Page 52 of Keepers of the Highland Crown
The captor’s eyes flashed from greed to despair. In a blink it was gone. “My lady,” Keithen replied somberly, “he was weak. Same as his mother, thus is why they both failed me.” His next words hit the rafters. “One never fails me! This is a lesson you will come to know. Guards!” Almost half a dozen fierce faces appeared in a blink. “Restrain them,” he demanded harshly. Nella’s eyes darted as two guards moved to place an iron grip on Brayden, and Callum with a lone guard holdingHolger. “Sèidrich, remain by Sir Callum,” Keithen demanded. Sèidrich’s hand dropped from her, obeying the command. What was Keithen going to do to her Callum?
She cried out when Keithen went at her, his eyes dark as his soul. The hall turned into chaos by shouts when a manacled palm wrapped her throat while Keithen threatened, “Never attempt to twist my emotions regarding my late wife who could not even birth a lone bairn. Weak! Devil have her and the damned lad!”
“RELEASE HER!” Callum roared, battling against the pair holding him.
Sèidrich began raising his sword at Holger, who broke free from the lone guard. The Northman advanced a step toward Keithen, who warned, “Before you lay a hand upon me, Lord Kolson, think hard. You believe I would carry nae weight to unleash upon you? Who do you consider is journeying with Sir James?” Holger froze. “Aye, your younger sister. She is a pawn Sir James will use as required for his gain; this includes any token of need I require. Do not try my patience or your sister shall earn my wroth.” Keithen’s fingers held Nella steady. “Time to place you in the chambers above, Lady Fawnella. The dungeons buried deep in the undercroft is for your knights and the Northman who shall only hear the rats till we are ready for the next step forth. Sèidrich, see to them. Seize King Magnus’s signet ring from Lord Kolson directly. Then MacHarris leaves at once with his clansmen.”
Keithen’s palm dropped quick, like she almost did onto the floor when he released her then stormed out.
Callum struggled to reach her, fighting against the two guards gripping his upper arms as Sèidrich approached her. She raised her hand at Callum while coughing the words, “I… I am unharmed.”
Sèidrich grabbed her elbow, directing her toward the passageway’s archway. Tears began blurring her vision.
“Nella.” Callum’s voice, a wisp, but weighed by iron only for her, sounded from behind. “Listen. Listen well for me as Iwillsearch for you. We shall take our leave soon, I vow it.”
She glanced over her shoulder. Callum rubbed his fist on his nose with his bound hands as a distraction, covering his mouth while he spoke to her in secret.He vowed it.Did her knight ever break one of those?Never. Keithen, you chose the wrong knight to cross!
Chapter 28
Callum rested his head against the bars cold as they were gray. His eyes locked on the crack upon the granite stone on the dungeon’s floor outside his cell. A crack.That!That will be Keithen’s neck once he got his hands wrapped around the bastard’s throat.
He blinked. The raw fearful expression on her face showed anew when the bastard grabbed her. And what? What was the effort on his part to save her? Yelling and kicking same as a wee bairn. Hell!
Opening his gaze, he spied a water drip from the ceiling into a tiny puddle, like tears, same as the tears in her eyes when she had been led away. Shite! If only his fury could have given him the strength of ten giants he would have snapped all their necks!
How? How was he going to get her out of here? For damn sure they would not be staying long.
“Sir Callum,” Holger called out from his cell next-door, “your lady knew I was being hunted at Lady Alaina’s keep the eve of the feast by hearing the discussion in the passageway outside the great hall?”
“Aye.”
He gave a low whistle. “She has a prowess any court would envy.”Keep your mitts off, Northman; the lady is spoken for.“I also may have been rash in declaring your lady would be a weakness for you if present.”You think?
Holger paused then finished. “My younger sister, who is betrothed to Sir James, was not even in the same castle, yet I still froze at a threat unleashed toward her.”
“Well,” Callum retorted darkly, “think about how you would care to repay Sir James for his deceit toward her as you will hold the chance in your grasp soon.”
“How?”
“You are a gestr?”
“For certain.”
“Does everything always go according to your plans or consideration?”
“No.”
“There is your answer,” Callum replied somberly. “Something shall present. When it does, be ready to grip with both hands. As we are going to burn all of Lord Keithen ‘the kingmaker’ MacMardan’s plans into the ground same as he has done to innocents in the name of Northmen with my beloved’s dowry.” He glanced up at Sir Brayden in the cell across the tunnel. “What say you, Sir Brayden?”
“Simply tell me where to place the roasting spit,” Brayden replied earnestly.
Slam!All fell silent when the doorway at the tunnel’s end burst wide.
“The final cell beside Sir Brayden,” a guard called out from the unseen entry. “Throw him in there. Keep the lad’s hammer close. The other complacent smiths will be in the stables to rest like always. I shall be but a moment for the second task.” Through the torch shadows appeared the same smith he and Nella had spied from afar when entering the bailey earlier.Young.The lad was even younger up close. It was the stout fullframe which must have made him appear older earlier. Maybe a score and six years old.
“You best never try another bold tactic like that again, Kameron, lest the butcher take your hands,” the pig-nosed guard threatened, shoving the lad into the cell beside Sir Brayden and locking the door.
The lad ran his hand through his copper hair while he spit at the guard’s feet through the bars. “False threats,” Kameron retorted. “My work is twice the pace of the other two together and the quality of my blades are superior, you pile of horse shite.”
