“Ye monster!” Ada screeched. She surged toward Esther, but Brothwell stopped her with a viselike grip on her wrist.
“See what ye made me do?” he demanded.
She nodded without hesitation as blood dripped from Esther’s lip onto the floor beside her.
“Will ye make me hurt her more?” he asked.
“Nay, nay,” Ada whispered, tears and rage constricting her throat. “I’m sorry. I—” What could she say? She had to gain his trust. “I had hoped for love,” she blurted, which was the God’s truth.
“We have all hoped for love at one time, Ada,” Brothwell said.
Surprised by his admission, she could do no more than gape. He glanced at his sister, who had obviously stiffened, and then Marjorie said, “We must all make sacrifices, Ada. This is yers. Do ye ken me?”
“I ken ye,” Ada replied, though she had no intention of willingly picking a husband from the treacherous lot her stepbrother intended to present to her. She, Esther, and Maximilian—an orphan who was like a little brother to her—would simply have to escape. Somehow. Some way. Ada’s hounds, Freya and Hella, whom Brothwell had shut out of the great hall earlier, began to howl at the door as if they could hear her thoughts.
The fire horn sounded to alert the clan as flames split the darkness and licked the black sky. The heat from the fire Ada had started singed her face—her entire body, really. The flames crackled in her ears as shouting voices joined the roar of the fire, and the castle’s inhabitants, normally asleep at this hour, poured into the courtyard.
The guards started yelling as the horses Ada had released thundered away from the stables. The ground beneath her feet vibrated as she stood, unmoving with the shock of what she’d just done.
Father, ye’d be proud.
The thought broke through her stupor, and she scrambled into action. Her clanspeople already rushed toward her, along with Brothwell’s warriors. Chaos swallowed everyone up just as she’d planned so the tower guards would rush to help. Then she, Esther, and Maximilian could flee unnoticed through the gates. It would be daybreak before things settled and possibly longer before their absence was noted.
She turned to Esther, who had been with her since Brothwell’s tantrum in the great hall, and nodded, indicating they should start the second part of their escape plan. All would be fine. She had to believe that.
“The horses!” someone shouted. “We must catch the horses!”
“I’ll do it!” Ada yelled.
Siddoway, one of Brothwell’s men, stopped in front of her. “Ye’re certain?”
Ada nodded, the fire from the stable illuminating the man’s uneasy face. “Aye. Dunnae fash about any horses that have escaped. I’ll bring them back.”
Siddoway nodded. “They should nae have gotten far.”
Since she’d purposely opened the inner gate earlier, she knew well the horses had gotten farther than Siddoway believed, but she simply said, “Ye can rely upon me.” The guard gave a nod and turned away, and Ada motioned to Esther, who’d stood quietly, to follow her.
When Ada looked to the guard towers, she exhaled, relieved to see Maximilian standing by the right tower. In the glow of the moonlight he looked very small, though at twelve summers, he was as tall as she was already. Freya and Hella were positioned by his side, a feat only Maximilian could accomplish as the one who fed the hounds. He was the only other person they listened to besides Ada.
She glanced around to ensure no one had taken note of Maximilian and the hounds. Thankfully, everyone was now consumed with the fire, including the guards who had left their towers. They’d be punished for that. Brothwell would be livid come morning, but she refused to feel guilty about the punishment the two guards, who’d helped to keep her prisoner in her own home, would receive.
With every step she and Esther took toward Maximilian, Freya, and Hella, she expected Brothwell to appear and call her back, but they reached the boy and two hounds and all hurried between the guard towers and into the darkness under the guise of securing any escaped horses.
“I cannot believe it’s this easy,” Ada murmured as they took the path to the cave that would lead to the woods. Beyond that would be freedom.
“I believe it,” Esther said, her voice hushed. “Brothwell is so cocksure that it dunnae occur to him that ye would dare defy him. His ego is our salvation.”
Ada nodded, glad the moon was bright ahead of them so they could see their way. She took a breath, and smoke filled her lungs, making her cough. “I wish I’d not had to set fire to the stables.”
Maximilian took her hand and squeezed it. “’Twas the only way, my lady,” he replied as they made their way from the courtyard and the view of the guards.
She squeezed Maximilian’s hand back, a gesture they’d long exchanged since years before when her father had brought the dirty, scared orphan home with him from where he’d found Maximilian in the woods. Ada had taken to him immediately, and he’d been as her little brother ever since.
“Esther, how far to Iona Nunnery?” Ada asked.
“A sennight on horseback, if I recall correctly. It’s been many years since I’ve been there. Max—”
“I’ve got them,” Maximilian interrupted Esther, then released Ada’s hand. He quickly stopped two horses that had been about to gallop by them with soft words and a click of his tongue.
