Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

" W hat the…" The words escaped Kaden's lips on instinct.

There was a sharp cutting feeling around his bare wrists, his neck was aching from being at an unnatural angle, and his mouth was very dry. He knew that taste, it was consistent with having drunk a lot of wine or maybe having been drugged.

I didnae have that much mead…

Then he remembered the dizzy feelings from the night before. After he and Elara had made love, they'd been happily talking, curled up on the bed together when the tiredness had overwhelmed him.

Kaden jerked his head up, cricking his neck painfully. He groaned aloud, looking around the room when he found his wrists wouldn't move.

He was fastened to a chair, his wrists to the arms and his ankles to the legs. He was still only wearing his trews, and he'd been propped in the chair at that strange angle, his head weighing down his neck for so long, that it must have been the reason why it hurt so much.

He had been placed in a stone room, bare, utilitarian, without a chamber pot or even a grate in the corner to use as a privy. It wasn't a dungeon then, but some sort of food store, for the walls were emanating an icy coldness, suggesting they were deep underground.

"Elara?" he whispered her name before he saw her. Laid out on the floor just behind him, he saw the blood creeping down the back of her neck. "Elara!" he hissed, trying to break his binds to get to her, but the ropes had been pulled so tightly across his skin, he couldn't shift. He grunted in anger, trying to turn the chair around to face her, only to find that it had been fastened to the stone floor with an iron chain.

Elara wasn't moving though at least, she was breathing. He could see it in the way her chest rose up and down, her eyes perfectly closed.

"Elara!" he said again, louder this time.

Rather than drawing her attention though, he must have drawn the attention of those waiting outside.

The door opened. The first to walk in was Annabella, though this was hardly a surprise now. Who else would have Kaden imprisoned in her own castle? Behind her though, a man walked in who Kaden didn't recognize.

Built more like a bear than a man, he was tall and strong. Very well dressed, even immaculate in his presentation, it was clear without needing to ask that this had to be Annabella's husband. He bore a very similar to ring to what was on Annabella's finger.

"Ye were behind it then?" Kaden said, connecting the dots in his head. "Annabella…" he shook his head, not wanting to believe it. There had been a time in his life when he had thought he would marry her, though he had never really wanted to. The thought that he might have pledged himself for life to a woman who could orchestrate murder made bile rise in his throat.

"Lady Annabella," the man ordered, his voice brooking no refusal.

"Me husband," Annabella said with a sort of childish delight. "Laird Dylan. Of the Campbell and MacNaughton."

Kaden baulked. He had heard of Laird Campbell, but never seen him. All the things he had ever heard about the man were not good.

A memory of having dinner in this very castle shot across Kaden's mind. He was sat eating with his father and Laird Finnian when discussion had turned to the subject of Kaden possibly marrying Annabella.

"She has many suitors," Laird Finnian said, with evident distrust and unease at the thought, for he had tapped his claret glass repeatedly. "Laird Campbell is one of them."

"A warmonger," Kaden's own father had chimed in. "He's a man who would conquer all the clans if he could, through war."

"Well, he may want this one through marriage." Laird Finnian had gestured to the castle around them, clearly meaning his own clan. "It willnae happen though. He's nae getting his hands on me daughter."

Kaden blinked, his mind fully focused on the moment as he watched the way Annabella smiled, completely besotted with Laird Campbell beside her.

"We didnae think ye would come here, did we?" Annabella said, giggling again. "Ye made it so easy, Kaden."

"Should I even both asking why ye did all this?" Kaden's mind was still racing fast. "Or shall I just take a guess? Ye murdered me parents and Elara's tae make our clans weak, had Cassian and I died in that fire too…" He understood it all, though it was plain to see as his eyes fixed on Laird Campbell.

It was all about greed.

"Ye would have made our clans weak. All too easy fer ye two tae seize them in battle. There would have been nay male heirs." He shook his head, pulling so sharply against the ropes on his wrists that the chair creaked loudly.

Annabella shifted back a little, with clear nervousness, but Laird Campbell didn't move an inch.

"And yer faither?" Kaden asked, grunting as all he achieved was making the ropes around his wrists slice his skin open a little. "Was it even natural causes?" He looked up to see Laird Campbell smiling malevolently. At the very least, Annabella didn't look proud about this point, though she made some sort of attempt to lift her chin high that did not last long.

"Does anyone ken ye are here?" Dylan asked, clearly not intending to answer Kaden's questions.

"Aye." Kaden nodded. "I left a note fer me man at arms. He'll be here within hours." It was a lie. Though he had indeed left a note, the chance of Marcus making it here in hours was remote to say the least. Marcus had gone off chasing Lydia, and who knew how long that could take. "Ye dinnae need tae kill a lass tae get what ye want." Kaden looked back at Elara again.

At least, she was not bleeding heavily. The blood he could glimpse may have been a cut to the head from when she must have been struck, but he had to get her out of here. He wasn't going to run the risk of Elara dying as their parents had done.

"Ye have what ye want, me. So let her go."

"Yer wife?" Annabella said with clear disgust. She even stepped forward and nudged Elara's still body with the toe of her boot.

"Dinnae touch her!" Kaden tried to break free of his chair again. It just creaked beneath him, but Annabella scampered back all the same.

"Wives are powerful motivations tae make men dae things," Dylan observed, rather nonchalantly.

"She's nae me wife." Kaden suddenly saw a chance. It could have been his only chance. "I only said that because I thought it would be safer fer us here if we stayed together. I care naught fer her. Ye could leave her out on the moors and I wouldnae care. Ye can let her go, because harming her, will dae nothing tae persuade me tae dae anything for ye. She's worth nothing."

"And how would we get Cassian here then?" Annabella suggested.

Kaden's jaw fell slack.

By coming here, he had given them everything that they wanted. He'd held himself up for slaughter and handed them the very thing that could draw Cassian here – rescuing his sister.

"Let her go," Kaden demanded again in an undertone.

"If ye dinnae care fer her, then what should it matter, Kaden?" Annabella asked, looking down at Elara with such seditious hate that Kaden coiled himself, ready to spring like an adder as soon as he got a chance.

A sudden sound came from Elara. She sat up, gripping the back of her head.

"Elara?" Kaden called to her. "Elara? Are ye all right?"

She moved around on her knees, not daring to stand. Her eyes shot between Dylan and Annabella, but Kaden saw distinctly there was no surprise in her face. He sighed when he realized what must have happened last night when he was asleep.

"Ye didnae drink the mead, did ye?" he surmised.

"Nay," she whispered, still clinging to the back of her head. "He did this." She motioned to Dylan with her other hand.

Kaden made a mental note that when he was free of this chair, he would run Dylan through with a sword for daring to hurt Elara.

"I need tae use the privy," Elara said suddenly. "I take it ye dinnae want prisoners making a mess in here, dae ye?"

Annabella's eyes widened and Dylan shrugged.

"Ye take her tae the privy," Dylan said, waving a hand at Annabella. "I'll lock him in."

Elara was moved to her feet by Annabella. Kaden ached when he saw Elara bobbing on her feet, unsteady. Annabella didn't even really need to hold a knife to Elara's neck, she was weak enough as it was.

Once they were gone, Kaden stared up into the face of Dylan.

"Laird Campbell," Kaden muttered. "How many clans dae ye need tae be satisfied, I wonder?"

"Two's nae enough," he said with a smile. "Goodbye, Laird Stuart." With these final words, Dylan stalked out of the room and slammed the door.

Elara trembled as Annabella forced her down the corridor, a knife held shakily to her neck.

He said he doesnae care fer me. That's what he said!

Elara had laid there for a minute on the floor, not wanting to show she was awake. At first, it had been too difficult to lift her head, but when she realized what she was hearing, she had laid perfectly still, listening as much as she could to what was being said around her.

She had felt as if her heart had cracked into pieces. The fragments were impossible to put back together again, leaving a lump in her throat as she and Annabella moved down the corridor together.

I cannae believe he can make love with such passion, and yet nae mean it…

"In." Annabella kicked a door open. "Come on."

"Wait, I feel…" Elara had an idea. It had worked once already, pretending to faint in front of Elspeth in the Stuart castle, perhaps it was worth a try now?

"What?" Annabella said sharply.

Elara dropped forward, stumbling into the privy, letting her head drop as if it was weighing her down.

"Oomph!" She half fell into Annabella as she did so, knocking the dirk from her hand. "Ye great lump." Annabella pushed her off her, rolling Elara across the floor. The dirk glinted in front of Elara's eyes on the floor. She grabbed hold of it and leapt to her feet. "What – what are ye dae–" Annabella didn't manage to finish her screech.

Elara struck her across the back of the head with the hilt of the dagger. Annabella's head tipped back, her eyes slid closed, then she dropped to the floor. Elara peered back into the corridor behind her, but there were no guards around, no one to see what she had done. She grasped the keys hanging loosely off Annabella's belt, then hurried to close the privy door behind her, taking care to find the key and lock her in, constantly checking over her shoulder in case she was to be discovered.

Gritting her teeth against the pain in the base of her skull, Elara ran down the corridor, keeping to her toes, trying not to make a sound. When she reached the food store where they had been imprisoned, she tried keys in the lock. On the third go, the door opened, and she staggered into the room.

Kaden was still sat there, fighting against his ropes. He looked up at her, his eyes growing wide.

"Shh," she urged. "Nae a word or we may be overheard."

She used the dirk to cut through his ropes.

"Are ye all right?"

"What did I say about nae saying a word?" she hissed.

"Ye're bleeding, in the name of the wee man, Elara." He jumped to his feet once she had released his ankles and turned her around, examining the back of her head.

"We dinnae have time fer this." She shrugged him off. "Come on, before they come back."

She ran to the door, though moved too fast, and in her dizziness fell against the doorframe. Kaden's arm was also suddenly around her waist, keeping her up.

"Dinnae touch me," she spat at him under her breath.

"Let's leave that argument fer later, shall we? I ken where we are. We're near the kitchens behind the barracks. This way." He led her out of the room and down the corridor. They snuck along a wall, with Kaden constantly checking around corners to ensure there wasn't anyone there. He took the dirk from her to use as a weapon, but no one appeared in their way.

When they escaped through a door, they stumbled into a yard, with laundry hanging from string tied between the walls.

Kaden ran through the sheets, but Elara stopped and suddenly tore down a gown from the strings.

"What are ye doing?" he hissed back at her.

"Ye think ye willnae draw attention tae ye in town like that?" She tore down a shirt and threw it at him, rather keen to cover up his half nakedness as soon as possible. She didn't need the reminder of what they had done last night right now. "Get dressed."

They haphazardly both pulled clothes on.

Elara had just finished pulling on a gown and taking small boots off the line when someone entered the yard.

A maid screamed, dropping the basket and looking at them with wide eyes.

"Aye, perfect," Kaden said, reaching down and grabbing a pair of boots from the basket of shoes she had just laundered. "Good day tae ye, Miss." The maid suddenly blushed.

"Dae yer shirt up," Elara snapped at him and grabbed his arm, pulling him back across the yard.

They both ran again, sprinting out under an archway and toward the stable yard of the barracks. Elara wanted to argue that they should take two horses, but when she swayed on her feet, still dizzy, Kaden swept her onto the saddle before she could make any more argument.

The last view Elara had of the castle, they had shot under the portcullis, her arms gripping around Kaden's waist as they ran fast, with a guard shouting overhead, "Arenae they the prisoners?"

"Dinnae stop riding," Elara pleaded in Kaden's ear.

"Then dinnae let go," Kaden said, flicking the reins harder. Their black steed galloped faster than Elara could prepare herself for. Reluctantly, she held onto Kaden very hard.