Highland Secrets (Cree & Dawn)

Dawn looked from Dermid to Cora and scrunched her brow.

“It is true. One meal a day, no more.”

Dawn shook her head. Gestured eating once again, then pointed to Cora and at the stairs.

“Are you telling the woman to get the prisoner food, my lady?” Dermid asked. “Lord Cree—”

Dawn silenced him with a scowl and a quick raise of her hand. Dawn pointed once again to Cora, then snapped her finger sharply at the stairs. It was undeniable that her command was to be obeyed.

“Aye, my lady, I will bring food for Stuart,” Cora said, relief keeping her tears at bay.

“Wait!” Stuart said. “I do not want to see you get in trouble for bringing me food, Cora. Leave it as Lord Cree ordered.”

Cora looked aghast at her husband. “You need food to keep strong down here in the damp and cold.”

“Your husband is a wise man obeying Lord Cree’s orders,” Dermid said.

Dawn turned to Dermid and shook her finger at him, then pressed it to her lips, then pointed it at him, ordering him to remain silent.

Dermid went to speak, and Dawn turned an angry glare on him and shook her head. He wisely held his tongue.

Dawn looked to Cora and pointed at the stairs.

Cora nodded and fled before anyone stopped her.

“While I appreciate your kindness, your command could have my wife joining me in this cell,” Stuart said with worry.

Dawn shook her head, patted her chest, and tapped her mouth.

Stuart shook his head. “I do not understand.”

Dawn turned to Dermid, tapped her lips and pointed to Stuart, ordering him to interpret.

Dermid nodded. “Lady Dawn gives you her word that no harm with come to your wife.”

When Stuart looked to Dawn, she nodded, confirming those were her words.

“I am in your debt, my lady,” Stuart said.

Dawn gestured again and Stuart looked to Dermid to once again interpret.

Dermid was not sure if he understood the gestures correctly. “I am not sure, but I think Lady Dawn wants you to tell her about… your work in the kitchen?”

Dawn smiled, nodded, and listened with interest as Stuart began to talk.

“This is not as far into the woods as I expected,” Newlin said as he and Cree spotted Henry in the distance.

Cree kept his eyes focused on his surroundings, something that had been born out of necessity during his mercenary days. He voiced his first thought about the area. “Far enough, though, where no sentinels are found.”

“There are not enough men to be everywhere,” Newlin argued.

“And the culprit is aware of that,” Cree continued before Newlin could spew more nonsense about a demon. “He waits and watches, a demon simply strikes.”

Nothing more was said as Newlin hurried ahead of Cree to where Henry stood. He stopped suddenly when he reached Henry, looking down at the ground.

Cree figured it couldn’t be good with the way Newlin simply stood there staring.

Cree came to a stop beside Henry, staring at what his tracker had found… a campsite. But it was not the campsite that held his focus. It was what lay in the snow… a human heart and it had been cut in half.”

CHAPTER 11

“The demon is preparing it to eat,” Newlin said and shuddered.

“Why would a demon cut the heart in half? He would have gobbled it down whole,” Cree said and Newlin shuddered again.

“Lord Cree is right. This is not the work of a demon,” Henry said and crouched down, pointing his finger at the heart cradled in a bed of snow. “After cleaning away the snow, I was surprised to see how carefully the heart had been cut in two. Someone took a sharp blade to it and was precise in the way he cut it.”

Cree had noticed that himself. “It could not have been covered with much snow since you were able to find it easily.”

Henry shook his head. “It was packed well with snow, my lord. The mound looked strange to me so I started clearing away the snow to see what it might reveal.” Henry stood. “I never expected to find what I did, my lord.”

“Any hoof tracks?” Newlin asked.

“Not one,” Henry said, “and the falling snow covered any others there might be.”

Cree glanced around. “The campsite appears abandoned, so why bury the heart under a mound of snow?”

“I thought the same, my lord,” Henry said. “Animals will still catch the scent. It will not last long here.”

“Which means it has not been long since the person or persons abandoned the site,” Cree said and scowled. “It will do little good to search now with the snow growing heavier. Soon we will not be able to see in front of us. We return to the village now before the snow blinds our way back. Once it stops we will return and spread our search out from here.”

Cree stumped his boots and shook the snow from his cloak before entering the keep. Newlin had gone to see that snow was being kept cleaned away from in front of the storage sheds necessary to the clan’s survival. Cree barely stepped into the Great Hall when Dermid hurried over to him. He listened to what Dermid had to say while focused on his wife sitting at the table closest to the hearth, her shawl wrapped tightly around her and her hands hugging a tankard.