creaked, announcing the guard’s entrance.
All too aware of Isabel trembling beside him, Duncan’s nerves stretched to breaking.
The jangle of mail grew silent as the knight halted a few feet away. “Father?”
“Yes, my son,” Duncan replied in a deep whisper.
“Forgive me for interrupting your prayers, but there has been an escape from the dungeon.”
Duncan nodded his head in a show of concern. “Are we under attack from clansmen who are seeking to aid in a prisoner’s escape?”
“Nay,” the guard replied.
“Is the prisoner armed?”
The guard cleared his throat as if embarrassed. “Father, it is a woman we are seeking.”
Isabel’s tremors intensified.
Hold fast, he silently willed her. “So why interrupt my prayer?” he asked as if truly confused. “Has she been found dying, and I am needed to administer her last rites? Or has she given herself up and wishes to confess her sins?”
“Neither.”
Duncan gave an annoyed sigh and prayed his irritation would be enough of a distraction.
“We think the woman is hidden somewhere within the keep.”
Shielded by his cloaked hood, Duncan gave a slow nod. “What does she look like?”
The knight shuffled his feet as if hesitant to divulge the information. “It is Lady Isabel, Father. Lord Frasyer’s mistress.”
Isabel jerked.
The guard stepped forward, his boots scraping to a stop behind Isabel. “What is wrong with the lad?”
Duncan laid a hand on her robed shoulder and ignored the trickle of sweat creeping down his own spine. “The lad was caught ignoring his duties to care for his knight’s horse. His knight flogged him for his crime.”
Isabel trembled harder.
Duncan gently squeezed her shoulder and willed her to calm. “Part of his penance is to pray through the night for forgiveness from his sins.”
The guard grunted with contempt. “The beating will help more than prayer.”
“It is God’s way to forgive those who sin,” Duncan said with censure.
The knight remained silent, obviously having his own feelings about forgiveness in the case of a neglected steed.
“If I see Lady Isabel,” Duncan said to move the guard on his way, “I will pass word to one of the knights immediately.”
“Thank you, Father.” The candles within the private chapel wavered as the guard exited the chamber, then steadied after he’d closed the door in his wake.
Duncan exhaled.
Isabel turned to him, her face taut with frustration. “What have you done? They will soon discover that no lad ignored his duties to care for his knight’s horse or was beaten this night. Then the guards will return, but now they will be looking for us both.”
“Not until the morrow. They are too busy searching for you to be concerned with the fate of a foolish lad.” He rose, hastened to the door and listened.
Muted footsteps and slamming doors echoed outside as the guards searched each chamber on their level. A man called. Another replied from farther away. After a long while, sounds of the search faded to muffled calls as the guards ceased their search in the upper levels of the keep.
Duncan sighed, relieved. “With the size of Frasyer’s castle, the guards will re-search the lower floors and will not return to the upper level for a while.”
“Mayhap, but rest assured, his men will continue in their quest until they find me.”
Aware of how Frasyer guarded his own, Duncan realized she was right. “We can still leave now.”
Her expression left no room for doubt. “I am not going. Not without my mother’s Bible.”
“Very well,” he replied, having correctly anticipated her response. “Then I will ensure the guards do not return before we have had a chance to finish our search.”
“How?”
“I will create a diversion. While they are distracted, it will give us time to find the Bible and escape.”
“No,” Isabel said. “With the guards swarming the keep, it is too dangerous. I know the layout, I could do—”
“Nothing.”
She shot him a lethal glare. “My life is at stake as well. If you think I will remain here while you are out risking your life, you know little of me.”
He strode forward until a hand’s width separated them. Duncan caught her chin with his fingers and lifted it until their eyes met, damning the jolt of awareness.
“Did I ever know you?” The words stormed out before he could halt them.
Her eyes softened. Her lips parted. “Duncan—”
He released her and stepped back, angry over his lapse of control. “Wait here. On this point I will not yield.”
Isabel studied him, her stubborn look one he’d witnessed many times over. She didn’t like obeying his order, wanted to argue, but from the resignation pooling in her eyes, he surmised she was thinking of her father.
“What will you do?” she finally asked.
“I will think of something.” He relished the thought of causing the bastard Frasyer another troublesome blow. “Upon my return, we will retrieve your family heirloom.”
At his reference to the Bible, her gaze slid to the floor.
Her evasive manner stopped him cold. A ludicrous thought popped into his mind. “You do know where the Bible is?”
Chapter 4
“Isabel, tell me you know where the Bible is!”
At Duncan’s whispered demand, Isabel met his incredulous gaze, wishing she could offer him a different truth. She shook her head. “No.”
Green eyes hardened to black. “You led me to believe you knew where it was.”
She refused to feel guilty. She had given him many opportunities to leave. “I thought I could convince you to go without me.”
“Even if I had left, with the guards scouring every nook of the castle to find you, are you daft enough to believe you would have time for more than a token search?”
“I still need to try.”
The
