“Brodie, build a fire and I’ll find something to eat.” He wandered off into the wilderness with his dagger in his hand.
A short time later, he and several men returned with enough rabbits to roast. Alex tossed one to Brodie to skin.
“They are not much but they will have to do.”
Brodie peered at his brother. “Alex, something is in your head. What is it?”
Alex motioned for his brother to follow him away from the clearing, not wanting to alert his guardsmen to his thoughts.
“Brodie, do you remember the MacDonald lass?”
Brodie smiled. “Aye, the dark haired one you sent me?”
“Nay!” Alex shouted. “No’ her. The laird’s stepsister.”
“I ne’er saw her. How could I remember her?” Brodie asked.
“Well, I did.”
“Why did you no’ mention her before?”
“Mayhap because I could not believe my own eyes. She is every bit as fair as the stable master said.”
“Brother, if you still remember her and she is on your mind, that tells me more than anything else you could say.” Brodie’s face broke out in a big grin. “A lass finally caught your eye?”
“She caught more than my eye. I opened her chamber door by mistake. She had been beaten.”
Brodie’s face registered the shock Alex had endured when seeing the lass. “Beaten? Who would dare beat the laird’s stepsister?”
Alex raised one eyebrow as he peered at his brother at the edge of the clearing.
“No’ the laird? You think he would beat a woman so?”
“Did you no’ notice the servant girls, Brodie? He hit them. The lass I sent you was too fearful for me. He must be cruel. He did not want to let us see his stepsister either. He ordered us out when we questioned him about her. There is something wrong there. I cannot get her from my mind.” Alex grabbed at brush in frustration to use for another fire away so they could eat.
“Is that why you have been riding so hard? Trying to get her from your mind? What can you do? She is his stepsister and betrothed to another.” Brodie fanned the fire as he gave his brother a hard look.
“I am tired enough tonight to sleep. We will think on it on the morrow.” They finished cooking their meat and ate in silence, but Alex’s mind raced with his choices. He threw the remainder of the rabbit bones over his shoulder and strode over to his horse. As he tugged on his extra plaid, two pieces of parchment fluttered to the ground. He bent over to retrieve them. A sick feeling swirled through his gut as he opened one.
Laird Grant,
Laird MacDonald has been beating his stepsister Madeline whene’er he sees fit. We fer for her life. Is not right to beat a woman so. She is only eight and ten summers. Afore her death our lady Elizabeth bade us to call to you for help if we were in need. She sed you were an honorable man. Ples help us.
Mac Dumfrey
Alex read the note and handed it to his brother.
After he finished reading, Brodie glanced at his brother with one eyebrow raised, “What’s on the other?”
Alex answered with his jaw clenched. “A map. Our plans are changing.”
CHAPTER THREE
Madeline eased her legs to the side of the bed and sat up slowly.
“How long have I been here, Alice?” she asked her maid, unable to hide her grimaces of pain.
“Three days, and you still do not have the strength you need to be getting out of bed!” Alice grumbled as she rounded the bed to help her rise.
Madeline groaned as she rose to her feet. “I need a warm bath to help my aches.”
Sending a girl for hot water, the servant helped her remove her night rail. Maddie forced back tears as Alice removed the binding around her ribs, the maid's fingers gently probing her multiple bruises.
“He went too far this time, Madeline. I thought they may have been broken, but perhaps just bruised. Even so, bruising a woman’s ribs is beyond madness. You need to get away from him,” Alice cried as she helped Madeline into the tub.
“And where will I go?” Maddie sighed as the warmth enveloped her body.
“Have you thought to ask if he would allow you to go to a convent, lass?” Alice’s voice softened as she swept Maddie’s hair back from her face.
“No. For I know what his answer would be. Kenneth means to marry me to Niles Comming. But I will not do it. I will not live the rest of my life with that twisted man,” Maddie cringed at the thought of life as Comming’s wife. “I could not suffer through even one night by his side after what he did to me.”
Alice’s voice grew quiet as she carefully washed her mistress’s back. “I fear for your life now. In fact, Mac and I had the laddie you have been schooling pen a letter for us. Laird Grant and his brother stopped here the other day. Mac hid it in the laird’s things before he left.”