a familiar face—one of the men she’d sent to be with her brother, a loyalist she’d been glad to see the back of. He lay dying on the ground, clutching a gaping wound in his belly. She knelt beside him, an enemy, but a man she’d known all the same, and offered up a prayer for his soul.
“Traitor,” he sneered, choking on blood that burbled in his throat.
“Where is my brother?” she asked.
His lips peeled back in a smile, teeth gleaming red. “Where he belongs.”
“What does that mean?” A sense of panic lodged in her throat.
“Taking back what ye stole.” The man started to cough then, spraying blood against her cheeks.
“Enough riddles,” she said, swiping at the warm droplets. “Where is he?”
But the man did not answer, his eyes rolling back as death took him. Jenny shuddered, staring into his death mask and willing his words to make sense. The only thing she could surmise from them was that Hamish was heading to Cnàmhan Broch to take back the castle. She prayed she was wrong.
When darkness fell completely, Jenny and her soldiers retreated themselves. They followed a horde of other Jacobite soldiers nearly a mile to Dunipace, to a castle, barely lit, its walls and towers jutting toward the sky like fingers reaching from a grave.
They were ushered inside. Jenny recognized several clan chiefs but in her exhaustion could do barely more than nod. They were shown to the great hall, where men dined on a pottage that smelled like peas and pork and that made Jenny’s belly rumble with hunger.
She collapsed onto a bench, held upright only by her hands flat on the table. Toran sat beside her, his hand resting on her elbow.
“Are ye all right?”
“Tired. Worried.” She could speak in no more than single words. “Some of our men are missing, and Hamish… One of his men said he’s going to take back what is his.”
“We’ll find out what happened to the men in the morning, I swear it. And your brother, he willna have gone from battling to seizing. He’s resting tonight as are the rest of us.”
Even as he said it there was a commotion at the door. Every man and woman in the great hall reached for some sort of weapon.
“’Tis MacDonald,” someone called out. “He comes with good news.”
Jenny perked up at that.
The men in the corridor shuffled into the great hall so everyone could hear what MacDonald had to say.
“We are victorious,” he announced, and cheers went up around the room. “General Hawley, coward to King George, ordered his men to retreat to Edinburgh. The prince now resides in the house that Hawley vacated, the remainder of our armies with him. He bids you rest tonight and join him there in the morning.”
Jenny sagged against Toran. Surely Dirk and the rest of her men would be there. They were resourceful, strong. They’d not have allowed themselves to be taken by King George’s forces.
“We’ll find them there in the morning. Dirk is a good leader, and I’m certain he’ll have fallen in with the prince’s men when called to do so,” Toran said, echoing her thoughts.
“Aye,” Jenny said. “I’m sure ye’re right.”
Bottles of whisky were passed around, but Jenny declined. Even one sip would see her falling asleep in her soup. She was no longer hungry despite having been starving only a moment ago. Instead, she stood from the table.
“I need to find a bed,” she said.
“I’ll come with ye—to guard ye,” Toran quickly added.
Jenny tried to smile, but she was so exhausted she was certain it was more of a grimace. Happy to let Toran choose the accommodations, she followed him blindly through the castle until he opened the door to a small, cozy room where a single cot sat against the wall. There was no light other than the torch from the corridor.
“I’m so exhausted that if ye’d like the bed, I know I’ll have no problem passing out on the floor,” she said.
“Och, nay, my colonel. I insist ye take the bed.”
Jenny fell in a heap upon the dusty mattress and was asleep before she could even say thank ye. But she woke shivering some time later, her teeth chattering in the tiny, cold room. They’d no hearth or even a brazier to keep them warm, and though the window in the chamber was small and shuttered, it was letting in a mighty draft. She searched the cot for a blanket and found one, but even wrapping it around her