Page 154 of The Laird's Masked Passion

Colin removed the small knife from his boot and placed it upon the table. Then another from beneath his coat.

Niall raised a brow. “Only two?”

Colin pulled a narrow blade from the back of his belt.

“Three,” Domhnall corrected.

The faint humor died almost immediately.

Sir Malcolm folded Robert’s message and placed it inside his coat.

“This letter remains with me. When we find Munro?—”

“When we find him,” Colin interrupted, “ye will witness whatever remains after I take back me wife.”

Sir Malcolm regarded him for a long moment. Then he nodded.

The castle moved with controlled urgency. Men changed out of clan colors. Bows were wrapped in blankets. Horses were led through separate gates to prevent anyone watching the walls from counting the riders. Colin stood alone in the courtyard while his friends prepared to disappear into the hills.

Niall approached first. “We will be there.”

Colin fastened his sword. “Ye better be.”

Domhnall clasped his uninjured shoulder. “Robert wants ye frightened and reckless.”

“He has succeeded in both.”

He mounted. Fear sat inside him like a living thing, tearing at every breath. But beneath it lay something colder.

Robert believed love had made Colin weak. Perhaps it had. It had also given him something for which mercy no longer seemed necessary.

Behind him, his men and friends vanished through hidden roads while the Crown’s representative rode to witness the proof he had demanded. Ahead waited Robert and Elspeth.

Colin drove his heels into the horse and rode from the castle alone.

The ruined chapel appeared at the bottom of the hollow just before sunset. Colin slowed his horse. Broken walls rose from the heather like black teeth. The roof had long since fallen, leaving only a stone arch, half a nave, and the remains of an altar exposed beneath the reddening sky.

Robert had chosen well. Anyone approaching by the main road could be seen long before reaching the hollow.

Colin dismounted and left the horse near the tree line. He did not look toward the northern ridge. Niall, Domhnall, Breac, Murdoch, and the Crown’s men were somewhere beyond it, moving through the hidden paths.

Colin could not see them. Robert could not either. That was all that mattered.

Colin entered the hollow alone. Men emerged from behind the chapel walls. Six at first, then four more among the trees. None concerned him.

Elspeth stood beside the broken altar. Her wrists were bound. Her hair had come loose and a bruise darkened one side of her face. Robert stood behind her with one arm locked around her waist and a blade pressed beneath her ribs.

Colin forgot the men. He forgot the Crown, the plan, the archers, and every promise he had made to wait.

He saw onlyher.

Elspeth’s eyes found his. Fear lived there but not surrender. She looked past him once, briefly, toward the empty road, then back to his face.

She knew… or hoped.

Colin forced himself to breathe. “Release her.”

Robert smiled. “So obedient.”