Seven
Connor had made his way quickly to the border. He remembered the description of the castle Maddie had given him their first night eating supper together. She described the castle as gigantic, with “lovely” gray stone. The grounds were vast and colorful. There were many beautiful trees. It was warm and welcoming. She had smiled when she described her home. She certainly loved it there. Connor, being the practical man that he was, realized that that could describe any domicile, so he had relied on his father’s description and instructions.
Maddie.
Just thinking of her made emotions roil within him. They were odd and contradictory. He thought of her beautiful eyes and sensuous, soft mouth, of her quirky personality and cleaning obsession, and of her hilarious dream of serving the Lord in a convent. The deep honesty in every gaze and word out of her mouth was so at odds with who he had thought she was.
Good Lord, what had come over him? Less than a week had passed since having met her and she was already turning him as daft as she was.
His two brothers, Kirk, Bruce, and two other men snapped him out of his reverie.
“This is it, Connor,” Iain said, pointing to the castle.
“This is the ‘warm and welcoming castle’ Maddie described?” Kirk asked, laughing. Connor had informed them of the description she had given.
Connor took in his surroundings. The landscape was so dreary to Connor’s eyes. Bare trees. No flowers. No color. No life! It was pure gray. The grounds were a brownish-green, desperately needing attention.
“No gate and only one sleeping guard. It’s as if he had no sons or a daughter to protect,” Connor said distastefully.
Connor and the men approached the snoring sentry. Connor dismounted, but his men stayed on their horses.
“Ye! Wake up!” Connor said, but the man snored on. Connor kicked the man’s leg with his booted foot and the man groggily woke up.
“Aye, wha’ ‘tishit?” he asked, slurring his speech.
“Ye are the guard, I presume?”
Only now did the guard realize that it was a Scot speaking to him. He looked at Connor’s plaid, and his eyes narrowed. His gaze moved beyond Connor, noticing the others on their horses. The guard tried to stand up and grab his sword, but fumbled.
“You pre-shume corre-ectly. Whatta ya want?”
“I have a message for William Wynton.”
“And wha’ ish thish messich?”
“Let’s go. This is a waste of time,” Connor said impatiently, turning towards the castle.
“Wait…wait! Ya can’t go in! Wha’ d’ya want withhh Shir Wynton?” The guard could barely stand up.
“I took his daughter and I am here to ransom her. Ye-”
The guard’s laughter stopped Connor.
“Lady Madeleine gone? Ranshom?” The guard almost fell over hooting with laughter.
Connor didn’t understand the guard’s reaction.
“She’sh in tha cashel. Even if sh-she were gone, Shir Wynton would be hard preshed to pay a ranshom!” He laughed harder. In fact, it was more like cackling.
Connor looked over to his men with frustration.
“She is in my custody, ye bloody idiot.”
This seemed to tickle the guard even more.
“She’sh not gone, I tell you! Who cares if sh-she ish anywaysh?”
Leaving the guard chortling, Connor walked towards the castle while the men rode. Once in front of the steps, the men dismounted and headed towards the door. They noticed no other guards on duty. Connor shook his head in shock as he opened the front doors.
They looked around once inside. It was drearier than the outside. Good God, it was completely devoid of color other than gray stone.
“Maddie lives here?” Kiel asked, echoing everyone’s thoughts. “I mean, we’ve not known her for long, but she is too lively to live in such a dreary castle.”
“Where the hell is a servant? Anyone? Do they just let anyone come and go as they please?”
Connor’s temper was quickly rising. Not protecting a castle when he had a daughter? What imbecile would do that?
They walked throughout the castle, but no one was there. They headed up the stairs, noting the gloomy and dark hallways. There was no one in sight.
“Incredible! ‘Tis impossible that no one is aboot!” Iain said, his Scots accent deepening.
They headed downstairs again.
The irony wasn’t lost on Connor. They were ransoming Maddie and here they were trying to find someone to inform of the ransom.
“This whole castle is one ugly block of gray!” Kiel snapped.
Once downstairs again in front of the doors, a servant hurriedly passed by.
“Girl?”
She looked up startled. She had her arms full of wood blocks and was obviously headed somewhere quickly.
“Sirs?” she responded, looking from one Scot to another with shock registering on her face.
“Wynton. William Wynton. Where is he?”
“He’s eating his morning meal, sir,” she said slowly. She was looking to the side and it was apparent that she wanted to leave.
Was it normal behavior for unannounced guests to come in, that she so casually would leave them there standing? For crying out loud, they were Scots! One would think by the servant’s attitude that unwelcomed Scots came in all the damn time.
“Inform him that he has company, since apparently the guard he so carefully chose seems to be inebriated at the moment,” Connor said.
“Aye, sir. And who may I say wishes to speak to him?”
“Laird Connor Ramsay.”
“Ramsay!” Her eyes traveled from the top of his head to his booted feet. The girl began to howl with laughter. Connor held fast onto his patience. She left the room and her laughter trailed behind her. Damn the hound who bore his name!
“What in the world? What has her laughing? Are all the people here mad?”
“Nay, Bruce. ‘Tis that they’re English, that’s all,” Iain responded.
They heard voices come from the direction the girl had disappeared to. Moments later, four men stood in front of the Highlanders. Shock registered on all of their faces.
They were related to Maddie?
Connor noted that they were only a couple of inches taller than her and all of them had blond hair and blue eyes. The Englishmen stood tense. Disgust and recognition lit each of their eyes. This served to further enrage Connor.
Which one of them had violated Katie?
Patience, he reminded himself. There would be time to kill these bastards.
“Ramsay, is it? What do ye want?” William asked, placing a hand on his sword.
All of Connor’s men followed suit. Connor’s arms, though, were crossed on his chest. Tension made the air thick.
“Yer daughter.”
No emotion showed on the father’s face, except a tick spasming at his jaw.
“What about her?”
“I have her and I’ve come to ransom her.”
He actually laughed at Connor. What the hell was wrong with these English bastards?
By God, were they all insane?
“My daughter,” he snorted, “is here. Ye Scots have no brain at all. Ransoming her when she’s under my roof!” The father and his sons snickered.
The Scotsmen looked at one another, each with an expression on their face mirroring their confusion.
“She’s gone. I’ve taken her.”
“How do I know that?”
“She isna here! That’s how ye know, ye bloody idiot! Or how would ye, considering yer guard is inebriated and there are no servants about! Ye have a daughter. Do ye nay care to guard her with a little more protection?” Connor yelled.
“Are ye here to lecture my father or attempt a ransom?” Christopher asked. Connor thought he looked like he was the oldest brother. He had asked the question so plainly. There was no reaction to Maddie’s disappearance. Wynton’s daughter and their sister had been kidnapped, and they couldn’t care less.
“Check yer castle for her. I would tell ye to involve the servants in yer search to hasten this, but there arena any servants about. Are they inebriated as well?” Connor taunted.
“I told ye, Father! The mess hall was too filthy. I told ye Madeleine wasn’t cleaning!” the youngest looking son, Robert, said.
“Saydie! Saydie!” Wynton screamed.
The servant girl stepped forward as if pushed. Her trepidation was obvious.
“Where is Madeleine?”
“Beggin’ ye pardon, sir. We’re usually so busy that we rarely see one another. I haven’t noticed anything amiss, other than dust.”
Connor held on to his patience.
“Damn it! Eric! Robert! Search for her! Saydie, do the same!” Wynton yelled.
As the moments passed, Wynton and Connor stared at one another.
“Ye better hope she’s here, bastard Ramsay,” Wynton snapped.
“Call me bastard again, and I’ll show ye one.”
“He’s never had bastards!” Christopher stepped forward and said.
He was as dumb as an oak tree.
“Funny, I counted three standing before us,” Connor said blandly.
The insult finally dawned on Christopher and he took another step forward. Wynton held him back, shaking his head.
“Calm yourself, Christopher!”
Moments passed as slowly as falling leaves from a tree. Tension was suspended thickly like a fog. Each side just stared at one another.
Eric ran in.
“I haven’t seen her!”
Saydie came in cautiously. “Nay sir, there’s no sign of her. Her cleaning brushes are intact. The cook said she hasn’t seen her, either.”
Connor raised an eyebrow at Wynton. A smile crept on Connor’s face.
Robert ran down the stairs panting. He stood in front of his father.
“Nay, Father. Her bed is made and looks as if it hasn’t been slept in,” he said, catching his breath.
Wynton’s angry gaze snapped to Connor’s. Connor proceeded to tell the earl of his demands.
“Ye won’t get anything unless I know she’s untarnished!”
“But Father, what about the Marques! Sir Henry Binouix?” Robert said.
Wynton gave his son a hard stare.
“Binouix?” Connor repeated, quirking an eyebrow.
“She’s been promised.”
Connor felt the words strike him as harshly as a slap on the face.
“For a hefty sum,” Robert said, snickering.
“Robert! Enough, you babbling fool!” Wynton said, never taking his eyes off the Highlander.
So the old man had sold his daughter. Then she hadn’t omitted the fact that she was promised? Did she know? Questions swam in his head.
“She is of no good to me if she’s been tarnished,” Wynton said.
Connor’s eyes reflected his hatred. This man was even more repulsive than he’d thought.
“Those are my conditions. She has not been tarnished…yet,” Connor challenged.
“Damn ye, Scots bastard! All of ye are bastards!”
Connor placed a hand on his sword.
“Why don’t they just keep her? She’s their responsibility anyway!” Robert said. Wynton walked over to his youngest son and slapped him.
“Shut up!”
Wynton faced Connor, who was easily a foot taller.
“She better be as pure as the day she was born!” Wynton barked.
Robert laughed. “She’s not pure! Never was.”
Christopher shoved his younger brother hard. Robert stopped laughing.
“A fortnight and no later. She’ll pay the consequences of yer tardiness.”
“I don’t care about that but she better be pure! And I wouldn’t lay my hands on her, Scot, if I were you. You’ll not get your ransom and you’ll have bastard children touched by the devil’s hands!”
What nonsense was this man talking about? Connor turned to leave, sickened, loathing the men who stood before him.
The others turned and walked towards the door.
Connor turned one last time. “Ye may want to stay on guard, gentlemen. Anyone could walk into yer keep and cut yer depraved throats. I’m thinking ‘twould be a good thing, that would be,” Connor said and disappeared beyond the doors.
Connor was seething. No protection in the castle for Maddie. None. And they hadn’t cared at all for her safety. Nay. Wynton only cared about her purity because he had sold her. Sold Maddie.
Sold his Maddie.
It made him sick. She was so cheerful and caring and warm. How could she be related to them?
“She looks nothing like them!” Kiel said.
“Aye. They were verra light in coloring with blue eyes and she has a mane of dark hair and the yellowest of eyes,” Kirk said, causing Connor to look over at him with a reserved expression.
“They sold her. And she thinks she’s going to a convent! Wynton showed no more feelings towards her than he would a horse. How could they be nonchalant about her?” Kiel asked.
Connor wondered the same. How could anyone be nonchalant about her?
“What did they mean about her not being pure? Do ye think she’s been with a man, Connor?” Kiel asked.
His stomach tightened and his heart skipped a beat. The thought of her having been with someone else made him ill. He knew she hadn’t been with anyone, though. The way she kissed him. Nay. She has had no experience with men.
“Nay. She is pure,” Connor said as a matter, and they looked at him curiously.
“What did Wynton mean when he said that if ye touched Maddie, ye would have bastard children touched by the devil’s hands?” Bruce asked.
“‘Tis obvious, Bruce. ‘Twas an insult. Maddie would get with child. The English hate Scots and think us as low as the devil. He was comparing a Scots bairn with the devil.” Iain had answered.
Connor thought about that. A child with Maddie. A child with her spirit. A child with her sharp tongue and wit, all veiled underneath a calm façade. He wasn’t fooled by her calm exterior for one second. He knew she hid her true emotions.
A baby with Maddie? He rejoiced inwardly. And if the Lord was merciful, a child that wouldn’t be obsessed with cleaning like his or her mother was.
“What are ye thinking about? Having bairns with Maddie?” Iain jested.
Connor gave him a serious look and Iain knew that he had.
Iain hid his satisfaction. Since having met Maddie, Iain knew that they couldn’t go through with the plan, just as his father had said. She’s too good, loving, and trusting. She had trusted them to protect her after only having known them mere minutes. She was innocent. Now, after having seen where she calls home, he had to let Connor know that this plan needed to be dissolved.
“What are ye thinking about?” Connor asked, looking over to Iain. The rest of the men followed behind their mounts, which gave them some privacy to speak.
“Ye canna do this, Connor. She’s too lively and trusting. Innocent. ‘Twould break her trust forever if she knew ye were ransoming her. And ye canna seduce her, Connor.”
“What would ye suggest? I just hand her back to her family?” Connor asked heatedly.
Iain shook his head.
“What then, Iain? I’m not to seduce her, I’m not to ransom her, and I’m not to take her back to her family.”
“How can ye think of taking her back, Connor? They doona care about her well-being! There is no protection for her. They couldna care less about her,” Iain said harshly. “They sold her,” he whispered heatedly.
Connor gave his brother a hard look.
“‘Tis not like us to bring helpless women in a battle amongst men, Connor.”
Though he knew his brother was right, he wouldn’t let reason deter him.
“Nay, Iain. We will proceed as we have been. Not another word about it!”
Connor separated from the pack and spurred forward at full velocity. Iain’s words resounded in Connor’s head. The words bothered him because they echoed Connor’s own thoughts.
He couldn’t go through with this. When the plan had been drawn out, Connor had pictured a snobbish, cruel English lady. That woman would have been easier to deal with. She would have been the complete and utter opposite of Maddie.
Damn it! Why did this have to be so difficult.