He finally stepped from the bed, watching in agony as Gwen curled into a ball. The move had to cause excruciating pain, yet she didn’t make a sound. His mother took his place immediately, humming softly as she brushed her fingers through his wife’s hair. He dressed quickly and left the chamber.

He went to the nursery first. Anna was busy with Isabelle and the babies, and he asked that she continue to keep Tristan. Gwen was in no condition to receive her son, and he couldn’t subject Tristan to further upset.

When he entered his study, Guy MacFale and Alex were already waiting. Looking at them now, he was sorry that he’d not come to them. They looked as bad as his wife. His men were present as well. They would all learn what happened and live with the details as they were revealed.

Greylen took a shot of brandy before turning to Guy. “Gwen’s said nothing. Were you aware of any of the actions that transpired?”

Guy closed his eyes, shaking his head as if images raced through his mind. “Malcolm and his men returned four days past. I was locked within my chamber and knew not of their plans, though I found out bits and pieces from the servants who brought my trays. They told me the men were plotting to take your wife and had been watching your patrols. They’d overheard that a race was to take place and of the long runs your wife had been taking. They were disgusted that your men boasted of her endurance and waited daily for her to seek the run that would take her far from the keep. They knew already that she had only one guard with her.”

“Did you see her when she was inside the keep?” Greylen asked.

“Aye, but ’twas hours after she arrived. Your man here was already inside by then.”

Greylen turned to Alex and waited for the rest. He was covered with short wounds, deep enough that they had all been stitched, and his right hand was covered with bandages so thick ’twas impossible to discern the damage beneath. Alex looked straight into his eyes and recounted the events as they took place.

“I rode to the doors alone. Kevin tried to stop me, but I’d been the last to see her, the last to have her guard.”

“You had not had her guard, Alex,” Greylen corrected. “The keep was your duty.”

“Aye, but had I not been relieved, I would have known sooner she was unprotected.”

“Did you tell her to seek a shadow before going the distance?” Greylen asked, repeating the same words Alex had, no doubt, been given countless times already.

“Aye.” He remained silent for a moment, then he smiled softly. “She saluted me, sir.” Alex looked again to Greylen. “‘Aye, aye, Captain’ were her exact words.”