The ride to the village was a piece of pastry in comparison. It was uncomfortable and seemed to last a long time, but at least she wasn't being tipped onto her head or thrown about. When the wagon stopped, she braced herself for what was to come, but several minutes passed before anything happened at all.
After a moment, Annabel thought she heard a muffled pounding and the sound of male voices, followed by Effie's much higher one. Of course, they'd knocked to be sure she was in and then explained what they had for her, Annabel thought, and then she was tilted toward her head again as the chest was lifted down from the wagon. But it was only for a moment this time and then the chest swayed slightly as she was carried into what she hoped was Effie's cottage.
Annabel shoved the bag of coins into her mouth in preparation and groaned low in her throat as she was set down with a jarring thud. She then took the coins out of her mouth again and strained to hear what was happening. She thought she heard heavy footsteps moving away and a door closing, but then there was silence . . . a long silence.
It was only then that it occurred to Annabel that Effie might not open the chest right away. What if she left her there for hours? The idea was untenable. Annabel bit her lip, but then called out, "Effie?"
The silence continued, but there was a different quality to it this time, a sort of waiting feel.
"Effie, do not be alarmed, 'tis Lady MacKay," she called, making her voice a little louder.
"M'lady?" she heard, muffled through the chest, and then a bewildered, "Where are ye?"
"In the chest, Effie. Could you open it please?"
"In the--what the devil are ye doing in there?" Her voice grew louder as she drew closer.
"I shall explain as soon as you let me out," Annabel promised.
"O' course, just let me . . . do ye ha'e the key?"
"What?" Annabel asked with bewilderment.
"Fer the lock on the trunk. I need a key," Effie explained and Annabel's mouth would have dropped open had she the room to do it.
"There is no lock, Effie. Just flip the hasp up off the latch and open it."
"Nay. 'Tis locked," Effie assured her.
"Kate, you dolt," Annabel muttered with disgust, wondering even as she said it if this was a true accident or another way for her sister to take out her anger on her.
"What was that?" Effie asked.
"Nothing," Annabel muttered.
"Oh." There was a pause and then Effie asked. "What should I do? Should I fetch the blacksmith? Fingal could probably--" She paused mid-word and then said, "Just a minute, me lady, someone is at the door. Wait here, I'll be right back."
Annabel grimaced. There was very little else she could do but wait, she thought with irritation and then listened as Effie shuffled off, her footsteps growing fainter as she moved away. A moment later Annabel heard the murmur of voices and then a thud as something hit the floor. Frowning, she strained to hear what was happening and then gave a start when someone pounded on the chest.
"How are you doing, sister?" a voice sang out.
"Kate?" she said uncertainly.
"Aye."
Annabel sighed with relief. She must have realized she'd accidentally locked her in and had somehow slipped away to let her out. She heard the scrape of metal on metal and as the chest was opened, Annabel said with relief, "Thank goodness you came. I was beginning to think--"
She paused momentarily as the lid suddenly lifted and light rushed in, briefly blinding her. Blinking rapidly, Annabel waited for her eyes to adjust and then released a little sigh and started to smile once she could see again. That smile died abruptly though. Her sister was bent over the chest smiling brightly, but it was the man standing behind her that made Annabel's eyes widen with horror. She recognized him at once as the man who had repeatedly attacked her.
"Belly, meet my husband, Grant," Kate said cheerfully. "Grant, meet my, fat, ugly sister."
"Your husband?" Annabel asked her voice cracking.
"Aye. Is he not handsome?" Kate asked with a grin, and then still smiling, said, "Now, we have to get you out of here without your screaming or otherwise alerting anyone to trouble, so . . . night night, Belly," Kate said sweetly and then hit her over the head with something Annabel didn't get a chance to see, but certainly felt. It was hard enough to knock her out with the one blow.
Chapter 16
"Thank ye fer returning with me," Ross said as he, Bean and Giorsal rode abreast into the bailey. Glancing at his sister, he added, "Annabel likes ye, she'll trust in yer advice."
"Are ye saying she does no' trust you yet?" Bean asked curiously.
"Nay, that's no' what I'm suggesting," he assured him. "Annabel trusts me, but in this instance she might think I am just a heartless male who does no' understand about sisters and such. She will no' think that about Giorsal."
"But I have no sisters and ye do," Giorsal pointed out with a laugh.
"Aye, but yer a lass," Ross said. "And that's what Annabel needs right now to help her sort all this out. Another lass to talk to . . . else she'll let her guilt rule her and make us all miserable for the rest of our days."
"Do ye really think she'd let her sister stay forever?" Bean asked. "From what ye've said she's a nightmare."
"Aye, but she's also her sister," Ross pointed out as they slowed to approach the stables. "And Annabel has the life that was meant for Kate while Kate's life has fallen apart. I suspect Annabel feels terrible guilt about that, and that's why she has no' already sent the lass packing."
"Nay," Giorsal announced with certainty. "This life was ne'er meant for Kate. She never would ha'e fit in here. Ye and Annabel were meant to be together."
"I ken that," Ross assured her. "We just ha'e to convince Annabel."
"Ne'er fear, brother. I shall solve all yer problems ere the nooning," Giorsal said with a cheeky grin.
"I hope so," he muttered, sliding off his horse to lead the beast into the stables and to his stall. Ross was very much afraid that if Giorsal couldn't convince Annabel that she had nothing to feel guilty for, and didn't have to be her sister's keeper . . . well, then he would have to step in and send Kate off against his wife's wishes. He'd prefer to avoid conflict with his wife, but would be damned if he was going to allow the Englishwoman to continue to make his wife miserable. If he didn't send the woman away soon, he would find himself throttling her one fine night when she called his wife "Belly" one too many times, or made her feel bad about her figure.
Shaking his head, Ross closed the stall door and led his sister and her husband to the keep. One way or another, he wanted this matter resolved today. Kate did not have to be gone today, though that would be lovely, but he did want to know she would soon be gone and no longer making a nuisance of herself in his home.
God, he had dodged an arrow when the woman had run off with her stable boy, Ross thought, and if she weren't making such a nuisance of herself he'd have thanked her for that. It was most definitely a blessing that he had Annabel and not her.
Gilly and Marach were seated at the trestle table when Ross led Giorsal and Bean into the keep. A bit concerned, he headed straight to the men.
"What are ye doin' sittin' here? Where is me wife?"
"Up in yer bedchamber with Seonag and the English wench, sewing," Gilly answered.
"Nay, Kate went to ha'e a word with the priest," Marach reminded Gilly, and then added for Ross's benefit. "She should be back soon though."
"How lovely," Giorsal said, and when Ross peered to her in question, she grinned and explained, "I am looking forward to meeting Annabel's sister."
"Nay," Gilly assured her. "That's no' something to look forward to. Instead, ye should be thankin' the gods that she is no' up there. The woman is a terror."
"Hmmm. Now I am even more curious to meet her," she said with a laugh and headed for the stairs, adding, "Sit down and ha'e a drink with me husband, brother. I'll take care o' everything."
Ross grunted at that, but simply watched his sister walk upstairs an
d along the hall, and then turned to Bean and asked, "Ale?"
"Aye. That sounds--" He paused and glanced to the stairs when Giorsal shouted for them from above. Still on his feet, Ross was the first to the stairs. Bean, Gilly and Marach were hard on his heels though, as they hurried to the room he shared with his wife. Rushing inside, he took in the tableau at a glance.
Seonag lay on the floor, blood dripping from her head and staining the rushes. Annabel was nowhere in sight, however, and Ross rounded on his men as Bean rushed past him to help Giorsal with the maid.
"Ye said Annabel was up here with Seonag," he barked accusingly.
"She is, or was," Gilly corrected himself as Marach moved into the room to look about. "Her sister is the only one who left."
"Obviously, that's no' true," Ross snapped and turned to join Bean and Giorsal by Seonag. "How is she?"
"She took a bad blow," Giorsal said quietly. "She seemed to stir a bit when I first knelt next to her though, so I think she'll be all right."
"M'laird?"
Ross glanced to Marach, frowning when he saw that the warrior was examining the chest where he kept their valuables . . . and it was open.
"Should there be anything in here?" Marach asked.
"What?" Ross almost gasped the word he was so shocked by the question. Lunging to his feet, he hurried to Marach's side to peer into the empty chest. For one moment, the world seemed to tilt around him, and then Marach grabbed his arm firmly.
"Are ye all right, me laird?"
"Please tell me that is not what I think it is?" Bean said quietly beside him. "It's not--?"
"Aye, 'tis," Ross growled.
"Damn," Bean breathed.
"There is no sign o' tamperin'," Marach said quietly, examining the small chest and lock. "A key had to have been used."
"My wife has one," Ross said.
"Surely ye do no' suspect her?" Bean asked with a frown.
"Nay. But as chatelaine she has a key, and she is missing."
"And so yer thinkin' she took--"
"Did I no' just say, nay?" Ross interrupted impatiently. "I am worryin' what has happened to her. Seonag is unconscious and obviously the key was taken from me wife, but where is she now?" he asked sharply and then glanced to Gilly and Marach and growled, "Search the room."
They nodded and turned away to do just that, but there was nowhere to look but under the bed. Both of them dropped to their knees, but immediately straightened and shook their heads. Ross turned away with frustration, and then abruptly swung back. "Check the other rooms up here. She may no' have gone below, but she could be in one of the other rooms."
"We'll look," Gilly assured him, and then added, "But I swear we were watching the entire time, m'laird, and she did no' leave this chamber. No' through the door. The only person who came out was Kate."
"And no doubt with your coin and jewels in a sack under her skirts," Bean said dryly and then pointed out, "If she is behind this, she will ken where Annabel is."
"The chest," Marach said suddenly.
"Is empty," Ross snapped. "Go search for Kate while Gilly--"
"Nay, no' that chest," Marach interrupted. "The chest o' gowns."
Ross had no idea what he was talking about, but Gilly apparently did, for he nodded thoughtfully. "Aye. She could ha'e been in that and carried right by us without us even suspecting."
"What are ye talking about?" Ross asked, but even as he asked the question, he noted that the chest Annabel had been keeping her gowns in was gone from the room and said, "The chest at the foot of the bed."
"Aye. Seonag said they were sending gowns down to Effie in the village to look over and see if they were repairable," Marach explained.
"Effie works in the keep now," Ross said with a frown.
"Aye, but she did no' come today. She is ailing," Gilly told him.
"And ye thought yer lady, my sweet Annabel, would care so little fer the woman that she'd send work fer her to do while the woman was ailing?" Ross snapped with disbelief. Both men looked stricken at the question, which was answer enough. They hadn't considered it that way, and now knew they'd made an error. Turning on his heel, Ross headed for the door.
"I'll come with ye," Bean said at once, falling into step with him.
"Do ye still want us to search the rooms up here and find Kate, m'laird?" Marach asked quietly, following.
Ross paused in the door to consider, but then said, "Aye, but make it quick and then follow us once yer done in case we need help searching."
He suspected the search would be a waste of time, but it was better to have them look just in case. Ross would never forgive himself if he called off the search of the upper rooms and it turned out Annabel was lying unconscious in one of them.
"Do no' mind me. I'll just stay here and tend to Seonag," Giorsal said dryly.
"Good. Thank ye," Ross said as he slipped out of the room with the men following.
"Ye ken she wants to come with us," Bean said as they started down the stairs.
"Aye," Ross agreed. "Ye can order one o' the servants to take her place with Seonag if ye like."
"Nay," Bean said dryly. "Yer sister has no caution when it comes to her well-being. 'Tis better she is here."
Ross nodded. He'd thought as much.
ANNABEL OPENED HER eyes to darkness, discomfort and difficulty breathing. The discomfort told her that she was still in the chest, but there also didn't seem to be any air, and while she'd thought it was dark in the chest when it had first closed on her, she now realized there must have been light creeping through a crack somewhere, because now she understood what true darkness was. There was a complete lack of light around her, as well as utter silence, and for one moment Annabel was afraid that she'd been buried alive inside the chest.
Just as she was beginning to hyperventilate at that prospect, sound reached her ears. It was very faint at first, but growing louder as it drew nearer. Footsteps, Annabel thought and hoped to God they were coming to let her out. She would never again willingly get into a chest, or any other small enclosure. She'd had her fill of that, Annabel thought and then stopped thinking and simply waited as she heard sounds suggesting the chest was being unlocked.
This time there was no bright daylight splashing into the chest when it opened and at first Annabel thought it must be nighttime. But then she was caught under the arms and lifted out, and she saw where she was. One of the darker corners of a barn . . . Carney's barn, Annabel realized, recognizing the large building where Ross had made love to her before they'd been attacked.
Her attention swung to the man who had lifted her out: Grant the stable boy. What a misnomer, Annabel thought. The title had drawn an image in her head of a slender youth, not this man. No one this big should be called "boy," she thought, and then cried, "Hey!" when he took away the bag of coins she'd been clutching since grabbing them and hurrying to the chest in her room.
"Hush," Grant warned. "Try to keep quiet and no' make her angry. Kate's no' reasonable when she's angry."
"You are Scottish," Annabel said with surprise, keeping her voice quiet. She had known her attacker was Scottish after hearing him speak in the bluebell field, but was having trouble combining that with the knowledge that he was also the son of her father's stable master in England, and the man Kate had run off with. In her mind, the stable boy had been English until now.
"Aye. Yer father won me father from the Fergusons in a horse race," Grant told her quietly. "That was seven years ago, when I was still a boy."
"How old are you now?" Annabel asked.
"Seventeen," he said quietly.
Annabel's eyes widened. He was younger than she would have thought, but then his size was deceiving, she supposed. But he was also five years younger than her sister.
"We've been at Waverly ever since," Grant said quietly. "Or at least I was until I made the ridiculous mistake o' falling in love with yer sister and thinking she loved me back."
"Does she not love you?" Annabel asked quietly
. "She claims she does and that you had abandoned her."
"The tale o' me abandoning her was just to get her into the keep," Grant said, sounding weary. "And yer sister loves no one as much as herself."
"Then leave her," Annabel suggested urgently, adding, "A man who will not steal a horse surely does not wish to be involved with kidnapping. Leave her before she drags you any deeper."
Grant shook his head sadly. "I would no' abandon her . . . no matter what she does. I took her innocence, and gave up too much fer her. I'm stuck with her now . . . like the plague," he added in a mutter and nudged the chest lid closed with the hand holding the sack of coins.
"But--" She let her words die when he started to tug her around the chest and she stumbled on something in her path and fell. Taken by surprise, Grant lost his hold on her and Annabel landed on a pile of furs laid out next to the chest. She was only there a moment before he was grabbing her arm and drawing her to her feet again, but it was long enough.
"You did not follow us to this barn that day, did you?" she asked before he could urge her to move again.
"Nay, we were already here," Grant answered and Annabel nodded. She had just come to that conclusion. First, it had struck her that this was a good place to hide out and take cover. There was no one around, with the owner of the nearby cottage off on some unknown chore for Ross, and it provided a roof over their heads, hay for a bed, and the food stores to feast on. And then she'd recalled Ross's weaving path to get here to prevent anyone following and it had come together in her thoughts.
"I do not suppose you were out foraging or something when we first got here?"
"Nay," Grant said apologetically, urging her out of the shadows and toward the center of the barn. "We were here, but took cover in the oat holder when ye arrived."
"Ah," Annabel murmured and nodded again, but with a wince this time as she recalled everything they must have witnessed. She was beginning to think that perhaps she and Ross shouldn't indulge themselves anywhere but in their chamber from now on, no matter what day of the week it was.
"Embarrassed?" Kate asked, drawing Annabel's attention to the woman sitting in the rectangle of sunlight cast by the open barn door. A pile of jewels and coins were strewn before her on the hard-packed dirt floor.