“The laird bade me to bring this message to you, my lady. He says the hunt is successful and to expect him home by nightfall tomorrow.”
Rionna smiled. “ ’Tis good news you bear, Jamie. Come inside and get warm. Have something to eat while the others unpack your horse.”
With no word forthcoming from Ewan, Rionna could look forward to at least a few more days of her husband being at home before he was called away to war. The news gladdened her heart and lifted some of the headache that had plagued her since his departure.
The afternoon was spent preserving the venison, but Rionna quickly discovered one unpleasant aspect of her condition. She hadn’t been plagued with any sickness thus far. Indeed, other than fatigue at the beginning, she’d enjoyed an unremarkable pregnancy so far. But as soon as she got close to the carcass of the stag, the smell of blood and raw meat made her stomach heave violently.
She humiliated herself by retching into the snow, and try as she might she couldn’t rid herself of the odor that now seemed permanently implanted in her nostrils.
Gannon gently led her away from where the women were working and took her through the snow to the far side of the courtyard where she could look upon the loch in the distance and breathe crisp, clean-smelling air.
“ ’Tis humiliating,” Rionna muttered.
Gannon smiled. “Nay, ’tis not an uncommon event for a woman in your condition. I think Lady McCabe retched from the time she discovered her pregnancy to the time she delivered. Cormac and I were forever fetching things for her to be sick in.”
A shout from the gate distracted her from her still quivering stomach. She and Gannon both turned in time to see Simon ride into the courtyard, his face bloody, his horse lathered as though he’d ridden the animal relentlessly.
When the horse came to a stop, Simon slid from the saddle and landed in the snow.
Fear hit Rionna square in the chest and she was running before Gannon could stop her. She reached Simon first and dropped to her knees next to the older man. Gannon got there a second later and helped her turn him onto his back.
He was barely conscious, and blood seeped onto the snow, staining it scarlet. There was a deep gash in the side of his neck. His shoulder was cut so deep that it had nearly severed his arm from the socket.
He blinked through swollen eyes and his lips parted as he tried to speak.
“Nay,” Rionna whispered, tears biting at her eyelids. “Don’t speak, Simon. Remain still until we can stop the bleeding.”
“Nay, my lady,” he rasped out. “I must tell you this. ’Tis important. We were ambushed. An arrow struck the laird from behind. They waited until we passed and then attacked us from the rear.”
“Oh God,” Rionna choked out. “Caelen? Is he alive? Where is he? Where are the others?”
“Arlen is dead,” Simon whispered.
“Father!” Jamie cried as he ran up. He dropped to his knees and gathered his father’s head in his lap. “What has happened?”
“Shh, lad,” Gannon said grimly. “He’s telling us of it now.”
Simon licked his lips and moaned softly. “He fell from his horse but he was alive. They took him.”
“Who?” Rionna demanded. “Who did this to you?”
Simon fixed her with his stare, his eyes brighter for just a moment as anger flared in their depths. “Your father, lass. ’Twas your father and the men who sided with him. They take him to Duncan Cameron.”
CHAPTER 29
“If you think I’m going to allow you to leave this keep, you’re daft,” Gannon said bluntly as Rionna paced back and forth in the great hall.
Rionna gripped the scroll bearing the seal of Ewan McCabe and the king, the message that had arrived barely an hour after Simon rode in badly injured, bearing the news of Caelen’s capture.
She turned urgently to Gannon, knowing she must convince Caelen’s commander or all would be lost. “Think, Gannon. Think on this and you’ll know I’m right. We cannot wait. Cameron will kill Caelen. If he doesn’t, my father will. Caelen isn’t being used as a pawn against Ewan McCabe. ’Tis my father’s doing and his bargain with the devil, Duncan Cameron. He spoke of this before but I thought him daft. After my wedding, he approached me to entreat me to join with him in a way to rid our clan of Caelen. He was furious that he was being forced to give over his leadership. ’Tis the truth that now I don’t think he ever had any intention of handing over the title of laird to Alaric when he first suggested the alliance. His plan was to marry me to Alaric McCabe and make Alaric laird upon the birth of my first child. But why wait? ’Twas an agreement that never made sense to me, given my father’s reluctance to hand over leadership of the clan. I think he intended to make sure Alaric was never laird. I think he would have murdered him after I was with child. He could have made it look like an accident and then Ewan would never have broken the alliance if I was to bear Alaric’s child. He wouldn’t have been able to prove that my father was the cause of Alaric’s death.”
“ ’Tis a complicated plot you speak of,” Gannon said with a frown.
“I know it sounds hysterical, that I’ve made it all up because of my worry for Caelen, but it makes sense, Gannon. If you think on it, it makes sense.”
“Aye, it does,” Gannon admitted.
“We cannot wait until Ewan is ready to wage war with Cameron. I need you to travel with all haste to Neamh Álainn and tell Ewan of my plan. I know not what this scroll contains. I cannot break the seal and have someone examine the contents, for it ruins my plan. But whatever instructions it contains, Ewan must do differently if we are to have the element of surprise.”