“Aye, I know that ship.” Glynis could not mistake the distinctive red dragon painted on the sail. “It is Magnus Clanranald’s.”

CHAPTER 49

Alex says ye have both courage and good sense so I’ll give ye the plain truth,” Tormond said. “They’ll have fifty men on each of those ships. It will be a miracle if we can hold the castle.”

“God help us,” Glynis said and crossed herself.

“Since we are clansman of the MacDonald pirates, I expect they’ll let us live, though they’ll strip the castle bare.” Tormond paused. “But they don’t respect womenfolk. They’ve raped their own clanswomen before.”

“I’ll send the women into the hills,” Glynis said.

“We’ll hold them off as long as we can.” Tormond touched her arm, an unexpectedly gentle gesture from the crusty man. “Alex warned us that Magnus is a special danger to ye, so take the child and hide yourself well.”

Glynis found most of the women gathered in the hall with Bessie and Sorcha. She counted them and came up two short.

“Everyone follow Bessie out the back!” Glynis shouted. “Ye must all run to the hills and hide as quick as ye can. Now hurry!”

“What about you, mistress?” Bessie asked.

“I’ll follow as soon as I’ve found the others,” Glynis said, pushing at Bessie’s back. “Go! Go!”

Glynis ran from room to room shouting. She finally found the two missing serving women hiding under a table in the kitchen and sent them to join the others.

Oh, God, she had forgotten about Ùna and Seamus. She could not let the pirates get their hands on poor Ùna. Glynis picked up her skirts and ran out of the keep, hoping to find them in the stables. Arrows fell around her as she ran across the bailey yard.

Seamus saw her coming and stood in the open doorway to the stable, waving her inside. Fortunately, Ùna was right behind him.

“Ye must come with me out the back,” Glynis said, grabbing Seamus’s hand. “Now hurry!”

The small door that led to the fields was hanging open. As they ran toward it, Glynis looked up and saw men fighting on top of the wall.

She shoved Ùna and Seamus out ahead of her and screamed at them, “Run as fast as ye can and hide!”

When Glynis ducked through the doorway behind them, she saw the women and children she’d sent out earlier scattered over the hills running for their lives. But one woman had turned around and was running back toward the castle.

By the saints, it was Bessie! Glynis ran out to meet her in the field. When she reached Bessie, they were both gasping for air.

“Sorcha isn’t with ye?” Bessie asked.

“I sent her with you.” Fear ran down Glynis’s limbs. “What happened?”

“I’m so sorry, mistress,” Bessie said, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I was taking the other women, like ye told me to, but Sorcha wanted to come with you. I thought ye were just upstairs, and she couldn’t miss ye. But after I came out, I started to worry, so I watched for ye.”

“I’ll find her,” Glynis said. When Bessie hesitated, Glynis pushed her. “I can’t be worrying about you as well, so go!”

When Glynis reentered the castle, she was met by the sounds of battle—the clank of swords on the top of the walls and the steady pounding of a battering ram reverberating against the front gate. Bang, bang, bang.

“Sorcha, Sorcha!” she called, as she ran through the keep, pausing to look behind doors and under benches and tables.

Where was the child? God, please, I must find her.

Glynis ran up the stairs. If Sorcha was hiding somewhere else in the castle, Glynis was losing precious time. The shouts of men fighting came in through the windows as she ran by them. The sounds were far too close—some of the attackers must have made it over the wall and into the castle yard.

“Sorcha! It’s me, Glynis,” she called out, as she searched the bedchamber she shared with Alex. She snatched her dirk from the side table, then dropped to her knees to look under the bed. Sorcha was not there. Time was running out. As she got up, her gaze fell on the chest at the bottom of the bed.

She rushed to it and threw open the lid—and saw Sorcha’s shining head of hair. Her daughter was tucked into a ball with her head down, and she was shaking violently.

“Sorcha, love, I’m here,” Glynis said, resting her hand on her back.

The child looked up at her with Alex’s green eyes. Then she sprang to her feet and threw her arms around Glynis’s neck. Glynis held her tight. Praise God, she’d found her.

Glynis jumped at the sound of wood cracking. It was followed by a roar of voices. She rushed to the window, carrying Sorcha with her. Ach, no. Pirates had broken through the gate and were pouring into the castle yard below.

It was too late to escape.

The scene below was chaotic, with men shouting and swinging their claymores. Glynis could not tell who was winning—or even who was on which side.

And then she saw Magnus, and the breath went out of her.

He stood alone in the middle of the yard, ignoring the fighting that was going on all around him. His claymore was drawn and ready, but he stood still, scanning the castle grounds with his black eyes. A chill went through her.

Magnus was looking for her.

When his gaze turned toward them, Glynis jumped back into the shadows with Sorcha. As he started toward the keep with a determined stride, Glynis forced back the urge to run blindly. They were trapped with nowhere to go.

She had to think. She must find a way to protect Sorcha.

“Ye found the best place in the whole castle to hide,” Glynis said, running her hand over the girl’s hair. “I’m going to put ye back inside the chest and cover ye up.”

Sorcha shook her head and dug her fingers into Glynis’s arms.

“Your da needs ye, so ye will do as I say and be a brave lass,” Glynis said in a firm voice. “No matter what ye hear, ye must not come out until these bad men are gone.”

Loud male voices sounded in the hall below.

“Ye must do this for me,” Glynis said, holding Sorcha’s face.

Glynis heard boots coming up the stairs and dropped the child into the chest. Her heart pounded in her ears as she flung off her cloak and laid it over Sorcha.

“I love ye,” she whispered, and closed the lid an instant before the door burst open.

When she turned, Magnus Clanranald filled the doorway.

“Glynis, my dear wife,” Magnus said, “ye have much to answer for.”

CHAPTER 50

Damn, where are they?” Alex said, as he scanned another empty bay. After finding the MacNeils safe and sound behind their castle walls, they had sailed into every inlet and loch on Barra.

“We’ve been led on a merry chase.” Duncan slammed his fist against the rail. “I’d wager Hugh put the word out that he intended to raid Barra to divert us from his true plan.”

“And he succeeded,” Connor said with his gaze fixed on the horizon. Someone who did not know him well would not guess from his calm exterior that the chieftain was as angry as Duncan. “We have little chance of finding Hugh until he strikes again. He and his men could be hiding in any of a thousand inlets in the Western Isles.”

“They could have gone to North Uist.” Alex’s heart started pounding as the thought struck him. “While we sailed south, along the west side of the islands, Hugh and his men could have sailed north on the east side.”

“Alex, they could be anywhere,” Connor said.

“Hugh has gone to attack my home.” The certainty of it settled over Alex like a cold, heavy fog. “We must go back at once.”

Connor did not look convinced, but he signaled to the men to turn the ships north.

“It does make sense that Hugh would attack Dunfaileag Castle,” Ian said. “It would be his way of thumbing his nose at ye, Connor. Your uncle knows ye have too many loyal men at Dunscaith now for him to take it, so instead he lures ye to the outer isles. And then, while he has us looking the other way, he takes the one castle we hold here.”

Hugh would enjoy making Connor look the fool by raiding Dunfaileag Castle while Connor—and his castle keeper—were close by with two war galleys full of men.

“I left my wife and daughter unprotected,” Alex said as he stared north at the endless sea.

He had feared all the wrong things: that he would not know how to keep Glynis happy, that he would hurt her, that she would steal his heart. All those things had come to pass, but they were nothing to this. In his vanity, it had never occurred to him that he would fail to protect his wife and daughter. That was the one duty a man had above all others.

Duncan came to stand beside him at the rail and rested a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Even if Hugh has gone to Dunfaileag, he doesn’t have enough men to take the castle.”

 * * *

From the corner of her eye, Glynis saw her dirk on the bed, where she must have set it when she went to open the chest. When Magnus took a step toward her, she lunged and grabbed it. Then she jumped back, holding it in front of her with both hands.

“Stay away from me, Magnus,” Glynis said. “I’ve knifed ye once, so ye know I have the nerve to do it.”

“I was dead drunk at the time—and fool enough not to expect my own wife to take a blade to me,” Magnus said. “I’m neither now. Put the blade down before ye get hurt.”

If it were not for Sorcha, she would have fought him anyway, as hopeless as that would be. But Glynis did not want her daughter to hear her being hurt.

“I’ll put it down,” she said, “as soon as ye tell me why ye are here and what ye plan to do with me.”

“Ye belong to me,” he said. “I’m taking ye away from your false husband.”

“But why? Ye never liked me.”

“What has that to do with it?” Magnus said, his face turning an ugly red. “Ye are my wife, and ye don’t leave unless I say so.”