When a Laird Loves a Lady (Highlander Vows: Entangled Hearts Book 1) by Julie Johnstone

allow any hope?
    She followed the knight across the
bailey, over the bridge that covered the second moat, and up the stairs that
led to the keep—and her room—while she plotted her escape. She needed to get
Sir Thomas away from her door.
    She paused as he opened the door
and stepped aside for her to enter. “Could you fetch Father John from the
chapel for me?” He would normally be there at this time of night, but she
prayed he was already with Iain. However, the errand would occupy the guard for
a bit. “I have some sins to confess before I marry.”
    “Certainly, my lady,” the knight
readily agreed.
    Well, it was certainly easy enough
to send Sir Thomas away, Marion thought as she walked past
him and into her bedchamber. The door clicked shut, followed by the distinct
snap of the lock setting in place.
    “What are you doing?” she demanded,
pressing her ear to the closed door, her pulse ticking up several beats.
    “Your father ordered you to be
locked in, my lady. I’ll return shortly with Father John.”
    “Wait!” she shouted, even as she
heard his footsteps carrying him away from her. She gripped the door handle and
pulled on it for several seconds before she forced herself to let go.
Desperation wanted to overcome her, but she refused to succumb.
    This was terrible! She’d not
foreseen being locked inside her chambers when she’d decided to provide the
distraction the stubborn Scot needed so he wouldn’t get caught entering the
castle. And though she’d certainly delivered the needed diversion, she now not
only had to escape the castle but she had to escape her room.
    Thinking quickly, she decided that
once she was out of the keep, she’d scale the keep wall, make her way down the
backside of the hill, and swim the treacherous, snake-filled waters to escape
and meet with Iain. That was assuming no guards stopped her.
    She gulped at the daunting task. At
least she knew Iain had Angus, and if he didn’t have Father John—she smiled
grimly to herself—well, then she would not have to be wedded and joined with
him so soon.
    She stalked to her bed and ripped
off the coverlet, then dragged the heavy blanket—and two others she collected
from her trunk—over to the window, which she threw open. Glancing out the
window to the ground far below, her stomach knotted .
She inhaled deeply, then let it out and muttered to herself as she began to tie
the blankets together. Once they were secured, she fastened one end to the iron
of the window and dropped the other out of the small space until it dangled
toward the ground.
    She swung a leg over the window
ledge and wiggled out of the cramped space. She gripped the coverlet, sweat
dampening her brow with the effort to hold on, and shimmied all the way to the
end of her rope. With a hopeful prayer, she glanced below to see if she was
close enough to leap. Her heart sank. The ground was still so far away.
Climbing back up was not an option. Not only were her hands beginning to cramp
but there was no way for her to escape her room with the door locked.
    She squeezed her eyes shut, took a
deep breath, and released the material. She dropped with a speed that stole her
breath and made her body tighten in expectation of a painful landing. She did
hit something hard, but it was warm, too, and the landing, though jarring,
wasn’t agonizing. Her eyes flew open and met an angry—or was that
astonished?—blue gaze.
    “You returned for me,” she said in
surprise.
    “Aye,” Iain growled, setting her
roughly on the ground. “And now I’m questioning why.” He gripped her by the
shoulders and fairly dragged her against the castle wall. “Ye would have broken
yer neck had I nae caught ye.”
    “Nonsense,” she replied, annoyed
that instead of one word of praise for her creating the perfect distraction for
him, he was angry. “I know what I am doing,” she snapped.
    He crossed his arms over his chest
and glared at her. “Do ye now?”
    His voice was hard, and she