Page 68 of Enchantment of a Highlander

She’d thought of Alec the whole time she’d been inside. Not doing so was impossible.

What if someone came up behind him and attacked when he didn’t expect it? What if he was injured somewhere and no one had found him yet?

What if…

Celia closed her eyes against the thought, as if she could shut it out.

What if he was dead?

She pushed the door open, afraid of what she might not see.

Alec.

The chill of the night air bathed her heated cheeks and swept away the odor of blood. At first the contrast of going from the candlelight inside to the cloudy moonlit night outside left her momentarily blinded.

Her gaze searched in front of her before she could fully see. So many faces.

Warrior’s faces.

The villagers had said the old laird’s army had finally returned. For too long they had hidden from the abusive laird after years of poor treatment and heinous commands. The people saw them as brave.

But Celia saw how the people suffered, and to her, those warriors were cowards.

Her gaze swept restlessly over the shadowed faces and frustration ripped through her. She shifted around the reunited couples, her search suddenly frantic. Her heart beat in her chest like a trapped bird.

“Is Laird MacLean here?” she asked the man nearest her.

The man did not respond at first and then, to Celia’s great horror, he lowered his eyes. “I havena seen him.”

She staggered back under the weight of the nightmare that might be real.

Alec might truly be dead.

Chapter Twenty

Alec stood beside Niall against the fierce coastal winds. Both men stared out at the landscape of low shrubs and muddy, grass-covered hills. Some of the outlaws had been slain, but some had managed to escape.

The others searched, yet they stayed behind to watch the open area.

To wait for an outlaw trying to flee.

Perhaps if Niall and his men had not paused when the outlaws ran, all would have been captured or killed.

Niall folded his arms across his chest. “Now what happens?”

Alec set his jaw. “We find these men.”

“I dinna mean that,” Niall said. “I meant to me and the other soldiers.”

Alec kept his gaze on the open field before them, seeking out the return of Niall’s men who’d been sent ahead to search for the missing outlaws. “Ye think I’d have ye punished?”

He glanced at the fierce older man.

Niall’s time in hiding had left his appearance feral. His jaw was grizzled with scraggly gray whiskers and his blond-and-white hair snarled into dull knots.

“Ye think I’d have ye punished for what?” Alec demanded. “For no coming to the castle when ye were needed? For abandoning the verra villagers who kept yer hiding a secret? For all the raids before today where ye did nothing but hide while they were left unarmed and slaughtered?”

Niall’s eyes glittered in the darkness. “Ye dinna understand.”