“I was originally to take Lady Wildwood out. Holding her, it was expected that you would be forced to surrender the keep.”

“It would seem then that I have ruined your plans. You shall never get your hands on my mother now.”

“Nay, but I am sure you will do just as well. Unfortunately, I see no need to drag your maid along.”

Both women blanched at that announcement, but when the man stepped toward Janna, raising his sword, Iliana stepped before her. “I think not. Do you try, I shall surely shriek the stone walls of this castle down. How far do you think you would get then?”

“Most like as far as I would did you not,” he answered with vague amusement. “’Tis only women, children, and old men within the walls. Hardly a threat to me.”

“Then there is surely no need to kill Janna. We are but two women. What harm could we do?” she argued. “’Sides, should someone find her, they may be alerted to your plans. Angus may figure out where we disappeared to when we are not found in the keep. He could block the passage.”

He hesitated at that, then shrugged and lowered his sword slightly. “It matters little, I suppose.” Reaching out then, he grabbed Janna and dragged her up to his side, then glanced at Iliana. “We are going to the burned-out room. You shall lead the way. Move quickly and quietly. Do you cry out or attempt to flee, I shall kill your maid. Understand?”

Iliana took in the woman’s frightened expression and tried to offer a reassuring smile even as she nodded at the man. She moved abruptly to the door when he gestured with his sword toward it.

She had hoped that someone might find reason to be in, or enter, the hallway as they moved through it. However, they reached the room without incident.

The bedroom she had slept in on first arriving at Dunbar was now mostly empty, and a sooty mess. Her chests were a charred mass at one end of the room, the floor-boards around and beneath them half-eaten through by fire. The other end of the room was empty but powdered with soot everywhere except for a large square where the bed had been, and four small squares where the legs of the bedside table had been.

Pausing, Iliana turned to face the Englishman as he pushed Janna in behind her and slammed the door.

“Over there. Beside the fireplace.” He gestured with his sword, and the two women moved dutifully toward the wall. Following them, Greenweld’s man kept his sword slightly up and pointed toward them as he felt along the wall. It was only then that Iliana noticed that some of the soot had been brushed away, obviously during an earlier search he had made, and she wondered briefly why he had not simply made his escape then.