Anna bit down on her brother’s hand.
“Ow, you wee bitch,” Ossian cried. “You drew blood.”
“Then untie me. I heard David call for me. I wish to see him. Please, Ossian. I know you don’t like me, but please do me this one favor? Filib?” Her other brother was guarding the door, his face turned away from her. “Untie me. Allow me to speak to him. I beg of you.”
Ossian walked away from her, swinging his hand as if to take the sting of her bite away. “Shite, you think you’ll always get your way. Always. Well, not this time. Papa’s betrothed you to another. I cannot wait to be rid of you at last.”
Filib finally turned to look at them. His expression looked torn, mayhap even agonized. He, too, was struggling to cope with the changes in their family. “You don’t have to be so cruel, Ossian. Your jealousy of a wee lass doesn’t say much about your character. Untie her.”
“Shove it up your arse, Filib,” Ossian growled. Her eldest brother’s edge seemed to have hardened these last days. Though he’d never been kind, she’d never seen him this disagreeable or cruel.
“Hush.” Filib pressed his ear to the door, listening to the conversation below stairs. David’s voice was so strong and deep that it easily carried up the staircase.
Anna’s eyes misted at her good fortune. “He said he still wishes to marry me. You see? I knew he’d not give up on me.” She glanced from one brother to the other, but both of them still ignored her. If David wanted her, why wouldn’t they let her go downstairs to see him? Surely her father wouldn’t intend to marry her off to another if her betrothed still wished to be with her…
She’d heard her parents discuss the situation earlier but hadn’t been able to make out any words.
“Anna?” David’s voice for certain.
She drew deep in her belly for all the projection she could muster. “Up here! David, I’m up here.” Her voice was not nearly loud enough, for the sleeping potion her mother had started giving her the previous day had siphoned away her strength.
Both brothers spun around and raced to her side, Ossian clamping his hand down on her mouth and growling, “I told you we should have gagged her. You’re too soft, Filib.”
“Hush,” said Filib. “You cannot be heard.”
What was happening? Why were they rejecting David’s renewed offer?
She closed her eyes, resigned that she would not be able to fight her way free just yet. The important thing was that David loved her. Truly loved her. She could hear it in his voice.
The next thing she heard caused her to bounce up off the bed, flinging her body about in her desperation to free herself from her prison.
Gilroy Walters? Her sire had said he’d betrothed her to an older man with four bairns. She couldn’t believe her ears. Didn’t her sire care about her at all? Why would he do such a thing? Perhaps her mother had suggested it. She’d always felt sorry for Walters because he’d lost his wife at such a young age.
She opened her mouth to shout for David again, but Ossian’s hand clamped down on it. This time, she couldn’t fight the tears.
Filib was over near the table straightening things, but he moved over to the door. She heard the door to the outside open and bang shut with a loud slam.
“Can you control her?” Filib asked. “I must leave.”
Ossian snorted and said, “Go ahead. She’s not going anywhere.”
Anna watched her only friend leave. She closed her eyes. She did not wish to see her parents at the moment.
Or anyone besides David.
And yet she was driven by something new. David did indeed love her. Getting past Ossian was impossible at the moment, but she’d find a way out later. Drummond land was not that far away.
She’d bide her time and wait until everything was right.
All she needed was a horse.
***
The Band of Cousins all came from different parts of the Highlands, but they’d agreed on a central meeting place: Will’s grandsire’s cottage. Will had hidden there often in his old life as an outlaw. No one had ever found him, so it seemed an appropriate place for the cousins to meet and discuss their special duty to the Crown. Will and Maggie had planned to leave Edinburgh shortly after he did, so he hoped to find them at the cottage.
He made it by mid-afternoon, pleased to see Gavin and Gregor Ramsay working on building a second hut close to the one inhabited by Will’s grandsire, Nevin MacLerie. They’d planned to build a meeting place in the middle of their various homes, and this location had seemed to fit the best.
Gavin and Gregor stopped what they were doing to greet him. “I hope you’re here to help, David, and not because there’s trouble.”
Will and Maggie must have heard his approach, for they came scrambling down a path from the top of a knoll, two falcons soaring above them, their wide wing span a pleasure to behold. Though David had seen Will’s falcons before, the sight never failed to impress him. “Greetings, David. Will was helping me with the falcons. I almost have Sealgar trusting me enough to land on my arm,” Maggie said, her face beaming.
Will motioned for them to settle on a few logs they had arranged around a fire pit behind his grandsire’s cottage. “Did you come back to visit?”
David shook his head, still unable to process all that had transpired at MacGruder Castle.
“Then sit. Tell us what’s on your mind,” Maggie said.
“You know I’ve been betrothed to Anna MacGruder for a short time.”
“Aye,” Maggie replied. “Are you not quite fond of each other?”
“Aye,” he said, taking a deep breath to calm his racing heart. “We were set to marry in a moon, but the MacGruder has called it off.”
Maggie frowned, glancing at her cousins. “Why?”
“Anna was found in a forest early one morning with no memory of how she came to be there. She was lying on the ground when she awakened, a bit beaten up, and had naught with her. When she was found by her sire, she was brought home. Her mother and the healer discovered she’d lost her maidenhead. This is the tale I’ve been told. I have my doubts about it, but ‘tis all I have to go on at the moment.” For the first time, his shoulders slumped. The situation seemed so discouraging and hopeless. He couldn’t lose Anna, but he wasn’t sure what to do, especially now that his relationship with her family had soured like old milk.
Maggie gasped. “Och, who would do such a thing? Steal her maidenhead and leave her alone in the forest, where she could be attacked by a wild animal?
Will nodded in agreement. “We know how serious the boar attacks can be.”
“What bothers me most is they will not allow me to see her.” David stood from the log and began to pace the small clearing, picking up stones and tossing them off into the trees, away from the group. When he pictured Anna’s father or her brother, Ossian, his throws became more powerful.
“Mayhap she’s not recovered yet. How long has it been?” Gavin asked.
“Only two days.”
Maggie said, “The other possibility is she’s too ashamed to see you. Her lack of memory must be terrifying. Do they know when she left the castle?”
“I know hardly anything. MacGruder is only willing to say that the betrothal has been called off because he does not wish to compromise the Drummond bloodline. I said I wish to marry her anyway, but he claims she’s already betrothed to another.”
“To whom?” Maggie asked.
“Gilroy Walters.”
Gavin and Gregor groaned in unison. Maggie just arched her brow at the duo.
“He’s a nice enough man,” Gregor said, “but he’s way too old for her, and he has several bairns already. They’re a bit wild, or so I’ve heard.”
“Aye, I’ve heard the same,” David said wearily. “Probably why he wants another wife. Aught else you can think of?”
“He could be extremely wealthy. Is MacGruder in need of coin?” Will asked.
“If he needs coin my sire would be willing to help him. He would only need ask.” He wiped his hand across his face, then scratched the top of his head. Something was badly wrong with the whole situation. “I just don’t understand.”
The cousins exchanged a look, and Will didn’t hesitate to speak for the group. “How can we help?”
David moved over to sit near his cousins again. “I gave that much thought on my way over. The only idea I can come up with is that Walters may have orchestrated the entire thing to guarantee Anna wouldn’t marry me.”
“I suppose ‘tis possible,” Gavin said. “Gregor and I would be glad to visit Walters and see what we can uncover. We can go in disguise as minstrels.”
Gregor said, “Gavin’s actually pretty good at it.” He laughed. “The girls do chase after him when he sings. He has a fine voice.”
Gavin just grinned.
“Can you make it by nightfall?” Maggie asked.
David said, “If we don’t waste any time, I think ‘tis possible.”
She shook her head. “You’re not going, David. He’ll know you.”
“I have to come,” he insisted. “But I have one more favor to ask.”
“What is it? We’ll help you in any way we can,” Gavin said. They’d all leaned in closer to David as if they knew how eager he was not to be overheard.
“Would you help me sneak into Anna’s chamber so I can speak with her?”
Maggie got a huge grin on her face. “Oh, we’d love to help you with that.” She glanced at Will, who was nodding his head. “We’ll bring you there while Gavin and Gregor go to Walters. You could find out more from Anna than from anyone else.”
David smiled, finally satisfied that they had a plan. He still believed that if he could just speak with Anna, he could find out the truth.