“What areyedoin’ here?” Morgann demanded, trying to avoid what was to come.
“Whatever ’tis,” Mac said with a smirk. “I’m not the one tied up.”
“I’m cold and hungry, Mac.”
The scarred, scruffy Highlander pulled out a knife. He hooked the blade under the rope and, with two strokes, cut Morgann free.
Morgann fell to his knees because his legs were numb. He could not rise.
Mac pulled a blanket from his saddlebag and tossed it around Morgann’s shoulders.
“We canna build a fire, but we can take shelter in the house.”
Morgann looked up at him. “Why are ye helpin’ me?”
“It canna be all that bad if the captain didna kill ye.”
He reached down by the side of the door and pushed a black rock over to reveal a metal key. He winked at Morgann and inserted the key into the door. “The captain told us aboot the keys a few years ago.”
The door opened. Morgann’s heart was racing so hard he thought it might fall from his mouth. If any of the patrolling guards saw them, they would be shot.
They entered the cottage and without lighting any candles, found the bed. Mac fell onto it, holding up his palm when Morgann would have protested. “Ye were tied to a tree a few moments ago. Be thankful ye have walls around ye and a roof over yer head.”
Morgann said nothing. He had no defense.
“Now, tell me of yer betrayal,” Mac insisted while he let Daffodil out of her shelter.
“Can we sleep and—”
“No,” the scar-faced Highlander cut him off. “Tell me what I wish to know.”
Morgann sat up on the floor and told him about his original loyalty to John Stewart and how it had moved to the captain. “I wanted to tell the men not to shoot her, Mac. I did tell them. But they wouldna listen to me. They didna care that she was a novice.”
Mac bolted up. “Silene was shot? Does she live?”
“Aye.” Morgann let him know. “Followin’ the steward’s orders, Jack MacKinny shot an arrow at her but missed.”
“MacKinny!” Mac’s gaze went dark. “That bastard!”
“Why did the steward order her death so quickly?” he asked Morgann. “How does he not know she wasna taken against her wishes and that is why she didna speak her vows?”
Morgann shrugged his shoulders. His duty was not to ask questions of his lord, but he would ask them of the captain’s close friend.
“What are ye doin’ here lookin’ over the stronghold wall. Who were ye watchin’?”
“The captain,” Mac told him truthfully. “The others and I traveled separately. I didna know whether or not he had arrived. I wouldna try to get into the stronghold at night.”
“Where are the others?” Morgann asked, afraid and ashamed to see them.
“They will be here. Enough questions. I’ll do the askin’. Tell me everythin’.”
Morgann told him about how MacKinny almost succeeded. “The captain killed him.”
“But he let ye live.”
“Aye.”
“Ye are fortunate. I would have killed ye.”