Dawn Annis by Highlander's Ransom Page A

asking. I’m not supposed to know what’s going on but I do. Not much goes on in this household that I dinna know. I keep my mouth shut, I do. I’m not one to be talking out of turn.”
    Kate smiled a little and sure Merta would indeed tell her, she asked, “What do you think will happen to me?”
    “The MacGregor, he’ll be taking ye back to yer home. Asking yer forgiveness to my way of thinking. Mind ye, he’s the MacGregor and a man. He dinna have to ask for yer forgiveness, but he will. He’s that kind of man. And that’s the God’s honest truth,” she said with a firm nod. She tucked Kate’s quilt under the feather mattress and waddled to the door.
    “Good night, m’lady,” Merta said softly as she closed the door.
    “Good night, Merta,” Kate whispered, as she considered what Merta had said.
    The MacGregor would take her back to her home. She sighed with relief, happy to know the MacGregor would at least listen to reason. She intended to go to Dumbarton. A thought occurred to her that made her sit up straight in bed. To go to him acting the part of a victim will only rouse his suspicion. She mustn’t allow him to think she approved of or accepted of this lawless act. She should be outraged and incensed. She should be yelling threats of her own and making promises of retribution. She should be demanding her release immediately instead of whimpering around like a kicked dog. Only she knew the truth of her circumstances and she wasn’t about to let the MacGregors in on it.
    She had to find Smithers. He would go Dumbarton. She needed a place to live as well and the only place to start, for her, was there.
    “The MacGregor should be relieved he doesn’t have to travel to York. I’ll have to make up a reason why I want to go there rather than England,” Kate said to herself. “Now to the ransom. Can I explain that Sidney is dead? Will they let me go without it being paid?”
    Shane didn’t sleep. He lay in his own bed staring up at the ceiling of his comfortably appointed chambers. He spent the time working out a plan to help his clan, tossing and turning. Would he use Lady Colquhoun? The ransom would save his clan. Could he demand ransom from her husband? The damn Colquhouns. They deserved every ill thing they got.
    But could he do such a thing to Lady Colquhoun. Her vulnerability struck him. Was it right that she be in the middle of this dispute?
    Could this ransom idea work? The risk, of course, was Colquhoun would go to the king rather than pay. Shane would threaten him with the lady’s death. It made him sick to think of it. He told her she would not be harmed.
    He would send a man to deliver the message and have him collect the ransom straight away. The money would be in their hands before the Colquhoun bastards even had an opportunity to visit the king.
    “Aye,” Shane said to himself as he rubbed his hands together as much for warmth as at his pleasure for devising such a clever plan.

Chapter 7
    Sitting in the hall the next morning, Shane’s eyes felt bloodied and gritty. He rubbed his face. Hard. As if to wipe away the worry.
    Leaning forward with his elbows resting on the table, he barked out orders to anyone who dared to come near. The girls working around the hall, serving the men their morning meal could not please him this morning regardless of his pleasure at his plan last night.
    In the light of day, he saw things a bit clearer. Hundreds of things could go wrong with his plan. The possibilities invaded his head. What if Colquhoun did decide to go to the king? He certainly did not have the resources to fend off a king’s army. Would it come to that? Surely not for a woman, regardless of whose wife she was. The kidnapping of Lady Colquhoun from the Clan Colquhoun would definitely end any chance they would have of getting back into the king’s good graces.
    The woman would be missed. Soon. If not already.
    Yesterday, Iain had said he surmised she would not, but how was he to know?