Page 123 of Captured by a Laird
She could not breathe. She scratched at Patrick’s hands, trying to get air.
Then the sounds around her faded, and she fell into darkness.
***
David heard Alison calling him, as if from a great distance. Slowly, her voice pulled him to the surface. He fought to clear his head and wiped the blood from his eyes. When he saw Patrick holding her against the door, anguish tore through his battered body.
On the floor!Something he needed was on the floor.Walter had broken his arm, the same one with the damaged hand, but he felt the rough stone around him with his other hand, desperately searching for whatever it was. On the other side of the iron grate just a few feet away but outside of his reach, his enemy was choking and raping his wife.Jesu, where was the damned thing?
His fingers touched a thin piece of metal. He knew at once what it was. A lock pick.
Damn it! Finding the keyhole was like threading a needle in the dark. Sweat dripped into his good eye. He could hear Alison gasping for breath as he worked the thin metal shaft into the lock.
Click.
He could not work the pick with his damaged hand for the second manacle, so he held it in his teeth. Alison had gone silent. Time was running out. He had to free himselfnow.
Click.
David no longer felt his pain. He crossed the cell in three long strides, reached through the bar, and grabbed Patrick by the throat with his good hand. Startled, Patrick released Alison. She slumped to the ground, coughing.
David squeezed Patrick’s throat, wanting to snap his neck in two. Patrick clawed at his hand, and David squeezed tighter. When Patrick reached for the dirk at his belt, David was quicker. He released Patrick’s throat, grabbed the dirk, and plunged the blade into Patrick’s heart.
Relief swept through him when he saw that Alison was on her feet. He rested his forehead against the cold iron grate, exhausted from the effort of subduing Patrick. Loss of blood from his injuries had made him weak.
“David.” Alison reached through the bars of the grate and held his battered face between her hands. Tears streamed down her face. “What have they done to ye, my love?”
“Nothing I won’t recover from if we can open this door and escape.”
“I brought the key,” she said, pointing at it in the lock, “but I can’t make it work.”
Using his good hand, he reached through the grate and grasped the key. The lock was old and rusty. Gritting his teeth, he forced the key to turn with scraping click. He was free.
David opened the door—and fell into Alison’s arms. At least he managed to catch hold of the door as his knees gave way so he did not land on her with all of his weight. Still, she staggered backward as she attempted to ease his fall to the floor.
When she embraced him, he winced. Every inch of his body hurt, but it did not matter. Alison was here.
“Ach, ye feel good, lass,” he said, holding her against him with his good arm.
He assumed his men had somehow gotten into the castle, but he was confused as to why Alison was here.
“What is the plan for our escape?” he asked.
His heart nearly failed him when she told him she had come to the castle alone to open a secret tunnel door for his men. Once she was out of danger, he would tell his wife what he thought of what she’d done. But now he needed to reach that tunnel and get her out of here.
“Our men will be coming through the tunnel soon.” Alison’s face was pinched with worry as she attempted to wipe some of the blood from the gashes on his face. “We’ll have to wait here for them.”
“We’re not waiting. We must be gone before someone finds us—or him,” David said with a nod toward Patrick’s body.
“But ye can’t even stand, let alone climb two flights of stairs,” she said.
“I just needed to catch my breath.” Gritting his teeth, he held onto the door and pulled himself up. “Let’s go.”
She put her hands on her hips and looked him up and down. “You’ll never make it through the hall looking like that without being stopped.”
David glanced at his bloodied shirt and his hand, which was purple and three times its normal size.
“Aye, we need a diversion,” he said. “But we needed one anyway to ensure the safety of our men coming through the tunnel.”
