Free Amanda Scott by Highland Treasure Page B

Speaking firmly, she said, “Chuff, even if you could get down to her, she is hurt. Would you be able to pull her out of there by yourself?” When he hesitated, she said, “You know you cannot be sure of that, and I will not be able to help you from here. Perhaps if we had a rope—”
    “Aye, sure, but we’ve no got one. It’s hanging from yon turret at Shian.”
    His tone was bitter, but Pinkie called out again just then, and Mary said to him gently, “You must be strong for Pinkie, Chuff. If I leave you here with her and go for help, I must know that you won’t do anything foolish. Can you promise me?”
    He eyed her with grave displeasure. “How long will ye be away?”
    “No longer than I must. If Bardie is at home, I will return in less than an hour. It will seem like a very long time, though, so I must know that you will obey me. It won’t help anyone if I fret myself to flinders, worrying about whether you will be sensible. Nor will it help Pinkie in the least if you try to climb down there to her and you fall. Think how it would terrify her.”
    “I think it would terrify me, too,” Chuff said with a sudden glint of humor.
    She ruffled his damp hair. “I’ll be as quick as I can. I can get down from here to that granite slope over there to the right, so you’ll be able to watch me for a time. I should easily reach the path through the pass from there, and it’s no more than a ten-minute walk from the top of the pass to Bardie’s cottage. Keep talking to Pinkie, Chuff. Reassure her that we’ll soon have her out of there.”
    He nodded, and Mary hurried away, taking greater care than before because the ground beneath her was growing treacherously slippery. The rain had eased, but she felt colder and feared there would be snow before she returned.
    When she reached the granite slope, she looked back and waved to Chuff, hoping he would keep his word to her and do nothing foolish while she was away. Realizing, even as the thought crossed her mind, that he had never actually promised to stay put, she knew the likelihood was great that she would return to find him perched at the edge of the crevice, or even down inside it with Pinkie. There was nothing she could do about that now, however, other than send up a prayer and hope that God would keep watch over both children.
    Once she was on grass again, she increased her pace, recognizing more landmarks as she went until, rounding a clump of aspen and birch, she came upon the hill path. Relieved to have reached it at last, and glad that the rain had stopped for a time, she stepped onto the path, her attention fixed on the way she meant to go. Thus it was that she nearly lost her footing when a stern voice behind her said, “You seem to be in an almighty hurry, Mistress Maclaine.”
    Whirling, she found herself face to face with Black Duncan Campbell.

Five
    T RYING TO CONCEAL HER dismay, Mary said, “Wh-what are you doing here?”
    He was leading his horse, giving her to suspect that he had seen her earlier and dismounted to wait for her, but he said only, “I should be the one asking that question, not you. I’m here because I told MacCrichton I’d keep my eyes open on my way home for a foolish wench who’d most likely got lost in the woods. Now, come, I’ll take you back to him.”
    Stepping hastily back, she said, “No! You have no authority over me, Duncan Campbell, and I have no wish to go anywhere with you or to return to Shian Towers. Ewan was keeping me there against my will.”
    Duncan’s eyebrows rose sardonically. “If you are claiming that he abducted you, how is it that you failed to mention that fact earlier?”
    Blushing furiously at this reminder of the scene he had witnessed in the great hall, she nevertheless managed to say with a semblance of her normal calm, “He did not abduct me.”
    “I thought not. A dangerous thing to do, abducting a wench.”
    “I agreed to go with him, but he deceived me.”
    “He said he means to