She knocked his hand away from her face and spat on him. He backhanded her. “Ye will pay for that, wench, and I can assure ye that ye will remember your uncle as gentle before I am through with ye.”
To Duncan he said, “Bind and gag her, we need to keep moving.”
Duncan did as Malcolm instructed, but said, “Laird MacLennan—I did not expect to find ye returning to Brathanead. Riders followed us from Cnocreidh, but I don’t know how many. Some may have been my own men, even so I suspect they were not alone. I turned north hoping to elude them all, but if we proceed southwards, we will put ourselves within their reach.”
Malcolm looked irritated. “We can’t stop here. I have no doubt vengeance is on our heels as well. We will ride up the mountain and hide in the caves until it is safe to proceed to Brathanead. Make sure that gag is secure, I don’t want a sound out of her.” Malcolm decided to take another precaution as well. “Eithne, dismount and give me your mantle.” He switched Katherine’s mantle for Eithne’s and hoisted Katherine onto Eithne’s palfrey.
“What are ye doing?” demanded Eithne. “Why are ye giving her my mount?”
“Ye’ll ride with Duncan.” Eithne protested, but Malcolm pacified her by explaining, “From a distance, anyone will assume ye are Katherine, and they will not risk harming ye.” Besides, he might need a diversion, and as long as he secured his own safety, the consequences mattered little to him.
~ * ~
With her hands bound in front of her, Katherine knew once they began to move again, she would be unable to do anything but stay in the saddle. The wind sharpened and the clouds thickened in the late afternoon sky. It looked as if a snowstorm were brewing and, if it broke soon, the fresh snow would obliterate any trace of their trail. With her bound hands concealed by the mantle around her shoulders, Katherine unpinned the jeweled brooch that had been Niall’s present to her on Epiphany. She hid it between her palms, and just before they left the trail to head up the mountain, she let it slip out of her hands to land in the track. She prayed no one noticed it, and, in their rush to escape, no one did.
Thirty
As the day wore on, Niall’s frustration rose. Malcolm seemed to remain just out of reach. Late in the afternoon, dread filled him when they met Muir and Turcuil with a contingent of Matheson soldiers riding north.
Muir filled him in as quickly as possible. “As soon as the MacLennans poured from the woods, I knew we were badly outnumbered, but we thought we could hold them back long enough for Hamish to get Katherine inside the walls. Matheson reinforcements joined us immediately and we routed them.”
“And Katherine is safe?”
“Nay, Laird, Hamish was unhorsed and she slowed to help him. He slapped Eachann back into a run, but it was too late. Duncan reached her and escaped.”
“Dear God.”
“Laird, I’m sorry. Rab was gravely injured as well, we left him at Cnocreidh, but Hamish, Keavy, Turcuil, and I pursued them with Matheson warriors. We reached the mountain pass leading to Brathanead less than an hour ago. Not knowing for sure which direction he would go, we split up. Hamish and Keavy led some of the Matheson warriors south, while Turcuil and I led the rest north.”
“And ye met no one?”
“Nay, Laird.”
Niall swore. How could he have underestimated the true depths of Malcolm’s deception? He hadn’t simply relied on drawing Niall away from Duncurra, he had men in place to assure his defeat at Cnocreidh as well. With every ounce of control he had, he tamped down his rage and focused on finding Katherine.
The leaders agreed it was unlikely Malcolm’s party had been far enough ahead to have made it through the pass before the warriors riding from Cnocreidh had reached it. Muir and his men should have met Malcolm and his guard on the track. Since they didn’t, it was likely that Duncan had indeed ridden north and met Malcolm’s party. Once alerted, Malcolm had probably left the trail to hide in either the woods or the mountains.
They searched along the track for signs of Malcolm’s trail, but because his army had ridden north the previous day, horses had trampled the snow on the track, making it impossible to distinguish a new trail from an older one. To make matters worse, the clouds thickened and before long, a light snow began to fall. If they didn’t find some indication of where Malcolm had left the track soon, fresh snow would cover any evidence. They had nearly given up hope when one of the Chisholm warriors saw the jewels from Katherine’s brooch glinting in the snow.
It appeared that Malcolm’s party headed for caves in the mountains, and once again Niall was in pursuit. It wasn’t long before the fresh snow changed from a curse to a blessing. They found Malcolm’s tracks.