Page 62 of Come the Morning

“Perhaps she has gone … to see Anne, maybe she heard you arrive, went for a walk around the camp,” Daro said with lame confusion.

“Perhaps it is a trick?” Waryk suggested very softly.

Daro paused, his mouth pursed, as if trying to decide whether to draw his sword, or deny the accusation.

He opted for the latter, though his teeth gritted between words as he spoke.

“I swear to you, as I gave you my word, that it is good. I have not sent Mellyora away, and I am not hiding her. To what avail? You will gain your riches with or without her, and the death of a few men may be regrettable to you, but it will not change the fact that the king has given you the estate.”

He was telling the truth, Waryk determined, even if the slightest suspicion still plagued the back of his mind.

“Ragnar!” Daro called.

The Viking’s man quickly entered the hall. “Mellyora is missing.”

“Missing?” Ragnar seemed as perplexed, as if he didn’t comprehend the word.

“Aye, gone!” Daro said. “Search the camp, find out who has seen her, or any activity, she cannot have simply disappeared.”

Angus had entered behind Ragnar. Waryk bowed his head just slightly, indicating that Angus and the others should follow the Vikings, and ascertain if the search was real.

Daro stared at Waryk. “I did not do this,” he said. “Perhaps she heard talking … maybe she awoke when I didn’t know it and heard people saying that I had invited you here. She may have thought that I was simply trading her to you for Anne, though that was a suggestion she had given to me. She’s proud and reckless herself, but she never meant to put me at war with the king. She said that she wanted no bloodshed.”

Waryk made no comment. He was of the opinion that Mellyora would have loved to see Daro shed a great deal of his blood, slicing and dicing him to pieces.

“If she ran within your camp, surely your men would have seen her. And from here, where would she go?”

“I don’t know,” Daro said quietly, and he sounded more concerned than he had before. “It would not be like her to run from me.”

“Umm,” Waryk murmured.

But at that moment, Ragnar came into the hall, heavily burdened by the bulk of the bleeding man he carried. Waryk and Daro quickly made way, and Ragnar laid the man down before the fire. He had been run through with a sword, and was bleeding profusely and was barely conscious.

“It’s Oso, who was guarding the gates,” Ragnar told Daro quickly. “He was attacked earlier.”

“By whom?” Daro demanded.

Ragnar shook his head. “He couldn’t say. The men were helmeted, and he was taken so quickly, he didn’t recognize any emblems on the helms, cloaks, or shields, or surcoats.”

Oso inhaled in great, gasping breaths. He clutched Daro’s arm. “Men … many men. Rode … south. Heard … the crags at the loch. From there … want to reach the … border.”

The man’s eyes closed. He lay back, ready to die with his message told. Waryk could see the fierce loyalty the man had given Daro.

“Inga! Staunch his wounds, call for help. Ragnar, guard the camp.” Daro was quickly on his feet. “Laird Waryk, we ride,” he said.

Waryk was already striding out, whistling for Mercury. Damn her. He didn’t like the fear he felt. Had she gone willingly with a pack of fools pretending to be her uncle’s men?

Had she known that they were false?

And had it mattered?

“Waryk, we’ll find her,” Daro said.

“Aye,” Waryk said, mounting his horse, his eyes on Daro. “We ride together.”

“I’ve ordered men to follow—”

“Aye, but we’ve little time. My men will follow as well, but we’ll ride now, immediately, you, Angus, and I.”