Needed By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance (Highlander Forever Book 5)

by Rebecca Preston

  It wasn’t long before Niall was with her. She filled him in on the story, and he nodded tightly, his jaw rigid — had he expected something like this? Or was he just taking all new information like this — with a tight jaw and that grim expression? He must be expecting the worst, she thought as he strode into the stable. Tersely, he explained that he was checking which horses were missing so they knew what they were looking for. Sure enough, a chestnut mare seemed to be absent — a couple of worried grooms had come over to assist with the search and confirmed that the mare had been there the night before, but now her stall was empty.

  Maeve met them outside. Nancy had clearly reached her — she was already halfway through an explanation of the passageway that Perry and his captive would have taken to get out of the castle without going through the gates. Niall nodded. The grooms had already tacked up two horses for them, at Helen’s request, and they strode back to the stables. Helen was grateful that she was able to jump onto the horse without assistance — she had a suspicion that Niall wouldn’t have waited around to help her.

  “The path is rocky and dangerous,” Maeve had explained. “If I were you, I’d head around to where it emerges — in the rocks south of the castle.” She gave Niall specific directions, and they headed out through the gate.

  Helen’s heart felt like it had been pounding in her chest like a drum all morning — she was dizzy and worried, full of stress and concern for Eamon.

  But they were on their way. They’d find him, one way or another.

  They just had to.

  Chapter 54

  Niall hopped off his horse before stepping onto the sand, and Helen followed suit. It became clear what he was thinking when he lowered his head to examine the sand — he was searching for tracks. Of course. But Helen gasped with dismay when she got a good look at the sand. Sure enough, there was the passage that must lead up into the bowels of the castle — from what Maeve had said, it was an old escape passage, designed to help the castle folk sneak out during protracted sieges to get hold of food and other resources. But it was abandoned now.

  And there were hoofprints all around the entrance, she realized with horror. Unshod hoofprints — the hoofprints of Kelpies.

  “There really are a lot of them,” Niall said in a low voice, scrutinizing the sand. Then his eyes widened. “There!”

  “What?”

  “Here. Careful,” he warned her as she crept closer. “Can you see these prints?”

  “Horseshoes,” she said, her eyes widening as she noticed the slightly different tracks. “This must be the horse he stole.”

  “It is,” Niall confirmed, nodding with his jaw tight. “And it’s heading up toward the road into the village. I think that’s our next port of call.”

  “I’m with you,” Helen said fiercely.

  “We’ll have to ride fast. Are you ready to learn how to canter?” He spared her a brief smile. “You just trust the horse and sit to it. Much easier than trotting — though a lot faster.”

  She climbed back onto her horse, resolute. If riding faster than she had before was what she needed to do to make sure Eamon was safe, then that was what she was going to do. Niall climbed onto his horse and kicked it into a canter — and Helen gasped as her horse followed suit. The rollicking gait was a shock — but to her surprise, Niall had been right. It was easier to sit to than a trot, and though the speed worried her at first, she realized that it was still a hell of a lot slower than a car. Not that her last encounter with one of those had gone especially well… she shook her head to clear it, focusing on moving with the motion of the horse.

  Riding this quickly, it was only ten minutes before the village came into view. Niall and Helen rode up the main street, their horses breathing hard as they reined them to a stop by the church. It seemed as good a place as any to begin their search — and already, curious villagers were poking their heads out of their houses and coming up to Niall and Helen to find out what was wrong. They looked worried — probably concerned it had something to do with the Kelpie threat, Helen thought with a pang of worry. They’d already lost so many people, these poor folk — she just prayed they weren’t about to add another tragedy to the list.

  “I need to find Perry MacCullen,” Niall said to the first villager who approached them — the hard-faced, lean woman who’d asked, all those days ago when they’d brought the Kelpie to the village, what could be done to harm the creatures. The woman frowned, thinking hard.

  “I have no affection for that scumbag,” she said matter-of-factly. “I’d not hide him if he begged me or paid me a king’s ransom. I know he’s got a hidey hole in town somewhere — a friend of his family with a softer heart than is sensible has been keeping his secrets. But you didn’t hear it from me,” the woman added, fixing them both with a steely stare. “I like old Marian, for all that she’s a bit soft. Wouldn’t want her knowing I was the one who ratted out her precious Perry, you know?”

  “We’ll keep you secret,” Helen said, and Niall reached out to squeeze the woman’s hands in his, a grateful look on his face.

  “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

  “I hope you find your little one,” the woman said after she’d given them directions to the building Perry was purported to be hiding in. “It’s a terrible thing, to lose a child.”

  Helen realized that the woman was talking to both of them — that she’d assumed that she and Niall were Eamon’s parents. It made sense, she supposed — a frantic-looking woman and man searching for a lost child… Niall’s eyes flicked to her for a moment, clearly realizing the same thing, and she gave him a little shrug, half-smiling at the confusion. It didn’t seem worth correcting the woman… not with time being of the essence. They swung back aboard their horses and headed for the building the woman had described, and though Helen’s heart was still pounding, she had hope that they’d find the little boy there, safe and sound — if frightened.

  The building was a tall one — several stories, and when they barged in Helen blinked a few times, strongly reminded of the kinds of boarding houses a lot of old ladies ran in West Virginia. The kinds of places were an affordable rent got you a room and not much else — where there were strict curfews, and rules about noise, and absolutely no guests. A boarding house, in short… and this one didn’t seem particularly busy. They moved through the cluttered living room purposefully, Helen wrinkling her nose at the dust in the air and the little knitted doilies on everything. It seemed the majority of the rooms were upstairs, and Helen started up the stairs before a surprised squawk stopped her in her tracks.

  Sure enough, there was an older woman standing in the hall, a look of shock on her face to see Helen and Niall in her home. Helen took a deep breath, about to explain their presence there — but Niall surged forward, a hard look in his eyes.

  “We’re looking for Perry MacCullen.”

  The woman’s eyes darted to her right immediately, then she turned back, the appearance of bravado on her face. “Are you now. Do you make a habit of breaking into people’s homes, Harbormaster Grant? Shame on you.”

  “Shame on you,” Niall spat, “for harboring a criminal who’s directly responsible for at least two deaths so far, maybe more.”

  Her eyes flickered, and the offence she’d taken at the home invasion seemed to evaporate. She sighed, moving down the stairs — Helen moved out of the way, impatience flaring in her chest at the woman’s slow movements. Her eyes lingered on the door that the woman had glanced at — was Perry in there with Eamon? Carefully, she moved up the stairs, taking advantage of the fact that the woman was distracted with Niall. He seemed to sense what she was doing, and raised his voice again, half-shouting at the landlady about Perry’s crimes to mask the sound of Helen’s footsteps. Gently, she opened the door to the room… and sighed with frustration.

  It was a room like any other in a boarding house — a little bed, a desk, and not much more. A tiny room, with no corners to hide in, though she briefly considered checking under
the bed. It wouldn’t hurt, she supposed… hearing the voices continuing downstairs, she crossed the room and peeked under the bed. No sign of a hiding child… but there was something under there. Her eyes widened as she reached for it. It was one of Eamon’s toy soldiers — she’d recognize it anywhere. It was one of the ones he’d hurled against the wall — she could tell from the chipped paint — and she held it tight, tears coming to her eyes as she remembered the way his tiny little fists would curl around the toy’s midsection. He’d been here. They were on the right track.

  She half-ran down the stairs, her heart pounding. The bed had been neatly made, which to her suggested that Perry and Eamon were already gone from this place. They must have spent the night and set off not long ago. That meant they were within reach. And, a dark part of her mind said, it meant Eamon was still alive… at least for now. She bit her lip, unwilling to think about the alternatives. It was hard, having a mind trained by a lot of FBI investigations that hadn’t had happy endings for the missing children involved.

  Niall’s eyes widened when he saw what she was holding. “That’s his toy. He was here.”

  The woman took a deep breath. “Perry MacCullen is an old friend of my family,” she said in a low voice, quite different to the affronted tone she’d affected when they’d barged in. “He was always a troubled child. I took pity on him, especially when he lost his brothers. He was in a bad way. Never did marry, never did have a family… so the loss of his brothers, it hit him so hard, as you can imagine…”

  “I’m not interested in the motives of that man,” Niall said through gritted teeth. “May I remind you that he kidnapped my son?”

  “I did wonder about that boy,” the woman said softly, wringing her hands. “He said… he said the child was the child of a friend, that he was just taking care of him for the night while the friend was out travelling, but I did wonder… I mean, nobody’s out travelling these days, what with the Monster attacking everyone —”

  “It’s not the Monster,” Niall snapped. “Or are you daft enough to have been taken in by Perry’s poisonous lies?”

  “Niall,” Helen said softly, seeing the woman’s face twist in shock. “That won’t help anyone.”

  “Aye, you’re right,” Niall growled. “All I need here is information on the whereabouts of my son. Where did Perry take him, and when?”

  “I don’t know! They left early, before I got up,” she said anxiously, twisting her hands in her apron again. Helen reached out to touch her arm reassuringly, and the woman gave her a brief, grateful look before continuing steadily. “I heard the boy crying as they went down the stairs. That must have been… oh, it was light, so just after dawn.” Her face twisted. “Please — please don’t tell him I talked to you.”

  “Why not?” Helen asked softly. There was something about the woman that didn’t add up — her strange reticence to speak about the man who’d been here, despite how obvious it was that he was up to no good. Most women would have fallen over themselves to help a father reunite with his son. What was going on here?

  “He — he —” There were tears in the woman’s eyes. “He threatened to kill me if I told anyone. He had this great long iron spear in his hands, and he threatened — he said he’d gut me with it if I—” Helen put an arm around her shoulders, acutely dismayed by this. A look of pity crossed Niall’s face.

  “He won’t harm you,” Niall said firmly, his voice a little softer than it had been. “We’re going to capture him. And for what he’s done, he won’t be walking free.”

  “But if it makes you feel any better, we won’t breathe a word of what you told us,” Helen said. That seemed to bring the woman some relief — she nodded firmly, dashing the tears away from her eyes and straightening up.

  “I’m sorry. I hope you find the little boy, truly I do. Perry…” She sighed. “He was always a troubled child, always so troubled… I hope he finds the peace he’s after.”

  They said a brief goodbye then headed outside, hoping against hope to see some sign of where Perry had headed with Niall that morning… but the stone paths of the village didn’t lend themselves well to tracks.

  They were at a loss. And with every passing minute, Helen was more and more worried about Eamon’s safety.

  Chapter 55

  “We have to think about this,” Helen said, gritting her teeth as she stared around the bustling village. It was midmorning now, and the village was in full swing, for all the world as though nothing was wrong… as though a terrible, terrible thing wasn’t in the midst of happening. “We have to figure out where he went —”

  “How?” Niall sounded frustrated as he kicked at a fencepost, causing the horses to flick their ears in annoyance. “There are no tracks, no witnesses to where he could have gone —”

  “Then we figure it out another way,” she said. “We use what we know about him to analyze his motives and we go from there. What do we know?”

  “We know he’s a bastard.”

  “That’s not helpful,” she said irritably, though some of the venom in his voice had threatened to make her giggle. Strange, how often laughter was the response to extreme situations. She’d observed it before, but it felt very odd having a first-person experience of it. “What does he want? What’s he trying to achieve?”

  “He wants to hurt me,” Niall said, grimacing. “He wants revenge for the way I treated him.”

  “That can’t be it. If he just wanted to hurt you, he’d have harmed or killed Eamon and left it at that. But he kidnapped him instead — which must mean he has a plan. Nobody kidnaps a child without a game plan. But what could his be?”

  “He got what he wanted,” Niall said slowly. “He attacked the Monster, hurt her badly — he got his revenge for his brothers. Didn’t he?”

  “Maybe it wasn’t enough,” she said softly, thinking of the furious look on Perry’s face when he’d run away that morning after the Monster had been attacked. Furious… and dissatisfied, somehow. “Maybe he didn’t want her hurt. After all, his brothers weren’t just hurt — they were killed. Maybe he wants her dead.” Her heartbeat was picking up — there was a sour taste in her mouth, a sick feeling in her gut as her mind leapt ahead to a horrifying conclusion. “Niall — he wants to kill the creature. And he’s going to use Eamon as bait.”

  Niall stared at her, vivid horror painted across his face. “Bait?”

  “He’ll tie him up, leave him on the shore of the Loch and hope the Monster comes out,” she said, trying to stay strong in the face of the horror of the image.

  “But that’s not what will happen,” Niall breathed. “She doesn’t eat people — and besides, she’s deep in the Loch, healing her wounds.” Niall blanched. “He’s going to lure the Kelpies to them.”

  “We have to find him before that happens.”

  “Aye,” Niall said, but she could see that this information had almost broken him. “We do.” He took a deep breath, and she could see him shaking — moved, she reached out to grab his shoulder, and he pulled her into a surprising hug, burying his face in her hair as he held her tight. She needed the embrace more than she’d thought, and it was clear that he did too. For a long moment they stood there holding each other, before finally he pulled away, a more resolute look on his face — though she could still see the fear lingering in his eyes. This is his worst nightmare, she thought remotely. For all the fear and worry that was plaguing her, she knew it was a thousand times worse for Eamon’s father. To lose his wife so tragically, and now to risk losing his son?

  I’m not going to let that happen, she decided firmly. She just couldn’t. If there was nothing else she’d been brought here to do, she could at least do this for him.

  “He’ll be on the shore,” she said in a low voice. “The Monster is understood to be nocturnal, so he probably won’t try to pull anything until sunset. So we have time.”

  He nodded, a glint of hope coming into his eyes — it was reassuring to see him regaining some of his composure as they ta
lked this out. “Right. Enough time to come up with a plan. He won’t be close to the Keep, I’d imagine,” he added with a frown. “The Loch’s enormous… we’d do well to start the search now.” He scanned the village for a moment, his eyes alighting on a young man who was standing nearby with his hands in his pockets. “You! Want to earn some coin?”

  The boy tilted his head curiously. “Aye, Harbormaster?” Niall was well known in town, it seemed — Helen couldn’t help but smile at the way that everyone around here seemed to know each other.

  “I need you to carry a message to the Keep. Can you do that?”

  “Of course.”

  “Do you have a horse?”

  “I’m about as fast as one,” the lad said with a cheeky grin.

  Niall smiled. “Right. Head for the Castle. Tell them who sent you — tell them we’ve learned that Perry still has Eamon, and that he’s planning to use him as bait for the Monster. He’ll be hiding out on the shores of the Loch until sunset — probably a good distance from the Castle. Tell them to start searching.”

  The lad’s eyes were widening. “Perry MacCullen took your son? I knew he was twisted somehow, but…” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Harbormaster. Can we help search?”