“What kind is that?” the priest asked.
“Are ye on good terms with the MacKinnons?”
“Whether I am or no, I serve all the clans in these parts,” Father Brian said with a shrug. “As a matter of fact, I was planning to visit the MacKinnons next, as I do every year.”
“Will the MacKinnons let ye into Knock Castle?” Ian asked.
“If they have sins to confess or weddings to be blessed, they’ll open their gates to me,” Father Brian said. “Why do ye ask?”
Ian’s stomach knotted at the priest’s mention of weddings to be blessed. He hated to think that Murdoc’s plan to wed Sìleas to Angus might serve as the key to the gate.
“Murdoc MacKinnon is holding my wife at Knock Castle,” Ian said between clenched teeth. “I need to get her out. Will ye help me, Father?”
When the priest did not answer at once, Ian said. “He plans to give her to Angus MacKinnon.”
“Ach, not Angus. I’ve seen what that man has done to young lasses,” the priest said, his eyes snapping with anger. “What would ye have me do?”
“We’ll talk on the way.” Ian hoped a plan would come to him soon. God had sent him Father Brian, and that was a start.
Ian crossed himself before he left the church.Please, God, keep her safe until I can get to her.
CHAPTER 36
Sìleas’s eyes widened when she saw the woman leaning against the wall by the stairs that led down to the kitchens.
“Dina,” she whispered. “What are ye doing here?”
“One of the MacKinnon men took a liking to me,” Dina said. “I had nowhere else to go.”
“I’m sorry for it.” Though Sìleas had reason to wish the worst for Dina, she was unhappy to see any woman living in this hellhole.
“I am sorry to see ye here as well,” Dina said.
“Will ye help me then?”
“I can’t get ye out,” Dina said. “They’re keeping guards at the gate.”
“Then I need to find a way to divert them until Ian comes for me,” she said.
“You’re that sure he’ll come for ye?” Dina asked.
“I am.”
“I wouldn’t have done what I did if I knew ye wanted Ian,” Dina said. “Since ye weren’t giving him what he wanted, I saw no harm in it.”
They were interrupted by Murdoc’s bellow from across the hall. “Where’s our dinner?”
When his metal cup hit the wall by Sìleas’s head, she and Dina started down. It was dark on the stairs, but there was light and the sound of voices and pans coming from the kitchen below.
“I have some poison,” Dina said close to Sìleas’s ear.
“Poison?” Sìleas halted and turned to stare at Dina. “How did ye get poison?”
“Teàrlag gave it to me,” Dina said. “I went to see her to ask for a charm before I came here. I didn’t tell her where I was going, but she said, ‘A lass as foolish as you is likely to need something stronger than a good luck charm.’ ”
Dina leaned down and reached into the side of her boot. “That’s when she gave me this wee vial. We can pour it in the ale, aye?”
“I don’t want to murder them all,” Sìleas said.