for a needle in a haystack.
They hadn’t made a plan for where to meet up, but she headed for the stables anyway, after a brief stop at the high table where the Laird was dining with Malcolm and their wives. Nancy and Anna looked horrified when Helen gave them a shortened summary of what had happened.
“I’ll help you look,” Anna said immediately. “Where haven’t you checked yet?”
“We’ve searched the shore of the Loch, the docks, the courtyard — Brendan and his men are checking the walls — Niall’s upstairs talking to the scholars, and I’m headed to the stables now.”
“I’ll check the servants’ quarters,” Anna said immediately. “They’ll be uninhabited at the moment, he might have crept in there to find somewhere quiet to hide out. Nancy?”
The two women ran off in the direction of the quarters, and Helen took a steadying breath. Donal and Malcolm were hastily finishing their breakfast, promising to head up to help Niall search the upper levels of the castle — Malcolm said he’d check the castle roof, which was where he’d always loved to hide out as a child. Local knowledge, Helen thought faintly — you just couldn’t beat it. Grateful to all of them, she headed outside for the stables, her heart beating hard.
The stables were more extensive than she’d thought — she hadn’t actually been inside yet, only to the outer areas where the horses were prepared to be ridden. The stables weren’t busy this morning, to her relief — not many people were going riding. It took her a moment to realize why that must have been — she’d been so distressed about finding Eamon that she’d almost forgotten about the Kelpie threat facing them. That made her laugh a little, and she felt decidedly unhinged as she moved carefully through the stables, calling Eamon’s name in a low voice designed not to spook the horses. She kept glancing at them, a little unsettled by the similarity they bore the creature she and Niall had dragged into town… what if a Kelpie was in here, hiding from them, waiting to strike? Pretending to be a regular horse until… she shuddered, annoyed with herself.
It took some time to search the stables — she checked each stall in case Eamon was hiding inside one and frowned a little when she reached a huge stack of hay at the back. Was it possible that the little boy was hiding in there? She turned, hearing footsteps behind her, to see Nancy running in, a worried look on her face. In her hand… Helen’s heart almost stopped. A little boot, Eamon-sized. She recognized it instantly as one of his.
“Where was it?”
“The servants’ quarters,” Nancy gasped. “He must have been there… it was outside a room that one of the servants told me belonged to one of the grooms who didn’t turn up for work this morning.”
Helen’s heart sank. “Could he have kidnapped Eamon?” What would a groom be doing kidnapping a child? But things got even more complicated when they headed outside — because around the back of the stables, groaning a little as he woke up, was none other than the missing groom. Nancy ran to his side and knelt down, checking the wound on his head — blood had trickled from it onto the bedclothes he was still wearing.
“Are you okay?” Helen asked, kneeling beside him, torn between her concern for him and her fear for Eamon. “What happened here?”
“I — he — “ The groom touched his forehead, clearly still woozy. “He came to my room in the middle of the night… said… said I had to tack a horse for him...”
“Who did? Who hurt you?”
“Perry MacCullen,” the groom said, wincing as he struggled to a sitting position. “How long have I been out? He struck me with the butt of a spear, I think… must have dragged me here, we were inside when it happened… where’s the kid?”
Helen’s heart dropped further than it had even when she’d heard Perry’s name drop from the groom’s lips. “The kid?”
“Yeah, he… he had a kid with him. The Harbormaster’s kid, I think. Eamon, I think? Yeah, he … he wasn’t happy about it.” The groom winced. “Sorry, I — I should’ve tried harder to fight him…”
“Don’t be silly. You were unarmed, unarmored. What could you have done?” Nancy was chewing her lip, looking worried. “You said Perry wanted a horse. Do you know where he went?”
“He must have gone through the gate,” Helen said, turning.