Never Love a Highlander (McCabe Trilogy #3)(70)

“Arlen is dead,” Simon whispered.

“Father!” Jamie cried as he ran up. He dropped to his knees and gathered his father’s head in his lap. “What has happened?”

“Shh, lad,” Gannon said grimly. “He’s telling us of it now.”

Simon licked his lips and moaned softly. “He fell from his horse but he was alive. They took him.”

“Who?” Rionna demanded. “Who did this to you?”

Simon fixed her with his stare, his eyes brighter for just a moment as anger flared in their depths. “Your father, lass. ’Twas your father and the men who sided with him. They take him to Duncan Cameron.”

CHAPTER 29

“If you think I’m going to allow you to leave this keep, you’re daft,” Gannon said bluntly as Rionna paced back and forth in the great hall.

Rionna gripped the scroll bearing the seal of Ewan McCabe and the king, the message that had arrived barely an hour after Simon rode in badly injured, bearing the news of Caelen’s capture.

She turned urgently to Gannon, knowing she must convince Caelen’s commander or all would be lost. “Think, Gannon. Think on this and you’ll know I’m right. We cannot wait. Cameron will kill Caelen. If he doesn’t, my father will. Caelen isn’t being used as a pawn against Ewan McCabe. ’Tis my father’s doing and his bargain with the devil, Duncan Cameron. He spoke of this before but I thought him daft. After my wedding, he approached me to entreat me to join with him in a way to rid our clan of Caelen. He was furious that he was being forced to give over his leadership. ’Tis the truth that now I don’t think he ever had any intention of handing over the title of laird to Alaric when he first suggested the alliance. His plan was to marry me to Alaric McCabe and make Alaric laird upon the birth of my first child. But why wait? ’Twas an agreement that never made sense to me, given my father’s reluctance to hand over leadership of the clan. I think he intended to make sure Alaric was never laird. I think he would have murdered him after I was with child. He could have made it look like an accident and then Ewan would never have broken the alliance if I was to bear Alaric’s child. He wouldn’t have been able to prove that my father was the cause of Alaric’s death.”

“ ’Tis a complicated plot you speak of,” Gannon said with a frown.

“I know it sounds hysterical, that I’ve made it all up because of my worry for Caelen, but it makes sense, Gannon. If you think on it, it makes sense.”

“Aye, it does,” Gannon admitted.

“We cannot wait until Ewan is ready to wage war with Cameron. I need you to travel with all haste to Neamh Álainn and tell Ewan of my plan. I know not what this scroll contains. I cannot break the seal and have someone examine the contents, for it ruins my plan. But whatever instructions it contains, Ewan must do differently if we are to have the element of surprise.”

Gannon shook his head vehemently. “I will not leave you, my lady. Caelen would gut me and feed my innards to the wolves if I allowed you to go through with this plan of yours.”

A sound of rage blew past her lips. She was so furious and so unbelievably terrified that she could barely hold it together. She wanted to curl into a tight ball and pretend none of this had ever happened. But Caelen’s life depended on her being able to save him, and save him she would if she had to battle her way through every one of her clansmen to do it.

“Will you just let him die while you wait for his brothers to gather their warriors and attack Cameron? Think you that Caelen will even still be alive? Think, Gannon. My father and his men bear an injured man with them. Caelen will slow their travel back to Cameron’s lands. If I leave now and ride straight through, I can arrive on their heels, before they’ve had time to determine Caelen’s fate.”

Gannon thrust his hand into his hair and turned away. “What you ask me to do, my lady, is impossible. How can I abandon you while I run to Ewan for help? How can I face Caelen if something happens to you and his bairn? You underestimate Caelen’s strength. It matters not if he took an arrow to the back. He will survive. He has much to live for.”

Rionna tugged at Gannon’s arm until he faced her again. “My clansmen will follow but only I will gain entrance to Cameron’s domain. ’Tis important he thinks I came alone. Everything rides upon my ability to make him think what it is I want him to think. I must buy time for Ewan to arrive. I’ll not ask your permission to do this, Gannon. What I ask for is your help. I need you to go to Ewan. If I send one of my men, after what has occurred, Ewan will think it a trick. He’ll believe you. You were his most trusted man, a man he sent into service to his brother so that Caelen would have someone he trusted close by. Don’t betray that trust, Gannon. I and my babe are counting on you to help us save my husband.”

“You don’t play fair, my lady,” Gannon said in disgust.

“ ’Tis nothing fair when it comes to the life of my husband,” she said fiercely. “I love him and I won’t let him go to his death if there is anything I can do to prevent it. I’ll take on my father and Duncan Cameron and his entire army if ’tis what it will take.”

Gannon’s expression softened and he touched her arm in a gesture of comfort. “Caelen is a fortunate man, my lady. ’Tis not often a man has a wife so fierce that she would risk her life to save his.”