Chapter 20

Ye're to dress gey quick, m'lady," Kenna said as Sorcha tried to wipe sleep from her eyes and tearstains from her cheeks without revealing the latter to her impatient handmaiden. "I let ye sleep late, but Sir Hugo did say ye mean to ride outside this morning. He would choose a horse for ye afore he goes to Edgelaw."

"Well, I cannot ride in what I wore yesterday or the day before," Sorcha said. "Mayhap if you can find the clothing I was wearing when I arrived…"

"Och, nay, m'lady. Lady Isobel has a lovely green riding dress ye can wear, and she'll no mind a bit. I'll just run fetch it whilst ye're washing your face."

Sorcha had not thought about riding, because if Edgelaw lay only three miles south of Roslin as Hugo had told her it did, it would take less than an hour to walk there. Moreover, if Einar expected to accompany her without showing himself to any watchers, he could scarcely be going to ride a horse.

In any event, her feet were still sore from the previous night's walk in Isobel's thin slippers, so she would not object if Hugo insisted. Moreover, if she and Adela had to make speed once they were away from the peel tower, they could do so much better on horseback than afoot, even if Adela had to ride pillion.

Twenty minutes later, wearing Isobel's forest-green riding dress, a pair of her soft leather boots, and a lace net beneath a flat green cap to cover her hair, she was ready. Hurrying downstairs, she went straight out to the stable, tearing chunks of bread from a manchet loaf Kenna had given her to break her fast.

As she chewed, she indulged in a brief vision of herself atop Black Thunder. He could certainly travel fast enough, even with two women atop him.

However, the horse Hugo led out for her was a gentle-looking gray palfrey that did not look as if it had galloped a step in its life.

She looked at Hugo, and suddenly it was as if he had just kissed her, for her body warmed at the sight of him, and her lips felt swollen again. When he touched her to lift her to the saddle, she wanted to put her arms around him and hug him.

Then he handed her a wooden whistle, saying with a grin, "If you need it, blow hard, lass. It makes a lovely, loud screech, and it will let Einar or anyone else who hears it know you need help."

She grinned back at him, excited to be doing something again. Then she said, "Won't your men think it odd that you are letting me ride out alone?"

"If they do, they won't say so," he said. "Now, heed me closely. You want to cross the river over the arched stone bridge. You'll bear left on the other side and follow the narrow cart track you'll see there, up the glen until you come to the top of a rise and see a gray stone castle in a big clearing a little less than a mile ahead."

"That will be Edgelaw."

"Aye. You'll see the tower, too, for it lies between the rise and the castle. My men and I will take the main road along the east rim of the glen. We should be in place well before you arrive at the tower. Einar will be nearby and may give you news if he has gleaned any. He may even tell you to return to Roslin."

When she stiffened, he put his hand on her knee, looked into her eyes, and said quietly, "I must know that you will obey him."

Sighing, she said, "I won't like it, sir, but I will do as he bids me. Just remember, though, that I am trusting you just as you are trusting me."

"I know that, and I'll not let you down. We'll have Adela out of there, and I'll do my best to make Waldron face the countess for what he has done. I cannot promise about either one, but my best usually serves the purpose. And if you do as I bid you, and as Einar bids you, you should all three get back here safely."

He reached out then and caught her arm, giving it a gentle squeeze as his gaze met hers. "Go warily now, and stay wise."

"I will, sir, and thank you for understanding that I had to go."

"Aye, well, I understand you well enough, Skelpie," he said with a wry smile. "It should please you to know that I spoke with your father last night and told him that I'd be honored to marry the lady Adela if she will have me."

A tremor swept over her, but she rallied quickly. "Sakes, what did he say?"

"He agreed that it should answer the purpose admirably," he said. "Now, off with you, and may all go well."

Sorcha kicked the palfrey a trifle harder than she had intended.

Hugo watched her go, hoping he had not made a tragic decision. She was intrepid, quick of thought, and intelligent. And, too, she seemed to have a knack for coming through the most outrageous actions unscathed. But hitherto her success had depended as much on luck as on anything else, and as any soldier knew, luck was a two-edged sword. One had to expect the bad with the good.

He had no idea what Waldron had planned. So, although he had done all he could to ensure her safety, and had received no word yet to indicate that a trap awaited her, he could not be sure he had done enough.

At least he had talked with Macleod. And, although he had accurately reported what that gentleman had said, they had talked of much more. And, if what Macleod had said proved true, he had a chance to regain control of his own affairs again. If so, it would be worth whatever it took, but only if his lass could come through it all safely.

Finding the cart track easily, Sorcha resigned herself to the palfrey's pace, telling herself that Hugo and his men needed time to get to Edgelaw. Einar Logan had to be able to keep up with her, too, although she had seen no sign of him. Only once did she think she caught movement in the shrubbery, but try as she did, she saw no other indication that any watchers of Hugo's, or of Waldron's, lurked nearby.

The woodland through which she passed was dense and green. The day was clear, and sunbeams spilled through the canopy, glinting off diamondlike drops of dew on ferns and shrubbery. Birds chirped and squirrels chattered, but her ride was otherwise silent and not much faster than if she had walked.

She came to the rise at last, and saw the peel tower, looking like a tall standing stone in a clear space a short distance from the bottom of the hill. The castle loomed large beyond it in a great, grassy clearing with a frothy river flowing through it that she knew was not the river North Esk. Not only had she followed the Esk through the glen until the cart track turned uphill away from it, but in the moonlight with Hugo on Roslin's ramparts she had seen clearly that the Esk approached the castle from hills in the west, then looped around it to flow northward toward the Firth of Forth.

Coming from nearby shrubbery on her right, Einar Logan's voice startled her. "Dinna look this way, me lady," he warned. "Ride on down the track to yon tower now. But dinna get off the horse, nae matter what the lady Adela says to ye. She can climb on ahind ye gey easily from the tower steps or from some rock, but dinna get down—nae for any reason. And when she climbs on, turn the beast about and kick it hard. It'll bring ye back here at a good pace an ye do that."

When he said no more, she urged the palfrey on, watching the peel tower warily for signs of life. She saw none, nor any sign of Adela, even when she neared the clearing where the tower stood. She had a direct view of the arched, iron-banded door at its base. But not until she drew rein at the clearing's edge did the door open.

Adela stepped outside. Still wearing her bedraggled blue wedding dress with some sort of dark cloak flung over it, she silently motioned Sorcha nearer.

Increasingly wary, Sorcha glanced about her, knowing that Waldron could have set men in trees all around them. But she sensed no other presence, only Adela's. Wondering if she was being wise to trust her own senses, she gathered her courage and urged the palfrey to the shallow steps.

Adela stood there, unmoving, watching her wide-eyed. "You came," she said when Sorcha and the palfrey were right in front of her. "I did not think you would."

"Aye, sure, I came," Sorcha said as she turned the palfrey, which seemed to know exactly what she wanted of it. "Climb on. We'll soon be away from here."

Adela looked around as if she expected someone to stop them, but no one appeared. "This seems so strange," she said. "I have been captive such a long time that I don't feel like myself at all. Your being here with me simply does not seem possible. His letting me go seems even less so."

"Don't stand chattering," Sorcha said impatiently. "If you cannot climb on from there, we need to find something else for you to stand on."

"You are smaller and lighter than I am," Adela said. "Get down and help me up. Then I can pull you up."

"You must mount by yourself, Adela. I'll help you all I can, but I will not get off this horse. Not here. Where is Waldron?"

"He said he'd be in the castle. Sir Hugo is coming to try to make him appear before the countess. She is angry with him. Did I not tell you that in my message?"

"We can talk as we ride, so hurry! What if he comes after us?"

"He won't. He said he was letting me go. He had a sign from God telling him to set me free, he said, because he had punished me enough. But I do not think we can trust him. Indeed, I still do not know what I did to deserve such punishment."

Sorcha did not want to imagine how he might have punished her. She said more curtly than before, "Get on the horse, Adela. Now."

At last, Adela moved to mount the palfrey, and it proved easier than Sorcha had expected, for the animal stood as steadily as if it were made of wood. As she kicked its sides she felt a prickling sensation, as if someone were watching them.

She told herself it was no more than her own nerves reacting, but she eased the whistle from her bodice lacing, where she had tucked it after Hugo had given it to her. And she kept it in her hand as she kicked the palfrey harder. It began to move faster than she had expected, back along the track and up the hill.

The prickling sense of being watched did not desist.

Hugo and his men had arrived at the barred gates of Edgelaw thirty minutes before. But although he had shouted, demanding entrance, the response so far had been no more than a voice from behind the hoarding at the top of the left-hand gate tower, shouting back, "Aye, sir. I'll send a man t' tell the master!"

Knowing Waldron would like nothing better than to stir his impatience, Hugo steeled himself to reveal none. But his ears were on the prick for the slightest sound of a whistle from the west, where Sorcha should be meeting Adela at any moment, if Adela showed up.

After the first ten minutes, he had signed to two men to circle the castle. He also kept a wary eye out for archers above, but all seemed quiet enough.

Like most of his men, he wore a leather jack-of-plate, thick leather breeks and boots, and a helmet. The only thing to distinguish him from the others was the lad beside him bearing the Sinclair banner, and the fact that his own helmet was black and bore the white lion device of Dunclathy.

His father and Michael had donned similar leather garments and carried similar black helmets. Having ridden with the men, they waited with them now. And from a distance both looked enough like Hugo to be indistinguishable from him.

The voice from the hoarding shouted, "The master does say he be presently occupied wi' important business. He'll see ye in half an hour."

"Tell your master that, by the countess Isabella's command, if the gates of Edgelaw do not open to me forthwith, or if the lord Waldron fails to appear before her today, his tenancy here will end," Hugo shouted. "All within its walls will face charges of trespass and a hanging just as soon as she finds it convenient."

"I hear ye, sir! I'll take his lordship that message for ye."

Hugo prepared himself for another struggle with his patience.

Another horse moved up to a position just behind his, and Michael said quietly, "Do we know absolutely that he is here?"

Hugo grimaced. Without turning his head or moving his lips more than necessary, he muttered, "None of our lads saw him leave. That's all I know."

Michael was silent, but he and Hugo had no need of words to communicate. When the two men Hugo had sent round the castle returned to report no sign of siege preparations or any more activity than usual on the ramparts, Hugo did not need Michael's audible grunt of irritation to tell him that Waldron had most likely slipped away. The question foremost in his mind then was how many men he had managed to take with him and to what exact purpose.

His thoughts raced. He'd had men watching the castle and the area around it from the ridge above Roslin Glen since shortly after the countess had made her decision. But his cousin was as adept at concealing himself in darkness as Michael was, which was to say the man moved like a ghost. No army could have slipped out unnoticed, however, nor had Hugo's men seen any sign of a large force at Edgelaw. At most only two or three of Waldron's most skilled followers were with him.

Making his decision, he said quietly to Michael, "I think he's gone. But if he has any of his army left, they are inside those walls, waiting for us. It's time."

"Aye," Michael said. "Let's move."

Sorcha's skin prickled now almost as if she had a fever.

Clinging tightly to her, Adela said, "Where are we going?"

"To Roslin. Isobel is there with her babe."

"Faith, I don't want to see her! How can I face any of them?"

"You will be fine," Sorcha said, forcing herself to add, "Sir Hugo means to make it all right, Adela. I know you love him, and he has told Father that he wants to marry you. No one can say anything then but that you are his honored wife."

"Hugo would do that? After all this?" She sounded stunned.

"Aye," Sorcha said. "He is sorry he neglected to tell us he could not set aside his vow to Ranald to support Donald's claim to the Lordship. Had he told us, no one would have thought it was he who rode off with you."

"Is that why he did not come?"

"It is, and had we known, Father and Ardelve, and all the other men, would have ridden after you and rescued you straightaway."

"I am not so sure they could have," Adela said. "But 'tis kind of Sir Hugo."

Sorcha wanted to say that it was not kind of him at all, that it was no more than a matter of his duty. But she could not bring herself to say that, because Adela loved him and she would not spoil that. Sacrificing her own happiness to restore Adela's reputation was but a…

The thought failed her, and she wondered abruptly where Einar was.

"I don't like this place," Adela said. "These woods feel haunted."

"Hush," Sorcha said, slowing the palfrey to its customary pace. She did not want to call Einar's name, because Adela was right. It felt as if watchers lurked everywhere, although she still saw no one.

Surely, unless Einar were dead, he would soon give them some direction.

The thought of him dead made her shiver, but she forced herself to keep her eyes moving, searching the trees ahead, watching for the slightest sign of trouble.

She wished the palfrey would go faster, but she did not want it to outrun Einar. She was also afraid that after pushing it up the hill, to push it farther might result in its refusing to go at all. The thought struck then that Hugo must have had good reason, beyond simply wanting time for himself and his men to reach Edgelaw, for choosing the beast for her. She tried to relax.

Adela gave a muffled shriek. "There's a man in those bushes!"

"Ride on, mistress," Einar muttered just loudly enough for Sorcha to hear him. " 'Tis only me. I'm following ahind ye, but ha' a care, and if aught happens, stay on the palfrey and cling tight unless I tell ye to dismount."

Relief flooded through her at the sound of his voice, and she nodded. She felt safe enough doing so, believing any watcher would think Adela had spoken to her.

They had ridden but twenty yards farther when a man darted from the bushes ahead and snatched at the palfrey's reins. To Sorcha's astonishment, the horse reared, viciously slashing the air with both front hooves. And when the man darted sideways away from it, it dropped its front hooves, whipped around, and kicked with both hind feet together, knocking the villain flat on his back.

Urging the palfrey on, Sorcha kicked hard again, and it broke into a lope as Adela cried, "Mercy, he's getting up! He's following us. Oh, Sorcha, he's going to catch us." Then, with a gasp, "Oh! He's fallen. He's… he's got a knife in his back, and he hasn't stirred. I… I recognize him, Sorcha. He's one of his lordship's men."

"Who's his lordship?"

"Waldron, of course. I don't know why I called him that again."

"Too bad it wasn't Waldron himself," Sorcha said, sure the knife was Einar's.

"You should not say such a thing! You don't know him as I do."

"I'd think you would be glad you needn't know him any longer," Sorcha said tartly. "He is an evil man, and the countess means to evict him from Edgelaw."

"He said he feared she might," Adela said. "But, truly, although he can be cruel, he is only a man doing what he believes is right."

Sorcha wanted to insist that Waldron was pure evil, a lunatic. But increased tension in Adela's voice stopped her, and she held her peace.

"Another man is following us!" Adela cried.

Sorcha looked back, saw Einar pull his knife from the fallen man's back and drag him off the track. She reined the palfrey to an even slower pace.

"Mercy, what are you doing?"

"That is Sir Hugo's man, the one who spoke to us earlier from the bushes," Sorcha said. "We're well into the glen now. I expect he'll soon tell us we're safe."

She glanced back again just as, to her horror, Einar fell flat on his face with an arrow in his back.

Jerking the reins, she flung her right leg over the palfrey's neck and snapped, "Hold these, Adela," as she jumped to the ground. "If aught happens to me, kick hard and ride for the castle. It can't be more than fifteen or twenty minutes ahead now. Just don't let the palfrey slacken its pace, and you will make it safely."

"But Sorcha—"

Sorcha paid no heed but snatched up her skirts and ran as fast as she could run the short distance back to Einar.

"Please don't be dead," she said, flinging herself down beside him.

"I'm no dead yet, but he'll be on us in a trice," he muttered. "D'ye see yon great beech tree ahead o' us, where the track curves?"

"Aye, but I cannot leave you here."

"Ye can, and ye must, or the master will flay me an he finds out. So, heed me well. Ride on to that beech. Then dismount, the pair o' ye, and smack that beast gey hard three times on its rump. It'll head for its stable then. When it does, dive into the bushes beyond that great tree and push your way through as best ye can. Dinna let yourselves be seen from the track, though! Soon ye'll come to yon cliffside."

"Einar, if he's coming…"

"He's well back o' us in a tree, and he's got nae horse. It'll take him five minutes to reach us, mayhap a bit less," he added, wincing. "Enough to give ye a head start, so he'll follow the horse's tracks. D'ye recall the cave, lass?"

Shocked that he would mention it, but recalling the voice she had thought might be his, she nodded, realized his eyes had closed again, and said, "I do."

"When ye come to the cliff, ye'll see a scrub tree sticking out from its face. Just north o' that tree, ahind some thick myrtle bushes, be an entrance to the cave. Ye'll find it easily. But go now, and dinna make a sound once you're away from the track. If ye canna trust the lady Adela, send her on wi' the horse."

"Einar, I've got to get you hidden before we can leave."

"Ye're no to fret about me. I'll do for myself when I ken fine that ye're well away. It'll do me nae good to survive this day if ye do not. Now, away wi' ye!"

Sorcha went, but tears streamed down her face, because she was sure he had just sacrificed his life for her and for Adela. Even so, she could not heed his advice to send Adela with the palfrey. She did not believe Adela could betray her, and she was nearly as certain as she could be that if Adela tried to ride on to Roslin without her, she would not get there alive.

Accordingly, Sorcha ran back to the palfrey, and without trying to mount it, grabbed the reins from Adela, told her to kick hard, and then ran ahead to the curve in the track, past the beech tree. Once she could no longer see Einar, she ordered Adela to jump down, smacked the palfrey, and grabbing Adela by the hand, pulled her into the bushes, saying, "Not a word, for we must be as quiet as we can. But we must also move as quickly as we can to that cliff ahead of us."

"But why? I thought we were going to Roslin."

"Sakes, Adela, someone just shot Hugo's man who was guarding us with an arrow from a tree that he says is nigh onto five minutes behind us as a man runs. That man, to make that bowshot, has to be an extraordinary archer."

Adela gasped. "Waldron! It must be he. We cannot escape him, Sorcha. It is no use trying. Oh, I knew it!"

"If you cannot say anything sensible, hold your tongue," Sorcha snapped. "I won't leave you, so if he captures you, he will also get me."

"Oh, no!"

"Then come on! And try not to break any branches that he can see from the track. We want him to follow the palfrey."

Adela shook her head as if at a foolish child, but she made no more objections and moved as Sorcha told her to move until they were well away from the track. Had the cliff before them not been so high, they would not have been able to see where they were going any more than they could now see the track behind them.

When Sorcha spied the shrub Einar had described growing out of the cliff, they increased their pace.

"Look for tall, thick myrtle bushes near the cliff face," she whispered.

"I don't know myrtle, and all this shrubbery is thick," Adela said in a normal tone. When Sorcha gave her an angry look, she lowered it to add, "But why must we whisper? We're too far away now for anyone to hear."

"You don't know that," Sorcha muttered. "Now hush."

She had to feel through several bushes for an opening before she found one. Then she had to pull Adela with her to get near it. Up close, it seemed no more than a tall slab of rock with a narrow crevice behind, and for a moment, she feared she had mistaken some other oddity in the rock face for the entrance they sought. She was sure no adult male could slip through such a space—not Hugo, Michael, or Sir Edward, and certainly not her father, who enjoyed robust proportions.

But when she grabbed hold of the slab to try to squeeze into the space, the slab moved, and she saw that it was similar to the doors of the other tunnel entrances she had seen. Inside, the passage was wide enough for two to stand side by side, but when she tried to pull the door shut, it would go no farther than before.

"We cannot stay here," she said. "Any noise we made would easily reach anyone nearby. We must move farther inside."

"But what is this place?" Adela hissed.

" 'Tis naught but a cave," Sorcha said, knowing Adela would ask more questions and trying to think what she could say. She did not want to lie but neither could she answer honestly without betraying her promise to Hugo. Then a memory provided her the words she needed. "Wallace once hid here. Or mayhap 'twas the Bruce. I forget which, but it is well known in these parts and should keep us safe."

"But if it is well known—"

"Just that it exists, Adela, not where it is. It is on Sinclair property, after all."

"But it's dreadfully dark. How long must we stay?"

"Until someone comes for us," Sorcha said, feeling more at risk with every word. Recalling the many hiding places in the cavern, she weighed the chance of Adela's later remembering where they were against the probability of Waldron's finding them if they stayed near the entrance. Even if she could persuade Adela to be silent, she was not sure she could trust her to remain so if he called to her.

But if she could not hear him…

"I've heard they leave torches not far inside," she said. "If we can find one, mayhap I can light it if they also thought to provide a tinderbox and flint."

Adela was clearly unhappy about the cave, but she was just as clearly more afraid of staying behind in the dark than of going with Sorcha. So they felt their way until Sorcha found the torches, flint, and tinderbox that she had felt certain would be there. Giving an unlit torch to Adela, and keeping one for herself, she made her sister keep walking until they could no longer see even a glimmer of light from the tunnel opening before she lit her own torch.

"Now, hurry," she said. "We don't want anyone seeing torchlight from outside." The more she thought about it, the odder it seemed that the slab had refused to shut behind them and lock the way the two tunnel doors had. Perhaps it had caught on something. She ought to have looked more carefully.

The great cavern loomed head of them, and although its size swallowed most of the light, Adela gasped. "Merciful heaven, is that water ahead?"

"Aye, there is a l-lake," Sorcha said, her voice stumbling when she held the torch higher and its light fell upon two good-sized brassbound chests, one at the water's edge not far away and the other sitting some yards from it, next to the dais.

"Faith, it's the treasure!" Adela exclaimed. "He'll come now. I know he will!"

Hugo urged Black Thunder to his fastest pace, fearing with every stride the great horse took that they would be too late. No whistle had sounded, or if it had, the lass had been too far away for him to hear it. He had known it would not carry beyond the walls of the glen, but the greatest danger had existed when she was near the peel tower, and he had wanted her to have it then.

Michael had taken command of the men after a neat maneuver in which Hugo had turned the horse he was riding through the men behind him, where he and Michael had easily traded mounts in fair certainty that the exchange would not be noted from the castle.

Not only did Waldron not know Black Thunder, because the horse was Hector's, but even if his men had seen Hugo riding the black on the road, there had been more than one black in their string, and Hugo had changed horses regularly on the way. Furthermore, he knew that anyone who watched the Roslin men from the castle now would be more concerned about the several who had ridden forward to make another circuit of it than about anyone riding away.

When three had ridden away, one on a black horse, the other two on bays, all looking like ordinary soldiers, he was sure word had gone round inside that he was sending to Roslin for reinforcements.

He and Michael had not exchanged helmets, but Michael now wore a black one with a white Sinclair cock on it. From the castle, it would look like Hugo's lion.

He had easily outdistanced the other two, who knew only that he was heading into the glen. Every instinct told him that Waldron was ahead of him.

Hugo believed his cousin would not kill Sorcha, because Waldron wanted her as a hostage to trade for information about the treasure. However, he feared that if Waldron decided he had no more use for Adela, he might kill her.

Hugo knew he could not let that happen, because Sorcha would never forgive him or herself if Adela died. That she still insisted he marry Adela was another matter. He could only hope Adela did not want the marriage any more than he did. But, whether she did or not, her life was in his hands now, and he could not fail her.

Sorcha stared at Adela. "What makes you think those chests hold treasure?"

"You said this is Sinclair land, so it must be the treasure they took from the Holy Kirk, the one Waldron seeks. What else could it be in a place such as this?"

"Sakes, I don't know," Sorcha said. "But you cannot go around talking of treasure. Men will think you are mad or else abduct you again in hopes of finding such a thing. Hold out your torch, for I mean to light it and put them in those two holders on the wall. We will be a deal more comfortable if we need not carry them."

"Aye, lass, give her the torch," a voice said, startling both of them. "We want to light this place up, so we can see what is in those chests."

Sorcha whirled as Adela exclaimed, "I knew you would come!"

Waldron stood at the opening of the tunnel they had just come through, his hand on his sword.

His gaze shifted to Adela as he said, "Is anyone else here?"