“Lass,” Conran began wearily as she led him to the table and chairs by the fire.
“Please,” Evina insisted, pulling out the nearest chair for him. “Just sit and let yer brother tend ye.”
Conran scowled, but sat down. However, he also caught the other chair around one leg with his foot and drew it closer. He then used her handhold on him to urge her into it as he added, “Only if ye distract me while he does.”
Evina merely nodded and remained in the seat, her fingers entangled in his.
“Well, I’m glad ye’re finally willing to sit still long enough for me to look after ye,” Rory said dryly. “But I can’t do it through yer plaid and shirt.”
Conran reached up to remove the pin of his plaid. Once it dropped to lie in his lap, he quickly tugged the shirt he wore under it up and off.
Evina remained seated facing him as he did this, her eyes the only thing that moved. They slid over the wide expanse of chest now bare before her with interest. She’d seen the man completely naked when she’d first kidnapped him, but hadn’t taken the time to study him. In fact, while he’d done the most intimate things to her, she’d never been this close to him without his shirt and plaid on while he was conscious. It was a sight to see, she decided. Enough to make her want to reach out and run her hands over all that muscled flesh.
“Ye weren’t punched, ye were stabbed in the back.”
Evina glanced sharply to Rory at that announcement and saw that he was frowning as he pressed clean linens to Conran’s back.
“How bad is it?” Aulay asked, appearing suddenly next to Rory, and Evina glanced around to see that everyone but her father had followed them to her room and were now moving to crowd around Rory to get a look at Conran’s back. Even as she noted that, her father entered the room. His first words proved he’d heard Rory’s announcement as he approached.
“The bastard! Trying to drown me daughter, and then stabbing her betrothed? Who the devil is he and what is he after?”
“I wouldn’t mind finding that out myself,” Conran said grimly. “That and how the hell he got away?”
“He must have got past ye on the stairs after pushing ye down them,” Aulay said quietly.
“Ye were pushed down the stairs?” Evina asked with dismay. All he’d said was he’d been pushed and taken a tumble; he hadn’t mentioned that the tumble was down the stairs in the passage. He was lucky he hadn’t broken his neck.
“I’m fine.” Patting her hand reassuringly, he turned to her father and added, “’Tis lucky I didn’t take ye down them with me . . . which I’ve been wondering about. Ye were in front of me on the stairs—how is it I didn’t knock ye down them?”
“Hmm?” Her father glanced to him with surprise, and then said, “Oh. Well, there are three shallow crevices spaced out in the inner wall between the top and bottom of the stairs. They’re just deep enough for a body to press into them to allow others to slip by. I was close to the first one when I heard ye falling behind me, and I pressed meself into it. I tried to catch ye as ye rolled by. I grabbed at ye, caught yer plaid, but . . .” He shook his head. “Yer plaid ripped, a strip tore free and ye kept going.”
“That’s how he got away,” Conran said into the silence that fell. “He must have pressed himself into one of the crevices while ye were helping me up down at the bottom. Without the torch to light the way, we must have walked right past him in the dark.”
“Damn,” her father growled with apparent surprise. “It ne’er occurred to me that he might ken about the crevices. But then, he should no’ have known about the passage either and he did.”
“Ye sent Donnan down to the clearing,” Evina pointed out. “If my attacker slipped past ye and continues down to the exit in the clearing . . .”
“Hopefully Donnan and the men will catch him,” the Maclean finished, and then he glanced toward the hidden entrance and narrowed his eyes. “Or he may be on his way back up, or simply hiding in the tunnel if he saw the area was flooded with men.”