea

and I shall do my best, but thinking of how high up I will be also frightens me. I am weary of the

cold and the damp, can feel it in my verra bones. Each time one of those fools asks if I will now say who I am, I have to fight verra hard to say nay. A part of me wants to cry out my name, where I am

from, give them a clearly drawn map to get to my people, and demand that they be quick in the

doing of it. And that part gets bigger every day. ’Tis a coward I am.”

Gregor had to bite back a laugh as he sat down next to her and put his arm around her slim

shoulders. She sounded extremely irritated with herself. He could understand that well enough, for

he had battled with a few of his own fears in those days he had been alone. Being alone in the dark

with no way out and nothing to do made one think about oneself and see oneself far too clearly.

Gregor suspected few people would find that comfortable.

“I suspicion many people are made uneasy by the dark and by being up high,” he said. “Each is a

fear I think we are all born with and we ne’er fully shake free of. There is naught wrong with being

afeared of something, only in letting it control you. As for the cold and the damp? There is naught

wrong with ye for feeling that. So do I, and I grow most weary of it.”

“Ye have been here longer than I have.”

“And I have a lot more flesh for it to sink its teeth into. Takes a lot longer for it to burrow down into my bones, but ’tis there. Nay, lass, ye are no puling weakling for that either. Ye havenae wept, or

needed a wee sharp slap to restore your wits, or complained incessantly.”

Alana said nothing, just subtly pressed a little closer to him. For warmth, she told herself. She was not sure she believed all his kind reassurances, but they were comforting all the same. The urge to

have a screaming, hair-pulling fit lurked inside of her, but his presence helped cage it. Alana did not think it would be wise to tell him so, however. If nothing else, it would not be fair or kind to put the weight of such a responsibility upon his broad shoulders. There was a good chance he was using her

presence in a similar way, so there was no need to belabor the matter.

For a fleeting moment, she wished she had never left home, and then she accepted the fact that she

simply could not have continued to wait for some word from her sister. Hearing that Keira was a

widow, that her home had been taken by a man whose evil reputation was widespread, and then

hearing nothing from her for months had been hard to bear. Her fear for her sister had grown

stronger with each day that passed without word or sight of Keira, only more rumors and all of them

bad. The only thing that had kept Alana from blindly rushing off to find her twin immediately was

the feeling that Keira was still alive. That and her dreams.

She frowned as she realized she had had no dreams of her twin since setting out after her brothers.

That should trouble her more than it did, yet she simply could not believe that Keira was dead.

Alana still felt drawn toward her sister and suspected she would begin to sense in exactly what

direction to go once she was free again. Yet it was odd that, in all other ways, she had lost that bond she and Keira had shared all of their lives. It made her feel intensely alone, and she pressed even

closer to Gregor.

“Troubled, lass?” he asked.

“Nay, not truly,” she lied, still uncertain if she should tell him exactly why she had been alone and such easy prey for the Gowans. “I think the chance to escape is so tantalizing, I fear to let myself

believe in it too much.”

Gregor idly rubbed his hand up and down her slender arm. “I think I ken what ye mean. Now that

we have a plan, we must face the daunting possibility of failure.”

She nodded, feeling the soft wool of his plaid rub her cheek. Alana knew just how bitter failure

tasted. Her arrogant plan to lead her brothers to their sister had been a failure of monumental

proportions. It was something that still stung her pride and puzzled her as well. She really should

not have failed so badly. All her skills and gifts had deserted her, and that made no sense. It was as if whatever power had granted them had abruptly taken them away, but she did not understand why.

Alana inwardly shrugged. She could still sense that her twin was alive, could not believe that the

other half of her was gone forever. There had to be some purpose to it all, some reason God and fate

were conspiring to keep her from joining her sister at this time. Perhaps Keira needed to pass some

test, to learn some great truth about herself, and having her twin at her side could make that difficult.