Frederick planted both palms against the table and looked down.
“Cairn,” Lennox said, already tracing the northern route with one finger. “Then east.”
“Aye.”
Lennox followed the line farther, toward the neighboring territory a day’s ride from the village. “That gives us the second trail crossing into land that is nae ours.”
“It gives us a report,” Frederick corrected. “Nae proof.”
Lennox’s mouth shifted faintly. “Ye grow tedious when ye are cautious.”
“And ye grow reckless when ye think ye smell certainty.”
“Because sometimes certainty smells exactly like this.”
Frederick ignored that. His attention had settled on the cluster of villages running along the northern and eastern lines. One woman taken from the village near Erin’s cottage. One attempt on Iona and Jamie. Now another woman missing from Cairn. The spaces between the incidents were no longer wide enough to dismiss.
“What if they are nae taking these women at random?” Lennox said.
Frederick lifted his head slightly. “Go on.”
“What if the women are nae the target, but the method,” Lennox replied. “They take one there, search here, send men elsewhere. Enough confusion and fear, and nay one sees the pattern until it has teeth.”
Frederick considered it.
Fear as cover. Movement mistaken for chaos. A net cast wide enough that no single village understood itself to be part of something larger.
“What if the attack in the wood was separate?” Frederick countered. “Men paid only for a description, nae for the women missing elsewhere.”
Lennox frowned at the map. “Then someone is hiring fools at the same time women vanish over two borders, and we are meant to believe those things have nothing to do with one another.”
“It would nae be the first time men were both cruel and disorganized.”
“Aye,” Lennox said. “But it feels too clean now.”
Frederick shifted one of the weights and leaned farther over the parchment. “What if the clan whose land the trails entered knows nothing?”
“Then their roads are being used.”
“And if they do ken something.”
“Then they are either involved,” Lennox said, “or they are looking the other way because it suits them.”
Frederick’s jaw worked.A formal visit, then.
That was where the thinking led, though neither man had spoken it outright yet. To ride there openly would be to acknowledge suspicion. To do it without preparation would invite denial and leave them no stronger than before. Yet to remain still while another woman vanished would be worse.
He pointed to the marked border route. “What if we go as though it is only a courtesy between lairds?”
Lennox snorted softly. “Nay laird believes in courtesy when armed men arrive with questions.”
“What if I bring few men?”
“Then ye look weak.”
“What if I bring too many?”
“Then ye look as though ye are prepared to take insult where none was offered.”