'What's the matter?' Emily demanded of Cait.
All of a sudden, her friend looked ready to cry.
'I don't want him to kill my brother.'
'Who?'
'Lachlan… the laird of the Balmorals.'
'Why would he kill him?'
'To have you.'
'Don't be ridiculous.'
But Cait wasn't listening. She was like she had been earlier… intent on something Emily could get no glimmer of.
'What is it, Cait?'
But Cait just shook her head.
'Don't you think it is odd they did not send a guard with us?'
'We could never outdistance them and they know it.'
'But if we hid… perhaps we could delay their departure until your brother caught up with us.'
Cait's face leached of color. 'I do not want that to happen.'
'What? Why?'
'The Balmoral laird could kill Talorc. I'm not even sure that Drustan couldn't. It wouldn't be a given, but it is possible. I don't want to lose my brother.'
'But won't there be a battle when we meet up with them with the horses?'
'I am hoping they won't follow once we get away. They will know their attempt at taking us has failed.'
'I don't see Lachlan avoiding a fight.'
Cait's eyes filled with tears. 'I don't either.'
Emily put her arm around her. 'What do you want to do?'
'If we don't escape, my brother will come for us on the island. And there is an even greater chance he would be killed then.'
Although the cranky laird's death would solve her own problems, Emily wasn't tempted in the least to wish for it. First, because it would be a terrible sin, but second because it would hurt her dear friend. 'Then we must escape.'
'Yes.'
'But you do not wish to run and hide now?'
'Hiding would never work.' Cait bit her lip. 'They could find us no matter how good our concealment.'
'You speak as if they are gods. They are merely men, Cait.'
'No. They are not. They are more…' She made a sound of distress. 'I wonder if they heard our plans, perhaps they can hear us even now…' Cait shook her head. 'No, I think we are far enough away to be out of earshot. I don't hear them anymore. We did walk a good long distance.'
'If we don't return soon, they are bound to come looking for us.'
A pained expression came over Cait's features. 'They already have. We must return now.'
Emily nodded, unwilling to argue with her distraught friend. If she said the men were coming, she must have heard something. She'd certainly heard them before Emily had at the lake.
However, her pretense had not been all deception. 'I still need a few moments of privacy.'
Cait looked startled and then laughed jerkily. 'Me, too. I've found pregnancy makes this aspect of life quite challenging at times.'
Emily smiled, remembering other women having made the same complaint in her father's keep. Cait had returned to the clearing when Emily finished dealing with the pressing need of her bladder. Drustan was there with her.
He wasn't saying anything and Cait's eyes were filled with hopeless desperation.
Emily glared at the warrior.
He jerked slightly as if surprised by her hostility, which made her want to scream like a fishwife. Were all men in the Highlands so dense?
'What you are doing is wrong.'
'Nay, lass. Retaliation is law among the clans. Right is on our side.'
Cait spoke then, her eyes burning with anger. 'Was it right to allow your clanswoman to hunt during a full moon away from Balmoral territory? She was not protected. She was in he—' Cait snapped her mouth shut and looked at Emily, then back at Drustan. 'You know what I mean. You neglected to protect her and now you would punish me for your own weakness.'
Drustan swelled with affront. 'I did not neglect my sister's protection. Whatever lie your clansman told to justify his actions, she was not hunting off the island. Your clansman came to our territory and took her, just as I am taking you now. And it is not you who pays the price, but your brother in losing you and the babe in you from his pack.'
Emily had never heard a clan referred to as a pack before, but now was not the time to ask about it. 'Susannah is happily wed to a Sinclair. Surely that is all that matters,' she said.
'The Sinclair should have asked permission on behalf of his clansman. He did not, which is a breach of clan law that my laird and I, as Susannah's brother, cannot tolerate.'
Cait crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the Balmoral warrior. 'Deny it all you like, but she was a lone wol—woman! She was fair game when Magnus came across her and she is happily wed. She loves Magnus and our clan has accepted her with open arms.'
Emily tried not to wince at the reminder that she had not received such acceptance.
'Clan law must be satisfied,' Drustan stubbornly maintained.
'Even if it means going to war?' Emily asked.
'Of course.' The daft man looked like he couldn't understand her need to ask the question.
They headed back, Cait taking pains to keep distance between herself and the Balmoral soldier. Emily felt for her friend. Her own situation was precarious, but the truth was… she was no worse off than she'd been before. Living amongst the Balmorals couldn't be any worse than living with the Sinclairs. And as long as she was captive to the other clan, she didn't have to worry about Talorc sending her back to England and Abigail being sent in her place to fulfill the king's edict.
But Cait was obviously and justifiably upset by their predicament. She didn't want war with the Balmoral clan and she didn't want to live with them either, from what Emily could see.
They reached the water and both she and Cait stopped a few feet from where the soldiers readied the horses. The contraption they were using looked odd, but she remembered seeing something like it in a painting of a Viking raid once. It looked like a floating raft that the horses would be attached to in harness as they swam. The raft would make the crossing easier on them. It would keep their heads above water, with slots in it for each horse's body to fit into, so that they would be together and afloat and share the burden of the crossing, conserving their equine strength. The horses didn't seem to mind it.
Regardless, Emily was glad she and Cait planned to escape before getting on the boat. The sea was not exactly calm. Waves crashed against rocks a good distance from the shore and she had no desire to be in a boat amidst such awesome movement of the deep, dark water. She had no desire to be in a boat at all.
She had grown adept at hiding her terror of the water, but it was there inside her, a dark force that would consume her as surely as the murky depths.
'Eat this.' Drustan held an oat cake and apple toward Cait.
She shook her head.
'The babe needs nourishment.'
As much as she hated to, Emily agreed with the warrior. 'Eat, Cait. He's right.'
Cait took the food and bit into the apple.
Drustan handed a similar offering to Emily in silence. She accepted it without a word. If they were going to run, they had to keep their strength up.
She took one bite of the oat cake and realized why Cait had chosen to eat her apple first. The bread tasted like wood, but she choked it down. She immediately took a bite from her apple to clear the awful taste from her
