his cheek as he’d bent to look under the bed, and had wiped it away with the back of a hand. There had been blood on his hand afterward, but it hadn’t seemed a lot, so he hadn’t worried overmuch about it.
“Ye’ve a nasty knot and gash,” Rory announced, clasping his chin and the back of his head to tilt him this way and that as he squinted at his scalp.
“‘Twill go nicely with the other two bumps I got ere arriving here,” Conran said dryly, tugging his head free of his brother’s hold. “’Tis fine. There did no’ appear to be much blood when I wiped it away.”
“How are ye feeling?” Rory asked, frowning at the wound on his head. “Any dizziness? Is yer vision all right? Nausea? Confusion? Headache?”
“Me head hurts a bit,” he admitted. “And aye, I’m a might confused, but only about how a bandit could find out about the Maclean passages.”
“A bandit?” Fearghas asked aghast.
“Aye,” Conran said solemnly. “The bandit who injured Gavin and then escaped is the only person I’ve met since coming to Maclean who matches Tildy’s description.”
When the Maclean looked nonplussed at the words, and then frowned and shook his head, he added, “All of the bandits were a mangy crew, but the one who got away fit Tildy’s description perfectly. He was a match for Gavin, the same basic size and shape, and had long, matted and greasy hair as well as dark ratty clothes,” he explained, and then sucked in a sharp breath as Rory poked at the wound on his head. He scowled at his brother and then turned back to see that the Maclean was staring at him as if he’d gone daft.
“The bandit may have fit the description, lad,” Feaghas said dryly. “But I somehow don’t think a mangy bandit could find out about our passages.”
Conran nodded. That had been his thought too, but . . . “It’s possible he paid a servant to tell him about any points of entry to the keep.”
“Aye, but as I told ye,” Fearghas said as if weary of repeating himself, “only Evina, Gavin and meself ken about the passages.”
“That ye ken of,” Conran said softly, and added, “’Tis hard to keep secrets in a castle with so many eyes and ears, m’laird. A servant could have been listening at the door when ye told Gavin, or even when ye told Evina years ago. Or one of yer people may have stumbled on the entrance in that clearing ye told Donnan to take men and search. That is where the passage leading down comes out, isn’t it?”
“Aye,” the Maclean admitted reluctantly.
“Well, one of yer people may have found the entrance entirely by accident and followed it up to the passages in the walls, and then told someone about it, who told another and—Ow! Damn, Rory! Leave off!” he growled as his brother’s prodding sent sharp pain through his head.
“There is what looks like a splinter o’ stone in the gash,” Rory said grimly. “I’m going to have to get it out, or ‘twill infect.”
“It very well could be the bandit who escaped,” Aulay said mildly as Rory moved over to his medicinal bag and began to gather items. “However, the question is where he is now.” Raising an eyebrow, he asked Conran, “Is it possible he pushed ye down the stairs and got into the room Jetta and I are using ere Greer got there with Evina and the other women?”
Conran considered the possibility. The room was the last along the passage. He’d passed Evina to Greer, and then gone back through the room and along the passage. It was dark and slightly uneven while the hall was flat and well-lit, he was sure he’d moved much more slowly than Greer and the women would have traversed the hall the same distance. It didn’t seem likely that the attacker had pushed him down the stairs and then managed to get into that bedchamber and hide before Greer got there with the women. Well, at least, not unless—
“If Greer and the women were delayed for some reason in reaching the room, then perhaps he could have managed to punch me and flee back to the room ere they entered,” he admitted, and then glanced to Geordie in question. “Did they go straight to the room?”
“They started to,” Geordie said quietly. “But then Lady Evina asked to go back to her chamber. She was no’ comfortable in just the plaid, and wanted to