Reckoning (Book 4 of Lost Highlander series) (20 page)

Abashed, she nodded and took a small sip of the whiskey. “Well?”

“I know where she is, and the place isna guarded.” He looked inordinately pleased and the good news rubbed off on her. Coupled with the swallow of whiskey, and she felt bordering on elated. “As soon as night falls, we shall go fetch her.”

“And then go home,” Evelyn said, just to hear the comforting words.

His smile grew brighter. “Aye, then go home.”

The place Piper was supposedly being kept looked like an ordinary house at the end of the village square, except it appeared to be uninhabited. Lachlan kept a lookout while she peeked into the back windows, trying to see anything through the darkness.

“I can see desks and benches. I think this might be some kind of office or meeting hall. I guess they don’t have a regular jail yet.” She realized that in her own time, Castle on Hill didn’t have a proper jail either. If anyone got unruly, there was a cell in the provost’s office where they’d be locked up until transferred, or fined if it was something minor. “It seems deserted. Maybe they didn’t leave a guard since she’s so small.”

Lachlan eased open a window and wedged himself through it, reaching out a hand to help her over the sill. “Let us hope,” he said when they were both inside.

She followed him along a hallway, past several closed doors, until they reached the end. He nodded down at the doorknob. A rosary was wrapped around it, and when she looked further down, saw that there was a wooden cross leaning against the closed door. Witch protection?

Lachlan scowled and opened the door to reveal a stairway going down. At the bottom, a tiny window set high up by the ceiling afforded some dim moonlight, revealing a brick walled cellar with a chair and several cupboards. There were two barred doors, one draped with another rosary. Evelyn ran and flung herself at the door, which was heavy, solid wood and locked tight. Lachlan rattled the knob and looked around for a key.

“Piper, are you in there?” Evelyn called softly.

She pressed her ear against the planks, but couldn’t hear the slightest rustle from the other side. She called out louder. They both jumped when the door at the top of the stairs slammed shut and they heard footsteps running away.

Lachlan swore. “Stay here,” he said, bounding toward the stairs.

“Uh, no.” She took off after him, reaching the top in time to see a man carrying a lantern scramble down the hallway, Lachlan close on his heels.

He caught the man by the collar of his coat, yanking him back and causing him to drop his lantern. Evelyn rushed for it before it tipped and caused a fire. Lachlan shoved him into the wall and clapped his hand over the frightened man’s mouth before he could alert anyone else to their presence in the building. Evelyn breathed a sigh of relief until she saw the glimmer of a knife in the man’s hand.

No. If Piper was downstairs behind that locked door, she couldn’t let Lachlan be killed now. Her mind reeled and she opened her mouth to shriek a warning, but the man’s hand shot forward, plunging the knife into Lachlan’s side.

She shrieked anyway, and then watched in awe as Lachlan slammed the man once more into the wall, twisted his knife hand viciously to the side, and finally delivered a crushing punch to the man’s jaw. He slid to the floor and Lachlan turned around, his eyes blazing with berserk fury. He staggered a few steps toward her, growling with the pain of the knife wound.

She blinked from one to the other before realizing that Lachlan was still alive, standing upright in fact, and swearing under his breath. She hurried forward to help him.

“Aw, crap,” Evelyn said, pulling aside his waistcoat and shirt to see the damage. “I thought we might get out of this without you getting stabbed.”

He pushed her hands away and pressed against the wound to stanch the blood flow. “I dinna think it’s all that bad this time,” he said. “Just a scrape.” He looked down at his immobilized attacker with a frown. “I hope I didna break his neck.”

“So much for the place not being guarded,” she said. “I hope he was the only one.” She knelt beside him and searched his pockets for keys, assuring Lachlan that he was still alive, though hopefully he’d stay unconscious for a good long time. He didn’t have a key, so they went back to searching.

“They aren’t here,” she said after they’d desperately gone through every drawer and cupboard. She fiddled around with her dress, looking for one of the pins that fastened everything together. “Maybe we can pick the lock.”

Lachlan held his side, looking at the locked door. With a sigh and another muttered oath, he hurled himself at it, barely rattling it, but immediately trying again. After three attempts, he managed to crack the frame. Evelyn could see he was in terrible pain, but he steeled himself and rammed his shoulder into the door once more, this time with success.

He leaned over to catch his breath, clutching his side in agony, as Evelyn hurried past him into the room.

Piper lay unmoving in the corner, a tiny, shawl wrapped heap. Evelyn gasped, afraid of what she might find, and fell to the ground beside her, gently rolling her over. She was filthy and her skin was cold, but a soft groan escaped her cracked lips, filling Evelyn with intense relief. She was alive, but couldn’t seem to wake up.

Lachlan fell to the ground beside them and took Piper in his arms, calling her name and stroking her tangled hair away from her face. Her eyelids fluttered open and shut and she weakly grabbed at his jacket.

“Lachlan,” she rasped. “You came for me again.”

Lachlan looked at Evelyn, who shook her head, then tried to open Piper’s eyes. Her pupils were dilated and she groggily turned her face away from the lantern light.

“I think she’s dreaming,” Evelyn said, letting Piper close her eyes again. “They must have dosed her with something, the bastards.”

“She is drugged?” Lachlan asked, his face such that Evelyn was glad they were friends. “We must get her out of here.”

He gathered her up and stood, holding her close to his chest. The shawl that had been covering her fluttered to the ground and Evie retrieved it and draped it around her. She led the way up the stairs, holding the lantern aloft. At the top of the stairs, she stopped abruptly and turned back to Lachlan.

“The guard is gone,” she said, as panic started to swell.

They hadn’t been down in the room for more than ten minutes, surely. How long had the guard been gone? How much of a head start did he have and how big of an alarm was he about to raise?

All these thoughts plowed through her mind, stealing her ability to move. She stood there staring at the spot where the man had been lying until Lachlan nudged her with his elbow and nodded down at Piper. Right, they had to get out of there.

They hurried out the back door, where Evelyn was certain a crowd of angry villagers would be waiting to grab them, but it was just dark, quiet night. Lachlan paused and looked around, then tipped his chin in the direction they needed to go. She heard angry shouts coming from the street side of the house, far too close by.

“Run,” Lachlan said.

Evelyn followed at a dead sprint, getting scratched by low hanging branches and stumbling on roots, afraid of taking a header into a hole, but more terrified of losing them in the dark. Her sleeve snagged on a branch, whipping her back and making her lose valuable ground. When she got herself unstuck, she was disoriented and turned around and for a breathless second, couldn’t hear Lachlan ahead of her anymore.

Behind her, or maybe it was to her left, she heard the angry rumble of the people who were after them, and all around her were ominous shapes. She didn’t dare call out and took a few steps, straining her ears for a sign of which way to go. A big hand locked around her wrist and jerked her forward.

“Hurry,” Lachlan said, voice harsh and low.

They ran on, the others gaining on them, until Lachlan stopped, breathing heavily. She ran into him and staggered back a few steps to see they were in a tiny clearing. The fact that she could see at all from the moon shining down on them through the break in the trees was enough to fill her with renewed hope for their situation, until Lachlan put Piper down. Why were they stopping, when the mob was so close on their heels?

He patted Piper’s cheeks and shook her until she opened her eyes.

“Lachlan?” she asked, her voice still weak, but she sounded more coherent than when they were in the cell.

Evelyn knelt beside them, prickling with fear. “We have to keep going,” she said.

“Evie, are you here too?” Piper turned her head toward Evelyn.

Evelyn laughed, so happy she was awake, and leaned over so Piper could see her. “I’m here too.”

Piper struggled to sit up, retching from the effort. “Is this real?” she asked.

Lachlan helped her sit upright, guiding her toward Evelyn. He took Evelyn’s chin and made her look at him. In the dark moonlight, his face was stark, resolved. Her stomach sank.

“Ye have to continue on with her,” he said. She shook her head, absolutely unwilling and unable to go on without him. “Ye must,” he said. She could hear the warrior hardness in his voice. He no longer had the luxury of being chivalrous and wasn’t going to treat her like she was some soft woman. She was a soldier under his command now. She had a job to do. “I shall divert that lot from your path, and meet up with ye as soon as I may.”

“Lachlan, let’s just stay together,” she pleaded.

Piper weakly held onto his jacket as if she understood he was about to leave them.

“They’re too close, and they know our direction. Wake her as much as ye can. We shall leave the moment I get back to ye.” He untangled Piper’s hold and kissed her hand, then leaned over and kissed her mouth, whispering something to her that Evelyn couldn’t hear. He stood up abruptly and yanked her up with him, pointing into the distance. “That way is the river. Dinna stop until ye reach it, then go north. I shall find ye when I stop them.”

“Okay,” she said, too stunned and scared to argue.

He gripped her shoulders and leaned over to peer into her eyes, perhaps trying to infuse her with some courage, then took off toward the sound of their pursuers.

She tried to remember quotes on bravery while she dragged Piper to standing. It was a good thing she was of such birdlike proportions. Evelyn supposed if she had to, she could probably carry her for at least a short distance.

“Come, on,” she said. “Let’s move it.”

She got under her arm and helped her take a few steps, half dragging her, half flopping her forward like a rag doll. The bracing night air and getting her to use her legs seemed to revive her enough to realize where she was, who she was with, and who had just left. Even in her weak, drugged state, she worked up enough resistance to make Evelyn stop. Evelyn heard shouts and clanging behind them and wanted to scream.

“Damn it, Piper, we have to go fast, not stop.”

Piper rubbed her eyes. With her dirty, tear streaked face, she looked about twelve years old. She looked up at the trees and swayed on her feet. “This is real?” she asked in a small, cracked voice.

Evelyn shook her, filled with exasperation and heartbreak at her condition. “Yes, but we have to go. We really have to go.”

Piper made a quavery, hopeful sound. “Lachlan’s here? He’s alive?”

Evelyn nodded, but didn’t think Piper could see it in the dark. “He is, he’s going to meet up with us at the river. But we have to get to the river, okay?” Piper started to go down again, and Evelyn grabbed her elbow.

After a moment of tearful laughter and labored breathing, Piper straightened and started to walk, shakily, but on her own. Something had strengthened her resolve and Evelyn wasn’t going to question it as long as they were moving in the right direction. Soon, they were jogging, with Piper only pausing occasionally to cough or clutch her head, and after an eternity of terror filled tripping and scrambling through the underbrush, Evelyn could hear the rush of the river.

Piper fell to her hands and knees at the water’s edge, plunging her face into the icy current. She eagerly drank handful after handful of water before crawling away and collapsing. Evelyn’s dry throat longed for her to do the same, but she feared getting some sort of parasite. Even in her own time she wouldn’t want to drink from the river. She decided to hold out a bit longer, and hope Lachlan returned quickly. Or just returned.

She sat down next to Piper and took her hand, still worried about her labored breathing. “How do you feel?” she asked.

“I think I caught a cold,” Piper said. She sat up, looking awake at last. “I don’t know, but I think they put something in my food or water. I still feel kind of muzzy.”

“Bastards,” Evelyn muttered, then scooted closer to Piper. She shivered to think that the next day she was going to be put on trial, then possibly, most likely if the mystery man was to be believed, drowned. “We need to keep moving. Lachlan wants us to go north now that we’re at the river.”

Piper put her face in her hands, then looked up at her, absolute joy shining from her smile, even in the dim moonlight. “Where is he?”

“Fighting bad guys.” Evelyn stood and pulled Piper to her feet, giving her a second to find her balance. She looked down river, then up, feeling completely unfit to be in charge at the moment. “I hope you know which way north is,” she said finally.