Page 122 of Highland Ruse

Kaid stopped and strained to listen for the sound which had stopped him dead in his tracks.

It sounded again: a high-pitched cry.

A child.

Kaid’s heartbeat sped. He turned in the direction of the sound, where a long hallway led to a large closed door banded with metal.

Without hesitation, he sped toward it and kicked it open. It hadn’t been locked and flew open so hard it slammed against the stone wall with a reverberating smack.

Rhona stood toward the rear of the room with Claire pinned into place in front of her by the shoulders and a woman beside her who looked like a rumpled version of Delilah whose hands were bound by rope. A woman he’d seen before.

Elizabeth—the real Elizabeth.

Claire’s reddened eyes lit up when she saw him. His throat grew tight. She tried to run toward him, but Rhona kept her hands clutched at Claire’s slender shoulders.

The girl’s blonde hair fell in messy tangles around a dirty face, but aside from that, she looked well enough.

“Well, if it isn’t the failing laird of the MacLeods,” Rhona said with a sneer. “How are yer nightmares?”

Kaid steeled himself against her words. He’d worried too often about how he’d failed his people. He wasn’t failing them now, though. With Delilah’s help, he’d saved Torra and banded together the MacKenzies and the MacLeods for peace.

He had not failed.

“I dinna have them anymore once I found out ye were poisoning me.” He didn’t attack, but he didn’t lower his blade either.

“It was that woman.” She spit out the word “woman” as if it were bitter. “The one ye used to trick Seumas, along with this one.” She jerked her head toward Elizabeth.

“Ye were poisoning me.” Kaid’s hand tightened around the hilt of his blade. “We took ye in when ye needed the help of a clan.”

Rhona shook her head and rolled her eyes heavenward. “Ye daft fool. I came to spy on ye to see if we could take Ardvreck. Ye’ve more coin than ye need and Seumas needed some to secure his marriage.”

Kaid let his disgust show. “I suppose yer foolish grandson spent everything on men paid to fight?”

“An investment,” Rhona said. “And a means of seeking revenge from ye killing his ma. My daughter.” She leaned forward, and Claire gave a whimper, ducking low as if she could free her shoulders from Rhona’s clutch.

“Leave the girl out of this, Rhona,” he snarled. “We tried to help yer daughter—”

“Ye let her die.” The accusation rasped from Rhona’s throat. “It’s because of ye she never wed Seumas’s da before Seumas was born. It’s yer fault he was a bastard.”

“She was ill.” Kaid still remembered when the woman had been brought to Ardvreck Castle, pale and soaked in sweat. She remained that way for two weeks after giving birth before she finally died. The healer at the time had only just been able to save the baby. “We couldna help her, but were at least able to save Seumas. We told Laird MacKenzie several times of her condition, but he never came.”

“Lies,” Rhona hissed. She pulled a blade from her waist and held it to Claire’s throat before the girl could wriggle away. “I wanted to wait for that woman to be here before I did this. So ye’d both ken the pain of loss as I did.”

Kaid tensed and weighed her words for a bluff. If she were being honest, he could lose Claire. If she were lying, he would be killing an old woman.

“Ye couldna protect yer father or yer people,” she said. “No’ when ye mysteriously had the sense knocked from ye.” She gave him a cruel grin, one which told him exactly who had struck him on the head that day. “And ye canna save the girl.”

“I’ll kill ye.” Kaid stepped closer.

Aye, she was an old woman. But she’d been responsible for the deaths of too many of his men. He’d be damned if he let her cause Claire’s also.

“It doesna matter.” She gripped Claire’s hair and jerked her head back so the translucent skin of her fragile neck was exposed.

A scream strangled from the girl, and Kaid flew forward. Before he could reach her, Elizabeth lunged at the old woman, grabbed her blade, and jerked it upward into Rhona’s narrow chest. She blinked in surprise as red seeped in a glistening pool on her purple cloak.

Claire bowed her head free of the clutched hand and met Kaid’s gaze with wide eyes. “Laird!”

A warning rang out in the back of Kaid’s mind, but it was too late. Fire split through him and the bloody point of a blade sprouted from his chest.