Bride for Glenmore (11 page)

But she saw nothing. Found nothing. And by the time she met up with Ethan again, she was finding it hard not to panic.

‘Nothing. No sign of anyone. It was a stupid idea. He obviously isn’t here.’

‘Well, he’s not home either because I just called Nick Hillier to check. I didn’t want to worry Aisla, so I called him direct.’ The wind howled angrily at them and Ethan caught her arm and drew her behind the comparative shelter of a wall. ‘Earlier on, you said something about the guides telling stories about the dungeons.’

‘Yes, but you can’t go into the dungeons any more because they aren’t safe. They’ve been closed off to the public for years and—’ She broke off and shook her head in horror. ‘No. No, he wouldn’t have done that.’

Ethan closed his hands over the top of her arms and gave her a gentle shake. ‘Where’s the entrance? Where?’

‘You go into the keep and there’s a tunnel, but it’s blocked off. At the end of the tunnel there’s a door, but that’s kept locked. There’s no way he could—’

‘And how do you know about the door, Kyla MacNeil?’ He tightened his grip and then released her and started to run towards the keep.

‘Because I did the same thing at his age,’ Kyla whispered, as she followed him.

CHAPTER EIGHT

T
HE
tunnel was dark and smelt dank and musty.

‘At least we can hear ourselves think in here,’ Ethan murmured, as he flashed the torch downwards to illuminate their feet. ‘I’m beginning to see what you mean about Glenmore and storms.’ His feet made a splashing noise and he shone the torch down. ‘It’s very wet.’

‘The rain pours in here. The whole dungeon floods in the winter. Ouch.’ She’d lost her footing and clutched at his arm, feeling his muscles bunch under her fingers as he took her weight and steadied her.

‘Go slowly. It’s treacherous underfoot.’

‘Let’s try shouting.’ She stopped dead. ‘Fraser? Fraser!’

Her voice bounced and echoed off the walls and then there was nothing except an eerie silence, punctuated by the sound of water trickling and dripping in the darkness around them.

‘This could be a wild-goose chase,’ Kyla said, as they picked and slithered their way further down into the tunnel. ‘He could be sitting at home and—’

‘Be quiet.’ Ethan put a hand on her arm. ‘I heard something.’

Kyla froze. And then she heard something, too.

‘What was that?’

‘I don’t know. But it wasn’t wind and it wasn’t dripping water so it’s worth investigating. How far is the gate that covers the entrance of the dungeons?’

‘I can’t remember. It’s years since I came down here, but I don’t think it can be far now.’ Kyla flashed the torch and nodded. ‘There. Can you see?’

‘Yes. But the gate’s shut. It hasn’t been opened. Hold the torch while I check.’

Kyla shone both torches onto the gate and Ethan ran his fingers over the rusted bars. ‘There’s no way he could have got through here.’

‘No, but he could have got through there.’ Kyla shone the torch to the side and Ethan turned, his eyes on the crack in the wall.

‘It’s not wide enough.’

‘Yes, it is,’ Kyla said wearily, and he lifted an eyebrow.

‘Are you seriously telling me that you once wriggled through that gap?’

‘I was twelve at the time,’ she muttered. ‘I’ve eaten thousands of Evanna’s dinners since then.’

And then they both heard the noise at the same time. And this time it was recognisable.

‘Fraser?’ Kyla yelled his name and moved closer to the gate. ‘Fraser, is that you? Are you down there?’

‘I’m stuck.’ His voice was thin and reedy and Kyla felt her heart turn over.

‘All right. Don’t panic, Fraser. You’re going to be fine. We’re going to get you out.’ She almost laughed as she listened to herself. How? That was the question that flew into her mind. How were they going to get him out? There was a storm brewing, Fraser was trapped underground in an unstable place and no one else knew where they were.

‘We need to—we need to—’ For once her ingenuity failed her and she looked helplessly at Ethan. ‘I don’t know what on earth we need. There’s a drop, Ethan. He must have fallen in. I mean, there are no stairs or anything. Just a drop and then a small cramped room. It’s a bit like being at the bottom of a well. How are we going to get him out of there?’

‘A stage at a time.’ Ethan was calm. ‘First we find a way to get in. Then we find a way to get him out. But we’re going to need help. I’m going to go back up to the top and call Nick. We need a team of people up here and some rope. And we need to call the people who run this place to see if there’s an official way through this gate.’ His quiet confidence gave her courage.

‘Yes, of course you’re right. Nick will arrange everything if you just call him. I’ll stay here and see if I can work anything out.’

‘I’ll be back in a minute.’

‘Kyla?’ Fraser’s voice came from far below her, weak and shaky. ‘Are you still there?’

‘I’m still here and I’m not going anywhere. You’ve chosen a good place to shelter, Fraser, on such a stormy night.’

‘It’s very dark down here.’ She heard the quiver in his voice and her heart twisted with sympathy for him. He must be so scared. For a moment she contemplated dropping the torch down to him but then she realised that the fall would probably just break it and then they’d both be in the dark.

‘How did you get down there, Fraser?’ She slid a hand across the gate, shuddering when she encountered the softness of a spider’s web. She didn’t mind the storm or the dark but she hated spiders.

‘I opened the gate. I only meant to look. And then I fell. I don’t remember anything after that.’

He’d knocked himself out. ‘Do you hurt anywhere, Fraser?’

‘My head. I think it’s bleeding but I dropped my torch when I fell and it broke. I’ve been lying here. I didn’t think anyone would ever find me.’

Kyla closed her eyes for a moment, hardly able to bear thinking about just how frightened he must have felt. ‘Well, we
have
found you, and we’ll be getting you out in just a moment.’ She glanced back up the tunnel and saw the reassuring flicker of Ethan’s torch. He was on his way back. And then she suddenly realised what the child had said. ‘You opened the gate? Fraser? Did you say that you opened the gate? How? It’s locked.’

‘But it opens on the other side. The hinges are rusted.’

‘They’re on their way.’ Ethan stopped next to her and watched while she ran her hands over the gate. ‘What are you doing?’

‘He didn’t go through the gap in the rock. He went through the gate. The gate opens, Ethan.’ She tugged and pulled and the whole structure came towards her. ‘Ugh. Spiders. I hate spiders.’

‘Kyla?’ Fraser’s voice came from below them. ‘I feel funny.’

‘In what way funny?’ With Ethan’s help, Kyla opened the gate far enough for an adult to pass through. ‘Talk to me, Fraser.’

There was a long silence and for a hideous moment she thought he’d lost consciousness. Then his voice came again, this time much weaker. ‘Sort of swimmy-headed. And sick. Just not well. I wish I’d never come here now. I want Mum.’ The childlike plea for protection went straight to Kyla’s heart but before she could act, Ethan moved her bodily and handed her his torch.

‘Hold on, Fraser.’ His voice was deep and reassuring. ‘I’m coming down to you.’

‘You can’t do that.’ Kyla caught his arm but he shrugged her off.

‘I have to. We don’t know what his injuries are. He’s afraid and on his own. Someone needs to be down there with him.’

‘You can’t just jump, Ethan. It’s too far. You’ll break something.’

‘I’m not jumping.’ He removed his coat. ‘There are enough handholds in this place to climb down.’

‘Are you kidding?’ She eyed him with incredulity. ‘The wall is completely smooth.’

‘No, it isn’t. Stay there for a moment and then hand me the torch when I say so. Fraser?’ He raised his voice and wriggled his body through the gap in the gate. ‘I’m coming down to you. Just hang on.’

There was no answer, only the hollow plop of water, and suddenly Kyla felt sick herself. She ought to stop Ethan doing something so rash but she knew now that Fraser’s life could be at stake. Why wasn’t he answering? Was he unconscious?

Ethan gave a grunt as he anchored himself and held out a hand. ‘Hand me the torch.’

‘But you won’t have any hands to hold on, and—’

‘The torch, Kyla!’

‘All right.’ She bit back the impulse the tell him to be careful. They were all way past the point of being careful.

He took the torch in his mouth and started to descend with a smooth agility that astonished her.

And then she remembered the way he ran in the mornings. He may have been brought up in a city, but there was no doubting his physical fitness. Still, physical fitness was one thing. Climbing down a wall into a long abandoned dungeon was quite another.

Fifteen minutes,
Kyla calculated, feeling the thump of her heart and the dampness of her palms. That was how long it would take Nick and a rescue team to reach them. Would that be fifteen minutes too long for Fraser?

They had no idea about the extent of his injuries.

All they knew now was that he wasn’t responding to their questions.

She didn’t dare flash the torch in case she distracted Ethan from his task. Instead she sat and forced herself to breathe steadily, braced to hear the sound of his powerful body crashing to the ground.

‘I’m down, Kyla.’ His voice echoed up to her from the bowels of the dungeon. ‘Can you shine some extra light down here? It’s pitch dark.’

She did as he’d asked, hugely relieved that he’d made it that far without injury to himself. And then she heard noise from above her and realised that the rescue party had arrived. ‘They’re here, Ethan. Have you found him? Is Fraser OK?’ Suddenly she wished she’d been the one to go down the shaft. She felt so helpless, just sitting at the top. If she hadn’t been holding the torch, she would have bitten her nails down to the quick.

‘He has a nasty laceration to his forehead and some bruising, but I don’t think anything is broken. He’s OK. Conscious. Just a bit weak.’

And extremely frightened,
Kyla was willing to bet. She could hear Ethan talking to the boy and then there was a crunch of footsteps behind her and she turned to see Logan standing there, along with Nick and two other members of the coastguard.

‘We’ve brought ropes, and there’s more equipment up top.’ A light shone from the helmet on Nick’s head. ‘Give us an update.’

‘Ethan is down there so it shouldn’t be too hard to get him out,’ Kyla said, moving onto her hands and knees so that she could get a better look over the edge. ‘Ethan?’

‘Drop a harness on a rope?’ Logan turned to Ben. ‘We can bring him up that way.’

Ben nodded agreement. ‘That will certainly be the quickest way if the boy is up to it. Is he conscious?’

‘Yes, I think so.’ Kyla supplied the information they needed, and Ben frowned.

‘How the hell did Ethan get down there?’

‘He climbed down.’ And Kyla was still wondering how a man who dressed in suits costing thousands of pounds could so skilfully negotiate a sheer and slippery face.

‘Without a rope?’

Kyla heard the disapproval in Ben’s voice and threw him an impatient glance. ‘Fraser stopped talking. We were worried about him. If you were the one sitting here, would you have waited for a rope?’

‘Probably not.’ Ben gave a faint smile of apology. ‘Good decision, then. Brave guy. That’s another free pint I owe him. All right. Let’s get on with this. The weather’s getting worse and if he needs a lift to the mainland, it’s going to have to be soon.’

Logan was shouting down to Ethan, trying to assess the medical situation and how best to extract Fraser. ‘I still think the best way is to drop a harness. He’s conscious and Ethan has dressed the wound on his head. He can use his feet to keep away from the side. We’ll have him out in minutes that way.’

‘Let’s do it.’

After that everything happened quickly. They lowered the rope to Ethan and minutes later Kyla saw the top of Fraser’s head appear over the lip of the dungeon. She breathed a sigh of relief and suddenly realised that her hands were shaking.

She’d been so afraid for him.

His face was streaked with dirt and blood and although he had a sheepish smile on his face, she sensed that he was struggling with tears.

Logan lifted him clear of the gate and sat him carefully down on the damp floor of the tunnel.

‘You are such a brave boy.’ Kyla took one look at him and wrapped her arms around him. ‘If the Celts had had you on their side, those Vikings never would have stood a chance.’ She could feel him quivering and cuddled him close.

His teeth were chattering. ‘My mum’s going to kill me.’

Ben nodded as he slipped some warm layers over the boy. ‘Very probably. But then she’ll be relieved you’re OK. He’s bleeding through that pad. Logan? Kyla?’

‘I’ve got it.’ Kyla gently lifted the pad on the boy’s forehead and studied the wound under the torchlight. She could see that it was deep and the edges were jagged. ‘I’ll put a firm dressing on it for now just so that we can get you out of here, Fraser. Then one of the doctors is going to take a closer look at that.’ It was obvious to her that he was going to need stitches and she glanced towards Logan, who gave a swift nod of understanding.

‘I want you to answer a couple of questions for me, Fraser,’ he said casually, shining a light into the boy’s eyes to check the reaction of his pupils. ‘What day is it today?’

Fraser answered correctly and Logan slipped the penlight back into his pocket.

‘What’s your mum’s name?’

‘Aisla. And she’s definitely going to kill me.’

Logan grinned. ‘I’ll protect you. How’s the headache?’

‘Better than it was.’

‘Do you feel sick?’

Fraser shook his head and at that moment Ethan joined them. ‘He thinks he lost consciousness when he fell, but his GCS was fifteen when I checked it down there.’

Kyla looked at them. ‘Will you transfer him to the mainland for a CT scan?’

‘I wouldn’t go down that route yet,’ Ethan said easily, glancing towards Logan. ‘It’s true that he was knocked out, but he’s not showing any clinical signs of a skull fracture. I’d suggest we just observe him and see how he goes.’

Logan nodded agreement. ‘Let’s get him to the surgery,’ he said quietly, ‘and then we can take a proper look at him under some decent lights. I’ll stitch him up, check him out and then see what’s needed. He can stay the night with me and then I can watch him.’

‘Is Evanna with you?’ Kyla was still holding Fraser and her brother nodded.

‘Yes. She came over to stay with Kirsty when I got the call about Fraser. So she can keep an eye on him, too.’ He put a hand on Fraser’s shoulder and squeezed. ‘You’re going to have plenty of attention.’

‘Will Nurse Duncan make one of her cakes? I’ve been down here since lunchtime and I’m
starving
.’

Logan looked amused. ‘At this time of night? I doubt it. But I expect she’ll whip you up something good to eat if you play your cards right.’

Kyla looked at Ethan. ‘You never told me you could climb.’

‘You never asked.’

Was it all about questions for him? ‘You never reveal anything about yourself unless it’s prised out of you?’

He wiped the mud from his cheek with the sleeve of his jacket. ‘I’m not much of a talker, you know that.’ He reached out a hand and touched Fraser’s head. ‘You did well. How are you feeling now?’