“Ye do?”
“Aye.” He reached out and ran his finger down her cheek. “Once we have yer brother back and safe, we will speak of things that need to be said.”
…
Evan didn’t want to frighten his wife any further, but his biggest fear was Lord Armstrong had grabbed the lad and was now headed back to Stirling. Once he got Katie busy organizing the women to do another sweep of the castle, Evan headed to the stable.
Mr. MacDuff greeted him as he entered. “What’s happening up at the castle? I see people scurrying about, and ye look verra worried yerself.”
Evan headed for his horse. Perhaps Gavin had decided to take a walk to the village, which wasn’t likely, since he kenned he was supposed to stay with Alasdair. Hopefully, the lad was holed up somewhere in the castle practicing with his dirk, hoping to surprise his sister with his growing skill. “Aye. Gavin cannot be found.”
“The wee brother of yer wife?”
“Just so. They’ve searched the castle and all the grounds, but he’s nowhere to be found.” Evan reached for his saddle and slung it over his horse.
MacDuff shrugged and wiped his hands on a cloth. “Well, ye won’t find him searching the castle, since the lad took his favorite horse for a ride not twenty minutes ago.”
Evan stopped in the middle of tightening the horse’s saddle straps. “Did ye see anyone else lurking about as he left? Someone who ye dinnae ken? Never seen before?”
“Nay. The lad was excited about riding by himself. I asked him if he had permission, and he said aye.”
The lad said he had permission? Evan ground his teeth and anticipated the paddling the lad would get. “Thank ye.” He hurried back to the castle, shouting over his shoulder. “Finish tacking my horse, and tack my wife’s also.” There was a good possibility that Gavin had decided not to wait until the morn to ride by himself. The lad could be merely enjoying a ride while the entire castle was in a panic.
Although the lad would end up with a paddling, Evan hoped he’d just gone riding, rather than the horrible thought that Armstrong had the lad and was headed as far away as he could get.
“Katie,” he shouted, barely making it past the doorway to the castle. “Where are ye?”
Katie leaned over the bannister at the top of the stairs. “What is it? Have ye found Gavin?”
“Nay. Come down and meet me at the stables.” He turned and left as quickly as he’d come. By the time he reached the stable, MacDuff had the two horses tacked and ready to go. Evan led them outside just as Katie was running toward him.
Evan lifted her and tossed her onto her horse. “MacDuff says Gavin took his horse out about twenty minutes ago.”
“By himself?”
“Aye.” He flung his leg over the horse and kicked the animal’s sides. “With any luck he’s merely taking a nice ride for himself and is in no trouble at all.”
“Ach. If he’s just taking a ride, he is in trouble, I can assure you,” Katie shouted over the thundering of the horses’ hooves and the whistle of the wind as they headed toward the village.
Once there, they took a quick look around but didn’t see either Gavin or his horse. They hadn’t seen any sign of him on their way to the village either.
Katie’s shoulders slumped, dejection written on her face. “I kenned it was too easy.”
“Aye, but that’s the way he started out, so it wasn’t false hope.” They made another sweep of the area, calling out for the lad, then stopped in front of the Hare and the Hound Inn.
“I’m thinking Richard headed right to Stirling with Gavin. We’re probably wasting our time searching in this area,” Katie said. “’Twould be best to return to the castle, gather some supplies, and travel to Lord Armstrong’s home.”
Evan pondered on that for a while. Something didn’t seem right about that plan. The man had managed to come up with a forged document to get Katie to marry him, which told Evan he was much too smart to do what they expected. He shook his head. “Nay.”
“Nay?”
“Nay. That is exactly what he expects us to do. He kens that we will assume he has Gavin and will race off to Stirling.”
“Are ye saying ye think he might have gone in another direction? If that is the case, we have no idea where he went.” Katie’s voice raised, the panic she’d been holding in rising to the surface.
“Calm down, mo ghràdh. What I’m thinking is he will stay in this area, hi
ding in plain sight, as it were.”