Chapter Thirteen

Gavin pushed himself from the bed. He held his breath expecting throngs of pain, but thankfully, it wasn't as bad as he'd expected. There was tightness making it hard to take deep breaths, but other than that, he could move without the urge to moan.

He'd lost too many days. Thankfully the threat of the Mackenzies was gone, as far as they knew they'd left after realizing how big of a mistake it had been to attack Clan Ross. They should have sent scouts, or perhaps they'd done so and had been misinformed. Either way, they'd lost a lot of men in the effort to take over Clan Ross lands.

Knox had informed him that their guards had gone out to hunt any that remained behind. So far only two had been found. One in the woods, hiding in bushes and on the verge of death. He'd died within moments of being found. The second one had sought harbor at a farm, where a woman had been caring for the feverish and delirious man. They'd left him to either recover or die as the woman had defended him, bravely holding up a small dirk. "it would be a sin to kill a man already on his deathbed," she'd scolded.

He went to the window. A group of mounted men were heading out for their daily patrols. There was still the matter of the Mackinnon men who'd they'd been searching for. The men had proved to be wily. There were many places to hide, the simplest one was probably among the villagers as they'd not be given up by their own families.

Gavin lifted his arms miming the movements of pulling back the string on a bow. His injured side flared, and he lowered them. It was too soon.

The door opened and Flora entered with a tray of food. She looked to him with a wary expression. "Should ye be standing? Ye could fall."

Shrugging he slowly lowered onto a chair. "I am nae one to lay about."

The maid placed the tray on a table next to the chair. "Ye look better."

"Has Freya gone?" He wanted to pull back the words that he'd not dared to ask his brothers. Alex had told him the warriors from Uist would be leaving that day or the next.

"She has gone." Flora's brow furrowed, but she pressed her lips together, unwilling to say more, but she didn't make to leave either.

"Ye wish to say something?" Gavin urged.

The maid seemed to consider her words. "She cares deeply for ye, sir. It was fear that kept her from telling ye everything."

In his estimation, he'd reassured Freya, and she should have believed him. "Without trust, there is nothing."

"How hard would it be for ye to trust if someone killed yer family?" Flora gasped lifting both hands to cover her mouth at realizing she'd spoken too freely. "I apologize." The maid ran from the room.

The food lost its appeal. He stood up, albeit slowly, and returned to the window. Nothing seemed amiss, the portion of the courtyard he could see was no longer filled with people. Instead, several men stood talking, he recognized them as guards. Other than that, it seemed all had returned to normal. Whatever that meant.

He took several steps toward the doorway, ensuring to take slow breaths and not exert himself. Once at the doorway, Gavin continued to the stairwell.

When stepping down with his right leg all was fine; however, the left was another story. The action made his side stretch, which was painful. And he'd never realized just how many steps there were to reach the great room.

By the time he stood on the landing, he was out of breath and sweaty. His brothers, Cynden, Munro, and Alex sat with Knox and a pair of warriors. Everyone stopped talking and looked to him.

"What are ye doing?" It was Alex, of course, who would chastise him. "Ye should nae have come down unassisted."

He ignored his eldest brother and went to the table where he lowered gingerly to sit. "Ale please."

A tankard was placed before him, and he drank it down greedily.

There was an awkward silence, and clearing of throats as those seated waited to see what Alexander would do about Gavin.

"Why are ye here?" Gavin asked Munro.

His brother looked to Alex who replied. "Another attack. This time to one of Munro's men."

The laird let out a breath. "Continue Munro,"

"As I was saying," Munro said eyeing Gavin. "When he didn't show up for practice, a pair of my men went to search for him."

Gavin gawked at his brother. "Why did no one tell me there's been another attack?"

"Because we are just now finding out," Cynden said giving him a pointed look. "Ye should be in bed."

"I am nae that badly injured." Gavin looked around the room, expecting to see Freya although knowing she'd gone.

Knox spoke next. "Did anyone see the attack?"

Munro nodded. "Some bairns were playing in the woods. They saw the group come upon him. They said he fought back, but there were six of them and easily overtook him."

"Aren't yer guard all MacKinnons?" Gavin asked.

"Aye, most. He was nae. It was Seamus."

At his brother uttering the name, Gavin squeezed his eyes shut. Seamus was young. Had only joined the guard force a pair of years earlier. He'd been Munro's squire before then and had followed him when he'd taken over for the Mackinnon.

"He was returning from visiting family in the village here," Munro added, his face twisting with rage. "He didnae have a chance against six."

"Cowards," Alex growled out the word. "We must find them and make them pay for this."

They continued making plans to begin scouring for the attackers.

"We will begin with the village near me," Munro said. "We got good descriptions from the bairns. One of my men admitted to one of them sounding familiar by what the bairns described."

Knox grunted. "If not in the village, I venture to guess they must be hiding near or on yer lands Munro. They know that area much better than the ones closer to this keep."

As they discussed, a pair of maids entered and began scrubbing tables. Another walked in with a tray piled with bread and different cheeses.

Movements brisk, she came closer and waited for Alexander to notice her. When he did, she asked if he wished for the food. His brother motioned to a nearby table. "Put it there, we can fetch it if we desire."

As much as he wanted to ask about Freya, he wouldn't do it in front of the others. As they continued to talk, he returned his attention to the subject at hand, his mind reeling. How was it that these men had gotten away with the attacks for so long?

Each man got orders as how to proceed from Alexander and left to relay them to their men.

Alexander gave Gavin a pointed look. "Go back upstairs and rest." He walked from the room toward the doorway.

Knox remained back, leaned back in the chair, his keen gaze taking Gavin in. "Ye will nae be able to ride for at least a sennight."

"I am aware. I can still help with…" Gavin couldn't quite think of what he could do other than perhaps hear villager's complaints."

His cousin chuckled. "I am nae one to lay about either, but needs must."

"Freya?"

There was a stretch of silence as Knox considered the question.

His gut twisted. "Tis not a hard question to answer. What happened?"

"She left." Knox let out a breath. "Tis for the best, I suppose."

"To Uist?"

Lips pressed tight; Knox shook his head. "Nay, she left on her own."

Air left his lungs, and he searched his cousin's face. "What do ye mean? Where to?"

"We can never hope to understand women and how they think. She dinnae leave any message. Just went on her own. May not have wished to go to Uist."

"Did anyone go after her?" His mind was reeling. How could they have let her go and not ensured she'd not come to harm?

Knox didn't have to reply. Nothing had been done. There were more pressing matters with the recent Mackenzie invasion, his injury and other guards still recovering. Then there was the matter of the six men attacking clan's people randomly.

"There were people looking for her. The ones she was running from." He didn't mention the attackers could have gotten her. The thought of that made him sick to his stomach.

"What can we do? She is free to do as she wishes."

Gavin glared at Knox. "How long since she left?"

When his cousin shrugged Gavin wanted to hit him. "Not sure. One of the maids Flora told us the day the warriors from Uist were returning. I would say two days, perhaps three."

Ignoring the pain, Gavin stood. "I will send someone to find out where she went." He wasn't foolish enough to try and mount, at the same time, it was hard to trust that anyone would care enough to search for her as diligently as he would.

Knox held up a hand to stop him from walking away. "I've already made some inquiries," he admitted hesitating before continuing. "She went with a couple that were headed to Dornie, the small village on the mainland. She is safe."

"Ye did that?" Gavin wanted to kiss his cousin.

"I knew ye would be… er upset when finding out she'd gone. Gavin, ye must let her go. The lass never planned to stay here. As ye said, people are looking for her and the last thing we need is more trouble for our people."

He tried to remember the last words he'd said to her. Gavin let out a breath.

A sensation of foreboding overtook him, and he met Knox's gaze. "Other than the attacks, has anything else happened?"

"Nay," Knox replied seeming relieved he'd changed the subject.

"What of the Clan Mackenzie?"

"A few stragglers here and there. We have a pair here who gave themselves up. Alexander has yet to decide what to do with them. Keeping them locked up in one of the rooms for now."

They didn't have a dungeon, which meant prisoners were usually kept under lock and key with guards outside the door.

"Are ye patrolling today?"

Knox gave him a knowing look. "Aye, I and three are assisting in patrolling near Munro's lands. I will make inquiries about Freya."

Gavin let out a breath and nodded.

The hardest part of the healing process was going to be the inability to help in the search for the attackers. Not only that, if he were to be honest, he would have already ridden out to search for Freya to ensure no harm came to her.

Whether he was ready to admit it or not. He was in love with her.