Bride of the Solway. Joanna Maitland

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СКАЧАТЬ a slight rise in the ground. It looked to be little more than a ruined wall from this distance. ‘Come on!’ She set her heels to Lucifer and pushed him to even greater speed.

      Watching her, Ross realised that it was no longer quite so dark. The storm was indeed passing. The rain had almost stopped. He could see the girl quite clearly ahead of him. Her white skirt hung down below the borrowed coat, gleaming against her horse’s dark flanks in spite of the many mud stains upon it. And her legs and feet were bare.

      Reaching the tiny cottage, she threw herself from the saddle and began to pound on the door. It opened just as Ross climbed down from Hera’s back and started after her.

      From the doorway stepped a tall, black-browed man, grinning fiercely down at the girl. ‘I thought so,’ he said shortly, seizing her by the arms and pushing her roughly towards one of the three men who had followed him from the hut. Ross’s coat fell from her shoulders to the ground. The speaker took no notice. ‘Take care of her while I deal with this blackguard.’

      ‘Let her go!’ Ross cried. The girl’s captor simply grinned and put a filthy hand across her mouth, muffling her scream of outrage. Ross reached automatically for his weapon. He had none. He had not worn a sword since he had put off his regimentals, and his pistols were snugly holstered by his saddle. He had nothing but his fists. He squared his shoulders. Even one against four, he would show them what a man could do.

      The dark man must have sensed something. From nowhere, he produced a pistol and casually pointed it at Ross’s heart. ‘So you’re the man, are ye? Y’are good for nothing but poetry, it seems. Well, we shall see how many lines you can compose among the rats. Take him and bind him, lads.’

      The other two men grabbed Ross by the arms and, in spite of all he did to resist, Ross soon found his hands tightly bound behind his back with rough hempen rope, and a dirty piece of sacking tied around his mouth for a gag.

      ‘Put him on his horse and bring him,’ ordered their leader. ‘Ned, fetch the horses.’

      Perhaps, in the dark, they had not noticed the pistols by Hera’s saddle? If only Ross could free his hands, he might be able to—

      ‘There are pistols here, maister,’ cried one of the ruffians, pulling one from its place and brandishing it in the air.

      ‘Give them to me. And those bags of his as well. I’ll look through them when we have more light. His coat, too.’

      Ross’s captor pushed him onto Hera’s back. With his hands tied behind his back, it would be a dangerous ride.

      ‘And the leddy, maister?’ The ruffian nodded in the direction of the girl, whose thin gown was now sticking to her limbs, making her look almost naked. She seemed oblivious to that, however, for all her efforts were bent on freeing herself from the man who held her fast.

      ‘You and Tam, take her back to the house and lock her up,’ cried the master. ‘And make sure she does not escape from you this time, Tam, or it will be the worse for you.’

      At that moment, the man Tam cried out in pain and pulled his hand from her mouth. ‘The wench bit me!’

      The girl paid not the least attention to Tam. She was glowering at the dark man. ‘Curse you, Jamie Elliott,’ she screamed, with loathing in her voice. ‘May you rot in hell!’

      ‘I may well, my dear,’ Elliott replied coolly, mounting his horse, ‘but not at your bidding. I will see to you later. For the present, I have more important work to do, in dealing with your lover.’ Leaning forward, he took hold of Hera’s rein and kicked his own mount into a fast trot, pulling Ross’s unwilling mare after him. They were twenty yards away before Ned, standing open-mouthed, hauled himself into the saddle of the second horse and galloped after his master.

      Behind them, the girl shouted something, but her words were carried off by the wind. Ross and his captors were alone.

      ‘Oh, Miss Cassie! Ye’re fair drookit! Just look at you! Did ye not think to take a cloak, at least?’

      ‘If I’d stopped to find a cloak, I’d not have got away at all.’ Cassandra forced herself to smile at the maid who was fussing around with warm towels and a dry nightgown.

      ‘But you didna get away, dearie,’ Morag said sadly. ‘And after this, the laird will make sure to keep ye even closer. When he saw that you’d climbed down from your chamber, he was that fashed, he nearly threw Tam out after you. We could hear him yelling, from down in the kitchen. Tam’s to put bars on yer window, first thing in the morn.’ Morag began to towel Cassandra’s sodden mane of hair. ‘My, but ye’re soaked, lassie. ’Twas a daft thing to do. You’ll be getting the ague, next.’

      ‘That’s what he said, too,’ murmured Cassandra, snuggling into the thick wrapper that Morag had added over her nightdress.

      ‘The laird said that?’ Morag sounded astonished.

      ‘Not he,’ said Cassandra, on the thread of a laugh. ‘Jamie Elliott cares not a whit whether I live or die, provided that I do not inconvenience him and his plans.’

      ‘Wheesht, lassie!’ Morag’s finger went to her lips. Her eyes registered shock. And fear.

      ‘It’s no more than the truth,’ Cassandra said, though more quietly than before. ‘If I died of the ague, my brother would think himself relieved of an unwelcome burden.’

      Morag looked grim, but she did not attempt to argue. The whole household knew what the laird thought of his young half-sister. And how unfairly he treated her.

      ‘Morag,’ said Cassandra urgently, ‘when the laird and the men come back, you must do your best to find out what they have done with him. Please.’

      ‘What d’ye mean?’

      ‘The man who tried to rescue me.’

      ‘Rescue…? I think you’d better start at the beginning, Miss Cassie. You’ve got my head in a whirl.’

      Cassandra patted the woman’s work-roughened hand and let out a long sigh. ‘Aye, I suppose… Well…I thought Jamie planned to leave me locked in the little parlour downstairs. I was surprised when Tam said I was to be locked in my own chamber instead. Until I thought about it, of course. From the parlour, I might have been able to speak to someone outside, even when the shutters were barred. From my own chamber, there was no chance of that. Not without shouting and being caught. It’s too high up.’

      ‘D’ye tell me you climbed down the wall?’

      ‘I… No, I didn’t. But Jamie must think I did.’

      ‘But if the door was locked—’

      Cassandra smiled knowingly. ‘There are ways of getting a key from the other side of a door, you know, Morag.’

      The maid looked unconvinced.

      ‘You’ll keep my secret, Morag?’

      The woman nodded.

      Cassandra knew Morag was to be trusted. ‘I slipped a paper under the door and then I turned the key from the inside. It took a while. It was very stiff. Then I pushed it out and it fell on the floor. I was lucky. It fell onto the paper and there was just room to pull СКАЧАТЬ