His Bonnie Bride by Hannah Howell (the beginning after the end read novel .TXT) 📕

told his brothers and father what had occurred. "There goes the ransom."

"Are ye just going to leave her with Sir Hugh?" Phelan demanded as Tavis sprawled on a bench and got himself a large tankard of ale. "Ye don't know how it is. He will kill her. I know it."

"Nay, laddie. The man wants to marry the lass. He is hot for her fortune. Aye, and a thing or twa otherwise." Colin noted the way Tavis's face tightened. "He will want his bride alive."

"Aye, but not his wife." Phelan nodded vigorously when that remark caught their attention. "Once he has had a bit o' the other and tired of it, 'tis a widower he will be. That is not all. Ye do not know the man. After he is finished with my cousin she will be fair glad to be killed. Hagaleah abounds in the battered recipients of his sort of loving."

"Lad, I cannae call the men out to bring an English lass back. They'll nay like risking their lives to restore some enemy wench to me son's bed, no matter what she has done." Colin sighed. "I am fair sorry, for I owe her, but I cannae send my men to arms for her."

"Then I will get her out myself. Just give me the use of two mounts. I will return them."

"What will ye do, Phelan? Go tirl at the pin and ask, 'Please may I have my cousin back?' " Tavis drawled sarcastically, already feeling his loss and in no good temper about it.

"Nay. I know how to get in and out without them knowing. Just lend me the horses."

Tavis sat up, glanced at his father, who nodded, and asked, "Ye can get into Hagaleah unseen?"

"Aye, but I am not about to tell you how. 'Tis a bolt-hole and no use if ye learn of it."

"Phelan," he growled, "if there be a way to get Storm out of Hagaleah, to get into the keep with little risk to the men, then I suspicion I can get a few together to do it." He tried to hold onto his temper when Phelan remained stubbornly silent. "We'll give ye our word of honor that we'll never use the knowledge agin Hagaleah. What is it to be, lad?"

"Your word of honor ne'er to use the knowledge agin Hagaleah and the Eldons?"

"'Ye have it, laddie. If we can get the lass away without risking much, we're willing." Colin looked at the ones gathered in the hall and they all nodded. " 'Twas a full battle I couldnae call for."

"Well, I do not doubt I could use a bit of help. 'Tis a tunnel. It goes from the nether rooms of Hagaleah to just beyond the curtain wall. 'Tis for the women and children to flee if the battle is lost."

"Aye. We have one." Colin shook his head. " 'Tis a wonder we ne'er thought to look for it at Hagaleah. Ah, well, come and take a seat, laddie. An all goes well we'll have the lass back here come the dawn."

Tavis thought dawn too late but said nothing. The mere thought of Sir Hugh touching Storm was intolerable, twisting his insides into knots, but he struggled to keep all sign of it from showing in his face. That he would have her back would have to be enough for the time being. Later, he would make Sir Hugh pay for any abuse Storm suffered at his hands. He did not pause to review his feelings. Tavis had neither the time nor the inclination to do any soul searching. He had the fleeting wish that he could see inside the walls of Hagaleah, but decided it was probably for the best that he could not.

* * * * *

Storm sat on the bed in her room and watched Sir Hugh and Lady Mary with a calm she did not feel. They were angry, especially Sir Hugh. She had enough knowledge of them to know that that did not bode well for her. Despite that, she continued to refuse to marry the man. As Phelan had done, she guessed that Sir Hugh did not intend to spend a long life of connubial bliss with her, that her life was in greater danger if she wed him than if she did not. She continued to refuse him and risk his fury. Tavis MacLagan might be a border reiver, an old foe, a man of quick temper and little love and the man who had taken her innocence as well as a few other things he was unaware of, but at the moment, he seemed a haven.

"You cannot tell us you remain a maid," purred Lady Mary. " 'Tis gallant of Sir Hugh to still offer for you."

A most unladylike snort escaped Storm. "Gallant, my eye. 'Tis my fortune he wants, well I know it."

Hugh glared at Storm, his temper rapidly getting out of control. "You have little call to be so choosy, bitch. We all know you played the whore for the MacLagan heir."

"Do ye now. May I be so bold as to ask how ye know what goes on at Caraidland?"

Lady Mary shrugged. "We were given a full and very colorful report by the woman you replaced."

"I thought as much." Storm wondered if Tavis would ever discover Katerine's treachery.

"I see you do not deny it." Lady Mary wanted a few answers before Hugh's rage burst loose.

"Why should I? E'en an it were not true, e'en an I denied it vehemently, ye would ne'er believe me. What matters what I have to say? Believe as ye will. I care not."

"Do not bother to deny it. Nay, you need not speak at all. 'Tis easy to read upon your face." Lady Mary smiled coldly. "From the heat of the scorned woman's fury, the MacLagan heir must be some stallion, and he has ridden you hard these last weeks."

"Vulgarity suits you, Mother." Storm reeled under the strength of the slap her stepmother dealt her but made no