The Condemned Highlander (Highland Intrigue Trilogy 2)

“Lord Brogan!”

Brogan was never so relieved to hear a familiar voice and he hurried out from behind the tree. “Rudd, what are you doing here?”

“I did not wait when the message came from the man you sent. I gathered a group of men and hurried after you and Lady Annis. When we came upon the injured men, they told us who you went after, and we followed.”

“Did you see where Skelly left Annis?” Brogan asked anxiously.

Rudd shook his head. “I never saw Lady Annis.”

“We need to search,” Brogan commanded.

“I will get more men to help,” Rudd said.

“There’s no time for that. They will catch up soon enough. We search now,” Brogan ordered.

They barely began to search when Troy and others appeared, and they all spread out.

Brogan’s heart pounded in his chest. He couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t. He tried to reason with himself as he searched. She couldn’t be far. Unless Skelly handed her over to someone else and that thought sent his heart plummeting.

He tried to retrace the route to the spot where he had lost Skelly, but the area revealed no sign of his wife. He wanted to roar with rage to the heavens. With so many searching the area how could she not be found?

Someone doesn’t want her found.

The sudden thought sent a dread through Brogan. Was someone here responsible for what had happened? Was someone here working with the mercenaries? Who could he trust?

He had to find Annis. He couldn’t trust anyone else finding her. They could mean her harm.

Brogan could hear the crunch of leaves beneath the endless boots of those that searched, and it made him take a different course and listen for a single tread of boots… the one who knew where his wife could be found. The one leading away from the others.

He had realized that if his wife was able that she would have called out to him, which meant she had somehow been silenced, left helpless, and that thought tore at his heart. He tread the woods lightly, listening, waiting for that step that would… he heard it.

Not a soft tread but an anxious one and he followed it. He kept his footfalls light, not so the footfalls he followed. They remained anxious and rushed an indication that he had little time to see to his task before discovered.

The footfalls stopped suddenly, not so Brogan, he followed the soft echo of the leaves and turned at a large boulder to see his wife lying unconscious on the ground and standing over her with a dagger tight in his hand, stood…

“RUDD!”

The man he had thought a friend glared at him. “She must die if the plan is to succeed.”

Brogan was too far away to stop him from harming Annis. He had to get closer. “What plan?”

“A wise one and one that is needed to save many,” Rudd said, confident in his belief.

“Who has decided that?” Brogan asked, advancing slowly.

“The one who leads us,” Rudd boasted.

“And who is that?”

“You will learn in time,” Rudd assured him and pointed the dagger at Annis. “If Skelly had done what had been agreed to, I would not be left with this distasteful task. I do like Lady Annis, but she must die.”

“Why?’ Brogan asked, a few more steps and he’d be close enough to lunge at Rudd.

“She has interfered with the plan. She must die.”

“If you kill her, I will kill you,” Brogan warned.

“I am counting on it, for I will surrender no information to you.”

Brogan went to take another step.

“Stay where you are. I know what you do, and I will not let you stop me from my mission. The mercenary may have failed but I won’t. There is too much at stake. The plan will know victory and it will reverberate through the Highlands for years to come.”

Brogan had to keep him talking. “You fired the arrow that killed Skelly?”

“The fool was supposed to kill her in front of me so I could confirm her death, then he would get his coin after his man failed to kill her on the witch’s land. I had made it so easy for him providing him with what plans I knew. It infuriated me to learn he had changed my orders. But then it was never his intention to follow them. His only interest was you. He wanted what you had… eternal life.” Rudd shook his head. “He thought ripping your heart out of your chest he would have it for himself.” He shook his head again. “I had no choice but to kill him.”

This curse had not only caused many to suffer, but it had also turned sane men insane. And there was no dealing with a madman, a thought that raced fear through Brogan. There would be no talking Rudd out of his task. He would see it done… he would kill Annis.