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her at his words, but she didn’t think more about them as they rode from the cave. Light blinded her as they emerged and she quickly covered her eyes with her hands. Cheers erupted around her at Conall’s safe return until his plaid fell away to expose her MacNeil plaid.
    The silence was deafening.
    She couldn’t look at the people staring at her with such open hostility so she looked around the bailey. To her left was the massive two-story gatehouse, flanked by two square towers, which projected outside the wall from what she could see. A stairway from the bailey led to the gatehouse. Two posterns, or secondary doorways, were visible in the curtain wall that formed a rectangular bailey.
    The curtain wall itself was made up of cut stones that made up the battlements of alternating solid parts and spaces, merlons and crenels they were called, but to her they looked like square teeth.
    To her right was the main castle itself, the chapel and the well where many of the occupants gathered. All in all it was a very impressive castle. Not just in its structure, but in its size.
    “The MacNeil set a trap,” Conall’s voice called out. “I know now that they’re responsible for Iona’s disappearance. I have MacNeil’s daughter until they return my sister.”
    Voices once again rose to praise their laird, but he wasn’t done. With one raised hand he silenced them.
    “Whatever we may feel for the MacNeils, I want no harm to befall Glenna. She’s under my protection until I return her.”
    Return me?
    That hadn’t been her plan, but then again she had put herself in Conall’s hands.
    To get to MacNeil, not to return me to him .
    Either she would have to convince Conall of another way to have Iona returned or she would have to escape from him. And she had a dreadful feeling that escaping from Conall wouldn’t be easy.
    She looked out over the MacInnes’ people as they stared back at her. Most were curious while others had hatred sparkling in their depths. She couldn’t blame them. If the positions were reversed, she would probably feel the same way.
    Coldness surrounded her when Conall dismounted. Without him behind her she felt vulnerable and suddenly very scared. She knew if she attempted to walk she would fall on her face, but she could not, and would not, tell him that as he reached for her. She had already acted the fool about the cave.
    She slid into his arms. Instead of being set on her feet, he began to walk to the castle with her in his arms. When she raised her eyes to his, she found him staring straight ahead, his jaw clenched.
    “Thank you,” she said, and focused on his plaid instead of the faces that watched her. She would survive this. She had made it through the caves. And who knew how many spiders had lain in wait for her?
    Once they entered the castle, she looked around to find it filled with beautiful, ornate tapestries as well as swords, shield, maces and other weapons. She longed to look around and explore everything. It was such a colorful and happy place compared to her home. And clean.
    She had grown up thinking a castle was meant to be dirty but had refused to let her own chamber, small as it was, be filthy. Now she knew it was simply her home that was dirty and not something that was commonplace.
    Conall’s steps didn’t slow as he turned and mounted the stairs. He stopped at the first landing and carried her down a hallway before entering a chamber.
    He walked to the bed and gently set her upon it. “Have a bath drawn immediately,” he said, and a servant Glenna hadn’t seen scurried away to do his bidding.
    “A bath?”
    “Your muscles are overtaxed. The heat from the water will soothe them.”
    Now she couldn’t wait for her aching body to slip into the scalding water. Maybe afterward she would be able to walk again. “Thank you.”
    “Why didn’t you want to go into the cave?”
    She had thought he had forgotten about her terror, but it seemed she had fooled herself once again.