Chapter Fifteen
“What? You?” I squeaked.
“Mistress, we canna drag a wee lass about wi us,” Andrew said. “We have no time for such!”
“Ye’re taking me, or I am screaming as loud as I can,” Igrid said mulishly, maneuvering her way toward the door despite that Andrew and I were trying to herd her into a corner.
I looked at Andrew. “We can just take her with us.”
“Auch, mistress! Ye are too soft for this century.”
“What does that mean?” Igrid snapped, looking from one of us to the other.
We had never discussed it, but Andrew clearly knew about the time traveling. He hadn’t quite figured out that I had never lived in Constantinople though or that I wasn’t a Morrison.
“I guess,” I said. “If we take you with us, Igrid, where do you expect to go?”
“I want to fight! I want to fight these Macleods. Ye dinna ken how much I despise these people.”
I reared back at the anger in the little thing’s voice. Her brown eyes spit fire.
“But what about Mrs. Mackay?”
“She will be fine. She stays to protect the castle. I have had no way to leave, nowhere to go, no one to go to. I am going wi ye. How are we to do this then?”
I looked to Andrew.
“I ken a way out of the castle. I am surprised ye dinna.”
“Ye dinna mean through the latrine, do ye? Are ye daft?”
“Nay, I am no daft! It is no such a drop. I did it once myself when I was a wee lad.”
“Wait! What? Do you mean through a latrine? A toilet?”
“Aye, mistress. The latrine has a chute that goes out the south wall of the tower. It is on this floor and no a great drop to the ground.”
It wouldn’t be the first time I had found myself digging through human waste, although the stench had long dissipated from any of the archaeological sites I had worked.
“Let’s go!”
“Ye are no serious, mistress?” Igrid said.
“I am. Are you coming? Or do we tie you up?”
She closed her eyes for a moment. “I ken it can be no worse than emptying the chamber pots into the latrine. Let us go then! I will lock the door behind us so they will have to break the door down to discover that ye are gone. I ken we would be soon discovered if Angus and most of his men were no away at the moment and Dugald no distracted.”
Igrid, our unexpected ally, picked up one of the candles and led the way out into the hallway, dimly lit by a single torch. She put a finger to her lips and locked the door behind us. We turned, not for the stairwell but to retreat farther down the hallway. We passed several doors before reaching one on what I thought was the south wall of the castle. I wasn’t sure, disoriented as I was.
Igrid opened the door, and we stepped into a foul-smelling stone-walled chamber with a raised half wall covered by a thick slab of wood with two cutouts. I believed the cutouts were used directly as toilets, but Igrid said she also used them to empty the chamber pots.
“The holes are too small for us to climb through,” Andrew said. “We must lift the seat.”
Wishing I had gloves, I joined the Andrew and Igrid as they pulled up the wooden slab. I held my breath and looked down into the chute. The debris coating the chute appeared fresh, and despite not breathing, I gagged. I had never realized until my arrival in the sixteenth century how weak my stomach was, a euphemism, for everything nauseated me.
I pulled back and hugged the opposite wall of the small room.
“The chute is really high up, Andrew! You think we can survive that fall intact?”
“Aye, mistress, I do. The ground is soft enough, ye ken.”
I shuddered.
“I ken it will be.”
“I warned ye that this idea was foolish...and most foul,” Igrid said. “But I am willing if ye are.”
“Who’s going first?” I asked. “I can, but if I break a leg, you’ll have to carry me.”
“I will go first, mistress. Then Igrid should go...in case she canna be trusted to run away and warn the others. Then yerself.”
“I dinna like ye, Andrew Morrison!” Igrid spat out.
“Nor I ye,” he retorted.
“Okay, enough bickering! That’s what we’ll do!”
Andrew nodded and climbed up onto the platform. He lowered himself down into the chute, and I ran to watch as he let go and dropped into the darkness.
“Andrew?” I whispered. “Are you all right?”
“Aye, mistress. I canna speak loudly. The ground is soft enough. Come quickly!”
Igrid expressed her distaste but climbed up onto the platform and lowered herself into the chute. I held up the candle to watch her let go with a small shriek. I heard a grunt and a curse, and listened.
“Ye could have waited until I was away!” Andrew hissed.
“Well, ye said to drop. How did I ken ye were still in the way?”
“So you guys are okay, right? No broken legs?”
“Nay, mistress. The drop is no far at all,” Igrid whispered.
“Okay, I’m coming!” I set the candle down, hitched up my skirts and slithered into the chute. Still terrified of the drop, I didn’t throw myself into the abyss immediately, but clung to the edge by my fingers. The stench was unbearable, and I let go, remembering that Dugald’s stench was even worse.
I landed on my backside in a mass of arms and legs and bodies as both Andrew and Igrid cursed and grunted. The three of us disentangled ourselves and rolled apart.
“I told you I was coming! I thought you guys moved out of the way!” I said, gagging at the moist mound of waste. I jumped up and ran away from the area, shuddering with distaste, but the stench followed me...was me.
I paused and turned to face Andrew and Igrid behind me. The moon provided little light, and I couldn’t see our surroundings.
“Which way out of here, Andrew? Igrid?” I whispered.
“Where do we go?” Andrew asked.
“Ye dinna ken where to go?” Igrid asked shrilly. “We escaped the castle only to stand about wi’out direction?”
I barely recognized the quiet mousy maid in the outspoken little woman.
“Well, we escaped from the castle, not exactly to somewhere!” I retorted. “We should try to head back toward the birlinns. It’s possible that the men are between the boats and here...or maybe they went after the hostages...who would still be between the boats and the castle.”
“My clothes are drenched in keech,” Igrid moaned. “I canna stand myself.”
“No kidding!” I said, taking in tiny gasps of air to keep from breathing deeply. “Okay, Andrew, I don’t know the layout. Which way toward the boats, do you think?”
He hesitated, and although I knew we’d been right to escape, I wished I’d had better intelligence before we fled...at least a better plan.
“This way,” Andrew finally said. “There was once a grove of trees behind the castle through which we can travel toward the beach. Do the trees still stand, Igrid?”
“Aye, I have seen a grove of trees from the windows. I have no left the castle grounds in years though.”
“Lead on, Andrew,” I said.
He turned left and moved out. Igrid followed in the darkness, and I soon lost them both.
“Guys! I can’t see you! Slow down!”
Suddenly, Andrew appeared at my side.
“Look—it’s really dark out here,” I said. “The moon is behind a cloud, and I can’t see you. I think we should hold on to each other.”
“As ye wish, mistress,” he said. “Where is the lass?”
“I thought she was behind you!”
“I thought the pair of ye followed me,” Andrew said.
“Igrid!” I whispered in the dark, pivoting slowly, as if I could see anything. “Igrid! Where are you?”
I heard no response.
“Igrid!” I said a bit louder, fully aware that the base of the castle was only a few hundred yards away and the men inside already on alert for a possible attack.
Still, I heard no response.
“Andrew! Do you think she took off?”
“Took off, mistress?”
“Ran? Where would she go?”
“I dinna ken, mistress. It was no my choice to bring her.”
“Which way to the grove?”
“Just here. We are on the edge of it. Do ye no hear the trees in the wind?”
My heart had been pounding so loudly that I hadn’t heard the leaves rustling, but I heard them then.
“I can’t think straight. I stink so bad.”
A hand came over my mouth and around my waist, and I struggled against Andrew’s grip. What was the boy thinking?
“Ye do stink, lass, something terrible!”
But it wasn’t Andrew holding me, covering my shriek. It was Iskair’s voice.
I moaned and turned toward him, his grip loosening as I rotated. I launched myself at his neck, wrapping my arms around him, my feet dangling.
“Iskair, Iskair!” I repeated breathlessly.
He held me to him for a moment before setting me back on my feet.
“Did no the three of ye think to lower yer voices?”
“What are you doing here? What three of us? Where are the others?”
He pulled me forward by the arm, and I heard the same rustling again. The dark shapes of men moving materialized, and I realized that John, Torq and the other men were all concealed in the grove.
“Release me! I am no the enemy!” I heard a female demand angrily.
“Igrid?”
“Mistress! It seems we are found! Though I canna say I am entirely pleased! This brute willna let me go!”
I didn’t know which brute she referred to but assumed it was one of the Morrison men.
I then heard Andrew’s voice along with several hushed baritones speaking in Gaelic. I turned to Iskair, still holding me by the arm.
“What’s going on? How did you know they’d captured us?”
“We didna ken that ye had been taken, lass, until we heard the commotion at the base of the castle. Dinna tell me that the three of ye escaped through the latrine? Ye certainly have the stench of it.”
“We did!” I said, my hackles rising. “And we did a good job of it! We’re out, aren’t we?”
“Aye, that ye are. I hear Andrew telling John and Torq how ye were taken, though he disna remember much of it. He says he was hit on the head.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I am so verra sorry, lass. We thought ye’d be safer on the birlinns than wi us, but we were wrong. I dinna ken there is anywhere safe for ye at the moment.”
The remorse in Iskair’s voice touched me. “It’s not your fault. You’re right. Nowhere is safe right now.”
“Come—tell us what is occurring in the castle. We were considering how best to infiltrate the castle, when ye dropped from the castle walls.”
He led me toward the heart of the group, where John and Torq listened to Andrew speak. John turned in my direction, his ears sharp, his sense of smell probably sharper. I was humiliated at my foul odor.
“I canna see yer person verra well, Debra, but Andrew tells us that ye have come to no harm, at least to his eyes. Are ye well? Untouched? Unharmed?”
“I’m okay,” I said.
“Can ye tell us how many men are within the castle? Is Angus there? Dugald? Andrew told us they ken we are here and prepare for an attack?”
“Yes, they know you’re here because they found the boats. I didn’t tell them anything though. Angus appears to still be out with the hostages. He hasn’t returned to the castle yet. Dugald seems to be in charge. He’s directing everyone to wherever they go during an attack. You would probably know that better than me. I’ve seen them running around the courtyard, lining up on the parapet above the stables, manning the gate. The tower house seems largely empty, but I don’t know that for sure. It just seems quiet.”
“Good, good. Thank ye,” John said.
“What about the prisoners? Ann, Cynthia, the kids, Dylan, the people? Do you know where they are? Have you heard anything?”
“I sent Iain out on Iskair’s horse. We await his return here in the woods.”
“Oh!”
“Though they travel on foot and are doubtless slowed by the bairns, they must be close. Iain should return soon.”
Iskair dropped his hand from my elbow, and I missed the strength and reassuring security of his grip. I wondered if it was because I stunk. Had I not, I think I would have pressed against his side.
I was utterly infatuated with the man, no matter how much of a liar he thought I was. I wanted to look at him all the time, to hear his thick Scottish burr in my ear, to feel the muscles of his arms ripple under my hand. I wanted to hear his heart beat as I pressed my face against his broad chest. More than anything, I wanted him to say “I love you.”
But all I could hear at the moment was my own heart pounding so loudly that I thought everyone must hear it...and our precarious situation wasn’t the source. In the hours since I had been taken, I had come to realize that no man would ever measure up to Iskair in my eyes. Not only was he remarkably handsome with a beautiful smile—when he chose—but he had a heart of gold, a goodness in him that despite all the violence prevalent in his world, of which he participated in and was capable of, he was a good, trustworthy man. I loved him, and although I didn’t know what my future would hold if and when I returned to the twenty-first century, it would definitely not have Iskair.
I resisted the urge to lean against him, instead choosing to take a few steps away so as not to offend.
“Are we still at odds then?” he murmured.
“What? No, I just—”
“Then why do you step away, Debra?” His deep voice was throaty, piercing my heart.
“Because—” I stopped short.
“Because?”
“Because I stink!” I exclaimed. “And I don’t want you to smell me.”
A warm hand wrapped around my arm and pulled me gently near.
“I ken yer smell when ye have no fallen through a latrine, lass. Ye have the scent of heather blooming in the summer.”
I drew in sharp breath. On the verge of throwing myself into Iskair’s arms, despite my awful smell, I stopped short as footsteps pounded through the forest.
“Young Iain has returned,” Iskair said. He moved forward as the men crowded around Iain.
That I could actually see the scout’s silhouette suggested that our small portion of the earth rotated toward the sun. Dawn was approaching.
The men spoke in Gaelic, and I moved toward Igrid, now unhanded by her captor, whoever he had been.
“What are they saying, Igrid?”
“I dinna understand his meaning. He says there are no prisoners? I thought ye said all the Morrison women and bairns had been taken prisoner.”
“What does he mean...no prisoners? He doesn’t mean—” I choked off the words. “No! No!”