She thought he’d realized her trick when he yelled her name, so was taken completely by surprise when he slammed into her back, sending her crashing forward. Her head hit and bounced off the castle wall as she was plastered against it by his weight. The blow sent up a roaring in her skull that nearly blocked out the sound of Alpin’s grunt of pain and the thud of something heavy hitting the ground behind them.
“What?” she began with confusion, raising one hand instinctively to her forehead and pressing the other against the castle wall as she tried to push away from it. But Alpin was still pressed to her back . . . and then she felt him begin to slide to the ground behind her.
Forgetting about her head, she glanced around and tried to grab at him. Her eyes widened in alarm when she caught a glimpse of bright red blood on his back.
“Alpin?” she said sharply and then spotted the collection of large stones on the ground directly behind him. It looked like one of the merlons had come down from the battlement along the top of the castle wall . . . and Alpin had received a glancing blow by the stones as they fell. Actually, she would have been crushed by them had he not suddenly crashed into her, Saidh realized as she saw where the stones rested. He’d saved her life . . . and been injured in the process.
Cursing, she released her hold on Alpin and let him slip to rest against the backs of her legs. She then shifted out from between him and the wall as carefully as she could before turning and dropping to her knees to examine him. He had landed crumpled on the ground and she could see that it wasn’t just his back that had been injured, for there was blood on the back of his head as well.
Mouth tightening, she turned him over. He had been terribly pale ever since the fever had felled him, but now he was as white as death.
“Alpin?” she said, patting his cheek gently. When she got no response, Saidh glanced around in the hopes that one of the servants may have come out into the garden in search of an herb or vegetable for the sup, but it was empty. She had to get him help herself, but feared leaving him there on his own. What if another merlon fell?
She wasn’t taking that chance. She’d have to take him to help. That wouldn’t have been a problem a week ago, she would have merely hefted him over her shoulder and carried him around to the kitchens. But right now she wasn’t sure she had the strength to heft a kitten over her shoulder. Hell, just getting her own weight back up the stairs had seemed like a major undertaking moments ago; carting around a boy who must weigh four or five stone . . .
Grinding her teeth with frustration, Saidh turned back to Alpin and set to work.
Chapter 14
“We’ve been o’er the area six times now, Greer, and found nothing.”
Greer sighed at Aulay’s more than reasonable words and gave up examining the ground to move back to his mount. His brother-in-law was right, of course. He’d had the men search the woods repeatedly and had checked here several times himself before this, but today he and Aulay had checked and rechecked the area six times with nothing to show for it. There wasn’t even a crushed patch where the archer might have waited. He should have been satisfied that he’d done all he could, but he wasn’t. Greer felt as if there was something they were missing . . .
But that might have been simply because he was desperate to find something, anything that might point him in the direction of who had shot his wife. Frankly, to his mind, the best thing would be to find traces of a camp where bandits may have been, or even some sign that a peasant had been hunting in the wrong area. Either would please him. At this point, Greer didn’t think he’d even be angry at the hunter if he came across one. He’d just be relieved to know that this occurrence had been a one-time event and unlikely to be repeated.
However, without some evidence of something, he was forced to consider that it might have been a deliberate attack. That meant having to continue to do whatever was necessary to keep Saidh safe.
Greer grimaced at the thought. Recovering from the wound and loss of blood as she was, his new wife was growing restless at being kept to the bedchamber, and he could not blame her. He was tiring of being in there himself and he was only there during the nooning meal and in the evenings. Greer very much feared that if he didn’t clear this matter up quickly, she would rebel and neither he nor her seven brothers would be able to keep her in the master bedchamber.
“Perhaps we should be looking in a different direction,” Aulay suggested now. “Mayhap we should check the arrow again to be sure there is no’ some marking or something else we missed that may help us sort out who it belonged to.”
Shaking his head, Greer quickly remounted and took up the reins of his horse. “We ha’e done that at least twenty times now. There were no markings, no nothing. ’Twas as common as can be, a broadhead arrow with gray goose fletching.”
“Aye, verra common,” Aulay agreed, sounding as frustrated as Greer felt, and then he suggested, “Then mayhap we should try the other side of the path.”
Greer shifted impatiently, his gaze fixed on the spot where he’d found Saidh lying beside her mare. “Nay, the angle of the arrow was very slight, but suggested it was shot from this side. To have been shot from the other side of the trail she would have had to have been riding backward on her mount and shot after she passed the archer.”
“I did no’ really see fer myself,” Aulay admitted with a frown. “I mean I saw the wound and the arrow protruding from it, but did no’ notice at the time if ’twas at an angle.” He slapped his leg impatiently. “Are ye sure o’ the angle?”
“The wound on her back is closer to her arm than ’tis on her front,” he explained.