She glanced around the grounds, now nearly bereft of people despite being littered with tents. Night was almost upon them. Many of the people who were not gathered around this fight had obviously already made their way to the great hall for supper. Her best hope of fleeing would be now. If they could get Brice to move away from them…
She turned to somehow let Maria know her intentions, but as she did, Cedric’s guard strode up to them and grabbed Maria by the arm. “Come on, wench.”
“Ye kinnae take her!” Marsaili protested, aware she had no way to stop the man.
“She’s Cedric’s property,” the man snapped, and when he jerked on Maria’s arm, Marsaili lunged at him and bit down hard on his arm. He released Maria with a howl and reared his arm back to strike Marsaili, but before he could, Brice hit the man. Then all hell broke loose.
It was the perfect distraction for them to flee, and without a second thought, Marsaili grabbed Maria’s hand. “Come! We must away!”
In one breath, Callum was bargaining with Cedric for the purchase of the woman with Marsaili, which had only been made possible by threatening to tell the earl of his son’s dishonorable actions, but in the next breath, fighting between his men and Cedric’s broke out and he was roaring commands to cease fighting, as was Cedric. Once their men finally obeyed and Callum glanced around, he realized that neither Marsaili nor her companion were anywhere to be found.
Fear and anger sprung within him. “Cedric,” he demanded, “did ye order yer men to take the lasses?”
The confused frown Cedric gave Callum was answer enough.
Brice pointed. “I saw the lasses run that way, but I was tied up with this one.” He shoved at Cedric’s man, who shoved back at Brice.
“God’s bones,” Callum growled, as he motioned to his brother. “Come with me.” With that, he took up his sword from where he had set it by the tree, and then he set off running in the direction Brice had pointed.
He led his men through the rows of tents, thankful it was so close to supper that most people were in the great hall. But the hour also meant darkness was descending quickly and would make it harder to find the women. He had no notion why the lasses would run from him, but what he did know with a stomach-twisting certainty was that tournaments had a tendency to attract men with little-to-no morality, men like the one who had wagered Marsaili and her companion away. Many of those men, who may well have lost their money in wagers and fights today, would be angry and on the road home. And others, who had traveled far to reach the tournament, might just now be nearing Urquhart and might see two women alone in the woods as their right to use for their own comfort.
Callum paused at the crest of the hill where he could head to the shore, the loch, or the woods. When he had known Marsaili, she had not known how to swim…
“What are ye doing?” Brice asked in panting breaths beside him.
“Trying to decide which way Marsaili would have gone.” Just as he finished his sentence, a scream tore through the night from the direction of the woods and black fright swept through him.
Marsaili!
Her voice had long been committed to his memory. Every instinct he possessed to protect others sprung to life, and he took off in the direction of her voice without a backward glance or explanation to his brother.
“Ye son of a devil!” Marsaili screeched, reaching frantically behind her to try to gouge Godfrey’s eyes. But her efforts were fruitless. The Earl of Ulster’s man, the very one she and Maria had knocked unconscious to escape Innis Chonnell Castle, simply tightened his grip around her neck and cut off her air so she would stop fighting.
“Are you going to behave, lass?” Godfrey demanded.
Marsaili jerked her head in a nod as best she could. Godfrey released his hands from her neck but slipped a solid, immovable arm under her breasts, preventing her from moving. Her feet dangled from the ground, locked as she was in the tall man’s embrace, but for the moment, that was likely a good thing. Tiny dots of silvery light peppered her vision, and she feared she would faint.
“You’ve caused me quite a bit of trouble forcing me to track you like this.”
“Good,” Marsaili spat, glancing down at Maria’s still body. “If ye’ve killed my friend, I vow I’ll kill ye in return.” More the fool was she for not having secured a weapon before racing away from the Grant hold. She’d been so anxious to put distance between her and Callum that she’d not properly thought things through. It was a mistake she’d never make again.
“I gave that hellion a thump on the head, and that is all. But if you continue to fight me, it will get a lot worse for her.”
Marsaili gritted her teeth against responding. She feared he’d carry out his threats without delay.
“My orders from the earl are simple: bring you to him immediately and not irrevocably harmed. I’ve got leeway there, you see.” Godfrey sneered and squeezed her so hard that she hissed in pain. “Now, I’m going to set you down, and you are going to do exactly as I say.”
Marsaili nodded as she quickly thought about her options. Despair rose in her as Godfrey set her down and turned her toward him. “Hold out your hands. I’m going to bind you.”
“Oh, please!” she begged, trying to delay. “I vow I’m done fighting. I—” She took a deep breath. “I’m tired and hungry, and will go willingly to the earl’s castle.”
“That’s a right smart choice you’ve made, lass.”
She nodded, eyeing the dagger protruding from the holder at his hip. If she could grab it and stab him, she could put enough distance between them to escape, if she did not wound him sufficiently to fell him. But then what? She’d have to get aid for Maria.
“Marsaili!” a man’s voice—Callum’s voice—roared through the night.
Gooseflesh swept over her body, and her heart raced. When Godfrey turned to look toward the dark woods and the direction from which Callum’s voice had come, she lunged forward, grabbed the hilt of his dagger, and swung it up to stab him. He turned toward her like a flash of light, and his hand came up to deflect the weapon. She jerked to the right, intending to plunge the dagger into his heart, but she sank it into his shoulder instead.
