Page 60 of Highland Steel

“I have a feelin’ ye’ve got one of them hidden in here tryin’ to ambush me.”

“Nay, my laird. I assure ye, I am no’ a traitor. I am friends with all the clans.”

“If ye’re lyin’ I’ll have yer head.”

Rhoswen lay still beneath the blanket, praying he wouldn’t see her. However, Ranulph Drummond was not one to be easily fooled.

“What’s that under those blankets?” he asked.

“They’re just furs and blankets, my laird. I assure ye.”

“Really. Guard, use yer sword and stab those blankets now,” commanded Drummond.

“Aye, my laird,” came the guard’s answer.

Not wanting to be stabbed while she lay in hiding, Rhoswen had no other choice but to tell him she was there.

“Wait!” she cried, pushing the blanket off of her to reveal her presence. “Please, don’t kill me.”

“What?” gasped Bug. “Who are ye and how did ye get in here?”

“Just as I thought,” said Drummond. “Ye lied to me, Bug. Ye are a traitor, and I canna have traitors inside my castle walls.”

“Nay! I didna lie. I dinna even ken who the girl is or how she got there,” the man protested.

“Kill him,” Drummond commanded his guard.

“Nay, please!” Bug held out his hands. Rhoswen had to do something to help the poor man. She couldn’t bear to sit there and watch him go to his death for something she did. Drawing her sword would only get them both killed right now. She realized she couldn’t outfight them, especially not from the inside of a wagon. So she did the only thing she could think of that might buy them both some time.

With nimble fingers, half-hidden beneath the blanket, she unclasped her belt, leaving her sword hidden. Then she crawled over the furs toward Drummond.

“I’m your surprise,” she said, feeling like she was going to retch for what she was about to do. “I am here as your . . . betrothed.”

Chapter 19

Logan rode like the wind, knowing he had to make it to the Drummonds’ castle before Bug, or when Drummond discovered Rhoswen, both she and Bug would be killed. Bug always padlocked the back of his wagon before he traveled. So if Isobel really did see Rhoswen inside the wagon, she most likely hid in there hoping to get to Clan Drummond, not knowing she would end up locked inside.

“Damn it, Jack,” he called out to his wolf as they got closer to the castle and he could see that Bug’s wagon was already inside the courtyard. The gate was open and he spied Rhoswen being pulled from the back of the cart by none other than Ranulph Drummond himself.

Bug had told him about a secret entrance by an old stump outside the castle walls. But there was no time to find it now. He had to get inside before Drummond put his sword through Rhoswen’s heart.

“Stay here, Jack,” he told his wolf, kicking his heels into the sides of his horse and speeding across the drawbridge that led directly into the castle courtyard. “Leave her alone,” he shouted, pulling his sword from the sheath and holding it high as he rode to Rhoswen’s rescue.

“MacKeefe?” Drummond spun around on his heel, raising his sword in the air. Logan noticed at once that he held the Sword of Triumph in his hand. That only infuriated him, since whoever fought with the sword was undefeated. “I kent this was naught but a trap. Close the gates and raise the drawbridge!” he shouted to his men.

Logan heard the portcullis being lowered and the sounds of the chains and pulleys raising the drawbridge, locking them inside. He was now a prisoner of the Drummonds just like Rhoswen and Bug.

“Logan?” asked Rhoswen. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask ye the same,” he told her. “Why couldna ye just stay put and let me handle things?”

“You said you wouldn’t help me. What else was I to do?”

“Ye two ken each other?” asked Drummond. “What’s yer connection to this Sassenach, MacKeefe?”

Before Logan could say a thing, Rhoswen stepped in between the two men, facing Drummond. “He only knows me because he helped me on the road when your men killed my father and guards and stole everything from me,” she spat.

“Tamhas, I thought ye said they were all dead,” Drummond spoke to his lackey.