raising his hand to knock again when the door was cracked open and Gavin peered out. The young man’s eyes slid over the four of them and then returned to Geordie.
“I was just . . . er . . .” Geordie glanced to Conran, and then tried again. “I just thought to let ye ken that Conran and Aulay have headed down to the chapel. Evina may want to wait a moment as she does no’ want him to see how lovely she looks in her dress yet.”
Gavin’s gaze sharpened, and he glanced to Conran, relief clear on his face. He obviously understood they suspected something. There was someone in there with them. Conran was sure of it, and was just trying to think of a question he could whisper to Geordie for him to ask that might gain them more information when Gavin—clever as his cousin—said, “I am glad to hear it. I feared he might try to escape marrying Evi by slipping away through the passages.”
Conran got the message loud and clear. Approach from the passage. Leaving Geordie to respond, he turned away at once, and slid along the hall back to Laird Maclean’s door.
“The Maclean locked the passages.”
Conran nearly jumped out of his skin at that whisper behind him, but then glanced over his shoulder to see that Aulay had followed and shook his head. “Obviously, someone unlocked them. Or at least the one to Evina’s room and whichever one they entered through to get to it.”
“Do ye ken how to unlock the Maclean’s passage?” Aulay asked as they slipped into the old man’s room.
“Aye,” he assured him, and slid his sword out as he strode across to the fireplace. Conran quickly turned the rock he’d seen the Maclean use to lock the entrance, and then turned the torch holder to open the passage. He held his breath as it slid open, and then moved to peer cautiously into the dark space. It looked empty, but there was a square of light pouring from the entrance to Evina’s room next door. The entrance in her room was open. Raising his sword, Conran entered the dark passage and began to creep silently toward that square of light.
“Nay, nay. Conran wants to marry yer cousin, and we all want him to as well,” Evina heard Geordie say from the other side of the door. “We’ll be happy to welcome her to the family.”
There was silence for a minute, and then Gavin said, “I’ll tell Evina that we should wait a few minutes, then.”
“Aye, ye do that,” Geordie muttered, and then as her cousin started to close the door, he added, “We’ll be right here. Waiting.”
Gavin finished closing the door and then turned to face Evina and her captor with a tight expression. She suspected he’d passed a message to the men in the hall with that comment about Conran escaping through the passages, but wasn’t sure if they’d got the message. And her cousin seemed to her to be trying to avoid looking at her. Evina didn’t know what that meant. And she didn’t like how still and quiet the man holding her was either. She feared he too suspected Gavin had tried to give the men a message with that comment. Trying to distract him, she asked, “The passages were locked. How did ye get in?”
“I unlocked them, did no’ I?” he said dryly, but his voice sounded distracted to her.
“How did ye even ken about the passages?” she asked, thinking that keeping him talking had to be good. It meant he couldn’t think. Hopefully. And if Gavin’s message had been understood and someone was even now coming up the passage from one of the other rooms to help them, she needed to give them time to get there. The problem was, Geordie and Alick didn’t know how to open the passages, or even exactly where they were. They’d need to fetch her father. They needed time.
“Me wife,” the man muttered, and Evina started to glance around in surprise, but stilled when the knife dug in deeper at her throat.
“Yer wife?” Gavin asked at once, drawing his attention again. “Who is yer wife? Is she a servant here?”
Much to her relief, the knife at her throat eased again as the man said with disgust, “Nay. Do I look like peasant stock to you? Me wife was Glenna MacLeod. Glenna Maclean MacLeod.”
Evina blinked at that announcement and met Gavin’s gaze, sure her expression was as bewildered as his by