Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

A bigail stood outside the gates of Castle Chattan, her cloak draped tightly around her shoulders. It was the only thing that gave her some peace of mind. Though underneath she wore that damned dress, at least the cloak provided her with enough modesty to walk around undisturbed.

She could still feel the ghost of Hugo’s gaze on her. She still remembered the look he had given her when he had seen her in that dress, his eyes glazed over with hunger. It had been enough to send a jolt of desire down her spine, heat coiling deep in her core, but at the same time, she couldn’t imagine a situation that could bring her more embarrassment. Hugo’s gaze had lingered on her for several moments and he had seen a lot more than Abigail had shown any other man before.

Then again, she had been the one who wanted more from him. She had been the one to wish he had taken her properly that night, taking off her clothes and sinking inside her until they both came apart with pleasure.

She shook her head. The gentle, chilly breeze around her helped her remember where she was and what she was about to do. If she was going to succeed in her mission, she needed to focus all her attentions on that. There was no time to think about Hugo, not now.

When this is all over, perhaps we can resolve whatever this is.

The gates opened and Abigail stepped inside the castle grounds without looking behind her. Somewhere out there, Hugo was trying to find a way in and she could only hope he would succeed, as she couldn’t complete her plan if Hugo didn’t manage to draw Niall out of his study. She had faith in him, though, and she had faith in this plan. It would go well, she told herself. They had no other choice.

As the gates opened, Abigail came face to face with a young guard who gave her a curious, careful look from head to toe. She swallowed drily around the knot in her throat and tried her best to not look intimidated, pretending she was exactly where she was meant to be.

“Who are ye?” the guard asked. He was around Abigail’s age; youthful and innocent. If she had to, then perhaps she could charm him into letting her in.

“I was sent in Caitriona’s stead,” Abigail said, giving the man the sweetest smile, she could muster. “She wishes tae apologize tae the laird fer her absence, but she has fallen ill an’ cannae see him tonight, so she sent me.”

The guard frowned, his bushy eyebrows pinching together. “She looked fine when I saw her this morn’.”

“Och aye,” said Abigail. “So she was, but her decline was very sudden. She had a fever tonight an’ doesnae wish tae risk the laird’s health. The arrangement shall be the same. I only require what she would be paid fer the night.”

The guard was still not entirely convinced, it seemed, so Abigail let her cloak fall open just a little, enough to show him a hint of her curves. She could tell instantly when his gaze was drawn to her breasts and she leaned a little closer, accentuating them as much as she could. Slowly, a smile spread over the man’s lips and he gestured at her to follow him, much to her relief.

She was inside the castle walls now. It was the easiest part of her plan, but it was also the first, and now that it had succeeded, a wave of newfound confidence swelled up over her, propelling her forward. Abigail’s heart beat fast and hard, the rush of blood pounding in her ears as the guard guided her to the secret corridor Caitriona had mentioned to Hugo, her breath coming even faster. Part of it was fear, of course. She couldn’t claim to not feel any, not when she was fully aware of how quickly and easily all this could go wrong, despite all the assurances he had given Hugo. Part of it, though, was excitement, the thrill of managing to sneak into Castle Chattan making her bolder, even more ambitious.

I will find proof. I will make sure Niall an’ Finnian hang.

Their footsteps echoed in the empty corridor as they walked down its length, until they came up to an unassuming door. It was small and plain, but behind it stood the way to victory.

“Ye’ll wait here,” the guard told her as he opened the door for her. The room at the other side was spacious, with a large bed pushed against one of the walls and lush tapestries decorating the others. Across from the door from where Abigail entered was another, identical door, which undoubtedly led to Niall’s study. “Once the laird is ready fer ye, he will come find ye.”

Abigail nodded in understanding and stepped inside the room, perching herself on the edge of the bed. The guard lingered for a few moments, watching her with a smirk, and Abigail didn’t want to think about what it was he was imagining.

She thought about Hugo. She thought about meeting him at the end of that secret corridor once she had all the papers she needed, of the two of them fleeing together, drunk on their victory. Soon, her nightmare would be over.

Then Abigail was alone. She let a few minutes pass before she crept closer to the door, trying to look through the keyhole to see if perhaps the study was already empty, but she could only see a small part of the room. From the soft sounds that came from the other side, she could only imagine that Niall was there, still working.

She prayed that Hugo would manage to create a distraction soon. If Niall finished his work before he did and entered the room, only to find Abigail there, then there would be no hope for them. There was no lie she could tell him that would hide what they were doing.

Time passed slowly as Abigail pressed her ear to the door, listening for any signs of movement. No one approached it, but as the seconds passed, her heart thundered in her chest, like a hummingbird trapped in a cage.

It was only when she heard faint, distant sounds from the courtyard that she released the breath she had been holding. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but then she heard the door to Niall’s study burst open, several footsteps coming in at once.

“Me laird,” a man said, sounding entirely out of breath. “We have received word that Miss Abigail Robertson has been spotted near our lands. There is a man who claims he has a letter fer ye.”

Hugo! Clever lad.

It was a good distraction, one that had Niall standing from his chair as he pushed it back with a loud, scraping sound, and then following the guards out of his study. Abigail didn’t enter the other room immediately, but rather waited for a few moments just to make sure that no one would come back and catch her in the act. Once she was certain the place was empty, she opened the door and stepped into Niall’s study carefully, still looking around her with wide, watchful eyes in case she had missed something. Nevertheless, had someone been there, she could have hardly done anything about it.

Thankfully, though, the place was empty and Abigail got to the task of finding anything that could prove useful to them. Niall would surely find out that his papers were missing, but by then she and Hugo would be long gone, on their way back to Castle Robertson to prove the truth to everyone.

Abigail pulled the drawers and cabinets open haphazardly, not caring about the mess she was making. She quickly paged through all the documents she found, gathering anything that spoke of the clan’s finances and any correspondence that seemed like it could be useful. It was better to err on the side of caution, she thought, to the point where her pockets were filled with documents and she had to stuff some in the little space that was left in her bodice. The more evidence she had, the easier it would be to convince everyone about Niall’s and Finnian’s guilt.

It took her several minutes to gather everything she thought she would need. The entire time, she kept a close eye on the door, ready to retreat back into the other room and down the corridor if she saw any signs of movement. No one came, though; she was entirely alone in that part of the castle, it seemed, Hugo’s distraction having pulled everyone away from that wing.

It almost seemed too easy. There was no one there to stop her from taking the papers, no one there to attack her when she rushed down the corridor to find Hugo and flee.

But then, when she reached the end of it, she realized Hugo wasn’t there, either, and her heart seized, her blood running cold in her veins.

Hugo’s plan was straightforward: tell the guards Abigail had been spotted in Chattan lands, insist that he had a letter he could only give to the laird, and then flee before Niall ever found him. The confusion his sudden presence and then his sudden absence would cause would be enough to keep everyone away from Abigail for a short while—or at least so he hoped.

At first, everything went according to plan. He spoke to the guards, let them know about the letter, and insisted he had to speak to their laird. Upon hearing Abigail’s name, the guards were sent into a frenzy, just as Hugo had hoped. Everyone in the castle knew about the marriage between Abigail and Finnian, and everyone knew to seek him and Niall out in case anyone mentioned her whereabouts.

Several of the guards Hugo spoke to rushed to find Niall, but three of them remained there, watching him carefully. That hadn’t been part of his plan; he had hoped they would all forget about him and run off, each more eager than the last to deliver the news to Niall in the hopes that he would then favor them. Those three, though, simply stood there and waited for the others to deliver the news, seemingly uninterested in any glory they could receive for finding the man who knew where Abigail was.

Well… I suppose that takes us to the second plan.

Drawing in a steadying breath, Hugo punched the man closest to him hard in the face, instantly knocking him out. Though they were surely trained as guards, all three of them were younger and smaller than Hugo. Upon knocking out the first one, the other two hesitated for a moment, fear gripping them in the face of sudden violence. Those men must have never known battle. They must have never gone through anything more than standard training and now that they were faced by a real threat, they froze, uncertain how to react.

They didn’t even reach for their swords but rather attacked Hugo with their bare hands, swinging wildly at him. Hugo had always been fast, though, and he ducked every time a fist came close to him, retaliating with blows of his own.

When his fist connected with the second man’s cheek, he watched him go down much like the first, splayed over the ground.

Now there was only one left. Hugo had to be quick, though; not only would Niall be coming his way soon, but if he took too long, the other two guards would come to, ready to attack him again.

With a feint to the right, Hugo moved swiftly when the last guard standing tried to retaliate, hitting him on the left side of his face. It stunned him for a moment, but didn’t seem enough to knock him out, so Hugo punched him again, and that was enough to send him tumbling to the ground, right next to his fellow soldiers.

Shaking his hand, his knuckles protesting at all the impact they had received, Hugo turned around to head towards their meeting point—the end of the secret corridor Caitriona had told him about, the very same one that all courtesans used when they visited Niall.

Only as he turned, he came face to face with none other than Finnian. They both froze, Finnian just as surprised to see him as Hugo was that he was there at all. He had thought only Niall had returned to Castle Chattan and that Finnian would have stayed with Abigail’s father, the two of them looking for her, but he had clearly been wrong.

“Guards!” Finnian called just as Hugo lunged at him, ready to silence the man. His fist collided with Finnian’s jaw, drawing a pained moan out of him as he stumbled backwards, hand coming up to cradle the inured side of his face. It wasn’t long before Finnian launched himself at Hugo, though, eager to take revenge for the hit, and Hugo had to take several steps back to avoid the blows that he rained upon him, his fists coming down again and again with no show of mercy.

Perhaps Hugo could have beaten him if it had only been the two of them. With the way Finnian was trying to fight him, it was inevitable that he would tire himself out fast, and when he did, Hugo would be able to fight back and incapacitate him. Finnian wasn’t the only one there, though. Within moments, guards swarmed them, armed to the teeth, and it was then that Hugo knew he had no choice but to surrender.

He couldn’t fight them all; there must have been over a dozen of them, all of them having him in their sights. Slowly, Hugo raised his hands in surrender, but that didn’t seem to matter to any of them as they closed in on him, brandishing their swords.

It was an awfully bad way to die, he thought, unarmed and pierced over and over until those men had satisfied their bloodlust. The first stab never came, though. Instead, Finnian walked right up to him and delivered a punch right to his temple, one that had him crumbling down onto the ground like a rag doll, his consciousness slipping right through his fingers.

Soon, everything went dark and fuzzy at the edges, the world tilting on its axis as he was pulled down into nothingness. His last thought before he finally lost consciousness was that he had failed Abigail. There was no one but him there to save her, and now they would both meet their ends in the hands of the people they hated.