Page 78 of Highlander’s Haunted Past

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Rob ran out into the yard and looked this way and that. Where could they have gone?

When he had returned to Dounie, he had immediately gone looking for Kenna. When he barged into their room, a servant girl changing the blankets on their bed had jumped nearly out of her skin.

“Where is Kenna?”Rob demanded.

“O-o-out for a walk with M-m-mistress Ellen,”the maid had replied.

Rob had raced from the castle, plowing over any who crossed his path until he reached the yard. The damn yard. There were endless possibilities from there.

Old Alec looked up from his work and gave him a confused look. “Lookin’ fer something, Laird Rob?”

“Aye, my wife, and Ellen. Seen them?”

“Oh, aye. They went walking down the river path.”

Rob was away before Alec could finish, telling himself that he would have to thank and reward the man later.

“The bloody river walk,” Rob said to himself, huffing as he ran.

It had always been one of Ellen’s favorites, starting way back when she had first come to Dounie. She used to talk for hours about the dock out there and how it was her favorite place at the castle.

As the dirt path curved, Rob saw the dock jutting out into the river. At its edge was Kenna, her dark curls swirling in the wind. Behind her stood Hugh, unmistakable with his height and red hair. His hand was raised and pressed to Kenna’s back. Ellen was a few steps back from them, standing safely in the middle of the dock.

Don’t let this be what I think it is, Rob thought.

When he drew close enough, he forced himself to slow his pace so that the thundering footfalls of his feet would not reveal him before he was ready to be noticed. He strode, slowly and silently, along the last stretch of the path. Now that he was this close, his worst fears were confirmed. Hugh and Ellen wanted her to jump.

Stay there, Kenna, just hold on.

The dock was too long for him to simply charge ahead. Hugh would either push her or pull out a blade long before Rob reached them. He would just have to take it step by step until he was close enough to do something.

Rob lifted one foot and placed it carefully on the dock, and then the next, and the next.

“Shall I count down fer ye?” Hugh was asking Kenna, who was crying as she seemed to try and come up with something to say.

Rob took another step forward, but this time, the board beneath him let out a soft squeak.

Hugh’s head swiveled, his eyes locking onto Rob.

“Wait! Just let me say one more thing,” Kenna said.

Hugh’s lips curled into a grim smile.

“No.”

Hugh’s arm extended and there was a sudden unfurling of red as Kenna’s cloak billowed behind her, but then, marked by a splash, she was gone.

“Kenna!” Rob charged forward.

Hugh pulled his sword from its sheath, brandishing it at Rob, who had to stop to keep from impaling himself.

“Well, big brother, ye said that ye would forgive me fer the mess. I am sorry that I did not get this done sooner. I had hoped to handle it before ye found out about the babe. I thought it would be less painful fer ye that way.”

“Move, Hugh.”

“I canna do that. Not fer this.”