Page 78 of Desire of a Highlander

As she left the trees, a woman came racing towards her. Elodie recognized Morag’s mother. Her face was pale.

“Have ye seen Morag?”

Elodie shook her head. “She went back with the other children.”

“No, she didnae. I canna find her.”

A cold knot formed in Elodie’s stomach. “She was just here. She can’t have gone far. Come on, we’ll go look.”

They searched the camp first, looking beneath carts, inside hastily erected shelters, but there was no sign of Morag. Soon the whole camp was in an uproar as everyone searched the area around. Still nothing. The search spread through the village. The locals emerged from cottages and shook their heads in sympathy. Nobody had seen her.

Elodie’s heartbeat quickened. This couldn’t be happening. She’d been responsible for Morag, and the little girl had been right there. How could she have vanished?

Ronan came striding towards her and she ran to meet him.

“Oh my God! This is my fault!”

He caught her by the shoulders. “No, it isnae.”

“But what if she fell in the river?”

“It’s barely knee high. She would be in no danger.”

“What if someone took her? I should have been watching her!”

“Ye canna have eyes in the back of yer head, and she canna simply disappear,” Ronan replied.

He knelt beside Bran and Skye and held out one of Morag’s little shawls that her mother had fetched from the camp. The dogs sniffed it carefully.

Ronan climbed to his feet. “Dinna fash, lass, the dogs and I will find her.”

“Then I’m coming too.”

“Elodie—”

“I don’t care what you say! It’s my fault. I should have been watching her, so I’m coming with you!”

He hesitated, then nodded before turning to Eamon. “Keep everyone here and keep her family calm. The last thing we need is anyone else getting lost. We’ll find her and bring her back.”

Bran gave a sharp bark. Skye’s nose was already to the ground. Ronan gave them a sharp command, and they started forward. Ronan and Elodie followed them out of the village and out into the gathering shadows beyond.

BRAN STOPPED SO ABRUPTLY that Ronan nearly walked into him. The big sleuthhound stood in the middle of the narrow deer track, nose pressed to the ground, tail rigid. Skye padded back from the undergrowth before lowering her own muzzle to sniff the earth.

“What is it?” Ronan asked.

Bran gave a low whine.

Ronan crouched and spotted prints in the mud. Morag’s small footprints were easy enough to make out in the soft earth, wandering this way and that as children often did. Beside them, however, were larger impressions. Adult boots. Several of them.

His stomach tightened with dread.

Elodie came up beside him, breathing a little harder from the pace they’d been keeping. “Why have we stopped?”

He pointed. “Morag wasnae alone. She came this way with at least two...” He studied another print half-hidden beneath bracken. “No, three adults.”

All the blood drained from Elodie’s face. “Oh my God. So someone did take her?”

Ronan didn’t answer. Instead, he whistled to the dogs, sending them on ahead again. “Come on.”