The Bard (Highland Heroes #5) - Maeve Greyson Page 0,91

whispered. “Stay awake for yer Lachlan, aye? Speak so I can hear yer sweet voice, and my heart can finally rest easy.”

Sutherland stood at the foot of Jenny’s cot. “Heckie has taken her, Jenny. Where can we find the madman?” The lovers could talk after he found his Sorcha. Nothing else mattered.

Jenny’s brow creased, and her tears welled. “I am so verra sorry, Sutherland. I didna see him step out from the turret until it was too late.”

He stepped closer, standing beside Lachlan. “I dinna blame ye, Jenny. None of us suspected Heckie. He duped us all.”

“When we were bairns,” she whispered. “We played in the tunnels. Some of them could be closed off and made into rooms. We thought no one could find us if we hid in the rooms.”

“There has to be a way to find the room, Jenny. My Sorcha’s life depends on it.” Sutherland knelt beside her cot, his heart about to break. All his hopes depended on Jenny and whatever she could remember about the passages.

“Look at the walls,” she said with a wan smile. “That’s how Mama always found us no matter where we hid or how many times we switched the rooms.”

“What do ye mean look at the walls?” He struggled with the urge to shake what he needed to know from her. “Help me, Jenny. I fear he surely means to kill her.”

“The colors of the walls,” Jenny whispered. “Mama said when we made our different rooms, the walls were a lighter gray stone with white chips that glittered in torchlight rather than the dull, dark grey of the passage walls and floors. She said the builders designed it that way to keep the tunnels that made the rooms straight from the others so the chief could always find them.”

“God forgive me. She’s right,” Greyloch said, amazement in his tone. “I had forgotten. My father told me of the glittering walls when I was a boy, and that’s also how Amelda said she always found Sorcha when they played their hiding games.”

“We need more torches and lanterns,” Sutherland said as he rose to his feet.

“Wait!” Lachlan called out. “She wishes to say more.”

Sutherland turned back and bent close. “What is it, Jenny?”

“When ye see a glittering wall, the lever to make it slide open will always be close to the ground and to the right.” She wet her lips and flinched with a hard swallow. “Even when we were bairns, some of the levers were almost worn down even with the floor. If they’re gone, find where they once were and shove in the hole real hard with a staff. That’s what we used to do to make them open.”

“Thank ye, Jenny.” Sutherland clapped a hand on Lachlan’s shoulder. “Stay here with her.” He pointed at the other three men. “The rest of ye join us. ’Tis time to end this.”

*

With an ear cocked for any sound of Heckie’s return, Sorcha worked feverishly to free herself from the rest of the swaddling. If he came back and caught her, hopefully, she could convince him she had only done so out of the need to find a chamber pot. Which wouldn’t be a lie, but she tried not to think about that right now. She wished he hadn’t left her in the darkness but remembered enough about what she had seen that she could light the lantern if she ever got free. And if she managed all that before he returned, she could escape. She knew these tunnels as well as he did.

“That’s a lot of ‘ifs,’ lass,” she observed out loud. “Aye, but ifs are hopeful,” she promptly argued, a tad concerned about carrying on a conversation with herself. She shrugged the worry away. Whatever it took to get herself out of this trap was fair and right, as long as she accomplished her goal.

Heckie had unknowingly helped her with the crust of bread and cup of water. The effects of whatever that medicine was that he had stuffed inside the gag had faded faster with the sustenance. The throbbing fog clouding her mind had gradually lessened to a barely noticeable ache. Her ribs and shoulder still hurt like a fiend, but she could bear it.

Since she hadn’t quite figured out the best way to sit up from her current position, she worked her feet, ankles, and knees to loosen the bindings just like she had when she freed her hand. She pulled away as many of the folds as she could,