Free Ransom by Julie Garwood Page A

men stole me away from the festival? It was the first one I ever got to go to, and I was having a fine time. Was itbecause me and my friend was playing a trick on our families?”
    â€œNo,” she assured him. “That wasn’t the reason why.”
    â€œDid I do something . . . bad?”
    â€œOh, no, you didn’t do anything bad. None of this is your fault. You’ve just been caught in the middle, that’s all. The baron wants something from me, but he hasn’t told me what it is yet, and you’re somehow involved.”
    â€œI know what it is,” he boasted. “And you know what? The baron’s gonna go to hell ’cause my papa will send him there. I miss my mama and papa,” he admitted forlornly, his voice cracking on a sob.
    â€œYes, of course you do. They must be frantic, searching for you.”
    â€œNo, they aren’t, ’cause you know why? They think I’m dead.”
    â€œWhy would they think such a thing?”
    â€œI heard the baron talking to his friends.”
    â€œThen you do know what the baron’s plans are?” she asked sharply.
    â€œMaybe I do,” he said. “The men who took me made it look like I hit my head on the rocks and fell in the falls and drowned. That’s what I heard them saying. I’ll bet my mama’s crying all the time.”
    â€œThat poor woman . . .”
    â€œShe’s missing me fierce.”
    â€œOf course she is. But think how overjoyed she’ll be to have you back home again. Now tell me, please, what else you heard the baron say to his friends,” she asked, trying to sound as though the question wasn’t terribly important so that he wouldn’t become fretful.
    â€œI heard everything they said ’cause you know why? Iplayed a trick. The baron didn’t know I understood ’cause I didn’t talk, not even Gaelic, in front of him or the others.”
    â€œThat was very clever of you.” She could tell her praise pleased him. He grinned up at her while he laced his fingers through hers. “Tell me everything you heard, and please take your time so you won’t leave anything out.”
    â€œThe baron lost a box a long time ago, but now he thinks he knows where it is. A man told him.”
    â€œWhat man? Did the baron say his name?”
    â€œNo, but the man was dying when he told him. The box had a funny name too, but I can’t remember it now.”
    She suddenly felt sick to her stomach. She understood now why Alford had forced her back to Dunhanshire, and as the ramifications struck her full force, her eyes stung with tears.
    â€œArianna,” she whispered. “He called it Arianna’s box, didn’t he?”
    â€œYes,” he said excitedly. “How come you knew the name?”
    She didn’t answer him. Her mind was racing with questions. Oh, God, had Alford found Christen?
    â€œHow come you speak Gaelic?”
    â€œWhat?” she asked sharply, startled by the abrupt change in topics.
    He repeated the question. “Are you mad at me ’cause I asked?”
    She could see the anxiety in his eyes. “No, no, I’m not mad,” she assured him. “I learned to speak Gaelic because my sister, Christen, lives in the Highlands and I—”
    He interrupted her. “Where in the Highlands?”
    â€œI’m not exactly sure—”
    â€œBut—”
    She wouldn’t let him interrupt her again. “When I find out exactly where she is, I’m going to go see her and I want to be able to speak to her in Gaelic.”
    â€œHow come she’s got a clan and gets to live in the Highlands and you don’t?”
    â€œBecause I got caught,” she answered. “A long time ago, when I was just a little girl, the baron and his soldiers seized Dunhanshire. My father tried to get my sister and me to safety, but in the chaos, Christen and I were